Chapter 06

Extra Duty

Although she doesn’t know what he does or where he goes Rosa does know Pat goes away to do some work every now and then. He never tells her what it’s about or who he does it for. Since he always wears his BDUs when he leaves and the few places she knows he goes to are military posts she assumes he’s doing some extra work for the Army related to his work with the Maverick Militia. However, while Pat does spend a lot of time on Army posts for the extra work he’s actually employed by the Secret Service. Most of what he does for them during his first year after college is to attend training courses to be an effective specialist for them. However, things don’t quite work out the way the Secret Service officer who recruited Pat wants them to. During the various training courses they learn Pat is a lot more effective when by himself or has just one other person with him than he is with a full team.

After one extensive course the Secret Service officer who’s responsible for co-ordinating Pat’s training and work sits him down and says, “Pat, one thing we’ve all noticed is when you’re by yourself or just working with Fred you do a lot better than when you have the team with you. Do you know why that is? It really stood out this week when we had you do a few of the exercises you’ve done before and did well at, but as a team your performance was down a lot.”

Pat sighs and says, “I know! After the lower performance in the first repeat exercise I tracked what I was doing differently. It took a while, but I saw what it was. If you check back you’ll find the first dozen or so times I worked with Fred my performance was down a little. Then it picked up when we got to know each other better. The same is happening this time. However, the pick up in performance isn’t happening because you keep changing the members in the team.” The coordinator frowns so Pat adds, “When I’m by myself I think about the situation, check around me, and just get on with doing what I have to do. When I started to work with Fred I was a bit slower due to spending a little time making sure he knew what I was doing and what I expected of him, then I lost a bit more time checking up on him as well as making sure I didn’t do anything to hurt him. Once we became familiar with each other we started working like a well oiled pair and I stopped checking to see if he was where he should be because I knew he would be where he needed to be.”

“That’s understandable and it’s common with most units,” is what the controller says.

“True. But you gave us another six people to work with and you keep changing them around. The result is both Fred and I have to spend a lot more time checking up on them and that puts us off, so we also have to check on each other too in order to be sure the other is where they should be. If we take a lot of time to work up by adding just one person at a time we could reach the same level of interaction, but that will take a long time and then you’ll need to keep the team membership stable.”

“We can’t ensure the same people will always be in the team for a mission. That’s why we keep swapping them about. We want everyone to get used to working with different groups.”

After another sigh Pat says, “Look, Fred and I make up a special team. I realise we have to have others in support in the field or we go into the field in support of others. At the moment you have me in charge of the whole team. What say we try something different for the next exercise. Have Fred and me as a specialist team and set the others up as a second team with one of them in charge of it and that person reports to me. I’ll have the strategic command of both groups while the other person is in tactical command of the other team. He has to operate within my directives but he has to check and control his team while leaving me to direct Fred and manage the bigger picture. That way I only have to watch out for the one other person and Fred.”

The controller leans back to think for a moment before he says, “I’ll talk to the training team and ask them about your approach.”

Two days later Pat, Fred, and six others are sent into the field for a training mission. This time the briefing is different. Pat and Fred have to deal with the target while the leader of the other team is to act under the orders of Pat on what to do, but he then has to direct his team to ensure Pat’s orders are carried out without any further direction from Pat. The complex exercise goes very well. All are happy to finally work out how to make the best use of Pat’s field leadership and combat abilities.

First Assignment

There’s a significant problem they wish Pat to resolve for them, so now Pat and his team are ready for the field they’re being assigned to the task. There’s a drug cartel based in a compound about one hundred miles into Mexico south-west of where the border turns at Big Bend National Park. The leader of the cartel has strong connections with both the Army and government officials in the area. Both the DEA and the CIA have failed in their past attempts to deal with the cartel, so now the matter has been handed over to the Secret Service to see what they can do.

Eliminating drug lords in Mexico isn’t one of the usual activities of the Secret Service so they didn’t have anyone with any real experience in such work until they hired Pat, which is why they want him on this task.

The briefing includes a few people from both the DEA and the CIA to tell them about the targets: both the compound and the cartel leaders. The compound is in a very flat semi-desert area and it’s very large with five main areas: a large hacienda for the leaders, worker housing, soldier barracks, drug storage, and vehicle storage. The strongest defences are at the drug storage, and the hacienda is in the middle of the compound. The largest area is the worker housing which takes up the southern third of the compound with a ten foot fence between it and the other areas.

The CIA agent points at the map of the area while saying, “This ridge here overlooks the whole compound and it’s only fifteen hundred yards from it. It’s a good observation point.”

Fred asks, “Why is the compound out in the middle of nowhere?”

The CIA man replies, “The property has been in the family of the drug cartel leader for centuries. The hacienda is his ancestral home so he runs his farm and the cartel from it. He’s into micromanagement so the drugs are all shipped through there for him to control their movement. He’s not concerned about the Mexican authorities or Army because he is the main power in the area.”

One of the DEA men takes over the briefing and says, “We can drop you about twenty miles out, behind this range here,” while pointing to some mountains to the north-east of the compound, “and you can walk in from there. We can’t drop you any closer because they have radar in this domed structure near the barracks,” he adds while pointing to a ball like structure in the compound picture. “After the raid we can send the helicopter back to pick you up from the same spot.”

The CIA man points at two sections of the fence while saying, “These two areas offer the best spots to penetrate the compound.”

Fred asks, “How many people are in the compound?”

The DEA and CIA man both glance at each other before the DEA man says, “As best as we can tell there are the five cartel leaders, a hundred or so farm workers with their families and about two hundred and fifty of the cartel soldiers.”

Pat asks, “How many cartel leaders’ family members live there?”

The CIA man says, “All their families live in Mexico City so only the cartel leaders are at the main house. Some of the cartel leaders are often away from the compound for various reasons. We’d like you to wait until all of the cartel leaders are in the compound, but we don’t insist on it.”

Pat and Fred both study the maps and pictures a lot before Pat asks, “Why do we need to penetrate the compound? With that many soldiers on site it’ll be easier for me to sit up on the ridge and use a few hundred explosive rounds from a fifty cal to blow the place apart. Maybe even some rocket launchers.”

All the CIA and DEA people go very wide-eyed and one says, “We want it to look like an attack by another cartel. A hit like that will mean it has to be done by the US military.”

Fred laughs as he says, “No matter how it’s done we’re going to get the blame for the hit. It’s a lot safer to sit way off and blow it up. We can’t call an air strike because the Mexican government can then prove it was us while with a ground strike there’s no clear proof who attacked the compound. It can even be blamed on another cartel.”

Pat looks up at his controller and says, “I want good photos and maps of this whole area,” while swiping his hand over the map from just above where the compound is across to the border and down to Laredo. “I also want three M eighty-two A twos with three hundred Mark two-one-one rounds, two Stingers, twenty M seventy-twos, an M nine with five magazines per man, an MP five with ten magazines per man, and field rations for twenty days per man. I’ll take a week or two to have the team practice moving through the scrub and acclimatising in Texas before we get you to lift us in.”

The controller responds, “So you plan to just blow it away from out on the ridge?” Pat just nods yes. “Then what are all the other maps for?”

“If there’s a problem with retrieval I want to be able to walk out via the nearest border at Big Bend or to go due east to cross near Laredo if the Mexican Army blocks our way to the closest border.”

“OK. We got you in because you’re the expert on these types of raids so we’ll do it your way. It’ll take a week to organise all of the maps and photos you want. The rest is just a few days.” Pat simply nods agreement.

The meeting breaks up with the DEA and CIA people talking quietly together as they leave.

More Research

An hour after the briefing Pat visits his controller and asks, “Can you get me quality video of the site that covers several days without letting the CIA or DEA know we’re getting it?”

“I think I can organise that through an NSA contact. Why?”

“I want to get a feel for their daily routines before we go in. I’d also like the video to have infra-red coverage at night.”

“OK. I’ll organise it and I’ll let you know.”

Three days later Pat is skimming through the video of the compound collected over the last thirty-six hours. He’s going through at ten times the normal speed and slowing down when something is of interest. The video is high quality and from the satellite, but it’s not high definition. He can make out when an individual is moving but not who it is.

He smiles when he spots a group of cartel soldiers working on the ridge where the CIA said Pat should observe from. He can’t make out what they’re doing in detail but it’s clear enough to see they’re digging and planting things there. He also watches while they construct hidden fire-points along the fence line facing the ridge, but about a hundred feet out from the fence itself. It looks like someone is getting ready for some special visitors.

Pat has a quiet word with the armourer of the post they’re on and he later collects two packs loaded with blocks of C 4 explosive, two hundred radio / timer detonators with them all set to the same frequency, and two transmitters for the radio detonators.

A week after the briefing Pat’s controller hands him all the maps and photos he asked for then leads Pat and his team to where all their arms are set up for them. Each one checks over the weapons assigned to them and packs their share of the ammunition into their backpack. Pat and two others have the M82A2.50 cal rifles and a third of the ammunition each. Fred has the two Stingers and the extra M72 LAW rockets after everyone is assigned two each. Everything else is shared out through the team. Later that day they load up in two SUVs and drive to Pat’s ranch in Texas.

On the Ranch

Pat takes his team to his ranch where he introduces them to Bubba and the others on the ranch before he explains the plan for the next two weeks. The team will set up their camp in the south-east corner of the ranch and practice moving through the scrub while they get used to the local climate. One of the ranch hands will assist them and provide food for them while there. Pat and Fred will camp at another spot while they also do their acclimatization on the ranch.

When the six team members are set up Pat establishes his camp near the middle of the western border of the ranch area. Once he’s set up Pat visits Bubba for a private discussion while having a hot bath. Pat left all his gear outside the room and he knows there are no listening devices in the ranch-house, so he knows they aren’t being listened to while talking.

A couple of hours later Bubba and two of the hands visit Pat and Fred. One of them runs a detector over Pat and Fred to find three tracking devices on each of them. One is the special dog-tags they wear, but the other two are concealed in their food and spare ammunition.

Pat smiles as he says, “Bubba, I want to borrow two sets of back-up guns from the ranch gear. I also want you to arrange for transport to and from a location in Mexico for me,” and he shows Bubba where on the map. Bubba grins as he nods to show he understands.

The next day Bubba hands Pat and Fred two of the Bonds Arms back-up pistols Pat bought when he first arrived. They both hand their dog-tags to a ranch hand to wear while they live in this camp and move the other trackers to things staying in the camp before they load up all the explosives Pat got, their guns, the field rations, and lots of spare ammo.

A couple of hours later Pat, Fred, and their gear are hidden in the back of a farm truck crossing into Mexico at Laredo. The truck drives to the outskirts of Monterrey before heading west, then north-west. Near noon on the next day Pat and Fred are dropped off about forty miles from their objective, just a little south-east of Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico. They’re quick to move into the local brush and start walking toward their target.

On Target

Due to the slow and careful way they move across the desert it’s late in the afternoon before they’re in the position they want to watch the compound from. Although they aren’t able to see the whole compound they’ve a good view of the fence on the west and southern sides of the farmer housing area. They settle in to watch the activities.

Late the next day Fred asks, “Do you think they’ll do the same today as they did yesterday?”

“I hope so! If they do it means it’s their routine and it’ll be the same tomorrow,” is Pat’s reply. Dusk is falling when a group of trucks return from the field and stop at the gateway. Two men walk out to check who’s driving the truck and to look into the back of it. The front trucks have the returning workers while the rear trucks have the results of today’s work. The trucks are given a very cursory check, driven inside, and parked so everyone can go off to have their evening meal. After the meal the men return to unload the trucks. For about half an hour the trucks just sit there unattended and unwatched. The majority of the guards also leave for their meal, leaving just two of the six at the gate where they spend the entire time watching outside the area.

Both Pat and Fred smile when the routine is the exact same as they’ve seen for the last two evenings. That’s also true of the cartel troops moving into and returning from the area north of the compound.

Strike

In the morning they watch some of the cartel troops head north to work on the traps they’re setting up on the ridge. The farm workers leave the compound as they did on the previous day. When things settle down toward midday Pat and Fred move out. Two very cautious hours later they’re hiding in a ditch beside the road to the compound just before the place where the road goes through a dip about two hundred yards from the gateway.

The returning trucks slow down to go down and through the dip of the dry watercourse. Because the trucks slow down there’s a concertina effect to the point the last truck is almost stopped while the ones before it ease down into the dip. The ruts in the road here means they have to be very careful.

The two men race up behind the last truck, slip their packs over the tailgate, and wait for the truck to lurch when the driver changes gears to go over the edge of the dip, then they pull themselves over the tailgate. They both lie down right against the tailgate so they can’t be seen from outside of the truck while they don’t disturb the load of produce in the back of the truck. The truck continues on its way. Ten minutes later it stops at the gateway before it moves into the compound and parks.

Twenty minutes after climbing into the truck Pat and Fred climb out and make their way to the main gateway between the farmer housing and the main hacienda area. They wait near there until a group of cartel troops walk some workers back to their homes. When the troops return Pat and Fred join the end of the loose group of soldiers. The BDUs worn by the cartel troops are a little different to what Pat and Fred are wearing. However, in the falling twilight no one can tell the differences so only their backpacks and rifles will give them away, which is why they’re at the back of the loose group of men. Both are trying not to smile because they know this wouldn’t work with anyone but a ragtag mob like this.

Once they’re inside the hacienda area they peel off at the first building they can. They take time to locate a good spot to leave their packs under a low boardwalk near the main house before they load their pockets and some side-packs with preset explosives. They were all prepared on the trip down and are now set to go off at 07:00 hours after they’re activated, or in response to the radio signal which will work for up to five miles.

While watching the compound they noticed movement between the various areas isn’t as tightly controlled as they were told by the DEA. They suspect this is due to so many troops working up on the ridge. For the next three hours the two men move about like a pair of guards on patrol while they set charges on all of the vehicles, on the helicopter, on the six fuel tanks in the compounds, beside the drug warehouses as they dare not try to enter those buildings, and on the barracks.