Lam kept to the point, and came back about ten minutes later.
“Something up ahead that looks like a small camp, maybe an outpost. I spotted four men. There’s a fire and some lean-to shelters made from branches and poles.”
“Sounds like a Boy Scout camp,” Murdock said.
“No, sir, these were Chinese. I checked them with my glasses. They’re all armed.”
“We go through them or around them?” Murdock asked.
“No way to go around unless we want to slide down about fifty feet of sheer rock.”
“So we go through them. Three or four rounds of twenties could do the trick.”
“Sir, I’d go with the silent snipers. Won’t warn anyone else on up the slope that we’re coming. Must be other troops up there near the chopper.”
“Agreed,” Murdock said. Into the Motorola he called up Bradford and Fernandez. The rest of the platoon held its ground as the two snipers, Lam, and Murdock moved up to where they had good fields of fire. Murdock stayed just behind Bradford.
He hunkered down behind a giant koa tree and edged around it so he could see the campsite. It was only fifty yards ahead and he had perfect sight lines for firing.
Fernandez was twenty yards to the left, finding a shooting spot. The earpiece ticked three times and Bradford nodded. He sighted in on a Chinese soldier who had just stood up from behind the fire. He had a rice roll over his shoulder. Inside was enough cooked rice and other food to last him for a week.
Bradford fired and the Chinese soldier slammed backward out of sight.
Another Chinese soldier on the far side of the fire suddenly crumpled where he sat, sprawled on the green forest floor, and didn’t move.
A third soldier leaped up and darted away from the shooters. One silent round caught him in the back and he slammed into a tree, slowly fell away, and sprawled on the ground. Murdock realized it was almost daylight. Fringes of dawn still shadowed some areas. The sun would be up soon.
“One more of them out there somewhere,” Bradford said.
“Let’s move up and find him,” Murdock said. The four men moved like shadows from one tree to the next. If the Chinese soldier knew they were coming, he never heard them. He lifted up over a fallen log behind the fire and stared around, then dropped down.
Murdock clicked his mike twice and the four men stopped.
Bradford had seen the head come up and go back down. He aimed at the spot, just an inch over the top of the log, and held his sight and waited.
The head eased up again, then came higher so the man’s eyes cleared the log. Bradford fired. The top of the man’s head exploded into the green surroundings, turning some of the leaves a fall-like crimson and shades of pink and pale red.
The four moved up again. There were no other troops in the area. Lam took off up a hint of a trail toward the top and the chopper, while Murdock brought up the rest of the platoon. Lam came back and reported no evidence of any troops ahead for at least a half mile. The platoon moved on. The terrain became steeper and the men tied their weapons on their backs to use their hands to help them climb. It was fully light now.
Lam kept fifty yards ahead of them. He would double-click on the mike if he wanted them to stop.
Lam eyed the perpetual green of the lush windward side of Oahu. More rain here and more plants and flowers and trees. He could see the pinnacles maybe a half mile ahead now, but they were still high on the skyline. He wondered how the platoon would get up the last slants.
Lam carried a silenced Colt M-4Al Commando set for three-round bursts. He parted a giant fern and looked ahead. Two Chinese soldiers saw him at the same time. He pivoted up the Commando and slammed six silent rounds at the two Chinese. They both jolted with the hot lead rounds, lost their weapons, and slid to the ground, dead before they came to a stop.
Lam dropped to a crouch hidden behind the fern. He waited. Had they been coming to reinforce the outpost? Maybe. He waited another minute, then double-clicked the mike and trotted back to where he found the platoon flat in the green of Hawaii. He told Murdock about the confrontation. They went back up for a look.
Murdock watched the bodies for five minutes. No one moved, no one came down the semblance of a trail.
“Let’s take a look,” he said. They moved up slowly, weapons covering the two men on the ground. A minute later Murdock saw that both Chinese were dead and that there seemed to be no alarm.
“Come on up,” Murdock said to the radio. He held Lam until he saw the troops coming, then let him move out ahead on what by now had turned into a well-traveled and recent trail. The weeds and wild ferns had been trampled down, and some small trees even hacked off at ground level.
Lam move up cautiously. He could see a trail now that worked up the slope toward the pinnacles above. They were still a quarter of a mile and maybe six hundred feet above him. He had no idea how the trail could go up the sheer cliffs. They looked fifty feet high and went straight up.
He worked silently ahead through the emerald green of the Hawaiian forest. There were more kinds of trees than he had ever seen, and he knew that almost all of them had been brought to the islands by humans.
The woods thickened and the trail turned around a heavy stand of the native koa trees. He paused beside a large one and looked out. Ahead there was a level space that looked like a natural clearing. For a moment he didn’t believe what he saw. Then when it registered and clicked into place, he shrank back so he was sure he was out of sight.
“Cap, you’re gonna have to see this to believe it,” Lam said softly to his lip mike. “Best get up here pronto.”
14
Koolau Range
Oahu, Hawaii
Lieutenant Commander Blake Murdock stared through the screen of brush at the open place forty yards ahead.
“You’re right, I don’t believe my eyes,” Murdock said. “Tell me about those four girls.”
“You are seeing right, Cap. Those are four naked hula girls out there dancing up a fucking storm.”
“Spread out on those green cloths on the ground. What’s that?”
“True, Cap. Just what you think it is. All the goodies of a traditional Hawaiian luau. The pit for the pig is just behind them. You can still see steam and a little smoke coming from it. Looks like they have just opened up the imu, the fire pit, where the cooking is done.”
“The four men. Chinese, I’d bet.”
“Oh, you betcha, Commander. From their ages I’d say they are all officers. That same chopper could have brought them and the whole luau up here a few hours ago.
“Look over there at the imu. Looks like slabs of pork have been cooked after they wrapped them in ti and banana leaves. On the sides are the other goodies, the lau-lau. These bundles have in them chicken, fish, poi, sweet potatoes, and bananas.”
Murdock looked at him in surprise. “How come you know so much about Hawaiian luaus?”
“My folks used to come here every summer. Got so we hated the luaus. We were teenagers then and wanted to swim and chase girls on the beach.”
Murdock took out his binoculars and stared at neatly folded uniforms in back of the naked men. He spotted epaulets and some gold bars.
“Yeah, officers. The main body must be close by somewhere.”
“We take them down with silenced shots?” Lam asked.
“No. I want information. We’ll slip up and then confront them.”
Lam nodded. He checked the area ahead. “We can move up through the brush to about thirty feet of them. Then burst out and cover them.”
“Tie and gag them,” Murdock said.
“Man, look at that end girl. She’s got the biggest tits I’ve ever seen.”
Murdock chuckled. “Maybe you haven’t been getting out enough lately, Lam. Let’s go get them.” He grinned.
They worked ahead slowly, then charged out of the brush into the four officers’ faces. Only one reached for a pistol. Lam kicked his hand away before he found it.
No words were
necessary for the Chinese. The four girls stopped their hula and turned off the tape player.
“We won’t hurt you,” Lam said, watching the girls. All but one tried to cover themselves up with their hands. “How did they bring you up here?”
The one with the largest breasts, who was not covering them, laughed. “Oh, yeah. Brought us up in a helicopter. My first ride. They paid us good too. A thousand each for the day. They brought in the luau. Only one of them speaks English.”
“Which one?” Murdock asked.
By then they had all four Chinese tied with the riot cuffs on ankles and wrists.
“The youngest one. We call him Well Hung.” The girl laughed.
Murdock went up to the man indicated and hit him with a backhanded slap that knocked him over where he sat on the ground.
“You speak English,” Murdock said.
“Yes. Some.” The man sat up, scowling.
“Did the helicopter bring the bomb up here?”
“Yes, but you’ll never find it.”
“Is it up in the crags up there?”
“Perhaps.”
Murdock slapped him again, toppling him the other way. Murdock saw that the girls were getting dressed. Good. He looked down at the Chinese officer.
“How many men do you have up here?”
The officer sat up with an effort. “Only half of a platoon. Twenty men. Bomb will go off up here and vaporize most of the island.”
“Including you and the rest of your men.”
“True. We are volunteers and know of our fate.”
“Only, the bomb won’t go off. We’ll find it first, and you’ll spend the rest of your life in a prison.”
The Chinese man’s face twisted a moment. Then he shook his head. “No, it can’t happen. We have planned too well.”
“Like your invasion down below? Invading this section of the island has absolutely no military benefit whatsoever.”
Murdock looked at Lam. He was talking to one of the girls. “Lam, call up the troops. Keep them out of sight in the brush. We might as well put this luau food to good use.”
The girls smiled, went to the pit, and began taking out the food and putting it on plates that the Chinese had provided.
“Looks like the package you can buy at some stores,” Lam said. “Your own luau all put together with instructions, food, plates, and drinks.”
“Good invading army technique for feeding the troops,” Murdock said.
It was the best lunch stop the SEALs could remember. There was even cold beer, which Dobler rationed out one can per man. Murdock told the girls that he had to leave them there, but there would be a helicopter to come back and pick them up before dark.
Lam had eaten fast and worked on up the trail watching for any outposts. He came back a half hour later.
“Clear up for another six hundred yards, Cap. Then there’s a detail of six or eight men at a log barricade. Looks like they have an MG and some other weapon set up there. The slant up to the pinnacles is no more than a hundred yards behind them.”
“Any way we can bypass them?”
“None without dropping down five hundred feet into a gully and then climbing back up those damn slanted rock walls. They are set up on this little ridge top we’ve been working up for the last mile.”
“So we take them out. We’ll give the guys another ten minutes on the roast pork.”
A short time later the food was all gone, except for the poi. Only Lam and Mahanani dug into the poi. There was plenty left.
Murdock put Bravo Squad in the lead as they moved up to the roadblock. Lam brought them to within two hundred yards of the Chinese. The SEALs worked slowly, cutting out clear fire lanes at the log barricade ahead.
Ed DeWitt checked his men. “Only six or eight of them up there. We do them with the twenties. Half of you on impact, the others on laser airbursts. Let’s do it.” He fired three rounds from his H & K G-11 sub gun. Then the heavier weapons fired.
DeWitt watched with satisfaction as the first two airbursts exploded directly over the log barricade in the tree branches, showering the men below it with shrapnel. He could see fifteen feet of the trail in back of the barricade before it faded into the trees. Two Chinese tried to run up the trail, but another airburst overhead blasted them into the ground and they didn’t move.
The heavy machine gun pounded out six rounds, then went silent. A few rifle rounds came from the log barricade. Then even they stopped.
“Cease fire,” DeWitt said into the Motorola. He watched and waited. A plaintive cry came from the barricade. It sounded again, then trailed off into silence.
“Take a look,” Murdock said on the lip mike.
Ed DeWitt and Train Khai jolted away from the cover, darted twenty yards ahead, and then froze behind trees. No fire came from the logs. They worked the move and took cover twice more. Then they used assault fire and ran flat out for the barricade. No return fire sounded.
Moments later the earpiece spoke.
“All clear front,” DeWitt said.
The SEALs moved up and occupied the roadblock. Lam had scouted the route ahead, and came back quickly to Murdock.
“Trouble ahead, Cap. There’s a trail with switchbacks every twenty feet or so. About a sixty-degree slope. The whole fucking thing is without any cover and wide open to fire from the top, which is about sixty yards above. How the hell we get up there without getting slaughtered?”
“At the top, is it a cave or open on top?”
“Looks open to me. Oh, twenties?”
“You called it. Listen up, troops. Alpha Squad will take the hike. Bravo to give cover fire. We want all Bravo to have the Bull Pups. So trade off. We need eight shooters on this. Airbursts, so laser the top of the wall up there. Any questions?”
“When do we stop the cover fire, Cap?” Canzoneri asked.
“Depends on the situation and the terrain,” Bradford cracked.
“Precisely,” Murdock said. “We’ll let you know the second we start to feel your hot shrapnel. We’ll let you get in a dozen shots before we start up. Maybe you can blast them all to hell and we won’t get any return fire. But don’t count on it. Anything else?”
“The bloody bomb going to be up there?” Dobler asked.
“Tell you that in about a half hour,” Murdock said. “Ed, get your men set up and fire when ready.”
Murdock pointed to his men in the sequence he wanted them. He would be in front, Lam right behind him, then Holt, Bradford, Ching, and Dobler as Tail-end Charlie.
A minute later the first round fired and Murdock looked up at the rock pinnacle. The round exploded in the air just behind the front of the wall. He heard a scream from above. Then a half dozen more rounds hit, drowning out all other sounds. When the last of the dozen rounds exploded high on the pinnacle, Murdock waved his men forward and began moving up the switchbacks on the trail.
At once he saw why the trail took the sudden turns. It was nearly straight up but not quite. He soon looped his sub gun over his back so he could use his hands to help climb the slope. It became steeper as they moved upward. Now he could hear some shots coming from the top, but they gradually tapered off. He paused and looked behind him. One of his men sprawled on the ground. It was Dobler.
“DeWitt, check on Dobler. Get him back out of the line of fire. Looks like he’s been hit.”
“Two men on the way already,” Murdock’s earpiece told him. He surged upward again.
The big SEAL officer couldn’t remember how many turns he had made on the switchbacks, but the top still looked a long way off. Then a chunk of shrapnel sang past his head and he used the lip mike.
“DeWitt, cease fire. That’s a hold-it. Cease fire with the twenties. Use the five-five-sixes. Should help keep their heads down.”
“That’s a Roger.”
Murdock surged upward. The top looked closer now. He couldn’t make out any shots being fired from above, but there still could be. He made one more switchback and scanned the
area ahead. He was only ten feet below the opening into the fortress. He swung down his sub gun, flicked off the safety, and charged up the last slope and darted into the opening.
“Cease fire fives,” he heard in his earpiece. Then he was inside the top of the slope and the edge of the fortress. It wasn’t that, only a four-foot wall and nothing behind it but another sharp incline up to a jagged peak twenty feet overhead.
He saw three bodies sprawled in the dust. One lifted up and tried to train his rifle on Murdock. A three-round blast from the H & K sub gun jolted the man into a quick reunion with his ancestors. Murdock ran to the far side, but saw nothing except a trail that continued around the side of the pinnacle. There was absolutely no place in this area where a helicopter could land or even drop off a nuclear weapon.
Behind him, three SEALs stormed into the position. Murdock used his radio. “Clear front. Three Chinks visiting their ancestors. No sign of the chopper or the bomb. Come on up.”
Lam knelt down beside his leader. “Want me to check out the trail? Looks like it wraps around this point instead of going down.”
Murdock waved him on his way.
“DeWitt, how is Dobler?”
“Took a graze on his forehead, knocked him out. That could have saved his life. He’s still groggy, but in good enough shape to swear at me. He’s just ahead of me moving up the hill.”
“Good.” Murdock looked around. “Holt?”
The radioman stepped up beside him. “Set up?”
“Right. We’ll check in with CINCPAC. Get them on the wire.”
A minute later Holt gave Murdock the handset.
“CINCPAC, this is Murdock. The Chinese took off with the bomb in a sling under a small chopper. Went up and over the cliffs here on the windward side. We’re on top now, but don’t see him yet. Working around some tall spires hunting. Will let you know what we find.”
“Murdock, keep after him. The parley is still on, and we’re doing almost nothing against the Chinese. I can break loose a chopper filled with Marines any time it will help. They’re close by over there at Kaneohe Marine Air Station. Keep up the good work.”
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