Chapter 14: Sand isn't nice...

Operation: Operation Red Dawn

Location: Twenty miles south of Ad-Dawr, Iraq

Unit: Task Force 121

Date: 13 December 2003

"So our target is Wolverine-1?" A man in British sand camouflage said.

Another man with a heavy Texan accent spoke, "Yep, that's right, we are to enter through the south wall, we have enough C-4 to blow through several metres of reinforced concrete if need be, I doubt we'll use it but, who knows?"

Jonathon Mclaw was this man in the sand camouflage.

He hadn't even aged a day since the Falklands.

Carefully analysed the mission plan, the rest of the American unit around him were readying to fight. He had asked to be put on this mission after successfully giving three different leads to the Americans on this Iraqi dictator's whereabouts.

It had been over ten years since the invasion of Kuwait and finally, this task force was going to bring this chapter of history to its end along with bringing Saddam Hussein to justice.

Mclaw thought to himself, 'Maybe after this is over I'll take a few month's breaks before my eventual deployment to Afghan.'

Mclaw didn't watch the twin towers fall, but he was there during a video call with the Pentagon when a plane hit. He remembered the number dead... it shook him to his core. None of those deserve it. It was unacceptable.

Suddenly, someone near the Forward Operating Base's entrance called out. The accent seemed it may have been Californian or somewhere along the west coast.

"Halt right there!" He shouted challenging someone.

By the gate, three members of Task Force 121 stood with rifles raised at a mysterious man. The man wore a black robe, Mclaw instantly spotted his concealed Walther PP but looked at the man from a distance. Standing up he kept his hand on the grip of his marked M1911.

As Mclaw approached the small incident at the gate, the US soldier spoke again, "Get on your knees and identify yourself!" He paused, "This is a demand, not a question."

The man in the black robe did as he was told before asking, "Can I remove my hood?"

Mclaw recognised his accent immediately, a Northerner.

Standing behind the American, Mclaw finally spoke, "Remove your hood."

The hooded figure slowly revealed his slicked-back black hair and heavily tanned, white skin.

The no longer hooded figure spoke to Mclaw, "So you're the Reaper?"

Mclaw replied, "And you're Agent from MI5, right?"

"It's MI6," Agent responded to Mclaw's test.

Mclaw looked at the guards on duty, "Let him in, he's one of us."

The guards stepped to the side letting the MI6 member into the temporary outpost. Mclaw directed the agent to a hastily set up tent, this was a command centre for the whole operation. Mclaw welcomed Agent inside letting the makeshift flap on the tent go back to its original form.

"So anything good?" Mclaw asked.

***

Over the horizon line, the sun started to fall.

"My mark," Mclaw said over his radio, "3, 2, 1, Mark!"

Suddenly a flash of explosions filled the air and the steel gates were blasted open. Mclaw entered no more than an instant after the explosion silenced.

Nearest rooftop. Window, far building. Main courtyard. Right alleyway.

Mclaw flicked onto enemies in every spot. One shot per kill. Zero misses. All shots were fatal.

Suddenly, the compound fell silent as the American Green Berets entered behind him. Within a few seconds, it was over, with no one in sight. Mclaw knew he didn't shoot Hussein so where the hell was he hiding. Was he at Wolverine-2 instead of 1?

Mclaw suddenly remembered something Agent had said in that tent, "Be careful. The fighters are using spider holes to hide in."

Spider holes are concealed positions placed underground with the capacity to only hold one soldier or in this case, a disgraced dictator.

"Watch for Spider holes," Mclaw informed the unit as they walked past him.

Two more soldiers came in through the door, rifles raised. All they saw were several lifeless bodies slumped across the compound. One of their mouths was agape while the other was still deadly serious.

"Holy sh..." the first US soldier paused suddenly remembering they were still on mission.

He continued into the compound with his battle buddy, they were followed by two more before the small section jumped close to the wall of the building.

The first Green Beret, leading the charge into the next smaller building, putting up three fingers, then started to slowly relieve each one until he reached zero. On the mark the US elites entered, firing off three shots.

Mclaw continued to the left wall of the west wall of the compound. It was silent. Each step. It was sort of nerve-racking. Mclaw hadn't felt like this since before he was brought to this world. He'd always been calm since his arrival... it was odd.

Window.

Mclaw spinning to his left, he fired off two rounds through a window. Mclaw wasn't sure if they had hit or not.

Coming close to the frame of the window, he stood slightly away; he slung his rifle back and pulled out his pistol. Quickly clearing the room, he jumped through the window, pistol still ready to fire.

BANG!

A shot missed Mclaw by no more than an inch, immediately Mclaw flinched and his natural reflexes took over causing him to swing to the left and shoot twice. Blood sprayed across the far wall and the room went silent once again.

As Mclaw went to go look for the body of the man he had just shot he noticed several AK-47 assault rifles lined on the wall.

"Holy shit," Mclaw whistled, "I just hit the jackpot."

Mclaw walked over to one and held it in one of his hands before tearing the pistol grip off with his bare hands. Carefully he placed it in his bag, tossing the rest of the broken AK to his side. Mclaw had been doing this type of thing since he landed on the Falklands island after his raid was successful.

While some people collected dirt or sand from places they'd been to, Mclaw preferred to collect pistol grips from each weapon. It was a sort of memento to him.

As he turned to continue with finding the body, he noticed it slumped over the back of an old ragged sofa that looked like it had been through hell.

On the floor in front of it lay an old C96 Mauser.

Mclaw crouched down next to it, "I spoke too soon, I guess."

Slipping the C96 into his bag, he stood up still looking around. Out of the corner of his eye, Mclaw notices a shadow move.

Turning around, he brings his sidearm to be ready to shoot.

"Come out with your hands up," Mclaw spoke calmly.

Nothing happened.

Mclaw repeated himself, "I won't hurt you if you surrender."

Still, nothing came... until...

Suddenly, the building rattled with a slam of a hatch; Mclaw ran around the corner, pistol raised. It was silent. No one was there. Upon closer inspection, he noticed something protruding out of the ground. It was a steel hatch, like something you'd see on a military naval vessel.

Mclaw whistled so the soldiers outside could hear, suddenly two ran in. Mclaw nodded turning to address them, "I might have the target cornered or he might be escaping through a tunnel system underground, through the naval hatch behind me."

The soldiers nodded and walked past him, slowly feeling around the hatch, "No stickiness or abnormalities, inside still unknown."

Mclaw walked up behind him, "Locked from the inside right?"

The soldier nodded again, "We aren't getting inside this, we should find all the other hatches and any underground tunnels and block them off, forcing whoever is down there to the surface."

Mclaw shook his head, "We have no more than a few hours, we won't have time."

Mclaw bit his lip, thinking about what to do, "Fine..." he concluded.

He brought out his medical kit from the back of his gear and tied a bandage around his fist, "This might hurt..." he said to himself.

The American Green Berets looked on in confusion not sure what the Britain representative was about to do.

Mclaw placed down his rifle and secured his M1911. Suddenly a dark presence came over the room causing the other Special Forces members to think they might collapse under the pressure of Jonathon's presence.

Mclaw drew his fist back, and putting his full strength behind it he punched the edge of the steel hatch.

*Silence*

The soldiers looked in shock at what just happened.

VADUMMM

A split had started to form in the centre of the hatch, Mclaw reached his hand in between the two plates of broken steel and grabbed the side, flinging it into a wall. The soldiers looked in shock, legs trembling.

Instead of this British Soldier, they saw a dark-clothed skeleton holding a scythe to his side. The Grim Reaper himself.

"I'm going in," Mclaw nodded, "Search the surrounding buildings, also what you saw is classified, forget it."

The soldiers nodded still in shock before turning around and leaving. Below the hatch, there was nothing but darkness, Mclaw smiled, "A cave system, great!"

Gripping his rifle he jumped catching a rope on the way down.

He could feel it was old but clean of all cobwebs, it had been used recently...

As Mclaw hit the ground, the world was pitch black Mclaw grabbed something from his pocket, covered in bubble wrap he slowly unwound it. Feeling in the dark he clicked it onto his helmet, flicking it down he clicked a small switch on the side, and suddenly a green tint projected across the dark cave.

'They weren't kidding about this Gen 3 night vision," Mclaw thought to himself. What Mclaw had just put on was a test of the third-gen of Night Vision. Newest of the bunch and being tested for combat.

Mclaw walked through the green-tinted stone tunnel; it was quite big with several small offshoots no more than a few metres deep.

"C'mon this way!" A voice spoke from further down the tunnel.

"Who... are... you," A voice in very broken English spoke.

Mclaw leaned against the wall, listening in on the conversation as it continued, "I'm a friend, come with me and you will be saved, don't ask questions."

Mclaw couldn't quite pin the accent, 'Aussie maybe?' Mclaw thought to himself, but there was one thing for sure, they weren't from around here.

"I understand. But - could - you tell me - who we are seeing?" the voice in broken English asked.

"Not yet," The foreign voice paused, "We need to get back to Rome first."

Mclaw's eyes widened, 'What was so important in Rome that they needed to go there?'

The foreign voice spoke again, "I think we may have someone listening to us though," he stopped, spinning on his heel, "Give us a minute."

'Us...' Mclaw focused on those words concentrating.

Light footsteps trod gently across the stone and sand floor. Mclaw knew where they were to the centimetre. Mclaw dived out of cover letting off three shots before his weapon jammed. Three bodies dropped to the ground instantly as he tossed his rifle to the side drawing the C96 Mauser and M1911, dual-wielding the ancient semi-automatic pistols.

Triggering the hammers on the back of the pistols several times they emptied themselves of bullets which were flung at several hundred feet per second.

Through his night vision, Mclaw saw the damage he had left. Twenty bodies were strewn across the tunnel. Blood of the dead painted the walls in a dark red, along with pieces of flesh and organ tissue.

Mclaw walked quickly through the tunnel, storing his pistols and clearing the jam in his M16. It was silent again. Mclaw closed his eyes and concentrated, "Where are you?" he thought to himself. He listened quietly and carefully.

Pat pat pat.

There.

Mclaw sprinted to his left through a tunnel rifle pointing to the sky. As he passed a corner he something in the corner of his eye. It was too late, he couldn't dodge.

The butt of the enemy rifle was swung towards him.

Mclaw instinctively pulled up his arms to cover his face, he took the forefront of the blow being knocked back still keeping a foothold on the ground.

"So you are the infamous Reaper," the English speaker from earlier said with a smile, "it's my pleasure."

Mclaw tilted his head in threatening confusion, "You want to die as well?"

The man facing him spoke again, "Ahaha, Mr Mclaw you are a funny one," he paused, "No I've come to extract the HVT you're after."

Mclaw smirked, "You know my nickname, so you take a guess at how I got it."

The man nodded, "Go on," he paused, "What did the oh-so-great Jonathon Mclaw do?"

Mclaw turned around removing his helmet along with the night vision, "That's some nice night vision you got there, what generation is it."

"2," Mclaw's enemy said.

"Huh, you won't like this then," Mclaw smiled

Mclaw suddenly pulled out a flare, sparking the flame. The enemy leader fell to the ground in a shriek.

"Now I'll demonstrate why I used to be so feared," the cloaked skeletal figure appeared again, but the enemy didn't flinch, not even closing his eyes.

Mclaw spoke, "Did you know you can cut the human body in certain places it will hurt like hell and others you'll barely feel it, like for example, right here..."

Mclaw drew his blade and stabbed it into the back of the kneecap.

The soldier fell forward in shock and agony, "That's... that's a war crime!"

Mclaw chuckled, "As far as I'm concerned firstly, who will see?" Mclaw paused waiting for a response that would never come, "Secondly, you and your 'soldiers' are classified as spies and so the rules of war don't apply to you, now you will answer my questions or this continues."

Mclaw was now right behind the enemy, with his knife buried deep in the man's leg.

The enemy spoke in defiance, "Not in a million years."

Mclaw frowned in disappointment, "fine then," he started to twist the knife, "You have five seconds before you lose this leg, 5 4 3 2 --."

Mclaw was suddenly interrupted, "Wait wait don't, I'll talk, just don't chop off my leg."

Mclaw stood back up, leaving the knife in the body, "Oh really, so now you want to cooperate, do go on then, who do you work for?"

"The Chinese," he said dead serious.

Mclaw burst out in laughter, "Try again."

"No, I'm serious, I used to be part of the Australian Defence Forces naval Special Forces but defected to North Korea, from there the Chinese took interest in me and recruited me," the spy spoke.

Mclaw nodded, "Interesting, so your not just a spy... but a traitor as well, hmm?"

The ex-Australian nodded, "That is correct, anything else you'd like to know?"

Mclaw looked at him still not in full belief of this man's story, "Ok what does China want with Hussein?"

The Australian answered instantly, "They want to execute him and burn his body as it would be a huge embarrassment to the western world for not being able to capture Hussein."

Mclaw could tell instantly, that he'd practised that answer, "Finally, this is the important one..." Mclaw paused.

"Yes it is, it's a very important moment," the Aussie said.

Mclaw frowned not understanding, suddenly he saw the man's hand move, in it he held Mclaw's knife.

Diving backwards Mclaw dodged the first blow by the blade. He instantly went to draw his sidearm only for it to slam fire and jam.

"FUCK!" Mclaw said backing up.

Suddenly the Aussie darted forward at incredible speeds, Mclaw used one hand, pushing the blade slightly away from the path to his face causing it to miss him. Mclaw followed with two jabs to the chest causing the Aussie to drop the blade and recoil backwards in shock desperately trying to catch his breath.

Mclaw picked up the knife, flicking it back in his hand, "How the hell are you walking."

The Aussie chuckled, "Wouldn't you like to know," before he stood up and drew a smaller blade from the side of his boot.

Mclaw darted forward, going in for a slash only to be deflected by the smaller knife. They started to circle each other, blades ready. Both darting at the same time, Mclaw led with a punch to the rib cage shattering two of the Aussie's ribs followed by a jab to the cheek and a slash from his blade along the stomach

The Aussie didn't falter this time stabbing Mclaw in the cheek with his knife and punching him in the other cheek. Causing the blade to penetrate both sides.

"That shut you up?" the Aussie quipped.

Mclaw reached into his bleeding cheek pulling the bloodied knife out and throwing up and down in his hands, "Not quite."

Mclaw's wounds started to close, it was inhuman but the Aussie watched in fascination, "interesting, what a turn of events, does that happen usually?"

Mclaw nodded but said something else, more disturbing, darker, "Looks like I can't let you leave now."

"Don't worry I have everything I need," He smiled and pulled a pill from the bottom of his boot before placing it in his mouth and swallowing.

They both waited staring at each other, Mclaw wondered if his enemy had just swallowed one of those rumoured super drugs but brushed it off as insane.

They both waited...

And waited.

Until a glowing light started to appear in the Aussie's stomach, and Mclaw spoke, "What did you do?"

"Don't worry this won't hurt nor kill you unless you get too close!" The Aussie spoke with an oddly cheery attitude.

He started to glow more until he almost shone. Suddenly, he dropped to the floor and started to spasm, before the glow became warm and Mclaw was forced to step back.

Mclaw's eyes widened, suddenly he turned around and dived behind a near rock.

BOOM!

A loud explosion shook the cave violently and Mclaw covered his head from shrapnel.

"What the fuck?" Mclaw swore.

The world went back to quietness, nothing was there.

Mclaw sat there in silence, waiting. Nothing. He peaked out around the side of the rock. Nothing. Slowly standing up he grabbed his assault rifle looking for the body of the Aussie. There was nothing. No traces. Was he incinerated? Or did he escape?

Mclaw searched around, scrounging up his battered M1911 and helmet fitted with Night Vision.

"Dammit," Mclaw said to himself, realising he hadn't got the location of Hussein.

Clearing the chamber in his assault rifle, Mclaw noticed his magazine was completely bent.

Sighing he spoke into the darkness, "The Quarter Master's gonna kill me..."

Shoving the broken mag into his bag he loaded a new one and chambered a round. Continuing through the tunnel, he noticed the tunnel was going up and slowly getting steeper.

That's when he saw the light of the moon shining down the tunnel.

A man with a Californian accent spoke, "Halt! Identify yourself or I will shoot!"

"Captain Jonathon Mclaw, 22nd Special Air Service and a member of 121," Mclaw called out ready to dive to the side at any time.

The man nodded and lowered his weapon, before turning behind him, "I found the Briton, get over here."

Another two men walked over to the cave entrance as Mclaw walked into the shining moonlight, the leader was the Texan Jonathon had talked to back at camp and the leader of the current mission, Jonathon couldn't remember the name for the life of him so he just called him Sir, addressing as the officer he was.

"Sir," Mclaw started, "Have you got Hussein?"

The Texan spoke, "I was hoping you did," pausing, he stroked his chin, "the marks on your clothes tell me you encountered something in that cave."

Mclaw looked to his shoulder which was slightly ripped and stained with blood, 'Must've been from the fight...' Mclaw thought to himself.

Speaking to the Texan, Mclaw started to explain, "Yes sir, I encountered foreign insurgents claiming to be Aussies who defected to Commie Korea before being transported to China."

The American officer raised an eyebrow, "You say claimed..."

Mclaw nodded, "Yes sir, claimed," Mclaw paused, "I don't believe it one bit, they said they wanted to embarrass the west, but I also overheard them talking about wanting to take him to Rome."

"In Italy?" the officer asked sceptically.

Mclaw acknowledged his doubt, "Correct, that very one. Maybe they have a safehouse there?"

The American stroked his clean-shaven chin, "I see... do you think it might not be the Chinese but could be... you know who?"

Mclaw sighed knowing where this was going, "It's possible, but I highly doubt it... this wouldn't do anything for them."

The American shook off the thought, "I'll have to get the CIA to investigate later, but let's put this church business to one side now."

This Church the American was referring to was a cultist religion that successfully usurped several old religions and slowly incorporated them into one big religion, today they are the biggest religion known to man having over ten different sub-sections influenced by one main religion residing in a Rome. These sub-sections all claim to be separate and the people hate each other to an extent, in recent years they have been covertly against the US lead coalition forces around the middle east while publicly denying any involvement with any evidence being destroyed by natural disasters, active shooters or public figures mysteriously misplacing the evidence. The CIA and FBI along with British Military Intelligence have been trying to crack this shell open for a very long time to no avail.

Mclaw nodded his head, "So what's the next play?"

Before Mclaw could answer the group of soldiers heard something over the radio, "This is Delta-C7, we have him."

Mclaw's eyes widened as he watched the Texan officer reach for his radio, "Delta-C7 this is Delta-C1, bring Hussein onto the road and we'll come to you."

Quickly Mclaw broke into a sprint running down the road, suddenly, four Americans dragged out a rugged old man with unkempt hair and a scruffy beard. Mclaw stopped staring at this sight.

He was speechless, "I thought Saddam had Mysophobia?"

The first soldier looked up and spoke straight to Jonathon, "Yeah I thought that too, but the images of their faces are too similar and he claims to be Hussein."

Mclaw nodded as the other Americans jogged up behind him. The leader of the operation ran up behind them, "The choppers are inbound, prep for evac."

Mclaw nodded and walked over to Hussein who sat there in silence. Mclaw overheard one of the Americans, "Wanna cigarette, they're American!"

The captured dictator looked at the American and said in broken English, "No, American pig," and spat in his face.

Mclaw smiled and started to walk over to the American as he turned around getting ready to hit Hussein with his rifle. Lifting it above his head, the American started to bring it down upon the deposed Iraqi but Mclaw caught the butt of the rifle, "Don't, he's still a prisoner, I'll wait with him for the helicopter to arrive, go over and ask if your CO needs help."

The American stepped back realising who he was talking to, coincidentally this had been one of the very soldiers that saw Mclaw bust open the naval hatch with his bare hands. Turning back to Hussein he glared before walking off.

Mclaw sat down in front of Hussein, "I'd like to practice my Arabic is that fine with you?"

The Americans standing next to Hussein raised an eyebrow but didn't question it.

Hussein spoke in Arabic this time, "Yes... you're not an American or a Briton, but you work for the British, correct?"

Mclaw nodded, before replying in somewhat broken Arabic, "Yes, that is correct, I wasn't born in any part of the world but I can't really talk about it as it's uh... classified."

Hussein chuckled, "A man who speaks English but isn't from our plane of existence, interesting... very interesting."

Mclaw replied in Arabic again, "Yes there are many small differences between the language in my country and the language in England and the US. Small miss spellings et cetera, but the biggest thing was us only acknowledging two seasons while you lot acknowledged four."

Hussein seemed interested now, "Really?" Saddam stroked his unkempt beard, "why are you telling me this, the man from Britain?"

"Well, if you tell anyone, no one would believe you and really it's just me making conversation," Mclaw answered, "They'd probably just call you insane, after being deposed."

Hussein gritted his teeth, "Deposed," he said quietly to himself, "My regime may have not been perfect, but Iraq was better off with me, just look at what you westerners have done to my country, we were a wealthy nation before you came... we were strong."

Mclaw sneered at the dictator, "You shouldn't have invaded Kuwait and maybe we wouldn't have got involved, you caused so much pain and suffering and for what?"

"To clear my country's debts and put the Kuwaitis in their place," He responded, changing the subject, "I hear my country isn't doing too good... I used an iron fist to rule so this didn't happen," he made a gesture with his hands continuing, "Now my country is a lawless land with the people separated, this is how I'm repaid for attempting to save my country?"

Mclaw looked somewhat understanding of ruling with an iron fist, he and his forefathers had done it and so had so many others but Mclaw had never gone to the extent Hussein had, "But what about the gas? The breaking of human rights, and genocides against races. Yes, that is how you are repaid, in pain and suffering."

The two men stared each other down as something started to approach the horizon. Several black smudges with spinning blades.

"Birds are inbound, Mclaw your going with them!" the American officer shouted.

Mclaw stood up nodding, "Finally."

The black smudges started to take shape, two Apache attack helicopters escorting three MH-6 Little Bird. The Apache was a standard attack helicopter for the US military labelled AH-64, each armed with 16 Hellfire missiles on four four-rail launchers and four air-to-air missiles. The little bird on the other hand was an armed light personnel carrier mainly made to transport special operations from place to place at high speeds.

As they landed, Mclaw picked up Saddam Hussein by the shoulder and forced him onto the helicopter. Hussein looked at him before shaking his head and crawling into the helicopter. Mclaw then clipped both himself and Hussein in before the helicopter slowly started to ascend into the air, in between the two circling Apaches.

The helicopter tilted forward and started to move, it became faster and faster. Mclaw looked back at Hussein who sat there eyes wide. Mclaw placed his goggles over his eyes and looked to the sunrise, muttering in the intense wind.

"I can't wait to be back on English soil again..."