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Realigning Destiny
By TT

Sometimes chance intervenes in our lives and causes destiny to jump the tracks. When this happens, fate steps in and realigns destiny’s course to bring us to where we need to be. But, as with the course of true love, the road of realignment doesn’t always run smooth.

Part 26: Invisible

Ranger lay perfectly still while his eyes roamed the landscape. Years of training and practice had taught him not only how to blend into the landscape, but also how to stay perfectly still for long periods of time. Both of those skills had saved his life on more than one occasion and, using them together, he was practically invisible once he settled into position.

This morning, as he and Bob had prepared for their excursion, he had very carefully forced every stray thought out of his mind until only the mission existed. From the recon Bob had already done as well as the research Stephanie had developed, they were dealing with a highly skilled set of people. That meant there would be no room for mistakes, no room for error, no time to sit and daydream about Stephanie and what might be.

The terrorists in the compound were well educated and obviously smart. But from what Bob had seen, they weren’t all academics. Bob believed that there were several people who had experience with the military and possibly security.

Bob’s pictures had revealed a lack of outside lighting, which would make approaching in the dark easier. That didn’t mean, however, that there weren’t other things to worry about. There were always infrared sensors, motion detectors and other newer technologies that could be used. Some classic, low-tech warnings and such could prove just as troublesome for them.

Though he hated going in without more detailed information, time was running short and they would need to act soon if they were going to stop whatever the group had planned. So, now, Ranger lay in the shallow depression where he had moved a few hours ago.

He couldn’t see Bob from his current position and wouldn’t be seeing him until after their mission was done.

They had agreed to approach the compound from opposite sides. Each of them had specific targets and goals to accomplish. If only one of them finished, it would be enough. With any luck, the compound would be just as open as they believe it to be allowing the two of them to slip in and out completely unnoticed.

Finishing his latest scan, Ranger’s eye settled on the shallow depression about 10 feet in front of him that would serve as his next place of shelter. He knew that to many, the caution he and Bob were displaying in their approach – taking almost all day to do so – seemed a bit excessive, but they would be wrong. It was better to take a day and be overly cautious than to take a few hours and risk missing something.

As it was, the people in the camp had patrols. Twice, so far, Ranger had found himself with in hearing distance of a two-man patrol. That was one aspect of security that either Bob had missed or that had been recently instituted. Given that the group might now have depleted uranium on-site, it only seemed to make sense that they would be looking to increase security.

Still, his years of training at making himself invisible by fading into his surroundings had kept him from being found out.

Seeing no threat, he moved forward, crawling slowly along the ground, doing his best to have his movements blend in with the grasses swaying in the wind.

Though it seemed an eternity before he completed the move to his new location, Ranger knew it had only been a few minutes. Anytime he moved, he made himself more vulnerable to detection. That added anxiety is what caused time to seem to stretch to a point where seconds became minutes and every breath sounded louder than an outdoor concert and each heartbeat boom like a tympani. In reality, he knew that the soft rustling sound he made blended with the whispering grass and was easily covered by the birds calling out to each other.

Though only a few feet closer, Ranger took the time to re-scan the compound. He saw the same thing he’d seen all along: people moving about in a casual manner from one building to another.

A portion of his mind drifted back to review what he had learned so far, while the majority of his attention was focused on his surroundings.

After he and Bob had left their horses at the rendezvous point, they had made their way to the top of a ridge about a mile from the camp. Lying on the ground, they had both looked through the powerful binoculars. Though it was mid-morning by the time they’d reached the summit of the ridge, it was easy to tell the barracks were to the east along with the mess. From the look of things, there were three buildings for housing – a men’s barrack, a women’s barrack and, they assumed, a married barrack.

The west side of camp seemed to be where most of the work was done. There were people moving in and out of those buildings, many of whom were wearing lab coats.

To the south of the camp was the river and to the north another set of smaller buildings.

Though they couldn’t be certain, they had watched several men go into one of the northern buildings and leave a few minutes later holding weapons. It was fairly easy to assume that was the armory.

A small, mud-colored building by the river was, most likely, the generator. It wasn’t making a lot of noise, at least none they could hear over the rushing of the river at this distance. Given its proximity to the river, it was possible that it was some sort of hydroelectric plant. There was a landing with a short pier nearby. Several camouflage kayaks and a dingy were resting on the shore nearby.

They would need to get a better idea of what each building was and how many people they housed before they could begin to plan any sort of attack.

His full focus coming back to the present, Ranger scanned the area, keeping his ears tuned for any noise that didn’t belong.

There was a tree about thirty feet ahead of him to the right that might prove a good location for another camera.

One of the things both he and Bob were doing as they made their observations and stealthy approach was planting cameras that would give them a view of the compound.

The pictures they would receive would be of poor quality and not terribly informative, but it would give them some idea of the comings and goings as well as the movement of people among the buildings.

He glanced at his watch as he noticed two of the guards return from patrol and two others head toward the armory.

It was four in the afternoon, still a number of hours from dark. He had at least five hours of light left to move to his position. He also calculated that it had taken five hours to approach his current location on the far side of the camp. Bob was approaching from the side nearest their horses and the rendezvous. He’d had an extra two hours before he had to begin his approach. Ranger knew, despite Bob’s superior camouflage skill and excellent health, the older man wasn’t physically up to the demands that approaching from the far side would need.

That was enough to get part of him mind wandering again.

If he were being completely honest with himself, Ranger would admit that this wasn’t nearly as easy as it had been when he was younger, but there were no other options. Of course, to the average person, he would look as sharp and fast as ever, but the level at which he operated was so high that even the smallest slow-down could spell disaster. Being a fraction of a second too slow could literally be the difference between life and death.

It wasn’t that different from an Olympic swimmer who noticed he was consistently a few hundredths of a second slower than he used to be. In that event, even such a small margin of change could spell the difference between gold and bronze. Like that swimmer, Ranger knew he was still world class, but he was also aware that there were younger men who were just that much faster, stronger and better than he was.

But now that he’d found Stephanie, perhaps, like Bob, it was finally time to give up that portion of his life. He’d spent years searching for her, longing for the life they could have together…

The sound of a twig snapping drew his complete attention back to the issue at hand.

Slipping the knife from the arm-sheath into his hand, he looked for the cause of the snapped twig.

A flash of movement caught his attention and his eyes zeroed in on that location.

It only took him a second to evaluate the target and determine the rabbit was no real threat to his position.

The brief scare, however, was enough to get his mind back on task and the control and concentration that had served him so well for so many years were back in action at full force in no time.

This was too important a mission to let anything slip now.

To Be Continued in Part 27: Crawl

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