“My name is Sadie Benjamin and I’m from Oregon. My first trip to the Philippines, and after this, it’s gonna be my last.”
“Sadie, you’re a spoilsport,” a little lady with blue-tinted white hair said. “Why, we haven’t even been to Manila yet. I’m going there and the tour company is going to pay for it.”
Murdock led them into the small hotel, and the manager met them at the front desk. Murdock waved and hurried back out the door.
He rode back to the landing pad, and met the CH-46 as it landed with the Rangers and General Domingo.
Mahanani had treated the wounded Ranger as best he could at the Eagle’s Nest. Now the Ranger was driven in a sedan to the only doctor in town. The rifle bullet had gone in his chest and hadn’t come out. There was considerable bleeding. Mahanani said he thought the slug must have shattered and had caused a lot of damage. The hospital corpsman gave the Ranger two shots of morphine and got the outside bleeding stopped, but he wondered about internal bleeding.
General Domingo stayed with the wounded Ranger, while Murdock got the men into bunks for the rest of the night. He kept Jaybird, Lam, Sadler, Juan, and DeWitt up to talk over what they had found out. The rebel had given them all he knew. The second hidden camp was south of Lebak about ten miles. It also was in the jungle off the road toward the mountains, but not up so high. The man guessed there were no more than ten or fifteen men there, but they had some of the new weapons. They included RPGs (rocket-powered grenades), a fifty-caliber machine gun, and an armored personnel carrier that they had captured months ago from the Army.
“Some heavy hitters there,” Jaybird squawked. “Where they get that kind of firepower?”
“Good old bin Laden,” Saddler said. “He dropped three million dollars on them. Buy a lot of firepower with that.”
“So how do we counter it?” Murdock asked.
“If we can’t take out the equipment and the firepower, we take out the men who run the weapons,” Lam said. “Without men the fucking fifty-caliber don’t shoot up nobody.”
“Amen to that, brother,” DeWitt said.
“This time they’ll be on the alert for anyone and everyone,” Murdock said. “And I’d bet my grandma’s petticoat that they will use the hostages as shields.”
General Domingo came into the warehouse they had turned into a barracks. He carried his hat and he slapped it against his leg.
“We lost him. Ranger Carlos Flores died on the doctor’s table. The bullet shattered into his lung and collapsed it and caused all sorts of hell. The doctor said Flores died of internal bleeding and there was no way he could stop it with a dike.”
“Sorry,” Murdock said. “Should be a medal for his family.”
“There will be. These are all volunteers I’ve got.” He shook his head, trying to get out of the downcast mood. He checked around the small operations table. “Any ideas where we’re going next?”
“Looks like we wait until daylight,” Sadler said. “Then we take both choppers up with ten sets of eyes and do a recon on any structures east of the highway and about ten miles south of Lebak.”
“What if he has a wilderness camp tucked in under a double canopy down there in the jungle?” DeWitt asked. “If he’s down there, there’s no way we could spot him.”
“Not a chance this man would have a primitive camp,” General Domingo said. “We learned his name. He’s Muhammad Al Hillah. I remember him. He was in the Army for three or four years. He was one of my sublieutenants. Always was a bit out of kilter. Something just not quite straight and true. He was a perfectionist. He also was the most creature-comfort guy I’d ever seen. He had to have the latest and best of everything. Roughing it for him was going from his air-conditioned sedan to his air-conditioned quarters.
“He’s a good tactician, good basic military mind, but he’s also an idealist. Right now he’s trying to create the Muslim state of Mindanao, and he’s been doing all he can to bring it about. We got the name of the man from the second prisoner Juan persuaded.”
“You think an air recon will work?” Lam asked.
“Yes,” Domingo said at once. “It’s all we have. We use both choppers with the best recon eyes we have. We’ll take off at daylight. Now let’s see about getting these men down for some sleep. We’ll get a re-issue of ammunition and supplies in the morning. I’m calling Davao for two more choppers to be landing here with first light. Then we’ll get the hostages on their way to Davao, and send Ranger Flores back to that town as well.” He nodded at them and headed for the door. “See you in the morning.”
Morning came too early for Murdock. He groaned as he slid out of the bunk and pulled on his pants. He was dressed two minutes later, with his combat harness, and took his Bull Pup as he went to the door. Sadler was rousting out the spotters they would take: Jaybird, Lam, Bradford, and Mahanani. DeWitt would be along, three SEALs in each chopper along with three Rangers.
It was just coming light as the six SEALs hiked two blocks to the improvised landing pad on a vacant area across from the city hall. General Domingo was already there with his team. He assigned three Rangers to the second chopper, accepted the three SEALs, and walked over for a conference with Murdock.
“About ten miles down, as that prisoner told us, really could be anywhere from three to fifteen. We’ll look sharp for any buildings and when we find one, even a house, we’ll buzz it and if needed, land and investigate. Just the idea that we might land should be enough to bring out some kind of attack from them. There will be some farmers in there, I think. I don’t know what else. Let’s take a look. Oh, I have one of the Motorolas for commo.”
Murdock nodded and climbed into the forty-six. He wondered how old it was. Did they buy it new or was it a retread from a U.S. surplus sale?
Five minutes later they had slowed to a crawl in the sky as they cruised over the jungle growth of the heavy rain area just off the highway south. They had seen only one building so far, a cabin in a small clearing that wouldn’t hold six people, let alone the hostages and a guard force.
The pilot did a gentle S-turn search pattern, so they had a good look at the area, some of it from two or three angles. A series of plowed fields showed with two terraces to extend the arable land farther up the slope of the mountain. At the far side of them were half a dozen buildings, but most were small, and some had nipa-thatched roofs and woven-reed sidewalls.
“Don’t think so,” Murdock said as the other chopper circled the buildings.
“Right, too small, too much in the open.”
They searched another five miles, working slowly along the widening plain, but found nothing.
At the ten-mile mark they found a road that angled off the main highway and arrowed into the jungle growth up the side of the first ridge.
“Could be interesting,” Murdock said. They followed the road, which often vanished under the canopy of trees. Twice they saw buildings along the road, but they too were too small. They came to the end of the road, found only more trees and the mountain extending upward, and retraced their pattern to the road.
Back at the highway, they moved south again, and checked out two more roads into the jungle and up the side of the steep ridge. Nothing.
By noon they had found no trace of any setup that looked as if it could be a hostage camp. They went back to Lebak, ate at an improvised chow hall, and met again over the planning table.
“What else did the rebel say when you questioned him?” Murdock asked Juan.
“Most of it I’ve told you. He said their leader talked to them every day to keep up their morale, to keep them fired up. He said one day Muhammad told them he was just like they were. While he wasn’t afraid to die for Allah, he’d just as soon serve him alive for another fifty years or so. Then he told them he could go to ground if he needed to. He didn’t always have to perch in the trees watching his enemies.”