Just as he said it Murdock felt some rifle or machine gun rounds hit the chopper. The pilot zigged to the left then lower and to the right and went a mile to the side of the gush of lights below to what had looked like swamps, lakes, and some farming.
“Anybody get hit?” Murdock asked in the mike. Nobody answered, “Net check,” Murdock said and listened as his six men checked in. “Good. DeWitt, any casualties?”
“One arm wound, not serious. Mahanani is on it. We’re okay unless we have to do some rope climbing.”
They saw a sea of light ahead of them, Dhaka.
“Nine million people down there,” Fernandez said. “Bigger than Los Angeles. And looks about as spread out. Hope the pilots know how to find the place.”
“They do,” Murdock said. “We double-checked.”
Rifle fire came again, but nothing hit the chopper. The pair of birds swung down a main street that looked like it ran for miles. On the other end was a large park that would be dark now, and on the other side of the park was the U.S. embassy. It was a former prince’s palace.
A speaker in the top of the chopper came on. “Target located, we hit the LZ in about two minutes. The light is now red. When it goes green, the crew chief will open both doors and the rear ramp. Suggest you use all three. We’re at the LZ parking lot just behind the embassy. Good luck.”
The crew chief watched the lights. Murdock had the first door open on one side, and the rear ramp was halfway down when the wheels touched the ground.
“Go, go, go,” Murdock bellowed and the SEALs streamed out all three doors.
Murdock charged toward the back of the embassy. He saw a man with a flashlight waving them forward. Jaybird got to him first. “Friendly,” Jaybird shouted and ran for the back door of the embassy, which stood open. Ten seconds later all six of Alpha Squad were inside the embassy.
Lights were on. The man who had been outside came in and looked at the SEALs.
“God, am I glad to see you guys. We have a dozen Chinese out front trying to talk their way inside. They came through the security fence with explosive charges.”
Murdock waved the man forward. Small-arms fire exploded from the front of the embassy.
DeWitt had seen the Chinese. They were standing around with their weapons down or on the ground. Two men, probably officers, were at the front door where they kept banging on it.
The SEALs went prone and when DeWitt whispered a “now” on the Motorola, all eight of them opened fire on the Chinese. Eight went down in the first barrage. The two at the door turned around, then dove for the ground. When they did they were quickly dispatched. Nobody had wanted to fire into the door and probably through it inside.
“Khai, make sure on the ten,” DeWitt said into his mike. Khai jolted up from his prone position with an H&K G11 with caseless rounds and surged forward, kicking bodies as he came to them. One groaned and took a round to the head. One ten feet away sat up and tried to bring his rifle to bear. DeWitt scrubbed him out of the picture with a four-round burst from his Alliant Bull Pup, driving the 5.56mm slugs into the man before he could fire.
Khai fired one more shot, then waved the SEALs forward. DeWitt knocked on the door and bellowed that they were U.S. SEALs. The door opened a crack outward, then swung wide, the SEALs ran inside, and the door closed.
DeWitt found Murdock who talked to the ambassador and his number one man.
“Only trouble we’ve had so far,” Ambassador Theodore Borone said. He was a compact man of five feet eight, with gray hair, glasses, and a twist to his nose over a thin lipped mouth. “I think the wind blew most of the paratroopers off their target. We’ve been expecting them for two days now.
“Trouble, people,” Jaybird said. He had remained behind at the front window. “Looks like twenty fly boys with boom sticks. They want to come in and play.”
The SEALs scattered, four to the front windows. Four rushed upstairs to find front-facing windows and four more went to the rear to check on any troops there.
Murdock pulled the ambassador down behind a wall. “Where are the rest of your people?”
“No basement. Fifteen are in my office. It has no windows and seemed to be the safest place.”
“Good, get there and don’t open the locked doors unless you know it’s a SEAL. Move.”
The ambassador was not used to taking orders. He frowned, then nodded. “Yes, yes, right away.” He started to stand up but Murdock pulled him down to the floor.
“Crawl, Ambassador. If you stand up they can see you outside and you could be dead in a second.”
Murdock reached up and turned off the lights in the room. the rest of the rooms went dark and a moment later rifle rounds drilled through the embassy windows and slammed into woodwork, furniture and glassware.
“All SEALs,” Murdock said into his mike. “Take them out. Open fire. Make a safe LZ so we can get the hell out of here.”
Ed DeWitt used the Bull Pup and put two explosive 20mm rounds just beyond the front gate into a tree. He saw the explosive power of the round and fired two more. One Chinese soldier didn’t like that rain of hot lead. He leaped up and charged from the outside fence toward a foot-thick tree inside. He never made it. Four slugs cut him down and dropped the rifle as he sprawled in the dirt.
Murdock had a report of no troops in back.
“DeWitt, keep up the fire. I’m taking half Alpha Squad through the back and around the side and get the bad guys in a cross-fire. Moving, now.”
Murdock took four SEALs and slid around the end of the embassy building and could see the Chinese riflemen shooting at the front of the embassy.
He placed his men and then they all opened fire. Murdock used the Bull Pup and lasered two rounds on a tree near the front for air bursts. Both rounds exploded in the air and rained hot shrapnel down on the Chinese. Two tried to stand and retreat. Both fell to rounds from Murdock’s men.
Two minutes later the firing from the front stopped. “Make sure,” Murdock told Kenneth Ching. He charged forward, fired one shot, then gave an all clear front.
Murdock put his four men in a perimeter defense around the front of the building and fifty yards away. He told DeWitt to put a screen to the rear. Then Murdock and two other SEALs took a tour of the grounds looking for any hiding Chinese. They found one, who jumped up and tried to run. He had lost his rifle. He didn’t make it.
“Grounds look secure,” Murdock said on the radio.
“Agree, rear is secure,” DeWitt said.
“Fire one red star shell,” Murdock said.
“Got it,” Lam said and sent the red flare skyward. A moment later it burst and drifted away to the right.
A garbled message came over Murdock’s Motorola. He listened to it on the second transmission.
“The birds are coming back to us. Get the embassy people to the front by the door. Divide them into two groups. Go, we don’t have much time.”
Before DeWitt had the civilians all at the door, Murdock heard the choppers coming. He went outside. “Mother Hen, chicks are ready when you are. Come on down.”
“That’s a roger. We have you in sight.”
He saw them, then, dodging over trees as they hugged the ground. The first chopper landed, and right behind it the second one. Before the dust had cleared, DeWitt had ten civilians running for the open chopper doors. They were onboard when he motioned for the next group.
Murdock had moved the SEALs back into a tight security circle around the choppers.
DeWitt waved for the second group, and Jaybird released them from the front door. They were thirty yards from the second chopper when the whole bird burst into flames as a rocket hit it and exploded the fuel tanks. The civilians scattered backward, and DeWitt corralled them and sent them to the first chopper.
“Onboard, get on, all of you. Now. Crew Chief, as soon as all the civilians are on board, get the hell out of here. We’ll find our own way back. Take off. Now.”