Impossible Odds

individual’s weakest points.
    If the same ordeals were imposed on captured terrorists who were known to be guilty of killing innocent civilians, the officers in charge would get thrown in the brig. Still, no matter how many Herculean physical challenges are presented to a DEVGRU candidate, the brutal training is primarily mental. It reveals each soldier’s principal foe to be himself. His mortal fears and deepest survival instinct emerge time after time as the essential demons he must overcome.
    Each DEVGRU member must reach beyond mere proficiency at dealing death. He must become two fighters combined: one who is trained to a state of robotic muscle memory in specific dark skills, and a second who is fluidly adaptive, using an array of standard SEAL tactics. Only when he can live and work from within this state of mind will he be trusted to pursue black operations in every form of hostile environment.
    Therefore the minority candidate who passes into DEVGRU becomes a member of the “Tier One” Special Mission Unit. He will be assigned to reconnaissance or assault, but his greatest specialty will always be to remain lethal in spite of rapidly changing conditions. From the day he is accepted into that elite tribe, he embodies what is delicately called “preemptive and proactive counterterrorist operations.” Or as it might be more bluntly described: Hunt them down and kill them wherever they are—and if possible, blow up something.
    Each one of that small percentage who makes it through six months of well-intended but malicious torture emerges as a true human predator. If removing you from this world becomes his mission, your only hope of escaping a DEVGRU SEAL is to find a hiding place that isn’t on land, on the sea, or in the air.
    •  •  •
    On the day Jessica was kidnapped, Barack Obama had long since made his move from Chicago to the American White House.As the president of the United States, he had the services of the DEVGRU warriors at his disposal. By the time he received notice about the kidnapping, the most alarming aspect was the possibility that this was an organized act by Al-Shabaab, southern Somalia’s Islamist governing force with known ties to Al Qaeda, which is in constant conflict with Somalia’s internationally recognized transitional government. If they had taken her, the U.S. president and the rest of the world might soon witness a viral internet video showing the execution of a female American aid worker, while an anonymous voice-over delivered a lecture to all the Godless Ones and a stream of Arabic writing played across the screen.
    Still there was no hard information to act on and no line of communication, thus nowhere to aim a DEVGRU team even if the president felt inclined to deploy them. So the report of the kidnapped American and her Danish colleague went into watch-and-wait status at the White House. Jessica Buchanan’s case took its place among a massive collection of other situations also standing by on the watch-and-wait status. Erik realized, coming from his line of work, that every one of them was a matter of great concern to somebody.
    By far the largest conundrum facing the president was the provisional Somali government’s difficulty enforcing authority. While the northeast portion of Somalia, called Puntland, had achieved a semiautonomous status and managed to get a basic infrastructure going, the rule of street violence still reigned supreme throughout southern Somalia. Without a reliable structure to protect and guarantee shipping and commerce, there was no way for the population to rebuild a functioning economy.
    Therefore desperation gripped a once proud and independent collection of clans and subclans, reducing many of their young men to the lunacy of sailing motorboats out to sea and attacking large ships and tankers with the intention of hijacking them for ransom. Every nonswimming teenager with a head-buzz of khat and a borrowed AK-47 who dared to ship out on such a mission was undoubtedly powered by the story of a neighbor or a cousin who made only one of the lethally dangerous raids and yet earned enough to live on for years!
    Of course the odds against any individual pirate finding personal success were about the same as the odds against hitting a jackpot at a roulette wheel. The compelling part was powerful, however, because it was better than the prospect of remaining on land and slowly rotting to death. The courage of despair drove them into