sir?”
The commander nodded.
“This seems bigger than any one SEAL team can handle,” JAM observed. “I mean, we SEALs tend to consider ourselves bulletproof, but even we aren’t supermen.”
“I doan know, JAM. I have a Mardi Gras cape that happens to be red,” Cage drawled out in his lazy Southern accent.
“That is so gay,” someone else said.
And Nicole cringed, glad that Trond wasn’t here to hear that. Not that she was convinced he was gay. Still . . .
Everyone laughed, including the commander, who replied, “You’re right, JAM. Everyone in this room is deemed mission essential, but we’ll be working under the Joint Chiefs and the Central Special Forces Command in the Pentagon, the Agency, the Fibbies, all the special forces around the world, and that includes the U.S.’s own Delta Force, Rangers, and Night Stalkers, Israel’s Mossad and Shayetet 13, and Britain’s SAS and MI–6, to mention a few.”
Slick interjected, “Here’s the deal. Overall, this will be Octopus. Our squad going into Afghanistan will be OctoCat. Others will be OctoDog. OctoWolf. OctoBear. And so on.”
“Well, dammit all, why can’t we be big dogs or ferocious bears?” F.U. wanted to know. “They’ll call us pussies.”
“Uxley!” the commander reprimanded.
For once, F.U. had the grace to turn toward the women and mumble an apology.
“Besides, I prefer to think of us as tigers,” the commander said. “In fact, I’ll have our team’s name changed to OctoTiger.”
“Hoo-yah!” everyone yelled.
The commander rolled his eyes at the silliness of it all.
Someone in the crowd remarked, “Holy crap! With all those fingers in the pie, sounds like a snafu just waiting to happen.” Snafu was the well-known acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up.”
Slick shook his head. “Not if we can help it. We’ll be following the KISS principle here as much as possible.” Keep it simple, stupid! “Those of us here in this room, OctoTiger Squad, will be concentrating on the Afghan problem. Our primary goals will be divided along two lines. Keeping Najid in our cross-hairs, hopefully taking him down, now that we have the official go-ahead. And infiltrating the harem and rescuing those females before D-day. A snatch-and-grab operation.”
“And all the ancillary events?”
“Other operatives will handle those . . . Wolf, Bear, Dog,” Slick replied. “As for our entering the country covertly, I have no concerns about that, or about our ability to hide in plain sight. And, really, we have no choice. There’s no time for force multiplication. We all know how to change our appearance so that we don’t stand out, and we can use any friendlies who’ve helped us in the past.”
It was true, Nicole thought. SEALs were masters of disguise. She’d been shocked on more than one occasion at how well they could alter their appearance to suit a mission.
“But there is one issue of concern to me,” Slick continued. “Language. Omar is the only one of us who is really fluent in all the Arab dialects. There must be a frickin’ fifty different variations. Oh, I know some of you have taken lessons, but you’re only mildly proficient, with emphasis on mildly, and, yes, I’m looking at you, Cage. Arabs do not drawl. And they do not call an Arab woman darlin’ .”
Cage ducked his head sheepishly.
Slick continued, “Here’s the solution. One of the Jaegers working here with us, Captain Trond Sigurdsson, is apparently a language genius. Omar assures me that he speaks the local lingo better than Omar does. Does anyone have a problem with me inviting him to join our team for this mission?”
Nicole was excited about the possibility of participating in such an important mission. It wasn’t often that the teams let the WEALS join their operations as full-blown agents, instead of ancillary backup. That age-old military stigma against females in battle. Usually, they only allowed them into their elite ranks when
The commander nodded.
“This seems bigger than any one SEAL team can handle,” JAM observed. “I mean, we SEALs tend to consider ourselves bulletproof, but even we aren’t supermen.”
“I doan know, JAM. I have a Mardi Gras cape that happens to be red,” Cage drawled out in his lazy Southern accent.
“That is so gay,” someone else said.
And Nicole cringed, glad that Trond wasn’t here to hear that. Not that she was convinced he was gay. Still . . .
Everyone laughed, including the commander, who replied, “You’re right, JAM. Everyone in this room is deemed mission essential, but we’ll be working under the Joint Chiefs and the Central Special Forces Command in the Pentagon, the Agency, the Fibbies, all the special forces around the world, and that includes the U.S.’s own Delta Force, Rangers, and Night Stalkers, Israel’s Mossad and Shayetet 13, and Britain’s SAS and MI–6, to mention a few.”
Slick interjected, “Here’s the deal. Overall, this will be Octopus. Our squad going into Afghanistan will be OctoCat. Others will be OctoDog. OctoWolf. OctoBear. And so on.”
“Well, dammit all, why can’t we be big dogs or ferocious bears?” F.U. wanted to know. “They’ll call us pussies.”
“Uxley!” the commander reprimanded.
For once, F.U. had the grace to turn toward the women and mumble an apology.
“Besides, I prefer to think of us as tigers,” the commander said. “In fact, I’ll have our team’s name changed to OctoTiger.”
“Hoo-yah!” everyone yelled.
The commander rolled his eyes at the silliness of it all.
Someone in the crowd remarked, “Holy crap! With all those fingers in the pie, sounds like a snafu just waiting to happen.” Snafu was the well-known acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up.”
Slick shook his head. “Not if we can help it. We’ll be following the KISS principle here as much as possible.” Keep it simple, stupid! “Those of us here in this room, OctoTiger Squad, will be concentrating on the Afghan problem. Our primary goals will be divided along two lines. Keeping Najid in our cross-hairs, hopefully taking him down, now that we have the official go-ahead. And infiltrating the harem and rescuing those females before D-day. A snatch-and-grab operation.”
“And all the ancillary events?”
“Other operatives will handle those . . . Wolf, Bear, Dog,” Slick replied. “As for our entering the country covertly, I have no concerns about that, or about our ability to hide in plain sight. And, really, we have no choice. There’s no time for force multiplication. We all know how to change our appearance so that we don’t stand out, and we can use any friendlies who’ve helped us in the past.”
It was true, Nicole thought. SEALs were masters of disguise. She’d been shocked on more than one occasion at how well they could alter their appearance to suit a mission.
“But there is one issue of concern to me,” Slick continued. “Language. Omar is the only one of us who is really fluent in all the Arab dialects. There must be a frickin’ fifty different variations. Oh, I know some of you have taken lessons, but you’re only mildly proficient, with emphasis on mildly, and, yes, I’m looking at you, Cage. Arabs do not drawl. And they do not call an Arab woman darlin’ .”
Cage ducked his head sheepishly.
Slick continued, “Here’s the solution. One of the Jaegers working here with us, Captain Trond Sigurdsson, is apparently a language genius. Omar assures me that he speaks the local lingo better than Omar does. Does anyone have a problem with me inviting him to join our team for this mission?”
Nicole was excited about the possibility of participating in such an important mission. It wasn’t often that the teams let the WEALS join their operations as full-blown agents, instead of ancillary backup. That age-old military stigma against females in battle. Usually, they only allowed them into their elite ranks when
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