Part 16 (2/2)
”Kat and Gypsy, on me. Line of skirmishers. When you are on line, sound off.”
Two minutes later Bravo Squad had double-timed to the left to get into position and the last Alpha Squad man checked in.
”Let's do it, walking a.s.sault fire. One round every five seconds. No automatic. Let's do it, now.”
The first shots sounded in the quiet desert darkness. Then the shots came one after another as the men and two women marched forward. Kat set her mouth in a firm line and triggered her MP-5 every five seconds. Beside her Gypsy fired her AK-47 from the hip, aiming at the dark bulk of the crane and backhoe ahead of them. For a moment there was no return fire. Then a few shots came from the two vehicles.
”Automatic fire, let's run forward,” Murdock barked into the radio. At once the firing increased as the weapons went fully automatic in five-round bursts. It staggered as they changed magazines; then it picked up again.
Murdock came to the crane first. The long arm had slumped into the depression that had been the bomb factory. He took cover behind the smashed cab and could hear no more return fire. He pulled out the large, two-cell flashlight Jaybird had brought for him and, holding it at arm's length, s.h.i.+ned it around. A shot came from the right and he turned and fired six rounds from the 5.56 Bull Pup into the area.
There were no more shots from anyone in or near the bomb factory. More flashlights came on and s.h.i.+ned into the hole. Murdock stood at the very edge and looked down fifteen feet. A man lay there holding up one arm. The other arm was a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.s.
”Okay, okay, okay,” the Arab shouted.
”Rafii, on me,” Murdock shouted. ”Just behind the crane.” Rafii ran up beside his CO.
”Man down there. Talk to him.”
Rafii leaned down and shouted in Arabic at the man below.
”You in the hole. Anyone else alive down there?”
”No, two with me but they are dead. All dead. Artillery sh.e.l.ls. All dead.”
The side of the dug-out hole next to the slanting roof of concrete had a sloping side.
”I'm going down,” Rafii said.
”Go,” Murdock said.
Rafii slid down the side with his flashlight beam playing on the wounded man. He checked the Iraqi quickly, took a pistol he had, and looked around. He aimed his light around the open s.p.a.ce between the slanted roof slab and the concrete wall it rested on. Then Rafii vanished under the slab. He came back to the side a moment later.
”Skipper, looks like the real thing down here. Better send Kat down with her gear. Two big mothers, fifteen, sixteen feet long. Lots of metal and wires. Fat little jobs, maybe four feet across.”
”Any more Iraqis down there?”
”Don't see any, Skipper.”
”I'm coming down with three men to clear the area before we risk Kat.”
Kat had knelt down beside Murdock.
”I'll wait here,” Kat said. She snapped on her flashlight to check below. At once a rifle fired from down near the end of the fallen roof. Another rifle answered it on automatic fire. Murdock recognized the heavy sound of the AK-47. The rounds came from the top of the ground. It had to be Gypsy firing. When the shooting stopped after twelve to fifteen shots, they heard a scream from across the way, then silence.
Murdock took the closest three men and went over the side and down to the bottom. They worked into the vacant area under the slanted slab. The spot they had to clear was only thirty feet deep and ten feet high at the wall. The fallen roof tapered down rapidly and hit the concrete floor of the structure fifteen feet from the side.
”I've got two KIAs,” Jaybird said on the radio.
”I've got another down and dead,” Luke Howard reported.
”Any live ones?” Murdock asked.
”None here. Clear in this section the farthest back,” Jaybird said. ”I'd say were clear.”
”Clear,” Murdock repeated. ”Kat, come on down but be careful. How many flashlights you want down here to light your work?”
”Four should be enough. I'm sliding down.”
Murdock met her at the edge of the cut and lit her way back to the first large device. Kat checked it from one end to the other.
”It's the real thing. I need to take off two panels and put in the explosives. I don't have the C-4. I want two pounds for each one.”
Murdock used the radio. ”Who has the C-4? We need eight of the quarter pounders. Gather it up and get it down here.”
As he spoke, he heard gunfire on the surface. Then the radio came on.
”We're taking incoming,” Bradford said. ”We're coming over the side and into the hole.”
Just then an explosion rocked the fallen-in roof of the factory twenty feet behind where the backhoe stood.
”Come on in,” Murdock said on the Motorola.
”Yeah, getting a line on the shooters,” Gardner said. ”Look to be about a hundred yards north of us. Putting twenties on them now.”
Murdock stood in the opening. One more rocket came in. It went high overhead and hit in the middle of the fallen-in roof. Murdock figured it was a shoulder-fired rocket. He heard the twenties going off.
”Oh yeah,” Gardner said. ”We got them pinned with the twenties. Now Fernandez is picking them off using the thermal imager. We figure there were about ten of them. Not more than two or three left who can move. Get on with your work down there.”
”That's a roger, Gardner. Protect our backs here. Good work. See you soon.” He looked around and saw most of his men, who had slid into the hole when the shooting came.
”Where's Gypsy?” he asked Jaybird.
”Haven't seen her.”
”Gypsy, you have your radio on?” Murdock called. There was no response. ”Gypsy, are you down, hurt? Where are you?”
Nothing.
”I want all but four of you back up to the top and find Gypsy. She must be hit or she'd respond. Move it.”
The men crawled up the slope and over the top. Murdock went inside to where two men each held two flashlights. Kat had used impact wrenches and screwdrivers and had removed a two-foot-square panel near the nose of the first bomb.
She took one of the lights and looked inside.
”Oh, yeah, they got it right, but it's easy enough to blow apart. We'll blow up the trigger and fusing end and leave nothing that can set off the chain reaction.”
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