Before Jurassic World

Chapter 24

Smoke.

Fire.

Burning flesh.

It clogged my nose making me gag, forcing me to breathe uneasily through my mouth. Shouts and screams littered the night in every direction. I was huddled behind a Humvee amid a hail of gunfire. The clicks and pops of bullets whizzing by told me the enemy was close to hitting their mark. I leaned forward attempting to see the other Humvee's in the distance. As soon as my head poked out past the tire gunfire erupted from across the berm forcing me to dive for cover.

Our convoy was on the way to meet an informant with potential information on Ali Hassan al-Majid, a top tier target identified internally as the King of Spades. He was a military commander for the Iraqi Intelligence Service earning the name 'Chemical Ali' for his use of chemical weapons in attacks against the Kurds. As such, he was the fifth most-wanted man in Iraq facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Basically, the guy was bad news.

I had worked a source for weeks who had promised al-Majid was due to attend a leadership meeting tonight in a small rural village. I had lobbied for days with my command, arguing the validity of the intelligence, and convincing them the risk of placing American forces this far outside the wire was well worth the risk. If we could observe al-Majid entering the meeting we would have a chance to take him out. If we missed him my source could still relay what had occurred in the meeting which could potentially lead to vital intelligence we desperately needed. In the end, I was granted permission to set up an observation post in the village the meeting was set to occur in with the intention of identifying al-Majid.

We were a few miles outside the village when an IED detonated near the front of the convoy. It had obliterated the lead Humvee instantly killing the four men inside, and put the second out of commission. The rest of us poured out of the remaining Humvee's as gunfire exploded from behind the berm to our right. We were pinned down, unable to move out from behind our limited cover without exposing ourselves. I ordered the sergeant nearest me to radio for air support and a MEDEVAC helicopter for the wounded.

"Ma'am, air support is incoming. We have to move back. We're popping smoke for the MEDEVAC," Sergeant Gerhart yelled over the chaos.

"I'm not leaving them," I yelled back pointing towards the disabled Humvee about 150 yards ahead of us.

I could see two, maybe three, Soldiers huddled behind the wreckage attempting to return fire. I glanced around the front end of my Humvee straining to see in the dark. I could see tracers firing in the distance lighting up the night temporarily. The relentless suppressive fire of the enemy seemed to have let up fractionally making me worried. They had us pinned down and helpless, why not finish the job?

I turned wide-eyed looking at Sergeant Gerhart, "They're trying to flank us to the left. They'll have a clear shot at them if we don't get them out now."

"Ma'am, there's nothing we can do. We have to fall back."

I grabbed Sergeant Gerhart by his uniform dragging him towards me, "We are not leaving them behind! I'm going to get them. Provide suppressive fire when I say or I'll shoot you myself!"

He nodded reluctantly relaying the plan to the remaining members of the platoon still in the fight. I changed out the magazine on my M4 getting down into a squat looking back at the remaining troops. I nodded once at Sergeant Gerhart, and he called out the command for covering fire over the radio. All at once every weapon we had fired in the direction of the berm.

I sprinted the distance to the Humvee trying to stay as low as possible. Hopefully, the enemy would be too busy keeping their heads down to notice my movement. The three remaining Soldiers saw me coming opening up their own barrage of bullets. I slide to a stop on my knees facing the men. I only recognized Staff Sergeant Hamada by name. He and I had met at the beginning of our tour, and had formed an easy friendship of sorts.