RECON: Money Dawn

Prologue

December 11, 2013

Southern Baku, Azerbaijan

Mohammed Said had never felt so bored in his life. Since his failed attempt in leading a coup d’état against the Afghani government, he had been hidden away in Azerbaijan by Zarkov for his own safety.

He walked to the door to see that the guards who were at the door five minutes ago had been switched with another pair. They looked at him with expressionless eyes. They were both carrying AK-47s.

Mohammed decided to head to the balcony, the only place in the safe house where he could enjoy the scenic view of Azerbaijan.

He leaned against the balcony bars and scanned the area around him. Run-down houses, some tents and many armed men. Zarkov was going to make sure that no one would find Mohammed.

Mohammed thought about his family who he had to abandon when he left for Azerbaijan. God knows what the Afghani government would do to them.

It would be Mohammed Said’s last thought.

It had been seven days since Captain Jason Sinclair and First Sergeant Michael Thompson left Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The pair had finished their MREs and water packs within the first 3 days, leaving them to drink rain water and eat leaves and ants. They were exhausted, and just wanted to complete the mission.

10 days ago the pair was briefed by Colonel Mark Wilkins, head of the Reconnaissance Unit (RU) in RECON, on their mission.

Mohammed Said was the terrorist who staged a failed coup against the Afghani government, who, after many years of failure, managed to destroy the Taliban and take control of the country, with the help of NATO, of course.

Agents from Espionage Unit had gathered information on Mohammed Said’s location in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Jason and Michael were to go into Azerbaijan to take out Mohammed Said before he would be moved to another location.

As Jason stared down the scope of his SR-25 semi-automatic sniper rifle, attached with a silencer, he thought of how this mission would probably be his last in RU. He had applied to CT a few days before he went on the mission.

RECON is a Special Operations Force under SOCOM, formed in 2009 in secrecy. The acronym stands for Reconnaissance Espionage Counter-Terrorism Operations Network.

The three units in RECON have different roles to play. Reconnaissance is usually assigned to missions that require them to head deep within enemy territory to gather intelligence and take out targets.

Espionage is the CIA of RECON. It has agents all over the world, in different organizations and countries such as Al-Qaeda, North Korea and Russia. The information gathered is used by both RU and CT for their missions.

Counter-Terrorism is the unit that does the most frontal work. They are considered to be the most elite of all counter-terrorism units all over the world, even better than the SAS. They are also called in to war zones such as Afghanistan.

Jason’s thoughts were interrupted by Michael, who had spotted some movement in the safe house where Mohammed Said was held in.

The two men moved as silently as possible to a location where they could have gotten a better view. They were stationed on a hill about a click away from the safe house.

They stopped when they could see the balcony. Mohammed Said was outside.

“Target, 12 o’clock, low,” whispered Michael as he raised his binoculars.

Jason aimed the sights of his SR-25 to the head of Mohammed Said.

“Confirm target,” said Jason in a barely audible voice.

“Target confirmed. Take him out.”

Jason pushed the ball of his finger against the trigger and within a split second, the mission was over.