PARADOX - Chapter 40

Chapter 40

May 8, 2012 – Near Lago Trafull – Argentina



Monday was thoroughly exhausted. He and Lofton spent the night at Los Alamos and all the next day reading documents and devising plans. Early on May 6th, they flew back to Albuquerque where two F-15E Strike Eagles waited to fly them to Andrews Air Force Base. More planning and more briefings again ate up that day. On the morning of May 6th, he and Lofton took commercial flights to Buenos Aires where they transferred to a local bush bird which flew them into San Carlos de Bariloche, a good fifty miles by road south of their destination.

By the time they arrived, it was too late to rent an appropriate vehicle, so they spent the night at La Cascada Hotel in San Carlos de Bariloche, a beautiful hotel with a grand setting and an extremely friendly staff. It took most of the next day, May 7, to drive to their destination, a large villa near Lake Trafull.

Monday glanced at his watch. One in the morning. He and Lofton briefed his Team for the past seven hours. Monday was disturbed to see Brother Contadino among the group, he’d hoped the man would have remained in Germany. His instinct told him the man was not all he pretended to be.

Monday pointed to a map of the villa they were in. It was a rental villa, rented out to wealthy tourists and corporate executives for extensive vacations. “Until the Delta Team arrives we are far too exposed here,” he noted. “There’s far too much terrain and too many ways in for our small force to cover. If a large force hits us our best chance is to move into these mountains to the north. Have you checked them out Oddball?”

Oddball was the senior man among the Team members whom they had met in Argentina. In the old days, his duties consisted of Special Weapons and Small Unit Tactics Instructor for the Team. “There’s better cover the higher up you go. Lots of caves and thick brush to hide in. Taco Bender and Chewey hid the jewel and German documents in a crevice about three miles north. It would take a Cheyenne tracker to find them.”

“We have half a dozen locations to search,’ Monday sounded as tired as he was. “Most of them are practically inexcessable, except by foot or possibly 4-wheeler. Each location is spread around the Southern part of Argentina, in Patagonia, and other outlying areas. Force Recon from the Marine Corps will assist on those targets located on islands off the coast and coastline not accessible by foot.”

“I suggest we call it a night,” Henri cut in, stifling a huge yawn. “These plans are starting to bounce around in my head like popcorn.”

Monday searched the faces of the small group. Everyone was tired and a few hours rest would do no harm. He also knew that the longer they went without sleep, the more difficult it would be to maintain a sharp mind. Despite his constant worries about Daria, which kept him going far beyond exhaustion, he knew he also needed some serious sleep.

“Guards set?”

Chester nodded his head, his red rimmed eyes shining like a beacon. “Two on two off rotation,” he replied, and you’re not on the roster Cowboy, my orders.”

“We’ll get back to work at zero six hundred,” Monday ordered, figuring five hours rest would be enough to refresh their bodies and minds. Henry moaned and looked at the drooping eyes of Dom, half-asleep on the couch.



Dorbec’s plan called for a straight in assault along the main road leading to the villa. He had Wilhelm post a diversionary force at the mouth of the northeast draw and another to the southwest of the Villa, likely avenues of approach. They were to launch their assault at precisely five AM. Once Stiehl and his men were fully engaged with the two diversions, he would lead the main assault with his twelve commandos straight up the road from the southeast. The two transport helicopters were to remain on station and use their searchlights. The extremely powerful lights would ruin the vision of the men in the villa making night vision devices useless and highlighting them as easy targets for his snipers. Wilhelm requested that he be permitted to lead the diversionary force assaulting from the northeast draw, which angled down behind the villa.

The night was dark, almost as black as the ass end of a raven. Dorbec sent Lars and Claude to screen fifty yards in advance of his main force. The helicopter dropped them off a good mile from the villa and they had been walking up hill for most of that distance. Using his night vision goggles, Dorbec could see the villa about two hundred meters in the distance. The trees, which had been hugging the road, begin to rapidly thin out.

The night suddenly exploded. Geisers of dirt and rocks screamed into the air as grenades went off around him. Angry green tracers pummeled his position like rain coming in at a horizontal angle. Men were screaming but he could barely hear them because his head was still ringing from the impacting grenades. Others were returning fire in the direction the tracers were coming from. The impact of the grenades destroyed his night vision and all he could see were the deadly tracers zinging in like mad hornets.

More concussions shook the earth as mortar rounds fell around him. The smell of burned powder and heated metal clogged his nostrils.  He noticed that fewer outgoing tracers were answering the withering fire from the north. Dorbec was suddenly blinded as several powerful searchlights beamed in and highlighting him and his men. He couldn’t figure out how Stiehl had done it. The man would have to possess mental telepathy to know that he would lead the real assault from this direction. The deadly hail of machine gun rounds stopped as quickly as they had started. His hears were still ringing from the impact of the explosions but he heard a voice booming over a bullhorn.

“Throw down your weapons and raise your hands?”

Dorbec could tell from past experience that many of his men would not be able to respond to that order. They had been caught in the open with little or no cover and the ambush was devastating. He angrily threw his weapon to the ground and slowly glanced around him. Two of his men had responded, one standing, the other down on one knee, bleeding profusely. Dorbec was in shock. He had never witnessed anything so horrible in the history of his long military career. He had seen many men die but never his men.

Wilhelm von Liegntz slowly strode into the light, a HK .45 caliber USP Tactical Pistol in his hand. Behind him, a beaming smile on his face, walked Helmut Mueller and a squad of heavily armed men dressed in unusual uniforms with Nazi swastikas on arm bands.

“As you taught me, I have learned to do the unexpected.” Wilhelm spread his hands in a sweeping gesture. He watched as several men picked up the discarded weapons dropped by Dorbec’s men, then pointed at the two wounded men. Mueller sauntered over and shot the standing man point blank in the head. He was dead before his body hit the ground. Dorbec noticed that Mueller used an antique Waffen-SS-Mauser M712, the favorite weapon of the bloody Nazi SS. With a big smirk on his face, Mueller walked over to the wounded man, who was leaning on one knee, pulled his head back and slowly cut the man’s exposed throat.

“Of course you are asking why?” Wilhelm smiled, his handsome face marred by a carefully applied camouflage pattern. “Your mission is accomplished. You are now a danger and obsolete. That is, unless you wish to join us. Men of your caliber and training are hard to find.”

Dorbec’s silence told Wilhelm that he had not found a willing recruit. “I would be more than happy to end it for you immediately,” he continued. “However, Hans has reserved that pleasure for himself. I am just following orders.”

Dorbec started to spit in his face, but was interrupted by machine gun fire behind him. He turned to see the Villa under assault from two directions. From the muzzle flashes he unconsciously counted, at least a unit of company size was involved.

“Our limited assets are engaged with Doctor Stiehl and his gangsters now. As you said, divide and conquer.” Wilhelm pointed at the Villa with his pistol. “Before daybreak both you and Doctor Stiehl will be history.” He motioned with his pistol for his men to take Dorbec away. As he was leaving, Dorbec watched Mueller walk from man to man and shoot each in the head several times. He could tell that Mueller was enjoying his work. The man was a cold-blooded killer and would make a name for himself among his new Nazi friends.



Monday was out of his bed and flat on the floor as soon as the first round went off. He could tell that the firing was coming from at least two hundred yards away from southeast of the villa. By the time he was fully dressed and armed, the rest of his Team was waiting at their assigned positions. Chester was looking at him with curiosity.

“Doesn’t make sense, does it?” Monday answered Chester’s look with a question. “Sounds like a firefight and they have mortars and chopper support.”

“I take it that you were not expecting any of the Delta Force Team to arrive tonight?” Chester was answered by a negative shake of Monday’s head.

“Plan B,” Monday yelled over the noise of the explosions. He knew that something had happened that should not have happened. Either the people coming after him and another group had blundered into each other before their planned assault, or something else had gone wrong. Either way, he knew from the amount of firepower being used, they did not stand a chance in hell of holding if they stayed inside the Villa.”

Dom entered the foyer with wide curious eyes. “What’s plan B?”

“We get the hell out of Dodge,” Monday blurted. “Our best chance of seeing another sunrise is to get into those mountains as fast as our asses can carry us. Scout and Chewey will clear us a path, but speed is our greatest asset. I have no doubt that the shit will hit the fan any second now and the odds are definitely not in our favor.”

By the time the villa came under assault, which was mere minutes from the time they heard the distant firefight, Monday and the others were already in a deep draw working their way higher and higher into the dense and rugged mountains. For another ten minutes, the assaulting force continued to rain machine gun and mortar rounds onto the villa. A sudden quiet slowly descended over the area.

“They finally figured out that no one was firing back,” Monday whispered to Henri. “They’ll be sending reconnaissance units up the draw and the chopper will be searching soon.”

“A rear guard action?” Henri suggested with a smile, although he knew Monday could not see his face in the dark.

“Weps and Scout have it covered,” Monday returned. “No one will get up this draw before daylight and by that time we’ll be miles away. Both have pulled rear guard in hostile situations before and they’re good at what they do. By noon they will join us at our new rendezvous site. They also have cold pack suits to dispel infra red and thermal imaging.”



Two men had been left to guard Dorbec. Wilhelm took the rest on the assault of the villa. He could tell that these were well-trained men. Both kept their weapons pointed in his direction and were spread five meters apart and well beyond his reach. He would not be able to attack one without the other shooting him.

Doebec was still in shock from the sudden loss of his men, men he had trained with and lead for years. He knew each of their families, the birthdays of their children, even what kind of wine their wives preferred. Hindsight told him that his suspicions were real. He could never quite figure out what it was about this mission, but he instinctively knew that something was not right.

He caught a glint of movement in his peripheral vision. There was definite movement behind the two guards. As he watched, Lars Udo Gabler and Claude Bedeau D’Aubigne quietly worked their way forward. Within seconds the two guards lay dead, their throats cut. He had trained his men very well.

“We were on point and they missed us.” Claude cut the plastic electrical cord binding Dorbec. His voice shaking from effort or anger. “We watched as that shit head Mueller shot the rest.’

Dorbec shook his head in dismay and pointed in the direction of the mountains. He knew it was their only chance to escape from Wilhelm. While the assault on the villa was going on they had to put as much distance between themselves and the assaulting force as possible. Although sad, he was relieved that Claude and Lars had survived. He just now remembered they had been walking point and missed the worse part of the ambush. Claude had been with him since his Foreign Legion days and he had a special liking for the silly German mountaineer.

Within minutes the firing at the Villa halted. Dorbec stopped in his mad rush up the mountain draw and glanced back down towards the villa. A large smile broke out on his ruggedly handsome face. You escaped too my friend, he thought, realizing that Wilhelm and his force had assaulted an empty villa. Monday and his men were somewhere in these mountains too. What was that old American saying? He searched his mind. Ah, yes. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.



“Why in hell aren’t we going after the bastards?” Mueller screamed, having heard Wilhelm give the command to return to base. “You just can’t let them get away. Now’s our chance to kill them and get the jewel.”

In response, Wilhelm held up a bag and shook it. “I have the jewel and the now useless documents. Two of the best native trackers in these mountains found them earlier. As for following them, did they not teach you anything in the new German Army, Sergeant. These men are Special Forces and they have access to satellite up-links. American Air Forces and Special Operations units will be flooding these mountains searching for them within hours. We have what we came for and we can eliminate them later at our convenience. Besides, I know exactly where they’re going.”

Mueller glanced at him with a puzzled expression.

“They’re going after their hidden jewel.” Wilhelm dangled the jewel again. “And, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ran into a very warm reception committee.”