Murdock checked his watch. 0235. Maybe four hours of darkness left. He should have checked sunrise in this part of the country. Why? He was only going to be gone three or four hours to the embassy and back in the chopper.
A star shell burst far down the river.
“What’s the range?” Murdock asked.
Most of the SEALs had drifted back to sleep. Bradford growled and then tried. “Three miles?”
“We couldn’t even see it at three miles. Two miles at the most, maybe a mile at the least. What I’m more curious about is who shot it off and why? Is it a signal or are the Chinese troops just nervous as hell this first night in a foreign country?”
“Hope they’re nervous, skipper.”
“Howie, are you sleeping?” Murdock asked the mike.
“Not so you could notice it, skipper. Want to try the SATCOM again?”
“Roger that. We shouldn’t be moving too fast for a fix with the antenna. Give it a whirl.”
A short time later, Howie came on the net.
“I’ve got somebody, Skip, just don’t know who they are. You want to give it a go?”
“Be right there.”
Murdock moved a dozen feet aft and took the mike. “This is Wet One looking for Mother Bird,” he sent out.
“Yes, Wet One, not sure what frequency this is. We’re a unit of the Indian Army in Calcutta. Who are you?”
“Could you contact Mother Bird on this frequency and do some relay work for us?”
“Yes, indeed. Heard there were some Yanks in town. Just a minute.”
The air went dead for two minutes.
“Wet Ones, you are well known here. Your Mother Hen says she’s aware of your situation. If you can give them coordinates they will attempt to have a meeting.”
“Best we can do on coordinates is the central mouth of the Ganges. We’re now in transit at ten knots.”
“I say, you have been moving. Will relay.”
Two more minutes passed.
“Wet Ones, Mother Hen says a CH-forty-six will find you if you can give them an ETA.”
“Problem. We’re now about twenty miles south of Dhaka. We’ll kick our boat up to fifteen knots and we should be about forty miles from the Bay of Bengal by 0630. Should be daylight by then. We’ll keep going best we can after daylight but can’t promise we’ll get there, depending on Chinese activity. Got that?”
“Right, have it down. Relaying.”
It took five minutes this time before they were on the air again.
“Mother Hen says she will send the bird to the mouth, then track north on the best channel and look for you. No trouble for you chaps to get in that bird in flight?”
“Done it a hundred times. Tell the bird we will watch for him and use red flares.”
“Will do. Congratulations on your exfiltration so far.”
“Many miles to go yet. Thanks.”
“Hey, Cap. Come take a look at this,” Bradford said from the small wheelhouse.
Murdock told Howie to keep the set turned to receive and adjust the antenna every five minutes, then went to the wheel.
“Far shore, maybe a thousand yards up there. Dark now but won’t be for long if they repeat.”
Murdock watched. A sudden flash of a string of lights erupted along the far shore followed at once by a series of loud explosions.
“The bang-bang are an added attraction,” Bradford said. “What the hell do you think this is all about?”
12
Murdock watched the flares far ahead on the bank glow for a moment more, then snuff out. “Let’s move to the other shoreline, we have plenty of river here. Looks like a combat situation. Flares and lots of firepower. But they didn’t sound like small arms.”
“Shoulder rockets of some kind?” Bradford wondered. “Sure as hell nobody getting any sleep over on that bank.”
“If that is some holdout Bangladesh military up there, we can’t help them because we don’t know which side is which.”
Before he finished talking, an engine whine and growl came across the water.
“A boat,” Bradford said. “Doesn’t sound as big as that last one, maybe a thirty, forty footer.”
“Even a small patrol boat will have a pair of machine guns,” Murdock said. “Hope he doesn’t have a searchlight.”
They watched ahead but couldn’t tell if the boat was coming toward them or just moving around the fighting area. Now small arms fire did filter though the darkness.
“Machine guns,” Murdock said. “Lots of rifle fire and auto rifle. Somebody is throwing out a lot of lead up there.”
“Just so it’s not aimed at us,” Bradford said.
“Sounds like they will be too busy working over each other to worry about us, even if they did spot us, which I’d bet they won’t. If that patrol boat has radar, it won’t be aimed at us either.”
Murdock called on the radio and had Dobler rouse the troops.
“Better be ready in case they do spot us and one side decides we shouldn’t be here,” Murdock said.
“Yeah, heard the ruckus. Doesn’t sound too large, maybe a platoon against a platoon. No real heavy stuff.”
“Neither kind would be good for us. Have the men ready, just in case.”
The small boat powered down the river a little faster now. They had boosted their power until Murdock figured they were making their fifteen knots. He wasn’t sure what they should do come daylight. Hide everybody except one man at the wheel. Keep at their fifteen knots and hoping that the Chinese didn’t have any patrols down this far. From what he remembered on the map the broad spread of the mouth of the Ganges looked like one big floodplain with hundreds of low-lying islands that must be under water half the time. Nothing would be built up in an area like that. So why would the Chinese want to patrol it? He did remember one town on the east side of the area, but he didn’t know how large it was. Wait and see.
They eased past the firing on the far shore. A flare popped up now and then to cast a bright light on the bank, and firing increased, then the flares snuffed out and the shooters were blind again. The boat they had heard was quiet as well. Murdock worried that. If they had a radar it would surely pick them up. It just depended if the operator was interested in the far side of the river.
They were slightly past the firing on the far shore, when a searchlight snapped on less than two hundred yards ahead of them and the boat’s engine roared as the craft came straight for them.
“Kill that light,” Murdock thundered into his mike. The long range guns barked, a Bull Pup gave off the familiar sound of a 20mm round being fired. The searchlight died but a machine gun chattered at them. A half dozen more of the heavy coughing sound of the twenties blistered into the night, and a moment later the MG on the boat went silent. At the same time the engine died.
In the pale moonlight Murdock could see a shadowy shape ahead. His boat was overtaking the other craft. Now they came closer at their fifteen knots and they could see the ship turn slowly.
“Adrift,” Bradford said. “Our twenties must have knocked out the crew as well as that damn machine gun.”
“Small favors we will take,” Murdock said.
They were past the firing on shore now, and Bradford moved the small craft back to the center of the river. He figured it was at least three-quarters of a mile wide here.
Murdock slumped on the small deck outside the wheelhouse.
“Give me a yell if anything shows,” he said and told Ostercamp on the radio that he had the watch. That done, Murdock cushioned his head on his arms and slept.
Ostercamp worked around and over bodies to the wheelhouse and grinned at Bradford.
“Sure as hell leveled that patrol boat with the twenties,” he said. “Wonder what else we’ll find downstream?”
“That’s what you’re here to watch for,” Bradford said and they both kept quiet then and looked downstream.