Into Darkness by Richard Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

Each sheet of paper had several sentences bolded in yellow highlights. Hibou didn’t move.
    “Go on,” Hibou said.
    “These aren’t recruited sources that have given good information in the past. All of this is from people who just walked into a patrol base and said they have information about the missing Soldiers. There must be dozens of reports like this, but—”
    “What’s different about these particular reports?” Hibou asked. Ritter felt a flush of anger at the question. Was Hibou setting him up for a “gotcha”?
    “They all say the same thing, that al-Qaeda took them to the power plant after the abduction and hasn’t moved them since. And that some insurgent named Mukhtar is in charge of the whole mess.” Ritter reached for the reports, ready to continue his case.
    “That is enough intelligence to justify this mission,” Hibou said as he lifted his arm from his eyes and stretched both arms over his head. His eyes were red with exhaustion and defeat.
    “But, sir, this could be the same guy going to three different bases! We don’t even have contact information for him to ask follow-up questions. How can we take him with us to identify the building where they’re being held if we can’t have the source with us on the mission?” Ritter demanded.
    Hibou ended his stretch and hunched forward, arms resting on his thighs. “I made this same argument to the division commander earlier today, and he just about fired me.”
    Ritter’s brows squeezed together in confusion at Hibou’s admission.
    “Why? If we’re going to send Soldiers into harm’s way, we should—”
    Hibou cut him off with a raised hand. “Eric, you’re a junior captain and not entirely…well versed on Big Army politics. This whole situation with O’Neal and Brown is tragic, and of course we’ll do everything we can to find them, but there’s another issue.”
    “That being?”
    “It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing that hajji got the drop on Shelton’s men. Embarrassing that two men are missing, and we have no good leads on their location. The Army is a small world, and your reputation precedes you. Everyone from Shelton up to the division commander is now tainted.” Hibou turned his head toward a sheet of paper tacked to the wall, a satellite photo of the power plant and surrounding farmlands. “To erase that taint, we’re going to go on the offensive. Show that we’re capable of massive and deliberate action; show that we’re not a bunch of screw-ups.”
    “There’s no actionable intelligence, or even good intelligence, suggesting that our guys are in there. Why can’t we make that case to Colonel Townsend?” Ritter failed to hide an incredulous tone as he crossed his arms.
    “If you, or I, fight this mission, we’ll spend the rest of this deployment monitoring the mess hall and get a career-ending eval report for our trouble. Career suicide. You get me?” Hibou perked up as he spoke.
    Ritter grew heated as an oft-repeated rant came to his lips. “It will end a career to speak the truth? Isn’t this how we ended up in Iraq in the first place? The intelligence types in DC didn’t stand up to—”
    “Stop!” Hibou’s command came out as a squawk. His shoulders sank, striking Ritter as a man resigned to his role as the scapegoat. Ritter shut his mouth; the back-and-forth of this discussion was now over. “There’s one of two ways this mission will end in the next day or so: operational success or intelligence failure. If we find them, then Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds can write himself up for another award, and we can get back to the war.”
    Hibou reached for his computer monitor and turned on the screen, displaying a half-finished memorandum for record on official letterhead. “If we find nothing—a dry hole—and this comes back on me for shoddy due diligence…then at least I lodged my grievances in an official matter.” He turned the screen off and shook his head. “Shame, isn’t