“Got it, Cap. We don’t want a major general gut-shot on our watch.”
They lay there watching the house.
“I haven’t seen anybody at the windows,” Lam said.
“Fernandez?” Murdock said into the Motorola.
“Go, Cap.”
“Have you spotted a second man who works the front and goes over to the kitchen?”
“Got him, Cap. He’ll be my first hit when he’s here. Then I get the second one. All silent. Roger that.”
“We wait until it’s almost dark, maybe twenty minutes. You in position, DeWitt?”
“All hunkered down and waiting. Fernandez is at the front sniper station, and I’ll take Canzoneri and Franklin with me to the kitchen entrance. Mahanani will use the Knight here in back looking for guards. Give us a countdown from five minutes and I’ll get everyone settled in.”
“Roger that, DeWitt.”
Murdock moved General Arnold and Luke Howard up to Lam’s sniper spot. “I want both of you to stay here for any movement out front. Bradford, Ching, Sadler, and Van Dyke, you’ll stay spread out about here for a blocking team. Spread out twenty yards apart across the front now, guys. Nothing and nobody gets past you.”
“Murdock, I’ve got Donegan, Victor, and Jefferson in blocking.”
They waited. Murdock checked his blockers, then led General Arnold and Howard up near Lam. He found good cover for the two of them five yards behind Lam.
“All set?” Murdock asked the general.
“As much as ever. First combat I’ve seen since Desert Storm. Don’t worry, I won’t shame you.”
Murdock checked his watch.
“DeWitt, you have your five before we move.”
“Copy that.”
Mahanani checked his view of the rear of the house again. He had seen no guards out back, but there could be one stationary one. DeWitt hurried back to his spot near the kitchen, keeping thirty yards of brush and trees between him and the structure. He met Canzoneri and Franklin, and they planned their run to the kitchen door after the guards were down.
The sun had been behind the far ridges for twenty minutes when dusk dropped in on the ranch house.
“Snipers in front,” Murdock said. “It’s a go. Your weapons are free.”
Lam had been sighting the Knight sniper rifle in on the North Korean at the end of the ranch house. The man had just stood up and stretched. Lam refined his sight and pulled the trigger.
18
Lam’s silent shot huffed into the high Sierra night air. The North Korean guard slammed forward, dropped his long gun, and sprawled next to the ranch house. Murdock waited, watching the man through his NVGs. The green image in the night goggles showed the man as still as death.
Lam swung his head to the left and checked the other guard. The one who had been walking his post came almost to the kitchen, then stumbled and fell. Lam squirmed back to the general and traded weapons with her.
“Nineteen rounds left in the magazine,” he said. He took the MP-5 and her magazines and moved to the tree that he and Murdock had picked out for their meet. The other two SEALs were there, and Jaybird motioned him forward. They jogged the forty yards to the right-hand entrance and paused a dozen feet away to watch it. They saw no movement.
The dead guard lay where he had fallen. Jaybird sprinted for the door and tried it. Unlocked. He pulled it open slowly. Coleman gas lights were on now inside the house. He could see down a hallway with numerous doors leading off it. Murdock and Lam crowded behind Jaybird. Murdock motioned to the first two doors on the left, pointing to the other two men. He had the doors on the right. He stepped into the hall and waited. No sound, no movement.
Murdock turned the knob on the first door and jolted it open. The room was empty, but clothes were scattered on the unmade bed. He eased down the hall to the second door. He saw Lam and Jaybird shake their heads as they exited their rooms.
They checked the eight doors on the wing and found no people in any of them, and no dead bodies. When they came to the large living room they waited. DeWitt had to be coming down there somewhere.
On the other end of the ranch house, Ed DeWitt watched the two guards go down from the sniper rifle. One tried to crawl away, but a second round stopped him. DeWitt and his two men rushed to the kitchen door. They opened it and found two cooks there busy with their job of getting a meal.
They looked up in surprise.
“Who the hell are you guys?” the taller of the cooks, with the white chef’s hat, asked.
“Navy SEALs. Where are the kidnappers?”
“Hell, got me. Last I saw of them, this one boss gook guy said he wanted a box of sandwiches and six gallons of water. Made them up for him. Must have been an hour ago.”
“Any of the staff still here?” DeWitt asked.
“Don’t think so. Everybody ran out when the helicopters blew up. We were working and didn’t even hear it. Didn’t know nothing was wrong until the Chinks came in.”
“They’re North Koreans.”
“Slants, what’s the difference? You guys hungry?”
“Later,” DeWitt said, and hurried through the kitchen into a hallway that led to a pair of empty but recently used bedrooms, then a big double door.
“Clear it?” Canzoneri asked. DeWitt nodded. He grabbed the door handle and shoved the panel open. Nothing happened. Canzoneri looked around the doorjamb from floor height.
“Can’t see anybody,” he said.
De Witt charged into the room, his MP-5 swinging to cover it. There were two rooms and a big window facing the front. Had to be the owner’s suite.
“Nobody,” DeWitt said. They left the room and moved down a short hall to an empty dining room, then to the large living room.
“Entering the living room area,” DeWitt said on his Motorola.
“Copy that,” Murdock said. “We’re here as well. We came up empty.”
“So did we, except for two cooks,” DeWitt said. “The Ks have bugged out.” The SEALs moved forward cautiously through the living room and activity room until they met.
“Looks like we’re all clear on the ranch house,” Murdock said to the Motorola. “You men on blocking, turn around and give us a perimeter while we figure out what to do. Snipers come inside. You too, General Arnold.”
Murdock frowned. “First we check out this place and see if they hid anybody here, or if any of them are hiding. Let’s do a complete search. Ed, take the kitchen and those rooms down there. Alpha Squad will do the bedrooms down the other way. Let’s do it.”
Twenty minutes later Lam opened a closet in one of the bedrooms and jumped back. Two dead bodies fell out.
“Skipper, better come take a look. Fourth bedroom from the end.”
Murdock checked the bodies. “The man was shot to death, two in the back of his head. An execution. He must be the Secret Service guy. Jaybird, go down and bring back the three civilians we left behind.”
The second body was a woman, early thirties. “Probably one of the dining-room servers,” Lam said. She had also been shot, Murdock saw, two rounds to the chest. DeWitt checked in by radio. His men had found nothing in their search area.
The SEALs met in the living room. “So do the Ks have the President or don’t they?” DeWitt asked.
“We can’t tell,” Murdock said. “They left. Why? Could be because they had the President, and that’s what they came for.”
“Where can they go up in this wilderness?” Lam asked. “Unless they have some alternative transport, like a backup chopper somewhere.”
“Let’s hope not,” Canzoneri said. “Then we’ll never find them.”
“Lam, can you track them in the dark?” Murdock asked his lead scout.
“Should be fifteen or sixteen of them. That will make a good trail. Give me two Maglites and I’ll give it a shot.”