Deathrace

29

Murdock decided he'd have to get out of the brush so he could see the north and still have some kind of concealment. He passed Kat as he crawled to the side. "Is it really going to rain?" she asked. He noted a touch of weariness in her voice.

"Could. Could be trouble. How you holding up?"

"We haven't even done a marathon distance yet. I'm fine. Glad Magic is doing better."

"Yeah, he's the controlling factor on this one. I'll be back in a couple of hours. Get some sleep."

She picked up an MRE. "I think I need some food more than the sleep."

He continued out of the brush to the side, and found a spot where he could see north past a small hill. He settled in below a shrub with lots of gray leaves, and checked north again. A sudden darting lightning bolt daggered down and out of sight behind the hill.

He didn't know enough about the weather patterns in southern Iran to know if the lightning was dry or if it heralded rain. He did know that rain in the desert areas like this one usually came in torrents, suddenly, and in great volume. He remembered eleven hikers in the U.S. desert southwest who were drowned in a sudden flash flood that originated from a rain ten miles away. It was almost daylight.

Murdock winced when he heard the sound of an aircraft. A jet, probably a fighter, a MiG. It slammed over to the south behind some hills so he never saw it. That meant it was low to the ground. How could you use a Mach one fighter to do a search? It meant that the military was throwing everything they owned into the hunt, whether it would produce results or not.

Something moved to his left. His peripheral vision barely caught it. He turned slowly in that direction, and watched. It was against the hill. The movement came again, and he relaxed. The creature was small and slow, cold-blooded, some kind of a lizard, not more than a foot long. It lifted its head gradually and stared toward him. Did lizards have good eyesight? He figured they didn't. The creature was ten feet away. Its tongue darted out, evidently testing the air for scents. It turned, and waddled away into some brush, evidently satisfied that the strange creature was not a food source or held any danger.

Murdock almost dozed. The temperature rose as the light increased. They would be in the shade until about noon. A big help. He watched the small area behind them that he could see. There were slices of two slopes, and a gully no wider than the one they were in. He was nearly blind from a good observation point of view, but the concealment was worth ten times that drawback.

He looked over the brushy ravine. Nothing showed that seventeen fighters were hidden there.

Murdock hit the mike. "Doc, come and see me. I'm at the edge of the brush."

Doc Ellsworth squirmed out of some overhanging shrubs twenty feet below Murdock, walked up, and sat beside him.

"Magic?"

"Ken will help me. He decided to let Magic sleep for two hours to gain some strength. Then he'll hypnotize him again, and I'll go in and try to dig out the lead."

"I want to be there."

"Right, keep you up to date."

Doc went back to his spot, and Murdock worked on the MRE he dug out of his pack. The main course was macaroni and cheese. Who worked out these menus anyway? He ate what he could of it, buried the rest, and dug out the mugger.

He set up the antenna and took a shot at the four positioning satellites. When the figures showed up on the readout screen, he copied them down on the edge of the map, then plotted them.

They were now well east of where they had been and, from the distance on the map, still twenty-six miles from the coast. Too damn far. How would Magic react after the cutting today? One lucky Iranian bullet could stop his whole platoon dead in the water.

Nothing else happened until his two hours were up. Murdock called Ron Holt to take the next watch. He gave an acknowledgement on the Motorola, and Murdock headed back for his spot inside the brush.

Kat seemed to be sleeping.

He eased down, making as little noise as possible.

"You do this for a living," Kat said.

Murdock grinned. "Hell no, I do it for the amazing high it boots me to. I'm a thrill junkie, didn't you know? There's no war on, so what's a fighting man to do? I'm too chicken to start my own war."

Kat laughed. "Yeah, you say." She watched him in the full daylight now that filtered into the shaded areas under the thin canopy. "What are you going to do when you grow up?" she asked.

"I don't know, Kat. I might learn how to tear apart weapons of mass destruction just for the thrill of it. Why do you risk life and limb just to rip apart nukes?"

"I get this amazing high, like a thousand sexual climaxes all at once. I'm a thrill junkie." They both chuckled. "A thousand climaxes?" Murdock said.

"It was a figure of speech."

"Oh, good, otherwise I figure you must have exploded."

"You do have a good imagination, I like that."

"Careful, Dr. Garnet, we still could be expendable."

"Yeah, Murdock, but what a way to go. I figured I was doing mankind a favor by deactivating some nukes. But over here we just saved what I figure is at least a million lives. Iran would have dropped a bomb on some mid-sized Arab city, I'm sure. A million Arabs we saved. Now they're trying to kill us."

"Fortunes of war, Kat. And don't doubt it, this is a war. You ready for a nap? I sure am."

Kat grinned. "Does this mean I'm sleeping with you?"

Murdock laughed. "More like sleeping near me. Remember I still outrank you by date of commission."

"Good night, David."

"Good night, Chet, and you're too young to remember them," Murdock said.

"My dad's first name is Chet. He told me about them."

Murdock thought he'd just got to sleep when his Motorola clicked three times. That would be Doc. He eased away from the sleeping Kat and worked out of the brush, and down where Doc had emerged earlier. He saw Joe Douglas on watch, and crawled in where he saw Doc and Ken Ching.

"Hey, L-T. Ken's got Magic under again. I figure I'll use a tourniquet around his thigh above the wound to try to slow bleeding. I've got two pocket knives and my K-bar. First I'll use the wire probe from my kit, and see if I can find the damn bullet."

Chin held a three-inch hand mirror. He caught a beam of sunlight and bounced it directly on the wound. Doc took a six-inch-long piece of stiff spring steel wire, and gently probed it into the wound. It began bleeding.

He pushed the wire in farther and farther.

"Damn, four inches, and I don't feel a thing." He stopped. "There. I can feel it. Christ, I found the bullet. It's four inches in there." Doc wiped sweat off his forehead. He took the long-handled surgical pliers, which were slender and had an inch-long grasping head on them. He pressed the head of the tool into the wound. It bled more.

Ching soaked up the blood with a white T-shirt.

Doc sweated.

He pushed the forceps in deeper.

Blood spurted. Ching covered it.

"Another damn inch. Am I killing him? Damn, I've never dug into a body this way before."

"Do it, Doc, or he loses the leg," Murdock said.

Doc nodded, and eased the forceps in deeper, then deeper again.

"Touched it," he said, grinning. "Now if I can just get a grip on it." He opened the forceps head and probed more. When he tried to close the pliers, the head slipped off the bullet.

"Damn, missed it. Try again."

Ching used a second T-shirt to soak up the blood that kept running out of Magic's thigh.

Magic stirred in his hypnotic slumber, then relaxed.

Doc positioned the forceps again, opened them, and pressed forward more. When he closed them this time, he laughed softly.

"Got you, sucker!" He began withdrawing the instrument slowly, gripping it so hard his fingers turned white.

He had it halfway out, when a new spout of blood came out beside the forceps.

Ching covered it and nodded.

Doc pulled again, and then with a steady pressure brought the tool out of Magic's thigh, and the inch-long lead slug with it. He dropped both on the ground, put two 4-by-4 gauze pads over the wound, and pressed hard on them with his hand.

Ching slapped him on the back, then mopped Doc's forehead where the sweat ran into his eyes.

"Did it, you ersatz sawbones, you fucking did it." Ching slapped Doc again, and helped wipe up the blood.

"Good work, Doc," Murdock said. "We all owe you a big one. How about a case of your favorite beer?"

"I'll take it the first day we get back to the Grinder," Doc said. They cleaned up the rest of the blood. Doc wiped the wound clean and applied antiseptic around it, then the last of the antibiotic salve he had, and then covered the wound with two more 4-by-4 pads before he wrapped it securely with a heavy bandage.

"Now we let him go from the hypnotic state into a normal sleep, right?" Doc asked.

Ken nodded. "When he wakes up, he's gonna be yelling. Have your morphine shots ready. He should have an MRE, and then we'll put him back under. No reason he has to endure the pain. The hypnotic state is not harmful to him in any way. Be sure to tell him the damn slug is out of his leg. That will help him to get through the pain while he's eating the MRE."

Murdock shook hands with both Doc and Ching, then went back to talk to the lookout. He'd seen lightning three times, all to the north.

While the two looked to the north, they heard a plane coming.

"Bigger than a spotter," Douglas said.

Then they saw it over the hills in front of them. It leveled out at about three thousand feet, and to Murdock's surprise, twelve men tumbled out of the plane, and chutes opened.

"Now, this we didn't need," Murdock said. The men were low enough that they drifted little before dropping into a small valley just ahead.

"Twelve men," Douglas said. "We can take them out easily."

"Yes, if they don't know we're here. They didn't see us, that's for sure. Maybe they're just setting up a blocking position." He stared at the area directly ahead. This gully was one of several that opened into the small valley, It was no more than fifty feet across, and had sharp hills on both sides. A kind of elongated gorge.

From the north came more stabs of lightning, and this time they could hear the rumble of thunder.

Murdock hit the mike. "Everyone, we've just had twelve paratroopers land maybe a mile in front of us in that valley. We've got to stay awake and alert. Be ready to move at a moment's notice. Let's have a squad check. Ed." He waited while the Second Squad checked in. Then he listened as his seven men, and Kat, let him know they were awake.

"Listen up. More lightning, and lots of thunder to the north. We figure it's on this side of the mountain group that this gully fronts. Which means that most of these arroyos around here could be hip-deep in water in a half hour. The sides of our own little canyon here are not too steep to climb. Pick out a route, and a spot at least twenty feet above the floor here, where you are going to dash to when you get the word.

"Lam, I want you to move up the gorge here as far as you can and still maintain radio contact. Maybe five hundred yards. Watch for any flash floods coming our way. If the water is traveling even twenty miles an hour, it will move five hundred yards in a rush. If it comes, you be high on the ridge, and give us all the warning you can." He let the words soak in for a minute, then continued. "Douglas. I want you to go high on this ridge to our right, until you can see where those twelve Iranians landed, and tell me what they're doing. If it's a blocking force, they might be setting up a camp. We don't have to tell them that the rains are here, and that they just might be swimming before long. All of these gorges empty into that little valley, and it could develop a wall of water twenty feet high in a matter of minutes. Douglas, go now."

By the time he was through talking, he could hear the platoon members moving around. He ducked in where he had been. Kat was saddled up and ready to move.

"I don't want to swim in this brush," she said.

"Not sure we'd have to. Want to be ready."

The Motorola spoke.

"L-T, I'm about a hundred yards along the gully and working up to the side. It just keeps going. Around this little curve I can see it stretch up here for a mile, with more drainage coming into it. If we get a cloudburst, it'll pour down on you like the Niagara waterfall. I'd say fifty feet off the bottom to be safe. Don't spot any rain yet. Lots more thunder up here and the sky is almost black to the north. I'd say it's moving this way."

"Thanks, Lam. We read you."

He got the rest of his gear together, fitted the pack on his back, and picked up his weapon. Kat was ready to go.

"So, we moving yet?"

"Not until we get some idea it's gonna be wet here," he said.

"Douglas," he said into the mike. "You spot that dirty dozen yet?"

"Not yet. Another fifty feet to the top. Does look nasty to the north. I'd say wet is for sure."

"Roger."

"Doc, how is Magic doing?"

"We woke him and gave him two shots, and he's lucid but hurting. He polished off an MRE, and half of mine. Ching has him back in hypnosis in case we have to move quickly. We're ready. Rest of the guys around here are, too."

They sat there waiting. Murdock checked his watch. It was only a little after 1000. Why did the daytime have to go so damned slow? "L-T, might have something," the Motorola said.

"Go, Douglas."

"Those twelve guys are camped out in the middle of that valley. Looks more like a walled drainage ditch. Damn cut is twenty feet on each side. They've set up two tents, have a fire going. Can't tell about weapons, but they sure don't look like they expect any trouble. No lookouts I can tell. Fat and happy."

"Good, keep watch on them, and let us know of any change. How far from us are they?"

"My guess, about a mile. Our gorge bends around a forty-five-degree turn. They are maybe two hundred yards below, where it empties into the valley."

"Right. If any of them move this way, bellow at us."

"That's a Roger, sir. I've got all my gear. If you bug out, I'll catch you."

Murdock looked at Kat.

"What's a Ph.D in physics doing out in a rathole like this with sudden death hanging all around you?"

"I'm a thrill junkie, remember? Like somebody else I know."

They both grinned.

"Murdock, I've got some news."

"Lam, go."

"It's raining out there north where I can see. Maybe ten raining miles up to the tops of the mountains. I'd guess it's damn hard. I can't see any runoff yet, but if it comes, I should see it a long time before it gets here. My guess is you should move now. Upslope at least seventy-five feet from the bottom of that brush. No rush, but now is the best time. I've got two hundred feet of elevation here off the bottom."

"Roger that, Lam. Hold your spot, and keep sending us intel."

He looked at Kat. "Now is the time." They pushed through the brush to the side of the gully.

"Okay, platoon, you heard Lam. Let's all move to the right-hand side of the place, looking uphill. That's easiest to climb. We get up there a hundred feet from the brush if we can. Now is the time."

It took them ten minutes to move up on the slope where they wanted to be. There was no brush or growth of any kind up there. They sat beside their gear with cammo cloths spread over them the best they could.

A light wind whipped up.

"Troops in the valley still on a picnic," Douglas said. "Damn, I can smell something cooking down there. I must be downwind from them. Did I hear the water is coming?"

"Not yet, but Lam said it's raining on the mountain. He's watching for a flash flood."

They waited.

"At least they don't have any more air up looking for us," Kat said. "I wonder how many groups of twelve they have out in blocking positions?"

Murdock grinned. "You're starting to sound like a military ma-person." He shook his head. "No way to tell, but I'd guess that they have twenty, twenty-five such groups out, saturating the southern route."

"How can we get around all of them?"

"We take them. One at a time." He closed his eyes a little. "If you're a religious person, it might not hurt to do a little praying."

She looked at him, her face serious. "Murdock, we are going to get out of this. I have total and complete trust in your ability, and your special will to live."

"Great. You don't worry about turning up the pressure on me, do you?"

She had started to reply, when the radio chattered in both their ears.

"This is it, L-T. I can see a wave of water heading our way. Must be half a mile away, and roaring downhill like a steam engine with no brakes. No telling how long it'll take to get here. Five minutes, maybe ten. Damn thing is washing away brush and a few trees that must grow up that high. Christ, look at that thing come!"