He touched his mike. "They must be in the kitchen. We have the hostages tied and blindfolded near the serving line on the right. Let's get all Alpha Squad inside. Come two at a time when you hear covering fire. Shoot into the kitchen. Lam."
Murdock lifted his subgun and chattered off six rounds. Lam did the same. Two by two, the squad bolted through the door and dove to the floor inside the mess hall.
Then they all moved like ghosts along and around the tables and benches in the mess hall working slowly forward. Lam and Murdock got there first. Thirty feet away a metal shield masked the area below the serving line's metal tables. Murdock figured it was lightweight aluminum and bullets would zing right through it. He could see no one over in the kitchen area. He'd have to sneak a peek. He jolted upright and scanned the kitchen area, then slammed downward.
Three rounds from an automatic rifle sizzled just over his head as he hit the floor. Lampedusa, twenty feet across, had jolted upward at the same time, then back down. He had in his hand a grenade with the pin pulled and the arming spoon held firmly in place. When he heard the shots at Murdock, he knew the gunman was at the left well away from the American prisoners. He threw the grenade.
The shattering roar of the small bomb in the closed building was magnified ten times. Shrapnel zinged around the kitchen ricocheting off all kinds of metal cabinets, stoves, and utensils. Murdock squirmed ahead to where the prisoners lay. He saw that none of them was bandaged. He took off the blindfolds from two as he watched and waited.
"Two more grenades far back in the kitchen," he told the lip mike. Lam sent one into another part of the kitchen, and Ron Holt threw the second blaster. When both went off with a resounding roar, Lampedusa was the first man up, vaulting over the serving line and diving behind a large freezer unit. He took no fire.
Ken Chin vaulted over another section of the line and crawled toward the big stove. Slowly the two worked forward, clearing every hiding space on the way.
Murdock found the Vice President, untied him, and took off his blindfold.
"Please stay down, Mr. Vice President. We hope to have this area cleared shortly. Are any of your people wounded or injured?"
Tears brimmed the man's eyes. He tried to speak, but he couldn't. He shook his head — no injuries.
A moment later, Murdock's earpiece came on. "Kitchen is clear," Lam said. "We have two dead NKs in the back area. The grenades got them."
Ronson and Ellsworth came up quickly and untied the rest of the men and took off the blindfolds. The men sat on the floor for a moment; then some stood, and soon the rest were up.
'"Please hold it right here, gentlemen," Murdock said. "We need to make a complete inspection of this place to be sure it's safe. Are any of you wounded or injured?"
He heard some say no, and saw others shake their heads. A man came up with a Marine Corps white-side haircut. He saluted smartly.
"Sir, Ambrose, Secret Service. Ex-Marine, sir. I'd like a weapon. I feel naked right now without one."
"Be glad for the help, Ambrose." Murdock pulled a backup .45 automatic from his combat vest and handed it to the man along with two extra magazines. Ambrose charged a round into the chamber and pushed on the safety.
"Thanks, sir. I feel a lot better now."
Alpha Squad cleared the rest of the kitchen, then two small rooms to one side, and pronounced the mess hall clean. Murdock heard gunfire from the outside. His radio ear talked to him.
"Murdock, we have company," Ed DeWitt said. "Looks like a truck full of bad guys with guns. They see us, we see them."
"Be right out. Ambrose and Ellsworth, stay here and protect the Vice President and his party. The rest of Alpha out the front door, cautiously."
They went out singly, angling for cover. By the time they were out, the North Koreans in the track had dismounted a hundred yards away.
"MGs set up and go," Murdock said. His own and the rest of the MP-5 subguns were out of range.
"Pull the silencers off the MP-5's to reach out. Go." He unscrewed the noise suppressor and put it in his combat vest. The machine guns began to chatter.
".Somebody take out the truck," Ed DeWitt said.
Harry Ronson got his shots in first. He sprayed the truck until he saw steam jetting from the radiator. By then the rest of them had the range on the fifteen men who had jumped out of the truck and were looking for cover.
One man stood and waved the North troops forward. Miguel Fernandez sighted in with his H&K PSG1 sniper rifle and blew the officer away before he took two steps.
Ed DeWitt hit his mike. "Murdock. I'll take Bravo to the left into that burned-out building. We can get some cross fire."
"Go, find good cover."
Murdock settled down behind a large decorative rock left in front of the mess hall and waited. He had four long guns and four subguns in his squad. All were now firing at the North Koreans, who seemed content to sit behind their cover and take an occasional shot at the intruders. Then two NKs made a dash to closer cover. Both died in the process as Ronson nailed one with a five-round burst from his MG and Bradford picked off the other one with a NATO slug. For a moment all was quiet.
Then DeWitt opened up with his guns from the far side and the survivors of the truckload of men took fire from a new source. Two of the NKs ran for the truck. They fell before they got there. Three more kept firing from behind the truck.
Horse Ronson began searching the rig for its fuel tank. He slammed rounds under both doors, then toward the back. Twice more he punched five-round bursts into the rig, then tried just in front of the rear wheels.
The rounds found the tank and the vapors in the top, and it blew up in a gigantic fireball, instantly cremating the three NK troopers behind it.
All firing stopped.
"Looks like that's all the pages in this book," Ed DeWitt said on the radio.
"Good. We'll use this flat area in front of the mess hall for our LZ. Must have been a sports field." Murdock called up Ron Holt, who turned on the SATCOM to TAC One.
"Call in Knight One and Two," Murdock said. "Tell them we're ready and waiting. We'll put a green flare on the LZ as they get here." Holt made the call, got contact on his second transmission, and gave the message.
"SEAL, this is Knight Two. Affirmative. We're taking off now. Should be at your LZ in six minutes. We'll have two Cobras with us for shooting fun. Is the LZ secure?"
"Secure for now, Knights. We'll be waiting."
Murdock looked over the playing field. "Let's get some perimeter security around this place," he said to his mike. "DeWitt, take this side. Alpha Squad, on the far side. Ellsworth, hold your guests in the front of the mess hall near the door until you get word to bring them out. Copy, Doc?"
"Copy that, Commander," Doc Ellsworth said. "We stay put, come on your go."
Murdock had pushed the stopwatch button on his timer. "Alpha Squad, let's move out to that cover over there about a hundred yards." He took a green flare from his combat vest and held it as he and the squad ran across the open space and found cover behind two burned-out vehicles and three artillery-shell holes. Th ey settled in and aimed outward to watch for anyone coming toward them. Ron Holt dropped in the same shell hole as Murdock. He kept the SATCOM on the TAC One frequency.
"Commander, I have two Knights and two Cobras on the way. They will have Tomcat flyovers."
Murdock nodded and kept looking past smashed-in buildings and an overturned Humvee. He thought he heard something, then decided he didn't. A jet raced across the sky well away from them. From the sound Murdock couldn't tell if it was a MiG or one of ours.
When the aircraft sound died, he frowned. There it was again, some other sound. Yes, a motor, a vehicle of some kind coming toward them. "Check to the east," he said in his mike. "Anybody see anything, a tank, a truck? I hear a motor."