“Do you wish to see this man executed as a war criminal?” the general said, his voice calm.
“He’s not a war criminal,” Pontowski said.
“I take it,” the general said, “that we have nothing else to discuss.”
“Apparently not,” Pontowski replied. The three men spun around and marched back. “General,” Pontowski called to their backs, “take good care of Sergeant Travis. I want him back.”
Clark’s driver brought up the van, and they climbed in. “Okay, Chief,” Pontowski said, “what was the message?”
Clark didn’t understand. “What message?”
“Did you see Paul’s right eye blink?” Rockne replied. “Morse code.”
“What did he say?” she asked.
“‘Jake dead. Resist. All bluff.’” Rockne let it sink in.
Artillery rumbled in the distance, but it was getting closer. “That doesn’t sound like ‘all bluff’ to me,” Clark said. Her driver floored the accelerator and sped toward the command post.
“It may be a last gasp,” Pontowski said. “Why else the white flag?”
The driver slammed the van to a halt. “Missy Colonel, you go home now?”
An artillery round shrieked across the night sky. “Incoming!” Rockne shouted.
The dull whomp of a mortar round echoed out of the base camp and over the valley. A few seconds later the round hit in the jungle eighty meters behind the ridge where Kamigami and Sun were hiding. “They’re wasting ammunition,” Sun said.
“They’re ranging,” Kamigami said. “Spread the word to take cover.” He focused his night-vision scope on the tunnel entrances. There was movement inside the right tunnel, ample indication that it was open. The entrance to the middle tunnel was totally collapsed and permanently sealed. He zoomed in on the left tunnel. The entrance was half filled with rubble and big boulders, but there had been no cave-in and the roof was still standing. The sound of a diesel engine resonated from the right tunnel. “Something’s coming out.” He panned to the right entrance as the engine raced and dark exhaust billowed out. Then the base camp erupted. The defenders launched a mortar barrage, sending a wave of projectiles into the surrounding ridgelines. At the same time a light tank emerged from the tunnel, its cannon firing. It laid a trail of heavy smoke as it raced for the far end of the valley where the road disappeared into the jungle. Another diesel engine labored in the smoke, totally obscured from view. Kamigami caught a glimpse of a transporter/erector carrying a missile before the smoke rolled back over it. The mortar barrage grew heavier as men poured out of the tunnel, running for the base camp. Machine-gun fire from the surrounding ridges raked the smoke. The mortar barrage from the camp stopped, and the smoke slowly dissipated. Thirty or forty bodies littered the ground, but it had been a successful breakout.
“They’re getting organized,” Kamigami told Sun. “There’s more to come.”
“What about the missile?” Sun asked.
“Send a team to track it down and kill it.”
Sun spoke into his radio to make it happen. He listened for a few moments. “Tel’s coming in.”
“Time to withdraw,” Kamigami said. “Call in the team leaders.” They had violated two of the basic rules of special operations — never hold ground, and hit and run. So far they had hit. Now it was time to run and remember the first rule.
The small group of men who gathered a few minutes later understood what had to be done, but they were reluctant to disengage. True to their culture, no one openly raised the issue as Kamigami detailed the sequence for withdrawal. Finally Tel broke the silence. “Sir, they want to try once more to close the tunnel.”
“An attack during daylight is suicide,” Kamigami said.
“Those missiles are killing their families,” Tel replied. The simple statement pounded at Kamigami as he remembered his own family. Tel pressed the argument. “We’ve got another hour before sunrise.”
Lieutenant Lee stepped forward. “I can take a team from Tiger Red in.”
“You’ll have to blow the entrance from inside,” Kamigami said. “Who knows how to clear a tunnel?” There was no reply to his question. It was just as well, for the First SOS had to withdraw while it was still dark. But the faces of his family kept coming back.
Tel crawled into position with the sniper and gave three quick clicks on the transmission button of his radio, initiating the attack. Mortars slammed into the base camp, driving the defenders to cover. More mortars laid down a smoke screen in the open area. Ropes tumbled from the ridgeline above the left tunnel, and four men rappelled down. The first man, Lieutenant Lee, landed on the rubble piled in the entrance and released his rope while the other three men hovered above. A big shadow rappelled down Lee’s rope as the lieutenant raised his head and looked inside, his night-vision goggles making him look like a giant insect perched on a rock. He pumped his fist up and down, and the three men hanging above swung in just as the last man reached the entrance. He swung in after them. Lee scampered over the rocks and disappeared inside. Tel clicked his radio twice, ending the barrage. Kamigami and four shooters were inside.
Kamigami motioned Lee and two men to the far side of the tunnel as he got his bearings. He inched along the wall, looking for a cross gallery connecting the three main tunnels. Voices echoed out of the dark, coming from deep inside. The tunnel curved, and he motioned Lee on. The lieutenant dropped to all fours and crept forward. Then he pulled back and motioned Kamigami forward. Kamigami chanced a look. A dim light was coming from a side tunnel. Kamigami’s internal clock was running, and it told him they had only seconds before being discovered. He lifted his night-vision goggles and darted toward the light. He looked around the corner. They had found a cross gallery, and forty meters away he could see the center tunnel that intersected the gallery at a right angle. He motioned Lee up, and the men stacked against the wall behind him. They lifted their goggles, and he gave them a few seconds for their eyes to adjust. The last man tapped the elbow of the man in front, signaling he was ready. The signal was passed up to Kamigami. He burst around the corner, and the men moved as one. Automatically, Lee took the far side of the gallery, following at an oblique angle to Kamigami.
They reached the intersection with the center tunnel, still undiscovered. Loud voices and the sound of movement echoed around the corner. Kamigami never hesitated. He pulled off his helmet and goggles and tucked them under his arm. “Walk across,” he said. He pointed to Lee to lead the way. The lieutenant ambled across the tunnel to the other side of the cross gallery. Kamigami was next. He looked down the tunnel as he crossed. A large group of soldiers was sitting on the ground around two transporter/erectors parked in line. He stepped into the shadows next to Lee. The lieutenant pointed down the gallery to their objective. The last tunnel was forty meters away, but a group of soldiers was standing in the intersection. The next shooter made it halfway across before a sergeant saw him. He yelled at him in Cantonese, and the shooter shouted back. But it was the wrong answer. He bolted across, joining Kamigami and Lee.
All that counted now was overwhelming violence. The two shooters left behind knew they were the rear guard. One fell to the ground and held his M-16 around the corner and fired blindly down the center tunnel. The other shooter stood over him and jammed his M-79 grenade launcher around the corner. He squeezed off four shots, sending forty-millimeter grenades into the densely packed men. He pulled back and waited. His partner was up and retreated down the cross gallery to the left tunnel, slapping a fresh magazine into his M-16.