Chapter 3
Mike turned without a word and walked toward his car. The two young men went to their pickup truck and got in and followed him when he pulled away from the gravesite. He drove right to the house and pulled into the garage and closed the garage door. He went through the kitchen and opened the front door for the pair. They walked into the house and he led them into the kitchen and motioned for them to sit at the kitchen table. He asked if they wanted a beer or coffee and they both asked if he had diet soda. He went to the refrigerator and found a six-pack of Diet Pepsi. He set the drinks in front of them and sat down opposite them.
"Sergeant Owens, Commander Tyler sent us to assist you on your return to South America. He figured that we might be of assistance in some small way."
"You two active or are you free-lancing?"
"Yes sir," the younger of the two answered and he knew that it was no sense pressing the issue. He had received his answer, at least the only answer that he'd receive for now.
"Just what do you know about what I intend to do?'
"Commander Tyler has instructed us to assist you in anyway that we can and to show you the latest techniques that Delta has. He said that you come from the dark ages and you'll get your ass shot off without us. Those were his words, sir."
"How far is your help supposed to go?"
"Sir, I wonder if it would be possible to pull our truck into the garage? We're afraid that we might scare your neighbors if they happen to look in the back."
Mike got up and went into the garage. After he opened the garage door he pulled the Suburban out of the garage and parked it in the driveway on the side that the Jeep was. The two men backed the truck into the garage. He closed the garage door.
The truck was a Ford F-250 Club Cab four-wheel drive. It had an eight-foot bed on it and with the fiberglass cap on it; it looked longer than a school bus. When the younger of the two opened the back of the truck, he saw that it was full of wooden boxes. The men started unloading the truck onto the garage floor. Mike knew that if this garage had a fire tonight, the entire neighborhood would be history.
"Sergeant Owens, we can go over a lot of this stuff tomorrow. I'm sure that you'll want to relax and have some time to yourself tonight."
"Come on into the kitchen and let's talk," Mike said as he headed for the kitchen, "OK, let's put all our cards on the table. Why are you guys here?"
"Sir, Commander Tyler told us that if you went into the bush with the mindset that you have now, you wouldn't last ten minutes. You're too close to the problem right now, sir."
"Stop calling me sir. What do you mean I'm too close to the problem?"
"Your emotions are ruling your head right now. You're experienced enough to know that you have to put the mission above everything. Right now the only thing that you have on your mind is revenge. I personally wouldn't go into Central Park with you with the mindset that you have today. You're also out of shape, you'd get us killed just because you couldn't keep up."
He knew what they were saying was the truth, "What's your proposal then?"
"We think that we should set up an exercise regimen to get you back in shape, we'll go over the latest tactics everyday and get in some practice on weapons and hand to hand. After we feel your ready, we are to assist you on your mission."
"Soldier, something doesn't smell right. There's no way that a Delta is going to help a private citizen with a grudge take out some two-bit criminal."
"Commander Tyler has forbidden me to give you anymore information than I have already. He will be here in a day or two and he will fill you in on the mission."
The hairs stood up on the back of his neck. Was CIA trying to use him to get somebody that was causing them some trouble? He looked at the men and saw that it would be impossible to get anymore out of them.
"What's your names?"
"I'm Chico and this is Ben. They wanted Chico along because he looks like the locals; he's a Mosquito Indian. You and I stand out like the gringos we are."
"You guys want to stay here while we go about getting ready?"
"We were hoping that you had room for us."
Mike knew that if he had insisted that they stay in a motel, he would have put a crimp in a lot of plans.
"What's in the truck, the latest toys for Delta?"
"If you'd like to see, I'd be happy to show you. A lot of the stuff you guys used isn't even made anymore."
Mike suddenly felt old. This guy was talking like he came from the Stone Age. It hadn't been ten years yet. He knew that they were constantly improving the weapons and tactics but he tried to keep up on what was going on in Delta.
They went to the back of the truck. One of the men pulled out a thing that looked like a gun but wasn't a gun.
"This is for neutralizing a target if you don't want them to make any noise. It's like a dart gun. After it's fired these barbs come out and make like an arrowhead. It has a laser sight that is much more accurate than anything we've used in the past. It's really effective in the throat. The head of the projectile slices the throat so much that the target immediately starts to strangle on his own blood and he can't make a sound. It fires one dart or two darts at once. It's accurate to three hundred feet. It can be reloaded with darts and the CO2 propellant in seconds. We take the propellant casing and step on it to drive it into the ground. That makes it hard for the enemy to find after we leave the area."
Ben made sure that there was no propellant in the weapon and handed it to Mike to examine.
"In those boxes is the new explosives that we use. It's the great-grandson of C4. It's more stable and a lot more bang for the buck. You don't have to carry as much.'
Chico handed Mike a Palm Pilot, "It's hard to believe that this is a weapon of war. This is the latest of the Palm Pilot's that we use. It has a satellite phone built in and a GPS system. You'll know exactly where you are at all times. This is accurate to about six feet."
Ben pointed to a box, "In that box are our stun guns, tasers and knockout gases. It's much better than what you had when you were active. We have stun grenades and flash grenades no larger than a "C" battery. We have flash powders that will blind everybody for a few seconds within a hundred feet of the flash. We don't use stingers and LAWs rockets anymore. We pack the same punch into a projectile about fourteen inches long. We can take out a tank or an airplane with the same projectile. Our radios are about the size of a pack of cigarettes and have a range of about a hundred miles. Solar cells on the case extend the life of the batteries."
Mike pointed to something about the size of a kid's lunchbox.
"That's a beauty," Chico grinned, "That sends out a radio signal so strong that it causes static on the radios of the target and screws up their radar too. It has a range of about a half a mile."
Ben held up a machine gun, "This is our standard issue machine gun. You flip this lever and it uses the silencer. It makes it hard to tell where the fire is coming from. It gives you that extra two or three seconds that mean so much when the chips are down. Without the silencer, the range is greatly increased."
Ben held up another package about the size of a lunchbox, "This is our newest parachute. You know how the SEALS used to jump out at high altitudes and float thirty miles to the target? Well, now we do it with this smaller package. It's a lot more control to it and it doesn't reflect radar signals. There's also a new high altitude jump suit. You stay pretty comfortable while you float to the ground. We're also a lot better at destroying a target. When we set a timer on explosives now, the timer is actuated from a either a satellite or you can do it yourself. All of the timers go off at exactly the same instant. It demoralizes the target pretty effectively. One minute he's standing in the middle of his camp and the next minute he's on his way to hell. Our water purifiers and meals are better too. If you're injured, we have elastic bandages that stop the flow of blood and keep the wound clean. It also gives a little support so that you can fight your way out of hot spots if you have to. We have listening devices that are small enough to pack in with us and can hear through walls. Our cameras are the size of a grain of wheat and some are wireless up to thirty-five hundred feet. The receiver for the camera is the size of a pack of cigarettes."
"In the front of the truck is some of our firepower. Guns that can't be detected at airports, guns that are thin enough to conceal on your body so that the bad guys probably won't find them, pen guns, shoe guns. Some of that stuff has been around for years but Uncle keeps making it better. I think he likes us. A lot of stuff we make on the ground out of things around the target or we take things away from the target and use them against the target. They don't like it when we do that."
Ben held up his arms, "Pat me down for weapons, Sergeant."
Mike patted him down thoroughly, knowing that he had a weapon on him. He couldn't find it. When he gave up, Ben pulled a flat gun from under his shirt that was only about three sixteenths of an inch thick.
"It's not very accurate, but get me within ten feet of a target and I'll neutralize him fast. It fires flat bullets, so the range isn't all that great."
Mike took them back into the house and they sat at the kitchen table again, "That's a lot of good stuff there. Why are you showing me all of that? You know that I can't carry enough of that in to really make a difference"
"Commander Tyler will have to define the mission for you. I'm not allowed to do that. I'm just a dumb soldier, you know?"
They all laughed at that because they all knew better. Mike knew that these two were probably the best at the type of mission that he was going in on. He wondered just how far and how much help Jake was going to give him.
They talked well into the night about different tactics that were in use today. A lot of what Delta used today wasn't even a dream when he was running around the globe, blowing stuff up. These two men were in as good a shape as he ever was. He pitied the man that had to go up against either of them. Both of them were as hard as rocks.
"We run five miles every morning. Will you be running with us Sergeant Owens?"
"I haven't exercised or run since I got out of Delta. I'll start out with you, but I don't know how far I'll get. My brother has a gym down stairs. Would you like to see it?'
They nodded and he took them down stairs to the gym. Mike's brother had installed a Bow Flex gym in the basement along with a treadmill and a stair stepper.
"This is great Sergeant. This is pure luxury. We'll be spoiled after this mission."
"There's a hot tub upstairs on the sun porch if you want to soak after using the gym. You're welcome to use it all."
"No beautiful young ladies to give us a massage?" Ben asked.
"You can't have everything," Chico laughed.
Let's get some sleeping arrangements for you guys. I'm going to sleep on the couch. Look around and pick a bedroom. The beds are made so everything is ready for you. I'll see you guys in the morning.
Sleeping on the couch didn't bother him. He hadn't been able to
sleep in his brother's bed since he brought their bodies back from
South America. He soon fell into a troubled sleep that had him waking
up several times during the night.