Phantom Warriors---The Beginning and Mission One

Once the plane was airborne, I got changed into my fatigues the Colonel had brought for Scott and me. When I finished, Scott put the plane on auto pilot and changed into his fatigues also. They were a little tight for the big man but he could wear them. Like the rest of the team, our mission uniforms had no patches, ranks or names on them. The Colonel passed me the camouflage sticks; one green and one black and I began to work it on my face. “Brett,” the Colonel said. “I know I’m the ranking officer, but this is your team. I’m leaving this mission up to you. You give the orders and I’ll follow them. Do you have a plan?” “Yes! Go in there, kill the bad guys, get the team and any other Americans out of there as quick as possible and head for home.” “Sounds like a plan,” Scott said. The Colonel looked at me and said, “How much does Scott know?” “All I told him was to file a flight plan to Columbia and that’s it.” “Colombia?” “Yes sir. Where were going is right on the boarder of Peru and Colombia. We want to keep our destination as secret as possible so I thought we could sneak into Peru through the back door.” “Good thinking. I’m going to call Sergeant Santiago and have him locate a landing zone (LZ) for us. Scott how long of a runway do you need to land and take off?” “Paved or grass?” “I don’t know” “Well, lets play it safe,” Scott said. I can land this safely with about 800 feet, but if we have a heavy load coming back I’ll need at least 1,200 feet.” “Okay, I’ll call the Sergeant.” The Amazon Jungle Peru Blade, Apache and Julie had gone back to the perimeter of Quinn’s home to observe the activity. What they saw was horrifying. Quinn had Sergeant’s West and Keller dig what looked like a shallow grave outside the fence line. Once they finished, some of Quinn’s men had tied Sergeant Richardson up with rope. They had wrapped it around his ankles, legs, stomach and arms. Apparently he was still alive. Once that was done, he had another man get a video camcorder and he started filming his men carrying Sergeant Richardson over to the grave. Before they dropped him in, they recorded a close up his face. His eyes were open and it looked like he was trying to speak. After they recorded his face, they dropped the Sergeant into the grave on his back. Daniel Quinn had a hollow bamboo pole in his hands and while the camcorder was recording, Quinn had placed one end of the pole in the Sergeant’s mouth and held the pole straight up, while his men started covering the Sergeant with dirt. Quinn had actually buried the Sergeant alive allowing him to breath through the hollow pole that was sticking out of the Sergeant’s mouth. Quinn turned and faced the camcorder and was yelling something while being recorded. After he had finished talking, his men were all laughing. Quinn then took out what looked like a piece of gum from his pocket; chewed it for a moment in front of the camera, then turned around and placed the gum on top of the hole that the Sergeant was breathing through. All of Quinn’s men started laughing again. The captured team had been forced at gunpoint to go out with Quinn and watch his devilish acts. Quinn’s men then held up their weapons into each of the team member’s face and dared them to try to save the Sergeant. Nobody moved. Quinn then had his men escort the team back to the swimming pool. “We got to get Sergeant Richardson out of there!” Apache said. He and Blade quickly but quietly snuck up where they had buried the Sergeant. Quinn’s men never looked back. They were to busy keeping an eye on the team. Both Sergeant’s started digging up the dirt as quick as they could. Luckily the grave was shallow. They dug up the dirt around his face and saw that he was unconscious. The Sergeant’s pulled him out of the grave and brought him back into the tree line with Julie. She untied the Sergeant and administered what first aid she could for him. After seeing that the Sergeant was stable, Julie gave him morphine to ease the pain from the gunshot wounds which would knock him out for about an hour and the three of them had gone back to the fence line. Blade, Apache and Julie all had their sniper rifles out and aimed at Daniel Quinn’s head. They all wanted to take the shot but Blade told them not yet. If they kill Quinn now, Quinn’s men would kill the whole team. There was no way the three of them could take out fourteen men before the team would have been shot. “I don’t believe what I’m seeing. How could this man be so evil?” Julie asked. “He’s not a man, he’s an animal!” Apache said. Blade said, “One thing for sure, whether the team lives or dies, I’m not leaving here until I see Quinn dead.” “Agreed,” said Julie. Blade heard the SatCom. It was the Colonel. “Blade, sir.” “Eagle One. Sit-rep.” Blade quickly told the Colonel what had taken place and there was a pause on the other end for a moment. The Colonel then said, “SALUTE.” (Snipers reported there observations using the SALUTE method as an acronym which stood for Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time and Environment). “Size: Fourteen bad guys. Activity: Guarding A-team extremely hostile. Location: At the pool. Unit: Thugs. Time last seen: Five mikes ago. Environment: Totally black out here except for the target area which is lit up around the estate.” “Roger that,” Eagle One said. “ Need twelve hundred feet LZ for small craft. Can you find near target?” “Unknown at this time. What’s your ETA (estimated time of arrival)?” “Stand by.” The Colonel asked Scott what is ETA was and he told him about forty-five mikes. The Colonel told Blade, “ETA is forty-five mikes.” “Roger. Will call back after check for LZ. Out.” After the Colonel got off the SatCom, he told Brett and Scott what Blade had told him. “Buried alive?” Scott asked. “Buried alive,” the Colonel said. “Blade said Sergeant Richardson has a weak pulse but he is still alive.” I saw the look on Scott’s face and there was killing in his eyes. I don’t know if he was having flashbacks of Vietnam or not, but I could tell he was ready for a fight. The Colonel saw it too. “Brett, we need to leave Scott with the plane when we land. We can’t take the chance that this plane would fall into the wrong hands.” “Agreed. Scott you stay with the plane at all cost. This mission is top secret and if it was ever found out we were here, it would be disaster.” I could see he didn’t like that. He wanted a piece of Quinn too. “Do I still get a weapon?” he asked. “Affirmative.” The Colonel said. “I have an M-16 and 9mm Beretta for you, but you need to guard the plane and be ready to take off when you see us coming.” Julie and Apache checked on Sergeant Richardson. Not only did he have two bullet wounds but he also had a broken jaw from when Quinn shoved the pole in his mouth. He was shot once in the side of his right chest and once in his left arm. “I’ve got to go look for a LZ for Eagle One,” Blade said. “He’s on his way here with a small plane. ETA is forty-five mikes.” “I’ll go with you,” Apache said. “Julie you stay here and watch Sergeant Richardson. When he comes to, make sure he stays quiet. The morphine should last for awhile.” “Roger that,” she said.