Sniper: Shadow Warrior E-Book

John Etterlee

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

This is the first of a four book series about a shadow unit that operates completely independently, without any government or parliamentary oversight. The book is about Victor, a former British Army Sniper with a penchant for violence and a lack of tolerance for authority. The book takes you on a trip from his recruitment straight out of the British Army, to his current mission and beyond. He recalls one of his earliest targets and becomes hunted by the targets sister, one of the best female snipers in Russia, who also kills his best friend. He also meets a girl named Allyson, who he falls deeply in love with. He is dangerously close to having to choose between her, and the only life he has known for over fifteen years. It is a delicate balance trying to be like everyone else when you aren't. What fate does Victor have for both his professional and personal life? Only time will tell.

Leseprobe

John Etterlee

Sniper: Shadow Warrior

Volume 1

This book is dedicated to the men and women that I ever served with in the U.S. Army. I really enjoyed my time serving with all of you. And I am very grateful for the family support I and many others received. Your sacrifices are what make this country great!BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Title Page Content

Sniper: Shadow Warrior

by

John Etterlee

Copyright © 2018 by John Etterlee

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned,

or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

First Edition: February 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Conclusion

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Two Birds

1100. Somewhere in Afghanistan. We got word that there was a high level Taliban Commander operating in this area. I have been lying here on this mountain side for twelve hours. If he shows his face, I’m blowing it off. Conventional forces had tried to find this guy but failed miserably. People were afraid to turn him in. He’s brutal. This man would just assume amputate your leg than look at a you. You see, to catch a ghost, you need a ghost. My unit operates above any special operations that you have heard about. We are ghosts; not even shadows on your wall. We operate with complete autonomy. There is no government, congressional, or parliamentary oversight. There is just the hunt.

Our intel guys have been tracking this guy for a year. We are the only ones on our side who know who he is and what he looks like. Usually, wherever he goes, he leaves a trail of blood and bodies. He has a particularly interesting method of torture. Unfortunately, there have been a few Soldiers who have learned this first hand. He ties them to a chair using a very strong wire, which cuts into the skin. As his victim is sitting there in pain, he uses another piece of very strong wire, twists it around their fingers, and cuts them off one by one.

This guy has probably killed more people than AIDS. I would have killed him a long time ago but for one simple reason. Intelligence reports suggest that today he is supposed to be meeting another guy who is also pretty high on our most wanted list. I may get to kill two birds with the same .338 round. The other man’s name is Boris Petrov. He is a Russian arms dealer who pretty much sells weapons to all of our enemies. Apparently, the Russians still hold a grudge for killing some of their top commanders.

One of our previous operatives was tracking Mr. Petrov across France to Paris, where he was attending an event that was being held for the French Prime Minister. Apparently, he donated tons of money to certain dirty French Government officials, with the promise that he could operate freely within French borders. We don’t believe that the prime minister was involved. However, he was naive enough to trust those who were. Our operative was set up in a building across the street from the event.

When the operative was given his chance, he didn’t take it for fear that he would be caught. Let’s just say that he was given his severance package. Those in this line of work cannot hesitate. If they do, they don’t belong in this profession. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it. Me? I am a crazy ex British Army Sniper. I used to do missions like this before breakfast. There has to be a comfortability involved. You could say that you become desensitized to it. This profession is most definitely not for the family man.

Anyway, now we have another chance to get this guy and I am not going to pass it up. I am lying here in the prone position looking down over the village below. My scope indicates that I am about 800 meters away. I like to operate far away. There’s less of a chance of giving away my position. The longest length of time I have ever waited for a target was one week. It takes an extreme amount of discipline. You can’t get up and walk around. You piss and shit on yourself sometimes. Bugs are crawling all over you. It takes a special breed of man to do this job.

I glance at my watch. It’s been fifteen hours so far. I still have another six hours before this guy is said to have set up the meeting. As I look around, there aren’t very many villagers walking around. To me that indicates one of two things. Either they are staying inside, or they have left. Either way it is usually an indicator that they know something is about to probably happen. I suspect that my targets also have that feeling. I know I would. I will probably only have, at most, a few seconds to take my shot before they are inside the building.

Snipers strike fear in the hearts and minds of everyone. They are so lethal that many have bounties on their heads. The problem is finding them. We operate from so far away that by the time anyone comes close to where we are, we have left. The enemy will never see or hear a good sniper until it is too late to do anything about it. As a matter of fact, there is only one thing that we truly fear. That is another sniper. Usually the only counter method the enemy can use effectively against us is another sniper.

That makes counter sniper operations extremely important. It is part of our training. A well trained enemy sniper knows how we operate. The ability to counter that threat is just as important to us as the ability to shoot effectively from long distances. If you can’t do all of these and do them to perfection, you have no business doing what we do. That is the cold, hard truth. My unit recruits from only the top tier of Military and mercenaries. We love the job, but hate the government. In a way I guess you could say we are well trained, well disciplined cowboys.

I remember my first mission, about eight years ago. I was sent to the Democratic People’s Republic of the Congo. My mission: take out a rebel general who was torturing and murdering civilians. The Congo is a very unforgiving place. The jungle there is so thick and dense and full of animals that could kill you with one bite. The rebel village where they were being held was deep in the jungle and at least a twelve hour hike from any of the main roads. Taking a vehicle was too risky and simply impossible to navigate. This was the mission that was going to pop my cherry. Before, I was operating with government support with one radio call. Now, I was completely alone, with only my cunning and wit to guide me. Either accomplish the mission, or die trying. I chose the first option.

As I am walking through this jungle, the only thing I hear are bugs and animals in the distance. About two hours into my trek, I came upon a body of water. Great, It’s a swamp. It is probably too deep to go straight across. My only option was to go around it. This added at least another hour into my time. The thing about navigating a jungle like this is you can’t move in a straight line. It is simply too dense and there’s so much vegetation that you end up walking in a zig zag.

About an hour after I passed the swamp I came upon a village. It looks abandoned and ashy, like someone attempted to burn it down. I have my weapon at the ready, just in case. As I walk around this village, I notice something odd in one of the huts. As I walk closer to investigate, I see something that looks like a badly burned body sitting upright in a chair. It looks to me like our rebel friends were here. This could be one of the villages that were subjected to their horrific torture devices.

I am seriously angry to the point that I am visualizing getting up close and personal with these cowards. I want to see how they feel about being confronted by someone who can fight back. These idiots prey on the weak. I came here to remedy that. I continue walking through the jungle. A few hours later I see lights up ahead. It looks like the rebels are having some kind of party. There is a guard up ahead of me about one hundred meters away. I pulled my knife out and quietly dispatched him and dropped his body into the thick brush.

Now I need to find a good hide site. I notice a small clearing to the left of me and head toward it and don my ghillie hood. Now to play the waiting game. According to my calculations the rebel village is about six hundred meters away. Perfect. I pulled out the picture of my target from my pocket. He has a patch over his left eye. I take another look through my scope and spot him coming out of one of the huts, holding a liquor bottle. As soon as he clears the civilians, he is mine. He goes to take a drink from his bottle and I squeeze the trigger. The round goes straight through the bottle, shattering it, before entering his mouth and coming out of the back in a huge splatter. I’m using a suppressor so the rebels have no idea what just happened.

Fast forward eight years and a couple of hundred kills later. Here I am in Afghanistan doing what I do best. I am still lying on this hill top waiting. This terrorist shit sparked an intense anger inside of me. But, I never wanted to be conventional. I didn’t want to be a part of being close to a target only to have that target get away while waiting for some politician to give the order. Frankly, politicians have no idea how to win a war. They are pencil pushers. Most don’t have the stomach to do what needs to be done. That is reality.

Most of what we know to be true never enters the main stream media. The truth is, we have to be just as ruthless as our enemies are. Fuck the Geneva Convention. We aren’t going to sit on our asses while things are happening in real time that we can do something about. That is the beauty of being a part of a shadow unit. We report to no one. We receive a target, we take out the target. Nobody knows who we are, where we are, or how we operate. We do things on our own terms, period.

As I glance through my scope I see three pick up trucks heading toward the village in a cloud of dust. This could be my target. As they stop, a man comes out of one of the buildings and pats down a man from one of the vehicles. I think this is the arms dealer. I keep watching and the trucks pull up a little more and the rest of the occupants get out. One of the men opens the door for, who I assume is the Taliban commander. I look at a picture of him that I have on the ground and it confirms that he is indeed my target.

One of our agents confirmed that the meeting is taking place for the commander, who is supposedly ordering some fairly sophisticated weaponry to use on coalition forces across Afghanistan. Most of the weapons and equipment they have now are all outdated, Soviet era weapons that were used before and during the cold war. If it goes through then the Taliban could gain significant leverage over our forces. We cannot allow that to happen.

Luckily, the wind is fairly calm today. So, I shouldn’t have to adjust my windage too much. I noticed a flag hanging on the antenna of one of the trucks. It’s not blowing very much. As soon as they leave the meeting, they are mine. As soon as I had the chance to look through my scope again I saw another truck pull up right in front of the same building. And he is blocking my shot damn it. I take a look around and there is a hill over to my left about 500 meters away. I am going to have to change positions. As a sniper, you never walk directly on top of a hill. Your silhouette can be seen.

I slowly make me way over to the hill. Slow and steady. I stop right at the hill, get on the ground, and crawl up to the top and put my rifle into position. Now, I can see them right when they exit the building. It should be a nice, clean shot. I glance back over at my watch. At this point they have been in the meeting for 45. I don’t suspect it’ll be much longer. I look through my scope again and I can see guys starting to come out. Here is my chance.

Both targets come out of the building and are standing by one of the trucks, talking. I take careful aim with my rifle. Breathe in, exhale, pause. I squeeze the trigger and the round flies through the air, hitting the Taliban Commander in the neck, almost completely severing his head. It goes straight through and strikes the Russian square in the jaw, dropping him too. One shot, two kills! You can’t make this stuff up. The rest of the Taliban are running around everywhere, having no idea what just happened. That suits me just fine. They can run around like chickens while I get the hell out of here.