“She assured my contact that it was a hundred times that big and loud. The whole area was covered with sparking wires and snapping and smoking for a half hour before it calmed down.
“Now, the question is, was there just one explosion like this one? Was it done deliberately or was it an accident? Could one large power substation blow out the entire electrical grid to seven-and-a-half states? I don’t know.
“A small update for you. Yes, most telephones are working. However, if you have a cell phone, it probably won’t. The cell phone repeater antennas need electricity to function. If you have a cordless phone that plugs into a socket and transmits your voice from handset to base, it probably won’t work. Ordinary phones use a very small amount of electrical power and are not connected to the electrical lines. So, you can call, but most circuits are so jammed that you can’t get through. Just sit tight, hang on, welcome your day of vacation, and hope they put the grids back on line soon. By the same logic, most long-distance calls won’t go through since they are often sent through microwave relay stations. Those stations here in the affected area are also down and out, so no long-distance calls.”
Murdock and DeWitt listened to the radio. Murdock shrugged. “Hey, I have an after-action report to do. I can write it on my battery-powered laptop, but won’t be able to print it. So I’ll print it out later.”
Murdock had just sat down in his small office at Platoon Three when his phone rang. It startled him. He grabbed it. “Murdock here sir,” he said.
“Good, you’re back.” It was Commander Masciareli, Murdock’s immediate superior. “I have my SATCOM on and just received a mission-well-done from the CNO. He also said nobody knows much about the power blackout. He suggested that your platoon be on standby. He had just come from a meeting with several federal agencies and they were concerned with the power blackout. By now they concede that it is sabotage, probably by the same North Korean elements who attacked San Francisco and shot down the jet passenger liner.”
“Yes, sir. I’d say that’s a good assumption,” Murdock said.
“He said one of the large power stations blasted is in the desert north of Palm Springs near Yucca Valley. Two witnesses saw the huge power substation there blow up; then two cars full of men drove off into the desert south toward the Little San Bernardino Mountains. So far nobody has tried to chase them down. He wants your men to get airlifted up there and use your choppers to locate them and capture them if possible. The report said six to eight men in two vehicles.”
“Sir, we just got back.”
“At ease, mister. I know where you’ve been. You’ll have two hours of prep time, then lift off North Island at 1000 in two Forty-Sixes. Take all the ammo and weapons you can carry. The choppers will be your horses. Each will have a door gunner. That’s a go, Commander. You better get cracking.”
13
Murdock stepped into the assembly room where the SEALs were stowing gear in lockers, cleaning and oiling weapons, and filling their combat vests with the usual gear.
“Listen up,” Murdock said with more force than usual. “We’re on the button again. The CNO wants us to check out some men who blew up a power substation up by Palm Springs. We take off in two hours, so let’s pack up and get ready to move.”
“This is gunna ruin my love life,” Jaybird yelped.
“Hey, that redhead you dated last week said your love life had been ruined years ago,” Howard gibed. They all laughed, and it helped relieve some of the tension.
“These guys North Ks?” Lam asked.
“Nobody knows,” Murdock said. “We’ll go up and track them from the chopper, find, and engage. The boss wants a prisoner. We’ll have two birds with one squad in each.”
“Weapons mix?” Senior Chief Sadler asked.
“DeWitt, your call,” Murdock said.
“Take all seven Bull Pups, one EAR, one MG per squad, one sniper rifle per squad, and the rest MP-5’s. Let’s get working, people.”
Murdock repacked his combat vest along with the rest of them, and cleaned his Bull Pup. Then he slipped a standard-band battery-operated radio into one of the pockets. They might learn something from a radio station if he could find one. He made certain that the SATCOM had a fresh battery and that it was glued to Bradford when they stepped on the chopper.
The two CH-46’s flew on a straight line from North Island Air Station to Indio, jumped over the Little San Bernardino mountain range, and began a low-level search for tire tracks working north.
“We’re in the edge of the Joshua Tree National Park,” Murdock told the men in his bird. “Don’t know what we’ll find.”
The choppers were down to a hundred feet, roving along the edge of the mountains in a search pattern that moved slowly to the north. They passed Key’s View, and swung west with the curve of the mountain ridges, and were almost to the Black Rock canyon area before they found the twin tracks of two wheeled rigs entering the desert terrain.
“Got them,” DeWitt called on the Motorola. “Let’s swing around and follow them south. Don’t see where the hell they could hide in this wide-open desert kind of country.”
“Maybe back in one of the canyons leading into the mountains,” Murdock said. “Keep a sharp look.”
Lam went to one of the open side doors and sat there watching the terrain a hundred feet below. Sand, cactus, stunted desert growth. Not the Sahara, but not much plant life here either, with only three inches or less of rainfall a year. Here and there a gully showed where runoff came after a hard, quick rainfall. Along these watercourses, now long dry, there were smatterings of brush. Nothing large enough to hide a car.
They kept looking.
“There,” Franklin called. “I’ve got one rig turning off into that small watercourse moving into the hills.”
“We’ll take the turnoff,” Murdock shouted. “DeWitt, stay with the other one.” The commander went forward to tell the pilot to follow the turned tracks. Ahead they could see no sight of a car or anywhere it might hide. The arroyo became deeper, now ten feet below the level of the desert floor and twenty feet wide. It made a slow turn to the left, and ended suddenly a hundred yards ahead where a sheer rock wall a hundred feet high blocked the gully.
“What the hell?” Murdock asked no one. He had stayed in the small cabin.
The pilot looked at him. “Want me to lift up and see what’s above the rock wall?”
“No use, the car can’t go up there. Put us down back here about fifty yards from the wall and we’ll do some exploring.
“DeWitt,” Murdock said on the Motorola.
“Copy that,” DeWitt responded.
“We’ve found a dead end on the tracks against a stone wall. We’re landing and taking a look. This one car has to be here somewhere. You stay with the other tracks.”
“Got, it Commander. Will do. We’re still moving generally south, but have seen no car.”
Murdock touched the pilot’s shoulder. “As soon as we get off, you lift away and wait for us out of range. Could be some weapons down there and an RPG or two. We’ll use a red flare when we want to be picked up.”
The chopper slowed and lowered gently to the ground. Murdock stepped into the big cargo area.
“We don’t know what might be out there, so we take it slow and easy. I want a line of skirmishers and we’ll work up this side of the gully. I saw the car tracks back there about a hundred yards, so it has to be here somewhere.”