Death Blow

21

The SEALs had struggled through two whole days off. They hardly knew what to do with themselves. Ed DeWitt found a new chess opponent in the ward room and they had a best-three-out-of-five series going.

Murdock tried to follow the war. Bangladesh and Nepal were entirely subjugated. Nobody could figure out why. Then word came that ten divisions of Chinese infantry with armor support had moved into Pakistan with the country’s blessings and were concentrating on the Iranian border. Speculation was all over the place about China’s intentions. Murdock couldn’t figure it out. If they wanted territory, why not go for Afghanistan or India? No, India would retaliate with a nuclear weapon and end it in a rush. So Why Iran? True, those Arabs have some oil. Murdock looked it up. Iran has a little over ninety billion barrels of oil reserves. But they also had 1.4 million men under arms.

India was still hot over the resupply of Chinese forces in Bangladesh. The Chinese planes had to fly over a small strip of India to get to Bangladesh. The shortest route was sixty miles across India between China and Bangladesh. Twice India had threatened to shoot down any more transports. Then a day ago they did, downing three large transport planes that had no fighter escort.

Today, China announced that MiG fighters would now escort their unarmed supply transports across the line into Bangladesh. India had asked for U.S. assistance, calling on the mutual defense treaty with the United States. They asked for an AWACS plane to monitor the area for Chinese flights, and for fighter aircraft to help counter the MiG escorts. Washington was taking the request under advisement. India said they must have the help within four days or it would not be of any value.

Murdock put down a confidential bulletin he had from Don Stroh and shook his head. “What the hell are we doing in this mess anyway, Stroh? Do we really have a mutual defense treaty with India?”

“Of a sort. It’s a broad multinational thing that covers many areas, and it could be interpreted as being for military aid when attacked. That’s what State is churning around about. No worry about that for a while. What the Washington boys are really wondering about is China and Pakistan. Word leaking out is that China is not looking at Pakistan as a partner in this crazy war. We’re not sure why, but relations between the former allies seem to be weakening and could collapse.”

“That with three hundred thousand Chinese troops now inside Pakistan where they were invited guests?” Murdock asked. “That’s like inviting a fox into your chicken coop.”

“Could well be. In the meantime, State and New Delhi are whipping up a new wrinkle. They want to launch what looks like an attack on Nepal and see how the Chinese react. Will they fight to hold the country or was that just a warm up for the rest of the war? We could find out fairly soon.”

“A fake attack, timed charges, loudspeakers, tapes of machine, and mortar fire, the whole thing,” Murdock said. At least we won’t have to worry about that one.”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Stroh asked. “Something is coming through channels right now, but then I can’t talk about it.”

Murdock sat up straighter in the ward room where he and Stroh were working on coffee. “Of course you can’t talk to me about it, but if you were simply thinking out loud…” The men looked at each other and laughed.

“Yeah, I think out loud a lot. That’s what gets me in trouble with the brass around here. Remember I was thinking about that fake attack on Nepal and the Chinese. I didn’t tell you but there could be the SEALs’ name tag on that one. If it comes through. Hell, a walk in the park. Anyway, you guys are getting bored just sitting here eating three times a day, sleeping ten hours. Hey, your men must be going nuts.”

“Yeah, that’s straight. Me too. Nepal. Why don’t they just base us in Calcutta for a while? We’ll be a lot closer to the action.”

“You could be a lot closer tomorrow.” Stroh held up both hands. “Hey, you didn’t hear it from me. I’m just having a cup of java here with some wild-assed SEAL. I know nothing.”

“Yeah, you and Sergeant Schultz from the old Bob Crane TV series about the Stalag Seventeen WW two prison camp.” They both chuckled.

“Well, guess I better get busy and see if my guys are up on their shots and everything.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Sailor. Me, I got to go see a movie.”

Murdock finished his coffee and headed for the SEAL compartment. He had some getting ready to do.

He stopped by at the hospital. Every day he visited Vinnie Van Dyke. He was improving. The red tag was off his chart. In another week he should be well enough to be flown back to Balboa Hospital.

“Vinnie, you didn’t miss a thing in Hong Kong. We didn’t even get shore leave.”

“You guys took down a whole damn luxury liner?”

“Just the bad guys onboard, about thirty of them as I recall. They weren’t special troops. China has some good ones. These were just soldiers, and didn’t know what they were doing.”

“Hey, docs say I might get out of here and back to Balboa in another week, isn’t that great!”

“Yeah, in Balboa those three girls you have on strings can come see you. Just be sure they come on different days.”

“Hey, Cap, not three. Just two and one of them I’m trying to dump. Yeah, I’m looking forward to going home.”

Murdock left and checked over his remaining men. The sixteen-man platoon was down to fourteen. Jaybird had been filling in for Dobler doing the senior chief’s chores. He hated to lose men, even for a few missions.

If they did do a show for China along the border, it wouldn’t be much. They would need a pair of trucks and would have to go in after dark and set up the whole thing to launch a night attack on the next day at dusk. That would leave Mr. Chinaman twelve hours of darkness to worry about an attack.

At 1400 the messenger came. Murdock and planning team wanted in the admiral’s cabin. Murdock, DeWitt, and Jaybird went to the meeting.

Captain Robertson and two more Captains faced the three SEALs. Don Stroh came in late and took a seat.

“SEALs, you’ve heard about the idea of sending in a team to create the illusion of a massive attack on the Nepal border at one of the roads that leads into the mountains.”

“Yes, sir,” Murdock said.

“Good, what’s your reading on the idea?”

“Can be highly effective if done right and at the right time of the day. We did a good one during Desert Storm in the Gulf. Pulled several divisions out of the primary target to defend a beach that was never invaded.”

“I know about that one,” one of the other captains said. “Will it work here?”

Murdock considered it a moment. “Yes, sir, but it will take a mile of frontage and a platoon of forty Marines to help us plant the explosives and run the generators and loud speaker systems. It’s a hell of a big job.”

“How much explosives?”

“Fifty pounds every one hundred feet. That’s five hundred times fifty. That’s twenty-five thousand pounds. Twelve and a half tons.”

“What if we cut the amount in half at each spot, set them off in a pattern, not all at once, so it would seem more like the real thing?” Jaybird asked.

The captain looked at Murdock.

“Sounds interesting, sir. We haven’t had time to do any planning on this.”

“Let’s do it now. The floor is open.”

Murdock looked at the captain, he was serious. He turned to DeWitt. “Ed, will we need anything that can’t be detonated with a radio signal?”

“No, there should be forty-eight point timers on board. Two sets would give us ninety-six. We string the charges in sequences of five to each frequency.”

“What about rockets without warheads, to slam over the border and into Nepal but no bang on the other end?” Jaybird asked.

“Yeah, I like it,” one of the captains said.

“Machine gun fire on tape played over loud speakers,” Murdock said. “We can throw in dozens of explosions, too. We time the whole thing for a half hour.”

“Space out the heavy explosions?” Captain Robertson asked.

“That would help us play out the half hour,” Murdock said. “Give them time to listen and make some reports to China GHQ in Katmandu.”

“We don’t have that kind of explosives onboard,” the third Captain said. “We can’t use our usual ordnance, too much risk of bomb fragments.”

“Dig up what black powder you have, C-four and C-five,” Murdock said. “Wish we had a battle wagon around. The sacks of powder on those big guns would be about right.” He frowned.

“So, we gather up all the safe explosives you have here, get shipments from the other ships in your fleet, and then ask India to supply us with the difference, three or four tons of dynamite.”

Ed DeWitt sat there shaking his head. “Captain, this is too big, too long, too many chances for foulups. We can do the same thing with a quarter-mile-long front. Get the point across. Cut our powder needs to three tons and still have all the generators and loud speakers we need to ram the point across the border.”

“How many speakers?” Jaybird asked.

“Four and four generators,” DeWitt said. “Do the job. We set the charges, work them in sequence through the half hour. We’ll have a hundred charges, set every one hundred ten feet apart.”

Captain Robertson looked at Murdock. “You go along with the shorter field?”

“Yes. Fits better. We’ll still need twenty Marines to help us lug and tote. We’ll need trucks to haul the men and explosives up to the front.”

“What about Indian approval?” Jaybird asked.

“This was their idea,” the carrier skipper said. “They said they will cooperate with us in any way they can. They have a spot picked out, two hundred and seventy miles from Calcutta on one of few roads that crosses the border.”

“Timing,” Murdock said.

“We’ll ask Calcutta to furnish the three tons of powder and let them drive it north. Give them two days. By then we’ll have the SEALs and twenty Marines on hand in Calcutta. You’ll fly up in choppers we’ll bring to Calcutta from our ships offshore.”

“We set up one night, then set them off as soon as it’s dark the next night,” Murdock said.

“Generators and speakers?” DeWitt asked.

“We can furnish those from the carrier. Send them in the COD with the SEALs,” one of the Captains said.

Stroh listened to the plan, made some notes.

“This was Indian Intelligence’s idea. I’ll coordinate it with them. They said they could furnish us with most of what we need if we ramrod it. Timing?”

“As soon as you can set it up,” Captain Robertson said. “We’ll have the SEALs and Marines from one of the ships down there in Calcutta by noon tomorrow.”

“Mr. Stroh,” Jaybird said. “Don’t forget we’ll need radio detonators, a radio signal board for one hundred, and all the other material for the radio detonation.”

“Yeah, Jaybird. Coming up.” He nodded at the captain and hurried out of the room.

“Captain, we’ll be ready to get on the COD on two-hour notice,” Murdock said. “You said sometime about daylight?”

“Right, Commander. You’ve made the run before. This time I think we’ll leave you in Calcutta for a while. Cheaper than flying you back and forth.”

A half hour later in their SEAL compartment, DeWitt had just finished briefing the rest of the men about the job coming up.

“So that’s it, a no-sweat, no-return-fire kind of operation. We should be scaring any border guards pissless up there on the front line. As soon as the show is over, we pick up our toys and go back to Calcutta.”

“We don’t do any small arms work ourselves?” Howie Anderson asked. “Damn be a good time to knock over some Chinkomen.”

“They might not even have border guards up at that point,” Murdock said. “India picked out the target.”

A messenger came into the room and looked around, went up to the nearest SEAL and asked him a question. Canzoneri pointed the messenger to Murdock.

The sailor handed Murdock an envelope, and hurried away.

Murdock frowned, opened the sealed business-size envelope and took out the paper. It was a radio message. He read it quickly. His face sagged and his eyes closed for a moment. No reason to tell the men just before a mission. At once he changed his mind. There also was no reason not to tell them.

“Hey, gather around.” He waited for the men to come up in a group around him.

“Just received a radio message from Master Chief Petty Officer Gordon MacKenzie. It reads: ‘Regret to inform you that Nancy Dobler killed herself in her home Tuesday night. She had just been released on bail from police custody after her DUI auto wreck where a young man was killed. She was charged with second degree murder. Will Dobler is devastated. More to follow.’ ”