They gathered around the table. Four operators and an admiral who’d just committed treason. Maps and satellite imagery spread before them like a battle plan drawn in two dimensions that would be fought in three.
Evelyn took point. This was her mission, her plan, her responsibility.
“Target location.” She indicated the satellite image. “Compound approximately eighty kilometers inside hostile territory. Mountainous terrain. Winter conditions. Heavy guard presence. This isn’t a prison. It’s an intelligence facility designed specifically to hold high-value prisoners and extract information.”
She pulled up detailed reconnaissance photos.
“Twelve-man quick reaction force. Four-hour rotating shifts. Two guard towers with overlapping fields of fire. Roving patrols on irregular patterns. Motion sensors along the perimeter. This place was built to prevent exactly what we’re attempting.”
Callahan studied the images.
“How do we know Blackwood is even there?”
Evelyn produced more photos. Grainy, but clear enough. A prisoner being moved between buildings, emaciated, beaten. But visible on his forearm was the edge of a tattoo—a trident.
“Facial recognition is seventy-three percent match despite the physical damage,” she said. “But I’d know him anywhere. That’s Garrett.”
“How current is this intel?” Brennan asked.
“Six days old. But I’ve been tracking signals intelligence. He’s still there, still alive. But according to intercepted communications, he’s scheduled for transfer in fourteen days.”
“Transfer is military speak for permanent disappearance. We have a two-week window. After that, he’s gone forever.”
Sullivan leaned in.
“Entry points.”
“Three possibilities.” Evelyn indicated each on the map. “Front gate—obvious, heavily defended, suicide. East wall—reinforced concrete, would require significant explosive breaching, too loud. Or here.” She pointed to a small drainage culvert. “Twenty-eight inches in diameter, barely large enough for a person with full kit. But it’s unguarded because they assume no one can fit.”
“Can we fit?” Callahan asked.
“I can. Alone. I infiltrate, locate Gary, confirm his condition, then signal you for extraction.”
Brennan shook his head.
“That puts you inside alone. If you’re compromised, we can’t get to you.”
“If I’m compromised, the mission is over anyway. This works because they’re not expecting a solo infiltration. They’re prepared for a team assault, not for one person moving like a ghost.”
Carver spoke up.
“Timeline.”
“Eighteen-minute window between guard rotations,” Evelyn said. “I enter at 0200 hours when shift change occurs. Fatigue is highest, attention is lowest. I have eighteen minutes to infiltrate, locate Garrett, and get to the extraction point before the next patrol cycle.”
“That’s impossibly tight,” Sullivan said.
“It has to be. Any longer and we’re exposed. Quick reaction force response time is approximately eight minutes. We need to be in and out before they can organize a proper response.”
She pulled out another set of documents. Equipment lists, meticulously detailed.
“Loadout. Primary weapons: HK416 with SureFire suppressors.”
“Why HK over M4?” Brennan asked.
“Gas piston system versus direct impingement. In subfreezing conditions, the piston system runs cleaner, more reliable. We can’t afford malfunctions. Barrel length, ten-point-four inches. Optimized for close quarters but maintains effective range to four hundred meters. With the suppressor, we reduce sound signature from a hundred sixty-seven decibels to a hundred twenty-seven. Still loud, but quiet enough to maintain tactical advantage.
“Ammunition: 5.56mm MK 262 Mod 1. Seventy-seven grain open tip match. This is critical. Standard M855 ball ammunition performs poorly from short barrels. MK 262 maintains terminal ballistics at range. Each operator carries seven magazines, thirty rounds each. Two hundred ten rounds total. That sounds like a lot until you’re in a firefight and burning through magazines every thirty seconds.”
Brennan was nodding, recognizing the expertise in every detail.
“Sidearms: Glock 19 Gen 4. Why Glock? Reliability in extreme conditions. Loaded with 147-grain Federal HST subsonic ammunition. Nine hundred ninety feet-per-second muzzle velocity. Stay subsonic, no sonic crack. If we need to use pistols, we need to stay quiet.
“Breaching equipment.” She looked at Sullivan. “Linear shaped charges for precision cutting. Four hundred grain det cord for door frames. We’re not announcing our presence with massive explosions. Surgical entries only.”
Sullivan pulled the charges toward him, examining them with professional appreciation.
“These will work. Minimal overpressure, maximum cut efficiency. I can rig doors in under thirty seconds.”
“Medical.” Evelyn indicated the trauma kit. “TQ7 tourniquets, QuikClot combat gauze, chest seals, hypothermia prevention supplies. We’re operating in winter conditions. Exposure kills as fast as bullets. Everyone carries chemical heat packs and thermal blankets.
“Navigation and communication: AN/PRC-152 radios with encrypted frequencies. GPS units with backup mechanical compasses. We plan for electronics failure. Always have analog backup.”
Carver had been listening silently. Now he spoke.
“Insertion method?”
Evelyn pulled out the insertion plan.
“HALO jump. High altitude, low opening. It’s the only way to insert without detection.”
She moved to a whiteboard, started drawing diagrams and writing calculations.
“Exit altitude twenty-eight thousand feet. At that altitude, we need supplemental oxygen. Four liters per minute flow rate per operator. Jumpmaster checks each oxygen system before exit. One failure means one operator doesn’t jump. We don’t compromise for equipment failure.
“Freefall distance, twenty-four thousand five hundred feet. At terminal velocity with full combat load, that’s approximately ninety seconds of freefall. Standard terminal velocity is a hundred thirty miles per hour. But with our equipment weight, figure a hundred twenty miles per hour. Weight changes everything.
“Canopy deployment at thirty-five hundred feet above ground level. MC6 ram-air parachutes. These give us an eight-to-one glide ratio, meaning for every foot of altitude, we can travel eight feet horizontally. From thirty-five hundred feet, we can fly approximately four miles from our deployment point to the landing zone.
“That’s our stealth advantage. We exit over neutral territory, fly into hostile airspace under canopy. By the time we’re visible, we’re already on the ground.
“Weather is critical.” She pulled up meteorological data. “Forecast shows twenty-five knot winds at altitude. That’s borderline for jumping, but within operational parameters. However, wind drift becomes significant. Ninety seconds of freefall in twenty-five knot winds equals approximately thirty-seven hundred feet of drift. We exit thirty-seven hundred feet upwind of our intended freefall end point. GPS tracks us during descent, but we need to account for drift in our exit point calculation.”
Sullivan was impressed despite himself.
“You’ve planned this down to the minute.”
“And down to the second,” Evelyn corrected. “Because that’s all we’ll have. Seconds. The difference between success and catastrophic failure measured in heartbeats.”
She laid out the final piece: the timeline.
“H-hour is 0200. At H-minus twelve hours, we load onto a C-130 transport. Flight time to jump point is approximately six hours. That gives us time to pre-breathe oxygen, equipment checks, final mission brief.
“At H-minus thirty minutes, we hit the red light. Final equipment check. Oxygen flow confirmed. Weapons safe. Radio checks. Each operator confirms ready status.
“At H-minus five minutes, green light. Jump door opens. We’re on a ten-second interval between jumpers. I go first, establish the track. You follow my IR strobe. We maintain formation during freefall, deploy within visual range of each other, land within fifty meters.
“Upon landing, immediate rally point. Weapons hot. Perimeter security. Then we move. Eight kilometers overland to the compound. Two-hour movement window. We use night vision, thermal blankets to mask heat signatures. We avoid all contact. This is stealth all the way to target.
“At 0200, I enter through the drainage culvert alone. You establish overwatch positions. Brennan takes the sniper hide four hundred meters out. Sullivan and Callahan maintain perimeter security.
“I have eighteen minutes inside. If I’m not out in eighteen minutes, you assume I’m compromised and abort. No rescue attempt. No heroics. You exfil and report mission failure to the admiral.”
“No,” Sullivan’s voice was hard. “We don’t leave people.”
“You do if I order it. This mission only works if we maintain discipline. If you come in after me and blow the operation, Garrett dies anyway. Better one loss than all of us.”
The room was tense. No one liked it, but they understood it.
Carver broke the silence.
“What’s the exfil plan?”
“Once I extract Garrett, we move to the coast. Fifteen kilometers overland. RIB boat waiting offshore. Navy spec ops crew—people Admiral Carver trusts. They extract us to a submarine waiting in international waters. From there, we’re home.”
“That’s a long walk while carrying a wounded man and being pursued by hostiles,” Callahan observed.
“Yes. Which is why we need to move fast and stay ahead of pursuit. Brennan provides rear security, long-range precision fire to slow down anyone following. Sullivan rigs delay charges. Claymore mines on likely pursuit routes. We make them pay for every meter they chase us.”
She looked at each of them in turn.
“This is not a sanctioned mission. If we’re captured, the United States government will disavow any knowledge. We’ll be tried as spies or terrorists. No prisoner exchange. No diplomatic solution. Just us and whatever they decide to do to us.
“If we fail, Project Sentinel gets exposed. Every operator
