“Tom One, Home Base. Firing mission completed.
“The target is slowing, Home Base,” Tom Two said. “Tom Two over her now. I can see that she took several hits. The big air props are winding down. One looks half blown away.”
“Good shooting, Tom One. This is Home Base. The hovercraft is now dead in the water.”
“Home Base, Tom One. She seems to be getting under way again, slowly but reversing course. I say again, the Russian hovercraft seems to be reversing course heading north.”
“That’s affirmative, Tom One. Our plot shows she’s now moving back toward her fleet. Observe but don’t follow beyond ten klicks.”
“That’s a Roger, Home Base.”
CAG Captain Olson looked at the admiral. “At least we didn’t sink her. Could have. You’ll probably be getting a message from your buddy Admiral Rostow.”
Admiral Kenner shook his head. “Don’t think so, CAG. He tried a bold move to get his attackers inside and it didn’t work. He’ll have to lick his wounds and try for a stealth move by night. No, I don’t think that we’ll hear a peep out of our Russian Naval officer friend.”
The admiral turned to Murdock. “You hear anything from your man in Washington yet about a go for your team?”
“Not a word, Admiral. Today, I hope.”
“Be best. You said you think the Russian commandos will be sent in tomorrow night.”
“Yes, Sir. We need to go in tonight to get there first.” On the Russian island of Kunashir, in the small village of Golovnino, Japanese General Raiden Nishikawa stared in delight as he saw the Russian hovercraft take the strafing by the American fighters. He cheered as it stopped and then turned slowly and moved back toward the north at no more than ten knots.
His second in command had been with him on an inspection of the security outposts, and both had seen the warning rounds, then the attack on the boat.
“They were going to land?” Major Hitachi asked.
“Yes. I’m sure they wanted to. That class hovercraft can carry a tank, maybe two, and at least two hundred combat soldiers. We were lucky today that the United States drove them away.” Nishikawa shook his head, and stared at the retreating hovercraft making less of a spray of water than when it had arrived at what he guessed had to be over thirty-five knots.
“But tonight, after dark. What is going to happen then? We still have three days on the seven day deadline. But the Russians were ready to violate their own limit by invading us today. What will they do tonight? We must be especially alert as soon as darkness falls.”
Murdock returned to the compartment as soon as he talked with the admiral in the TFCC. The SEALs had finished with cleaning, checking, and oiling their weapons. Each man had his gear laid out for inspection, mostly so each one could check and double-check to be sure he had with him what he wanted on the mission.
Murdock went to his table, and laid out his gear again. Yes, it was all there. They would not take the big, heavy Mark 23 H&K .45-caliber pistol. He wanted the men able to move quickly.
A sailor came in the door and looked around. When he saw Murdock, he went up to him and held out an envelope.
“Commander Murdock?”
“Right. I hope you bring good news.”
The man grinned and hurried out of the room.
Murdock tore open the envelope and read the typed-out message.
The ready room’s chatter tapered off as one after another of the SEALs saw the messenger and wondered what the message would say.
Murdock read it quickly, and looked up. “We have a go.”
The room exploded with cheering and stomping, then quieted again.
“Stroh says we got past the Japanese Prime Minister with the EAR weapons. He hopes to hell that they work. He also said that he figures we’ll have to take our regular weapons in, but he won’t be telling the Prime Minister about that. Looks like Dewitt and I better go see the admiral.”
By the time they tracked the admiral down in his quarters, it was a little after 1100.
The admiral already knew of the go.
“Your PBRs are already on board. You can load them with your IBSs and get them lashed down while they are in the hold. Then they’ll go out a hatch near the waterline and you can board them. What’s your time schedule?”
“Sir, dark here is about seventeen hundred. How far from shore and the town are we?”
“I checked. We’re fifteen miles off shore and about five miles south of the town. The PBRs will do twenty-four knots. If you leave here an hour before dark, you should have plenty of time to get offshore a mile at dark and get into your IBSS.”
“Good. We’ll be ready at fifteen hundred to load the boats, then plan on casting off at sixteen hundred.”
“Any last-minute special equipment or gear you need, Commander?”
“No, sir. We’re ready. We’ll have our SATCOM tuned to the carrier’s tactical frequency for voice, and check it before we get onshore. I think we’re all set, sir. Thank you for your help.”
Admiral Kenner smiled. “No problem. Oh, you could put in a good word for me with the CNO next time you have lunch with him.”
Murdock laughed. “Admiral, I hardly know the man. If I take him to lunch, I’ll be sure to mention you.”
Back at the ready room, Jaybird Sterling hurried up to Murdock when he came in.
“Skipper, I’ve got our guide here to take us back to the stern.
That’s evidently where our IBSs are and the patrol boats. He says we’ll launch the PBR craft there and then board them.”
“True, after we lash the IBSs on the bow of each of the PBRs.”
Murdock looked around. “Jaybird, get these guys to chow, and then we’ll do the last-minute packing up. We’ll be pushing off from the carrier at sixteen hundred — that’s a little over four hours. Now chew some tail and get these guys fed.”
21
By 1530, the SEALs had lashed one of the bulky, inflated IBS boats to each of the river patrol craft. Murdock didn’t recognize the craft.
The ones they had were the Mark II series, the older variety. They were thirty-two feet long, displaced 8.9 tons fully loaded, and had two GM V-6 diesels to produce 420 horsepower to run two Jacuzzi water jets.
They had a top speed of twenty-four knots, and were set up to haul ten combat troops. They had four 12.7mm machine guns and two Mark 19 grenade launchers. Murdock talked to the coxswain. “We need to get from here to a mile off Golovnino, and arrive just at full dark. We want you to come into a mile off as quietly as possible. We don’t care if you throttle down to five knots, just so nobody onshore knows we’re out there.”
“Understand,” the coxswain said. “I’ll be the lead boat. We’ve got enough speed to get up there and then move in the last mile or two on low power. Keep your guys inside the boat. We don’t want to have to go back and pick anybody up.”
“You ever worked with SEALs before, Chief?”
“No, sir.”
“I didn’t think so.”
The Navy crew lowered the patrol boats into the water out the hatch that was three feet off the waves. Both the IBSs were lashed down securely.
At 1550, Murdock had Ed Dewitt load in his seven men. Five minutes later the Second Squad was on board the patrol boat, and Murdock put his squad in the other one.