Pacific Siege

2

Murdock motioned to Doc, and they eased out of the house. The explosions that had ripped open the door evidently had attracted no attention. They saw no one, no lights or vehicles.

As silent as sixteen wisps of smoke, the SEALs exfiltrated from the area back into the desert, and hit the dirt facing the small town.

“He wasn’t there,” Murdock told Dewitt. “No fucking hostage, just some Arabs who looked surprised as hell that they were dying. Jaybird, get up here.” Jaybird slid in beside the two officers. “Any other intel on this town?”

“Not much. The house was our target. They said something about a military HQ El Raza uses. It’s at the other end of the town, maybe six hundred yards north.”

“Best bet we have,” Dewitt said. “Hope to hell we don’t have to search every building in this little place.”

“The HQ sounds good,” Murdock said. “Let’s get on our horses and move up there. We know nothing about the building?”

“Afraid so, Commander. Be a good time for a guided tour.”

“This is turning out tougher than they told us,” Murdock said. “So what’s new. Jaybird. Find Douglas, and tell him to take Gonzales with him and go back and see if that truck we passed will run. If it will, have them drive it into the desert and come up beside us here about a quarter of a mile out. We might need it fast. Have them keep pace with us as we move. Go.

““Ed, let’s go up the hill here and find that HQ. It should be the biggest building in the town. At least we hope it is. You keep your squad outside ours as we go north. When we get there we’ll recon the building, and see what we need to do. If that kidnapped guy isn’t there, I don’t know what the hell comes next.”

“Guns Franklin,” Dewitt said. “He speaks Arabic and Farsi. We grab ourselves a prisoner and let him talk to live.”

“Good. Let’s move.”

First Squad walked silently north along the outskirts of the small town. The road in back of the houses outlined the community and kept everyone inside. They walked a half mile, then hit the dirt and checked the area. Murdock and Lampedusa went past the buildings inside the town to see if they could find a large building.

They moved silently from shadow to shadow. Past the first row of houses, the area changed. Here there was a central open area, as if it could have been a market at one time. At the far end stood a building larger than the others, but of the same stone and mortar construction.

Murdock and Lampedusa studied the area for five minutes. They saw no one move. There were no guards around the building. They could see none on the roof or in what looked like a small guardhouse near what appeared to be the front double doors.

“A church, a mosque?” Lampedusa asked.

Murdock shook his head. “No minaret, no tower with small balconies, which is always attached to a mosque.”

“So, maybe it’s the HQ.”

“Let’s go and see.”

They darted from one bit of cover to the next, keeping near the smaller buildings to the side of the open area. When they came to the front of the large building, they found a Russian-built weapons carrier parked and facing outward. A heavy machine gun, maybe a .50-caliber, perched on a mount.

The two SEALs nodded, faded to the side, and went around the place.

Two windows near the back showed lights. At the back of the building they found six armored personnel carriers that had to be Russian-made.

They also spotted a fuel dump of 55-gallon barrels, and a concrete-block building that could hold ammunition and weapons.

“Make a nice bonfire,” Lampedusa said.

“If it comes to that. Easy in, easy out. But that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Let’s bring up the platoon and take a look inside. Might be troops in there, and officers and maybe a kidnapped hostage.”

Five minutes later, they found the platoon lurking fifty yards outside the perimeter road. The truck they had liberated growled along in the desert beyond them.

Murdock told the men the situation.

“We know about three doors. Front, back, and side. There may be another door on the far side. We’ll go in the back door, since the lights are in that area. I’ll go in with two men from Second Squad.

First Squad and the rest of Second will back us up covering the side doors and the front.

“We’ll use silencers and knives whenever possible. We don’t want to roust out El Raza’s whole army. Our only objective is to find this hostage and get him out of here. Bring in Franklin and his helper from the truck. We need all the guns we have. Let’s move.”

Murdock chose Quinley and Washington for his assault team, and moved up on the rear door, past the silent weapons and personnel carriers and the fuel dump. Murdock held up for five minutes watching for a guard, but none showed. He and Fred Washington darted to the rear door and tried it. Unlocked. He turned the knob, and opened the panel an inch. No lights showed inside.

Murdock, and two men, slid into the room. It was a storage area, holding various goods. He had on his NVGs, and found a door across the ten-foot-wide room. Unlocked.

He opened it two inches. Faint light showed beyond.

Murdock switched his MP-5 to three-round burst, and stepped inside.

It was a supply room loaded with uniforms, rations, ammunition, and other goods. A single work light burned overhead.

The men found two doors. Lights showed under both of them.

Murdock opened one and stepped inside. Three uniformed men worked over a radio panel. Murdock’s three-round burst put down two of them.

Another three rounds from Les Quinley’s silenced H&K G-11 nailed the other one.

Another door showed ahead. Murdock moved to it. Washington opened it, and they both looked in. It was a barracks, with twenty men sleeping on double-decker bunks. The silenced shots had not awakened them. Washington eased the door closed, and they moved to the next one.

Beyond this door, opened a long hallway. There were six doors leading off it. At the far end, sat a sentry at a desk. He was either sleeping or reading. Murdock switched his subgun to single-shot, and fired twice. The guard jolted back against the wall, and then slumped off the chair to the floor.

Murdock and Quinley ran to the guard as Washington covered their backs. The guard was dead. They checked the first door. An office.

The second showed a storeroom. The third door opened onto a pair of cells. Two men were in one, three in the other.

“Any of you speak English?” Murdock asked. One man looked up quickly. “I do. Who are you?”

“Are you Fayd Salwa?” Murdock asked.

“Yes. Are you Americans?”

“Right, we’re taking you home,” Quinley said. He looked at the lock on the door. A small key chain hung on a nail near the door. He grabbed it, tried two keys. The third one unlocked the cell. He opened the other cell as well, and ushered all the prisoners out. They saw the open door and ran.

Tears brimmed Salwa’s eyes as he grabbed Murdock in a bear hug. “I have prayed to Allah to rescue me, but I never thought it would happen.”

Murdock touched his lip mike. “I have the package. We’re coming out.” Just as he said it they heard automatic-rifle fire in the hallway. Murdock peered around the door frame from floor level, and saw three men in military uniforms moving down the hall, checking rooms as they came.

He pushed his MP-5 around the door frame, jolted out so he could see, and sprayed the advancing guards with three triple-round bursts.

All the soldiers went down. One crawled toward his dropped rifle. A burst of rounds from Quinley’s G-11 put him down and dead.

“Which way out?” Murdock asked Salwa.

“I don’t know. They only brought me here tonight. I’d like to have a weapon. I was in the army, I can use one.”

Murdock gave him the Mark 23 0 pistol off his belt. Salwa chambered a round and pushed on the safety.

“Let’s try to the left, past where the guard used to be,” Quinley said.

Murdock agreed. “Those sleeping men back the other way must be awake now after that rifle fire.”

Murdock talked to his Motorola again. “Ed, we’ve got some bad guys shooting in here. Create a diversion outside, the side entrance, and the back. Keep them busy. We’ll try to get out.”

“Roger that. How about a nice gasoline fire back here?”

Murdock took the lead. Salwa was in the middle with Washington, and Quinley bringing up the rear. They ran past the three bodies, and to the end of the hall where the guard lay dead.

A connecting hall went both ways. Murdock chose the right-hand one, and had gone only a dozen steps when two soldiers came around a bend in the hall. Murdock brought up his MP-5 and got off three rounds.

Salwa right behind him fired four times, and the two soldiers went down.

The three SEALs and Salwa ran toward them. One of the soldiers lifted up with his AK-47. Before he could fire, Salwa put a .45 round in his head. The man slammed backwards as brains and blood splattered against the wall.

Murdock waved his thanks at Salwa, and they ran on. The corridor dead-ended at a double door. Salwa shrugged. Murdock tried the door.

Locked.

Someone behind in the hall fired at them. Quinley turned, and chattered off six rounds down the hall at two uniformed men. They ducked out of danger. Murdock looked at the door. It was their only way out. He stepped back, waved Salwa and the two SEALs back, and put a three-round burst of the 9mm slugs into the area of the door lock. The panel shook on impact, then swung open a foot.

They darted through the opening, just as the men behind them fired again.

The room was a total surprise. Two naked men with military blouses draped over chairs were in two beds, each of them with two naked women.

Murdock and Salwa grabbed the men’s clothes, and backed toward a far door. Quinley and Washington kept their weapons aimed at naked bodies.

The far door was unlocked.

Salwa peered through the open door with Murdock. Murdock nodded, and the four men hurried through into the next room, a small kitchen.

Beyond that they found another corridor with a door at the far end.

This door opened to the outside. Murdock had no idea which side of the building they were on. He checked outside.

No troops were visible. He looked both ways again through the darkness, and to the right saw a growing light. He frowned, then realized it came from the flickering of flames. The men darted out the door, and ran twenty yards to a parking lot where a number of civilian cars and three military rigs stood.

Murdock hit the Motorola. “Ed, where the hell are you?”

“We’re near the back door where you entered. The fire’s burning nicely, and we have about twenty troops who don’t like us too well.

They keep shooting at us.”

Then Murdock could hear the rifle fire.

“Use the rest of the Second Squad back there to cover you, then start leapfrogging back into the desert. We still have the package.

We’ll try to meet you at that truck we borrowed.”

As Murdock said it, someone from the door they had just left opened up with automatic-rifle fire. Quinley went down beside the front of a car, and peppered the door with his 4.7mm caseless rounds.

“Salwa, can you get one of these personnel carriers started?”

“Give it a try. You have a knife?”

Murdock gave him his K-bar, and the Arab man vanished into the nearest half-track. More fire came from the side door, and now a new threat showed at the front of the building.

“The damn rig with the Big Fifty has swung around on us,” Washington whispered. A dozen rounds slammed overhead.

“Don’t think they want to shoot up their half-tracks,” Murdock said.

A moment later a line of men from the front of the building came running at them with assault fire. The nearest civilian car was riddled. The three SEALs returned fire, and half the shooters went down. Fewer rounds came then, and Quinley put in a new 50-round magazine and fired again.

Another line of gunmen ran forward from behind the first.

Murdock heard the rumble of an engine start.

“Ready,” Salwa shouted. Quinley, Washington, and Murdock jumped in the half-track, and it rolled away from the front of the building, then did a ninety-degree turn, and headed straight for the desert. Two hundred yards into the sand and rocks, the rig slowed, and pivoted around so its .50-caliber machine gun on the front could work the rear of the building.

For the first time, Murdock looked at the fire. It seemed that half the gasoline drums had blown up, splattering burning gasoline over the rest of the stored goods.

Murdock got to the Fifty, loaded in a belt of ammo from a box, and charged in a round. He leveled the weapon at the rear of the complex, and jolted off five rounds.

He was surprised at the force the rounds going off made on the gun itself and the mount.

Murdock touched his mike. “Ed, that’s me on the Fifty. Get your men the hell out of there.”

“Pleased to oblige there, good buddy. We’re on our way. Leapfrog it is.”

“We’re moving out too. We’ll keep their heads down for a while.”

As he spoke, they took machine-gun fire from near the front of the building. The other rig with the .50-caliber whammer had changed targets. Murdock swung his weapon around, and sent two bursts of six rounds at the flashes he could see. The other gun didn’t return fire.

He put six more rounds into the same area, then hit the back of the building again.

“Murdock,” Dewitt said. “I sent Douglas out to get the truck and bring it in to meet us. We should have a hookup in about five.”

“We’ll move north to find you. If you see a half-track coming, it’s probably us. Don’t fire.”

“That’s a Roger. We’ve got one wounded, not serious, but will take some looking at.”

“First we’ve got to figure out how the hell to get away from here without a bunch of El Raza’s men tailing us. Our chopper guys don’t like to get shot at. This bunch could even have some Stinger ground-to-air missiles.”

“Those shoulder-fired kind?” Ed asked.

“Yeah, the kind the terrs use sometimes. We’re coming to find you.”