“I’d guess that India knows that China is going to move into Bangladesh,” the president said. “To do that, the Chinese must violate either India’s ground space or airspace. As I have been told, there is a narrow band of Indian territory between Bangladesh and China.”
“True. Depends how India reacts. We suggest that she will protest, then maybe put up some air power along that strip to slow down any air resupply to Chinese troops on the ground.”
“Will India ask us for any air help?”
The general shook his head. “I’d guess not. She has good air power, some good fighters. If China sends up their latest MiGs to defend the transports, it could be a good fight.”
“So, damn it, Win, we just sit on our hands and wait.”
“Not quite. We have a carrier group moving closer to the problem area. We have four ships in the Bay of Bengal, destroyers and cruisers, but our air power is eight hundred miles away.”
“I’ve seen the map,” the president said. “Not much we can do about that, at least for now. So we pick our noses, and see if we get our people out of that war zone.”
Calcutta, India
SEAL Team Seven, Third Platoon arrived in Calcutta tired, grouchy, and hungry. They had been up half the night getting their gear ready, finding the ordinance they wanted from the Navy stores, and getting on the COD Greyhound for the four-hour flight. It turned out to be five.
They arrived at noon at a military airport near Calcutta and were promptly fed and put down on cots for a six-hour snooze. Lieutenant Lonnie Brasco had paved the way for them, smoothed the glitches, and given Murdock a tour of the three CH-46s that had been flown in the night before from an amphibious landing ship that was off shore. Murdock took the one with door-mounted guns and a second one that had what looked like a level-headed older pilot.
“We’ll crank up at nineteen hundred,” Murdock told the pilots. “It’s an hour’s flight in there. We don’t know if it will be a hot LZ or not. From what I hear, the Chinese haven’t invaded yet. They must have got their timetable mixed up. But by tonight they could be all over the place.”
Murdock tried to get some sleep but couldn’t. He heard an announcement at 1430 that the Chinese had invaded Bangladesh, and thereby violated Indian air space. The announcement said that proper responses would be made.
In their makeshift barracks, the SEALs popped up from their cots at different times. The older hands slept longer than the newer men did. They had chow again at 1700 and then worked over their gear.
“Hear this is gonna be a walk in the park,” Howie Anderson said.
“Yeah, a park with a Chicom and his submachine gun behind every bush,” Mahanani snapped back.
“Chicom?” Ostercamp asked.
“Yeah, Mr. DeWitt used the term,” Mahanani said. “It’s from the Korean War, fifty years ago. Stands for Chinese Communists. Chicom. Fits.”
Murdock and DeWitt inspected their men ten minutes before load time; then they marched out to the choppers and boarded, half on each one.
“It’s the royal survival principal,” Jaybird said. “When the king and queen go on a trip, they travel separately, so the whole monarchy won’t go down in one fell swoop.”
“That makes you the court jester, Jaybird,” Jefferson said, and they all laughed.
All fifteen men had their ears on. Vinnie Van Dyke was still on the Stennis, getting the chunks of a lead slug out of his chest and lung. Murdock checked with DeWitt on the other chopper once they were in the air. Despite the loud noise of the rotor and motors, they could communicate. It was fully dark when they took off.
“DeWitt. We’ll have a hot LZ. We’ll go in as planned. You take the front door, and my squad and I will hit the back door. The birds will lift off and circle out of trouble until we call them in with a star shell and radio. They have our frequency.”
“That’s a roger, Murdock. We’re set here. Nothing for the door gunner to do yet. We’ve been over Bangladesh for twenty minutes and I don’t see any sign of fighting or Chinese below.”
“Same here. Coming up on a larger town. Hope the pilots go around it. Could be some action there.”
Just as he said it Murdock felt some rifle or machine gun rounds hit the chopper. The pilot zigged to the left then lower and to the right and went a mile to the side of the gush of lights below to what had looked like swamps, lakes, and some farming.
“Anybody get hit?” Murdock asked in the mike. Nobody answered, “Net check,” Murdock said and listened as his six men checked in. “Good. DeWitt, any casualties?”
“One arm wound, not serious. Mahanani is on it. We’re okay unless we have to do some rope climbing.”
They saw a sea of light ahead of them, Dhaka.
“Nine million people down there,” Fernandez said. “Bigger than Los Angeles. And looks about as spread out. Hope the pilots know how to find the place.”
“They do,” Murdock said. “We double-checked.”
Rifle fire came again, but nothing hit the chopper. The pair of birds swung down a main street that looked like it ran for miles. On the other end was a large park that would be dark now, and on the other side of the park was the U.S. embassy. It was a former prince’s palace.
A speaker in the top of the chopper came on. “Target located, we hit the LZ in about two minutes. The light is now red. When it goes green, the crew chief will open both doors and the rear ramp. Suggest you use all three. We’re at the LZ parking lot just behind the embassy. Good luck.”
The crew chief watched the lights. Murdock had the first door open on one side, and the rear ramp was halfway down when the wheels touched the ground.
“Go, go, go,” Murdock bellowed and the SEALs streamed out all three doors.
Murdock charged toward the back of the embassy. He saw a man with a flashlight waving them forward. Jaybird got to him first. “Friendly,” Jaybird shouted and ran for the back door of the embassy, which stood open. Ten seconds later all six of Alpha Squad were inside the embassy.
Lights were on. The man who had been outside came in and looked at the SEALs.
“God, am I glad to see you guys. We have a dozen Chinese out front trying to talk their way inside. They came through the security fence with explosive charges.”
Murdock waved the man forward. Small-arms fire exploded from the front of the embassy.
DeWitt had seen the Chinese. They were standing around with their weapons down or on the ground. Two men, probably officers, were at the front door where they kept banging on it.
The SEALs went prone and when DeWitt whispered a “now” on the Motorola, all eight of them opened fire on the Chinese. Eight went down in the first barrage. The two at the door turned around, then dove for the ground. When they did they were quickly dispatched. Nobody had wanted to fire into the door and probably through it inside.
“Khai, make sure on the ten,” DeWitt said into his mike. Khai jolted up from his prone position with an H&K G11 with caseless rounds and surged forward, kicking bodies as he came to them. One groaned and took a round to the head. One ten feet away sat up and tried to bring his rifle to bear. DeWitt scrubbed him out of the picture with a four-round burst from his Alliant Bull Pup, driving the 5.56mm slugs into the man before he could fire.
Khai fired one more shot, then waved the SEALs forward. DeWitt knocked on the door and bellowed that they were U.S. SEALs. The door opened a crack outward, then swung wide, the SEALs ran inside, and the door closed.
DeWitt found Murdock who talked to the ambassador and his number one man.
“Only trouble we’ve had so far,” Ambassador Theodore Borone said. He was a compact man of five feet eight, with gray hair, glasses, and a twist to his nose over a thin lipped mouth. “I think the wind blew most of the paratroopers off their target. We’ve been expecting them for two days now.
“Trouble, people,” Jaybird said. He had remained behind at the front window. “Looks like twenty fly boys with boom sticks. They want to come in and play.”
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The SEALs scattered, four to the front windows. Four rushed upstairs to find front-facing windows and four more went to the rear to check on any troops there.
Murdock pulled the ambassador down behind a wall. “Where are the rest of your people?”
“No basement. Fifteen are in my office. It has no windows and seemed to be the safest place.”
“Good, get there and don’t open the locked doors unless you know it’s a SEAL. Move.”
The ambassador was not used to taking orders. He frowned, then nodded. “Yes, yes, right away.” He started to stand up but Murdock pulled him down to the floor.
“Crawl, Ambassador. If you stand up they can see you outside and you could be dead in a second.”
Murdock reached up and turned off the lights in the room. the rest of the rooms went dark and a moment later rifle rounds drilled through the embassy windows and slammed into woodwork, furniture and glassware.
“All SEALs,” Murdock said into his mike. “Take them out. Open fire. Make a safe LZ so we can get the hell out of here.”
Ed DeWitt used the Bull Pup and put two explosive 20mm rounds just beyond the front gate into a tree. He saw the explosive power of the round and fired two more. One Chinese soldier didn’t like that rain of hot lead. He leaped up and charged from the outside fence toward a foot-thick tree inside. He never made it. Four slugs cut him down and dropped the rifle as he sprawled in the dirt.
Murdock had a report of no troops in back.
“DeWitt, keep up the fire. I’m taking half Alpha Squad through the back and around the side and get the bad guys in a cross-fire. Moving, now.”
Murdock took four SEALs and slid around the end of the embassy building and could see the Chinese riflemen shooting at the front of the embassy.
He placed his men and then they all opened fire. Murdock used the Bull Pup and lasered two rounds on a tree near the front for air bursts. Both rounds exploded in the air and rained hot shrapnel down on the Chinese. Two tried to stand and retreat. Both fell to rounds from Murdock’s men.
Two minutes later the firing from the front stopped. “Make sure,” Murdock told Kenneth Ching. He charged forward, fired one shot, then gave an all clear front.
Murdock put his four men in a perimeter defense around the front of the building and fifty yards away. He told DeWitt to put a screen to the rear. Then Murdock and two other SEALs took a tour of the grounds looking for any hiding Chinese. They found one, who jumped up and tried to run. He had lost his rifle. He didn’t make it.
“Grounds look secure,” Murdock said on the radio.
“Agree, rear is secure,” DeWitt said.
“Fire one red star shell,” Murdock said.
“Got it,” Lam said and sent the red flare skyward. A moment later it burst and drifted away to the right.
A garbled message came over Murdock’s Motorola. He listened to it on the second transmission.
“The birds are coming back to us. Get the embassy people to the front by the door. Divide them into two groups. Go, we don’t have much time.”
Before DeWitt had the civilians all at the door, Murdock heard the choppers coming. He went outside. “Mother Hen, chicks are ready when you are. Come on down.”
“That’s a roger. We have you in sight.”
He saw them, then, dodging over trees as they hugged the ground. The first chopper landed, and right behind it the second one. Before the dust had cleared, DeWitt had ten civilians running for the open chopper doors. They were onboard when he motioned for the next group.
Murdock had moved the SEALs back into a tight security circle around the choppers.
DeWitt waved for the second group, and Jaybird released them from the front door. They were thirty yards from the second chopper when the whole bird burst into flames as a rocket hit it and exploded the fuel tanks. The civilians scattered backward, and DeWitt corralled them and sent them to the first chopper.
“Onboard, get on, all of you. Now. Crew Chief, as soon as all the civilians are on board, get the hell out of here. We’ll find our own way back. Take off. Now.”
The door clanged shut and the chopper leaped off the ground just as four more rocket rounds slammed into the complex. Two of the small rockets hit the front of the embassy and one beside it. The fourth hit where the chopper had been before it lifted skyward.
Murdock had seen and heard what happened. He approved. It was the only way. “Out the back of the place and into those trees,” Murdock shouted into his mike. “We’ll take stock, check for wounds and then try and figure out what the fuck we’re going to do.”
11
The fifteen SEALs charged directly through the deserted embassy, out a gate in the rear wall and into a two-acre grove of hardwood trees two hundred yards behind the building.
“Any wounds?” Murdock asked the men who clustered around him in the brush.
“Small chunk of shrapnel in my leg, but it don’t bother me none,” Howie Anderson said.
Mahanani went over to the big gunner’s mate and checked it, pulled up his pants leg and treated it.
“The metal went through, a slice,” Mahanani said. “Bandaged it up and Howie is fit for service.”
“Good, let’s haul ass out of here. We’re a little north and west of the bulk of the city. A couple of miles will get us away from any Chinese reaction to the embassy. We’ll head generally west, that’s where India is. Let’s move it, double-time.”
Lam was out front a hundred yards as the SEALs did their ground eating trot that would consume a mile in eight minutes. The area was built up but they found a field here and there and a road that seemed to lead nowhere bounded by a few poorly made houses. They saw no one in the area, and there were no Chinese troops that they encountered.
Fifteen minutes from the embassy, Murdock called a halt. “Now, planning session. We have two general choices. We can hike from here back to India to the west, which must be about a hundred miles.”
“We could steal a truck,” Jaybird said. “Done it before.”
“Yeah but I don’t see a hell of a lot of roads heading that direction,” Jefferson said.
“Hijack a plane?” Ostercamp asked.
“Chicoms will have the airports stitched up tight,” Franklin said.
“Ganges,” DeWitt said. “I saw it on the map. It’s somewhere just to the west of the capital.”
“You mean float down the sacred river to the bay?” Will Dobler asked.
“Or find a boat with a motor,” DeWitt said. “The Chicoms are going to be worried about taking control of the country. They won’t spend a platoon hunting us.”
“How far?” Bradford asked.
“If it’s a hundred miles to India on the west, it has to be a hundred and twenty to the Bay of Bengal,” DeWitt answered. “The mouth of the Ganges is more than a hundred miles wide down there, it shatters into dozens of channels that wander all over the map.”
Murdock looked at Jaybird, then Dobler and Mahanani. They all said, “wet.”
“If we go wet, and float, at five knots, it would take us twenty-four hours to get to the mouth of the river,” Murdock said. “We better try to find some motorized transportation.” He looked around in the darkness. “Anderson, you still have that SATCOM?”
“I do, sir.”
“Let’s see who we can raise. They gave us that ship frequency offshore. The cruiser. Try it.”
Anderson set up the antenna, aimed it in the direction of the satellite and had a beep on the radio showing it was aimed correctly.
“Wet One, this is Mother Hen. Do you copy?”
There was no response. He tried twice more. Murdock shook his head. “We have the wrong frequency or they don’t have their ears on. We’ll try later.”
“So let’s get moving to the west,” Dobler said. “Lam out a hundred. Those Chicoms had cammies on that looked a lot like ours. From a distance we’ll even look like Chinks. Might come in handy with the natives.”
They hiked again th
is time in a single file with Alpha Squad first and Bravo behind. Ed DeWitt brought up the end of the line as rear guard. They soon found the area more and more built up until they were in a residential section of a small town. Now they had to work down streets, past occasional street lights. Now and then they saw a car or small truck. They saw no Chinese troops for two hours.
“We must have come ten miles,” Murdock said as they took a break in one of the few open fields they had seen lately. Murdock checked his watch. It was 2330.
“Six, maybe seven hours to daylight,” Murdock said. “We need to have a boat and be sailing downstream before the sun comes up. Let’s move it faster.”
A half-hour later they came to another section of houses and streets. They had passed over three bridges, but they seemed to be swampy areas and not the river. They went around a building and Lam talked to them on the Motorola.
“We’ve got some Chicoms dead ahead. Looks like a patrol. Seven or eight. They’re coming directly for us down this street.”
“Get out of the way and we’ll have a surprise for them,” Murdock said. He motioned for his men to move to the side of the street, into doorways and in the openings between buildings.
“We let them come up to fifty feet of us, then we open fire. We have silenced weapons?”
Six men replied. “Silenced only if that will do it,” Murdock said. “Hold your fire until I give you a go on the Motorola.”
All was quiet in the strange little street. Then they heard some chatter and laughter. Not good patrol behavior. Murdock tightened his grip on his Bull Pup hoping he wouldn’t have to use it.
They saw a lead Chinese soldier come into the street shortly. He looked around and waved the rest forward. When all were in sight and less than twenty yards away, Murdock gave the order to fire.
The six weapons stammered out deadly rounds. None of the eight men in the patrol had time to fire his weapon. All went down to the muffled sound of the SEAL guns.
Death Blow sts-14 Page 11
