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"Let's get out of Dodge," Murdock whispered into his mike. The men crawled back twenty yards until they vanished into the darkness, then stood and jogged away from the road before turning south.

"If they sweep across from the road along that stretch, it'll cover the communications center," Murdock said to Jaybird right beside him. "Then they'll know somebody is here and come looking for us at top speed."

"They can't track us at night," Jaybird said.

"No, but they can get lucky, leapfrog ahead of us. Where the hell is that Cobra?"

A minute later they heard the whup-whup of the chopper blades as an aircraft came from the south. Murdock looked behind them and to the north and could still see the truck headlights burning. One set went off, then another, but that left another six or eight. There was no chance to get a flare on the trucks.

The Cobra made a run on the length of the column, 20mm rounds pounded into the vehicles. Murdock heard one explode as the fuel tank went. Some ground fire lanced up at the chopper, but it didn't seem to be affected.

On the next run from the other way, the Cobra rained on the column with 70mm rockets from the four LAU-68/A pods on its stubby wings. The rockets exploded in deadly fashion along the line of trucks, setting two more on fire and demolishing a third. None of the vehicles would ever run again.

Murdock and his men took advantage of the attack and jogged again to the south. They crossed a side dirt road, went around a group of three houses and outbuildings, and kept moving south. Lam came up to Murdock and fell in beside him. "May have some trouble, Cap. I can hear some guys tailing us. Not sure how many, but they must be from those trucks. They could be damn mad now because they have to walk wherever else they're going."

"Drop back and see if you can find out how many. Don't take any chances, but be good to know."

Lam veered off and set up in a patch of brush. He'd wait for the followers and then get back with the main body.

Lam wormed down into the brush and weeds until not even his mother could find him. He checked his stopwatch. It was three minutes before he could see anyone coming. They had a scout out front twenty yards. Not far enough. Behind them came two groups of men, all with weapons and all jogging. Lam scrunched lower and counted. Twenty men in each group. Forty men on their tail, which was not good.

When the last NK trooper went past, Lam faded away to the left side farther from the tail-end Charlie on the NKs and ran. He kept two hundred yards to the side of the North Koreans as he rapidly caught and passed them.

Lam guessed he was about three hundred yards ahead of the trackers. He used his Motorola.

"Third Platoon. Where the hell are you?"

"In your hip pocket, little buddy," Jaybird said. "You're not as quiet as you used to be, I heard you coming. Small hill ahead and to your right. We're going up it. You can't be more than fifty yards behind. How many of them rice-snappers are there?"

"Forty, and they look like regulars. I'm moving."

He caught up with the platoon a few minutes later, and told Murdock about the men behind them.

The hill had a few low bushes on it, no real timber. Murdock passed the word on his lip mike.

"We'll meet our friends at the top of the hill. Just over the slope find firing positions. Who has Claymores?"

Guns Franklin and Al Adams did.

"Set them up in sequence with trip wires about forty yards down the slope. You know the routine. Aim them to spray downhill and then catch up. Adams put one here. Franklin ten yards higher. Go." Five minutes later, Murdock had his platoon spread out on the reverse slope of the small hill with every man in a good firing position. Adams and Franklin had returned and had the Claymore mines set. All suppressors were taken off to increase the weapons' range.

The Claymore is a chunk of explosive, fronted with two hundred small steel balls. When the trip wire sets off the charge, the explosive blasts the balls out in the direction the mine has been aimed in. They can cut down a dozen to fifteen foot soldiers in single blast.

Lampedusa touched Murdock's shoulder. "They're coming."

Murdock grinned. He couldn't hear them. Lam had ears like an elephant. A minute later Murdock did hear them. He knew they had a lead scout out. Maybe he'd miss the trip wire and they would get a better body count.

Seconds later one of the Claymores exploded with a shattering roar, followed by screams of pain and fury. Nothing happened for almost five minutes. Then Murdock could hear the NKs moving up slope again. The second Claymore burst into the night sky with a roar, and Murdock lifted his subgun and chattered off two three-round bursts.

That was the signal for the rest of the platoon to fire downslope where the sounds had come from. After two minutes of concentrated fire, Murdock gave a ceasefire.

"Let's move," Murdock said. "Not many of them are going to try to follow us, if any are left standing."

They were half a mile down the other side of the hill and looking for a good LZ when Lam came back and shook his head.

"Cap, we've got something ahead. Not sure what it is. Lights up half the fucking sky. Must be some kind of a supply depot or a replacement depot or some damned thing. No secret it's there."

"So, no LZ around here. What about to the left?"

"Some kind of a main highway over there. Lots of truck traffic. You hear that plane few minutes ago? Probably an F-18 just blasted to hell a half-dozen trucks." "So we move to the right. Find us a black hole where we can call down that bird."

Lam nodded and vanished to the right. "We'll take a break here," Murdock said in his mike. "Ed, put out two security, north and south. We're looking for a good LZ."

Lam came back in ten minutes. "Something you should see up here, Commander." He led Murdock and Ed DeWitt over a quick two hundred yards. They came on a small farmhouse with lights in the windows. A woman's screams billowed out of the place. An NK jeep sat in front of the house and one soldier lolled in the driver's seat, evidently sleeping.

"Let's take a look in that window. Ed, keep the driver covered. If he wakes up, take him out."

Lam and Murdock slipped up on the window and lifted up to look inside. It was a one-room house with a bed against the far wall. There a woman lay spread-eagled on her back and tied to the bed. A North Korean officer had just taken off his shirt. Another one was getting into his pants.

"Through the window?" Lam asked.

Murdock nodded. "I'm right, you left." Both weapons had sound suppressors back on them. They each took a side of the window. Murdock let Lam sight in. "Now," he whispered. Both men fired. Murdock's three-round burst took the man trying to get into his pants full in the chest and blasted him against the wall, where he died instantly.

Lam's Colt M-4A1 slashed out five rounds on fully automatic. Three of the slugs hit the NK officer in the neck and the head, putting him in instant touch with his ancestors.

For a moment all was quiet. Murdock pressed against the broken window, but could see no more men inside. He checked Ed DeWitt, who had moved up beside the jeep driver and now wiped the blood off his knife on the dead Korean's shirt.

"Inside," Murdock said. He and Lam hurried through the front door and saw that the room was clear. Murdock cut the bindings on the woman's hands and feet and pushed a tattered quilt over her naked body.

She hadn't opened her eyes yet. Her sobbing tapered off. Murdock waited a moment. She sat up and motioned to a smaller room to the back he hadn't seen. He went to the door with his subgun ready. Inside the room lay two Korean men, both well over sixty, Murdock guessed. Both had slit throats. He closed the door.

Back in the main room, the woman dressed. She put on flip-flops and pointed outside. There she bowed low.

"Arigato," she said in Japanese.