The whole company had been flown down under the cover of darkness for this one. While Charlie had technically been on yellow status, they were called in when the mission required more troops than usual. This wasn't the first time a yellow category company had been called when the situation demanded it.
Linda's team was assigned to the assault element, the most dangerous position. In the past, she would have welcomed the challenge without hesitation. Now, she found herself occasionally distracted by thoughts of Virginia, of Brutus waiting for her return. The realization that she had someone to go home to felt foreign and slightly unnerving. Never before had her focus been divided between mission and personal life.
"Okay, pause here,” Agent Foster said, holding up a fist.
The squad would have stopped with just the plain fist, they were well trained in nonverbal communications. But Foster was an outsider, unfamiliar with them. Dressed in plain olive green fatigues, his body armor was identical to theirs except for the giant DEA emblazoned on the back.
"Waiting on verification."
"Verification of what?" Dawkins whispered, shaking out his right hand before returning it to his rifle. They were all carrying heavier-than-usual weapons today, the extra ammunition adding weight but providing the firepower they might need if things went sideways.
"Gallegos is verifying with our source that Ramirez is in the compound," Foster said. "So we wait."
Dawkins sighed, and leaned against the tree he was crouched next to. In the thick near-jungle like foliage, he was well covered, and while Linda would prefer him on his belly in a potentially hostile situation like this, she knew that if he was any lower, he wouldn't be able to see anything in the distance.
"You know," he whispered, "if we're going to keep doing these drug missions in CA and the Caribbean, I really need to learn more Spanish."
"What do you know?" Foster asked.
Dawkins smirked.
"A donde esta la playa? Yo quiero una cerveza," Dawkins admitted. "Useful in Veracruz."
"We need to have everyone learn foreign languages," Linda pointed out quietly, remembering Hollywood's comment after their last mission on the same subject.
Taking out the bite nozzle on her Camelbak water supply, she took the opportunity to have a small sip. Dehydration crept up on you in this kind of weather, and she insisted on everyone on her team taking frequent small sips from their three liter reservoirs.
"Yeah well, you already know Spanish," Dawkins pointed out. "What else do you want?"
"Italian would be nice," Linda said. "But yeah... Spanish is useful."
Dawkins snorted quietly. "Think I'll start on Mandarin maybe, just in case we need that. We fuck around in that part of the world enough."
"Shhhh." Foster held a finger to his ear. "Okay, we're a go. Let's move, west wall."
The plan was simple, like most good military plans. The compound was owned by one of the largest drug cartels in the region, a notoriously violent group that routinely killed local politicians, law enforcement, and even military if they weren't willing to take the cartel's payoffs.
Which is why they couldn't be trusted. And part of the reason for bringing in so much force. Going with a purely American op, there was no official involvement of the local government at all beyond giving the C-130 Charlie Company had taken from Virginia landing directions.
So while very few beyond the country's President knew of the operation... she was still nervous about betrayal, and was glad the DEA was checking their boxes.
The compound itself was backed against a brackish inlet in the wide river that led directly to the ocean. It was too narrow and shallow for anything more than a single pleasure cruiser motorboat, and protected on the other side by steep cliffs that made an assault from that direction impossible. The other three sides were thickly walled, but as Linda and the rest of the squad moved in bounding cover towards the wall, her mind was focused on the task at hand, and yet, strangely aware of what she now had to lose.
As she prepared to scale the wall, Linda felt time slow around her. In previous missions, this moment of suspended danger would have brought nothing but focus. Now, unbidden, Brutus's face flashed in her mind. What if this was the mission where her luck ran out? What if she never saw him again?
She pushed the thought away as quickly as it came. She couldn't afford distraction, not when lives depended on her.
With practiced efficiency, she took a boost from Derrick Jackson, swinging herself up and over the wall. As she balanced at the top, providing cover for Takeshi who followed using Hollywood as his boost, Linda felt that familiar rush of adrenaline, but it was different now, knowing someone was waiting for her return made each risky move feel weightier, more consequential.
For a dangerous few seconds she would be exposed, and she knew that until the rest of the squad was up and over she could be massively outgunned. But before any guards could respond to her and Takeshi on the wall, Second Squad did what they did best, drawing all attention away with a dramatic entrance.
An explosion ripped through the main gate of the compound as Second Squad unleashed their firepower against the wall.
"Go!" Orkin called from the ground, and Linda dropped down, taking a quick kneeling position behind a birdbath while Takeshi took cover on the ground.
The first guard to respond came around the side of the pool house, his weapon raised and ready to fire even as he appeared. Linda took him with a quick burst of fire in the chest, dropping him hard to the stone deck.
It wasn't the first blood she'd spilled in her job. But each life she took carried a weight.
