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The Company
Time: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 (night).
Place: Construction camp not far from Gisenyi, Rwanda.
Last Event: A visit from "Col. G" of the RDF.
As soon as Col. G departs, his men take up position to defend the construction site. While Anabel is confident that G was telling the truth (or at least was well-intentioned in his lies), the Agents quietly post watches of their own. The night passes without incident, however, and Thursday morning brings nothing worse than yet more drizzle.
While waiting for the consignment of mining dynamite promised by Col. G, the Agents resume preparations for their raid on the guerrilla camp in the DRC. Knowing that the group will need to make room in their jeeps for explosives, Qoqa calculates how much food they'll require for a couple of days in the bush. Setting that aside, she has Paul and Zhang unload the remaining rations and stash them out of sight. This frees up space enough for about 400 lbs. of deadlier cargo.
Meanwhile, Vinnie scrounges up some paint and gets to work decorating the jeeps with a camouflage pattern similar to the one on the netting that Schreiber procured. Two of the three vehicles look pretty good when he's done. The third is a little smudgy. Fortunately, Wen notices this and fixes the mess, though it takes her about as long as it took Vinnie to do the entire first round of painting.
Klas and Lev handle the weapons check. Sitting out of sight in the tool shed, they strip down, clean, and lubricate everything. They also examine the ammo and hand-pick the best of the lot. Then they kill the rest of the day loading belts and magazines, and crating up the leftovers for easy transportation.
Late that afternoon, a horn sounds from the far end of the lane. When Anabel and Paul stroll up to check it out, they find a shabby-looking truck idling there. The driver asks for Piet Paarl, saying that Paarl needs to sign for "the shipment." Leaving Paul to keep an eye on this situation, Anabel jogs back into camp, finds Paarl, and convinces him to cooperate. Paarl is more than a little surprised at being asked to sign for 20 cases of dynamite and assorted demolition hardware, but at Anabel's polite urging he shows his blasting license and fills out the forms.
The truckers aren't thrilled with the idea of driving their rickety, explosives-laden vehicle down the muddy, unfinished lane into the camp, but Anabel is very persuasive. As soon as they pull up, Darmatech's hired laborers and the RDF men quickly unload the cargo. The Agents who aren't busy with anything pressing supervise, making sure that the dynamite is stowed out of sight. After flirting with Anabel for a while, the deliverymen take their leave.
Come nightfall, it's time to examine the cargo more thoroughly. Wen, who has the most experience with explosives, gets the fun task of inspecting half a ton of dynamite. Vinnie, the resident expert with fusing mechanisms, tackles the job of evaluating the caps and electronic detonators. There's both good news and bad news. Vinnie's report is glowing: the blasting gear that accompanied the shipment is shiny new DetNet hardware, and in fine shape.
Wen's experience is less fun. The crates bear labels identifying the contents as nitro-based dynamite manufactured by AEL Mining Services of South Africa. This isn't a good sign; Wen knows that AEL switched to ammonium nitrate-based products back in the late 1980s. Sure enough, many of the sticks are sweaty and dangerous. After sharing this information with the others, Wen shoos everybody far away so that she can start the tricky task of taking the boxes aside one at a time and separating the good from the scary. Fortunately, there are no explosions.
Wen eventually emerges with her verdict: half of the dynamite is trustworthy, and she has repacked the good stuff in the 10 cleanest crates. Since the jeeps have room for eight boxes at most, the state of the explosives won't compromise the mission. Which leaves the matter of disposing of 500 lbs. of nitro-sweating death. The Agents carefully bury that near the edge of the camp and warn Paarl, Jean-Pierre, and the RDF men about it. After that, Qoqa and Vinnie load the hand-picked dynamite and accessories into the vehicles, and stash the two spare crates somewhere safe. Then it's time to rest up for tomorrow's early start.
Come the morning of October 12, the Agents are up before dawn. Vinnie prepares a quick, high-energy breakfast before the team moves out. Then Vinnie gets rolling in the lead vehicle, Paul follows in the second jeep, and Zhang brings up the rear. Everybody has a map marked with the route Klas plotted the other night, which aims to avoid villages and control points by veering off-road at a checkpoint a short distance from the border. The first leg follows the highway, however, and the goal is to reach the turnoff into the bush before sunrise at 05:42.
The drive goes exceptionally well. The Agents pull off into the wilderness ahead of schedule, at 05:30. That marks the start of about an hour of relatively easy motoring over terrain that Klas correctly guessed would be firm and lightly wooded. Eventually, though, the going gets rougher. The second hour is a difficult push; the team makes only half as much progress as in the first hour. By about 07:30, the hills and vegetation are too much even for the tricked-out jeeps – it's time to hoof it.
The first order of business is to camouflage the vehicles with netting and vegetation. Then it's time to prepare for the hike. Everybody pulls on armor, slings weapons, and grabs essentials like spare ammo, insect repellent, and binoculars. After that, Vinnie and Wen break out the dynamite and detonators, and the ex-soldiers in the group make sure that each team member is carrying a sensible, balanced load. When the Agents hit the trail, they have 225 lbs. of explosives and about half of the blasting gear on their backs, leaving the rest in the concealed jeeps in case they need it to cover their escape.
The trek into the DRC takes approximately three hours. Lev walks point and sets the pace, while Klas and Wen make sure that everybody is keeping up and doing well. The group reaches the final checkpoint – which Klas estimates should place the guerrilla camp within a 30-minute circle – at around 11:00. That's still ahead of schedule, but even with Klas' meticulous route planning, the terrain is difficult. Pulling off this feat leaves everyone but Zhang in need of a breather.
Since Col. G's diversion is supposed to happen toward mid afternoon, the Agents figure they can afford an hour to catch their breath and have something to eat. Anabel, in particular, needs it – she isn't accustomed to hiking. Vinnie and Wen take advantage of the break to rig some of the dynamite into easy-to-deploy devices for their associates who lack demolitions training. Anabel, Klas, Lev, Paul, Qoqa, and Zhang each get a 20-lb. charge with an idiot-proof arming switch. The remaining 100 lbs. of loose explosives are redistributed, with Vinnie and Wen taking the lion's share.
Toward noon, Klas and Wen set out to scout for the guerrilla base. They go as light as possible, leaving most of their gear with their associates. After about 25 minutes of sneaking through the brush, Wen spots what looks like smoke. Moving up for a closer look, she and Klas see that it's rising from the mess tent of what looks like a military-style camp on the level ground below the ridgeline. Having found what they're looking for, Klas hunkers down to observe the objective while Wen goes back to show the others the way.
In the hour it takes Wen to fetch the rest of the team, Klas gets a good look at the guerrilla camp. It amounts to a cleared square in the bush with a road leading out of it. Ringing the perimeter is a low barbed-wire fence. Inside this is a haphazard assortment of tents and tin shacks, plus a couple of permanent-looking structures similar to Quonset huts. Near the exit is a motor pool of sorts – a patch of hard-packed dirt with an assortment of jeeps, technicals, and canvas-covered cargo trucks parked on it, and a couple of old tanker trucks nearby.
Toward 13:00, a flurry of activity sweeps the camp. Men start emerging from tents and shacks with rifles, machine guns, and RPGs. Quite a few of them visit the largest of the permanent buildings and come away with grenades, rockets, and mortar bombs, thereby identifying the armory to Klas. Other guerrillas are busy fueling vehicles. This commotion is still going on when Wen shows up with the rest of the team at 13:30.
After a brief conference, the conclusion is that the guerrillas are most likely preparing to go fetch the supplies that Col. G arranged to make available as the group's diversion. In light of this, the Agents agree that it would be best to wait until the camp empties out a little before moving in. Wen counsels waiting an extra half hour after that, her logic being that this will put the enemy vehicles too far away to respond if stealth is compromised during the sabotage mission. With that decided, everybody pulls out binoculars and joins Klas at his task.
At around 14:00, a large convoy pulls out – all of the trucks and an equal number of escort vehicles, carrying about 150 guerrillas. Col. G must have promised them something big! That leaves roughly 100 men in the camp. The Agents use the next half hour to spot sentries, who are relatively few in number after the exodus. The extra time proves worthwhile for another reason, too: Klas and Paul notice that the tanker trucks have heavy hoses leading out of them and into the ground, suggesting the presence of buried fuel tanks.
By 14:30, Wen figures it's safe to move in. The plan is for Vinnie to lead Lev, Paul, and Qoqa to the armory while Wen leads Anabel, Klas, and Zhang to the fuel dump. Jili's job is to remain on the ridge and rig some of the DetNet gear into a repeater that will allow the Agents to trigger the explosives from behind the ridgeline, so they can blow up everything from further away and without a direct line of sight. With those plans made, it's show time.
Reaching the perimeter fence undetected proves trivially easy, as there's lots of cover and almost nobody watching. Vinnie and Wen are on the lookout for mines and flares, but the path seems clear. The barbed wire itself is a little worrisome, but the rain running off the hard-packed ground of the campsite has eroded the ground beneath it, making it possible to squeeze underneath. The Agents go through one at a time without incident.
After that, the two sabotage teams split up. Wen leads her people from building to building, sacrificing time for an indirect approach that sees all four of them reach the fuel tankers unseen. Vinnie takes a similar approach, and before long his squad is flat against the back wall of the armory. Between the drizzly, misty weather and relatively light enemy patrols, there are no tense moments.
In addition to the large front entrance that was visible from the ridge, the armory proves to have a small back entry. The door is quite heavy – a makeshift blast door – and bears a surprisingly good lock. Vinnie pulls out his tools and gets to work. Less than a minute later, he nods to Lev. Lev sets down his pack, listens at the door for a moment, and then slips inside as quickly and quietly as possible.
Inside, Lev finds himself in what is without question a munitions store, full of all manner of things that go boom. Not far ahead of him is a man leaning on a crate, writing on a clipboard as he carries on a shouted conversation with somebody else in the building. Lev crouches behind some racking and takes stock of the situation. As far as he can tell, there are three men in the armory: the chap filling out paperwork and a pair of guerrillas stacking ammo boxes. Lev pulls out his notepad, writes all this down, and requests the assistance of two people with knives. Crawling over to the back entrance, he slips his note under the door.
Vinnie grabs the note and shows Paul and Qoqa. Paul, not being especially handy with a knife, whispers that he'll mind the heavy gear while Qoqa and Vinnie help Lev. Those two draw their knives and get ready to move. Before long, the men inside walk out of sight of the back entrance. As soon as they do, Lev eases the door open and gestures to Vinnie and Qoqa, who dart inside and join him in the shadows. Lev signals for Vinnie to sneak right while he goes left and Qoqa comes up behind the man in the middle.
The three Agents in the armory sneak up on their targets, knives at the ready. Though Lev and Vinnie can't see one another, both can see Qoqa's victim. When Qoqa clamps her hand over his mouth and sticks a knife up under his skull from behind, Vinnie and Lev strike as well. Only Vinnie's target struggles – and only briefly, Vinnie's hand muffling his screams.
With that unpleasant business done, Vinnie dashes to the front of the armory and starts locking and barring the main entrance to the building. Lev ducks out the back door to help Paul carry in the explosives. Qoqa gets to work hiding the bodies and cleaning up the mess. The way Qoqa figures it, if somebody comes calling before the explosives go off, a few missing men are far less likely to get the place searched than three bloody corpses are.
Meanwhile, Wen's team prepares to do a number on the fuel dump . . .