"You are Americans," the Chinese man said. "I have what you came for." Then he tried to smile. A moment later he passed out.
2
Lieutenant Blake Murdock held the Chinese agent in the chair after the tortured man slumped back unconscious.
"Doc, get over here," Murdock barked. "We've got a problem."
James "Doc" Ellsworth, Hospital Corpsman Second Class, appeared quickly at Murdock's elbow.
"Let's hope he just passed out," Doc said. The corpsman broke open smelling salts and waved them under the agent's nose half a dozen times, then gave him a longer whiff. The Chinese man coughed, snorted, and then roused. At first he was wary. Then he relaxed, softened, and nodded.
"Yes, the Americans are here. I am grateful. Sorry about the bad reception by my misguided countrymen."
"The papers?" Murdock asked, his voice soft and low.
"Do you have some papers to deliver to us?"
"Yes. I didn't tell them where I hid them. They asked me with much persuasion. You must take a look-" He stopped. His face glazed with pain and his eyes closed as he shivered and his whole body spasmed twice, then again.
He sagged against Doc, and for a moment he didn't breathe.
Then the wave of agonizing pain passed and he looked up at the medic. He growled low in his throat and shook his head. "Not yet. I'm not ready to die. No. The papers you want. They are outside in the roof, under a loose tile near the front door. Easy to find."
Murdock nodded at "Magic" Brown and Ron Holt, and they hurried out the front door.
"Let me lay you down and tend to these slashes," Doc said to the man.
The CIA agent shook his head and held out his hand.
"I am Hang Lee Chang, lately with the Company. I bring you the secret papers. They contain all that your people want to know. Now I must go back with you to your boat."
Doc looked at Murdock and slowly shook his head.
"You're too severely wounded to be moved, Mr. Hang," Murdock said. "We'll talk about that later. Why don't you lie down and let our medic help you."
"No. I must sit up. If I lie down, I'll die. If I stay in this house after you leave, I will be helpless and the first government man who sees me will capture me and the torture will start again. They know that I stole the plans. They didn't know about you coming." He gasped for breath and his face contorted with another spasm of pain. His eyes closed and he trembled twice. Then he gasped and his eyes opened again. "Now all is well, the Americans are here. You will take me back to your ship and then to Taiwan."
Brown and Holt came in with a roll of papers wrapped in heavy plastic. Hang looked at them and nodded.
"All there," he said. "Now we leave. You must take me with you. No other option. They will kill me the moment they find me. They will send troops here quickly if even one of them escaped your people."
Murdock looked over at Doc. The medic shook his head again. "Mr. Hang, you've lost far too much blood to risk a move. Your system is in deep shock. I don't have the equipment to help you recover. There isn't a chance that you could swim a mile through the ocean. It's simply impossible for you to come with us."
"My family is all on Taiwan. I taught English there to students. I must get back home. They will kill me if I stay here." His face contorted again. "I can't stand any more torture. I'm tired. I want to go home to my family in Taipei City."
Doc listened and reached into his kit. "I can give you a shot of morphine to ease the pain, Mr. Hang."
The Chinese CIA agent shook his head. "Must stay alert for the swim."
Murdock knelt down beside the Company man. "Mr. Hang, what our medic tells you is true. There's no chance we can take you with us. It's impossible. We're spending too much time here as it is. We're due to leave in thirty seconds.
Hang lifted his brows and nodded at them. "Understand. What is, must be. Old Chinese proverb. What must be, must be." He looked at the fighting knife on Doc's harness. "What a beautiful blade. I used to have one like it. Could I look at it?"
Murdock nodded at Doc. The medic took out the eight-inch blade with two sides and the point honed to perfection, and handed it to the agent.
Hang examined it a moment, touched the sharpness of it. Suddenly he turned the point toward his chest, gripped the heavy handle with both hands, and before either of the SEALS could prevent it, Hang drove the killing knife into his heart.
His head nodded once as the blade went in. Then his eyes rolled back showing only the whites and his hands fell away from the blade. The Chinese agent toppled lifeless to the floor.
"Damn," Murdock said. He looked at his men. "Time for E and E out of this dump. Let's move. Half out the front, rest out the side. Go, go, go!" Doc paused to pull his knife from the corpse, wiped it off, and pushed it back in its scabbard. Then he ran.
Murdock was the first one out the side door. He had flattened the roll of papers, stuffed it inside his wet suit next to his skin, and closed the suit up again. He went through the door at an angle and hit the dirt outside.
Holt went to ground on his right and Magic Brown on his left.
"Hear something?" Murdock asked.
"Trucks," Brown said. "Two, maybe three coming fast and they probably got us in their sights."
"Nicholson didn't nail that slant who got away," Holt said.
Murdock tapped his lip mike. "Got company this side 2IC. Your situation?"
"Yeah," Murdock heard in his earphones from Lieutenant Ed Dewitt, his second in command. "Company here too, coming down the side street."
"Join up here. Get those forties ready."
Rifle fire barked into the quiet of the Chinese night. Rounds slammed over the heads of the SEALS, who hugged the ground looking for targets.
The trucks stopped forty yards away, and the SEALS could see shadows melting from one house to another and moving closer.
Ed Dewitt, leader of the Second Squad, slid into the dust beside Murdock.
"Looks like a shit-pot full of them, L-T."
"Let's cut down the odds." Murdock brought up his MP-5 with a fresh clip and fired at the winking lights fifty yards in front of him.
The men with the M-4A1 carbines with the M-203 40mm grenade launchers opened up with deadly HE rounds. One round hit in front of one of the Chinese trucks, blowing the engine apart and rupturing the fuel line, which resulted in an explosion that tore the two-ton truck in half.
A Willy Peter round landed just behind the burning truck showering a Fourth of July spray of hotly burning white phosphorus into half-a-dozen Chinese troopers, who screamed as the globs of WP stuck to their uniforms and quickly burned through cloth, skin, tissue, and bone. The rifle fire slackened.
Murdock had been evaluating. He had one corridor, only four rifles firing along it, to the right front. He motioned, and Magic Brown laid down a deadly stream of 7.62 rounds into the area. Three high-explosive rounds from the launchers silenced the shooters. The SEALS heard screams, and one man rose firing a rifle, but was cut down by three rounds of NATO that tore into his chest and jolted him backwards.
Murdock came to his feet and waved his arm forward. The fifteen men behind him caught the sign and raced out of the yard, over the low fence, and down a short lane to safety behind a second house.
Four Chinese charged around the side of the house in the moonlight surprised to find an enemy waiting for them. Murdock took out the first man with a three-round burst that stitched up his throat and face. He spun and lost his AK-47 rifle crashing to the ground in front of the other three men.