Two minutes later Lam went down on his stomach in the sandy, dry ground and stared ahead. This one was more than a checkpoint. A splash of light showed in a large square ahead where some type of building hovered near the road. A lift gate extended across the width of the highway, and two cars had been stopped and uniformed men inspected the rigs. He heard the talk, but didn’t know Arabic.
“Cap, better come up and take a look and leave the troops down there. We’ve got a bigger post across the road.”
Two minutes later, Murdock bellied down beside Lam and used his binoculars. He swore softly.
“Fucking roadblock won’t bother us, but look at the wire that extends out into the brine. No telling how far it goes. It’s a good old-fashioned double-apron barbed-wire fence. Four feet high in the middle on steel posts and with razor and barbed wire. Then slanting-up aprons on both sides, also of razor wire. Not a thing of beauty to get across without making a hell of a lot of noise.”
“Or getting wet,” Lam said. “Trouble is, the wire might extend twenty feet into the water. At least until it rusts off in the brine.”
“How far are we from the town?”
Lam had been watching the growing brightness of the lights ahead. He’d figured about a mile before he found this blockage. He told Murdock.
“We either get wet now or take out the roadblock.”
“Getting wet is best; then we still have surprise at the palace. I’ll go check on the end of the wire. Hell, we’re not afraid of a little bit of water.”
Lam ran to the wire where it vanished into the blackness of the Dead Sea and wiggled it. Solid. He stepped into the water and eased out three feet. The muddy bottom sloped gradually. He probed with his foot and hit the wire a foot under the water. Lam stepped on the wire construction, and it sagged to the bottom of the sea in the salty mud. With his hand he searched where the four-foot upright should be, but there was none. Just the tapered-down end of the typical double-apron defensive fence. He went back the way he had come to where Murdock lay in the sand.
Ten minutes later, the SEALs had waded around the end of the barrier fence and were wet only to their waists.
“Easy,” Jaybird said. “Why didn’t they have some noisemakers on the fence? Some old beer cans tied together works great, or here in Muslim land some Coke cans would do the trick.”
Murdock now went with Lam on the point. They came to a half-fallen down building that at one time might have been a bathhouse for a retreat or hotel. Now it was almost collapsed and shattered by the elements. They used it for cover for a moment. Murdock took out his NVGs and scanned ahead. The light green landscape showed him no bodies, no movement. He saw two cars parked ahead on the other side of the road. Houses were now in regular rows of blocks across the highway. They had at last come to the town, Murdock decided.
They saw the lights in front of them twenty feet later. The four-foot-high beams of light from giant searchlights daggered across the black sand of the Dead Sea and vanished in the darkness well out into the wetness. Murdock saw the source of the light at once. A pair of huge searchlights that sat about fifty yards inland. They evidently were aimed down a street so they had an unobstructed shot at the beach and the water.
Murdock and Lam went to the sand again and watched, but could see no change in the steady beam of the lights. No rotating, no flashing on and off, just a steady beam that would immediately bathe anyone in their light the nanosecond a crossing was tried.
“Around the bitches,” Lam said. He pointed. “We can get across the road here, go down a block inland this side of the lights, walk around them, and come back to the wet on the other side.”
Murdock checked it out with the glasses. He could find no roving guards along the light beam, and nobody working the other end of the lights. He did see three submachine gun guards walking around the pair of giant, smoking searchlights as the arcs gave off their smoke and odor.
“Move up,” Murdock told the troops on the Motorola. He explained to them on the air what they would do and why. By the time they were in position a block from the light, Murdock and Lam had already crossed the street, walking and fading down the dirt street with occasional houses on both sides.
The rest of the platoon filtered across the road, then into the houses, and detoured around any that had lights showing. Murdock and Lam went fifty yards beyond the smoking-arc searchlights and dropped down to study the area for guards.
“Dogs,” was all Lam could say before two large animals came out of the darkness and without a sound hurtled through the air with snapping jaws searching for their victims’ throats. Murdock rolled to the left and clubbed one of the animals with the butt of his Bull Pup. He hit it in the neck and it went down, then sprang up. Murdock got out his KA-BAR and on the next lunge of the animal, he drove the blade into the dog’s throat and slashed it sideways. Blood flew, and Murdock rolled away from it as the dog came down hard where he had been. It gave a short whine, then turned over and died, half its throat torn away.
Lam had spun to his back, jerked up his knees, and lashed out with both feet as the slightly smaller dog snarled and dove on him. Lam’s boots caught the animal in the chest and lifted the dog and threw it over his head. That gave time for Lam to draw his KA-BAR and slash twice at the animal’s head as it charged him again. The blade tore across a cheek and through one eye, and the dog bleated in pain, dropped its long tail between its legs, and ran into the darkness.
“Watch for dogs,” Murdock said on the radio. “Stay in place while we finish our recon.”
It took them ten minutes to be sure there were no human sentries around the back side of the lights. They floated across the danger zone and filtered back through the streets to the wet. Murdock had no way of knowing where the palace was except that it was facing the water. So they would stick with the salt brine until they found the target and could recon it.
Another block and the lights from ahead increased in brilliance by a factor of four. They moved up as close as they could and not be in the splash. This well-lighted place had to be the palace. Huge floodlights bathed the beach and water in front of the palace. They also highlighted guards. Three worked a fifty-yard post in front of the palace and in a foot from the Dead Sea. Another rank of guards passed each other on the dry sand, and a third line of four more guards hovered around the chalky whiteness of the building that had to be the palace. It was three stories, pure white in the glow of the floodlights, with a large portico-type rear entrance and what could be thirty windows facing the sea.
Murdock brought up Eb and he checked the situation.
“Yes, about what we figured, only more guards. If we try to take out one or more, the rest collapse on us and we’re in trouble. Too damn many to go around. From the lighting pattern, I’d guess all four sides of the palace have guards, about the same number and positions.”
“What the hell can we do now?” Lam asked.
“The oldest one in the book,” Murdock said. “Joshua used it in the Battle of Jericho several thousand years ago.”
“Diversion,” Eb said, grinning.
“Let me check around two more sides just to be sure,” Lam said. Murdock nodded. Lam vanished to the left, still in the dark, heading round the left side of the palace as it faced the water.
“Will he be all right?” Eb asked.
“Best man I have for land warfare. He’s got elephant ears and a sixth sense that has pulled us out of more than one tough spot. Yeah, he’ll be all right.”
Murdock used the Motorola to fill in the rest of the men on what they’d found, what Lam was up to.
“Jaybird, Sadler, and DeWitt, front and center,” Murdock said in the radio mike. Moments later the four men lay in the sand looking at the searchlights.
“Suggestions,” Murdock said.
“Yeah, diversion,” Jaybird said. “Shake them up, move about half of them off their usual position. Something that will last for a while.”
“Like a firefight?” DeWitt as
ked.
“Bombs and a firefight. Bombs to start it off. Maybe a fire. An old building with a WP into it. Then a firefight over their heads to pull them back down this side of the lights.”
“Possible,” Eb said. “Not a chance we’re going to get past them without a fight of some kind. That would bring out the reserves. We’ve heard he has fifty men guarding him here.”
“Just what we need,” Murdock said. He scowled. “We can get half the force to the south, then use airbursts on those left, and put five or six twenties through the windows. Any idea where the boss sleeps or works?”
“Not a clue. We can’t get a man inside here. It has proved impossible for three years.”
“Could we burn it down?” Senior Chief Sadler asked.
“We’ve heard that a lot of the palace is made of stone, some marble. But the interior should burn like a torch.”
Murdock frowned as Lam materialized out of the darkness and slid in beside them.
“About the same all the way around. Lights and more men. Must be twenty, twenty-five that I saw.”
“No diversion,” Murdock said. “No good place for it, wouldn’t work. Too many guards. DeWitt, bring up the troops and spread them along this side of the lights. Some will be across the road and in behind some of those houses. Ten yards apart, at least. Where’s Fernandez?” He used the radio. “Fernandez, get your weapon up here.” He looked at the rest of them. “Spread out, ten yards, let’s lock and load. We’re going to put down one central guard with the silenced sniper rifle. When half a dozen guards rush to his aid to find out what happened, we’ll put two laser rounds over them, then take out the rest of the guards in a weapons-free. As that’s starting, Jaybird and I will plaster as many twenties through the windows as we can. WP, AP, anything that we have. If we can reduce that guard force enough, we can assault the fucker and get inside and track down our man.
“DeWitt, you have the rest of the platoon in its spaced-out positions?”
“Not yet, Cap. Hate to tell you, but we’ve run into one small problem over here. Better hold off your sniper fire.”
“What the hell is it?”
“You better come over just across the road and have a look, Commander.”
22
Murdock dropped beside Ed DeWitt where he lay in the dirt beside a house that looked out on the side of the palace. Directly in front of them not twenty yards away, a palace guard made a turn at the end of the post and walked back toward the brighter lights.
“You’re right, Ed. No way to hide the facts of the matter. Ebenezer, you on?”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Have you noticed anything different about these guards?”
“Look routine, sir.”
“I’m at the side now and Ed and I have seen at least four guards who are women.”
“That too is routine. They use women in combat. Nothing new for them. They can kill us just as easy as a man can. They pull the trigger on a submachine gun and you die just as quick.”
Murdock frowned. He didn’t like killing women. He had done it two or three times, but only in extreme situations. Like this one. He touched his mike again.
“Listen up, men. We have some women guards walking posts out here. They are soldiers just like the men. We’re nondiscriminatory when it comes to them. We snuff them along with the other guards. Fernandez, pick one guard and drop him with your muffled shot. Now.”
Murdock scanned the guarded area ahead. Slightly to the left he saw a guard stumble and go down. A cry went up from two guards, and five or six of them rushed to see what the downed guard’s trouble was. Jaybird’s lasered shot exploded directly over the group of eight men and women, blasting shrapnel into four of them, killing two and putting the other two down.
At once the rest of the SEALs opened up, pinpointing the guards in the glaring lights. Murdock and Jay turned their weapons on the palace. Murdock’s first 20mm round hit the wall, missing the window on the first floor. The WP round sputtered and showered the wall and grounds with the brilliant display of the exploding phosphorus. His next three rounds went inside. He had alternated high-explosive rounds with WP, and worked his way along the windows on the left front wing on the first floor. Jaybird took the right.
Murdock stopped firing the twenty and looked at the guard force. Half of them were down and not moving. There were still more than fifteen running around looking for cover. Half a dozen more men came around the side of the palace. Murdock put an HE round in front of them, spraying the 20mm into a deadly hail of shrapnel that slammed four of them to the ground.
Jaybird and Murdock put the 20mm rounds of HE and WP into the big building. Murdock could see two fires burning through the windows. He checked the grounds again. He could see only three guards still shooting. A moment later their weapons went silent.
“Frontal assault,” Murdock ordered on the radio. “Assault fire on the run. Let’s get out there and get inside. Move. Now.”
He stood with the rest of them and ran forward. They formed a long curved line from the side, bending it so they all could fire at the palace without hitting each other.
Some counterfire came from the palace, but not as much as Murdock had expected. It was one of those killing missions where he knew he would take casualties.
They fired a deadly rain of hot lead as they ran forward. It was only forty yards across the sand to the front of the palace. Every window in the place had been shattered. Lights came on and went off inside. Murdock fired one 20mm round at the large double doors at the center of the first floor, and they jolted open.
Ed DeWitt and Guns Franklin stormed through the big doors into the darkened interior. Ed saw dim movement to his left and drilled the shadow with three rounds. He heard a moan and a body falling. Lights showed down a hall.
Ed used his NVGs and checked the rest of the entrance room.
“Clear entrance,” he said on the net.
Six more SEALs charged inside. Murdock and Jaybird ran into a hall on the right. They kicked open doors and found lights on, but no people. A submachine gun with a higher voice than the MP-5’s chattered its deadly sound. Murdock figured it came from the second floor. They kept opening doors along the hall and clearing rooms. Four more SEALs backed them. They found no people, only offices, living rooms, and a well-equipped recreation room with a beautiful pool table.
They came to an open stairway at the end of the hall. Murdock and Jaybird went up the steps in surges, covering each other as they moved. Jaybird peered over the top of the steps. He smelled fire and found smoke on the second floor.
“Right wing, first floor clear,” Murdock said. “One man stay there to keep it clean. Rest move up.”
“Left wing first is clear,” Ed DeWitt said. “Found four men, all wasted. One computer wing, which we will demolish with a quarter pound of C-4. Moving to second floor. Watch out for friendly fire, we’ll be opposite each other.”
“Ed, take the second, I’ll take some men to the third,” Murdock said. He motioned and Jaybird, Ching, Lam, and Bradford went with him up the stairs to the third floor.
Again, they smelled smoke but saw no fire. The rooms here were smaller, mostly bedrooms. In one room they found two women sleeping. They came up bleary-eyed and groggy. Murdock bound their wrists together with plastic strips and told them in Arabic to stay where they were.
The rooms became larger as they worked toward the center of the building. At the middle of the floor, the room’s door was locked. Murdock kicked it hard, but it didn’t open. He moved to the side and waited. Two hot lead slugs bored through the door and dug into the wall opposite. Jaybird put four 5.56 rounds into the lock area, and one of the big doors creaked and swung inward. More rounds slammed through the opening as the SEALs hugged the wall out of the line of fire.
Ching held up a flash-bang grenade and Murdock nodded. They both threw the small nonlethal bombs into the room about the same time. When the series of piercing high sound blasts and then the blinding flas
hes of light subsided, the four SEALs charged into the room.
It was a huge bedroom and office. One side had ceiling-high windows that looked out on the Dead Sea. Now they lay shattered all over the room. To the left in the bedroom side stood a huge king-sized bed with a canopy. A nude woman sprawled on her back on the bed, her body lathered with blood from hundreds of glass cuts from the shattered windows.
A man lay on the floor, his hands over his ears. He wore only white pajama bottoms and he too had been slashed by the glass, but not fatally. Lam jerked his hands away from his ears and bound them behind his back. He was not The Knife.
“Eb, third floor center,” Murdock said. “We’ve got a live one to question. Send Ebenezer up here.”
The rest of the room was sprinkled with the exploding window shards. The office held four computers with twenty-six-inch screens. Murdock blasted all four and their screens with a dozen rounds of 5.56.
No one else was in the room. “This isn’t our boy. We move down the hall,” Murdock said.
Lieutenant Ebenezer came in and went to the Arab who lay on the carpeted floor. He spoke sharply to the man, who groaned and turned away. Ebenezer kicked him in his left kidney, and the Arab howled with pain. Ebenezer told him to sit up. He did, and Eb began questioning him.
Murdock and his team moved down the hall. As soon as they left the big room, an automatic weapon fired at them from the end of the hall. Bradford swore and dove back into the big bedroom. He leaned against the wall and felt his side. His hand came out red with blood.
“Fucking A-rabs, dirty sonsofbitches, goddamned fuckers.”
Ebenezer heard him, went over, and saw the blood. He looked inside Bradford’s cammy shirt and put on a pad, then wrapped gauze around Bradford’s chest inside his shirt.
“That’ll stop the bleeding. You hang with me here. We’ll talk with our small Arab friend over here.”
Bradford swore again, then hit the radio mike. “Cap, Bradford. I picked up a slug. Not helping much for a while. Sorry.”
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