"That's the assignment. You have time to change into dry cammies, get restocked with ammo, and lift off from the flight deck in twenty-two minutes."
"This general, is he worth it?"
"From what I hear, he is. The two birds are also top-grade."
Murdock nodded. "Don't just sit there, SEALs. Get fresh cammies and some ammo and let's get out of here. This is the new version of Hell Week."
"Yeah," Bradford said. "But here we get to shoot at the bad guys."
Third Platoon made the chopper almost half a minute late, but the bird waited for them. Stroh went along. He sat beside Murdock and shouted so he could be understood.
"You want an ROK interpreter with you?"
"Yeah, one with a good automatic rifle and lots of ammo. I'm two men short now. You want to fill in, Stroh?"
The CIA field man jolted back against the helo and shook his head. It was the first laugh Murdock had had all week.
Nearly an hour later, Third Platoon crawled out of a truck and hurried up a hundred yards to a bunker. An American first lieutenant led them there and pointed.
"The MLR is along here. There's about a hundred yards of no-man's-land out there, then you'll come to the NKs' bunkers. All are freshly made. We'll send one-oh-fives into the sector directly ahead, to soften them up, then send out a raiding party five hundred yards to the left. That should drain a lot of the manpower from this sector so you can get through quickly, and we hope without firing a shot."
He looked at the weapons. "Lots of suppressors. That's good. Use them."
As he finished speaking, they heard the whisper of artillery rounds spiraling over head, then the karumph as the heavy rounds exploded along the NKs' main line of resistance.
"Fifteen rounds, then two minutes later the attack to the south," the lieutenant said. "That's your signal to move out. Good luck." Murdock had changed their usual order of march. They would go single file, Alpha Squad first, Bravo second. All of the silenced weapons would be at the head of each squad. Lam would be out in front by twenty yards.
The last 105 round exploded in front, and Murdock used the NVGs to check the landscape.
"Nothing moving out there," he said. "Let's get a two minute head start."
Lam moved out as silent as a fresh breeze. Murdock went second, with Ron Holt close behind him. They kept low, moved from one bit of cover to the next. The land between the lines had been shot up considerably. They were halfway across it when they heard the attack on to the south along the line. They waited. Lam nodded. He came back and whispered.
"Hear men moving to the south. Quite a lot of them hiking that way to reinforce. Sounds good."
Murdock used his night-vision goggles again. He spotted a bunker ahead and slightly to the right. Beside that was an earthwork. He had no idea what might be behind it. They moved ahead again, slower this time.
Lam came to within ten feet of the edge of the berm. A figure rose up over the side of the bunker. Lam fired twice with his silenced carbine and the man vanished over the side. Lam ran hard the last few yards to the berm, and lifted up so he could see over it.
Murdock had seen his move and charged up beside him. They looked different ways along the mound of dirt and the shallow trench. The only man they saw was the dead one lying below in the trench.
"Move, move," Murdock said into his mike. The Motorolas would come in handy on this mission. Lam and Murdock, then Holt vaulted over the mound, hit the other side, and ran straight ahead. They passed what had once been a series of bunkers but now were empty.
Behind him, Murdock could hear his men clearing the MLR and running to catch up with the rest of the platoon. Five minutes later they were clear of the MLR trenches and bunkers, and even one kitchen that had been abandoned to send more men to the attack point south.
They jogged forward. The interpreter they had with them carried a new M-16 automatic rifle.
Murdock told him to come to the front. The man studied the landscape for a minute. He had been briefed on where the brigadier was holed up. He slanted them to the left and they hurried forward.
There were faint light streaks to the east. Murdock kept them jogging forward. The Korean changed his mind and angled them farther to the left. They saw the tops of the trees and the first real light about the same time.
"Yes, right bunch of trees," the Korean guide and interpreter said. They flat out ran the last one hundred yards, crashed into brush, and through it and into the cover/ concealment of the thick growth and a few towering pine trees.
When all his men were inside, Murdock motioned for them to be quiet. Lam and the interpreter moved ahead slowly, checking any spot where the officers might be hiding.
It was full light when Lam came back grinning.
"Found them. Cap. All eight of them are crammed into the center of a thorn thicket so tough and gnarly nobody would want to try to get through it. The major found it for them, from what he said. Inside it's hollowed out and there's enough room to sit down."
Murdock went up with Lam, and found the brigadier general and his major just outside the thorn thicket.
"General, Lieutenant Commander Murdock at your service."
A big grin spilled over the Army man's face. "Damned glad to see the Navy. SEALs, aren't you. Yes, good. We didn't hear any shoot-outs to the south, so my guess is you got here without much of a problem."
"Right, General. Looks like we're stuck here for the rest of the day. We'll see about getting your group back to friendly lines as soon as it gets dark tonight."
"Yes, we figured that. Did you bring us anything?" Murdock grinned. "Sure as hell did, General." He touched his lip mike. "Bring up the packages."
Four SEALs came forward, each unstrapping a pack off his back. They handed them to the general, who laughed and thanked them as he and the major hurried back into the thicket and vanished.
"Why do they get all the good food?" Lam asked.
"Because he's a general, that's why. We set up a perimeter defense, then every other man can sack out or eat an MRE for breakfast. You've never had it so good."
Two hours later, Horse Ronson used the Motorola.
"Cap, you best look at this. Some kind of an armored personnel carrier rolling across fields out to the north. Looks like he'll miss our position by a half mile. Must be one of the older Russian-made rigs. My guess is it has a fifty-caliber MG mounted up front."
Murdock and Lam moved to the northern edge of the half acre of woodlands. Lam checked the vehicle through his binoculars. "Oh, yeah, talk about old. Wonder how they get spare parts for it?"
The Korean slid in beside Murdock.
"Often personnel carrier like that come ahead of column of troops. Could be replacements or just reserves moving up to this sector."
The big rig had stopped a half mile off. Within five minutes, they spotted a column of troops coming over the hill. The men were four abreast and the line at least twenty-five long. A hundred men. All carried weapons, but they couldn't tell just what.
"Will they stay clear of this woodland?" Murdock asked.
"Only come here if they need firewood to cook their meal," the Korean said. "They will have rice roll over shoulder. Full, it good for three, four days. Empty, might steal chickens and roast over fire."
The men watched as the North Korean troops came abreast of their woodland, still four hundred yards away, and continued on past.
Murdock headed back past the hiding spot and heard raucous laughter. He found the entranceway and crawled forward. Halfway there he met the major.
"Major, no more of that laughing. We're in a precarious spot here. Half of those men in there outrank me, but I'm the commander of this mission. Either you or I will chew tail for ten minutes on those officers insisting that they shut up and be quiet. Clear?"