Part 25 (2/2)
”The bomb couldn't have been up that far in the plane,” Murdock said. ”Let's go around this and get to that big section of the fuselage.”
Before Lam could move out, a rifle blasted from ahead and a single bullet tore into Bradford's left shoulder. The six SEALs dropped into the brush and rolled behind trees. Two more shots came with the flat, booming sound that could only be an AK-47.
”I caught one in the shoulder,” Bradford said.
Mahanani crawled over to him and went to work.
The shots came from the half of the fuselage ahead of them fifty yards. Murdock motioned for Lam and Prescott to circle to the left. He and Canzoneri went to the right. ”Halfway,” Murdock whispered.
Lam led out crawling through the brush and vines for ten yards to the left, then he stood beside a tree and looked at the crash. He shook his head and moved forward, down the gentle slope for thirty yards, slithering through the vines and brush by crawling, not walking. Easier that way, he knew, but slower. Prescott came behind him, following the scout's lead. This time when Lam stood in back of a tree, he saw they were directly opposite the large piece of the airliner, but forty yards away. He saw no shooters. He waited. Two minutes later a man in cammies dropped out of the broken-off rear section of the fuselage and worked slowly forward. He carried a rifle.
Lam moved his selector to 5.56 barrel and zeroed in on the man. Brush and trees got in the way of Lam's sightline. Then the man stepped ahead and the brush thinned, and Lam triggered off three rounds. The gunfire in the softly silent jungle sounded like thunder, then it quieted again.
The man with the rifle turned, as if surprised anyone was near him; then he bent in half, dropped the rifle, and sprawled in the edge of the stream beside the airliner. For ten minutes nothing moved around the broken aircraft. Then a machine gun chattered off two twelve-round bursts. The sound came from the other side of the crash site, twenty feet up the slope. The bullets snarled and thudded and ripped through the trees and brush around where Lam and Prescott lay. None hit them.
”Hear that, Cap? We've got a chatter gun on your side of the crash.”
”Heard it. We pulled back. We almost ran into a squad of twenty men. Some in uniforms, some in civvies. A ragtag bunch, but all have good-looking rifles and then that d.a.m.n machine gun. Pull back to where we were, and we'll try to figure this thing out.
”Roger that,” Lam said, and he and Prescott started their slow but invisible crawl back to their a.s.sembly point.
The six men lay in an arc aimed at the aircraft, watching for any movement toward them. ”We pull back to the end of the trail,” Murdock said. He checked his watch. Almost noon. He made a radio call, and the sputtering sound of the chopper came in.
”Read you, groundlings.”
”Sky man, cut out for the city. Bring back the rest of the platoon. Stuff them all in your bird. Remind them to bring MREs and double ammo. Land where you did before. We'll have a guide to meet them. Do not fly over the crash site. We have some unfriendlies there.”
”Understand. How many men?”
”Ten men. We don't need any more axes or machetes. Get them here as fast as you can.”
”Roger and wilco.”
Lam frowned. ”Haven't heard that word for years. 'Wilco,' that means what, will obey your command?”
”Close enough,” Murdock said. ”Now let's get back and set up a base camp at the pond. Bradford, how is the shoulder?”
”Not the best, Skipper. But I can still do the duty.”
”Good. Canzoneri, you heard the transmission. You've got two hours to get up the hill and to the brush beside that burn LZ. Then bring the rest of the troops down here. We'll wait until it gets dark, then move in on a black raid and try to take them out. The twenties won't work as well in all this brush and trees, but we'll get their attention. Where in h.e.l.l did Fouad get twenty-six to thirty men for an operation like this? And is the mastermind still alive or did he go down with the plane?”
”Oh, he's down and dead,” Lam said. ”He probably left instructions for the worst scenario. This is it, and somebody recruited a bunch of loyalists or mercenaries to come in and check out the bird and rescue the bomb if possible.”
”A lot like us,” Murdock said. ”Only we haven't seen a chopper from the bad guys.”
”We will,” Lam said, ”tomorrow.”
Ten minutes later, Lam moved over to Murdock.
”Cap, I'm going out as an FO. I don't feel good not watching that site down there. We should know what they're doing.”
”Right. Go. Be careful. Keep your radio on.”
Twenty minutes later Lam was on the net.
”Hey, Cap, funny stuff going on down here. Not sure what. I hear what might be hammers. Some pounding. Maybe they're trying to get the bomb out of the crate. Would it be in a wooden crate?”
”Could be. If you see anyone outside, pick them off, then move like crazy. Wonder if we should send a couple of twenty-millimeter rounds into the trees over the crash. Might slow them down.”
”I'd vote for that. Let me move a little so I can see the scene better. You have to move to get a clear shot?”
”Some. I'll let you know before we fire.”
Murdock motioned to Fernandez, and they moved down the trail they had made to the burn swath. Still out two hundred yards to the body of the wreck, they stopped.
”One round each, airburst in the trees uphill on that blind side of the aircraft,” Murdock told Fernandez. ”Lam, two rounds, you clear?”
”More than clear here.”
They fired, and the resulting airbursts in the trees showered the top of the crashed airliner with hundreds of chunks of shrapnel. It could do great bodily harm to anyone in the open near the back of the length of fuselage.
”Well, the pounding stopped,” Lam said. ”n.o.body is venturing out on this side of the plane. The body that was there has been taken away.”
”Watch and wait. We have another two hours before we will have our whole platoon in hand. Then we figure out exactly what we're going to do as soon as it gets dark.”
Lam kept watch on the crash site. The hammering had stopped and didn't start again. He reported spotting no one at the scene.
”What the f.u.c.k are they up to?” Lam asked on the radio.
”No good, count on that,” Bradford said. He was moving his shoulder and arm to keep it functioning.
At sixteen-hundred, Canzoneri came back with the rest of the platoon. They all wanted to look at the crash site, and Murdock sent them up two at a time to the closest viewing spot.
”No noise and don't make the brush shake or you'll get a machine gun searching for you with hot lead,” Murdock told them.
Just at dark they settled down for an MRE dinner. They were the new ones that heated up when you broke a seal. After that they huddled and Murdock laid it out.
”Tonight we take them out,” Murdock said. ”Here is how we're going to do it.”
30.
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