Trident Force Read Online Free

huts.
    The morning had started out cool as Mike and his Force team commenced their eight-mile slog toward the objective. So cool was it that it took almost fifteen minutes for the big blobs of sweat to begin appearing on their jungle greens. They forced their way through three or four miles of sharp-edged, head-high grass. Then the sun and the deep, glue-like muck—“God’s own crap” as Jerry called it—began to wear them down. They maintained their alertness, however, and were rewarded. Around mid-morning they spotted a contingent of the other force emplaced on a small, brush-covered hummock that stood between them and the objective. As far as Mike could tell, the defenders hadn’t spotted them.
    Chambers’s initial thought was to detour around the hummock and move on directly to the objective, but it seemed clear that was not practical. They would be spotted unless they detoured so far that they would not make it to the objective before the end of the exercise.
    Among the many iron-hard rules of warfare, two stand out: Never attack an entrenched, very possibly superior enemy head-on, and never divide your forces. If you violate one of these rules—or both—and win, nobody says a word. If you violate one—even to execute the other—and things don’t work out, you will be hanged. By the journalists and other armchair generals and by the court-martial.
    On the assumption they hadn’t been spotted, Mike decided to surprise the defenders. He sent Ted Anderson and Jack Kudloe—both twenty-something SEAL petty officers who were still fast and nimble—off to the left to circle around behind the defenders. He, Jerry and Alex Mahan the older members of the team, would provide the diversion.
    The first part of the plan seemed to have worked well enough. After Ted and Jack had gotten well clear of them, Mike and his companions continued along their original track, making just enough muted ruckus to attract attention. In due course they’d been spotted and brought under fire, which they returned. Each side was firing M-16s with blanks and lasers, which triggered the sensors attached to every participant’s clothing. Now it was just a matter of avoiding the lasers and waiting for evidence of Ted and Jack’s attack from the rear. Unless, of course, the defenders spotted the two SEALs prematurely or decided to send out a party to track down Mike’s group.
    â€œThey’ve got us well pinned down, Boss,” observed Jerry. “You have a backup plan?”
    â€œTry to sprint past them.”
    â€œUmm,” replied Andrews noncommittally, as he wiped away some of the sweat pouring into his already-red eyes.
    â€œI think we may be okay,” said Alex quietly. “Ted and Jack have been circling around for more than half an hour and don’t seem to have been spotted.”
    Mike nodded in agreement He’d asked her to talk quietly, while he and Jerry did the opposite, to avoid giving away her gender. While he wasn’t sure how he could make use of it, every little bit of information the other side didn’t have was to his advantage.
    Unlike the other members of the Force, Alex had never been in the navy. She had, however, been both a crack CIA analyst and field operative. She possessed a reputation for having a steel-trap mind, a high level of accurate intuition and a ferocious attention to detail. Alex was also fluent in four languages and had an advanced degree in engineering, but her greatest qualification was her network of contacts. She had, over the years, managed to develop and maintain dependable contacts not only in the CIA, but also at the DIA, the NSA, the DEA and most of the countless Homeland Security agencies. In a word, graceful Alex knew everybody. While the politicians in power loved to babble about the seamless cooperation they were building among the various intelligence agencies, the reality was that the cooperation was