“Rally round.” The word came down the ranks, and they moved forward to a small clearing where Mojombo stood waiting for them.
“Good work, men. Excellent. We’ve turned around two hundred men at least hidden in those boats. Now, what about our own casualty report? Sergeants, check your men. I saw at least two wounded. Are there any more?”
Three more moved up with wounds. Two men carried a third man who had been hit in the head and died instantly.
“Get poles and make a litter. Use your shirts with the poles through the arms. Three shirts should do it. Carry our dead hero back to camp. Do we have our medic along? Check the wounds. We’ll leave a six-man guard for you. The rest form up and move out. Time to get back to the camp. You men did magnificently well today. General Assaba is probably screaming and tearing out his hair. Another big defeat for him. Commander Murdock. Bring up the rear and keep up any stragglers. If any man needs the medic, have him wait on the trail. Let’s chogie.”
Mojombo looked over at Murdock. “Oh, yes, I know the word. From the Korean War. One of my roommates at college said his father used the word all the time. I got used to it. See you back at Camp Freedom.”
An hour later at the camp, Murdock settled down to clean his adopted AK-47. Vice President Adams walked over and sat down on the ground beside him. The man holding the second-highest office in the United States of America had changed into cammies and they looked good on him, Murdock thought.
“You enlisted, Mr. Vice President?”
“I tried, but he wouldn’t take me. I’m not even a citizen. I said I’d take dual citizenship, but he just laughed and said I had a part to play, just be patient. I hear you turned back three hundred riflemen and twenty boats.”
“Close. Tomorrow it will be five hundred. What do you hear from downtown?”
“The embassy has closed its gates and will admit no one. The ambassador is afraid that President Kolda will retaliate against the U.S. for Mojombo’s position. He’s glad the SEALs are there to beef up his protective force. He’s only got twelve Marines and if a hundred soldiers decide to storm the gates…”
“He say anything about the destroyer coming in?”
“Said it’s on station five miles off the coast and a hundred and sixty-two miles from Sierra City.”
“Jaybird, what’s the range of the SH-60?” Murdock asked.
“At least five hundred miles, Commander. That would be a mission radius of about two hundred and fifty.”
“Let’s see if Mr. Washington can carve us out an LZ here near the camp. If so, then we’ll see if that destroyer captain will send us a Seahawk without its torpedoes and with two door gunners on some machine guns.”
Jaybird was back within five minutes. “The camp already has an LZ. They carved it out when they thought they’d steal the two choppers the Army has. It’s plenty big enough for a Seahawk to settle down in.”
“Mr. Vice President, let’s fire up the SATCOM and talk to the good Mr. CIA himself, Old Man Stroh.”
“Think they’ll do it?” Jaybird asked.
“They have two of the birds and they sure aren’t going to be doing any antisubmarine work around here. We convince Don, he can twist some CIA tails and get the CNO to order the chopper to come in here.”
Five minutes later Don Stroh was interested. “So we get one of the Seahawks in there, what will you do with it? I need something solid to use to sell the CNO.”
“Lots of missions. For one, we can intimidate the hell out of the federal troops with the two .50-caliber machine guns. We can move a squad around the country quickly. We can hit and get away fast. We can take the Vice President for a trip to the destroyer to have a hot shower and some better food. All sorts of shit we can do to disrupt the current government here.”
“I like that part about getting the Vice President out of there and back on U.S. soil, or steel. I’ll see what tails I can twist.”
“You do that, and make it snappy. Time’s a-wasting here, big brother.”
The Vice President looked at Murdock when he put down the handset. “You were joking about taking me out to that destroyer off the coast, weren’t you?”
“I said take you out there to get a shower, nothing about your staying there. That’s the only idea they will grab hold of. Once we get the chopper in here, we can do all sorts of good stuff. They can bring us more ammo, maybe some grenades and some good old C-5 plastique. Can be a real lifeline.”
“Commander, do you think the Seahawk will fit inside the parking lot at the embassy?” Jaybird asked.
“I don’t know. You’re the encyclopedia on sizes of things. What’s the rotor diameter on the Seahawk?”
“Fifty-four feet.”
“Plenty of room in that side parking area. You thinking of taking a trip back to the embassy to see the ambassador’s daughter?”
“Hey, she’s way too young for me. I was just being polite.”
“Good. Now even if that chopper doesn’t come, we need a good mission for the Bijimi Loyalist Party for tomorrow. What’s it going to be?”
15
Luke Howard leaned over to Jaybird and whispered even though there was no need to. “You really think this is going to work?”
Jaybird shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know. It looked pretty good on paper last night and this morning. We take this little boat and we plow downstream to the five-mile landing, five miles from the city center, where we hike inland about five hundred yards and we meet the rest of the SEALs. On a quirky deal like this a dozen things could go wrong. Like the bus could blow a tire or run out of gas or get stopped by the Army. So we play it as it goes and hope for the best.”
“They bringing the Bull Pups?”
“You bet, all six of them, and one of the EARs. The idea here is to destroy property and not build up any kind of a kill count. We use the stun gun if we have to.”
“These guys we have with us, can we rely on them? They didn’t get much training, bunch of rebels.”
“Loyalists, Howard. Remember they are the good guys. They know where the Army base is and how to get around town. We have four of them for good measure, and their long guns just might come in handy.”
Murdock moved to the back of the thirty-foot boat and slid in beside his men. “We do this by the book. The fewest enemy casualties possible, the greatest physical plant destruction practical, and then we haul ass as fast as permissible.”
A few minutes later the pilot of the boat slowed and angled into the right-hand side, where a rickety dock survived yet another landing. Two shadows slid out of the darkness and tied up the boat, then motioned, and the three SEALs and four Loyalists left the craft. The two men untied the boat, and and it powered back upstream to the hiding spot chosen. It would come on a radio signal from Murdock, who now carried one of the Loyalist radios.
The three SEALs watched the dark, silent houses as they went past. It was the edge of the city, and most people were inside. Murdock checked his watch. A little after 2100. Right on schedule.
Ahead he could see the school bus. He’d have to ask why the embassy had a school bus. They stepped on board, and the driver moved out at once.
“About time you AWOL suckers showed up,” Senior Chief Sadler growled. “Good to have the team together again. And some fucking action. We all ready?”
“You bring all the gear we need?” Murdock asked.
“We did. Six Bull Pups with plenty of rounds, and the EAR. Also thirteen eager and anxious SEALs ready to pop their britches if they don’t get some action. Gardner has been training our asses off.”