Impossible Odds

greatest moment of fatal vision. Because it completed the third of the three necessary ingredients for triggering the order to make a military raid on foreign soil—that the kidnap hostage’s survival is in immediate peril. Jessica was being gradually killed by her captors, and the process was picking up speed. Although there was no word indicating her male colleague was also in a medical crisis, the conditions inflicted on both of them would ruin anyone’s health.
    Prompted by the medical report provided by Erik from their consulting physician, the Bureau sent their simple analysis traveling on up the food chain. The problem caused by Jessica’s continued lack of access to the medication to regulate her thyroid was compounded by the infection that began in her urinary tract but was guaranteed to spread, given her overall weakened state. If her weakened thyroid picked up the infection, her system could quicklyfail. It was now clear that unless drastic measures were immediately taken, the American hostage would soon become a casualty.
    There were compelling reasons to prevent her death, on top of the usual humanitarian concerns. Jessica was known to have been part of an organization involved in a demining project to help protect the local people. This nongovernment organization supplies direct relief to some 450,000 refugees in the border region of Somalia-Kenya. As a worker struggling to help save the local children, her death at her captors’ hands couldn’t be a worse tragedy at both the personal and the political levels. Her devastated family would be joined in their grieving by an outraged population.
    Erik saw to it that everyone in the chain of command got the information that the tipping point had been reached; if they didn’t get her out fast she would soon die. He also understood that upon Jessica’s demise, the prognosis for her Danish colleague would be just as bad. At this point those authorities agreed with the need for a rescue attempt.
    The conclusion was submitted to the secretary of defense: Immediate risk now exceeds the many dangers of a raid. The required response was now a studied act of extreme prejudice, forcing a decisive conclusion, and terminating any hostiles who got in the way.
    President Obama received a briefing telling him the health of American Jessica Buchanan was rapidly failing. His decision had boiled down to the choices of sending in a rescue team or hoping she could somehow survive on her own. He ordered immediate planning for a raid by SEAL Team Six.
    On the twenty-third of January, he met with his advisory team on the matter. The gist of their news for him was clear: Nothing’s going well with the negotiations, the kidnappers continue to make irrational demands, and the American hostage is in failing health. There is, however, going to be a full dark of the moon in two days’ time, during the early morning hours.
    After hearing the latest assessment of the situation, the president ordered Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to have the rescue mission go hot. Panetta conveyed the order directly to the SEAL team commander, keeping the circle of information tight to maximize secrecy.
    The attack was set to launch from the military base in Djibouti, taking off in a specially equipped air force C-130 on the evening of the following day. The strike team would fly down through Somalia, then parachute from the plane at a high altitude, landing a safe distance from the camp to silently prepare the raid.
    •  •  •
    Twenty-four Navy SEAL special operatives flying at a classified high altitude responded to the jump command like coiled springs, launching themselves into a brief free fall through the evening sky. As masters of the HAHO jump—High Altitude, High Opening—the elite SEAL team members confidently fell “dick in the dirt,” thrusting hips and torso into the direction of the fall, with arms and legs splayed wide to stabilize them. In the pitch black of the new moon there was no way for ground forces to see their aircraft or pick out the men descending toward them as tiny grains of silent trouble. Within a few seconds of leaving the plane, the SEAL warriors deployed their wing-shaped air foils and quietly flew their canopies down to the landing zone. The high-altitude openings prevented the popping sounds of the deploying chutes from being detected on the ground.
    From the air, each man scanned the ground below for potential trouble and listened for anything