Murdock frowned. “Go to ground? What could he mean by that?”
“I asked the rebel. He said he had no idea. Nobody in his group could figure it out. Their leader often said things they didn’t understand. They had learned not to question him about them.”
“To go into hiding,” Jaybird said.
“Yeah, but more than that,” Lam said. “He said he could come down out of the trees. That would be the Eagle’s Nest. Then he said he could go to ground. What the hell?”
DeWitt grinned. “Hey, go to ground means he’s hiding. What did a lot of guys do during World War II? They went underground. Some of them literally in caves.”
“General Domingo,” Sadler said. “Are there any caves around this area? Would some of the locals know?”
The general said they should. He nodded at Lieutenant Quezon. “Take ten men and canvas the town. Find out about local caves. Bring anybody back here who knows where caves are that are big enough to hold a couple dozen people.”
The young officer saluted and hurried outside.
For no good reason, Murdock thought about Don Stroh. He had really come through for them this time with his underhanded, back-room, devious methods to get Colonel Alvarez sacked. Great job. It was that or dump the whole project. Murdock should check in with Stroh, tell him about Tran. He could use the SATCOM.
“Bradford,” Murdock bellowed. The big guy who did marine oil paintings in his spare time looked up from his bunk and came jogging over.
“Yes, sir, Skipper.”
“Where the hell is our SATCOM? Why didn’t we have it when we hit the hill out there in that forty-six?”
“SATCOM, sir? You didn’t tell me to bring it. No specific instructions.”
Murdock covered his face and nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Okay. I figured by now you knew that the SATCOM was like a part of your skin. You never go anywhere without it, unless specifically instructed. Like on a training swim. Otherwise, you keep that motherfucker in your hand, on your back, or in your pack at all goddamn times. Do you read me, Mr. Bradford?”
“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.”