He turned to Kat.
"Lieutenant Garnet, do you read me?"
"Yes. We have live rounds. We follow standard procedures, and fire in our designated areas, and do not endanger any friendlies."
"Right, remember that."
They hiked out in combat style. Lampedusa led off as scout, working a hundred yards ahead of the rest. They had two diamond formations side by side. Murdock led the point on first squad, followed closely by Ron Holt with the radio, and then Kat. She carried her MP5, and six extra magazines.
From time to time, Kat stared down at the safety on the weapon. It was on. She didn't want to stumble and fire off a half dozen rounds. When the order to fire came, she would check to be sure her field of fire was clear of any friendly force, then fire in the indicated direction on single-shot or three-round burst. Yes. Now all she had to do was do it right. This was her first live-fire training exercise with the rest of the platoon.
They were halfway out to the mountain in the hot afternoon sunshine of October, when Holt touched his mike button once, creating a one-shot tsk on the radio. Sixteen SEALs hit the dirt, and lay without moving. Kat tried to look ahead. All she could see was Ron Holt's boots. She looked over at Magic Brown. She'd watch him.
Magic stood. Kat stood and saw the rest of the platoon on its feet and moving forward slowly toward where the scout remained on his stomach looking forward to the right.
The radio receiver in her ear came on. It was Murdock. "We have some activity to the right front. First squad on the double, and form a line of skirmishers in the dirt on the scout. Move!"
Kat held her MP5 in front of her and charged forward. The men raced ahead of her, but she caught them by the time they came to the scout, and all flopped on the ground with weapons pointing outward in a menacing line.
Kat knew there would be no open-fire command. In the SEALS, when the platoon leader began firing, that was the signal for the rest of them to fire.
She heard the stutter of Murdock's MP5 and leveled her own weapon, pushed off the safety to three-round burst, and fired six rounds. The weapon sounded strange. She fired six more rounds. The earpiece gave three tsks and the squad ceased fire.
"Second squad form on our left flank," the radio speaker ordered. "Open fire when in place."
Kat watched to her left and saw the second squad run into position, and the weapons chattered. She'd never heard so many guns firing at the same time in her life.
"Cease fire, reform in diamonds," the radio whispered.
As Kat moved back into formation behind Holt, Murdock fell into step behind her.
"You moved well, stayed in position. Always remember before you fire to check for friendly forces in front of you. Somebody might get out of line, or get held up, even wounded. Check that field of fire first. It has to be an automatic every time you're in combat."
Kat nodded, and he slapped her on the shoulder, and went back to lead the squad on toward the hill.
Twice More in the next mile they had fire missions. On the last one the first squad went into line and second squad formed up on their left flank at a 45-degree angle.
Murdock fired, and the whole platoon fired, then stopped at the cease-fire three tsks on the earpieces.
"Kat," the ear-piece spoke. "Take a look at the squad on the left, then lay down covering fire twenty yards in front of them. Now."
Kat lifted her MP-5, pushed it to three-round bursts, and scattered a dozen shots in front of the Second Squad.
"Cease fire, cease fire," the excited voice came over the radio. "Man down, we've got a man down, Second Squad. Get Doc over here fast."
Kat's eyes went wide. She pushed the safety on her submachine gun. She had been the only one firing. Had she shot one of the platoon?
Murdock appeared at her elbow. "Kat, on me. Follow me." The two ran over the desert rocks, and past straggling sage and some dwarf plants to where the second squad had gathered around a man on the ground.
They moved up, and the men gave way. Les Quinley, Torpedoman's Mate Third Class, lay on the rocky ground on his back. His eyes were closed, his chest a mass of red blood. Doc Ellsworth worked on him quickly, taking his vitals, trying to stop the blood flow from his chest. Doc turned, and looked at Murdock. "Gonna need some help. Better have Holt ring up a chopper to get out here from North Island or Pendleton."
"How bad is he, Doc?" Murdock asked.
"Can't tell. Must have taken two right in the chest." Kat dropped to her knees and stared at Quinley. She picked up the SEAL's hand and then let it down. It was limp.
"Murdock, I didn't mean to-"
He cut her off. "Holt, get over here on the double and warm up the SATCOM."
"Ed, was Quinley too far off line down there on the end?"
"No. He was within ten yards of the next man, Should have been safe."
"Kat, didn't I tell you to give support fire, in front of Second Squad?"
"Yes, sir, you did. I thought-"
"No excuse!" Murdock thundered. "The only answer to a fuckup like this is to say, no excuse."
Kat lowered her head to her hands and blinked. She would not cry. There might not be any "crying in baseball" as the movie said. There sure as hell wasn't any crying in the SEALS.
Somebody snickered.
Kat looked up.
A belly laugh launched from somewhere in the Second Squad.
Kat stared around, wiping just-formed tears from her eyes. She looked down at Quinley, who now had one eye open.
Murdock's face was still grim. "Lieutenant, are you absolutely sure that you fired in front of Second Squad?"
She stared back at him. "Absolutely certain, Lieutenant.
Fucking absolutely certain."
"Atta girl," somebody shouted from the Second Squad.
"Would you hurry this up?" Quinley brayed from his apparent deathbed. "I've got a shithouse-sized fucking rock in the middle of my back."
Kat punched Quinley in the belly and he rolled over and sat up. The blood pack fell off his cammies and the whole platoon roared with laughter. "You fuckers, you set me up," Kat screeched.
Murdock squatted beside her. "We had you, though, didn't we? Kat, I want you to check your magazine."
She frowned, swung her MP-5 up, and pushed the mag release. She caught the magazine in her hand, and looked at the rounds still in it.
"You really set me up. They're blanks. I've been firing blanks all afternoon." She turned toward Murdock, the weapon dropped to her knees. She balled her fists and bellowed in rage.
"You whore-mongering, sonsabitching, mother-fucking, gonad-eating, umbuquatious assholes. You won't get me again. As I remember, Murdock, sir, you volunteered to load my magazines for me." Then she grinned. "I'm nominating the rest of you fifteen shit-kickers for a fucking Academy Award for best actors."
"Welcome to the SEALS, Lieutenant Garnet," Jaybird said. "It's good to have you aboard."
Everyone cheered. Quinley cleaned up the blood pouch Doc had begged from the base infirmary, and they got ready to march.
"Two more miles," Murdock said. "Let's get back in our diamond formation and haul ass."
Going up the last two hundred yards to the top of the small rise, they laid down assault fire, then secured the peak and spread out in a protective formation on the reverse slope. Twice they fired down the slope. Kat had stowed magazines of blanks, borrowed hot rounds from some of the other MP-5 shooters, and joined in the exercise, glad to have live rounds again.
DeWitt remembered that Kat hadn't fired any of the 40mm grenades from the Colt M-4A1. Murdock approved, and she fired six HE rounds and then two WP. The white phosphorous started a small fire that Jaybird and four men attacked with entrenching tools, and had out before it had burned ten feet. The desert land offered little fuel, but at times annual grass could be a problem.