Sudden Threat
Authors: A.J. Tata
SUDDEN THREAT
BY
AJ Tata
Copyright © 2009 A.J. Tata
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For more information email all inquiries to:
Published by Variance LLC (USA).
www.variancepublishing.com
Library of Congress Catalog Number – 2009930797
ISBN: 1-935142-08-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-935142-08-9
Cover illustration: Larry Rostant
Cover layout: Jeremy Robinson and Stanley Tremblay
Interior layout: Stanley Tremblay
Map: Jackie McDermott
Visit A.J. Tata on the web at: www.ajtata.com.
Author’s website designed by
www.alifelski.com
In Memory of:
Command Sergeant Major Jerry Lee Wilson
Captain Bill Jacobsen
Major Doug Sloan
This book is dedicated to the memory of three soldiers killed in combat, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. These men are role models for all of us.
CSM Jerry Wilson was command sergeant major during my last six months of command of the Second Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. Jerry, a tall, strong man from Thomson, Georgia, was killed in Mosul, Iraq, in 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Jerry’s heart was as large as he was tall, and as I said at his funeral in Thomson, we must all endeavor to earn his sacrifice.
Bill, who also served with me in the 101st Airborne Division, was killed the next year during the devastating attack on the dining facility near Mosul, Iraq, while serving as a Stryker Brigade company commander. Bill was a six-and-a-half-foot-tall Mormon who loved his soldiers. In the streets of Mosul, he was an icon among both his troops and the Iraqi people. He was the best officer with whom I have served. Speaking with Bill’s wife and their four boys at his funeral near Charlotte, North Carolina, I again vowed to live up to the sacrifice of the many good men and women who were fighting both in combat and on the home front.
Doug served with me in the Eighty-second Airborne Division and Tenth Mountain Division and was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2006, three months after he was scheduled to leave company command, but his soldiers had asked their commander to keep him in place. Kneeling in front of Doug’s rifle, helmet, smiling photo, and identification tags at his memorial service in Konar Province, Afghanistan, on a crystalclear day amidst the towering Hindu Kush, I wept, proud of Doug’s courage and the fact that he had achieved the highest praise a man can seek: subordinates who demanded his leadership.
Jerry, Bill, and Doug were the kinds of leaders soldiers loved to follow. They were selfless men who courageously and valiantly answered the call to duty. Men and women like them are not uncommon in our military. Indeed, they are a reflection of our society and the values of our nation.
The sacrifices of these men should galvanize all of us to recognize the reality that, indeed, freedom is not free, and we have enemies who seek to destroy our way of life.
And if you’ve read this far and don’t turn another page, that’s okay by me. Google Jerry, Bill, and Doug, and you will understand the sentiment that these men stirred in those around them.
If you choose to read on, this work of fiction attempts to capture the grittiness of combat against a realistic geopolitical backdrop. Any thriller must have a stage on which to play out, and that stage must be based on current events. In addition to the disclaimer that this book is, in its entirety, fiction, including all of its characters, I want to add that
Sudden Threat
’
s
only purpose is to entertain. It is not a political statement and in no way, shape or form represents
any official opinion of the government.
Sudden Threat
is the first in a series of books that follows the paths of two brothers, Matt and Zachary Garrett, CIA paramilitary operative and U.S. Army officer, respectively.
As for me, I am a soldier. I believe in and endeavor daily to accomplish the country’s strategic aims, I despise and have fought the enemies of our nation, and I know the threat we face.
Late at night, as thoughts of combat and training spin through my mind, I’m always left with the images of Jerry, Bill, and Doug. So, if I’ve been able to capture a little bit of the qualities of men such as these in the characters of the main protagonists, then I will have succeeded.
Acknowledgements
The publication of this book would not have been possible without the friendship and guidance of Rob Hobart and Brad Thor. Rob’s professionalism and years of dedicated, selfless service are the foundation for a character readers will discover in
Rogue Threat,
the sequel to
Sudden Threat,
and books beyond. Rob introduced me to Brad, who has simply been an unbelievable mentor through the publication process, not to mention a first-class friend and best-selling
author.
I am deeply grateful to the Variance publishing team, Tim Schulte and Jeremy Robinson, who decided to take a chance on an Army officer who has enjoyed writing for the past fifteen years in his “spare” time. They absolutely live up to their goal of being an “author friendly” publishing house.
An author could not ask for two better editors than Bob and Sara Schwager, who have diligently compensated for my inattention in grammar class and plebe, freshman year, English at the United States Military Academy. For sure, any errors in the book are mine alone.
I also need to thank Rick “The Gun-Guy” Kutka for his weapons technical expertise and for his years of service to our nation.
To my entire family, who have been so incredibly supportive of me over the years during military deployments and the usual roller coaster of life, I say thank you. My parents, Bob and Jerri Tata, in particular have been steady supporters of my writing even when life seemed to get in the way.
And to Jodi Amanda, as you say,
all ways and always
.
Prologue
Nangahar Province, Afghanistan, December 12, 2001
Matt Garrett pulled his white Gore-Tex hood over his forehead, warding off the biting winds that sliced downward from the 14,000-foot peaks of the Tora Bora Mountains and rifled through his layered Afghan garb like invisible sheets of ice. As he turned his head slowly to check on his three other men, the snow was more like pellets fired sideways at his face by enemy weapons.
Holding in position a mile inside the Pakistan border, overlooking a small, nameless village, he studied the hand-held monitor and watched the grainy, barely discernable Predator feed as it followed the ambulance that had passed through Torkum gate, the fabled Khyber Pass. The ambulance turned north on a small road out of Peshawar and then the video feed was lost due to the raging storm.
It was December 12, 2001 and Matt had led his team from Jalalabad through the rugged, snow-jammed trail north of the pass that separates Afghanistan from Pakistan while the Eastern Alliance, fortified by a consortium of special operators and some of his cohorts from the CIA, attacked into Tora Bora. The night before, Matt had stared at the map hanging in the small shack near Jalalabad airfield as he listened to the fight raging in the windswept mountains.
Then he heard the announcement of a cease fire.
“Bullshit,” he had said. “Head fake.”
Matt figured that with all of the assets watching and listening to Al Qaeda in the mountains, he would form a supporting effort. His study of Bin Laden always led him to a small village in Pakistan. The one he presently viewed through the scope of his M24 sniper rifle.
