Ambush

22

Murdock lined up his men in the usual marching order, with Lam out in front by twenty yards. Even that close, it was hard to see him sometimes in the gloom of the rain forest. Murdock was behind him, then Alpha Squad with Juan attached, and then Bravo Squad. Lieutenant (j.g.) DeWitt acted as rear guard. They went single file at five-yard intervals. The Philippine sergeant went with the general. Murdock had assigned Bill Bradford to go with the general’s platoon with the Bull Pup and twelve rounds of 20mm. Miguel Fernandez took one of the EAR weapons and joined the Filipino platoon.

The narrow plain here next to the Moro Gulf was about two miles wide; then the mountains rose up in a series of gentle ridges, each one higher than the last. Murdock didn’t know how high they were, but the highest peak in Mindanao and in the Philippines was Mount Apo at over 9,600 feet. These hills were far lower than that, but dirty to climb.

The rain-forest jungle was unrelenting as they worked their way up one ridge after another one. Now and then they could spot the splash of lights above them that they knew must be the target, the Eagle’s Nest.

Murdock called a halt after an hour. He went on the net. “General, we’re taking a break, figure about halfway up. How is it going?”

“We’re about the same place. Tough going at night. We should surprise them. Your two men are doing well.”

“Reception is good. This is as far apart as we will be. I’ll check later when we turn toward the target.”

They went back to the climb. It was tougher now, over the roots and vines and around the branches and trees. There were all kinds of trees here they didn’t have names for except the huge towering mahogany. They came to the top of a ridge, and ahead and to the left they could see the Eagle’s Nest. It was still above them on the next slope below the ridgeline. This was their last one. Now they could swing to the left and approach the target.

Murdock talked with Lam and they moved in that direction. There were still some slopes to climb, but not all the way up the ridge. That was progress.

Murdock called in the change in direction to the general. “Figure about twenty minutes to be in position,” Murdock said.

“We’re not quite that far along,” General Domingo said. “Hold your attack position until we contact you.”

“Roger that, General,” Murdock said, and moved quicker before he lost Lam in the darkness.

It took twenty-five minutes before Lam stopped, and Murdock almost stepped on him.

“Here we are,” Lam whispered. They were fifty yards from the blazing lights.

“We’re fifty yards out and holding,” Murdock said on the net.

“Give us ten minutes and we’ll be there,” Domingo said.

“I didn’t figure on all these lights,” Lam said.

“Might help us,” Murdock said. “We use the EAR to take out the guards and anyone we can see. Then when someone investigates, they are lit up like in a shooting gallery.”

“Right. And if we need to douse those lights we can do it with a few rounds later.”

“Wish we knew where the hostages are. Then we could put about six twenties into the barracks and wipe out half of their guard force.”

“We might do it yet. After we hit the guards with the EAR, a recon might be worthwhile.”

“You trying to get yourself killed, Lampedusa?” Murdock asked. He grinned. “Yeah, a recon might be good. But if we do one, I’m going with you.”

They waited.

The radio earpieces chirped.

“In place, fifty yards out, and setting up fields of fire,” General Domingo said.

“Right. We’re in position. We have a small exposed part here where we have excellent fire lanes. So far we’ve seen only one guard. He’s near the main house. Haven’t seen any roving guards. Must be some. Suggest we wait for twenty and check.”

“That’s a roger, Commander.”

“General, do your troops have any silencers on their weapons?”

“No.”

“We’re thinking of a recon after we use the EAR. Lam and I would go in and locate the hostages. Take out any guards who saw us with silenced rounds, then ID the guards’ barracks for a batch of twenties. You approve?”

“Let’s use the twenties when ready and see what reaction we get,” Domingo said.

“Roger.”

They waited the rest of the twenty minutes.

“I see one guard working the perimeter fence,” Lam said.

“Another guard on our side walks behind the house and the new barracks building,” one of the Filipino Rangers said.

Five minutes later they had six guards’ positions tied down and knew their routes.

“We’ll do the three we can see here on command,” General Domingo said. “Murdock, you have your man do the guards on that side. Not more than twenty seconds and we should have all of them. That’s with ten seconds between shots.”

“Roger that, General. Our EAR is up to power. Whenever you’re ready.”

“Ready, EAR weapons, aim, and… fire,” Domingo said.

Kenneth Ching took out the guard beside the front of the barracks first, then moved his sights to the roving guard who had just turned from the widest spot on the perimeter fence and started back to the big house. He never made it, crumpling and lying still in the warm night air. Chin nailed the third guard when he ran over to look at the fallen body of the first one.

“Three down,” Ching said.

“Three more hit the dirt,” Fernandez said.

“What about the big house and the windows in the barracks?” Domingo asked.

“Rather do a quick recon,” Murdock said. “We’re home free so far. We’ll take silenced weapons and take a look, then get out of the way when you want to use the EAR or the twenties.”

“Go,” Domingo said.

Murdock and Lam had already arranged to trade weapons, and both headed for the compound with their MP-5’s with silencers attached. They moved without a sound, paused at the edge of the lighted area, then carried the MP- 5’s by the top handles and walked across the lighted area to the edge of the first big building.

They would each check different buildings. Lam ran thorough the shadows to the door on the biggest building. He turned the knob and opened it slowly. Inside, night lights showed a barracks with double bunks, and military gear all over the place. No sign of hostages. He slipped out and closed the door without a sound.

Murdock checked the second large building. One guard had been near the door. He lay sleeping, his rifle a few feet away. Murdock opened the door gently, saw night lights in back, and behind a heavy wire fence partitioning off the far end of the building were bunks and civilian clothes. He ran in and made sure. Eighteen bunks, but only six women in them. He ran soundlessly back to the door, slipped out, and looked for Lam. He didn’t see him.

“Lam,” he said on the radio. “Let’s get out of the lights. Six hostages are in the second big building. We’ve got to check the garage. Might be more hostages in there. Let’s ramble.”

They ran to the garage and found the door open. They looked inside, but it was totally dark. Murdock pulled out his penlight, held it at arm’s distance from his body, and shone it around. A gun blasted from almost in front of him, but the round went under Murdock’s hand where the shooter figured the body would be.

Lam fired two three-round silent bursts into the muzzle flash area, and they heard a soft moan, then a scream and silence. Murdock shone the narrow beam of light ahead and on the floor, and found a rebel lying there with four bullets in his chest and face. They checked the rest of the garage. Two vehicles, some gasoline drums, but no hostages.

“Let’s chogie,” Murdock said.

They ran to the fence where they had come in, and jogged back to their positions just outside the floodlighted zone.

“We have the hostages pinpointed,” Murdock told the net. “General Domingo, there are six women hostages in the big building. We cleared the garage. No guards, no hostages. They must have moved the other twelve. Guessing there aren’t any in the big house. We’ve moving up to twenty-five yards off the fence and are ready. Suggest six EAR rounds into the main house and the barracks. There are at least forty men in there. Let’s put EAR rounds through the windows of the house and barracks until we run out of power. Okay?”

“Yes, let’s do it. Then after the EARs, we do the twenties into the barracks and the main house?” Domingo asked.

“That’s a roger, General. Open fire with the EARs now.”

He heard the whoosh of the EAR round, then ten seconds later a second. Glass smashed at the main house and at the barracks as the blasts of super-accelerated sound smashed inside the buildings. Murdock still didn’t understand exactly how they worked, but they sure did.

“Let’s do the twenties now,” Murdock said. The four twenties fired at the barracks windows, and quickly they heard the rounds exploding inside. Moments later a few half-dressed guards struggled out of the barracks, and the SEALs pounded them with searing streams of hot lead. Murdock heard firing from the other side as the general blasted the big house with the high-explosive 20mm rounds.

Counterfire came from behind the garage area, and two twenty-rounds there silenced those weapons.

“Cease fire on the twenties,” Murdock called. The weapons were silenced, with only an occasional shot coming from the compound.

Suddenly four rebels raced toward the hostages’ building. A 20mm round fired from Murdock’s left, and the round exploded just in front of the running men, cutting them all down into rag dolls bleeding on the grass.

All was quiet. “My men are going in the big house and clean up,” Domingo said. “Murdock, hold fire. We’re at the fence now and going over. We’ll work the big house first and clear it, then the garage, just to make sure, and the barracks last. We’re at the door and going in.”

Murdock and his men waited. They saw lights blink on in the big house. Murdock had heard it had fourteen rooms. The second-story lights snapped off and he heard rifle and submachine-gun fire. Then all was silent.

“Watch for any stragglers,” Murdock said. “If there are any, the sniper rifle is cleared to fire if the target is for sure a rebel.”

They saw none during the next five minutes.

It took an eternity to clear fourteen rooms. At last the earpieces came on.

“Big house cleared. We found six men and four local women. The men are dead. One woman is wounded. The women say there are no guards in the hostage building. We’ll move on to the barracks. We have two wounded, one serious. If we clear the area, we may call for a night evac.”

“Roger, still holding, covering.”

Murdock and the SEALs saw the Rangers move up on the barracks. Firing came from inside. The Rangers went flat against the outside of the building and threw grenades through the broken windows. Then two men forced open the doors and jumped to one side.

The rangers sprayed the inside with submachine-gun fire, then charged inside. Murdock heard only three shots; then lights flared inside the barracks and two more shots sounded.

“Barracks clear,” Domingo said on the Motorola. “We have four prisoners for interrogation.”

“We’ll move up and take over the hostage building,” Murdock said. They were halfway there across the sixty-foot-wide grassy area inside the fence when they saw a section of the lawn near the fence move aside. Two men in rebel green uniforms came out of the ground and sprinted for the fence, and were in the jungle before the SEALs could get off a shot.

“Lam and I, after them,” Murdock said on the net. “The rest of you occupy the hostage area. Go.”

Lam and Murdock charged into the jungle near where the two men had vanished. Just inside the curtain of green, they stopped and listened. Sounds to the left, crashing brush.

They ran that way, dodging around the trees, over vines and brush and a dozen flowering plants. Lam took the lead. He stopped again. For a moment there was no sound; then the steps came again, and the sound of trees and growth being slapped to the side during passage.

They were soon off the flat area near the Eagle’s Nest and charging along the side of the slope that towered over them.

“Gaining,” Lam said. They had their regular weapons again, Murdock his Bull Pup and Lam his Colt 4A1. They jogged through the growth toward the sounds. Lam knelt down again, listening.

No sounds.

He waited. A sound to the left. He pointed that way. Another to the right. They were being attacked. Lam made a down motion, and both dropped to the ground, slid behind trees, and waited.

Nothing happened for five minutes. Then Lam made some sounds, clanked his Carbine barrel against his KA-BAR and then cleared his throat.

Lam had indicated he would take the left. Murdock stared to the right into the jungle, desperately trying to see anything that looked like a green-clad man. The two men charged from different directions. Murdock blasted with the 5.56 Bull Pup on full auto, and saw his rounds nearly slice a man’s form in half. He slammed to the ground six feet from Murdock and never moved.

The second man started to charge, then dodged behind a tree just as Lam fired. The rounds missed. Neither man had fired a shot at the SEALs.

Again a wait. Often in combat the man with the most patience will win, Murdock knew. They waited another five minutes; then Murdock put a dozen rounds into and around the tree that Lam pointed to as the other man’s shelter. The rounds brought no response. Murdock crawled to the side behind cover of a log and some huge trees. Two minutes later he used the radio.

“The tree is bare, he’s slipped away. We lost him.”

They took the dead rebel’s submachine gun and ammo belt and walked back to the compound.

A hundred yards away, the lone survivor of the Eagle’s Nest heard the retreat of the two attackers and gave a sigh of relief. He had escaped them, he always would. He had no idea how the men had been able to attack him. He had double the guards out, and the roadblocks on the highway. He had not been told that both had been destroyed today.

Muhammad Al Hillah, the leader of all the Muslim rebels in Mindanao, leaned against a tree and sucked in air. He was out of shape. Only the tunnel had saved him. If it hadn’t been for that he would be dead or captured. Better dead than captured. He knew how the Army tortured prisoners to get information.

Now he had his fallback position, his number-two camp that almost none of the guards at the Eagle’s Nest knew about. Maybe one. He hoped that man had been killed in the fighting. Now he had a long walk. He couldn’t risk using the road. It would be a hike through the jungles to his new camp. He could go down near the road and walk along the flat country. That would be easier. He had many miles to go. Down past Lebak at least ten miles.

Muhammad shrugged. The night was young, he was strong, and he had his submachine gun. At Lebak he would grab any car he found and use it, without the owner’s approval. The quicker he could get to the secret camp, the better.

He still had negotiating power. He still had those twelve hostages and more than a million dollars in a solid Filipino bank in Davao under another name. Yes, he was down a little now, but with his men in the secret camp, he would survive, and he would win. It was just a matter of time.