Free Battlecraft (2006) by Jack - Seals 03 Terral

course one-one-niner," Brannigan ordered.
    "Go to course one-one-niner, aye, sir," responded Watkins.
    Brannigan picked up the microphone on his command communications system and raised the F/A-18s, who were keeping far away enough not to alert any potential ships with contraband. "We've got a reading and turning to one-one-niner," Brannigan reported. "We'll be in visual contact within approximately six minutes. Over."
    A pilot's voice came back immediately. "Roger, Battlecraft ." The aircraft turned slightly to get on course.
    Now, standing ready on the Battlecraft , the First Assault Section eagerly awaited a chance to jump aboard a bad guys' ship and do some real serious ass-kicking. Jim Cruiser scanned the horizon to their direct front through his binoculars.
    Bruno Puglisi, holding his SAW, squinted his eyes in his eagerness to sight something ahead. "See anything yet, sir?"
    "Affirmative!" the lieutenant answered. "One o'clock!"
    Petty Officer First Class Connie Concord, leader of Bravo Fire Team, shifted his view to the right a degree or so. "Yeah!"
    Paul Watkins, acting on orders from Brannigan, went to half-speed and then one-third-speed . When they drew close enough, they could see it was a tanker heading on a course of two-two-five. She was riding high enough in the water to show she was empty.
    "Probably headed for the Persian Gulf to make a pickup," Brannigan remarked. "Okay, Watkins. Bring her about."
    "Bring her about, aye, sir."
    "Lieutenant Rivers, give us a course back to the Daly."
    "One-niner-two," Veronica reported.
    "Got that, Watkins?" Brannigan asked.
    "Course one-niner-two, aye, sir."
    The Battlecraft , her first patrol now over, headed for hearth and home. Up on top, Petty Officer Garth Redhawk, a rifleman in Alpha Fire Team, was not happy. "I was hoping for a little more excitement."
    His team leader, Chief Matt Gunnarson, glanced over at him. "I thought you Indian guys were the patient types."
    Redhawk shook his head. "Not when it comes to fighting."
    .
    POLICE HEADQUARTERS
    BALBANDIN, PAKISTAN
    23 SEPTEMBER
    0830 HOURS LOCAL
    THE mud brick building was a typical provincial lockup with two large cells separated by a single corridor between them. Mike Assad and his four al-Mimkhalif companions rested uneasily in one of the confinement areas without the benefits of mats or blankets. The only thing they had plenty of since their capture had been beatings--the first within a half hour after they surrendered; the second before boarding the trucks for the trip to the jail; and the third when they arrived and got off the vehicles. Even the two men who were wounded received their share of physical punishment. Now the most seriously injured mujahideen seemed to have gone into shock. He had taken a belly wound when a paratrooper's submachine gun stitched him across the body. Mike and another man tried to help the poor fellow, who had lost a large amount of blood, but their rudimentary ministrations did him little good. The Pakistani police had grudgingly provided some dirty rags for bandaging the wounds, but it was obvious he was not going to survive long without proper medical treatment.
    Now, sitting in the bare cell, Mike observed his companions rather dispassionately. They had been full of fervor during the sermons bellowed at them by the clerics in the camp, and danced around shouting pro-Islamic slogans that promised death and hellfire to Westerners and fallen Muslims. These demonstrations of outrage included the burning of crudely made American and Israeli flags that were then leaped on and trampled by the ferocious untried rookies.
    This was something Mike hated to do, but he participated as was expected of him. He had learned during his SERE training that if the enemy wanted him to chant, "The American Flag is a dirty old rag," he was to go ahead and do it. His job was to stay healthy and maintain his cover. Any unwise demonstration of patriotism would accomplish nothing but compromise the