He sectioned the areas and concentrated on one of the squares at a time. The second time he came back to a square near the back of the building he saw that a doorway was opened more the second time around than the first. Yes, it would have the right field of fire. He reached for another rifle, made sure it had a full thirty-round magazine.
This time he barely nosed the muzzle around the wall, sighted in on the door and hosed it down with all thirty rounds in the weapon. The first burst of five rounds may have done the job. He drilled the rest of the magazine rounds into the door jolting it fully open. For a fraction of a second he saw the ugly muzzle of a machine gun there, then a round slammed it backward.
The third machine gun was later this time in firing, missing the tip of the rifle and the man firing it.
“Two down,” he told his men. One of the soldiers had vanished for a while, now he came back.
“Sergeant, there’s a back door down there near the rear. It’s locked, but I can shoot off the lock and roll in some grenades. Might catch somebody by surprise.”
“Do it when you hear me firing. I’ll try to distract them.”
Sergeant Chiang gave his man time to get to the other end of the hangar, then he pushed the weapon around the door and fired at the back of the hangar. He jerked the weapon back a second before the MG there fired again. Over the murderous sound of the weapon he heard two explosions. They were muffled and he hoped they were grenades. The machine gun stuttered, then stopped. A moment later he heard the flat barking sound of the infantryman’s rife. Then all was quiet.
Four minutes later he heard another grenade go off and more rifle fire. He looked around the wall and saw his soldier running across the hangar toward him.
“Hangar clear, Sergeant,” the soldier said. A door opened on the other airliner and a submachine gun stuttered. The soldier on the floor stopped in mid stride looking up in surprise at the Nepal soldier in the airplane who had killed him.
Sergeant Chiang bellowed in surprise and anger and stepped around the wall and fired fifteen rounds from his submachine gun at the man who stood in the airliner door. The Nepalese soldier shuddered as half the rounds punctured his chest. He dropped his weapon, turned halfway around and fell off the airliner to the concrete twelve feet below.
Chiang slumped to the floor and took out his radio. “Red Platoon to Red Captain. We have captured the south hangar. It’s secure. I’m down to four men. No more missions possible.”
8
Girl talk. That’s all it was supposed to be. They had agreed to meet at Maria Fernandez apartment at 6:00 P.M. that Tuesday. Milly came five minutes late.
“Some trouble at the office,” she said. Milly worked at Deltron Electronics where she was a lead supervisor in computer services for some of the biggest companies in America. Their hardware and software problems were her problems and she hustled herself and her crews to find the answers before whole computer systems went down. “We fixed the huge glitz, but it took longer than we figured.” She looked around. “No Nancy yet?”
“Not so far. Don’t worry. I talked to her on the phone about noon and her spirits seemed to be up.”
They had coffee in the kitchen around the table. Neither one mentioned the China — Pakistan war that was all over the news media. Maria talked about kids and school and anything else.
“God, it’s almost six twenty,” Milly said. She crinkled her forehead. “You suppose Nancy isn’t coming?”
Maria let out a long sigh. “Lord, I hope she comes. That woman worries me. She just can’t let go of her fear. That’s what’s behind it all, raw, blundering, agonizing fear for the safety of her man.”
Both women were silent for a moment. Both thinking the same thing. They had the fear, too, but over the years had learned to cope with it, push it aside, and concentrate on something else.
A horn honked outside, three shorts and a long.
“That’s V in Morse code,” Maria said. They looked out the front window. Nancy sat on the front fender of her car. She saw them looking and waved.
“Bet you tarts didn’t think I’d show up,” she crowed a minute later when she ran up the stairs and into the front room.
“Wondered,” Maria said.
“Hey, I knew you’d be here,” Milly said. “Who can pass up the cherry pie that this girl promised us along with our fancy cups of tea?”
Inwardly, Maria groaned. Nancy’s eyes were bright and her head held high. She had that cocaine swagger that Maria had seen often when she had worked in drug rehab.
“Well, we’re all here. Coffee or tea, Nancy?”
“Take tea and see,” Nancy said doing a little dance over to the third chair at the table and sat down. “Where’s this delicious type pie I was promised?”
“Coming up.”
Milly turned to Nancy but before she could say a word she saw Nancy starting to unravel. She slumped, elbows on the table, one hand holding her chin. It slipped off and she barely recovered before her chin hit the table. The cup of tea skittered to one side, tipped over and flooded half the white table cloth.
Without a word, Maria tossed a kitchen towel to Milly to start mopping up.
“Oh fuck!” Nancy said. She leaned back in the chair and began to laugh. “I sure as hell fucked up again. Damn it. Shit why can’t I do it like you two bitches do? Why in hell can’t I be normal for just a few God-damned more days?”
Tears spilled out of her eyes and she cried silently. She made no move to wipe the tears away.
“Yeah, Will is still gone, over there beside fucking China where the bastards are killing people. They’ll try to kill my Will, I know it damn well as I’m sitting here.”
Her mascara had melted and ran down each cheek in a long black line.
“Nancy, the men are all on the carrier,” Milly said. “Nobody is fighting with the U.S. We’re out of it. We’ll probably stay out of it. The TV says China and Pakistan will overwhelm the little country of Nepal in two or three days. Washington can’t even get an order through channels in three days. Our guys are going to be fine.”
“Oh, hell yes. Just like when they went into China and one of our guys got wounded. Ardith Manchester called me about an hour ago. She confirmed that our guys went in and brought out that senator who escaped from China a week ago. You bitches know that? No, I didn’t think so. One SEAL was wounded and fancy britches Ardith didn’t know which one it was. One of us could have a shot-up man right now and we don’t even fucking know it.”
“Ardith called today?” Maria asked.
“Just the fuck said so,” Nancy snarled. Then she lifted her eyes and brows and shook her head. “Oh, fuck, I’m doing it again. I’m sorry, Maria. I didn’t mean to…. What the hell?”
She stared at Maria for a moment, then began to sag and tilt out of the chair. Milly caught her before she came unseated. Slowly Milly eased her back into the chair and stood beside her, pinning her there without seeming to.
Nancy looked at Milly a moment, then across the table at Maria who was not good at hiding her emotions. Concern flooded her face, generating a small frown.
“Dear, is there—” Maria cut it off as Nancy’s eyes closed and she sagged down until her face rested on the table. Milly eased her up until she was sitting almost straight again and her eyes came open.
“Oh, God, I need a nap.”
“First how about some of that cherry pie you were looking forward to,” Maria said. “Whipped cream or ice cream on top. Which one?”