Exposure (Jackson Chase Novella Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

was finding it hard to suppress a smile. “Missed the major arteries, and appears to have missed the pelvis.”
    “Will this make him less of an asshole now?” I asked.
    “Twice as bad,” Barr replied. “Now help me up.”
    Standing, he grimaced through what had to be a lot of pain. Still, he resumed command.
    Time was precious. There were probably a lot of Abdullahs in the valley that heard the AK fire from the technical, and they would be curious. Priority one was getting the hostage out. Second priority was collecting as much intel as we could.
    Barr belted out the assignments using the comm net and tac signs so that Angel and Slater on the helo would see we were moving to the exfil phase.
    “Hammer Two, main house intel.” Dutch had remained up in the main house. Two clicks came in reply, and he would now photograph everything he could.
    Barr looked at Sterba and I. “Four and Five, quick intel sweep down here, then help get Boone and I up top. LZ in seven minutes, people.” LZ was the landing zone, where we would be picked up for exfil.
    As much as we wanted there to be a computer in the tunnel with an entry called “Baraki’s diary, where I will be today,” we found very little beyond some pocket litter and a well-worn Koran. I put it all in my tac vest. Sterba used a small camera to photograph the tunnel and hollowed out room. Sixty seconds was all we could afford.
    “Let’s go, people,” Sterba said to the team. He then switched conversation to the helo that would pick us up, call sign Hook.
    I knew the Hook flight would be two Seahawks. One would pick us up while a second armed model would orbit, providing cover.
    “Hook, Hammer. LZ in five.”
    “Roger, Hammer. OGA has been dropped, will meet you at the LZ.”
    Slater didn’t have a call sign. By saying “OGA,” the helo pilot meant “Other Government Agency”, which we all knew meant CIA. Slater.
    That was off-script. Slater was planned to stay on the helo to do an initial debrief of the hostage during the exfil.
    “What the hell is Slater doing off the helo?” Barr asked.
    “Can’t worry about that now, Lieutenant. We need to roll,” I replied. “Hop on.”
    With Barr’s injury, climbing the ladder was not an option. He wrapped his arms around my neck, and I carried him up the stairs.
    Monkey already had Boone in the house with him. It seemed the bruised agent was toughing up big time, and could move under his own power. Dutch and Sterba were at the main door, weapons up, scanning.
    I released Barr to stand on his own once we were in the main room. He couldn’t hold back a groan.
    “I’m not going to make it to the LZ like this,” he said.
    We needed to cover about 300 meters to a clearing just south of the house for our pick up. Barr must be in bad shape.
    “I’ve got you, sir,” I said.
    “Thanks. Now where the hell is Slater?” Barr asked no one in particular.
    Boone’s head snapped quickly towards Barr. “Slater? Caleb Slater?”
    “Yeah. He’s the one that put this mission together.”
    “But he’s the ... ” Boone began.
    Sterba cut him off. “Hook is inbound. Mount up. Dutch, strobes,” he loudly announced.
    Dutch headed out, laying IR strobes in a box around a darkened patch of relatively flat dirt to mark the landing zone. The pilots would be flying using night vision goggles. And while the infrared strobes were invisible to the naked eye, they were perfectly visible in NVGs.
    “Hammer, Hook. Have your strobes,” came over the net.
    Our timing was going to be good. I feel the thump in the air as the helo’s blades beat the pre-dawn air into submission.
    I bent down and hoisted Barr up in a fireman’s carry. We formed a stack at the door.
    “Go!” said Sterba.
    With the helo flaring over our LZ, Monkey ran out with Boone. Boone was still trying to talk over the noise of the helo as I ran behind him with Barr on my shoulders. “It was Slater that I saw ... ”
    Suddenly a warm, wet spray washed across my