Murdock looked back at the three men left. “Any more ideas about finding the Veep?”
“My guess would be he’s in the Government Building,” Lam said. “It must have some secure rooms in there.”
The SATCOM radio sounded. Bradford gave the handset to Murdock.
“Murdock, this is the office of the President calling. I’m Sage Billings, Chief of Staff. Are you there?”
“Yes, Mr. Billings. We read you loud and clear.”
“Good. We’ve had an emergency meeting here and everyone is upset about this development. We thought you had better protection for the two men. Now to cases. Your orders are to go into Sierra City, find the two men who are held captive, and bring them back under U.S. control. Tie them up if you have to and put them on the chopper and fly them out to the aircraft carrier just offshore.”
21
“Roger that, Mr. Billings. We’re working on plans now to find where the men are being held. It may take us a day or two to find them. Then we’ll figure out how to extract them. Remember that down here the federal troop strength is a little over four thousand men.”
“I hear you, Murdock. The bottom line is the President wants Adams out of their clutches and onto that carrier where he’ll be safe.”
“Roger that, Mr. Billings. We’ll keep you informed.”
Murdock put down the handset and turned to his men. “Now it’s official. We get them out of there as fast as we can. First we get the two men off on their motorcycles. Gardner, you coordinate a hit at the next police station tonight. We’ll leave at 0100. Cover all the bases. Now where are those motorcycle guys?”
Jaybird brought his two men back. “You both can ride the motorcycles we have?” They nodded. “Did Jaybird tell you what we want you to do? You’ll be spies in the enemy camp. You’ll have to find federal troop hats; otherwise your uniforms are the same as theirs. Look for special guards, lots of guards. Check out the Government Building if you can. We suspect they might be holding the two men in there. Any questions?”
“Do we take our weapons?”
“Do federal troops around the city carry weapons?”
“No, sir, usually not,” Tehabo said.
“Then keep only concealed weapons. Be as inconspicuous as possible. Don’t drink anything, don’t get in a fight, and don’t challenge anyone. Move with confidence but not like you’re a spy. Okay?”
“Okay,” Tehabo said. “We will work together since many of the federal troops work in pairs around the city.”
Murdock dug into a case in his tent and brought back two stacks of dagnar bills. “You may need some money. Act as any other pair of soldiers would. But no drinking. Now, get on your bikes and get out of here. Oh, it might be good to ride round the outskirts of town and come in from the south.”
The men saluted smartly, turned, and hurried to the motorcycles.
Gardner came back and sat on the grass outside Murdock’s tent. “We have our target. The guide is here and ready to go. We have alerted Lieutenant Halstrom, the pilot. They will have the bird ready to fly at 0100. We’re working on resupply of ammunition now. Most of our men are down a little. We’ll get up to full normal load after I talk with the sergeant in charge of the armory tent. Right after chow I’m putting the men down for a five-hour sleep period. We need to be awake and ready for anything tonight. I expect there will be outside lookouts at all of the police stations.”
Murdock nodded. “Good work, Gardner. Give us a year and we’ll rub that JG off your rank.”
“That would be good, Commander. My father has been chiding me about that.”
“He’s the admiral?”
“Yes, sir, two stars. He expects me to get three.”
“Bummer.”
As they talked, Mojombo came into camp with his ten men. They heard about the raid on the village as they arrived, and Mojombo came directly to Murdock.
“It’s true?”
“Afraid so. The SEALs were on a march up the valley, and your men were on a training run up the trail north. The federals hit us at exactly the wrong time. I’m afraid they killed your outpost men. We found two of them.”
Mojombo slumped to the ground. “It was going so well. We are to send a platoon of soldiers and an officer down to Salal tomorrow to protect them. They are completely on our side. Now this.”
“Mojombo, may I make a suggestion?”
The distraught leader nodded.
“Your outposts and lookouts must be hidden so no one on the trail can see them but they can see everything. Each of your lookouts must have a radio. If they see anything, they should report it at once. I can send Lam with your men to help them find positions and conceal themselves if you wish. You should get new lookouts in place before darkness.”
“Yes, good suggestions. We’ll accept Lam’s help. We have the radios. I was overconfident. I won’t be again. But you have a problem now as well. How will you get your two men back?”
Murdock outlined the plans. The Loyalist leader nodded. “Yes, if your men can find out the location where they are held, you will have your hardest part done.”
He stood and let out a long sigh. “It seemed so easy at first. Now it is becoming harder and harder. I need to get the lookouts in place.”
Lam stood. “I’ll be ready whenever you call me.”
Mojombo waved at him and walked toward where many of his men had congregated around the tents.
Murdock went into his tent and dropped on his cot. What else could he be doing? How else could he try to get the Vice President returned to them? Now he knew that he should have put the Vice President on the Skyhawk as soon as it landed and accompanied him out to the carrier. The damn barn door. He laced his fingers together behind his head and tried another angle. What would Kolda be doing with the two men? Some propaganda story to the world press? Neither man would have a passport. They had diplomatic status, but that did them no good if they couldn’t prove it. What in hell would Kolda do?
He gave up and closed his eyes. Let go of it. Just forget about the damn problem. Maybe his subconscious would come up with something. A small nap. Yeah.
It seemed like only seconds later when somebody pushed his shoulder.
“Hey, Cap. You almost missed chow. Not the best, but my guess it’s some kind of dog-meat stew. Not bad. Some good bread made out of something. No flour around here. Got me. You can still make the end of the chow line.”
Murdock sat up and wiped his eyes. “Yeah, thanks.” He figured out it was Senior Chief Sadler talking. “Thanks, Senior Chief, I owe you one.”
On the way to the mess tent, Murdock remembered the problem. His subconscious had let him down. Not a hint of an idea about Stroh and the Veep.
That night at 0100 they took off in the Skyhawk on their way to Sierra City. Gardner and his guide, Gamba, had selected the site for their attack. It was a larger police station than the other two and would for sure have security out. Gardner had redlined Omar Rafii.
“Rafii’s limp was worse, and when we checked the wound it had broken open. Mahanani said it could get infected. He pulled it together and dosed it with medication and wrapped it up tight. He’s supposed to stay on his bunk until tomorrow noon at least.
“The rest of the men are ready. We don’t have Lam for our point, so I suggest we use Fernandez.”
“Your ball game, Gardner. I’m just along for the fun of it.”
Then the noise of the chopper made talking too hard and they settled in for the ride. They circled around the city ten miles out from the last lights, and came in from the south. They were about ten miles from the first lights of the city when they let down. Gamba jumped from the bird and looked around.