Everyone having sex is at least 18. This story is a work of fiction. I made it all up. This story more so than most of my writing is proof that I write fiction. That means that no, I am not in the Army, I don't live in Canada, I have never been on a dog sled, and this story will most likely never happen. It is a heck of a story, so check reality at the door and enjoy it for what it is.
Warning: this is a self-edited story. I do use Grammarly to help reduce my ability to murder the English language. Special thanks to goducks1 for his help.
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Chapter 15 -- Getting My Orders
Two Secret Service men are waiting for me at the airport. I step off the plane and into a blacked-out limo that takes me to the Pentagon. I slept on the airplane, so I am wide awake and watching the men. They're very professional, no talking, only answer with yes and no, nice suits, and they have concealed sidearms. Once inside the building they escort me to a briefing room. A mountain of exotic food and baked items await me. I am not bashful, I eat while I can. The meal is one of the best I have ever had. They eat well here.
My two buddies are never more than a few feet from me, one holds my rifles. They will not allow me to possess a firearm in the Pentagon, I can understand that. They still have not looked at either of my guns yet, that surprises me. I brought both my military issued rifle and my own personal rifle. They both have their uses. Without knowing the situation, I come prepared.
While I am eating, a small group enter the room and proceed directly to the food. My handlers look nervous about the new group but say nothing. I move away from the new group, I give them their space. I don't talk to my two "friends" nor the sixteen men that came into the room. The sixteen are all good friends, kidding each other, telling jokes, and seem as impressed with the food as I am. They ignore me, but all of them know I am there. Like me, they are aware of their surroundings, and are naturally suspicious of a man being guarded by my two "friends."
A half hour later, a five-star general in his dress uniform enters the room. We salute each other, the Seal team salutes him, but the general ignores them. I am all that interests him right now.
The general did not introduce himself and spoke only to me, "Welcome Brian. The others have been briefed, know the plan, and object strongly to you being included. My good friend George in Alaska says you are exactly what we need. You, your skills, your companions, and your weapons will all be key to this mission. If they weren't, you wouldn't be here."
Before I can say anything, the general continues, "We know the President's daughter, code name 'Muffin,' has been taken, hostage. To get her back, all we have to do is win a shooting contest." Oh shit, a trap for me. "We believe this is a trap for you. Very little is known about this group other than we believe a woman heads the organization and she's believed to be a sniper. However, that's all rumor. They killed a lot of people to get Muffin. I don't think they know much about you. The email wasn't particular. It made mention that still and moving targets would be used and to bring a rifle. You are to show up at a castle in a desolate area of Russia near the far east coast, in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, I'm sure you are surprised."
He has a smirk on his face when I smile at that comment.
He continues, "This Seal team is your backup. The area is heavily wooded, and we suspect there will be many unfriendly units in that region which you may have to fight through. It's hard to say, they may let you walk right in. What little intelligence we have says the leader is ruthless, educated, and if you do win, will probably keep their promise and let you go. Notice I used the word probably."
I sneer, "A walk in the park."
The room gives me a quiet laugh.
The general continues, "Just because you are released, doesn't mean you will be safe outside of the castle. Satellites confirm Muffin's location. Her tracking device has not been disabled. However, we can't guarantee it is still on her body or that her body is still in one piece. Intelligence believes that she's alive and in one piece. She's the bait to get you there. Nothing short of her would make us do this. They think this is some type of ego trip because the leader is a skilled sniper them self."
We spend the next three hours going over the plan, the equipment, and the contingencies. They thought of everything. Well, everything but what will really happen. My experience with things like this is that they never go according to plan. At least we have an idea to get us started and have critical points for extraction.
There is no announcement, but I hear the door behind me open, and I know who's there. I can hear them lick their lips. They walk up behind me, and I give the command to guard me. This will be a fun test. The sixteen men stare at my dogs, they are amused with my friends. One laughs and moves to play with Rocky. As he nears, Rocky growls. That slowed the man down. He has a piece of turkey with him, he reaches out with his hand to offer Rocky the meat.
Because I put the dogs in guard mode, food won't work. As he reaches forward both dogs growl, Rocky barks, and his hair is standing straight up. He bares his teeth. He is wound up and ready to spring. The man stops, good thing, he was about to feel some pain.
I give the command, "At ease boys."
Both dogs go back to being statues. No growling, no barking, nothing aggressive. The man backs off.
I snicker, "Sorry about that. I thought a little demonstration was in order. These are my partners, we work as a team. They are trained to smell explosives, drugs, recognize traps, tripwires, etc. They point at the enemy when they detect them, often they do it long before I can. They're my second set of eyes in the forest. Where they point, that's where you want to point your weapon. If my dogs stop on a dime and sit down, they have detected a trap, drugs, or explosives. Do not pass them, ever. I expect we will see lots of traps and snipers in the forest."
The general says to me, "We already have outfits for you and the dogs, we anticipated that."
I spend the rest of the day in a large gym teaching the Seal team to work with my dogs. I will not be taking them into the castle. I do want them to help us get there and especially back. I plan to walk in by myself, win the contest, and then rely on my friends to get us out. That will be the hard part.
I spend the night sleeping on a plane that is taking me to a base in Alaska. From there we take a helicopter to a submarine. Then the sub drops us off near the coast. We swim in and then walk through the woods to the castle. Coming in with the shortest path is dumb, they will have that covered. They will expect me to go a few miles up the coast. That is by the book. I change the drop point, and we will be much closer to the shortest distance possible.
This reminds me of the smart man in the movie, "The Princess Bride." He goes back and forth between two options, overthinking the solution of which of two cups to drink from. He thinks only one contains a poison. His foe knows that both cops contain the poison, and he is immune to that poison. It's quite likely there will be people every ten yards so that we are not missed. I might as well take the shorter path. However, just in case they outthink me, we will appear up the coast a bit.
Everything goes as planned with timing and moving us along. The dogs were not big fans of the submarine, but if carried they came inside with me. The Seals love the dogs, they all play and roughhouse together. The sub commander tried to keep the dogs in my room, but that didn't work out. The dogs are curious about this new metal forest. I get some sleep.
