“Count?” DeWitt asked.
“That makes eleven bodies, J.G.,” Mahanani said. “Let’s roll it, Franklin.”
They rolled back the way they had come. A block ahead they had to stop for a line of marching troops to cross the road.
Murdock looked at his countdown watch. “Less than two minutes to blast time,” he said.
The troops kept coming.
“Must be a fucking battalion,” DeWitt said, looking out the windshield. The road guard in front of the truck grinned at them. Then he turned and ran to catch up with the last squad of the formation.
A few seconds later they heard the blasts. Murdock figured the ones they heard were those in the open stairs. The other ones, deep inside the basement’s concrete coffin, would be muffled.
“Hit the gas,” DeWitt said. The truck leaped forward, and went past the second building just as sirens wailed and more lights came on. They drove past the end building, and then suddenly the truck came to an abrupt stop.
“Forgot about that damn ditch,” Franklin said.
“Everyone out,” DeWitt said on the mike. “We hoof it from here on if we’re lucky.”
The people in the back of the truck had been thrown around, but nobody was seriously injured. They dropped off the high tailgate and moved toward the hole in the fence.
“Company,” Ostercamp said. Franklin had cut the lights on the truck. The SEALs crouched in the short grass just beyond the glow of the lights on the buildings.
Then they all saw them. A pair of armored personnel carriers raced along the sides of the boundary fence. One came to a stop at the far corner, and the other a hundred yards farther on. Both turned and aimed their mounted guns back toward the munitions complex.
The near armored rig, with its troops, was next to the fence a hundred yards ahead of the SEALs. A hundred yards down the fence, in the corner, was the escape hole, along with the other armored rig.
“What the hell?” DeWitt asked. “How did they know we’re here?”
“Might just be a preplanned defense, I’d guess,” Murdock said on the mike.
“They can’t see us unless they have NVGs,” DeWitt said. “Let’s move ahead and bypass that first APC and work on the second one. We go fast and keep low. Remember, Yasmin, no shooting. Go.”
The eleven fanned out in a line of skirmishers and ran through the Syrian night. They were about fifty yards in from the fence where the first armored personnel carrier stood. They could see no men near it in the darkness.
Twenty yards past the first APC and still eighty yards from the next one, DeWitt dove to the ground. The rest of the SEALs did too. “I saw some movement down by that next APC,” DeWitt said. “We swing in toward the fence so they can’t get us in a cross fire. If either one shoots, they’ll be shooting right into the other APC.”
They raised up and ran again. Kat was sorry she had brought so much ammo. It was weighing her down, slowing her. She grimaced and ran harder to stay up with the men.
Fifty yards from the corner of the fence and the second armored rig, they went down again. DeWitt was on the radio.
“I can see six or eight troops around and behind the APC,” DeWitt said. “That blocks our exit. Line of skirmishers and lay down ten seconds of fire on my first shot.” He waited for ten seconds while the SEALs double-checked the field of fire in front of them. Then DeWitt sighted in with his Bull Pup set for the 5.56 barrel. He slammed out a three-shot burst, and the rest of the squad fired at the shapes and forms around the armored rig.
The first few seconds, there was no return fire. Then a shot or two came, then half a dozen, before someone screeched near the APC and the firing there stopped.
“Bull Pups. Let’s each put three rounds of the twenty on the APC at the corner, no laser, just on contact. Fire when ready.”
A moment later five of the big 20mm rounds slashed into the APC and exploded, bringing screams.
Kat moved over beside Yasmin and watched her. She had been firing her Uzi at the near APC with the rest of them. In the darkness, Kat could see a smile on the Syrian woman’s face.
When the fifteen rounds of 20mm ended, DeWitt used his NVGs again, and saw four men running behind the rig. “Another ten-second welcome,” DeWitt said, and fired three rounds from his 5.56 barrel, and the ten other guns with him chimed in the chorus.
Kat fired bursts of three at the vehicle, trying to graze along the side rather than hit it directly. She watched Yasmin firing the Uzi. She went through one magazine, then a second one before the weapons stopped.
“Now, Bull Pups, three rounds each of the twenties on the APC behind us. We need to discourage them as well.”
When the firing stopped this time, they could hear the first APC start its motor and move quickly away toward the lights.
“Franklin, come back,” DeWitt said on the net.
“Hoo-ya,” Franklin said.
“Tell them they all don’t have to die. They can pick up and roll out of there, following the fence the long way home.”
“That’s a Roger.” In the quietness of the night, Franklin shouted his offer of a safe retreat in Arabic to the APC in the corner. They waited. Nothing happened.
“Three more rounds of the twenties,” DeWitt said. They fired on and around the APC. Then quiet settled down again.
“J.G., we’ve got three sets of headlights coming from the rear, maybe four hundred yards off,” Ostercamp said.
“Let’s laser them with the airbursts and see what we can hit,” DeWitt said. “Three rounds each.”
It took the men a few seconds to get their lasers and range finders turned on and working. Then the first shots went out and they saw the airbursts over the moving trucks. The first salvo knocked out the lights of one truck and probably stopped it. The next rounds hit a truck, and a moment later it burst into flames. The third truck turned around, and they fired at its taillights.
Ahead of them, by the corner of the fence, the APC’s motor started, and it drove forward along the fence away from the SEALs. When the rig was out of the area, Ostercamp ran forward and checked the position.
“Looks clear to me, J.G. Found one body they missed. They can get it in the morning. Ya’ll come down.”
Ten minutes later they were through the fence and running for the moving van three hundred yards down the road. The driver was pacing up and down.
“Friends coming in,” Franklin called to him when the troops were thirty yards away. He gave a small cheer and started the truck engine.
The SEALs and friends jumped on board, and DeWitt took a head count. Then they drove away. The driver explained that he knew the area. They could go down four or five kilometers and turn back toward the city and not go past the Army base.
In the rear of the truck, Yasmin sat with her back against the side and smiled in the darkness. Kat moved over beside her.
“We did it, Yasmin. We exploded that warhead so it will never be any good as a bomb or even furnish parts or pieces for a bomb. The radiation should be minimal if they keep it in that basement and seal it inside.”
Yasmin caught Kat’s hand. “I’m glad it worked right, Kat. You were excellent. I’ll put you in my report. I’m feeling better myself.”
“You fired a lot of angry lead at those soldiers back there.”
“Yes, it felt so good. I don’t know if I killed any of them, but I might have. I hope that I did. I feel just great.” She was silent for a minute. “Now, we should talk about getting you back to the Israeli border. It’s about eighty or ninety miles. There’s a chance there won’t be any traffic checks, but there might be. Can you talk to the people in the front seat?”