Murdock chose Quinley and Washington for his assault team, and moved up on the rear door, past the silent weapons and personnel carriers and the fuel dump. Murdock held up for five minutes watching for a guard, but none showed. He and Fred Washington darted to the rear door and tried it. Unlocked. He turned the knob, and opened the panel an inch. No lights showed inside.
Murdock, and two men, slid into the room. It was a storage area, holding various goods. He had on his NVGs, and found a door across the ten-foot-wide room. Unlocked.
He opened it two inches. Faint light showed beyond.
Murdock switched his MP-5 to three-round burst, and stepped inside.
It was a supply room loaded with uniforms, rations, ammunition, and other goods. A single work light burned overhead.
The men found two doors. Lights showed under both of them.
Murdock opened one and stepped inside. Three uniformed men worked over a radio panel. Murdock’s three-round burst put down two of them.
Another three rounds from Les Quinley’s silenced H&K G-11 nailed the other one.
Another door showed ahead. Murdock moved to it. Washington opened it, and they both looked in. It was a barracks, with twenty men sleeping on double-decker bunks. The silenced shots had not awakened them. Washington eased the door closed, and they moved to the next one.
Beyond this door, opened a long hallway. There were six doors leading off it. At the far end, sat a sentry at a desk. He was either sleeping or reading. Murdock switched his subgun to single-shot, and fired twice. The guard jolted back against the wall, and then slumped off the chair to the floor.
Murdock and Quinley ran to the guard as Washington covered their backs. The guard was dead. They checked the first door. An office.
The second showed a storeroom. The third door opened onto a pair of cells. Two men were in one, three in the other.
“Any of you speak English?” Murdock asked. One man looked up quickly. “I do. Who are you?”
“Are you Fayd Salwa?” Murdock asked.
“Yes. Are you Americans?”
“Right, we’re taking you home,” Quinley said. He looked at the lock on the door. A small key chain hung on a nail near the door. He grabbed it, tried two keys. The third one unlocked the cell. He opened the other cell as well, and ushered all the prisoners out. They saw the open door and ran.
Tears brimmed Salwa’s eyes as he grabbed Murdock in a bear hug. “I have prayed to Allah to rescue me, but I never thought it would happen.”
Murdock touched his lip mike. “I have the package. We’re coming out.” Just as he said it they heard automatic-rifle fire in the hallway. Murdock peered around the door frame from floor level, and saw three men in military uniforms moving down the hall, checking rooms as they came.
He pushed his MP-5 around the door frame, jolted out so he could see, and sprayed the advancing guards with three triple-round bursts.
All the soldiers went down. One crawled toward his dropped rifle. A burst of rounds from Quinley’s G-11 put him down and dead.
“Which way out?” Murdock asked Salwa.
“I don’t know. They only brought me here tonight. I’d like to have a weapon. I was in the army, I can use one.”
Murdock gave him the Mark 23 0 pistol off his belt. Salwa chambered a round and pushed on the safety.
“Let’s try to the left, past where the guard used to be,” Quinley said.
Murdock agreed. “Those sleeping men back the other way must be awake now after that rifle fire.”
Murdock talked to his Motorola again. “Ed, we’ve got some bad guys shooting in here. Create a diversion outside, the side entrance, and the back. Keep them busy. We’ll try to get out.”
“Roger that. How about a nice gasoline fire back here?”
Murdock took the lead. Salwa was in the middle with Washington, and Quinley bringing up the rear. They ran past the three bodies, and to the end of the hall where the guard lay dead.
A connecting hall went both ways. Murdock chose the right-hand one, and had gone only a dozen steps when two soldiers came around a bend in the hall. Murdock brought up his MP-5 and got off three rounds.
Salwa right behind him fired four times, and the two soldiers went down.
The three SEALs and Salwa ran toward them. One of the soldiers lifted up with his AK-47. Before he could fire, Salwa put a .45 round in his head. The man slammed backwards as brains and blood splattered against the wall.
Murdock waved his thanks at Salwa, and they ran on. The corridor dead-ended at a double door. Salwa shrugged. Murdock tried the door.
Locked.
Someone behind in the hall fired at them. Quinley turned, and chattered off six rounds down the hall at two uniformed men. They ducked out of danger. Murdock looked at the door. It was their only way out. He stepped back, waved Salwa and the two SEALs back, and put a three-round burst of the 9mm slugs into the area of the door lock. The panel shook on impact, then swung open a foot.
They darted through the opening, just as the men behind them fired again.
The room was a total surprise. Two naked men with military blouses draped over chairs were in two beds, each of them with two naked women.
Murdock and Salwa grabbed the men’s clothes, and backed toward a far door. Quinley and Washington kept their weapons aimed at naked bodies.
The far door was unlocked.
Salwa peered through the open door with Murdock. Murdock nodded, and the four men hurried through into the next room, a small kitchen.
Beyond that they found another corridor with a door at the far end.
This door opened to the outside. Murdock had no idea which side of the building they were on. He checked outside.
No troops were visible. He looked both ways again through the darkness, and to the right saw a growing light. He frowned, then realized it came from the flickering of flames. The men darted out the door, and ran twenty yards to a parking lot where a number of civilian cars and three military rigs stood.
Murdock hit the Motorola. “Ed, where the hell are you?”
“We’re near the back door where you entered. The fire’s burning nicely, and we have about twenty troops who don’t like us too well.
They keep shooting at us.”
Then Murdock could hear the rifle fire.
“Use the rest of the Second Squad back there to cover you, then start leapfrogging back into the desert. We still have the package.
We’ll try to meet you at that truck we borrowed.”
As Murdock said it, someone from the door they had just left opened up with automatic-rifle fire. Quinley went down beside the front of a car, and peppered the door with his 4.7mm caseless rounds.
“Salwa, can you get one of these personnel carriers started?”
“Give it a try. You have a knife?”
Murdock gave him his K-bar, and the Arab man vanished into the nearest half-track. More fire came from the side door, and now a new threat showed at the front of the building.
“The damn rig with the Big Fifty has swung around on us,” Washington whispered. A dozen rounds slammed overhead.
“Don’t think they want to shoot up their half-tracks,” Murdock said.
A moment later a line of men from the front of the building came running at them with assault fire. The nearest civilian car was riddled. The three SEALs returned fire, and half the shooters went down. Fewer rounds came then, and Quinley put in a new 50-round magazine and fired again.
Another line of gunmen ran forward from behind the first.
Murdock heard the rumble of an engine start.
“Ready,” Salwa shouted. Quinley, Washington, and Murdock jumped in the half-track, and it rolled away from the front of the building, then did a ninety-degree turn, and headed straight for the desert. Two hundred yards into the sand and rocks, the rig slowed, and pivoted around so its .50-caliber machine gun on the front could work the rear of the building.