He didn’t have to wait long for the enemy to show up. To Deke’s surprise, they materialized from the edge of the jungle growth where it met the beach. This must be the same Japanese who had pursued them off the hill until they had been thwarted by the ravine. Deke was curious as to how the Japs had finally gotten around the ravine, but he doubted that he’d be able to ask them that anytime soon.
The others were so busy intently watching the ocean for any sign of the navy boat that they didn’t even see the Japanese appear.
“We’ve got company,” Deke said.
There were no more than thirty Japanese, but they far outnumbered the men of Patrol Easy, who were exposed on the beach. Deke was reminded of that day on Guam when they had decided to go swimming and they had been caught out in the open by Japanese snipers. Once again, they had nowhere to go.
Deke decided to make the first move. He spotted an officer, who wore a field cap instead of the helmets worn by the enlisted men. He hoped that it was the same Jap officer who had cut off the Filipinos’ heads. Nothing would have given him more pleasure, he thought, as he lined up the crosshairs on the officer and squeezed the trigger.
The man crumpled.
He ran the bolt and picked out another target.
Deke had picked off the officer, but the Jap soldiers didn’t need any commands to know what to do next. They began firing at the Americans, but they did not advance toward them across the beach. Why should they, Deke thought, when they could just take their time and pick off our guys out here in the open?
Bullets whined overhead, snapping through the humid air.
“Everybody down!” Honcho shouted, and the others threw themselves flat onto the sand, joining Deke.
Deke noticed that one of the Japanese hadn’t retreated into the relative cover of the jungle fringe. He also hadn’t thrown himself flat but stood in plain sight, as if taunting the Americans, or perhaps showing his disdain for them. He was just far enough away that he made a difficult target.
But he wasn’t so far away that Deke couldn’t study him through the scope, picking out a few details. He realized that the soldier also had a scoped rifle. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, but he wasn’t an officer either. He wore the Japanese field cap that was emblazoned with a star, with cloth hanging from the back of the hat to shelter the neck from the sun. The cap was practical for use in the tropics and uniquely oriental in appearance. Deke thought the Jap looked awfully familiar.
With a jolt, Deke realized that this must be the same Japanese sniper he had tangled with back on the hill. He was definitely a cocky son of a bitch, reminding him in some ways of the Samurai Sniper that Deke had run into on Guam. Two different snipers, but cut from the same cloth. What was with these Japs? He wondered if they all thought of themselves as ancient samurai warriors for the Emperor.
But the days of spears and swords were long over, he thought, lining up the rifle for a shot at the man.
As he did so, a bullet passed within inches of his head, reminding Deke that the Jap was also a good shot. He willed his prone body to sink deeper into the sand, the mad hornet whine of the small-caliber bullet sending shivers down to his toes. He couldn’t tell for certain at this distance, but he was pretty sure that the Jap sniper had been looking right at him when he’d fired, delivering a taunt along with the bullet.
Have it your way, Deke thought.
Letting out a breath, he put the crosshairs on the Jap’s chest, held a little high. It was kind of a long poke. Nothing fancy at this distance, he told himself. If he hit the Jap anywhere in the chest, a rifle round traveling at more than two thousand feet per second would take care of business.
There was always wind at the beach, but it was coming in off the sea, getting behind his shot, which suited Deke just fine. The good side of his face was pressed against the stock, making the angry scars more visible. His gray eyes were hard as mountain granite as he fixed them on the target through the scope.
His finger started to take up tension on the trigger. Through the scope, he’d have sworn that the Jap sniper was aiming right back at him. It was anybody’s guess whose bullet was going to leave the muzzle first.
“Hey, here comes a boat!” Philly shouted. “It’s got to be one of our guys. I guess those squids didn’t forget us, after all.”
A volley of whoops and cheers rose from the throats of the men on the beach. Distracted, Deke eased up on the trigger.
They had heard the roaring motor before they saw it, but sure enough, a small craft came racing in from just beyond the surf line. It looked as if he’d been waiting far enough out that the gray hull blended in with the surrounding Pacific, maybe even just over the nautical horizon visible from the beach. No matter, the boat was here now, piloted by a lone man.
The extraction time had been chosen in part because it would be high tide, enabling the boat to come in much closer than it had when dropping them off a day and a half ago. Had it really been just thirty-six hours? Deke thought that it felt like a century.
He turned his full attention back to the Jap, but the enemy sniper’s attention seemed to have shifted. He was no longer aiming at Deke but had shifted his rifle to point in another direction.
At the boat.
The Jap wasn’t aiming at Deke anymore because he was going to shoot the helmsman in the rescue boat. With their escape route cut off, the Japs could then take their time picking off the raiders — or capturing them and cutting off their heads.
Deke wasn’t the only one who had noticed that the sniper planned to target the rescue boat. Nearby, Lieutenant Steele was watching the Japanese through a pair of binoculars.
“Deke—”
“I see him.”
Deke knew that he had to shoot this son of a bitch — and fast. Quickly, he realigned the rifle—
His attention was interrupted by a sound that drowned out the pop of the enemy rifles. It was louder than the boat motor, growing in intensity to a screech, then building to a terrible sky-splitting roar, like a whole freight train was rumbling through the sky.
“Everybody down!” Honcho shouted.
The Jap sniper forgotten for the moment, Deke buried his face in the sand as a volley of five-inch shells arrived. The shells plowed into the forest where it grew close to the beach. Entire trees shattered and cracked, scattering splinters in all directions. Great gouts of dirt and rock erupted like volcanoes.
Somebody on that navy ship was looking out for them. Still, they had been taking a huge chance that the team had managed to knock out the deadly battery on Hill 522. That was faith for you, all right. If the shoreline was within range of the Ingersoll, it also meant that the Ingersoll was within range of any shore batteries.
Deke had thought that he was a good shot, but he had to give those navy gunners credit. Talk about a long poke. The ship was nowhere in sight. It was all the more impressive, considering that they couldn’t even see the target. Then again, all they had to do was get their shells close. The several pounds of high explosives in each shell did the rest.
An instant later, another volley roared in, striking a little farther inland. Again, the destruction looked spectacular, a bit of Armageddon visited upon the forest.
It was hard to say if the Japanese troops had been killed or not, but when Deke raised his head again, they were nowhere in sight. Bits of shattered trees and even boulders littered the sand near where the Japanese had been, with a blackened shell crater smoking nearby.