Read Sunrise: Wrath & Righteousness: Episode Ten for Free Online Page B

onboard, two men who knew the local area as well as any men alive.
    The team complete, the helicopter lifted again and flew northeast.
    The Cherokees, six of them now, were bunched together at the front of the helicopter, an Air Force Special Forces MH-53J Pave Low, the largest, most powerful and technologically advanced helicopter in the world. The Pave Low was crewed by six; two pilots, two flight engineers and two gunners who manned the powerful 7.62 mm Gatling guns with the cyclical rate of six thousand rounds per minute, 100 rounds per second. The helicopter was huge, ugly and all business; dirty, loud, with protruding antennas, guns and in-flight refueling probes, covered in tinted glass, flare and chaff dispensers, and protected by armor. Unlike a modern fighter, it wasn’t sleek or sexy. The helicopter was boxy and black, a barnyard dog begging for the fight. The two GE engines generated almost 9,000 shaft horsepower between them. The order of battle communications package allowed for instant updates on target and threat locations while creating a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield. The terrain-following and avoidance radar, forward-looking infrared sensor, inertial navigation system, global positioning system and computer-generated moving map display allowed the crew to fly at night or bad weather while following the contours of the earth at just a couple dozen feet. Officially, the Pave Low’s mission was “ low-level, long-range, undetected penetration into denied areas, day or night, in adverse weather, for infiltration, egression and resupply of special operations forces .” More simply put, the helicopter was designed to sneak in and sneak out, avoiding the enemy when it was possible and engaging them when not.
    Despite almost forty million dollars in avionics upgrades, the inside of the helicopter was anything but pretty. One of the most combat-proven assets of the Dark Side (as Special Operators were known) the helicopter was bare-bones and well used; canvas seats, ratty paint; every piece of equipment functional but worn.
    As the Pave Low flew northeast, the winds suddenly kicked up, gusting down from the mountains to the cooler valleys, swirling and circling between the enormous mountain peaks while creating turbulence so severe the men felt they were on a rollercoaster ride from hell.  
    Too turbulent to work, the soldiers quit talking and held on.
    Two of them had already been sick. Azadeh hadn’t thrown up yet, but that was only because over the previous two days she’d been too nervous to eat anything more than a handful of nuts and a couple of bananas.
    Settling into the valley, the ride became suddenly smooth and the soldiers went back to work.
    Azadeh sat and watched as the soldiers pointed to their maps, debated, sometimes argued, all the while scribbling in little notebooks. She was relieved to see that, as far as she could tell, Sam was one of the officers in charge. She watched him closely. He had cut his hair, dyed it darker and trimmed his facial hair into a neat beard. With his dark skin, he could have easily passed for a local. Watching him, she thought back to the battle on the streets of East Side Chicago, the episode having instilled a completely unrealistic confidence in Sam in her mind.
    “ Be cool ,” he had told him.
    She had a better understanding now what that meant.
    Staring at him, her stomach fluttered and she quickly looked away. Her emotions for him were becoming far too complicated. Far too deep. He doesn’t care about you Azadeh , a nagging voice inside her seemed to say. But something about the way he looked at her made her wonder, even hope, that maybe he did. And even if he didn’t, it didn’t change the way she felt. Like some mythical Greek god, he seemed invincible. She’d do anything he asked of her. She’d place her life in his hands.
    Which was exactly what she was doing now, and she wasn’t the only one. The other soldiers were placing their lives in