Operation Amazon

By James Punt

Jordan – call sign Cobra – is still haunted by memories of his time in the armed forces. One mission in particular, involving the death of a teammate, still gives him nightmares. He thinks he has left that life behind him until, one day, he receives an email asking him to meet with the mysterious Professor R. Carter. The Professor persuades him to reunite with his old team for a new mission involving danger, old friends and a legendary Incan dagger. Jordan leaves behind his comfy home with his cat, Shadow, and his doting old friend Nan and returns to a life of action and danger. Dutch, Hawk-eye, Atkins, and Sky join Cobra and together the team learn that past events might not be quite what they seemed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley
• Release date: Sep 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463912188

James Punt

James was born in England in May 1975, the oldest child of Moira and Gary Punt. He spent his early years in the town of Thundersley, in Essex, finishing school in 1991. He wanted to study Zoology and work with animals, but over the next few years, he found himself undertaking a string of different jobs. In 1998, he was offered a security role and then spent nineteen-and-a-half years in the industry, establishing a reputation that moved him up into management and then onto close protection. James is a great adventurer and sportsman, and loves being in the outdoors. In early 2014, he left the security industry and started a new career as a building manager. Later that year, James found a half-written manuscript that he had started writing in 2005. After showing it to his father, he decided to finish writing the story. When his father passed away that year, James decided to self-publish his book and dedicate it to his father.

Book preview

James was born in England in May 1975, the oldest child of Moira and Gary Punt. He spent his early years in the town of Thundersley, in Essex, finishing school in 1991. He wanted to study Zoology and work with animals, but over the next few years, he found himself undertaking a string of different jobs. In 1998, he was offered a security role and then spent nineteen-and-a-half years in the industry, establishing a reputation that moved him up into management and then onto close protection. James is a great adventurer and sportsman, and loves being in the outdoors. In early 2014, he left the security industry and started a new career as a building manager. Later that year, James found a half-written manuscript that he had started writing in 2005. After showing it to his father, he decided to finish writing the story. When his father passed away that year, James decided to self-publish his book and dedicate it to his father.

Dedication

To the best dad and husband in the world and the strongest person I have ever known. We love you so much and we’ll miss you every day.

‘The best thing I ever did was marry my wife.’

Gary L Punt

James Punt

Operation Amazon

Copyright © James Punt (2018)

The right of James Punt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781786935243(Paperback)

ISBN 9781786935267 (E-Book)

ISBN 9781786935250 (Hardback)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2018)

Austin Macaulay Publishers Ltd™

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my mum and sister for putting up with my nagging during the start of my journey writing, I love you both so much. To my wife, Michelle, thank you for supporting me through the lonely nights while writing, you are my rock and I love you with all my heart.

Part 1

Blood Runs Deep

1

Date: 20th August 2005

Time: 18:00 Hours

Location: Amazon Jungle, Brazil

Under the blanket of darkness, the day before, a special military unit of eleven men: HALO, jumped from an unmarked transport plane sixteen thousand feet above the Amazon jungle. The unit was split up by their commanding officer – call sign Cobra – and then dropped in two different locations. Their orders were to collect intel on a terrorist training camp, but we’re not to engage at any cost.

***

Cobra’s earpiece suddenly came to life and a voice came over the radio. ‘Bravo, do you copy?’ Cobra pressed the button on the radio and talked into his mic.

‘Send your message.’ Charlie’s voice came through his earpiece.

‘Bravo, we’re in position on the north face ridge, overlooking the village.’

Cobra pressed the button once more, ‘Received, Charlie. We’re coming in from the west. Hold your position and wait for orders. I will update Control on our progress.’

‘Received, Bravo. Charlie, out.’ As quickly as the radio had come to life, it went dead again. Cobra turned towards Hawk-eye who was messing around with a lizard on the floor. ‘Hawk, get Control on the radio. And leave the poor thing alone, I need to get the ball rolling on this so we can get home.’

‘Will do,’ Hawk-eye replied as he watched the lizard vanish into the jungle vegetation.

He took out a radio transmitter from his Bergen, and started to type a code into the keypad. He put his headset on but all he could hear was static noise. He spoke slowly and calmly into the headset. ‘Bravo to Control, are you receiving?’

There was silence, then a crackling noise, and a voice answered, ‘Send your message, Bravo.’

Hawk-eye tapped his mic twice to get Cobra’s attention; the boss looked up from his map immediately and glanced over at Hawk-eye.

‘Boss, I have Control on the radio.’

Cobra moved closer to Hawk-eye’s position, he passed over the headset and placed it on his head. He spoke impatiently into the mouthpiece.

‘Control… this is Cobra, Charlie Company are at the boundary of the village, awaiting orders.’

‘Roger, Cobra, you’re coming through loud and clear. Remember, this is only a reconnaissance mission; we don’t want to stir things up down there.

‘Our country has good relations with their leader. Just retrieve the information and make your way to the RV for Evac.’

Cobra pressed the button on the headset and answered. ‘All clear, Control… Cobra, out.’ Cobra handed the headset back to Hawk-eye and nodded to give the message that the transmission had terminated.

Suddenly, a voice came across the radio once more. ‘What’s happening, boss?’

About ten feet in front of Cobra was Sky, leaning up against a tree, holding a knife in one hand and brushing his hair with the other, while checking his reflection in its blade. Beside him, knelt down on one knee, munching on an energy bar of some kind, was Dreamer. And just behind them was Dutch, standing, rifle in hand, scanning the surroundings. Cobra looked around at his team then spoke into his radio, ‘We’re all good to go, guys.’

Tomcat’s voice came over the radio. ‘Cobra, this is Tomcat.’ Cobra pressed his mic.

‘Go ahead, Tomcat.’

‘We’ve scanned the village and there’s no movement down there. It looks like nobody’s been there for a while. Are you sure the Intel we have is right?’ he asked.

‘Hold your position, we’re ten clicks away from a visual of the village,’ Cobra replied.

‘Roger,’ Tomcat answered. As Cobra and his team moved closer, the Amazon jungle began to clear and the village came into view. Just as Tomcat had reported, the village looked deserted and the jungle had started to engulf it. The Intel had said this was a functioning village? He thought. Cobra contacted Charlie Company. ‘Charlie, this is Cobra… we’re in sight of the village now.’

The radio crackled and Tomcat replied, ‘Copy that, Cobra.’

Looking down into the village, they could see six huts spaced equally around a central wooden pole that protruded out of the ground. There was no sign of life. Cobra called into the radio again. ‘Tomcat, do you copy?’ the radio crackled in his ear, and then a voice answered.

‘Send your message, Cobra.’

‘Tomcat, take your team closer to the village and get a better look, but stay alert.’ Cobra watched closely as Charlie’s team moved into position at the border of the village. Then a voice came over the radio.

‘Cobra, do you copy?’

‘Send your message,’ Cobra replied.

‘We’re on the border of the village and there’s still no movement. The place looks deserted.’

‘Roger that, Tomcat, message received. Hold your position.’ Cobra looked down at the village and started scanning the area. Something was wrong, really wrong. Cobra spoke into his radio: ‘Tomcat, you and your team make your way into the village and do a hut to hut search… But be careful, there’s something not right here. We’ll cover you from our positions.’

‘Roger that, Charlie, out.’ The radio went dead. Cobra turned to Hawk-eye, ‘Hawk.’

‘Yes boss.’

‘See if you can find some high ground. Just in case Charlie needs covering fire, if things go tits up.’

Hawk-eye looked around and found a tree overlooking the village with a good vantage point of the area. He keyed up his mic. ‘Cobra, I’ve found higher ground.’

‘Roger that, Hawk-eye. I’m sending Dreamer over as cover.’ Cobra turned and looked over at Dreamer, he nodded and made his way over towards the tree. Cobra and Dutch then started moving closer to get a better visual on the other huts.

The radio came to life. ‘Cobra, this is Tomcat, we’re entering the village now.’

‘Roger, that, Tomcat. Stay alert down there. We’ve got your backs! Cobra, out.’

Tomcat looked around at his team, then spoke into his radio. ‘Guys, Bravo Company is watching over us, so this is it! Grasshopper and Miner, take the two huts to the left. Hunter and Mole, you take the far two over there.

‘Greenman and I, we’ll take the others… Be careful! And stay alert, I don’t have a good feeling about this.’

Tomcat’s radio buzzed with voices replying, ‘Standing by.’ A moment later, Tomcat’s team were in positions at the entrance of the huts. Calls came over the radio, ‘We’re ready to breach!’ Tomcat keyed up his mic.

‘On my mark, Charlie Company. Three… Two… One, Breach!’

Cobra and his team watched as Charlie Company entered the huts. Minutes passed, then Cobra called over the radio. ‘Dutch, can you see anything?’

‘No. Can’t see Charlie Company, I watched them go into the huts then nothing.’

‘Tomcat, this is Cobra… Tomcat, do you copy?’ Cobra called on the radio. ‘Tomcat, are you receiving?’ There was still no answer. ‘Charlie Company… This is Cobra leader… Respond!’ Silence. Cobra looked around.

‘What the hell is going on?’ he said to himself. He called on the radio again.

‘Dreamer, Hawk-eye, Sky. Does anybody have a visual on Charlie Company?’

They all replied over the radio. ‘We can’t see any movement down there, and the radio isn’t out of range. What are your orders?’

‘Hold your positions and let me think.’ Cobra was staring down at the village trying to picture what could have happened to Charlie Company.

Why are their radios not working? After a few minutes, Cobra spoke into his radio.

‘Hawk-eye, hold your position on high ground and keep a look out. Dreamer. Sky. Make your way to me, we’re going to take a closer look.’

As Cobra and Dutch made their way down towards the village, the sun had started to lower behind the mountains. The temperature quickly began to drop and the cold air chilled their skin. ‘I think somebody just walked over my grave,’ Sky muttered, as they joined the others at the tree line.

Dreamer spoke into his radio. ‘Do you get the feeling we’re being watched?’

Cobra replied, ‘Radio silence, please.’

With rifles raised, they moved stealthily into the village. Cobra then called into his radio, ‘Hawk-eye.’

A voice answered, ‘Send your message.’

‘Do you have a visual on us?’

‘Yes boss, you can’t miss Dutch’s head,’ teased Hawk-eye.

‘You’re lucky you’re up there, you Russian prick,’ Dutch rebuked.

Cobra butted in, ‘Stay alert team. This is not a game.’

‘D… Did anybody see that?’ Sky’s voice stuttered over the radio.

Cobra replied, ‘I’m not sure what I saw.’

Sky pointed towards one of the huts on the left hand side of the village. ‘I swear something moved over there by that hut.’ All four men stopped and knelt down on one knee, with their rifles raised, scanning their surroundings.

Cobra called Hawk-eye. ‘Did you see anything?’

‘No boss, but the light is pretty bad now… I’m going to switch to night mode.’

‘Team… HOLD POSITIONS!’ Cobra cried over his radio.

‘Hawk-eye, can you see anything?’

‘Nothing boss, switching to thermal vision.’ Hawk-eye looked through his rifle sight and scanned the village. ‘All I can see are you guys down there, but hold on a minute, this can’t be right! All the huts have heat signatures… but no movement.’

‘Safeties off and stay alert. Hawk-eye, tell us if you see anything move.’

‘Roger that.’

As Cobra and his team moved nearer to the huts, they were hit by an odd, fleshy smell in the air. ‘Can you smell that?’ one of the guys said through his radio.

‘Yeah,’ all the voices replied.

Cobra didn’t like this. ‘It was only meant to be a recon mission, that’s all. A bloody recon mission!’ As they crept nearer, the stench seemed to get stronger and stronger. Cobra raised his arm to give the command for his team to hold position.

‘Hawk-eye, anything?’

‘No, Cobra, still the same.’

‘Dreamer and Sky, take the huts to the left and we’ll cover you.’ Cobra pointed to the huts.

‘Roger, that,’ they both replied. Dreamer and Sky started making their way slowly towards the entrance of one of the huts. ‘This stink gets worse the closer we get,’ Sky gasped while covering his face.

‘Well, we’ve smelt worse… Dutch’s ass!’ Dreamer joked.

‘Yeah,’ Sky agreed, ‘Dutch reckons it’s just his good diet.’

‘Wait!’ a voice shouted out over the radio.

Dreamer and Sky stopped in their tracks and started looking around. Dutch pointed over to his left at the tree line. ‘I’m sure I saw movement.’ They watched the tree line for a minute. ‘It must be the light playing tricks on me.’

Cobra’s voice came across the radio: ‘Dreamer and Sky, get ready to breach the hut; Hawk, have you still got a visual?’

‘Roger, Hawk-eye has visual.’ Dreamer and Sky continued to approach the doorway.

Cobra watched them getting into position either side of the door and readying themselves to breach the hut. ‘Ready?’ They looked at one another. Sky reached for the door and pushed it open. They both slid inside, guns raised. Frantically the radios came alive. ‘Christ… what the fuck!’ All manner of profanity exploded into Cobra’s ear.

‘Dreamer, Sky. What’s going on?’

‘You need to get over here, right away!’

‘Hawk-eye, this is Cobra, keep an eyeball on us.’

‘Will do,’ Hawk-eye answered.

Dutch and Cobra hurried over to the first hut, where they found Dreamer and Sky standing still in shock. Once through the door, the smell was overwhelming. The inside of the hut was covered in blood. The walls and roof were dripping in bright red. ‘What the fuck is this… where’s all the blood coming from?’ Cobra looked around; there were no bodies, in fact, no evidence of anyone being there at all, except for the huge amounts of blood. ‘Err… no mess outside the hut, either.’

‘LOOK!’ Sky’s voice trembled as he pointed at Dreamer’s position. Cobra looked over at Dreamer. Where he stood lay a pile of weapons, but still no sign of a corpse.

‘Gather up their rifles and place them outside and let’s check the rest of the huts.’ Cobra and his team checked all the huts and confirmed exactly the same as the first hut: walls covered in claret, Charlie’s weapons on the ground, no bodies. Sky checked the rifles.

‘They still had full magazines, Tomcat and Charlie Company never got a chance to fire, boss!’

‘Who could’ve done this and where are they?’ Dutch spluttered.

‘Guys stay calm, I just don’t know yet,’ Cobra’s voice came over the radio. ‘Sky. Dreamer. Pick up their weapons. Hawk-eye, make your way down here.’

‘Roger that, boss, on my way.’ Once Hawk-eye had reached the others, Cobra asked him to contact Control on the radio. They stumbled over and, one by one, sat in the centre of the village, not saying a word to each other, but thinking the exact same thing. Hawk-eye’s shouting broke the stunned silence. ‘Bravo to Control… Bravo to Control! We have a CODE RED… Men down!

‘Repeat, CODE RED!’

The reply came instantly. ‘This is Control, send your message.’

Hawk-eye passed over the headset so Cobra could speak. ‘Control, we have a situation here. Charlie’s team is missing, we’ve found their weapons and they’ve not been fired!’

‘Cobra, what do you mean?’

‘Control, Charlie’s team have disappeared, repeat, Charlie’s team is missing and there’s blood everywhere.’

‘Cobra, they can’t just vanish into thin air… are you guys on something or has the altitude got to you?’

‘No, sir, we’re still searching and we will find them.’

‘Cobra, you and your team were picked for this mission because you are the best, so don’t let me down.’

‘No, sir, but you don’t understand who or what we’re dealing with and neither do we. We’ve checked the area…’ Suddenly, there was a call for help over the radio. Cobra looked around, he could see Dutch, Dreamer and Hawk-eye, but no sign of Sky.

‘Cobra, what’s going on?’

‘Control, stand by.’ He turned to his team. ‘Dutch, where’s Sky?’

‘I don’t know, boss, I thought he went for a leak…’

‘Dreamer?’

‘He was over by that hut, boss.’

‘Cobra to Sky… Sky?’ There was no answer. ‘Sky, are you receiving?’ Still the radio was dead. ‘Fuck this, what the hell is going on! Hawk-eye, get Control back on the radio, this is fucking crazy. Dreamer and Dutch, try and find him immediately and keep in contact.’ With that, they went off and started searching the village.

‘Control, are you receiving?’

The radio started to crackle, Hawk-eye passed it to Cobra. ‘Go ahead, send your message.’

‘What’s going on down there?’

‘I don’t know, sir. One of my team has vanished now!’

‘What the fuck is going on? This is only a recon mission.’

‘Can’t answer that, sir,’ he replied.

‘Cobra, put me on a visual link.’

‘Yes, sir, hold on.’ Cobra looked across at Hawk-eye, signalled him to set up the cam link. He nodded. Hawk-eye then reached into his pack and pulled out a head cam, then passed it over to Cobra. He typed in a code and gave thumbs up to show the link was ready. ‘Control. This is Cobra, uplink in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Control you should have visual.’

‘Yes, Cobra, we have visual.’

‘Control, as you can see, it’s getting dark out here.’ Cobra picked up the camera and started showing Control the village.

A voice came over the radio. ‘Cobra, can you show us Charlie’s last location.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Cobra and Hawk-eye made their way to one of the huts. Once inside, Hawk-eye turned on his flashlight. Automatically the hut lit up and revealed to Control the image that Cobra and his team had just seen: all over the hut, blood dripping.

‘What the fucking hell is going on?’

‘Just like I said, sir, we found all the huts like this and here’s one of Charlie’s guns!’ Cobra focused the cam on the gun… ‘Sir, we have checked them all and they have full mags and haven’t been fired.’

‘The safeties weren’t even taken off.’

‘What was that?’ Control cut in over the radio. ‘Turn to your left, we saw movement.’ Cobra swung around and raised his gun. Hawk-eye pointed at the wall which revealed a leg, hanging down, oozing red blood.

‘Shit… boss! That was not there a minute ago,’ Hawk-eye said worryingly. Sweat was starting to run down his face.

Cobra and Hawk-eye looked at the tattoo on the leg; both knew that tattoo of a knife. It belonged to Greenman, who was part of Tomcat’s team. Cobra keyed up his radio. ‘Sir… Confirmation, this is a member of Charlie’s team.’ Cobra looked at Hawk-eye and then watched him key up his radio.

‘Dreamer, do you copy?’

‘Send your message,’ Dreamer replied.

‘Any sign of Sky yet?’

‘No, we’ve searched everywhere.’

‘Keep searching. I’m going to slap him when