“Yes, sir. I…” He stopped.
“That’s all, sailor. I’ll try to have one brought out here on the next chopper run to Davao.”
Ten minutes later, General Domingo sent a radio message through their chopper to find the SATCOM in the SEALs gear and have it on the next helicopter flight to Lebak.
Lieutenant Quezon and three of the men came jogging into the warehouse.
“Sir, we’ve found two men who know about the caves. They’re working in their business and say they can’t leave it right now. They told us the caves are about eight miles south, up against the mountain at the end of a road. The road isn’t good. The caves themselves are large, maybe five hundred feet deep and twenty feet high to the rocky ceiling. Both are dry and were used in ancient days for dwellings. Some say there are extremely old drawings on the walls.
“The men say as far as they know no one is using them now for anything. At one time they were used for storing things. During the war the Japanese stored ammunition and explosives in them. But one of the men thinks all of that has long since been hauled away.”
General Domingo left with the three Rangers. “I’ll bring one of them back as a guide,” he said. “Get the troops resupplied with whatever they need. We’ll be flying out in a half hour.”
“Be damned,” Lam said. “No wonder we didn’t see anything. A cave. Cut fresh greenery every day and use it for camouflage to cover the front of the cave, and nobody could find it in a year.”
“Now that we know it’s there, we take out the camo with two contact twenty rounds, and then blow about a dozen more into the cave and let them explode inside,” Jaybird said. “If it has a rock ceiling, the shrapnel is going to ricochet all over the place.”
They checked their ammo supply, filled pouches, and then added some extra, cleaned weapons and monitored the charging batteries on the EARs.
Senior Chief Sadler reported to Murdock. “Skipper, the platoon is resupplied and ready to rumble. The men are asking about chow. Yep, they are hungry again.”
When the general came back, he had with him a small truck filled with boxes of sandwiches, big urns of coffee, and baskets of fruit.
“We eat and then we fly,” he said.
A small Filipino man, who looked like he could be seventy-five, came with the general, and now stood to one side watching everything. He munched on a sandwich, his eyes wide looking at the weapons.
Lam walked over and talked to him.
“Yes, the cave. I remember when the Japanese made us carry boxes of shells and weapons up the road to the caves. We worked at it for two weeks. One cave was full of guns and explosives. The officers lived in the other smaller cave.”
“When was that?” Lam asked.
“Back during the big war, in 1942.”
“That was fifty-nine years ago,” Lam said.
The old man smiled. “It doesn’t seem like that long ago.” He shook his head. “Things change so much. Now the Japanese are our friends.”
Twenty minutes later they loaded in the helicopters and took off. The dirt road they flew up from the highway was one they had been along before. They’d come back that time finding nothing that looked like a rebel camp. This time the old Filipino stood beside the pilot directing him. They went up almost to the edge of the slope, then turned back.
“Yes, there, there. See where those branches have been cut and put over the entrance? I can see it. Yes, still there. Now find a place to land.”
The landing place was a half mile down on the road where the trees had been cut away. Both birds landed, and the men charged out and into the jungle cover.
“Can they see us from the caves?” Murdock asked the old man.
“Oh, yes, can see the whole valley out here. Good binoculars I bet they have.”
“Let’s get moving,” Murdock said. He marched his men through the cover of the trees, and was closely followed by the Rangers. Less than a minute after they left the choppers, the SEALs heard a heavy fifty-caliber machine gun thundering away ahead of them. The men dove for the sides of the road.
But the rounds weren’t coming at the men. Behind them Murdock saw the big explosive fifty-caliber rounds drilling into the helicopter closest to the mountain. The rotors were still going as the rounds chopped them up, splintered them, and riddled the cabin and engine. Then the chopper exploded in a huge fireball.
The second chopper lifted off at once and darted away from the danger. It made it away safely.
Murdock screamed at the gunner, then moved to where he had an open shot at the end of the road. He aimed a 20mm round at the cliff where he thought the cave mouth might be, and fired. He saw the round hit and explode, and then he fired again. He put three rounds into what he thought was the entrance to the cave. There was no more fire from the fifty. But it had no target. Murdock and the rest of the men jogged forward toward the cave. Now they knew for sure that this cave must be the spot where the hostages were being kept. Murdock set his jaw when he realized they had just seen some of the results of Osama bin Laden’s generosity. His cash must have been used to buy the fifty-caliber machine gun. As they jogged forward, Murdock wondered what other heavy weapons that Muhammad might have were now set up and ready to use defending the cave.
24
“Let’s all get off the road,” Murdock said into his radio. “They should have concentrations of fire mapped out. The road would be one. Split into two groups. SEALs to the right, Rangers to the left. Stay off the road fifty yards and move up through the cover. Don’t make any noise or let the cover move to give yourself away. Let’s split, now.”
They moved slower through the woods. Murdock brought up his three Bull Pups. He’d sent two with the Rangers.
Murdock called a halt when his unit was a hundred yards from the face of the slope where the cave was.
“General, let’s talk. Strategy?”
“I’d say we hit the cave entrance with four rounds of twenty, then do two shots from the EAR and move up and recon and see what they have left.”
“If they have a heavy plank door over the cave entrance, it could bounce the EAR beam off at an angle and not hurt them at all,” Murdock said.
“We should find out about that when the twenties wash away all of their camouflage. Worth a try. We don’t have enough men to assault a fort like that.”
“Agreed. You have two twenties. Let’s have each of the five guns put two rounds on the cave entrance and see what happens.”
Before they could shoot, two RPG’s flashed out of the brush near the face of the cliff and raced out a hundred yards, but fell and exploded harmlessly between the two units near the road.
“Fire when ready,” Murdock said, and he heard the report of the heavy rifle rounds leaving the weapons, then the stuttering explosions of the twenties against the face of the cliff. He hoped some went inside.
Murdock found a spot where he could look through the jungle at the cliff. He saw one section where the growth had been blown aside, and he thought he could see the edge of a hole, maybe the entrance to the cave. He used his own Bull Pup again, and put a round on the spot with the laser sighting. The airburst shattered a whole section of cut branches shielding the opening. Now they could see half of the cave opening.
Murdock had charged through the jungle for fifteen yards as soon as he saw results of the shot. He was safely behind two tree trucks when the machine-gun slugs riddled the area he had fired from.
“Casualty report,” Murdock barked into the net.
Both squads checked in with no casualties. “Two more rounds each Bull Pup,” Murdock said. “Fire and then move your ass at least twenty yards. First find a spot where you can see through the trees to the cave entrance. Then fire. Go.”
The weapons fired with spaces between as the men found fields of fire. When the ten rounds ended, Murdock moved again to where he could see the cave. The entrance was void of any cover now. It was a black hole that looked at least ten or twelve feet high. He saw a sandbagged
machine gun that had been placed in front of the opening. One rebel had fallen half over the sandbags and wasn’t moving.
“General, how about some EARs into that opening?”
“Agree. Two shots each at ten-second spacing. EARs fire when ready.”
The shooters had to move to a spot where they could get a clear area to fire through at the cave mouth. Then the whooshing sounds came, and Murdock watched the opening for some reaction. He saw no men there, and none appeared after the rounds went inside.
This time there was no return fire.
“We’ve got to go in there,” Murdock said. “Ideas, General?”
“Let’s each send up one squad with the EAR and Bull Pups for a probe. You’re right, we have to go inside.”
“Moving now up this side, we’ll check with you at the cliff face. Alpha and Juan, let’s go. Whoever has the EAR come with us. Now.” Murdock moved to the head of the squad, and they worked silently up the slope toward the cliff face. It was only eighty yards now and they moved slowly, not disturbing any of the lower growth. The canopy overhead was thirty feet above them, but grew lower as they climbed.
“General, we’re about forty yards from the cliff face.”
“Roger that, we’re a little closer. Haven’t seen any action at the cave mouth. The EARs must have done their job.”
“We don’t know how far they penetrated into the cave, so be alert,” Murdock said.
They came to a rocky ledge that was in plain sight of the cave mouth. They had to cross it. Murdock studied the cave opening again. Two rebels were draped over the machine gun and its sandbags. Both looked to have massive, bloody wounds. He could see no one else.
He grouped the squad behind him. “Okay, we go over all at once. If anybody is there, he can’t get all of us. Ready? Let’s go, now.” Alpha Squad and Juan charged across the ten yards of rocky shale, and dove into the jungle cover on the other side. Everyone made it, and there was no fire from the cave mouth.
Murdock told the general about it.
“Good, they must be back well inside if any are alive or awake,” General Domingo said. “We’re near the face and moving toward the opening.”
A minute or two later the SEALs were there and could see the Rangers moving up with each man covering for the next. The SEALs did the same routine, and Lam came up to the gun mount first.
“Two KIA here, Skipper,” he said. “The weapon is out of action as well. I can’t see anything or any bodies in the cave.”
“Hold there at the side,” Murdock said.
Two minutes later the Alpha Squad men and Juan clustered against the wall next to the mouth of the cave. The general’s Rangers were on the other side.
“Scout,” Murdock said. “We’ll send in Lam.”
“Roger that,” the general said.
“Ten or fifteen yards, talking all the time,” Murdock said to Lam. The scout lifted away from the wall, and holding his Bull Pup at port arms, he edged around the side of the opening and darted inside.
“Okay, I’m in. Nothing so far. No lights. No bodies. Yes, now I have two men on the ground. Looks like the EAR got them. Weapons are by their sides. No visible wounds.”
There was a moment of dead air. “Oh, shit, now we get to it. About a dozen rebels, looks like a twenty came in here and then went off. Body parts all over the place. Hold it.” The radio went silent.
“Yes, faint but I can hear it. I’d say it’s a generator and that could mean lights back a ways. I’m using my flash. I’m maybe thirty yards inside now. Suggest some backup. One squad up here, one in reserve.”
“General?” Murdock asked.
“I’ll send in a squad. One of the men has a Motorola.”
Murdock saw the ten Rangers led by a sergeant come to the cave mouth and charge inside.
“Hi, guys, glad you could make it,” Lam said when the Rangers got up to him. “Use your lights if you have them.”
The air was quiet for a while.
Lam peered ahead in the cave. The ceiling was way up there. The cave widened out now to almost forty feet. He could still hear the pounding of the engine. Must be enough air in there so the carbon monoxide wouldn’t be a problem, he decided. Lam stabbed the short light into the darkness ahead, then swung it side to side. It didn’t help that much, and a moment later he stumbled over a body. He checked it. Sleeping. He bound the man’s feet and hands with plastic cinch straps and moved on. The cave made a turn, and ahead he could see lights. At the same time he heard the magnified sound of a sub gun chattering off a dozen rounds. He dove to the stone floor and rolled to the side.
“Contact. We’ve made contact with some live rebels who have a working sub gun. It’s around a bend in the tunnel. What now, oh, wise leaders?”
“Back off to the corner and wait,” Murdock said. “We’re coming in.” Both squads outside pulled out flashlights and ran for the cave entrance.
“Look sharp,” Murdock said. “Some bodies up here, don’t stumble over them.”
“We’re with you,” General Domingo said.
At the bend in the cave, Murdock found Lam, and edged around the wall with him and looked from ground level down the void toward the faint lights. Murdock could hear the engine chugging along now.
“No idea how many of them down there, Cap,” Lam said. “The guy on the MG had his sights set too high.”
“Good. I need an EAR up here,” Murdock said. He waited a minute, and Ching slid into the rocky floor beside him. “We want one round down the cave. Then when it fades, the three of us are going down there full bore. Gonna try out my new flash, a Maglite two-cell. Throws a good beam so we won’t be surprised. Your round should knock out any rebels down there for a long way. It might not go around corners, but we’ll see what happens.”
Ching checked his weapon. “Up to charge,” he said.
“Fire.”
The whooshing sounded louder inside the cave. They heard it jolt down the tube, and then there was nothing. The only sound came from the engine Murdock figured ran a generator.
“Let’s chogie,” Murdock said. “General, we’ll recon and report back. Hold the fort.”
Murdock swung the light from side to side in the cave. It widened again to fifty feet. Here and there he saw the remnants of old ammo boxes. This Maglite was twenty times as bright as his penlight. He kept it moving, just in case there was a live one down there with a gun.
A hundred feet down the tunnel they found a man with a sub gun. He slept. They tied him hand and foot and moved on.
“He was a lookout,” Lam said. The next ones they found were a squad lined up across the tunnel, all with AK-74’s, the new ones, which must have been furnished by bin Laden. The six rebels lay sleeping, and the three SEALs tied them hand and foot.
They were closer to the generator now, the sound louder, insistent. They stopped and lay on the rocky floor. Murdock reported what he had found. He suggested to the general that he keep three men at the cave mouth as a rear guard, and the rest come up around the bend in the tunnel to a six-man squad taking a nap.
“We’ll move on forward. Can hear the generator better, so it should be close. Wonder if they have a fresh-air outlet for the exhaust.”
The three moved ahead. Twenty yards farther they came to a small mess setup, with gas stoves, food cabinets, even two tables with chairs. No cooks.
Another twenty yards and they found another bend in the cave, again to the left. The three edged up to the turn, where they could see around it. At the first use of the flashlight around the bend, they took incoming small-arms fire from at least three weapons.
They pulled back.
“An EAR round?” Ching asked.
Murdock scowled. “If there are any hostages, they should be close. That engine is next door here somewhere.”
“Better packing out some sleeping hostages than it is getting the shit shot out of us from those three weapons out front,” Ching said.
“Oh, yeah,” Murdock said. “Oh, yeah
. Give them a round, Ching.”
He fired one round with the whoosher, and they waited a full minute; then Murdock waved the flash around the corner, but had no response. “I’ll charge across the cave here and see if I get any response,” Murdock said. He came to his knees and surged across the fifty feet to the other side. No response.
“Let’s move forward,” Murdock said.
They found the three shooters behind sandbagged positions forty feet up the cave. Now all three men were sleeping. The SEALs used the plastic ties, then stared into the darkness beyond.
“Why keep the generator running if they don’t have some lights on?” Lam asked. “We saw some lights before, but now they all seem to be off.”
“Good question, any answers?” Ching asked.
“To keep some equipment turned on,” Lam said.
“To keep a radio net open,” Murdock said.
“Or to keep a timer running on a booby trap, a bomb,” Lam said.
“Let’s move faster,” Murdock said. “We should find somebody here. They’ve had time to set up bombs all around this damn cave.”
They jogged forward for fifty feet and came to a dead stop.
Just ahead, behind a chain-link fence, they saw people moving.
“Are you the tourists, the hostages?” Murdock called.
“Yes, some of us are here,” a man called. They ran up to the fence but didn’t touch it. It was ten feet high and with posts set in concrete into the rock floor.
“How many of you?” Murdock asked, shining the light around.
“Six. They took six men out of here late last night. We don’t know where they are.” The man looked about sixty, with white hair and a stubble beard. He held his hand in front of his eyes. “Damn rebels said something about a bomb. Don’t know what they meant.”
Lam tossed his KA-BAR against the fence. It fell to the floor.
“Not electrified,” Lam said. “I’ll find a gate or an opening.”
Ambush sts-15 Page 23
