“Good. I need an EAR up here,” Murdock said. He waited a minute, and Ching slid into the rocky floor beside him. “We want one round down the cave. Then when it fades, the three of us are going down there full bore. Gonna try out my new flash, a Maglite two-cell. Throws a good beam so we won’t be surprised. Your round should knock out any rebels down there for a long way. It might not go around corners, but we’ll see what happens.”
Ching checked his weapon. “Up to charge,” he said.
“Fire.”
The whooshing sounded louder inside the cave. They heard it jolt down the tube, and then there was nothing. The only sound came from the engine Murdock figured ran a generator.
“Let’s chogie,” Murdock said. “General, we’ll recon and report back. Hold the fort.”
Murdock swung the light from side to side in the cave. It widened again to fifty feet. Here and there he saw the remnants of old ammo boxes. This Maglite was twenty times as bright as his penlight. He kept it moving, just in case there was a live one down there with a gun.
A hundred feet down the tunnel they found a man with a sub gun. He slept. They tied him hand and foot and moved on.
“He was a lookout,” Lam said. The next ones they found were a squad lined up across the tunnel, all with AK-74’s, the new ones, which must have been furnished by bin Laden. The six rebels lay sleeping, and the three SEALs tied them hand and foot.
They were closer to the generator now, the sound louder, insistent. They stopped and lay on the rocky floor. Murdock reported what he had found. He suggested to the general that he keep three men at the cave mouth as a rear guard, and the rest come up around the bend in the tunnel to a six-man squad taking a nap.
“We’ll move on forward. Can hear the generator better, so it should be close. Wonder if they have a fresh-air outlet for the exhaust.”
The three moved ahead. Twenty yards farther they came to a small mess setup, with gas stoves, food cabinets, even two tables with chairs. No cooks.
Another twenty yards and they found another bend in the cave, again to the left. The three edged up to the turn, where they could see around it. At the first use of the flashlight around the bend, they took incoming small-arms fire from at least three weapons.
They pulled back.
“An EAR round?” Ching asked.
Murdock scowled. “If there are any hostages, they should be close. That engine is next door here somewhere.”
“Better packing out some sleeping hostages than it is getting the shit shot out of us from those three weapons out front,” Ching said.
“Oh, yeah,” Murdock said. “Oh, yeah. Give them a round, Ching.”
He fired one round with the whoosher, and they waited a full minute; then Murdock waved the flash around the corner, but had no response. “I’ll charge across the cave here and see if I get any response,” Murdock said. He came to his knees and surged across the fifty feet to the other side. No response.
“Let’s move forward,” Murdock said.
They found the three shooters behind sandbagged positions forty feet up the cave. Now all three men were sleeping. The SEALs used the plastic ties, then stared into the darkness beyond.
“Why keep the generator running if they don’t have some lights on?” Lam asked. “We saw some lights before, but now they all seem to be off.”
“Good question, any answers?” Ching asked.
“To keep some equipment turned on,” Lam said.
“To keep a radio net open,” Murdock said.
“Or to keep a timer running on a booby trap, a bomb,” Lam said.
“Let’s move faster,” Murdock said. “We should find somebody here. They’ve had time to set up bombs all around this damn cave.”
They jogged forward for fifty feet and came to a dead stop.
Just ahead, behind a chain-link fence, they saw people moving.
“Are you the tourists, the hostages?” Murdock called.
“Yes, some of us are here,” a man called. They ran up to the fence but didn’t touch it. It was ten feet high and with posts set in concrete into the rock floor.
“How many of you?” Murdock asked, shining the light around.
“Six. They took six men out of here late last night. We don’t know where they are.” The man looked about sixty, with white hair and a stubble beard. He held his hand in front of his eyes. “Damn rebels said something about a bomb. Don’t know what they meant.”
Lam tossed his KA-BAR against the fence. It fell to the floor.
“Not electrified,” Lam said. “I’ll find a gate or an opening.”
“Did some men come past here recently?” Murdock asked.
“Yep, about a dozen. Looked dazed and not happy. Went on down the cave. Don’t know where they were heading.”
Murdock frowned. “Didn’t the old man say something about there being two caves here? The large one and a smaller one.”
The two with him nodded.
“So where did the rebels go?” Lam and Ching shrugged.
“Lam, stay with the group here, get them out of there if you can. Ching and I are heading on down the cave. Chance there’s a connection between this cave and the other one. Sounds like something the Japanese would do in the last war.”
The two SEALs jogged down the cave. Now, in Murdock’s light, they saw it was getting smaller. Twenty feet farther and they came to the end.
Murdock used his light all around the end of the cave, and found it to one side almost hidden.
“A tunnel,” Murdock said. “Tall enough to stand in. Our rebel friends have gone through it, and either to the outside or to the other tunnel and back to daylight. Let’s get back to the captives.”
When they came to the chain-link fence partitioning off a section of the cave, they saw that Lam had found a gate and released the hostages. They stood around waiting, two men and four women.
“General, we have six hostages,” Murdock radioed. “The rest of the rebels have gone through a tunnel into the second cave. Tell your men at the mouth of this one to watch for any movement out there. We’re coming back with the hostages.”
“You didn’t tell him about the bomb?” Lam said.
“We don’t know for sure. If we find the generator, make sure that nobody turns it off. That could be a break to make circuit and set off the charges, wherever they are.”
“A bomb?” General Domingo asked.
“Forgot we were live full-time on the radio, General. Chance the generator is powering some equipment or maybe a timer on a bomb. We’re not sure. Get everyone out of the tunnel on double time. Don’t spare the horses, as we used to say in Nebraska. Move them, now.”
Murdock turned to the hostages. “We’re going to walk out of here now. Does anyone have trouble walking?”
They all said no, and Lam led them forward. He paused once to let them catch up, then continued.
“With any luck we’ll be out of here in about ten minutes,” Lam said.
They came to the first bend in the tunnel and headed toward the next one. The explosion came as a grinding, blasting sound, tearing through the tunnel that amplified it. The hostages looked behind, then hurried forward. The jolt of hot air and smoke hit them a moment later and knocked down two of them. Then the surge of air was past and they coughed in the smoke.
“Bomb must have been in the hostages area,” Murdock said. He helped one of the men stand and held his shoulder as they walked forward.
“Everyone all right back there?” General Domingo asked.
“A little shook up, but everyone is moving. Another five minutes.”
“The rest of us are out and I’ve sent a security force to protect the helicopter. I still can’t believe we lost that first one. The old man was in that one and said he’d wait for us.”
“Moving as fast as we can. Just hope there aren’t any more bombs. You might have your men scout around the entrance to see if they can find any wires or any explosives.”