Eleazar jumped back in the sedan, slammed the door, and drove forward with tires squealing on the blacktopped road. Eleazar was grim-faced as they rocketed down the road. He pushed the old sedan as fast as it would go.
Corporal Zared reloaded the magazine in his pistol so it was full, and pushed it back in place.
“It was the only thing to do,” he said to the group. “In another two or three minutes he would have seen our dead body and we’d have been in big trouble. Forget it. We’ll be back in the Rama Army Base before anyone even finds those two.”
“Let’s hope that you’re right, Corporal,” DeWitt said.
They drove for five minutes and saw only two other cars. Then, ahead, the driver spotted a flashing red light.
“Could be trouble,” Eleazar said. “Everybody lock and load. If we have to shoot it out we should far outgun this police car squad.”
The flashing light came closer. Then it loomed right in front of them and rushed past. It was an ambulance.
“Might be going to tend to those cops,” Lam said.
“At least they weren’t looking for us,” the driver said. “We’ll be at the Army gate in five minutes.”
At the gate of the Army base tight security was in effect. All five of the men had to get out of the car and be inspected. The guard stared at the dead man and then let them pass.
Colonel Ben-Ami was there to meet them. He ushered the three SEALs to a temporary barracks.
“You’ll be housed here until tomorrow night, when you will be driven back to Tel Aviv. Your car is the last one to return. I’m sorry about the one man we lost. One dead and three wounded. Good, but we don’t like to lose any on a mission like this. From my reports so far, all twelve of the strikes went well and we enjoyed outstanding success. We’ll get our reports from our man inside the complex later today.”
Murdock welcomed his three SEALs at the door, checked for wounds, and pointed at bunks.
“You’re the last ones back, glad to see you. No injuries, that’s good. We only had one so far, a bullet hole in Franklin’s leg. He’s over at the base hospital getting treated. Lam, how is that leg of yours holding up?”
“Stings a little bit, but it never was that bad. I’m fit for duty.”
“Good. We made it through this one in good shape. Let’s get some sack time and see what we do tomorrow.”
Just before Murdock dropped on his bunk, Colonel Ben-Ami came in. Nobody shouted, “Attention.” He looked like he expected it. He saw Murdock and went over by his bunk.
“We’ve changed some plans. We have our force in place here at Rama. No sense in going back to Tel Aviv. We have some small one-squad projects here in the West Bank that need taken care of. We’ll have a planning session in the morning. No, make that about 1300, Commander.”
“Yes, sir, Colonel. We’ll find it.”
The colonel walked out and Murdock frowned. Some one-squad projects. He wondered what they would be.
19
The following afternoon, Murdock, DeWitt, and Lam sat in a meeting room at the Rama Army Base in Ramallah. Colonel Ben-Ami led the group of planners from the three services.
“I’ll come right to the point. We have several targets in the West Bank that we have been wanting to strike at. One of particular urgency has seemed to be out of our reach.
“This is a man known only as El Cuchillo, which is Spanish for The Knife. You may have heard of him. He was one of the top planners in what we Israelis still call the Munich Massacre at the Olympic Games in Germany on September 5, 1972. Most of the weightlifting team was killed in the botched attempt at rescuing them from where they were kept hostage in a dormitory. Eleven Israeli athletes, five members of the Arab Black September gang, and one German were all killed in the rescue try. The Knife planned and directed the hostage takeover, but was not on the site at the time of the attack. He also carried out three deadly terrorist bombings and submachine-gun attacks at the Jerusalem airport. He has been the leader in at least twenty bombing attacks on Israel and her people in which more than three hundred have been murdered.
“He is now in his late seventies, says he is retired from his ‘police’ work with the PLO and that he is no longer interested in politics. He is also a rich man from what most experts agree are terrorist attacks on other nations that were probably paid for by OPEC.
“With his money he has bought a whole village. He is the mayor, the chief of police, the master of everyone who lives there. He is now known as the King of En Gedi. Technically, En Gedi is outside of the West Bank, in the territory of Israel. But it’s so close to the Palestinian Authority area that they in fact control it. Most of the people there are Arabs, intensely loyal to Cuchillo.
“Israeli citizens or Army personnel can’t move about there freely. Besides the PA, the whole town’s residents devote themselves to his protection. We have lost two three-man squads going in there deeply undercover to take him out. He’s a blight on the face of mankind. We would like to remove him from this earth by any means possible.
“Which brings us back to En Gedi and the Dead Sea. As you know, the Dead Sea is not a sea, but a lake which is fifty miles long, eleven miles wide at points, and at the deepest over thirteen hundred feet down. It is the lowest body of water on earth. It is truly a dead lake, with no fish or wildlife strong enough to live in it. Its only life is a few strains of bacteria. Salinity is three hundred parts per thousand, which is from two to five times as salty as the Great Salt Lake in Utah, where they have a commercial brine shrimp operation.
“Why am I talking about the Dead Sea? We now believe it’s the only way to get to The Knife. His defenses are in a semicircle around the palace he has built on the very edge of the Dead Sea. That’s one of the reasons we have the U.S. Navy SEALs with us. You have much more practical experience in saltwater operations than our men do, and you have simply been trained to a higher level of aquatic efficiency.
“That is our first target for the day. We won’t leave you out on a stick. We will carry out helicopter raids on another known terrorist who lives nearby. The attack should pull a lot of resources from the protection around The Knife, and make your attack on him at least possible. I don’t want to delude you SEALs. This will be one of the toughest missions that you’ve ever undertaken.
“With some arm-twisting and cooperation, we think we can insert you into the Dead Sea about twenty miles below En Gedi. At night you should be able to walk along the shore at most points. We’ll get into that when we do our detailed planning.
“Now, for the rest of you we have some projects that are dry. Last night one of our cars was stopped by Palestinian Authority officers. For some reason, one of the officers became suspicious. Both cops at the checkpoint were killed and our car made it back with no further incident. However, the Authority has tightened greatly the movement by car and truck in their controlled sectors. It will make it harder for us to move through their zones by car for probably six months. We may have to utilize helicopters at times, which draw too much attention. We’re working on that.”
Murdock stood. “Sir, could we be excused to work with our planning group on our target situation? If you send along one of your men to help us with planning details, that would help. I’d guess there is no tremendous hurry on this one.”
“No time line, correct, Commander. Yes, go work on your planning. I’ll send two men who know the area to your quarters.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Later, the entire Third Platoon gathered around a table in the big room at their quarters where the two Israelis had laid out a large-scale map of the lower half of the Dead Sea. The Israelis introduced themselves. The first was Lieutenant Ebenezer, the second, Corporal Almon. The officer was tall and thin, ramrod straight, his uniform pressed and perfect. The corporal was short and a little heavy, with eyeglasses and a thin mustache. Ebenezer used a pointer and located En Gedi, and then moved the wand to the darker-colored area to the west.