First they had to get to the LZ, and then take down the nuke factory.
He checked with Kat. She sat on a bench by her locker staring straight ahead. "Hey, Kat, sorry you volunteered for this trip?"
"Volunteered? Who the fuck volunteered?" She said it sharply, then grinned. "How did you know I volunteered?"
"Nobody does SEAL work with SEALS without agreeing to it. Besides, I checked with your boss in Washington. He gave you two thumbs-up."
"He better. He owes me." They both laughed. "Ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. I feel comfortable here with these guys. It's like I've found a whole new family, with sixteen brothers."
"Good. Our job is to get you to that nuke plant alive, and ready to blow up the damn place. We've got more explosives with us than you want to know about. Lots of that new TNAZ that you and Ed shot off. Hot stuff."
"I've got my handy dandy nuke destruct tool kit," Kat said. "Everything I need, from pliers to a miniature cutting torch, and a radiation safe suit folded up you wouldn't believe how small."
"Good. You ready to travel?"
She grinned. "Almost. I may need to go to the bathroom again."
They both laughed. "That happens to all of us. The nerves are a marvelous diuretic. I was thinking more like a phone call. You get a long distance call on the Navy if you want one."
"There's just my mom. She's in Connecticut and doesn't know I'm here or anything about this. I do a lot of traveling. No, I don't think a call."
Three of the platoon used Murdock's office to make calls. Then it was time to saddle up and move out. Every man carried his own gear and ammo. Three had drag bags, including those for the big .50-caliber sniper rifles. They boarded two trucks outside the quarterdeck and headed for the North Island Naval Air Station, about three miles away.
22
Joe Douglas looked at Franklin where he lay in the shelter on the side of the gully.
"Hey, you awake?"
"Sure, asshole. I always snore when I'm awake."
"It's past twenty hundred, maybe we should go topside, and wait for the guys."
"When did the radio say they were coming in?"
"Last SATCOM message said between twenty and twenty-two hundred tonight."
"How can they see this saddle in the dark?" Franklin asked.
"Same way we did, where it blocks out the stars."
They worked their way up the slope to the top of the saddle, and walked into it a hundred yards. Then they stopped and waited.
"I still don't like the signal light idea. How will we know it's them?"
"Who else would be flying a big plane over this area, exactly at this time? We'll know. They make one pass, we flash the light three times. They key in on it and make their low-level jump, and all is right with the world."
"If it works. What's the odds of losing at least one man on a night low-level jump?"
"Ten percent, but both of us made it."
"Yeah, but what about Kat?"
"She's made more than two dozen jumps now."
"None at night at low level."
"Quiet, what's that?"
Douglas held up one hand, and they both listened. The sound came from the south. The small purr grew into a sizable one, and then a growl.
"Sounds like one of them turbo props, maybe the same C130 that brought us in," Franklin said.
They listened and watched, then it was obvious that the plane was heading straight for them. The pilot would have the exact position. Douglas picked up the strobe light and flicked it on and off three times, aiming it south. The powerful, surging flashes jolted south toward the plane. There was no recognition signal from the plane.
Then the sound was almost on top of them. Douglas stabbed the light three times again just before the big bird thundered over them at less than a thousand feet. He was sure the big plane was below the tops of the mountains on both sides of the saddle.
The plane made a turn away from the nuke plant to the north, and came back, and this time it seemed to be throttled down. Again, Douglas hit the strobe. It was aimed away from the nuke plant so they couldn't possibly see it.
"There," Franklin said. "Hear the change in the sound? Like the big rear hatch came open." A moment later he nodded in the darkness. The engine speed had picked up, and sounded different. "The engine picked up when those fifteen fully loaded SEALs ran out the ass end of that C130. Our buddies are coming down."
Douglas kept hitting the strobe now as they stood there watching the sky, trying to find the black chutes blotting out the stars. For a moment Douglas thought he saw one, then he wasn't sure.
He hit the strobe light every five seconds now.
Somewhere ahead they heard a yell.
Closer by something hit the dirt and skidded.
"Ho, SEALS," Douglas called.
"Ho yourself," somebody said from close by. "Hit that light and aim it along the ground," a voice said.
"L-T, that you?" Douglas asked.
"Me and my buddies. On me, you landlocked SEALS." His last was a bellow. It brought a series of calls from around the area.
Murdock came up to them dragging his black chute. He unhooked the straps and stepped free, then put down his pack and the bag he carried.
"Morning, Franklin, Douglas. Good to find you guys. Black as the inside of an inkwell out here. Hooooooo, This way. Men, assemble on me."
They straggled in then in ones and twos. One came in who was shorter than the rest.
"Kat, that you?" Murdock asked.
"What's left of me. This low-level jumping shit has got to stop." Half a dozen of them laughed.
"Glad you made it, Kat. Any tears, rips, broken bones?"
"I'm all in one chunk, but a little bruised up. What else is new?"
"Is Jaybird here yet?" Murdock asked. "He was the last man out. Somebody get me a body count. Stand still, everyone." Four more SEALs came in. Magic Brown came up a minute later.
"I've got a count of thirteen chutes, L-T. We still need two more."
"Keep the light going, Douglas. Fernandez and Franklin, take a hike and see if you can find anybody. We might have lost one over the side. Douglas, where can we see the damn nuke plant?"
Douglas took them to the north two hundred yards and showed them the glow of the lights.
"Oh, yeah, that's more lights than we saw since we left Saudi Arabia. Got to be it. Five miles from here?"
"What we estimated in the daytime."
"The plan is to get situated here and make a move toward the plant tomorrow night. We'll send out a recon patrol tonight to figure out the best way to get there. We'll need some cover closer than this. How tight is the security?"
Douglas told Murdock and the rest of them about the daily chopper overflights of the flat area of the saddle, and about the chopper attack, and the three soldiers who chased their car.
"The car went back south so they probably are still hunting it," Douglas said.
They went back where they had dumped their chutes and packs. Magic Johnson was there with the missing Al Adams and Doc Ellsworth.
"Adams has a badly sprained right ankle where he hit some rocks on landing," Doc said. "I put a bandage on it but he won't walk too well for twenty-four."
"Got it," Murdock said. "Any other hurts, sprains, rips, or tears?"
Kenneth Ching had a slash on his left arm that Doc treated and tied up.
Murdock called them all around him in the dark.
"Yeah, we're on-site. Now we get down to business. Lampedusa and I will take a recon and be back before daylight. We've got to be invisible tomorrow. Douglas and Franklin will get you situated in the gullies around the sides of this place. Use your camo cloths and lots of sand when the chopper comes over. Remember, don't move when you can see the chopper. That means he can see you. No firing. Let him look and scoot.