“Yes, there are two. I’ll get back with you in about an hour. Still plenty of time. I need to do some fence-mending here about our using some of the soccer field.”
In two hours it was set. The whole platoon would jam into the chopper for the quick flight. The targets were on the south side of the city, so they would fly around it and then come back. They would need to take two local men to guide them to the right spots.
Murdock called the SEALs together and told them it was a go for that night. They would leave just after 2300. “Anybody feeling the effects of the native food? Any diarrhea, upset stomachs, or vomiting?”
Tracy Donegan held up his hand. “Been heaving for the past two hours. Don’t know why. Doc gave me some pills.”
“Anyone else?” No one else responded. “Okay, you guys. We need to take two guides with us and that overloads the bird. So Donegan and Howard will keep the campfires burning for us tonight. Howard, you had enough work the other night.
“Get a nap if you want one. We’ll suit up with all weapons and normal ammo and load out of the LZ at 2300. Any questions?”
“We have guns free on the police, or just the building?”
“Mojombo says the police are only soldiers in blue uniforms and most of them are sadistic bastards. The population hates the cops. Yes, we have open season on police in blue uniforms.” There were no more questions. “Check your squads and I’ll see you at 2250 at the LZ.”
The Skyhawk had plenty of fuel. The pilot said they still had just a little over half their load, which would be good for about 250 miles. Murdock had met the two guides earlier and assigned one to each squad. His man was named Tehabo, and he had been a taxi driver in Sierra City up to a year ago.
“I could find that police station blindfolded and with one leg broken,” Tahabo said. He spoke good English along with a native tongue.
They were crammed into the Seahawk like overlapping feathers on a hawk’s wing, but eager to get on to the job. It wouldn’t be more than a twenty-minute flight, the pilot assured them. It took twenty-two minutes. They landed at the midpoint between the two targets. Each squad formed up, and the guides moved out through the fields headed for the edges of the city, and then into the streets where the police stations were situated.
Murdock’s man set a steady pace, and the SEALs followed him. It was an hour-and-a-half hike into the city and to the alley across from the police station. Lam went up to the end of the alley in the heavy shadows and did a quick recon. He used his radio.
“Nobody outside. Flag over the second story. Building looks like wood and it’s about fifty feet square, maybe less. Windows across the second story. Heavy door leading inside. What I’d guess are no-parking signs around the front. No vehicles there. Hold it. A black unmarked sedan just pulled up. Two men in blue uniforms with pistols on their hips left the car and went inside. They didn’t use a key or knock, just opened the door and walked in.”
“Any people on the street?” Murdock asked.
“Negative.”
“Can you walk around to one side of the building and get a picture of it from there? Any cover that direction?”
“A pair of old trucks half a block down. I’ll waltz along like I belong here. I have a Bull Pup and could use it on those second-story windows if they have any down the side.”
“Wait. I’m sending Jaybird down with his MP-5 to go with you. Let me know when you’re in place. Wait for an order to fire.”
Jaybird lifted off the dirt and ran to the end of the alley. He and Lam vanished around the corner. “We’re moving up,” Murdock told the rest of his squad. The alley was twenty feet wide. Murdock put one Bull Pup on each side, and the rest of the men in between.
They waited.
Two men in blue uniforms came out of the police station, got into the car, and drove away.
“We missed those two,” Ken Ching said on the net.
“Maybe they’ll be back,” Vinnie Van Dyke said.
“Skipper,” Lam said on the radio. “We’re in place. Four windows back here. Ready when you are, C.B.”
Murdock grinned. “Let’s get the party going. Two rounds each Bull Pups into the windows, all HEs. Fire when ready.”
Murdock and Bill Bradford angled their weapons at the two windows on the front of the police station and fired. They saw the immediate effect. One exploding 20mm round went through a window; the other blasted beside the second glass pane and smashed a three-foot section of wall inward. They both fired again. These rounds both went inside and exploded. Murdock heard the other rounds going off at the side.
“One round WP each weapon,” Murdock said. The fast-burning white phosphorus shells hit inside the structure, and moments later they could see smoke coming out of the building.
“Watch for rats off the sinking ship,” Murdock said. “Only blue uniforms. No civilians. I’ve got two.” He let the men between the 20mm guns take out the runners. Two died at the edge of the sidewalk. A third made it to the side of the building before he screamed and dove to the concrete.
“We’ve got two window jumpers,” Jaybird said. “When they land they are gonna be toast.”
Murdock heard a siren in the distance. “Chicks come home,” Murdock said. “All hold fire. Move it, Jaybird.”
Thirty seconds later the two SEALs raced down the sidewalk and into the alley. “Let’s get out of here,” Murdock said. “Tehabo, can you find that spot where the chopper let us off?”
“Easy,” he said, and started jogging back down the alley. The siren sounds increased until it seemed like a dozen patrol cars were heading toward them. They were halfway up the alley toward the next street when Tehabo yelled, “Down!” The SEALs hit the deck and Murdock stared at a Sierra City police car that had driven into the alley. Its siren whined to a sudden stop and its bright lights turned the alley into a daytime shooting gallery with Alpha Squad the targets of choice.
19
Nobody had to give an order. The fraction of a second after the SEALs hit the ground, their weapons were up spitting lead at the car. The barrage of shots shattered the headlights in a second and a half, and the windshield at almost the same time. In the darkness the SEALs leaped to their feet and kept firing as they charged forward.
The driver and anyone inside the car must have been so surprised to see seven armed men coming at them when their headlights first hit them that they didn’t reach for weapons. Or if they they did, they were too late.
In ten seconds the SEALs had charged past the dead in the car and sprinted for the end of the alley. There they checked outside, saw the street clear, and ran across it and down half a block, then straight ahead for two more blocks, before they slowed and stopped in some deep shadows.
“That was a surprise,” Murdock said softly on the net. “Any casualties?” No one spoke. “Okay, you guys, we better be moving. Going to be all sorts of cops in this area in a few minutes. Which way to our magic carpet, Tahabo?”
The man stood there with glazed eyes, his breath ragged, his hands holding the MP-5 like he would never let go of it.
“Tahabo? Snap out of it, Tahabo. We’re in the clear, they didn’t even get a shot off.” Murdock scowled. Even in the faint light of a street lamp half a block away, Murdock could see the man was in shock. Murdock slapped him hard on the cheek. His head jolted to the side and then back.
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Did you see them? They had us dead, all of us dead. Oh, God. What happened?”
Murdock shook him. Tahabo moved his head, then turned toward Murdock. “How did we get out? I remember the lights nailing us in that narrow alley. I thought I was going to die right there.”