Then it was time to load. The eighteen men stepped into the side doors of the forty-six and settled down.
Murdock had assigned Lieutenant Ejercito to stay with Bravo Squad, and Sergeant Estrada would be with him and Alpha.
“Call me Pedro,” the short sergeant said. “It’s quicker and I know you’re talking to me.”
“Good, call me Murdock. Out here we don’t have any rate or rank. We’re all fighters. We’re a team. We fight together and we win together or we die together. It’s that tight. I expect you to blend right in. Every SEAL helps every other SEAL. We support, we protect, and we make the enemy pay.”
Pedro grinned as the big bird lifted off. “Good to be with you, Murdock. I’ve chased these bastards for ten years.”
Just after they’d arrived at the base, they’d had a briefing. The Island of Mindanao had for many years been settled mainly by Muslims. First there had been the Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighting for freedom for Mindanao as a separate nation. Later there was a Separatist Islamic Liberation Front that came to terms with the Philippine government and accepted many of the programs from the national groups to help train the people on the big island and lift them out of poverty.
Just when things began to go better for the people on the big island, the Rebel Separatist Islamic Liberation Front mobilized and squeezed away from the traditional group that was cooperating with the federal government, and began attacking and kidnapping and agitating for more local control and eventual freedom. This had spawned the Chinese merchant kidnappings, and now the group was out for the pot of gold, six million dollars in ransom.
Twenty of the twenty-four minutes slanted past quickly, and the crew chief turned on a red light over the rear hatch. “Gentlemen,” he shouted over the roar of the engines and the whine of the blades. “We have four minutes to touchdown. The pilot will be searching for a good LZ, so it could be two or three minutes longer. Suggest you get up, check your gear, and be sure to take everything with you.”
“And thank you for flying Hedgehopping Hazardous Airlines,” Jaybird cracked.
Most of the men were too busy to laugh. Another mission, another step into the unknown.
“Just hope he finds a good LZ that won’t come alive with rifle fire,” Murdock said.
Pedro grinned. “Good man, the captain. I’ve ridden with him before. He’ll set us down at the best spot.”
They could see the ship coming in lower; then it stopped, moving forward, hovered, and settled gently to the ground. The red light turned to green.
“Go, go, go,” Murdock shouted. One squad went out each side door, ran out of the rotor wash, and hit the ground in a defense parameter. Pedro was at Murdock’s elbow.
“We go upstream,” the sergeant said. “So far, so good.” Murdock led off with his squad, Lam out in front by twenty yards in the thick jungle growth. Pedro had run ahead and guided Lam into an animal trail next to the river, and now they moved ahead at a slow walk, testing the air as they went for any enemy activity.
Lam went down after four hundred yards. “Skipper, best to come up here with Pedro. Damn peculiar.”
Murdock and Pedro ran up to where Lam stretched out behind a two-foot-thick log. They looked over the top. Murdock saw a village. It looked totally and completely deserted. One chicken scratched in the moonlight where it streamed through sixty-foot high lauan, or Philippine mahogany trees.
The place had the feel of being recently inhabited. Lam made a dash for the first building, a hut made of native materials woven together. He went in and out and shook his head. Murdock used his NVG and watched the rest of the place. He saw no sign of life. In the middle of the set of twenty huts was a tree that had been stripped of its branches and leaves. Only one strong branch stretched out at right angles to the trunk. Hanging on the branch Murdock saw two bodies.
“Let’s go in,” Murdock said. “Everyone move up, the place looks deserted.”
He and Pedro hurried to the hanging tree. A man and a woman hung there. Their bodies could not have been dead more than a day. Each had a sign nailed into the chest. One read: “I was a spy for the President.” The other said, “I cooperated with the misdirected Moro Liberation Front.”
“Nobody home,” Lam said on the Motorola.
“Everyone up here. Search this place. See if you can find anything that might show where they went.”
Lam vanished into the brush and trees.
After twenty minutes, the SEALs had found nothing of value, nothing to indicate where the inhabitants went, or even if the hostages had been held here. Then Ostercamp saw something gleaming in the dust. He picked it up and frowned.
Murdock looked at it and grinned. “The hostages were here, I’d bet my booty on it. This is a PEO pin. A half-inch-high five-pointed gold star with the black letters. My mother had one and I used to hide it, and then be a hero when I could find it just before she went to the meeting. It’s a Christian-related sorority of some kind. The meaning of the letters is a big secret. Chances are it was dropped by one of the American hostages.”
Lam came back and talked to Murdock, Ejercito, and DeWitt. “I found their trail heading upstream. Looks like four or five off-road motorcycles and a bunch of wheeled carts and a whole bunch of footprints. Lots of bare feet, also a lot of shoe prints. No spike heels, but some low heels on women’s prints, and a number of men’s shoe prints. I’d say the hostages were hoofing it north.”
Murdock tried to call the chopper, but had no response. “Gonzales said he would make ten-mile circles south of our LZ. Bradford, try to contact the chopper every five minutes.” He looked at the two bodies hanging in the moonlight.
“Should we cut them down and bury them?”
Juan shook his head. “No, then their relatives would never find them. Leave them up there. In two or three weeks the relatives will come back and do what they need to do for a Muslim funeral.”
“Time to move,” Murdock said. “Lam, head us back downstream toward that LZ. We’ve got a chopper to catch.”
They were halfway there when Bradford made contact with the bird.
“Big Bird. Our mission is finished. Looking for a ride at the same LZ.”
“Read you loud and clear. I’m five miles from the former LZ. See you there.”
Thirty-two minutes later the forty-six chopper landed back at Davao. Murdock, Estrada, Ejercito, DeWitt, Sadler, and Lam all went into a debriefing.
“Is there a woman’s organization called the PEO here in the Philippines?” Murdock asked the colonel.
The man shook his head. “Never heard of it. I’ll ask our G-2 to check it out. What kind of a group is it?”
“A Protestant woman’s group,” Murdock said. “Since this is a mostly Muslim country, the chances are low it would have chapters here. One of my men found this PEO pin in the deserted village. It’s our only evidence that the hostages were there.”
There was a knock on the door; it opened, an aide came in, and gave the colonel a message. He read it and shook his head.
“It’s an ultimatum from the rebels. They say they have already shot one of the hostages, an American woman. One more will be shot every day until the ransom is delivered to the point that was previously communicated to the Army. Also, they say the presence of United States Navy SEALs in the Philippines is unacceptable and they must be withdrawn at once.”
Murdock scowled. “We’ve only been here twelve hours. How in hell do they know that we’re here?”
7
Colonel Alvarez shook his head. “We must have a leak in our organization somewhere.”
Murdock scowled. “Colonel, no disrespect, but our lives are on the line here. I suggest that we work with only you and one man from your staff, Estrada and Ejercito, and my people. Nothing on paper, nothing on e-mail, no radio use, nothing over a phone line. Our missions and targets are top secret. If the rebels know in advance where we’re going, we’ll never find them.”