Viper Team Seven (The Viper Team Seven Series Book 1) (52 page)

Parks began to
run as fast as he could in the direction he thought the building was. He came
to a cross street and looked down a rather steep, paved hill to his back right.
He knew that wasn’t the way. He glanced up, and concluded that that was the way
to go.

He took a step forward and caught movement out of the corner of his left eye.
It was another soldier, aiming an automatic weapon right at him. Parks dropped
to the ground, making sure his body was shielding Solomon’s. Then he felt
something knick the left side of his head and then slice into his left
shoulder. He jerked back instinctively and rolled off Solomon. But that wasn’t
where the rolling stopped. He continued rolling down the paved hill. About
halfway down, he lost consciousness.

*          *          *

Greg Norse was
positive that he would be the last one to reach the helicopters. He was near the
building but there was still quite a distance to go. He dashed down a street,
only stopping to navigate himself. He then reached a brick wall and leaped over
it. There was a small path that led up to a main road, and he took that. After
quite a few seconds of running, he found something that stopped his heart.
There in the road was the body of someone familiar. As he approached he was
sure it was Solomon.

He ran up to
Solomon and knelt alongside him. “Solomon,” he said between gasps for air, “are
you...are you alive?”

Norse checked
for a pulse and found a very weak one. It was enough to tell him that his
friend and coworker was still alive. Norse pulled Solomon over his shoulder in
a fireman’s carry and tried to figure out where he was. He decided to go up the
road because down the hill didn’t look promising. So he ran as fast as he could
up the road.

He turned left
on a side street and then he saw it. Atop the building where Parks had been
waiting for the operation to start, were the helicopters. There were several of
them hovering and Norse’s heart leapt with joy.

He quickly
reached the building and called for help in transporting Solomon up the ladder
to the roof which had been placed there for that express purpose. After Solomon
was taken up, Norse reached the top.

“Take him away!”
he commanded generically. “He’s hurt bad!”

Marler, Samuels,
and Lee lifted Solomon onto a stretcher and put him into one of the Ospreys.

“Everyone’s
here, let’s get going,” one of the CIA agents suggested.

“Yeah let’s go,”
Norse said as everyone began loading up.

The Viper Team
Seven and some others began loading into the Osprey and Norse was the last to throw
in his M4 and stick his head inside. Then he suddenly thought of something.

“Wait a minute,”
he whispered to himself. Then he shouted, “
Where’s KP?
”

The team
exchanged looks and shrugged their shoulders.

“We need to get
going,” the same agent stated. “You want us all to die?”

Norse grabbed
his M4. “Take this Osprey away,” he ordered. “I’m going to find Parks. Pilot,
you have one of these transport helicopters and its gunships stick around and
have them radio me if Parks comes here.”

Without another
word, Norse slammed the door and began to leave. He was soon joined, however,
by Samuels, Lee, Marler, and Corley, who were armed and ready to go.

“All right then let’s go!” Norse shouted as the Osprey that carried
Solomon took off. “We’ve got work to do!”

*          *          *

Parks awoke to
water being thrown in his face. It took a minute for his eyes to clear and then
he realized he was looking at a Lebanese soldier. Parks froze with shock.

“Come,” the
soldier declared in passable English.

Parks stood up
with great pain and exited the small cement room he had been in and entered a
much larger one.

“If you’re
wondering where you are, I’ll tell you,” the soldier began. “You’re in a war
bunker underneath Tripoli. Many top officials hid here during your nation’s
bombardment.”

Parks was
ordered to wait and he did so. The larger room was surrounded with guards.
Parks knew he was in a bad fix.

A door swung
open and a large group of men came in. One zip-tied Parks’ hands, while the
others merely watched.

“I am Jamil
Zacka,” a man said in English as he stepped toward Parks from the group. “I am
the chief of staff.”

Parks said
nothing.

“This is Captain
Hamzah,” Zacka continued, pointing to the man on his right.

“Captain of
what?” Parks asked as he stared the man directly in the eye.

“A
sometimes-captain of our army,” Zacka explained. “He’s a Palestinian that is known
to be a terrorist for someone you know. Alka vun Buvka.”

Parks didn’t
give the reaction that he knew Zacka was expecting. “He’s captain of nothing
what are you chief of staff of?”

“The Lebanese
government,” Zacka stated. “If you’re wondering why I’m here, I had to meet a
very important man. You know him I believe.”

Someone stepped
up from behind the group and Parks almost fell over backwards. There in front
of him was none other than Nathanial Roxon, the Secret Service Director.

“So you were the
mole,” Parks accused, hatred rising in his voice. “You’re the–”

“Silence,” Zacka
ordered. “Do you now wonder why we decided to capture you instead of just kill
you when we found you? Mr. Roxon says you are important, and I intend to use
you for my benefit.”

“I’d like to see
you try,” Parks retorted.

Zacka punched
Parks right in the stomach and he keeled over.

“You get my
meaning?” the Lebanese man asked.

“Anyway, you are
a fool, Parks,” Roxon spat. “If you’d have turned your satellite phone on the
NSA would have contacted you and told you that I was the mole. What an
unfortunate mistake.”

Parks kicked
himself. He must have accidentally turned off the phone after the call with the
National Security Advisor.

“I made a run
for it soon after Smith called you,” Roxon went on. “I took my personal G5
right to this point. The little followers that were assigned to me never knew I
was gone, and they never will. I contacted Mr. Zacka while I was on the run and
told him to move the warheads. But there was not enough time. And we could do
nothing to stop the U.S.’s attack. I didn’t know where your team would be
coming in because Smith took complete care of that. Otherwise I’d have killed
all of you.”

“You knew we were
coming in for the warheads,” Parks declared. “So why didn’t you post your army
around here?”

“To tell you the
truth, we did,” Zacka replied. “But it was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Besides we need to save our troops.”

“For what?”
Parks demanded.

“For when your
U.S. Marines come into our homeland,” Zacka answered. “They may find our two-nation
alliance a little hard to chew.”

Parks laughed
right in the man’s face. “The runts of the Middle East are going to give the
Marines a fight? I really don’t think so.”

Zacka tried to
slap Parks across the face but he ducked just in time.

“Forget it,”
Roxon commanded. “He’ll be useful for when the Marines do come, and there’ll be
a lot of time to torture him until then. Leastwise someone else would like to
speak to our friend.”

“Why are you
giving all the orders?” Parks questioned. “You must be pretty high up in this
regime.”

“If it wasn’t
for me, the terror group that plagues your life wouldn’t exist.”

“So you headed
up all these attacks? Why?”

“I’ve always
dreamed of getting even with the U.S. Ever since my father was ruthlessly
killed in a military operation in Vietnam. It ruined the rest of my family’s
lives. I later joined the Secret Service, hoping to get an opportunity to be
placed on the President’s security detail; maybe get a chance to kill him,
whoever he would be. When I moved up the ranks so fast my desire left. But then
my only son was killed in Iraq. I had begged him not to join the CIA but he did
it anyway. A form of my old feelings came back in an instant. I then knew that
the U.S. had to be destroyed. She was causing too much strife in the world,
killing too many people. I knew that the world would be better without the United States, that, though it would be horrific at first, her destruction was the only way
to happiness. So I got in touch with Hezbollah terrorists. They asked for
information that I could easily obtain on how to attack the U.S. I was told to make contact through middlemen in Mexico. Again, before I knew it, I was a very
valuable asset, all the while fooling everyone in the U.S. Government about my
actions. Soon I was contacted by Lebanon, requesting assistance to construct an
infallible plan to attack either Israel or America. All it took was a well-formulated
plan and I instantly found myself in charge of their terrorism operations. I
helped purchase and merge Hamas and Hezbollah. I trained new terrorists all
around the Middle East that no one could indentify.”

“You’re crazy,”
Parks fired back. “I can’t believe that you’re so deranged because of your
losses that you’re dumb enough to think that destroying the U.S. is going to give you happiness.”

“My deceased family
members merit revenge.” Roxon paused and never continued. 

Zacka nodded to
someone in the rear who came forward.

“Do you remember
me?” Hamzah asked suddenly.

Parks shook his
head. “I don’t take note of trash.”

“Very funny. You
may remember my brother. He was in a terror training camp in Afghanistan the night your Marines stormed it. Remember?”

“I didn’t get
acquainted with those terrorists,” Parks shot back. “I just saw to it that they
were killed.”

“Well my brother’s
death needs to be avenged,” Hamzah finalized. “You’re responsible for his death
so now I will kill you.”

A semi-auto
pistol was thrust in Parks’ face but then Roxon pushed it down.

“We need him,
Captain,” Roxon told him. “Don’t kill him. Yet. You can beat him up a little
though.”

Hamzah smiled
wickedly and moved toward Parks.

“Give me a
chance to defend myself,” Parks asked as he calculated his next move.

“No such deal,”
Hamzah growled.

He swung at
Parks’ head and Parks ducked the blow and hit the terrorist in the gut with his
doubled fists. Just then, two gun barrels were pushed to Parks’ head as his
loss of blood began to weaken him.

Hamzah regained
himself and stepped forward again. “You will not do that again,” he angrily assured
Parks.

Just then the cement
door leading to the holding room flung open. The guns were taken off Parks’
head as everyone turned to see who it was. Five men rolled into the room, guns
blazing. Parks recognized his team and he punched the guard to his right and
leaped for his rifle. He grasped the firearm but he couldn’t use it since his
hands were bound.

Moments later,
after intense gunfire, someone pulled him to his feet. Parks looked at the man
and saw it was Norse.

“Let’s go,”
Norse commanded once the room was cleared. He then cut off the zip tie and
Parks was free.

“Thanks,” Parks
told him as he was tossed an M4.

“You lead to the
helicopter,” Norse suggested as he reloaded his carbine.

“All right let’s
get out of this place!” Parks shouted with joy. “Let’s get rolling!”

The Viper Team
Seven rushed out of the bunker and up to the surface. The top was somewhat
calm, except for the sound of sirens and an occasional scream or two. Parks led
the way, taking guidance from Norse on where to go.

“How’d you find
me?” Parks asked Norse as they dashed for the building.

“I just went
where I found Solomon last and searched around. There were a few soldiers
guarding the bunker entrance so that’s how I guessed what was there,” Norse
responded.

“It was tucked
away pretty good,” Parks pointed out.

“Yeah it was,
but investigating is my job remember?”

Parks smiled and
tried to keep up the run. His blood loss was weakening him and he hoped he
would make it.

Sweat dries,
blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up. Be a Marine,
Parks said to himself.

“You need some
help?” Norse asked caringly, evidently seeing Parks’ pain.

Parks smiled.
“No, I think I can manage. But thanks a lot, Greg.”

Along the way
several soldiers put up a resistance. They were no match for the six men, however,
and were easily taken out.

Finally, Parks
and his team reached the building, but there was nothing there.

“Where’d the
helicopters go?” Norse wondered in dismay. “They couldn’t have left.”

“Maybe they took
to the sky for safety,” Parks suggested.

The team climbed
to the top of the building and was forced to fend off several attackers from
below. It wasn’t a hard job, and no one was scathed by the ordeal.

Then from above,
the sound of helicopter rotors could be heard. Everyone looked up and saw the
Marine helicopters descending to the building’s roof. A cheer went up as the
Osprey landed on the makeshift landing pad and the Vipers hovered around
protectively.

“Load up guys,”
Parks said as he pulled open the door. “We’re as good as home.”

The team entered
the helicopter and Parks was the last one in. He slammed the door closed and
felt the Osprey begin to rise.

“
USS Wasp
,
this is EAGLE SEVEN,” the pilot spoke into his radio. “The VIPER TEAM SEVEN is
secure. I repeat, the VIPER TEAM SEVEN is secure. Out.”

The Osprey flew
over Lebanon, flanked by the two Viper gunships, heading for the Marine
amphibious ship the
USS Wasp
, waiting not far away.

Thank You
God,
Parks prayed. “Thanks guys,” he said to his team. “Thanks a lot.”

Parks knew that
this day would be remembered in anti-terrorism history. Everyone on the
expanded team would be, but especially the Viper Team Seven consisting of three
CIA agents, three FBI agents, and one United States Marine – Major Keith Parks.