Deathrace

24

Three more SEALs charged outside through the rear door, and went prone behind a car and a trailer. Murdock spread them out a little more. Then he saw shadows move into the light. His first 3-round burst from his submachine gun led the way as the SEALs all opened fire.

Ten of the attackers went down in the first barrage; three more turned and ran into the night. Murdock grunted.

"Shouldn't be this easy," he said into the mike. "Keep up the watch. If anybody comes into the light, gun him."

He crawled back to the door, and slipped into the assembly room. Kat had just finished the last partial bomb. All had TNAZ charges on them waiting for the timer/detonators. Murdock touched his mike. "Ed, what's happening?"

"Two silenced shots just wiped out the driver. We have that jeep. Where do you want it?"

Murdock looked for a truck door. There had to be one. He found it on the back side, just off from where the plutonium box sat. He told Al Adams to open it.

Douglas and Chin had come back to the building when they heard there was a captive jeep. Now the two looked around the big room. On the far side, under a tarp, they found an electric forklift. Douglas crawled on it and hit the switch, and the forklift moved. He checked the panel of instruments again, grinned, and turned the right switch. The rig began to move forward. He steered it around the partial nuclear bombs to the big steel box. It sat on a pallet board.

"Load it," Murdock said. Joe Douglas worked the steel blades of the forklift into the slots of the pallet board, and hit the up switch. The forklift contacted the top of the pallet and strained slowly with the weight. Then it inched upward.

"Damn thing must weigh two tons," Douglas said. He watched it come up, and when it was high enough, he moved the forklift forward.

"We've got company out front," DeWitt said on the radio. Murdock sent three of the SEALs out to help.

The firing began.

Douglas concentrated on getting the steel box over the middle of the back of the jeep-like rig. Then he lowered it gently. The pallet board crushed part of the backseat, then the passenger's seat, as it settled onto the jeep's body. Murdock went to the rig and shook it side to side. The little utility vehicle didn't turn over.

He waved at Douglas. "See if the engine will move the thing. If it will, take it just outside and shut the big door."

Douglas started the jeep, and backed it slowly toward the door. It moved a little faster. "Should work okay," he said.

Murdock nodded, and went to Al Adams. "Put the timer detonators in the charges but don't set any time on them yet. That's the last thing."

He ran to the front door, opened it, and crawled out. DeWitt had his men behind any cover he could find. They had shot out the lights that had bathed the area, and now the whole place was black, except for an occasional muzzle blast from the dark.

Murdock found Ed.

"Must be a batch of them out there, but they aren't firing much. What the hell's going on?"

"Not sure. Hit every muzzle blast you see."

The firing picked up then. A machine gun cut in and drilled a line of nine rounds into the wall of the building over their heads. "Get on that MG," DeWitt spoke into his mike.

Two MP-5's chattered out six rounds each, and the MG went silent.

"Too damn quiet out there," Murdock said. "They don't want to use any heavy stuff against this building. Their nuclear bombs are inside. They don't want to shoot anything in here that might hurt the bombs. Somebody is holding them back. The minute we leave here, they'll be all over us."

"We'll have to leave soon. You have the plutonium loaded on that little jeep?"

"Ready to go."

The small arms fire picked up then. It was longer range, and the rounds came from down the street. The rounds went parallel with the assembly building. That way they wouldn't hurt anything inside, Murdock decided. He had the men move to better protection. They returned fire, and again the enemy's shooting slowed down, then stopped. "What the hell are they doing?" DeWitt asked. Murdock shook his head.

They heard it coming, and couldn't identify it. Sounded like a truck, then a tracked rig. "Half-track armored personnel carrier," Murdock said. "Where's Magic and his fifty?"

"He's outside the fence," somebody said. "We can use forty-millimeters on this rig."

"Yes, how many grenade launchers we have out here?" Ed asked. Four men chimed in with affirmative answers. "When he gets in range, use HE and WP alternately. All four of you fire four rounds each. Get ready, he's coming closer."

The rig had no headlights, to make it harder for them to find it. The first WP helped, spraying the white phosphorous in the street, lighting up the area, and outlining the half-track coming. The second HE found part of the half-track and it veered to the left, then got back on course. A .50-caliber machine gun chattered from the weapons carrier, and the rounds slammed into parked rigs and the side of the building.

"Fernandez, YOU Out here?" DeWitt called on the radio.

"Yes, I'm waiting for a good shot."

Two more 40mm rounds exploded almost at the same time. One hit on the cab, the other the rear of the rig, and it spun around and stalled. It was close enough then that the rest of the men could use their guns on it. Three Iranians fled the injured rig.

"L-T, we've got some trouble back here, side door," Murdock's earpiece told him.

Murdock crawled through the street door and ran across the building to the side door. He'd left four men there.

"Trouble?" he asked as he ran.

"Yeah, troops coming up. Can't tell how many. Sounds like a whole damn company."

"Got any WP?"

"I have two," Lampedusa said.

"Put one out in front where you think they are," Murdock said.

A moment later Lampedusa fired the round at fifty yards. It burst in a star pattern of brilliant white fire. For just a second, it outlined a line of troops marching toward them. The fire panicked the men and they broke and ran to the rear.

"The other one, Lam, at a hundred."

He fired it, and the troops kept running.

"Murdock, we've got some new company, sounds like a fucking tank," DeWitt said on the Motorola.

Murdock ran to the front again and bellied out to where DeWitt knelt behind a two-foot-high concrete block wall.

"He stopped. Don't know why." DeWitt said it. A moment later they heard a rumble again and the unmistakable clanking of a tank rolling toward them.

"Great," Murdock said. "At least a tank doesn't have any headlights. The forty mike-mike won't touch a tank. We'd never get close enough out here to throw some TNAZ at him. What the hell, it might be time to cut and run. We're almost done inside. Keep me up to date." Murdock ran back inside, and found Kat. She sat looking at the partly made bombs. "They didn't do half bad a job," she said. "Another three weeks, and they would be almost ready."

"Sorry to upset their timetable. Can that steel box stand to be tipped over and rolled around?"

She frowned. "In the States I'd say it could. Here, I don't know. Better to treat it like a seven-layer wedding cake — with extreme care."

"Get to the jeep and wait," he said to Kat. He motioned to Al Adams. "Set the timers now for fifteen minutes, and activate them as you go. Do them damn fast, then get out the back door."

He ran to the side door. Nobody was firing. He pulled the four men in and took them to the rear door. "Cover this jeep. Don't let anybody near it. Kat is in it with the plutonium. It's got to take a ride."

Back inside, he called to Franklin, who still watched the Iranians. "Find out if there's any roads down this back side of the facility into the hills."

Franklin asked the men. Most shook their heads. One small man with no teeth lifted his hand, He chattered a minute, then Franklin grinned.

"L-T, he says there's a gate down about two hundred meters. A service road runs down there and off into the hills a mile or so."

"Good. Bring him with us, then chase the rest of the civilians out the side door over there and tell them to run for their lives. This building is going to blow up."

The civilians went out the door and sprinted away into the darkness. The one with the wounded leg hobbled as quickly as he could behind them.

More firing came from the front. Adams finished setting the timer/detonators.

"We've got thirteen minutes, Skipper," he said.

The three men ran for the front door. At the moment it was quiet out front. They didn't even hear the tank.

"Ed, what's happening?" Murdock asked his Motorola.

"The tank turned off. I keep hearing more troops arriving, but they aren't firing. Can't figure it out."

"Timers set inside. We have eleven minutes. Let's move to the back of the building. We've got the plutonium.

Move."

The shadows lifted up, and filtered to the right. Murdock, Adams, and Franklin ran that way. They made it to the back just as a barrage of gunfire opened up on the front of the building where they had been.

The jeep purred quietly. "Move it," Murdock said. They drove away to the rear as quietly as possible. Ten SEALs led the way at a slow trot. The civilian pointed where to drive. They came to a half dozen Iranian soldiers in the darkness, but they ran away without firing a shot.

They had to make a slight move to the left to go around some buildings, and when they did, they came into the glare of searchlights and the tank with its cannon aimed directly at them.

"To the right side," Murdock bellowed. Douglas hit the throttle and raced the little jeep behind a building just as a round from the cannon slammed past them and exploded fifty yards away. The tank lumbered forward. Murdock could see a dozen men behind it.

Murdock called Joe Douglas up with his MG. "Lay down some fire around the corner to bleed those troops off the back of the tank," Murdock said. Douglas pumped out 5-round bursts within twenty seconds.

Murdock dug out a quarter-pound block of TNAZ and pushed in a timer/detonator. "I want two more men up here with TNAZ charges with timers in them, now."

Doc Ellsworth and Ron Holt ran up with their bombs ready.

"When that tank gets in range, we set the timers for ten seconds and throw them for the tank treads. Be sure the set is ten seconds. We don't want any preemies. Get ready, he's almost here."

They were taking some return fire from the men in back of the tank, who had moved to the far side now. The tank nosed toward them, now twenty yards away, but it had no target except a building. Nobody was working the machine gun that must be on top.

The tank clanked and clattered forward. Murdock didn't even try to figure out what kind of a tank it was. It was an old one, but still had a deadly sting, with a 75 to 90mm rifle mounted in it. It came closer. When it was ten yards away, Murdock said, "Now." The three set the timers at ten seconds and threw the bombs.

Murdock's went first and landed just in front of the tank tread. He counted off the seconds. Holt's went next, and hit the tread on top and bounced off. Doc Ellsworth's bomb landed just in front of the side of the tread and bounced on the driving mechanism."… eight, nine, ten," Murdock counted. His bomb under the tread went off. The big machine hadn't quite rolled all the way over the bomb, and it exploded with a shattering roar, lifting the side of the tank a foot off the ground. Two seconds later the bomb beside the tread blew up, and then Doc's TNAZ block on the inside of the tread went off, shattering the track and blowing it off the drivers. It acted as a brake, as the tank kept trying to run forward but only pivoted in a circle around the dead track.

"Move it," Murdock said to his mike. "Run. Douglas get us to the fucking gate."

They took some fire from the stragglers around the tank, but nobody got hit. They went to the side a block past more buildings, then the civilian pointed straight ahead, and they found the gate at the end of a street with no buildings.

Murdock had them on a no-shooting rule. No reason to let the bad guys know where they were.

They made it almost to the gate at the fence when the assembly building blew up. At first it was one jolting explosion, then the rest of the TNAZ went off sympathetically and the sky lighted up like a fresh sun. It billowed upward for ten seconds, then they could hear lumber and pieces of metal falling to the ground.

Murdock shot the lock off the steel gate, and the jeep drove through.

He stopped them a hundred feet down the road, and used the radio. "Magic, where are you guys? Did you fade down the fence to the entry point?"

For a moment he heard nothing. He repeated the words. Then a scratchy voice came through.

"Yeah, we moved along the wire. Haven't seen you spooks. Where the hell are you? Passed our entry point. Gate is still wired shut."

"Keep going the same direction. We're at the east end of the plant, just went through a gate in the wire. Get your SEAL asses down here pronto."

"Like to, L-T, but we got ourselves one huge shitpot full of trouble. About twenty of these hairy-assed Iranians between us and you. They look shit-faced mean after that building blew up. You did good work on it."

"How far are you past the hole in the fence?" Murdock asked.

"Thirty yards, still a quarter mile to where I see the end of the buildings your way."

"How's your ammo supply?"

"Damned near zero. I got two rounds for the fifty, maybe half a belt for the MG, no forties."

"Hang tough, we're coming after you."

Everyone heard the exchange. The troops moved up to Murdock, and waited. "Franklin, Holt, stay here with Douglas and Kat. The rest of you on your horses. We double time until we spot some of the Iranian assholes along the fence."

They trotted, with Lampedusa out front, in a semipatrol formation. Lam led them by thirty yards. It was so dark they couldn't see him. They had moved forward to the fence and along it for fifty yards, toward where they had entered the compound, when Lam hit his mike twice, and they all went to ground. Murdock crawled forward until he found Lam.

"So?"

"Thirty yards ahead. Maybe two dozen camel eaters. They been firing now and then up the pike."

"Move up, no noise," Murdock said in his mike.

Two minutes later the SEALs had spread out in an assault formation, in a line five yards apart.

"Fraggers," Murdock said. Every man had at least two. "Both" he added on the radio. He gave the men a minute to get the hand bombs out of their vest pockets. Then he pulled the pin on his first grenade.

"Now," he said. He threw his grenade forward. He heard some grunts as the other men threw their bombs. The ten fraggers went off in quick succession. They could hear wails of pain and fury ahead of them. They took some fire from the Iranians, but the second throw of grenades silenced those weapons.

"Magic, you guys all A-OK?"

"Right as rain, Boss."

"We're moving up to clean house. Don't shoot at us."

Murdock took the first four men he could see and waved them forward. They had their weapons ready for assault fire as they ran along the uneven Iranian hillside. They saw two Iranians running toward the fence. They let them go. There were no survivors on the playing field.

"Double time, Magic. Get your team up here so we can haul ass. The whole place is going to be charging out here looking for our hides in about ten minutes."

The five SEALs squatted, waiting for their men to arrive. They came three minutes later, two running, one limping badly. Magic had the limp.

Gonzalez carried the big fifty McMillan. Ronson watched Magic.

"Fucking glad to see you shebangers," Magic said. "We stayed in our place about ten minutes too long. We shoulda busted out of there before they got the troops in front of us."

"You hit, big guy?" Murdock asked.

"Just a scratch. I can move. Which way?"

They retraced their steps along the fence, toward the gate at the far end.

"Coming in," Murdock said on the mike, and they teamed up with the rest of the group.

"Now we get this outfit in gear and move down the road. We've got one more job to do."

They hit the downslope almost at once, and Murdock let Douglas turn on the jeep's lights. The road was old, not kept up, made of dirt and filled with runoff gouges and ditches. The going was slow.

After ten minutes, they had left the nuke factory behind and were coming to the first good-sized hill to their left. The road ran directly to what must have been a quarry of some kind. "Drive it right up to the wall," Murdock said. Kat scampered out. They had left the civilian at the opened gate, and saw him run back toward the main buildings.

"Get some TNAZ up here," Murdock called. Half the men still carried blocks of the powerful explosive. They brought it up, and Murdock placed it beside, in front of, and behind the jeep, against the heavy rock and dirt of the cliff overhead. He tied the charges together with primer cord, and stood there a moment taking a compass bearing.

"We'll be heading almost due south," he said.

Kat came up and nodded. "Bury the plutonium under hundreds of tons of dirt and rock. Yes, about the best we can hope for. Make sure you use enough explosive."

Murdock put four more quarter-pound chunks on the wall, then moved the people a hundred yards down the gully before he set the timers for ten minutes. He pushed the three timers to on, then jogged down to the rest of the group.

The explosion was larger than the one at the nuke assembly building. The sky lit up again. This time the blast came in the open, and sounded louder than a hundred 105 howitzers going off together. A few rocks flew through the air as far as the SEALS, but none of them was hurt.

"Doc, take a casualty report. Kat and I are going back to check on that explosion. We'll be back in five. Get the troops ready to travel, DeWitt."

They ran up to the still smoking and dusty side of the mountain. The rock slide extended fifty yards on all sides from where they had parked the jeep and its deadly load. There must be a hundred feet of rock and dirt over the plutonium. It could be dug out, but the Iranians would have to be sure that was what was under there. Kat figured they wouldn't bother.

"If they could get that much plutonium, they can get some more. At least we stopped them this time."

They ran back to the other SEALS, put on their gear, and kept moving down the valley.

"We'll get as far away from the place as we can while it's still dark," Murdock told the men on the Motorola. "Then we'll hole up during the day while they try to find us. Yes, they'll be coming."

"They don't have the chopper, but they do have a spotter plane," Douglas said. "We might ask Magic to shoot it down if they find us."

"I've got a suggestion. We're not going to need those damned Drager rebreathers for a long time. They weigh too much for us land-type SEALS. Let's ditch them here, and travel lighter. We won't worry about name brands now. Our job is to get our asses out of here and to the wet. I figure we have about fifty miles due south to the Gulf of Oman. There's supposed to be a sub out there somewhere waiting for us. Doc, find me."

Murdock heard the men unstrapping the rebreather units and dropping them. They could be tied to the U.S., but right then, Murdock wasn't worried about that. He had a platoon to get over fifty miles of enemy territory. He'd do it any way that he could.

They worked ahead in their usual combat formation with Joe Lampedusa out front, and then First Squad, with Murdock leading.

Doc Ellsworth came up and paced beside Murdock. "We have any casualties?"

"Fernandez took a round in the right arm. Not too bad. I got it treated, and wrapped up. He's fit for service. The sprained ankle hasn't been bothering whoever had it. Sterling got a graze on his shoulder, just a scratch. Band-Aid time.

"Magic is the worst. He has a round in his left thigh. It could have hit the bone, I'm not sure, but I do know the slug didn't come out. In way too deep for me to try to dig out the lead, That gives us three days at the most before he loses the leg. He tells me he can walk. Every step is hurting him. Not sure how much longer he can take it. I gave him two shots of morphine. It'll get worse every hour."

Murdock talked to his mike. "SEALS, we've been lucky so far. Some nicks and scratches and two bullet wounds. We have fifty miles to go, and when they figure out where we're heading, there will be all kinds of troops in here after us. Iran has over a half million men under arms, a good air force, a few naval ships, and a well-trained and armed army corps. They didn't have much up here at the plant, but you can bet your bottom babushka that they'll be coming after us now with everything they have. Choppers, paratroops, the works. We've got to remain as invisible as possible. No, Magic, you won't be trying to shoot down that spotter plane or any choppers. We're gonna dig a lot of holes on this one."

Murdock pushed the light on his watch.

"It's now 2136. We were on-site too long, but nothing we can do about that now. We have about eight hours of darkness to move our asses. We go at the speed of our weakest man. We didn't tap any kegs of water in there, so let's take it easy on drinking. We may have to make it last for two more days, No water between here and the coast unless somebody is good with a staff against a hard rock."

Murdock heard a few chuckles and figured they were the Bible students.

"Lam, keep us on a due south course unless a valley shows that will keep us out of climbing up and down these damn mountains. We can zigzag a little and make better time, so be it. Now, let's settle down and put in a good six miles an hour. Even if we can average four an hour, that will put us halfway to the bloody Gulf of Oman before daylight."

He dropped back and walked beside Kat.

"How's it going, SEAL lady?"

She grinned. "So far I haven't had to fire a shot. Maybe I'm a little disappointed. The bombs were not even half-done. They won't be able to salvage anything from those blasts to use for new bombs. We've put their program back at least a year."

"Good. Now, about you. When I talked about going the speed of our weakest man, I didn't mean you. Magic Brown has a shot-up leg. He'll slow us down. As long as he's conscious, he'll walk. They'll be coming after us, so don't lose your shooting eye. You'll have plenty of times to test it out before we get wet." Kat looked at Murdock in the Iranian darkness. He liked the gleam of determination he saw in her eyes.