They were a quarter of a mile from the river. The SEALs wore their jungle cammies, combat vests, rebreathers, and fins. They figured they wouldn't be in the water long enough to need the wet suits.
They found the right spot, then sacked out for three hours. Just at midnight, a guide led them to the water. Murdock and the climbers went in the water first, then DeWitt and the rest of the men. Everyone knew precisely what to do. The timers would be set for ten minutes and coordinated precisely to be activated at the same time.
Each of the climbers carried a 125-foot coil of nylon rope. They figured eight charges would drop the end section of the bridge. They brought twelve bombs all packaged and ready to go.
Murdock eyed the roiling water. It was still in near-flood stage from recent rains. "Buddy lines," he said. "Lam and I will lead. Ed, bring up the rear. No stragglers. Let the current take you, but stay underwater. Don't overshoot. It's only a little more than a quarter mile."
They walked into the water and slipped under the muddy flow. Murdock had no way to count strokes or tell distance. He surfaced twice. The third time he saw the bridge coming up fast.
He stroked for the far shore. The river was about forty yards across here. He and Lam came out directly under the bridge. He left Lam at the water's edge to bird-dog in the rest of the men, and went to check on the bank under the bridge. There was a small piece of dry land about twenty feet wide, then the slant up of the bank to the bridge sixty feet overhead. He could climb it with no problem. He went up and tied off his rope to one of the support girders.
No problem for the hot new explosive TNAZ. By the time he got back to the river, all but two men were out of the water. Ed had them in defensive positions. The four other climbers moved to the dry area and looked up at the bridge.
"That section is longer than we figured," Jaybird said. "It's at least thirty feet. No sweat. We use the same eight charges and blow the fucker right out of there without hurting the rest of it."
"Let's get to it," Murdock said. "If it stays this quiet around here, we'll use the 105 rounds for our getaway. Up the hill. On that rope. We'll hit the girders and take our assigned spots. The faster we work, the quicker we get back to breakfast."
Murdock went up the rope he had just tied off, got to the top, and swung up on the first girder. Under the roadway was a pair of X-shaped box girders on their sides. The charges would go on the ends of the X's on top and bottom on both sides.
Murdock went to the far end of the first girder, and planted the TNAZ bomb where it would cut the steel in half and leave that part of the bridge without support. Above him Lam put a charge on the girder there. The other four men worked their positions. It took them less than three minutes to get the charges in place.
"Ten minutes on the timers," Murdock whispered to Lam. In the dark they couldn't use signs. Murdock contacted two of the other men, and Lam talked to the last two. They all returned to their charges.
"Now," Murdock said loud enough so all could hear. They pushed in the timers on the petards, activating the timers; then all six worked carefully back to the bank and went down the rope to the ground.
Murdock found Holt.
"Crank up that mother and get some artillery in there," he said.
Lam made the call, got confirmation.
"On the way in two minutes, Cap," Holt said.
"Gentlemen, let's get the hell out of Dodge. We've got about five minutes to bang time."
Before they could move, a machine gun chattered on the edge of the bank above them. Rounds slapped into the ground and the edge of the water.
Murdock and the others sent return fire at the MG's position. It stopped for a moment.
"Second Squad, into the water, go, go, go." Murdock barked. "The rest of us, find some cover and burn out that MG up there."
The enemy weapon fired again. By that time the SEALs had spread out and found what cover there was. They sent fifty rounds of return fire. Murdock saw that the Second Squad was out of sight. He sent a final three-round burst at the MG, then waved. "Let's get wet." First Squad sprinted the twenty feet to the water and slid in quietly. The MG opened up again, this time joined by half-a-dozen rifles as the North Koreans wasted lead shooting where the SEALs had been.
Murdock swam with the current and stayed on top. How far was a quarter of a mile? He saw figures on the far shore and swam across the current. Ed and his squad waved.
Just then Murdock heard the whispers of the 105 rounds going overhead. They landed seconds later somewhere to the rear. The machine gun and rifle fire behind them stopped.
A moment later the sky lit up behind them with brilliant lights, and a roaring wave of sound and wind whipped against their faces. The SEALs looked back, but couldn't see the bridge. Now they could hear a grinding and crashing as something came down hard and hit the ground, sending out a minor shock wave.
"Looks like we blew one bridge," Murdock said. He looked around. "How far downstream are we?"
"Hundred yards at the most," Ed DeWitt said. "Just wanted to get us back together again."
Murdock waved and called softly as his men came by. They all came out of the water. "Somebody count, we got fifteen?"
"Fourteen," Jaybird said. "Who the hell isn't here?"
Before they discovered the identity of the missing SEAL, they heard splashing and Doc Ellsworth came out of the water, one arm pushed into his combat vest.
"He's hit," Murdock said.
They got Doc on solid ground and he shivered. "Damn fucking horseshit fucker got me in the elbow. Fucking elbow. Bleeding like a whore in heat."
Jack Mahanani pushed Ron Holt away, stripped open the medic bag Doc carried, and looked at the elbow in the pale moonlight.
"Keep it tucked in there. I'll wrap it up and stop the bleeding. You need at least one ampoule. They in the usual spot?" Doc Ellsworth nodded. They could see his white upper teeth biting into his lower lip.
"No more wet for this boy," Mahanani said. "Why can't we walk down this side of the river and then turn inland. The South Ks must know we're out here."
"Yeah, but their MLR is gonna look for us a quarter of a mile on down," Ed DeWitt said. "We don't want to get sliced to pieces by some angry ROK battalion."
"Lam, out front a hundred," Murdock said. "We don't know how close to the river the fucking MLR is along here. We'll have to play it by ear and damn quiet. Quiet, but as quickly as we can. Doc isn't in the best of shape. Usual formation. Let's move."
Ed DeWitt made sure that he put Joe Douglas at the end of the marching order and kept Fernandez right behind himself and Al Adams. He hadn't forgotten their animosity.
Lam worked ahead for a hundred yards, then went to the ground. Murdock slid into the grass and weeds beside him.
Lam pointed to where the moonlight glanced off the river.
"An NK patrol, I'd guess," he said. "I saw them shoot a line across the river. Not over thirty yards wide here. They're moving hand-over-hand across the line."
"How many of them?"
"I can see twelve."
"We sure that they are NKs?"
"No. But a South patrol coming back would already have a line across the river. Right?"
"Yeah. Let's pick off the first two and see what happens." Both men screwed on sound suppressors and leveled in. The silenced rounds made more noise than they wanted them to, but they worked. The first two men on the line collapsed, dropped into the swift water, and washed downstream.
A low wail came from the third man in line. He lifted an automatic rifle and pounded off six rounds into the brush on the south side, but thirty yards from Murdock.