Part 41 (1/2)
Ben looked at Dan. ”You finish it, Dan.”
”I never presume to know what is in another man's mind,” the ex-Sas man said primly.
”Horses.h.i.+t!” Ben replied.
”You've been hanging around Ike too long, General. How crude. Very well. I would draw the Rebels back several hundred meters; put them deep in the timber. Then just as soon as Hartline's people pa.s.sed, and I mean within seconds, I would move the Rebels into the abandoned bunkers, reposition the mortars and other artillery, and use the mercenaries”
own weapons against them. That's what I'd do.”
”But suppose Hartline has b.o.o.by-trapped his bunkers and artillery and tanks?” Tina asked.
”No time,” Ben said. ”This would be a snap decision on Sam's part. I know he called a meeting early this afternoon. In his bunker. I ordered adouble bino watch. Those behind the long lenses report no unusual activity. Any type of behavior other than what we've grown accustomed to would be a dead give away on Sam's part. Dan, start pulling the Rebels back. Give Sam a chute to use. He may fall for it, he may not. I'm betting he will.”
”Yes, sir.”
Nina fought away her feelings of suicide. She had been a survivor all her life; she was not going to quit now.
She had thought once Khamsin had his way with her-how long had it been?-a week, she guessed-then he would leave her alone.
It was not to be.
The man was worse than a goat. She had endured the a.s.saults as silently and stoically as humanly possible.
The only thing about her that had improved was her feet. Most of the pain was now gone, but her tortured toes were still very tender.
She heard footsteps in the hall. A guard knocked on her door. Nina swung her feet off the bed and carefully slid her feet into house slippers.
”Yes?” ”The colonel is ready for you, woman.”
”Charmed, I'm sure,” Nina muttered. Ike!
she thought. Where are you, Ike? Please, Ike-hurry!
Ike was less than two miles away. He and his team had been in the Columbia area for several days. They had slipped in at night, moving carefully, and just as carefully mapping out Colonel Khamsin's headquarters, where Nina was being held.
The last member of the IPA patrol that Ike had questioned had broken under Ike's knife, spilling his guts-literally.
Ike and his team had moved out for the Columbia area before the terrorist's body had cooled.
”Okay, gang,” Ike said. ”It has to be tonight. We've already pushed our luck too hard. One more recon of the area is not only useless, but risky.
We go in at midnight.”
Ike and his team were on the second floor of an old warehouse. Ike knew how they were going to get Nina out; but then getting away was quite another matter.
Ike looked at his radio operator. ”You got the other teams on the horn, scrambled?”
”Yes, sir.”
”Tell them at exactly midnight, on the dot, I want diversion strikes all along the borders, as many as possible. I wanna shake Khamsin's people up. For fifteen minutes, minimum, get our people on the borders to throw everything they've got into South Carolina.
That's all the time we're gonna have, people. Fifteen minutes to get in, grab Nina, and get out.”
Ike glanced at his team. ”Let's take it fromstep one, people.”
”I'm at the gate,” a Rebel said.
”I drive the truck,” the second Rebel said.
”I carry Nina,” a big Rebel said. ”In case she's been tortured and can't walk.”
”I start the fires,” a woman Rebel spoke quietly.
”And you and me,” Ike said, looking at another Rebel. ”We bust her out.”
The radio operator was busy transmitting Ike's orders.
Ike glanced at his watch. ”Let's go.”
Ben glanced at his watch, then at Tina.
”Everybody pulled back, girl?”
”Yes, sir. Hartline's got a hole wide enough to stampede cattle through.”
He should be making bug-out any second.”
His walkie-talkie crackled.
”Speak,” Ben said.
”Bugging out, sir,” came the whispered report.
”And traveling pretty light.”
”Keep your head down,” Ben ordered.
Up and down the lines of pulled-back Rebels, the scouts radioed in to Ben. Sam Hartline and his men were bugging out.
Ben looked at his daughter. ”It won't take Sam long to realize he's been had. But by then, I'm hoping, he'll be past the point of no return. But either way, we can still kick the s.h.i.+t out of him.”
”Gonna finish him this time, Dad?” Tina asked.
”I'm going to give it my best shot, girl.”
”Too easy,” Hartline whispered to his aide.