It did. The Night Fly team could follow the wake of the air-cushion craft. They had a previous fix on the headlights, and brought the ship into shore as close to the lights as they could determine.
“We can do seventy knots without a load,” the Russian captain said.
“That is much faster than your American air-cushioned boat, the LCAC, which has a top speed of forty knots.”
Murdock laughed. “You win that one, Captain. This is a remarkable ship. You can carry four light tanks and how many combat troops?”
“No secret. It’s in Jane’s Fighting Ships book. We can carry four light tanks, or two medium tanks, and two hundred combat-ready soldiers.”
By that time they were nearing their target. The Night Fly planes had agreed to do a fly-over of the suspect area. They would come in off the sea and across the land so their flaming tailpipes could be seen by the hovercraft pilot. The plan worked remarkably well.
The craft headed for the beach, then diverted a quarter mile south.
“Too many sharp rocks and bad beach for landing,” the Russian pilot explained.
The craft slashed through the Pacific Ocean’s swells, rode the breakers, leveled out on the sand, and raced up the wet part to the dry sand. Then it slid easily over the weeds and small brush to a stop fifty feet from the shoreline.
When the motors cycled down, Murdock heard rifle fire and one machine gun.
“Looks like we’re at the right spot,” Murdock said. “Colonel, like we said on the way up, let my men go out first and try to get the general’s rear guard in a cross fire with our weapons. If we can’t dislodge them, we’ll have your man call you in.”
The colonel, who said he wasn’t wild about getting his men killed, gave a curt nod, and the SEALs left by the rear of the big ship out the tank-access door. First Squad swung to the right and Second Squad moved left. They could hear the Japanese firing.
“Sounds like six or eight men,” Murdock said into his mike. “Let’s get a clear field, then fire at the muzzle flashes.”
Three minutes later Ed Dewitt called on the Motorola that his men were ready. Murdock moved around another ten yards, and found an opening through which they could see the flashes.
“Open fire,” Murdock told his lip mike. He sighted in on one muzzle flash and pulled the trigger. The soft whooshing sound came, and then he heard six more down the line.
At once the number of shots coming from the Japanese trailed off.
Three more rounds hit the defenders; then the last guns in the rear guard went silent.
“Let’s move in and mop up,” Murdock ordered into his mike.
They ran forward, their EAR weapons off safety with ready lights glowing. In the pale Japanese moonlight they found the six defenders.
All had two weapons each. All lay sleeping beside their still hot rifles and the one machine gun.
“Cuff them, and call up the troops,” Murdock said. The Russian with Murdock used the Russian walkie-talkie, and soon the first elements of the Russians moved up. They stared in surprise at the six defenders all unconscious.
Colonel Hartzloff checked the pulse on two of the men, and shook his head. He came up to Murdock.
“Commander, must know about your weapon.”
Murdock laughed. “Colonel, it’s like your Akula-class submarines.”
The colonel took a step backward. “You know about Akula?”
“About them. They are in Jane’s Fighting Ships, right? But we don’t know all the scientific and secret aspects of them. Like this rifle. Now you know about it, but not how or why it works. We must leave it that way.”
The colonel frowned, then shrugged. “We will leave it this way for now. But after we have captured the Japanese general, we will deal with it again.” He paused. “You realize that we have five times as many weapons here as your fifteen men have?”
Murdock smiled in the moonlight. He stared at the Russian commando. “I’m aware of that, Colonel. But have you realized that our weapons are fifteen times as effective as yours are?”
24
After a moment of staring, the two officers looked away from each other.
“I wish we had one of them conscious so we could find out where the general went,” Murdock said. He motioned to Lam.
“Make a couple of swings out there and see what you can find. Even in the dark you should be able to see where twenty men went on a hike.”
Lam grinned, and ran into the darkness toward the looming up-thrust of a hill in front of them.
The Russian guide who had come with them from the prison came up and talked with Ching. The interpreter hurried over to Murdock.
“Skip, we might have something here. This guy says he’s been in this area many times. There is a series of old caves high on the cliffs back there. He says it would make a perfect hideout and fortress for somebody trying to hold off a superior force.”
“How far from here?” Ching asked the Russian, then turned. “He says it’s into the mountain where the jeeps can’t drive. Maybe four or five miles, maybe more. None of his group ever went all the way back there.”
Murdock moved over to talk to the Russian officer.
“Colonel Hartzloff, we may have a direction to go.” He told the officer what the Russian guide had told Ching. The colonel motioned to the guide, who was a corporal, and talked with him.
Then the colonel turned to Murdock. “Yes, sounds good. My trackers and my scouts will lead. Your men in the middle and my commandos as rear guard. We will go now.”
Murdock shrugged. Getting there wasn’t the problem. What to do once they found the general would be the tough part. He could wait.
They found Lam coming back to meet them. He lifted his brows when he saw the SEALs in the middle of the line of march.
“What the fuck, sir?”
Murdock shook his head. “Not the time to worry now.” He told the scout what the Russian from the prison had said.
“Good, they went up this way for fucking certain,” Lam said.
They hiked along silently for two miles. Then ahead, a machine gun chattered. Murdock and his men hit the dirt. The Russians went down as well. Murdock and Holt began working forward past the prone Russians.
They didn’t look like blooded veterans right then to Murdock.
The machine gun fired again; then they heard the lower-pitched rounds from the Japanese rifles. The Russians at the front of the column returned fire. Murdock heard the flat crack of the AK47, now called the AKM, and the stuttering fire of a Russian machine gun. He and Holt went faster, pushing past the Russians until they came to the front of the column.
Murdock bellied down behind a fallen pine tree. There were a lot of good-sized pines here higher on the slope.
“Captain, how many up there?” Murdock called to the Russian officer. Radiwitch rolled toward him.
“We don’t know. Four, maybe five. I’ve got a wounded man. They are in a good defensive position among a jumble of rocks. Hard to get a good shot.”
“Let us try,” Murdock said. He motioned to Holt, who had an EAR now as well. They waited for another volley of fire from the rocks a hundred yards ahead, then took turns firing at five-second intervals.
After three shots each from the EARS, they waited. The firing from the rocks had stopped.
“I figured the sound would bounce around those rocks like it did in a room,” Murdock whispered to Holt.
Captain Radiwitch rolled over to Murdock again, and stared at the EAR from two feet away.
“I must have one of those. No more firing from the Japanese rear guard. How did you do that?”