“Piece of cake, Skipper,” Ostercamp said.
“Jaybird, get out to the door and grab Lam on his next round. We’re about ready to get out of here.”
Five minutes later Murdock had Alpha Squad inside the building and all the other SEALs crammed into the APC. He and Kat set the timers for five minutes on the eight charges, then ran for the carrier and jumped on board. They had left the driver bound and gagged in the far section of the warehouse, which shouldn’t be damaged too severely by the bombs.
The door swung up, and Ostercamp drove the rig onto the pier, and soon into the streets. Four minutes away from the dock, Kat called for them to stop. They looked behind them toward the top of the freighter, which they could see over the buildings.
“Four minutes and thirty seconds,” Kat said. Less than a minute later the sky over the docks turned a bright red and a loud clap of thunder rolled toward them. The shock wave bounced the APC a foot down the street, and they could see windows shattering all around. The first explosion was followed by another, which Kat said must be three or four more of the charges going off at the same time.
Another shock wave battered them. Then the sound came and rolled over them with a roaring blast. To the rear they could see flames and smoke coming up in the red glow.
“Yes,” Kat shouted, and pumped her fist in victory.
“Eight down, one to go,” Murdock said. The rig moved ahead. Train translated as the officer told them where to go.
Murdock warned him that if he led them into a trap, he would be the first to die. They passed a squad of eight soldiers running toward them, then past and on toward the fire. Soon they met two trucks heading for the docks, both loaded with soldiers. They saw little other military force.
A short time later the APC came to a compound with guards and barbed-wire concertina along the top of the fence.
An officer waved them through a gate, and almost at once through a truck door and into a building much smaller than the one they had come from. When the outside door closed, Murdock popped open the rear hatch, and the sixteen SEALs poured out with their weapons ready to fire.
They found four men in white lab coats working over a warhead on a table. Already they had stripped away the rocket thrusters and taken off the guidance system.
Train shouted at them in Arabic to raise their hands and to be quiet. Colt Franklin, Yeoman Second Class, another Arabic speaker, repeated the message and waved his Colt M-Al at them.
Murdock and Kat ran to the table. He pushed the men away and turned to Kat.
She frowned, then shook her head. “This isn’t a real warhead from the missile. This is a copy. It looks like a replica they made to practice on. We’re at sea here. We have to find out what they did with the real missile warhead.”
“Colt, on me,” Murdock called. Colt ran up and looked at the warhead.
“This is a practice bomb,” Kat said. “We need to make these guys tell us where the real one is.”
Colt growled at the four men in white lab coats. He lined them up and brought up his Colt, as if to spray them with bullets. Then he began shouting at them in Arabic. All looked frightened. One man began trembling, then gave a short cry and crumpled forward in a dead faint.
“You are all dead men in ten seconds if you don’t tell me where you sent the live nuclear warhead,” Colt bellowed at them in Arabic.
Another man wavered, but retained his feet. The man beside him lifted one hand. Colt moved in front of him, thrust the muzzle of the silenced carbine into the soft tissue under the man’s chin, and pushed upward.
“I know where the bomb is,” the Libyan said. “I am in charge here. I can tell you. These men know nothing.” He spoke in Arabic. Colt translated for Murdock.
The rest of the SEALs had scattered out, covering the three doors into the building and working as security on the place.
Murdock stared at the tallest of the Arab scientists and waved his submachine gun.
“Tell me where the bomb is and how to get there, or all four of you are corpses,” Murdock barked. Colt translated.
The tall Arab frowned, then spoke rapidly. Colt waved at him to stop as he told Murdock.
“He says another APC like this one came an hour after the bomb arrived here, and a colonel took control of the bomb and left with it. He said he was taking it to the headquarters of the Fourth Tank Battalion at the edge of town. I know where it is.”
Murdock held up his hand. “Dobler, tie up these three, save the tall one for the APC. Put the Libyan captain from the APC with these three and tie him. Then load up. We’re going for a ride.”
The scientist used a hand beeper and opened the door as they approached it in the APC, and then they were out and through the ring of soldiers around the place. Now there were more of them. It looked to Murdock as if they were standing shoulder to shoulder around the facility.
Now they met more military cars and trucks heading for the docks and the fire there. Train did the translating and gave the directions to Ostercamp.
The APC would do thirty miles an hour down the open streets. Ostercamp wound it up to top speed. It took them over an hour to work their way through the jumble of streets and cars and carts. The capital city had almost two million people, a third of the population of the whole nation. At last they came out of the city to a coastal plain, and soon saw the flags of the tank battalion ahead.
Murdock stopped the rig. “Ask him if he knows where inside the camp they would have the warhead.”
Train did the questioning. “He’s not sure. He was here twice, and both times they took him to a building near the back gate. It was guarded and held sensitive material for their nuclear program, which was in its extremely early stages.”
“Let’s give it a try,” Murdock said, and the rig moved forward.
It didn’t even stop at the guarded gate, just clattered through and took the first right, then a left down a street filled with more than a dozen tanks. Murdock couldn’t see them well enough through the firing slot to know what kind they were. Russian most likely.
They came to a small building with barbed wire, concertina, and razor wire on the fence around it. Six soldiers walked in front of the building and down one side. There was only a small drive-in door here.
On the trip, Murdock had had Colt put on the Libyan Army fatigues and the hat. They still had the rifle as well, and now Colt pushed open the rear door and stepped out, followed by the scientist in his white lab coat.
Colt jabbered something at the guards, who parted at the front gate and opened it for the two to walk inside. As soon as the two were out of the line of fire, silenced weapons opened up on the guards, dropping all six of them before they could get off a shot. The SEALs swarmed out of the rig, dragged the guards past the fence and behind cover, and then drove the APC inside the building.
Colt held two men under his gun as the scientist looked at the device on a table under bright lights. He nodded. Kat hurried over and checked it.
“Got it, Commander. This is the real thing. They have stripped off the guidance and propulsion, must be ready to re-configure it for an aerial drop.”
“Do it,” Murdock said. Kat went to work on the warhead.
“Trouble,” DeWitt said from his position at a small window at the front of the building. “About twenty men moving up on the front of the place. They are in an attack mode going from cover to cover. They’ll be at the fence in a few minutes.”
“We need two minutes more on the device,” Murdock said. “Take five men and open up on them. We want to keep the APC. It’s the best transport we’ve ever had to move around with in enemy territory.”
Ed took five men, jolted through the front door and to cover inside the fence, and began firing at the approaching Libyan soldiers.