"Sorry, Skipper. The Chinese are digging in all right. I figure they have a two-hundred-yard front, and beyond that I can't tell. There could be troops all along that road. It's a natural fort for them."
"Hard to get across?"
"Fucking near impossible."
They both heard the choppers about the same time. They came from behind them and to the north.
"The hunting dogs are out," Murdock said. "Red, do you sometimes have the feeling that we're being driven like cattle into the right place that will turn into a killing field?"
"That's what they hope. Never happen."
They listened as the choppers came closer.
"Sounds like the same troop transporters we almost collided with before," Murdock said.
"They must know we dodged them back there," Jaybird said. "Now they're moving up the troops. Maybe we could get a shot or two at them just before they set down."
"Or just before they lift off after dropping off their cargo," Murdock said. "I've a hunch they don't want their precious choppers around where there could be a firefight."
"So where are they going to land?" Red asked.
The sound came closer, then seemed to be right on top of them. The SEALS sprawled in the field hoping the big birds didn't turn on their downward-directed landing lights.
The copters thundered over them, swept to the left, and a half mile away began to form up for a precision landing.
"Let's go get them," Murdock said. The SEALS took off at a fast trot. They saw the Chinese birds turn on their lights and drop down to the ground and the troops pour out of them. Murdock didn't want to count, but he figured at least twenty men per chopper.
The SEALS covered a quarter mile in record time, and went down behind rice paddy dikes three hundred yards away from the copters.
Murdock went to his Motorola. "Your long guns, anything we've got. Let's see how many of those choppers we can blast into little pieces. If anybody has any M-40 rounds, this is the spot to use them. Let's do it."
He leveled in with his heavy AK-47. He had twelve rounds and was determined to expend all of them. His first shot was slightly high. The rest of the troops opened up. He brought down his sights and nailed the closest chopper with a round through the canopy in front. He got four more shots into the bird before it tried to lift off.
It made it to thirty feet, then the rotors died and it fell like a rock and burst into flames.
Al Adams estimated the range and lofted an M-40 WP at the closest chopper. It landed ten feet short, but the forward surge of the WP streamers caught the grass and the chopper itself on fire and the troops scattered. A minute later the whole helicopter was a mass of flames, and machine gun rounds in the ship began exploding.
Dewitt yelled in delight as his AK-47 rounds punctured another chopper. It spun around as it tried to take off, then made it and lifted into the darkness.
The other birds at last had their landing lights turned off, making them harder targets. Two more were so wounded by the rifle and machine gun fire that they never got off the ground.
The troops on board had spread out, but didn't move forward. Murdock had counted on their attacking, but the platoon's two machine guns must have dissuaded their leader.
When the last choppers were airborne, Murdock hit his mike three times and the SEAL fire stopped.
"We move," Murdock said into the mike. "On me. We parallel the road and get away from all those Chinese troopers. Go, go, go."
They ran a hundred yards to the south parallel with the road. Again they took some rifle fire, but it was random. They were still hidden in the dark.
Murdock started down the road to his right and saw more than a dozen pairs of headlights coming toward them. Trucks, probably, with more ground troops.
He slowed the men to a walk and looked around. The mass of a hill reared to the left. It had some trees and brush that he could see in the soft moonlight.
"Up the hill," he said to Red, who swung that way, found a trail of sorts, and led out at a brisk pace.
More firing came from behind them. Murdock stopped to listen. He could hear and then see elements from the choppers moving toward them. He had no idea how many men. He trotted back to the front of the platoon and picked up the pace.
"No way they can follow us," Red said.
Murdock shook his head. "All they have to do is saturate the possible routes with men and they'll find us. What can we do to slow them down?"
"I've got a claymore," Jaybird said. "I think Doc still has one. We could use them if somebody gets on our trail in some kind of a narrow place."
"Good. Red, hit that gully up there to the left. We'll move up that and see if we have anybody on our ass end."
They hiked for another ten minutes. Now and then they heard troops behind them, but no one close. They were almost at the top of the ravine when they heard someone below them.
Murdock stopped his men and they listened.
"How many?" he asked Dewitt.
"I'd say twenty at least."
"Maybe thirty," Jaybird said.
"Use the claymores," Murdock said. "Go down about halfway in that narrow spot and set them in sequence with trip wires."
Jaybird and Doc ran back down the hill. They set the antipersonnel mines in the faint trail twenty yards apart, one farther up the hill than the other. They were aimed downhill. The trip wire would set off the mine and spew out over two hundred small ball-bearing-like projectiles in a cloud of death. They angled the mines for the best killing effect, set the trip wire on the first one, then on the second.
Jaybird and Doc hurried back up the trail. They could hear the Chinese coming up the slope behind them. They stopped fifty yards from the rest of the platoon to watch the trap.
"I can see some of them coming," Jaybird whispered. "No fucking scout out in front of them. Assholes. Must be twenty of them and all in range. How stupid can they get?"
A moment later a Chinese boot broke the trip wire and the first claymore went off with a roar. Screams of rage and agony echoed through the valley after the sound of the explosion died. Half of the men coming up the hill didn't stand up again.
Someone shouted in Chinese below and the survivors charged up the hill. One man was past the second trip wire when the second Chinese hit it and another belching roar showered the Chinese troops with instant death. The man beyond the death scene turned around and ran down the hill.
Jaybird and Doc grinned in the darkness and hurried up to the rest of the SEALS.
Murdock took their report and they trotted over the top of the hill. On the far side they found another hill, higher. They took the downslope at the fast march and started up the other side. A machine gun opened up far to their left. The five-to-nine-round bursts came as a surprise.
"Who the hell they firing at?" Fernandez asked.
"The night ghosts," Ross Lincoln said. "Might mean they got a lot of green troops out there tonight."
Murdock had been thinking the same thing. The Chinese hadn't had a war to fight since Korea, forty-five years ago. New troops, new fears.
"We keep going unless that chatter gun comes closer than a mile," Murdock said. They kept moving up the hill.
"We still heading southeast?" Al Adams asked. "Swear I can smell the ocean."
"You get the imagination award of the mission," Frazier said. "You're probably smelling your armpit."
They kept climbing. There was no path or trail now. The brush was sparse and the trees few, mostly pine, Murdock decided. They made it to the top, and Red Nicholson stood there looking down.
Murdock moved up beside him. "Goddamn."
"About the size of it. Must be two hundred feet straight down, like somebody sliced the mountain in half with a cleaver. Left or right, L-T?"
They heard the sound of trucks to the right.
"Company to the right," Red said.
"Yeah, lets take this slope down to the left and get around that drop-off as soon as we can. These fucking Chin
ese know the territory. They know we're stalled up here, so watch them try to plug both sides and the rear."
They hiked down the slope to the left. Murdock called up Doc, who reported that the two walking wounded were not holding them up.
"Frazier is a tough little cookie, sir. His side wound is hurting him, but it ain't serious. Fernandez has that arm wound, but he's still fit for duty. No other casualties so far."
"Keep it that way, Doc."
They hiked along the rim of the drop-off for ten minutes working down the left flank.
Red heard them first.
Murdock was close behind him. "More choppers," he said. "Moving up to block us on this left flank. Damn, told you these fuckers knew the terrain. That gives them a huge killing advantage."
36
Monday, May 18
0100 hours Sharp cliff Near Amoy, China The SEALS kept hiking down the hill beside the sharp cliff. There was still no way down it. They had to go to the left the way they were committed. They heard the helicopters twice more. The birds were flying well to the left of their position. Probably the Chinese aircraft had landed two miles away in what they hoped was a safe spot to discharge their troops.
"They can move straight up this way and cut off our movement to the left," Murdock told Holt. "Then the truck troops from the right begin moving in, and I'm sure they have some men in the rear who can sweep forward to close the fucking trap."
"So what happens next, L-T?" Holt asked.
"We'll get as far down this slope as we can. They probably have two miles or more to hike. Looks like the terrain is flattening out ahead. We should find a spot to get down this cliff along here somewhere." Five minutes later they heard the water.
"What the hell is that?" Holt asked.
Murdock grinned. "Sounds like running water to me. Not an ocean but the next best thing. It could be a good-sized river."
Jaybird moved up. "A river?" he asked. "Sounds like it. If it's big enough it could be a help."
They heard the jets screaming overhead again. The Chinese must be using them to fire up their troops on the ground. Strange psychology, but this was China.
Another quarter mile and the cliff faded away, the ground leveled out, and they found themselves beside a river.
"Must be a hundred yards across," Red said.
Murdock grinned again. "Yeah, and our Chinese friends are going to close the trap and find absolutely nothing at all inside it that they're looking for ... namely us."
Red motioned them to be quiet. He pointed up the side of the river. They could see along it for a quarter mile upstream. In the faint moonlight they spotted six shadows moving slowly forward. They were on the bank of the river where the walking was easy.
Murdock motioned to Horse Ronson to set up his machine gun. He flipped out the bipod and bellied down behind it. Quietly as possible he chambered the first round of a belt of the NATO rounds and looked at Murdock.
The platoon leader held up his hand as he watched the soldiers come closer. When the six were two hundred yards away, Murdock slashed down his hand and the HK 21A1 belched out a nine-round burst of the 7.62mm NATO rounds. After a pause, another five-round burst slanted at the confused Chinese.
Two had gone down from the first rounds. Another stumbled and fell on the second burst. Magic Brown got off two rounds from his M-89 sniper rifle, and another Chinese died in the sand. The last two charged into the brush along the riverbank and out of sight.
"Time for us to take a swim," Murdock said. "Get rid of all the weight that won't help you fight. Keep your weapons. Anybody down to two or three rounds for the AKS leave them here and give the rounds to somebody else."
A single chopper came from the south. It snapped on a searchlight and played the powerful beam on the ground. The SEALS scattered into the sparse growth to find enough cover to hide from the light if it came their way. The light paused for a moment when it showed the dead Chinese patrol members. Then it worked a search pattern to the front with the light probing every tree and bush.
Murdock leaned flat against a pine tree to become part of the trunk. The light swept over him and continued. The chopper worked the area a hundred and two hundred yards away from the bodies, then wheeled and vanished back the way it had come.
"Now it's swim time," Murdock said. "Waterproof the Motorolas and the SATCOM and let's get in the water. It's downstream and away from the bad guys."
"Buddy system without the lines," Murdock added. He pushed into the river with Holt. "Try to stay in contact," he called, then the tug of the current pulled him downstream.
Murdock had not forgotten his two wounded. A shot-up arm and one wound in the side. They were SEALS. They would do better in the water than on land. He tried not to think about it. Jaybird and Doc came moving up to him. They treaded water and floated. Their weapons kept sinking them. Murdock had ditched his AK-47 and given his four magazines to Magic.
They drifted down the river. This close to the coast there was only a sluggish current, maybe two knots, Murdock guessed. He figured they had been in the water ten minutes. He let Jaybird and Doc go ahead, and he grabbed Holt and they swam against the current for two minutes. Three pairs of SEALS came up to them. They had three more men somewhere. Murdock stalled another minute and saw the trio coming.
All three were holding hands or holding onto vests. Dewitt had Frazier and Fernandez in tow. They came close.
"Frazier's a little weak, but he says he'll make it. Told me he isn't about to go KIA in fucking China."
Murdock relaxed and he and Holt moved along with the three. Ahead he could see lights.
"Far shore," he said to Dewitt, and he saw the 2IC slant toward the shore. The river here was about a hundred yards wide. The lights were all on one side. As they drifted slowly past the lights, Murdock got the idea that some sort of festival was in progress. There was dancing under outdoor lights, and stalls and booths and fancy costumes.
They didn't catch up with any of the others, but neither was there any disturbance, so they must have gone away from the lights as well.
Murdock and Holt kept up with the trio. They felt an added tug of the current as the river narrowed and dug deeper into the soil of China. He welcomed the increased speed.
Dewitt turned and waved, and Murdock swam over near him.
"We dumped Frazier's 4A1. He's having a hard time. Can I trade you Frazier for Holt for a while?"
Murdock swam up and caught hold of Frazier's arm.
"Which is the bad side?" he asked.
Frazier turned toward him, his eyes glassy, then shook his head. "Sir, right side, sir."
"Easy, Frazier, easy. You're out of Hell Week. All we're doing is getting down this river to the salty Taiwan Strait. You're going to make it fine. Right, Frazier?"
Murdock looked at the man. He was nodding. Murdock shook his arm, and Frazier came back to the present.
"Take it easy, Frazier. We don't leave men behind, remember? You're with us all the way."
Murdock saw what Dewitt meant. It took more effort all the time to hold Frazier up. Murdock called quietly for Holt, who came back and held Frazier from the other side.
"No sweat, sir. We'll get him there."
Ten minutes later Murdock saw big trouble ahead. He figured they had come two, maybe three miles when he heard the rumble of motors. He knew what they were at once. Shallow-draft river patrol boats.
"Dewitt," Murdock called.
He swam over from where he had been and nodded.
"Patrol boats ahead," Murdock said. "Swim up and contact the other men and get them all out of the water on the right-hand side. Looks like more protection on that side. Leave one man close to shore we can spot."
Dewitt waved, and struck out with a crawl stroke that would eat up the distance quickly, taking Fernandez with him.
Murdock and Holt began angling back to the right-hand shore. They hit bottom twice and pushed off. The growl of the patrol boats came sharper now. The river made a bend to the
left, and then Murdock could see them.
Six flashing lights showed maybe a quarter of a mile downstream. There were six patrol boats working slowly against the current, searchlights playing over the water and touching both shores, probing through brush and trees.
"Looking for us," Holt said.
"True, let's hit the bank and get into some cover. We'll find the rest of the men later."
They got Frazier to shore, but had to help him walk as they worked up the bank into a thick growth of brush and some trees. Frazier shook his head.
"I can make it. Damn side isn't that bad. I can make it."
Murdock sent Holt running downstream to find Doc and bring him back. He hoped the others weren't too far ahead.
Dewitt swam as strongly as he could while holding onto Fernandez for what he figured was five minutes. He hadn't found the others. Then he heard a cough ahead and stroked hard again. He found them standing neck deep in the water near the shore.
"Out and into the brush," he said. "Murdock is just behind. Doc, you better get back along the bank and see if you can do something to help Frazier. He's not good. They might be near shore or in the brush somewhere. He's hurting pretty bad."
Doc waved and shook the rest of the water off him, made sure his MP-5 was drained, and took off upstream at a jog. Dewitt moved the men deep into the brush. He'd seen the probing searchlight and he wanted to be sure they were out of sight.
Doc ran along the shore. The boats were far enough away so he was not taking any risk staying in the open. He heard someone coming and dropped to his knees, his MP-5 up and ready. A shadow loomed out of the darkness and before he could swing the weapon up, someone slammed into him.
Doc jolted to the ground and rolled over. He started to swing his room broom around when he heard a chuckle.
"Damn, Doc, I nearly wasted you good," Holt said. "How you know I was coming to fetch you?"
"You came within a red cunt hair of getting three slugs up your left nostril. How bad is Frazier?"
By the time Doc got there, Frazier was feeling better. Doc gave him a shot of morphine, a drink of water, and two chocolate bars. "Don't ask me where I got them," Doc growled.
Seal Team Seven 5 - Firestorm Page 24
