Lam darted across the open space to the door. Ostercamp came from the rear of the squad and joined him at the door. Lam turned the knob and pulled it out an inch. He nodded.
DeWitt and Train Khai surged across the space to Discovery and waited against the wall. Lam saw them arrive, edged the door open a foot, and slid inside. Ostercamp went in right behind him, with Khai catching the door for himself and DeWitt.
At first Lam could see nothing. He flipped down his NVGs and looked again. The soft green glow in the darkness showed it was a stockroom. He moved forward to a door across the way. The others came closely behind him.
“I’ll try the next door,” Lam said.
DeWitt picked it up on his Motorola. Suddenly it all felt wrong. “Hold it on the door,” DeWitt snapped. He rushed across the room and glared at the door. There was no indication what was on the other side. He had his NVGs on as well. He took the knob and turned it slowly until it stopped, then eased the door back a half inch, then more, until a sliver of bright yellow light slanted through the crack. He pushed up the NVGs and shut his eyes for a few seconds. Then he opened them and looked at the light before he edged the panel back another two inches.
DeWitt stood on the latch side of the door against the wall. He leaned over to look through the slot. Six angry, hot lead slugs slammed into the panel door and splintered through into the room. They missed the SEALs.
“Ostercamp, one round,” he whispered into the radio. Ostercamp moved forward, knelt next to the wall, and pushed the muzzle of the EAR through the door opening, angled it upward, and fired.
The whooshing sound came louder here, and the sound of the enhanced audio in the next room seemed more like a grenade going off than they had heard before.
As soon as the round echoed around the next room, DeWitt jerked the door open and rushed inside, followed by his three SEALs. It was a display room. He saw one large sign that said this was an exhibit of the Royal Treasures of the Hawaiian Royal Monarchy. In the middle of the room was a richly decorated carriage. He saw two men on the floor, one holding his ears. Both were unconscious. The four SEALs searched the room quickly. Only the two men were there.
Ed took a special look at the displays. The rig in the center was the Queen’s Royal Carriage recently restored. There were dozens of other early Hawaiian artifacts and paintings, three busts of kings and queens, and items of everyday life that had belonged to the monarchs. He examined them carefully. None had been damaged. Good. They could use the EAR again.
Two doors led out of the display area. He was about to open one of them when he saw the knob turn. He leaped aside. Two Chinese soldiers backed into the room. They carried a long cardboard box that two more soldiers held at the other end.
“Hooooo-ha!” DeWitt bellowed. The four soldiers saw the SEALs for the first time, all four pointing automatic weapons at them. They dropped the box. One, who had officer insignia on his shoulders, went for his belted pistol. DeWitt shot him with his sub gun on single-shot. The round hit the Chinese officer in the chest and he stumbled backward, hit the wall, and slumped to the floor.
The three soldiers lifted their hands. The SEALs cuffed them and put them against the far wall behind part of the display. DeWitt checked the officer. Dead. He dragged him behind the display.
Lam pointed to the second door. DeWitt nodded. Lam opened it cautiously. When he could see out, he waved over DeWitt, who looked.
It was a lobby with entrance, ticket booth, and doors on the far side about forty feet across the open area. High on a wall over the entrance were the words: THE NEW PLANETARIUM. So they were almost there. They had eliminated eight Chinese so far. What the hell did the SEALs do next? Charge across the open space and go into the Planetarium? Not smart.
Watch and wait? Maybe.
“Skipper, we’ve got trouble back here.”
It was Dobler on the net. “What?”
“Four Chinks with weapons. Some kind of extended-stock automatic carbines. Moving along Hawaiian Hall directly at us. We’re just around the corner.”
“Use the EAR now,” DeWitt commanded.
He could send back some help. No, Dobler had more men now than he did. Should be nine of them back there somewhere. He listened for the EAR shot, but knew he couldn’t hear it inside. His attention came back to the front and the entrance to the empty Planetarium. Ordinarily, there would be four or five hundred people milling around inside. Was the inside the Chinese HQ? How many Chinese were here?
As he thought, the door across the way opened and four civilians in museum uniforms came out, followed by two soldiers with weapons at the ready. They marched them across the lobby to a set of doors that led out toward what DeWitt remembered as the new entrance building. He let them go.
Outside at the corner of Hawaiian Hall, Dobler nodded and Bradford fired the EAR round. This time they heard the enhanced audio explosion/concussion where it went off less than twenty yards from them. Both SEALs ducked back around the corner as soon as the shot was fired.
Dobler felt his floppy hat twirled around on his head as the concussion caused a gush of air. When he looked around again, he saw all four soldiers down on the narrow sidewalk. They all looked unconscious.
Dobler looked around. No bushes there. Not enough vegetation to hide the bodies.
He waved up Jefferson and Franklin. “Go up there and grab those weapons and leave the Chinese where they lay. Then get back here pronto. Skipper, four more Chinks down and out. We can’t hide this bunch. All else under control.”
“Good, Dobler. Send me up two more men. Keep the EAR there. Going to try to clear the Planetarium.”
“Roger that. Ching, Jefferson. Go through that door up there marked Employees Only. The skipper needs you inside.”
He watched as the two men ran down the sidewalk, opened the door into the building, and vanished.
Inside, DeWitt had sent Train Khai back to the other room to bring in the new shooters. He watched the outside. No more movement. There must be more of them across the way where the two soldiers had led out the civilians. Were they just clearing out the last of the workers, or were those four hostages?
Ching and Jefferson arrived. He had six men now, including himself. It would have to do. He caught their attention. “We’re going to charge across the open lobby out there to the double doors, which I guess lead inside the Planetarium. Must be some more Chinese in there. We send Lam in first, then the EAR and we support. No live rounds unless absolutely necessary. Let’s go.”
Lam led the way and beat the others to the door. He tried the pulls and found the doors unlocked. He opened one a crack, but could see nothing inside. He pulled it open all the way and rushed inside, followed by Ostercamp and his EAR. The other four SEALs charged in behind them.
Inside, there was a hallway that opened on five or six stairways that evidently led up to the sharply canted seats. They saw no one Lam and Ostercamp hurried to the end of the hallway and looked up the stairs.
“Nada, Skipper.”
Then the SEALs heard loud voices speaking Chinese, coming from the central stairs. They faded into the other stairs to be out of sight and watched.
“No EAR,” DeWitt whispered into the mike. “One round in here would knock out friend and foe for from four to six hours. Single shot only.”
The voices increased, and soon six Chinese soldiers came out from the stairs into the hall. When all were in the open, DeWitt fired one round into the wall, and all the SEALs leaped out of their cover and trained their weapons on the Chinese.
“Ching, tell them,” DeWitt said into his mike.
Ching rattled off some Mandarin. One of the men reached for a belted pistol. Lam saw the move and fired one round from his Colt Carbine, hitting the man in the shoulder and dropping him to the ground.