Ambush

23

Murdock and Lam came back to the compound at the Eagle’s Nest just as the mop-up finished. There were thirty-eight dead in the barracks, on the grounds, and in the house. The four prisoners had been questioned, and the most promising was questioned again by Juan.

The session had been brutal and direct. By the time Juan had sliced off the man’s second finger he’d told them all he knew, including where the hostages had been taken.

General Domingo called for two helicopters to come pick up the SEALs and Rangers and move them back to Lebak, where they would evaluate the rebel’s information and plan the next attack.

“Twelve hostages are still out there,” General Domingo said. “Our job is to go out and find them.”

The night landings, one at a time by the choppers, were tricky in the small LZ in back of the big house, but they came in. First loaded were the six women hostages, most in their forties and fifties. Then the SEALs went into the same bird and it took off. General Domingo and the Rangers followed in the second forty-six.

When they landed at Lebak, they learned that the general had arranged for the hostages to stay in the town’s only hotel and eat there as well.

“Ladies, you will be flown by helicopter to Davao in the morning,” Murdock told them.

“That’s where our tour started from,” one of the ladies said as they were being driven from the improvised landing pad to the hotel.

“My name is Sadie Benjamin and I’m from Oregon. My first trip to the Philippines, and after this, it’s gonna be my last.”

“Sadie, you’re a spoilsport,” a little lady with blue-tinted white hair said. “Why, we haven’t even been to Manila yet. I’m going there and the tour company is going to pay for it.”

Murdock led them into the small hotel, and the manager met them at the front desk. Murdock waved and hurried back out the door.

He rode back to the landing pad, and met the CH-46 as it landed with the Rangers and General Domingo.

Mahanani had treated the wounded Ranger as best he could at the Eagle’s Nest. Now the Ranger was driven in a sedan to the only doctor in town. The rifle bullet had gone in his chest and hadn’t come out. There was considerable bleeding. Mahanani said he thought the slug must have shattered and had caused a lot of damage. The hospital corpsman gave the Ranger two shots of morphine and got the outside bleeding stopped, but he wondered about internal bleeding.

General Domingo stayed with the wounded Ranger, while Murdock got the men into bunks for the rest of the night. He kept Jaybird, Lam, Sadler, Juan, and DeWitt up to talk over what they had found out. The rebel had given them all he knew. The second hidden camp was south of Lebak about ten miles. It also was in the jungle off the road toward the mountains, but not up so high. The man guessed there were no more than ten or fifteen men there, but they had some of the new weapons. They included RPGs (rocket-powered grenades), a fifty-caliber machine gun, and an armored personnel carrier that they had captured months ago from the Army.

“Some heavy hitters there,” Jaybird squawked. “Where they get that kind of firepower?”

“Good old bin Laden,” Saddler said. “He dropped three million dollars on them. Buy a lot of firepower with that.”

“So how do we counter it?” Murdock asked.

“If we can’t take out the equipment and the firepower, we take out the men who run the weapons,” Lam said. “Without men the fucking fifty-caliber don’t shoot up nobody.”

“Amen to that, brother,” DeWitt said.

“This time they’ll be on the alert for anyone and everyone,” Murdock said. “And I’d bet my grandma’s petticoat that they will use the hostages as shields.”

General Domingo came into the warehouse they had turned into a barracks. He carried his hat and he slapped it against his leg.

“We lost him. Ranger Carlos Flores died on the doctor’s table. The bullet shattered into his lung and collapsed it and caused all sorts of hell. The doctor said Flores died of internal bleeding and there was no way he could stop it with a dike.”

“Sorry,” Murdock said. “Should be a medal for his family.”

“There will be. These are all volunteers I’ve got.” He shook his head, trying to get out of the downcast mood. He checked around the small operations table. “Any ideas where we’re going next?”

“Looks like we wait until daylight,” Sadler said. “Then we take both choppers up with ten sets of eyes and do a recon on any structures east of the highway and about ten miles south of Lebak.”

“What if he has a wilderness camp tucked in under a double canopy down there in the jungle?” DeWitt asked. “If he’s down there, there’s no way we could spot him.”

“Not a chance this man would have a primitive camp,” General Domingo said. “We learned his name. He’s Muhammad Al Hillah. I remember him. He was in the Army for three or four years. He was one of my sublieutenants. Always was a bit out of kilter. Something just not quite straight and true. He was a perfectionist. He also was the most creature-comfort guy I’d ever seen. He had to have the latest and best of everything. Roughing it for him was going from his air-conditioned sedan to his air-conditioned quarters.

“He’s a good tactician, good basic military mind, but he’s also an idealist. Right now he’s trying to create the Muslim state of Mindanao, and he’s been doing all he can to bring it about. We got the name of the man from the second prisoner Juan persuaded.”

“You think an air recon will work?” Lam asked.

“Yes,” Domingo said at once. “It’s all we have. We use both choppers with the best recon eyes we have. We’ll take off at daylight. Now let’s see about getting these men down for some sleep. We’ll get a re-issue of ammunition and supplies in the morning. I’m calling Davao for two more choppers to be landing here with first light. Then we’ll get the hostages on their way to Davao, and send Ranger Flores back to that town as well.” He nodded at them and headed for the door. “See you in the morning.”

Morning came too early for Murdock. He groaned as he slid out of the bunk and pulled on his pants. He was dressed two minutes later, with his combat harness, and took his Bull Pup as he went to the door. Sadler was rousting out the spotters they would take: Jaybird, Lam, Bradford, and Mahanani. DeWitt would be along, three SEALs in each chopper along with three Rangers.

It was just coming light as the six SEALs hiked two blocks to the improvised landing pad on a vacant area across from the city hall. General Domingo was already there with his team. He assigned three Rangers to the second chopper, accepted the three SEALs, and walked over for a conference with Murdock.

“About ten miles down, as that prisoner told us, really could be anywhere from three to fifteen. We’ll look sharp for any buildings and when we find one, even a house, we’ll buzz it and if needed, land and investigate. Just the idea that we might land should be enough to bring out some kind of attack from them. There will be some farmers in there, I think. I don’t know what else. Let’s take a look. Oh, I have one of the Motorolas for commo.”

Murdock nodded and climbed into the forty-six. He wondered how old it was. Did they buy it new or was it a retread from a U.S. surplus sale?

Five minutes later they had slowed to a crawl in the sky as they cruised over the jungle growth of the heavy rain area just off the highway south. They had seen only one building so far, a cabin in a small clearing that wouldn’t hold six people, let alone the hostages and a guard force.

The pilot did a gentle S-turn search pattern, so they had a good look at the area, some of it from two or three angles. A series of plowed fields showed with two terraces to extend the arable land farther up the slope of the mountain. At the far side of them were half a dozen buildings, but most were small, and some had nipa-thatched roofs and woven-reed sidewalls.

“Don’t think so,” Murdock said as the other chopper circled the buildings.

“Right, too small, too much in the open.”

They searched another five miles, working slowly along the widening plain, but found nothing.

At the ten-mile mark they found a road that angled off the main highway and arrowed into the jungle growth up the side of the first ridge.

“Could be interesting,” Murdock said. They followed the road, which often vanished under the canopy of trees. Twice they saw buildings along the road, but they too were too small. They came to the end of the road, found only more trees and the mountain extending upward, and retraced their pattern to the road.

Back at the highway, they moved south again, and checked out two more roads into the jungle and up the side of the steep ridge. Nothing.

By noon they had found no trace of any setup that looked as if it could be a hostage camp. They went back to Lebak, ate at an improvised chow hall, and met again over the planning table.

“What else did the rebel say when you questioned him?” Murdock asked Juan.

“Most of it I’ve told you. He said their leader talked to them every day to keep up their morale, to keep them fired up. He said one day Muhammad told them he was just like they were. While he wasn’t afraid to die for Allah, he’d just as soon serve him alive for another fifty years or so. Then he told them he could go to ground if he needed to. He didn’t always have to perch in the trees watching his enemies.”

Murdock frowned. “Go to ground? What could he mean by that?”

“I asked the rebel. He said he had no idea. Nobody in his group could figure it out. Their leader often said things they didn’t understand. They had learned not to question him about them.”

“To go into hiding,” Jaybird said.

“Yeah, but more than that,” Lam said. “He said he could come down out of the trees. That would be the Eagle’s Nest. Then he said he could go to ground. What the hell?”

DeWitt grinned. “Hey, go to ground means he’s hiding. What did a lot of guys do during World War II? They went underground. Some of them literally in caves.”

“General Domingo,” Sadler said. “Are there any caves around this area? Would some of the locals know?”

The general said they should. He nodded at Lieutenant Quezon. “Take ten men and canvas the town. Find out about local caves. Bring anybody back here who knows where caves are that are big enough to hold a couple dozen people.”

The young officer saluted and hurried outside.

For no good reason, Murdock thought about Don Stroh. He had really come through for them this time with his underhanded, back-room, devious methods to get Colonel Alvarez sacked. Great job. It was that or dump the whole project. Murdock should check in with Stroh, tell him about Tran. He could use the SATCOM.

“Bradford,” Murdock bellowed. The big guy who did marine oil paintings in his spare time looked up from his bunk and came jogging over.

“Yes, sir, Skipper.”

“Where the hell is our SATCOM? Why didn’t we have it when we hit the hill out there in that forty-six?”

“SATCOM, sir? You didn’t tell me to bring it. No specific instructions.”

Murdock covered his face and nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Okay. I figured by now you knew that the SATCOM was like a part of your skin. You never go anywhere without it, unless specifically instructed. Like on a training swim. Otherwise, you keep that motherfucker in your hand, on your back, or in your pack at all goddamn times. Do you read me, Mr. Bradford?”

“Yes, sir. I…” He stopped.

“That’s all, sailor. I’ll try to have one brought out here on the next chopper run to Davao.”

Ten minutes later, General Domingo sent a radio message through their chopper to find the SATCOM in the SEALs gear and have it on the next helicopter flight to Lebak.

Lieutenant Quezon and three of the men came jogging into the warehouse.

“Sir, we’ve found two men who know about the caves. They’re working in their business and say they can’t leave it right now. They told us the caves are about eight miles south, up against the mountain at the end of a road. The road isn’t good. The caves themselves are large, maybe five hundred feet deep and twenty feet high to the rocky ceiling. Both are dry and were used in ancient days for dwellings. Some say there are extremely old drawings on the walls.

“The men say as far as they know no one is using them now for anything. At one time they were used for storing things. During the war the Japanese stored ammunition and explosives in them. But one of the men thinks all of that has long since been hauled away.”

General Domingo left with the three Rangers. “I’ll bring one of them back as a guide,” he said. “Get the troops resupplied with whatever they need. We’ll be flying out in a half hour.”

“Be damned,” Lam said. “No wonder we didn’t see anything. A cave. Cut fresh greenery every day and use it for camouflage to cover the front of the cave, and nobody could find it in a year.”

“Now that we know it’s there, we take out the camo with two contact twenty rounds, and then blow about a dozen more into the cave and let them explode inside,” Jaybird said. “If it has a rock ceiling, the shrapnel is going to ricochet all over the place.”

They checked their ammo supply, filled pouches, and then added some extra, cleaned weapons and monitored the charging batteries on the EARs.

Senior Chief Sadler reported to Murdock. “Skipper, the platoon is resupplied and ready to rumble. The men are asking about chow. Yep, they are hungry again.”

When the general came back, he had with him a small truck filled with boxes of sandwiches, big urns of coffee, and baskets of fruit.

“We eat and then we fly,” he said.

A small Filipino man, who looked like he could be seventy-five, came with the general, and now stood to one side watching everything. He munched on a sandwich, his eyes wide looking at the weapons.

Lam walked over and talked to him.

“Yes, the cave. I remember when the Japanese made us carry boxes of shells and weapons up the road to the caves. We worked at it for two weeks. One cave was full of guns and explosives. The officers lived in the other smaller cave.”

“When was that?” Lam asked.

“Back during the big war, in 1942.”

“That was fifty-nine years ago,” Lam said.

The old man smiled. “It doesn’t seem like that long ago.” He shook his head. “Things change so much. Now the Japanese are our friends.”

Twenty minutes later they loaded in the helicopters and took off. The dirt road they flew up from the highway was one they had been along before. They’d come back that time finding nothing that looked like a rebel camp. This time the old Filipino stood beside the pilot directing him. They went up almost to the edge of the slope, then turned back.

“Yes, there, there. See where those branches have been cut and put over the entrance? I can see it. Yes, still there. Now find a place to land.”

The landing place was a half mile down on the road where the trees had been cut away. Both birds landed, and the men charged out and into the jungle cover.

“Can they see us from the caves?” Murdock asked the old man.

“Oh, yes, can see the whole valley out here. Good binoculars I bet they have.”

“Let’s get moving,” Murdock said. He marched his men through the cover of the trees, and was closely followed by the Rangers. Less than a minute after they left the choppers, the SEALs heard a heavy fifty-caliber machine gun thundering away ahead of them. The men dove for the sides of the road.

But the rounds weren’t coming at the men. Behind them Murdock saw the big explosive fifty-caliber rounds drilling into the helicopter closest to the mountain. The rotors were still going as the rounds chopped them up, splintered them, and riddled the cabin and engine. Then the chopper exploded in a huge fireball.

The second chopper lifted off at once and darted away from the danger. It made it away safely.

Murdock screamed at the gunner, then moved to where he had an open shot at the end of the road. He aimed a 20mm round at the cliff where he thought the cave mouth might be, and fired. He saw the round hit and explode, and then he fired again. He put three rounds into what he thought was the entrance to the cave. There was no more fire from the fifty. But it had no target. Murdock and the rest of the men jogged forward toward the cave. Now they knew for sure that this cave must be the spot where the hostages were being kept. Murdock set his jaw when he realized they had just seen some of the results of Osama bin Laden’s generosity. His cash must have been used to buy the fifty-caliber machine gun. As they jogged forward, Murdock wondered what other heavy weapons that Muhammad might have were now set up and ready to use defending the cave.