Deathrace

30

Murdock checked his men again. All were well up the slope, a hundred feet from the bottom. "Lam, keep talking to me. How close is the water? How fast is it moving? We're a hundred feet up, is that enough?"

"Damn, sir, I don't know. It's still a quarter of a mile from me. I'm moving up higher. I can see it now sweeping everything in front of it. A wall of water? Well, not really. It keeps tumbling over itself, almost like a breaking wave. But the whole thing must be twenty, maybe twenty-five, feet high. Like a giant breaker that never quite breaks, just keeps rolling forward."

"How fast is it moving, Lam?"

"No idea. A good fast run, fifteen, twenty miles an hour, maybe more. Seems like it's picking up speed as it comes. Strange, though, I've seen floods and things float by. Not here. Just dirty, sandy water. Not even a stick or a tree or a bush. Water ripping at the dirt, roaring along. "Oh, God, it's almost here. There is a roar, like the ocean. Never heard anything like it. It's right in front of me. Hope to hell you're all high enough. It must reach up fifty feet on the canyon wall here."

"You above it, Lam? You safe?"

"Yeah, unless I fall in. I've never seen a current quite like that."

"Let us know when it comes around the corner you talked about," Murdock said.

"Any minute now, L-T. Now you should be able to see it."

Murdock and the rest of the platoon looked up the canyon, and weren't sure whether to believe their eyes. The water roared around the bend in the gully and headed right for them.

The only thing Murdock could compare it with was pictures of a tidal wave he had seen. The water blasted forward, tearing at the walls of the canyon, tumbling, crashing over itself, sweeping small bushes and brush before it, then pounding them underwater until they could surface far to the rear.

"L-T, it seems to be slowing down a bit up here," Lam reported. "Looks like a big, muddy river with a killer of a current."

"We've got it here now, Lam. We're all up out of the way. The crest is past us now, a hundred yards downstream. Douglas, are those Iranians still having lunch out there?"

"Oh, yeah. Fat and happy. I'd figure they are about three minutes from taking a swim."

Murdock watched the water race past them, and tear down the way until it rounded the bend below and slammed into the small valley with a channel deeply cut from other flash floods.

Douglas came on the Motorola again. "Good god, that. I've never seen so much water in a dry river. Must be fifteen feet tall, smashing, crashing, right down the channel. It's within two hundred yards of the Iranian camp.

"Now somebody spots it and yells. The men start racing for the sides of the channel, but the sides are so steep. Some almost make it, then the soft dirt crumbles and they fall to the bottom.

"Oh, damn. The water hit the camp. Wiped out everything. Men are washing downstream, going under as the water in front rolls and tumbles. One guy got to the top of the dirt side, but the water undercut the piece of land he was on and he dropped in the maelstrom.

"They're all gone. All twelve of them. Nobody can swim in that kind of turbulence, not even with a rebreather."

Lam came back on the radio. "Water is dropping rapidly now, L-T. I'd say it will be all past here in another five minutes. One big wall of water and no backup."

The net went silent for a moment. Murdock watched the raging water storm past them. In a few seconds he could tell the crest had passed, and backwater, with less force and speed, came rolling down the steep incline.

"Lam, work your way back down here. We're going to have to stick to the high ground for a while."

"Roger that, L-T. I'm moving."

"Douglas, see any survivors over there?"

"Not a one, Skipper. I'd say the bodies are a half mile downstream by this time, maybe farther."

"Hold your position. We need to move that way. Platoon, any reason we can't move out?"

"Magic can walk. He's feeling no pain, thanks to Ching. Not sure how mobile he'll be. Figure that out when we hit the flatter ground. I'd guess another three miles per hour."

"We need to find a new hide hole," Murdock said. "Still broad daylight and our old quarters aren't going to dry out for a couple of days. Douglas, you see anything from up there that might give us some cover? We're naked over here."

"Looking south, L-T. Could be another ravine leading out of the valley that is still dry. Can't tell for sure, but the color seems to change inside it. Over maybe two miles."

"We'll try for it."

Five minutes later, Lam walked up, and they moved out over the ridge, picked up Douglas, and Lam headed them for the valley Douglas pointed out. They worked down across a slope studded with rocks and a few bushes, then hit the side of the valley below, but kept to the far fringes of it, out of the path where the flash flood had cut the channel another two feet deeper.

Almost an hour from the top of the ridge, they came to the valley they had figured might have some plant growth for cover. It did, some scrub plants and brush about like the other one. This place was not as thick and the concealment wouldn't be perfect, but Murdock decided it would work.

"Hell of a lot better than being caught out in the open when one of their planes flies over," he said.

Doc came up and talked to Murdock.

"Magic can still walk without dragging that left foot, but he's moving slower than he was. Something is sapping his strength. We'll feed him twice as much as everyone else. Might be some infection inside that leg. If I had a few dozen kinds of antibiotics, I could kill the infection, but don't have any. It's too tricky. Tonight I'd say we'll be doing good if we can make two and a half miles an hour."

"Thanks, Doc. Anybody else hurting?"

"Not that I've heard of. Kat is doing great. She's probably in better physical shape than any of us for stamina. Damn, just thinking about my doing a triathlon gives me the hives."

Murdock went back on the Motorola. "If you haven't eaten your MRE, do it now. I've got first watch. Dig yourself a nice little nest in the leaves and brambles, and watch out for snakes. I'm kidding. Too damn hot out here even for snakes. Watch is for two hours. Washington, you're next. Pick your own victim to follow you."

They settled down in the brush then. Kat waited until Murdock found his spot, then she moved in close to him.

"Hope you don't mind if I'm your roommate," she said.

"Hey, I'm pleased. You're the prettiest SEAL I've ever seen."

"Not much of a compliment, Skipper."

They both grinned.

When they got their resting areas worked out, Murdock waved. "I'm on watch. Be back in two."

He found a place at the side of the ravine where he could have a fair view of their backtrail. The few clouds that had been moving toward them seemed to stall, then some giant, billowing, mushroom clouds built up, thunderheads, but he heard no more thunder. The storm had been stalled, probably by a high-pressure line along here somewhere.

He thought of using the mugger again, but what good would it do? He called up Ron Holt to bring the radio. They set it up on a flat place and picked up the SATCOM satellite in orbit 22,300 miles overhead. Murdock thought about his message. Then he typed it in on the keyboard.

"Stroh. Still 20 miles from wet. More troops moving in. What about alternate pickup by air? Try highest authority. May be a go/no-go option for retrieval. The Expendables."

He read it over again. Should he leave the tag line? He decided to. It would convey the situation. He let Holt encrypt it, then flash it out in a burst of transmission less than a half a second long.

"Thanks, Holt. Get some sleep."

Murdock checked his watch. Nearly 1400. He had another hour of duty. He wasn't hungry. He tapped his canteen. He had emptied the first one, and discarded it. Now his second was almost halfway down. They could use some water.

A half hour later he heard a plane, but it came nowhere near them, it was far to the south. So they must be looking down there or at least dropping in blocking units. He wondered why they hadn't run into another one. Maybe tonight. Water. The idea crossed his mind. Fresh troops from the air in a blocking position would have plenty of Iranian water. Worth a try. Maybe tonight.

At 1500 all was quiet. He called Washington softly. The black man came out of the brush, saw Murdock, and moved up. "Good observation spot, L-T. All quiet?"

"So far. It should be dark in two hours. Roust the camp at that time and we'll figure out what to do."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Murdock headed back for his nest. Kat roused and sat up when he arrived.

"Quiet?"

"Yeah, makes me wonder where they are. Why don't they have choppers out here scouring the place?"

"It's a twenty-square-mile puzzle for them. Where do they start? They know we were at point A with those Claymore mines, but what direction did we take after that? My guess is the military has limited resources on-site yet. They do what they can. Much too limited for a full-scale search and destroy."

"You sound like one of my Annapolis professors."

"Just a trace of my nerves. I do have them, you know."

"Hadn't occurred to me."

"L-T, we've got trouble."

It was Washington. "Like what, Washington?"

"I'd say about fifteen troops, coming up our trail from the north. They're maybe half a mile out. Have one scout out front following our trail, rest behind dispersed."

"Platoon, it's work time," Murdock said sharply on the radio. "Everyone move to the bottom side of the brush, and get yourself a firing position. Break off some growth if you need to. I want Ronson on the machine gun, not the fifty. How many forty-millimeter rounds we have? First Squad, sound off."

Lampedusa had four rounds. Second Squad had three Colts with four rounds each.

"Find a spot and be ready when they reach two hundred yards. Fire on my first shot, two forty mike-mikes, then the Colt. The rest of you stand by. We'll let them get as close as we can. I want that scout close enough so we can smell his breath to suck the others in. I'll take the scout, the rest of you the others. Move."

Kat held her MP-5 and began to work through the brush down the hill. Murdock went behind her. The SEALs lay close together across the twenty-yard mouth of the gully where the last good concealment was.

Murdock found a spot, and broke off three small branches to give him a field of fire. "Silencers off," he said.

Then they waited.

Murdock saw the scout. He moved ahead, knelt, and examined the ground now and then, and moved on forward. He was about seventy-five yards ahead of the main body. Murdock counted sixteen men in the main force, plus one. Seventeen to seventeen.

They waited some more. Murdock looked over to where Kat had bellied down, resting her submachine gun on a low branch. Three magazines were laid out beside her. She looked at him and he saw one eye twitch. He nodded. She tried to smile.

Murdock watched the scout then. The crouched figure was ten yards away from the brush where Murdock sighted in on him, and put three 9mm parabellum rounds from the MP-5 in the Iranian's chest. At once the sixteen other weapons fired. Murdock heard both machine guns, the crack of the 40mm grenade launchers and the spurt fire of the HK G11 caseless automatic rifle. He shifted his aim at the troops below. Some of them hadn't even hit the dirt yet. He brought down one of them, then looked for the gun flashes. The SEALs fired for three minutes, and followed the trail of two men who lifted up and zigzagged back the way they had come.

Murdock hit the mike three times, and the SEALs ceased fire. He looked over at Kat. He hadn't thought about her when the shooting began. There was a line of sweat on her forehead. He caught a tear that had rolled down her cheek. He saw that two of her magazines were empty.

"Jaybird, Fernandez, go and make sure."

Fernandez borrowed an MP-5, and he and Jaybird ran down the slight rise to where the Iranians lay. They heard half a dozen shots, then six more.

"Weapons, ammo, water?" Jaybird asked on the radio.

"Water," Murdock said. The two men scurried around the bodies, and then ran back to the brush. Each one carried six canteens.

Jaybird found Murdock. "Could have been a scouting patrol. Not sure. They looked like seasoned men. No kids among them. My guess they weren't paratroopers."

"Might be a larger force behind them?" Murdock asked.

"It's an assumption," Jaybird said. "Which means I'd just as soon get the hell out of Dodge City."

"Yeah, distribute the canteens. Pour and fill. If they can drink it, we can drink it." He touched his radio mike.

"Platoon, good shooting. We have any casualties?" Nobody said a word. "Good. Two or three got away, so now they'll know for damn sure where we are. It'll be dark in half an hour. We're going to hit the trail again, and head due east. Maybe we can mess up their logistics somehow."

Murdock looked over at Kat. Her head was down on her arms.

"Hey Kat, you all right? You hit?"

He moved her way. She held up her hand. "No, I'm not wounded. I just killed at least one man, and it's going to take me a moment or two to get used to the idea. I've never even killed a mouse before in my whole life. Now, I… I shot that man."

"Kat, he was shooting at you. The only reason he came out here was to kill us, to kill you."

"Yes, I know that." She looked at him then, and wiped away the tears. "Let me live with it for a few minutes." She sat up. "When do we load our empty magazines?"

Murdock grinned. She was thinking ahead. She'd be all right.

They left ten minutes later, just after 1600. They walked on rocky ledges whenever they could. They had the last man in the line brush out their tracks with a blanket from one of the dead Iranians. They moved in single file to make detection harder. It was still broad daylight and that bothered them all.

The total plan was to vanish from the site of the killing field and leave no trail. If they could keep that up for two or three miles due east, they could buy a lot of time before the Iranians found them again.

Magic had fired his sniper rifle, the HK PSG1. Ching was near him but wasn't certain if he had come out of the hypnotic spell or not. Magic had trained to fire the weapon. He would do so on command in or out of hypnotism. A quarter of a mile into the march, Magic bellowed in pain and called to Ching. Five minutes later as they marched, Ching had put Magic into his hypnotic trance again, and he swung along at a three-miles-an-hour pace.

In the ten minutes of calm after the firefight, Doc had checked Magic's leg. It had bled a little but not much. Doc was amazed at the guts and stamina Magic was now showing.

At 1730, Murdock called a halt. It was almost dark. He put their east trek at three miles. He talked with Lam.

"Should throw them off the trail. Anyway they can't start to track us until daylight. We can be to hell and gone before then."

"South again. We may hit the wet yet."

"How far you guess we are from the gulf, L-T?"

"Seventeen, eighteen miles. But I've got a hunch when we come to within ten miles of it, we'll run into hundreds, maybe thousands, of troops. By now it's a matter of national pride that they nail us. We've just set back their plans for total control of this whole subcontinent by two or three years. They've got to find us, or maybe get thrown out of power."

Murdock called Ron Holt up. He had the SATCOM set up and turned on by the time Murdock had his message ready. "Stroh. Lull in action. Magic still critical. Need immediate response. What's with the extraction? Murdock."

They sent the message and waited. Murdock figured he'd give Stroh a half hour to reply. To his surprise, he came back in less than ten minutes.

The decoded message came over the small screen.

"Murdock. Top Dog considering. Iran has told the world. They blame everyone. Needed tools ready in Gulf. Would have to be a night action. Contact me in twelve hours. Stroh."

"So?" Kat asked.

"The President is still considering lifting us out of here with a Navy chopper supported by Tomcat fighters. It would be at night."

"Yeah, heavy. The U.S. invading a sovereign nation. Even at night. If one of the birds went down, there would be international shit hitting the fan, right?"

"True. So we keep moving. Let's saddle up, men. Remember, the only easy day was yesterday."

Kat shot him a quick glance. "You guys actually say that."

Murdock waved, and they moved forward due south through the dark Iranian night. There was no valley here. They trailed over a slant of sandy desert mountain, and down the other side to a ravine. It headed south. They took it.

Twenty minutes later they heard a call from Lam. "Hold," came over the radios. Murdock hurried ahead to where Lam lay on the crest of a ridge.

"Another blocking group. In a damn fine place. This is a kind of pass with high ridges we can't climb on both sides. We go through here or we backtrack about five miles."

"Move up," Murdock said on the Motorola.

Jaybird looked over the ridge at the small encampment of soldiers. "Probably parachute guys," he said. "I'd figure maybe twenty at the most. One big fire, and four cooking fires. They must have arrived late in the day." The ravine they were in was forty yards wide.

"No question, we take them out," Murdock said. "Even if it gives away our position. Nothing else we can do.

"Ed, take your squad down the left-hand side. Stop out about seventy-five yards. I'll bring First Squad in on the right at the same distance. We'll get a little cross fire that way. Sooner the better. Ed, give me two clicks when you're in position."

Jaybird stayed with Magic Brown as they moved down the hundred yards along the gentle downslope toward the camp. Kat walked along beside Murdock. He touched her shoulder.

"You all right?" he whispered.

She held up three full magazines and nodded.

But Kat wasn't sure. She had fired blindly last time, aiming only the first time, and had seen the man she aimed at take three rounds and get smashed to the rear. Could she do it again? Could she aim at a human being and cause his death? She gripped the MP-5, hating it for a minute, but knowing this was why she did all of the training. What if she let an enemy man stay alive long enough to kill Murdock or Jaybird? She had to do it. She had to fire at the men down there. She had to.

What bothered her, as they moved up on the target, was if she could actually kill another human being… again.