My name is Benjamin Keynes.
I work for the directorate of operations within the CIA.
Three days after 9/11,
reconnaissance satellites picked up a radioactive heat signature
in a remote tribal region of Afghanistan.
The Agency feared Al-Qaeda may have finally got their hands on a nuclear weapon.
However, I was told by a local source with a high degree of confidence
that it was maybe something much more powerful
It has been more than ten years, since I left this place.
I forgot how brutal it could be.
I feel like every time we enter this country, it tries to spit us back out.
Almost everyone here at the TOC is too busy fighting a war,
to pay much attention to me. Which is a good thing.
Sir, Agent Keynes.
I finally met the CO and the teamleader,
Sergeant Wallis Hamer.
I gave them the official line, as if I read it from the memo back at Langley.
Major Keynes, this may be your show, but these are my boys, understand?
Absolutely.
No doubt they assumed I was lying.
My first order of business was to recconect with my local source, Mohammed Aban.
He asked me come, therefore I hope that he is there, when we knock at his door.
Sir, the men are ready for you now.
Major Keynes, let me introduce you to the guys.
This is my team daddy, Master-Sergeant Tanner, he's also our fox, intel.
He helped me put the group together back in the day.
Our senior medic, Sergeant Degetau. - What's up, man.
Demolitions, Sergeant Trinoski. That on the floor there is Sergeant Cole.
And last but not least, Sergeant Sadler, he's weapons and resident Afghan expert.
392 is a shit-hot team. You won't find any better.
That's why I'm here.
Gentlemen, thankyou for coming together on such short notice.
My orders are to make contact with an HVT called Mohammed Aban.
A cleric, living in the Southern provinces.
We are to get his recorded statement, in which he supports the American mission here.
This is our man.
Everybody take a look.
Aban is highly respected by the local population.
He is considered the spiritual force, that helped the Mujahadin defeat the Soviets.
I thought the CIA was the spiritual force that helped them defeat the Soviets.
That depends of your definition of spiritual, sergeant.
Aban has kept a very low profile under the Taliban, so it is crucial that we make contact,
as soon as we have a fix on his position.
Remember, when we hit the ground, this is a meet and greet.
To smile at the locals, we hand out pens, we win hearts and minds. No kicking in doors, okay?
The mission starts at 1400 hours.
0130 inspections.
0230 we are wheels up. - Let's move out.
Remember nothing's routine.
Special Forces Team 392. I'd actually heard of them.
They worked with the Zagran. Smart men, men good with secrets.
But that goes without saying.
Nice camera.
I gave my wife one for our anniversary. Still don't know how to use the damn thing.
That's because you never let her use it, Ski.
What kind of a man gives his wife a video camera for their anniversary?
Very romantic, ski. - I'll use it to film the baby when it comes.
Your wife's gonna spread her legs, let you put the camera right here and film the head coming out?
My sister's gonna do the recording, I still don't know how to use the damn thing.
All I'm saying is don't be surprised if your baby's born with a suntan.
Two minutes!
Get ready!
When I stepped off the chopper, I had an overwhelming sense of relief.
The time for second-guessing is over.
The objective is all that matters.
I have no choice now but to find it.
It's pretty quiet from here. - Those are the ones I worry about most.
I say we set an overwatch.
Yeah, you and Pete set up down there on that hill. Let us know when it's good to go.
Everyone else, Keynes and I are the welcome wagon. We go in first.
Keynes, are you ready? - Yeah, let's do it.
Everybody keep your eyes open. The place could be crawlin' with bad guys.
Hello.
Let me talk to her.
Nothing has changed since I was here last.
The only way you can tell which decade you are in is the colour of the soldiers' uniforms.
Aban contacted me a week before I received orders to come out here.
He was barely coherent at the time and I thought he'd finally lost his mind.
That was until we saw it for ourselves.
My grandfather says, he has gone because the Taliban would have murdered him.
What d'you want?. You want some chocolate?
Got some special stuff. I got that from New York. For you.
You're a smart, little kid.
Looks like we're gonna be ghostbustin' again.
Yeah, well, that's what Spooks do, isn't it?
Hey, any of you guys get a close look at that camera?
No, what's wrong with it? - He didn't pick that shit up at the PX, I'll tell you that much.
Need to use the radio.
Serpent 76. Serpent 76. This is Beast 92, over.
Serpent 76, we are at the location. The package is not here. Request immediate extraction, over.
We found Aban's house, but we can't tell if we're finding clues or breadcrumbs.
I wonder what these people would do
if they had suddenly the power to destroy nations.
The rest of us can only pray that they have become weary of fighting.
My grandfather says that no-one can liberate Afghanistan.
Only Allah can free us from the Taliban.
Yes, I know. My father took me there a few years ago
He showed me the place where he wanted to be buried, But it's too late now.
He was kidnapped by the Taliban last year. I fear he is dead now.
How did you know this?
- What'd he say?
I think he can help us. - You have up to 0300, then we're moving out for extraction.
I have to make a call. - Cole, the sat-phone.
I have my own. - Got his own.
Fuckin' James Bond. - You know James Bond?
Yeah, I know James Bind. He washed out of basic training.
I told headquarters I was moving on to phase two.
They told me that our footprint was fading.
That's what they called the heat trace that was seen by the satellite.
Chief.
Good way to get killed. - We need to talk. A change of plan.
This had better be good!
I have new orders to continue searching for Aban now that we have updated intel on his whereabouts.
Intel? What, that crap Obi-Wan told us?
We suspected that Aban was in the mountains by now. We had to check here first.
We're talking two days, three max. All we need to do is get our hands on a vehicle.
Well, excuse me if I wanna check with the TOC
Little does he know, we don't have much of a choice.
Man, there's no place to shit around here.
Any of you guys got any more chocolate?
No man, I gave you all I had yesterday. - I got some stale cigars.
Hearts and minds, man. - Whatever. Get in the truck.
Sorry, kids.
What's he doing here?
He offered to be our guide. - We have a full boat.
Someone who knows the area can get us in and out much faster.
I understand that, but this place is crawling with bad guys.
Any time we gain, is going to be lost by our having to babysit him.
I fought with my father. I can take care of myself.
Good. You can feed him your rations.
Go.
She is just my mother. Keep going.
Where we're going, technology means very little.
50 bucks to a local guide can render a multi-million dollar GPS obsolete,
as soon as you lose your connection or your batteries go dead.
The stakes were too high to take that chance.
Chief, I know that we have our orders, but we are pretty fuckin' exposed out here.
I don't like it any more than you do, but I ain't the one in charge right now.
As far as we're concerned you are.
Everything looks the same to me out here.
At least back home, you had a Quick-Stop every now and again.
Where are you from, Cole? - Tampa, Florida, born and raised.
How about you? - Chicago.
Cole, Stop the truck.
What's he stopped the truck for? - No idea.
What the hell's he doin'?
Why in the hell are we stopping?
That's why, - Son-of-a-bitch.
Fox said this road was clear. - It probably was...
Look, see that hole?
Looks like somebody's been doing some transplanting.. - Guess so.
Good call, Keynes. You may have just saved us from having a very bad day.
Let me guess, we're gonna be going through that canyon.
Yes, we are.
There are few places on Earth, that are as unforgiving as this desert.
Whole armies, from Alexander to the Soviets
have paid the price for wanting to make it their own
I can only hope we aren't as foolish.
Ah shit. Not good.
Gotta be booby-trapped. - Cole, back us the fuck outa here.
Hold on, I'll go check it out. - No, hold on.
RPG!
Ski's down.
Let me look at this. Chief, Ski's bleedin' pretty bad.
Hold that right there, okay?
Chief, keep firing on that ridge, man!
Cole, get your ass over here!.
When he's reloading, you're gonna go and take those fuckers out!
Let's go!
Reload.
Pete, Keynes, cover them. - Okay.
Let's go.
I gotta bag you, baby.
You guys okay?
Let's go check the RPG position, see who these guys are.
Are you sure this is the spot, Pete? - Yes, I sighted the first one just left of the gully here.
Maybe you just wounded him. - No way.
I saw him pop one right in the melon.
One was a headshot, the other was in the chest.
I saw 'em go down.
Then where are the bodies? - That's a good question.
These guys aren't known for carrying off their dead.
I got you, okay..
I got you.
Fuck!
He took a frag to the heart, I couldn't stop the bleeding.
You did everything you could. We need to get him in the truck.
The only body from that entire firefight was one of our own.
It doesn't make sense.
As far as I know, ghosts don't shoot real rounds.
Serpent 76, slang 76. Beast 92, over.
I say again Beast 92 requesting extract, break.
Reporting KIA, break.
How's it look?
Not good. Radiator took some hits.
Can you fix it? - Small holes maybe, but not these big ones.
This took a hit as well.
Okay, Abdul says that there's a road that will take us round this mountain.
So it should be about half a day's drive to our next checkpoint.
Checkpoint? Maybe you haven't heard, Keynes, but we need to extract.
Okay, look, I'm sorry about Trinoski, but cancelling this mission is not an option.
We have more than enough assets to reach our objective.
Assets? - Hey, Wally.
I think Ski would have wanted us to finish.
If we don't complete this mission, then Ski died for nothing.
Cole, change it to a resupply.
Serpent 76, Serpent 76, Beast 92, over.
Morale is low. Understandable.
We just have to stay focused. That's what these guys are trained to do.
Any one of them would tell you that they would rather die than be the last one picked for a mission..
Where the hell is that bloody chopper? - I don't know. They should've called in by now.
I hope they didn't get taken down on the other side of that canyon
by that ratpack we ran into. - That would be a pile of suck.
Hold up. I think I hear it.
I don't hear anything.
I know I didn't just imagine it.
Hey, we got headlights. Two o'clock.
Looks like a single vehicle. And he's headed this way.
It can't be one of ours. It wouldn't have the headlights on.
It's probably enemy reinforcements. - Alright, we need to get outta here.
Hold on, wait. They're splitting up. - What?
God-damn!
What just happened?
Must be Taliban ordnance or something.
Rockets maybe. - I don't give a rat's ass what it was,
because in an hour or two it's gonna be light, and we need to be on the other side of that mountain.
When we're there, we can recon for an alternate LZ and try and figure where the hell the bird is.
Come on. Let's mount up..
Those must have been the intelligent lights Aban mentioned when he contacted me.
At least I know we're headed in the right direction
We should have taken horses. - It's a little late for that now.
Goddammit. We're overheating again.
This mountain is making the engine work about ten times harder than it's supposed to
Pull off up here and we'll let it cool down.
We're overheating again. - I'll pop the hood. Let it ventilate.
How are we doing on time?
We have to pick it up if we want to make it off this mountain by dark.
Look, we still have a ways to go. - My kingdom for some donkeys.
What's wrong with him?
You see something?
We shouldn't have driven across the valley.
Our tracks are erased. - What's up with our trusty guide?
Must be car sick.
Hey, Chief. I'm gettinf no satellite reception. The mountains are blocking us.
I can try again once we get through the pass.
Wally, if you want this bitch to go any place, you're gonna have to put some water in it.
How are we doing on water?
Jug and a half.
Twin dust devils. Unusual, but not an Act of God.
Superstition is the real enemy.
It obscures the truth and that's what we need right now.
Our water supply is low.
What was left after the firefight went into the truck to get us this far.
I didn't count on having to wait for a resupply, but we have no choice.
Serpent 76, Serpent 76, Beast 92, come in.
It must be these rock walls or something. I'm not getting a damn thing on the radio.
Shouldn't be too much longer now. The weather's good.
When's his wife due?
I think sometime in January.
What's he up to?
Picked a strange time to be stargazing
Maybe he wants to show the boys back home what a full moon in Afghanistan looks like.
You guys hear that?
Looks like it's showtime. - Let's go.
See anything, chief?
No, not yet.
It sounds pretty close.
Get on the horn, Cole.
Dust-off 01, Dust-off 01, Beast 92, radio check.
Dust-off 01, be advised. You are coming in broken. - I think it's behind that ridge.
I think he's over there. - These canyon walls.
Dust-off 01, be advised. You are coming in broken and unreadable. Say again your last, over.
Goddamn!
I'm getting some kind of interference.
Sounds like he's right above us.
KT, pop a flare.
What the fuck just happened?
Dust-off 01, Dust-off 01, Beast 92.
Hey, he couldn't have crashed. We'd have seen a fireball or heard something.
Dust-off 01, Dust-off 01, Beast 92, are you guys okay?
Dammit!
Why the hell are they on our frequency?
I don't know. - What's he saying?
Abdul, do you understand this? - No, I do not know.
It doesn't really matter at the moment, that chopper has compromised our position.
Yeah? He fuckin' disappeared. - Cole, we don't know that.
We gotta keep moving. We can set up camp up the mountain.
I don't think so. How are we supposed to carry Ski's body up the mountain in the dark?
We don't. We cache his body and call the TOC with an under report.
We can check on him in the morning. - I don't know about that.
What would you like to do then, Degs?
We can't exactly sit here and wait for the bus, can we?
We have to get up that hill and set up a good, defensive position..
When we engage these pricks, I want to be shooting down, not up.
The team is rattled, though they don't admit it.
No point talking about what you can't control.
It's not possible, chief. It's not fucking possible.
I've never given a bad grid in my life. - Then why would they say they were there and we were a no-show?
I don't know why they would say that, chief. I checked and double-checked and tripled-checked those numbers.
Well, someone fucked up.
Jesus Fuckin' Christ!
Guys get up here, check this out!
Who was on first watch? - I was.
You see anything, hear anything? - No, nothing.
I was on second. I didn't see or hear anything either.
This is some messed-up shit, chief. - Somebody's trying to fuck with us.
Degs, Cole, I want you down at the cache site. See if you can find Ski's body. Watch your asses and get back here ASAP.
KT, I want us out of here in 15 mikes.
Abdul, you know where there's water around here? Now would be the time.
Because if we don't get some in the next 24 hours, we're gonna be in deep shit.
Fuckin' savages.
Sydney, Sydney, this is Bucks.
Chief, KT.
Take a look at that. - You gotta ne kiddin' me.
What do you think that is? - I have no idea.
I don't think we wanna stick around to find out what's behind door number one. Let's get outta here.
I get the feeling they knew we would be coming.
Keynes, let's go.
The longer I'm out here, the more I'm convinced that I won't find the loose nuke when this is all over.
That little voice in my head is just waiting to say I told you so.
Everybody hydrate. Don't try saving that shit.
How far is this watering hole?
Using those two peaks as a refence, I'd say another 10 or 12 miles according to the map.
I hope you're sure about this, Abdul. - I'm sure.
It is a small oasis. Farmers water their animals,
when taking them to the highlands.
Chief, you better have a look at this.
My compass is telling me that that's north, but unless the Sun started rising in the south and nobody told me about it...
I'd say we're being hit by some pretty heavy magnetic interference here.
Must be the iron in these rocks.
How about the sat-phone? - Still nothing.
Pete, you got anything on the GPS?
Got nothing.
Abdul, I guess you're driving.
Pete, point. - Okay.
Move out.
These guys don't want to admit it but Abdul is the most valuable man on our team right now
We might as well be on another planet.
Any movement?
No. - Alright. We're gonna clear it.
Chief, we may be best advised not to engage.
Our mission here is to kill terrorists. Anything else is fuckin' paperwork. 344