Marcus had to make a decision. He sent two men to go check on the missing Seals. One came back; the three were pinned down by six Iranian men. The men were working outside the building and the Seals could not get free. Marcus sent two more men with the one Seal to take out the six men.
The three Seals spread out in a V formation and made it to the edge of the building. The leader told the one Seal what Marcus had directed. The three lay on the ground and rolled out to evenly spaced positions. The leader gave the command, “One, two,” and on “three” all fired. Two gentle “pops” were heard. All six men went down.
The two Seals came out of hiding. One was limping. He had a twisted ankle.
The five Seals broke radio contact and told Marcus that they would meet at the next assembly point. Marcus said, “Roger,” and got his men up and moving. They jogged to the next point and found the last two Seals of squad one waiting on them, just like they were supposed to. Marcus had a feeling that things were going too well.
Marcus had just got up to begin jogging when he heard the heavy gunfire behind him. The eight Seals jogged to a point where they could see that a jeep with a fifty-caliber machine gun was shooting at the Seal formation. The Seals were pinned down and not returning fire. This wasn’t a good sign. All eight of the Seals picked targets and fired as one. The big machine gun went silent. A second “pop” gunned down a lone man.
They jogged past the jeep and found that all four Seals had been shot. All four were alive though. Marcus’s men had to help the four men up, and they began moving to the next checkpoint or assembly block. They made the next checkpoint, and the four new men took the casualties and began walking with them to the second checkpoint.
Marcus and his seven men found cover points and lay down to repel anyone who came. Sure enough, a large group of Iranians began to poke their heads up. The Iranians had formed a half-circle around the Seals and were trying to capture them. No one was firing, yet. Marcus gave the command: “Fire at good targets only.”
He slid back down into a crater, and called Rocky. They talked for a moment and Marcus called his men on their earphones. He said, “Fall back!”
His men began falling back. Some were crawling, some were crouch-walking. Marcus got up and ran about fifty yards and got back down. Bullets whizzed over his head. He turned around and saw two men following him. He shot them both. He reloaded his rifle.
The next checkpoint was three blocks away. He got a call. “Wounded safe!”
Marcus spoke into his mouth piece. “Fall back to checkpoint two. Anyone hit?”
Total silence on the radio. He was up and running to the rear. He could see the other seven Seals up and running with him. Gunfire broke out behind them. Then he heard Nick slowly say, “I’m hit, I’m down.”
Marcus hit the ground and looked for Nick. He was to Marcus’s right, about twenty yards from him. Marcus crawled to Nick; he spoke into his mouthpiece. “Give us cover.” He grabbed Nick, pulled him up, and ran with Nick about a hundred yards. Nick fell down. He could go no further. He had been shot in the hip.
Marcus picked up Nick and pulled him over his shoulder. He carried him in a fireman’s carry. The other Seals tightened up around him. Every so often one of the Seals would stop, turn, kneel and fire behind them.
Marcus had carried Nick two blocks, when Wilbur took over for him. Marcus was thankful. They made the next checkpoint. The four wounded Seals had already been taken by four new Seals back to checkpoint one. A new Seal took Nick, and all the Seals began falling back to checkpoint one.
At checkpoint one, Frank was being treated by the medic from squad two. He was the worst shot. His wound was life-threatening. He had an artery nicked; he was bleeding out. The medic put a tourniquet on his arm. He was pale and lethargic. A Seal took Frank on his back and carried him toward the rafts.
Marcus turned his eyes back to the battle. His guys were winning the fight. Rocky called for everyone to, “Fall back.”
In the distance, Marcus could hear rotors of helicopters coming. He signaled Curt to set up and take the choppers out. Curt had a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. He set up, and Marcus patted him on the head. He fired. The rocket arced forward, and there was a tremendous explosion down the beach. The lead helicopter had blown up.
There were three choppers coming in. The two helicopters on the sides fired rockets at the Seals. But they missed. Curt was ready to fire again. He fired. Both helicopters swerved to the sides. So did the rocket. It impacted the second chopper right in the cockpit. The helicopter continued to fly, but crashed a moment later. The third chopper dropped down and was trying to strafe them with cannon fire. So far no one had been hit by the choppers.
All the Seals were up and running back into the desert. They all jumped behind a sand dune, when a rocket impacted a few feet from them. No one was injured, but they were all sprayed with sand.
Curt set up the rocket launcher again. He took a shot. The rocket missed and went off into the darkness. Now the helicopter knew exactly where they were. The last helicopter unloaded on them with his cannon and another rocket. Marcus was not sure how many Seals were around him. He yelled out, “Fall back.” At that moment the cannon fire and rockets struck.
Marcus was struck in the vest and the helmet. He began to feel for blood, but could not feel any. He was groggy. He looked around. All the other Seals were gone. No one knew that he was injured. He lay down on his back and looked up at the stars. He did not recognize them. He didn’t know it yet, but he had a concussion. Then his vision blurred. It was blood. He could barely see. He kept wiping at his eyes.
Marcus could hear voices. Had they come back for him? They were supposed to. He could not understand the voices. It was a foreign language. Arabic, he thought. He pulled out his pistol and saw three heads poke up beside him. He rotated slightly and shot all three heads, pow, pow, pow.
He heard another voice. It was Rocky. He called, “Marcus, Marcus, can you hear me?”
Marcus spoke into his headset. “I’m hit. Go on, get away, leave me!”
There was silence on the headset. The helicopter was directly over him. He raised up his rifle and shot four rounds into the underbelly of the craft. It began to smoke, and broke off to the left. He heard more voices. He picked up his sidearm and waited. Two more people came over the dune. He shot them both.
Marcus got to his knees and began to crawl back to his men. He could see two forms running toward him. He said, “I see you, you’re coming right at me.” Inside, in his heart, he knew that his buddy Seals would come back for him. Blood was back in his face again. He tried to wipe it out of his eyes, but got sand in his eyes. He could not see at all now.
The two Seals saw Marcus. They went and grabbed him by the arms. One picked up his rifle, and they began to run with him.
They made it back to the safety of the beach. Seals were already getting the rafts into the ocean.
All the wounded Seals were placed in one raft, and it was floated out to sea. The outboard motor was started, and the raft headed out into the ocean. Marcus was laid in the bottom of the raft. He sat up and reached over the side and wet his hand in the warm water. He washed his face off and then his eyes. He could see a little bit now. He could tell that a fierce gunfight was going on on the beach, but he could do nothing about it. He could not find his rifle, nor his handgun. Frank was lying next to Marcus. He still had his rifle in his hand. Marcus took the rifle and looked back at the beach through the telescopic eye piece. He could see nothing. There was blood in his eyes again. He took his helmet off and felt of his head. A bullet was lodged in his skull. He could feel the bullet with his fingers.
The medic looked at Marcus. “Marcus, leave it alone, it will be fine.”
Marcus said, “I have a bullet sticking out of my head.”
The medic said, “I know, Marcus. Sit down and be quiet. Don’t make it any
worse than it is.”
Marcus sat down and was quiet.
The second raft pulled up on the right. Marcus could see that more Seals were wounded. He yelled into his mouthpiece, “Did we get everybody?”
Rocky said, “Headcount complete, all accounted for.”
In the distance, fire lit up the sky. Then what sounded like a sonic boom went by. The air seemed to shudder. No one made a sound. It was all in a day’s work.
They made it to the bigger boat. Marcus knew that there were medics on-board for them. They carried everybody off but himself and Frank. They began to help Marcus. Marcus yelled, “Get Frank first!”
The Seal next to him said, “Frank can wait; he isn’t going anywhere but home.”
Marcus began to cry. He knew Frank’s family, his younger brother and sister. He would have to be the one to tell them.
On the bigger boat, a medic began to examine Marcus’s head closely. He grabbed pliers and took hold of the lead and pulled on it. Blood gushed out and Marcus yelled in pain. The medic left him alone and went on to the next man. A nurse placed a towel to his head and applied pressure to the blood flow.
Marcus could not get Frank out of his mind.
Rocky came in to check on the wounded. Marcus asked, “How many did we lose?”
Rocky looked around at the wounded. “Just Skip and Frank. Skip got it
CIA - The Slave Traders Page 39
