At once the whole platoon opened up.
Kat hesitated. Could she do it again? Then she triggered off three rounds. They were high. She brought the muzzle down and fired again into the sudden churning mass of men. There was screaming, men looking for their weapons, men dying. She shut her eyes for a minute, heard firing beside her and opened them, and fired again on 3-round bursts until her magazine went dry. She ripped it out, put another one in, charged a round, and aimed back at the men below.
Suddenly she heard firing from behind her. She saw three dark shapes running at them from the rear. She whirled, brought up her weapon, and triggered nine rounds at the three shadows. One screamed and dove to the ground. Another fell dead without a word; the third turned and ran back the way he had come.
Murdock looked behind him. He saw one of the dark shadows crawling away. He put a 3-round burst into him, then looked at Kat.
She nodded, swung her weapon back to the front, and kept firing.
Murdock checked the scene carefully. There was no more return fire from the troopers below.
"Think we did it," DeWitt said on the radio.
"Yeah, cease fire," Murdock said. "Ed, send in two men to check them out."
Murdock lifted off the dirt and ran to the rear where he found the two Iranians. Both were dead. He hurried back to their line.
Ahead at the small Iranian camp, he heard two shots, then all was silent.
Kat stared at him. "Those shots?"
"We have to make sure the enemy are all dead. We don't take prisoners or leave wounded."
Kat flinched. Her face surged into a scowl. "Isn't that… Isn't that a little cold, brutal?"
"Absolutely. We're not here to play games or give credits for the enemy's bravery. It's simply kill or be killed. The way you reacted just a minute ago. You saw the three coming when the rest of us didn't. You reacted. You saved at least three of our lives right here."
"Clear front," the radio said in their ears.
The SEALs moved down and surveyed the wreckage. There was little they could use. The ammo didn't fit, and they didn't want to pack along any additional weapons. Their canteens were still full.
"No one escaped down here?" Murdock asked.
DeWitt shook his head. "What was that firing to the rear?"
"Three surprised us from behind. Two are down, and one got away."
"So we better shag ass out of here," DeWitt said.
"Yeah, let's move," Murdock said. They walked away down the slope of the small pass, and Murdock moved back beside Kat. "So?"
"I'm alive. That's the main purpose now — to stay alive. It's like when you can't breathe, nothing else really matters. Like now. If we don't survive, none of my high and mighty principles mean a pile of shit, to drop into the SEAL vernacular."
"True. We survive, then we figure out about living. It can be a tough mad."
"We'll make it."
"Good work back there. If they'd been better shots, we'd be digging two or three graves right about now."
"Didn't think you left anyone behind."
"Sometimes, depends. Here we would have had to. We couldn't carry out even one body."
"Hate to mention it but you forgot to ask for a casualty report," Kat said.
Murdock frowned. "Yeah, we didn't take much return fire. Some, I guess." He clicked his mike. "Hey, casualty report. Sound off if anybody got hit."
For a moment there was no sound on the radio, then one small voice came on.
"Yeah, Doc might take a look at my arm. It doesn't seem to be working right."
Murdock moved over beside Kat. "Why in hell didn't you say so?"
"You didn't ask. Hell, a SEAL can fight over a little pain." She grinned in the darkness and hoped Murdock could see it. Doc came storming up.
Murdock called a halt. He asked for Holt, and had him set up the SATCOM. "How bad is it, Doc?" Murdock asked.
"I'm gonna have to amputate," Doc said, sounding relieved.
"You try it and I'll use up my full magazine on you," Kat said.
They both chuckled.
"One slug cut through about an inch of Kat's forearm," Doc said. "Missed the bone. Kat will hurt like hell for a week or so, then will have a war wound to brag about. Oh, yeah, it will leave a battle scar and everything."
"SATCOM is ready, L-T," Holt said.
Murdock knew his message. He typed it in. "Stroh. How about a pickup? Can receive you now. Answer me, we're running out of time and ammo. Murdock."
As soon as they switched to receive, the small screen lit up. The message was short.
"Murdock. Possible. Contact us in two hours. Have your exact coordinates and time of day there."
Murdock snapped off the set. "We contact them again at exactly twenty-one-forty-two. Doc, you got your patient bandaged?"
"Ready to rock and roll. Hear she saved the fucking day back here."
"True. You almost had a lot of work to do. Let's get out of here at three miles an hour. Go, Lam."
They hiked again through the Iranian hill country darkness.
Twice they heard jets overhead. Once a propeller-driven plane sounded to the south but faded out.
Murdock heard the next sound a half hour later. It was a chopper and headed their way.
"Big bird coming," he said. "Possible that the guy who got away back there had a radio. If he did, they must know about where we are."
The chopper came closer, scouring the ravine to the left. They saw the powerful searchlight. It turned the ground into daylight for a circle of twenty yards.
"Scatter," Murdock said. "Try to find a rock to curl around and use your cammo cloth. He's gonna work this gully for damn sure. Magic, can you use that fifty?"
"Fucking A, L-T. Armor piercing?"
"Give it a five-round try if he comes within two hundred yards of us. No, wait for a hundred yards. You can't miss at that range."
"You got it, Skipper."
Ronson had been carrying the fifty and the ammo. He loaded five rounds of the armor-piercing types and handed the weapon to Magic. He hunkered down behind a two-foot rock and rested the weapon over the top.
"Come on, sweetheart," Magic said. "Come and let papa give you a shot or two."
Chin watched him, and looked over at Doc. "Hell, I don't know if he's still under or not. Could be pure adrenaline, a nervous high. He doesn't even seem to know he's got a shot-up leg."
"Hope it lasts," Doc said.
They had spread out to be fifteen yards apart. Murdock watched the bird with its long arm of light probing the canyon. Soon the pilot or observer was satisfied, and the bird angled toward the next gully, the one they had been hiking up.
"Stay low and don't move a muscle," Murdock said.
"Never fear, the Magic man is here," Brown chortled.
The big chopper swung closer. At two hundred yards it picked up the gully, changed course, and began working up it, no faster than a slow walk. It gave the crew plenty of time to watch below. It was over a hundred feet in the air so the rotor wash made no dust problem on the ground.
"Closer, you son of a bitch," Magic whispered into the mike.
They waited. It kept working uphill toward them. It would be a hundred yards from Murdock when the light touched the first of the men in Second Platoon, more than that distance from Magic.
"Your guns are free, Magic," Murdock said. "Fire at will."
Just as the chopper swung over the rock Ed DeWitt had claimed, Magic fired. The round slammed through the cabin of the chopper. Before the bird could make any move, Magic had worked the lever and chambered a new round and fired. This one thundered into the engine compartment. At once black smoke poured from the bird.
Magic fired again. The armor-piercing round exploded inside the machine somewhere and it angled sharply to the left. The rotor went on freewheeling when the power stopped. The craft righted itself, then plunged straight to the ground a hundred feet below.