Insight Specials

Insight – part 7

May 2, 2009

We gathered around Sgt. Harriet as if this was our first assignment. I am the only girl around here. Actually, I’m the only girl in a couple of miles.

Our small team amounts five people. In the beginning, there were twelve of us. This was more than two years ago, when our operation started in the tropical jungle of Chile. One guy, Scott Pearce, died during the first month. Malaria. Poor bastard.

There was also another chick, a doctor. Trisha Greendale. She had been the best soldier during training but freaked out as soon as we landed. We dropped her off in the first village that came across our path. Believe me: even being a great soldier wasn’t enough to make up for her craziness. In the village, she has a quiet life and heals the people with her doctor skills. At least, we hope that.

Three others disappeared during the night. We already had six months in the jungle and their runaway was a total surprise to the rest of the team. Sometimes we think they’ve taken side with the enemy, sometimes we think they went crazy or just thought that could make their way out of hell, because here is hell. Anyway, we found Pvt. Carl Johnson, one of them, dead, a few weeks later. He was only clothes and bones. The other two are still missing. Most likely they’re dead too.

Paul Scander and Thomas Goodman died in action, during conflicts with local military and paramilitary forces. Throughout our time around here we’ve destroyed over twenty cocaine refineries hidden in the jungle and helped the local governments a few times by getting rid of guerrilla-style armed opposition. As I said, our operation started in Chile but, right now, we’re in Colombia.

Our primary objective, in the beginning, was to hunt down the major U.S. cocaine supplier, Afonso Gonzales. Somehow unknown, our presence here got to his ears and, ever since, he’s been running around South America and, of course, we were on his tail all along. He had the advantage the entire time. Troops, vehicles, guns, ammo, money, food, everything. We had nothing of this and we are still here. He must, at least, fear us a bit. And I tell you, it wasn’t easy at all to make it until now. Now is the time that WE have got the advantage.

It seems that I’ve presented the dead but haven’t said a word about the living. I’m Fox Townsend. I lost my parents when I was very young and figured out that the best way of keeping myself out of trouble was by joining the army. Today I think that I got the very opposite of what I was looking for. Army equals for trouble.

The man in front of us is Sargent Jack Harriet, our officer in charge. There is something odd about Jack. He’s not much social and rarely join us in our celebrations over successful missions. I guess he’s not the talkative kind, although, he’s still a great leader, who risks his own skin to keep his men from harm.

Samuel Graywolf, the oldest of the team, is our Intel and Communications expert. He’s responsible for scrambling enemy radios, setting up most of our attack or defense strategies and has been keeping entire register of the mission since its very beginning.

Mark Slamjam. I don’t know if this is his real name or just a nickname, but everyone calls him like that ever since he joined our team in early training. He’s our C4 man. You can name anything you want and I’ll bet my paycheck against you that he can do it, with explosives. This guy is an artist.

Mark Dragunov, URSS traitor, who carries in his last name the name of his favourite weapon, designed by his father. The Dragunov Sniper Rifle. We can say it runs in the family. Mark is a rather quiet guy. Not as much as Jack, but he’s more peaceful than most of us. He doesn’t like physical suffering and that’s why he takes out most of his targets with one bullet only.

Jack is facing us four. The night is hot and there’s no wind. It’s damn sure that there is rain coming. Our officer speaks.

– We’re about to complete our mission. Yeah, we’re together for a very long time now and, heck, I wanna go home and have some rest for a change, what about you? So, Gonzalez is in his small mansion, in the middle of the jungle, just two klicks northeast of here. Our source told us that he has about fifty men as ‘private security’. Highly armed but with little or no training, which gives us a big headstart.

– All our explosives go off tonight, and don’t expect much company to talk as each one of us is gonna enter the property from a different point. To assure that he won’t escape, we’ll strike from all directions. Our primary target is, of course, Gonzalez, but, while he doesn’t appear, take out all the vehicles you spot and guards too. Remember to keep your eyes wide open for Afonso. We don’t want our man running around in the jungle, do we? And be extremely careful about civilians, ’cause there are some of them lying around the house.

– Kitchen, mainly – Graywolf says, interrupting Jack.

– Yes, kitchen mainly, but not only. If you still remember math, you know that the stakes are 10 to 1, but we’ve already got out safely in worst situations before didn’t we? And, if we don’t make it alive… Well, it’s a hell of a good day to die. Isn’t it?

– Yeah. – we all whisper. We all want this to be over, one way, or another.

– Now, the details.