“Yeah, you fucker, you can throw up on me any time,” Mahanani said. He wiped Canzoneri’s mouth, lifted his shoulders a little, and put Canzoneri’s head in his lap.
Murdock turned to find Holt. The radioman held out the SATCOM handset. “You want to make a call?”
Murdock grinned. “How in hell do you do that, Holt?” He took the mike and talked to the chopper coming for them.
“Relay to whoever you can that the Chinese rust-bucket tanker is actually a destroyer in disguise, with full arms, torpedoes, and missile tubes. That’s all we saw on our quick tour of the main deck. It’s no rust bucket, and should be able to make at least twenty-two knots if it wants to. So far it hasn’t come back to finish us. They knew we were coming, which means they have excellent radar.”
“Copy, In the Wet. Will forward your report to my CO. Our ETA your last coordinates is fifteen minutes.”
“We’ll have all sorts of light sticks for your welcome,” Murdock said. “No sign of the Chinese warship.” He signed off and tried to relax. Half of the Motorolas were not working due to a sudden swim.
“Skipper, Jaybird is in a lot of pain over here,” DeWitt said on the box. “Can Mahanani pull an arm back in its shoulder socket?”
Murdock pointed at Mahanani. “Never done it, J.G., but I’ve seen it done. Want me to come over there?”
“Jaybird says it’s worth a try. He says his shoulder can’t possibly hurt any more.”
“It will for a few seconds. We’ll pull the boats together.”
Two minutes later, Mahanani stared down at Jaybird, who sat on the bench. “You ready for this, SEAL?”
“Just goddamn do it, or give me a .45 with a round in the chamber.”
“I’ll do it.” Mahanani put his foot in Jaybird’s right armpit and took hold of his right wrist with both hands. He had felt the dislocation and figured which way he had to pull. He increased the pressure with his foot, then suddenly pulled out and down.
Jaybird let out a bellow of pain that they must have heard in Athens. “You killed me, you sonofabitch. Why the fuck did you have to do…” He stopped. “Hey, the hurt is not as bad, it’s fading away.”
Jaybird yelped in delight, then faced Mahanani. “Hey, don’t you never die, you motherfucker. We need you in this outfit.” It was the highest praise one SEAL could give another.
The chopper showed up a quarter of a mile from where the two IBSs bobbed in the Mediterranean, which was now showing routine whitecaps. The big bird did a circle, spotted the half-dozen light sticks, and came in slowly.
Murdock had been on the SATCOM.
“Yeah, funny bird with propeller on top. Come in right over the first boat. We’ll try to go up the ladder from the boat. Should work. In any case we dump the boats. They are expendable.”
“That’s a Roger, Wet Ones. Be right there.”
Ed’s boatload went first. He had the two wounded. Ching swore at them.
“No sling for me, you shitheads. I can climb the fucking ladder. Done it a thousand times.”
“You’re shot up, Ching.”
“I go first just to show you lowlifes how to do it.”
Mahanani had stayed in DeWitt’s boat. He signaled to the J.G. that he would be right behind Ching.
The bird came in slowly, positioned directly overhead, and turned on the landing lights. Ching grabbed the trailing wooden and rope ladder, and got his feet on the bottom rung. He was two grabs from the top when his left hand slipped off the rung. Mahanani was a step behind him, and went up beside him and hoisted the 180-pound Ching up the last two steps, where two men in the chopper grabbed him and boosted him inside.
After that it was routine. Jaybird needed help on the last rung. The chopper moved to the second boat. Canzoneri had recovered, and went up the ladder quickly. The rest of Alpha Squad made it inside.
Murdock climbed the rope and rungs as the last man, and at the hatch turned and fired six rounds into each of the two IBSs. They wouldn’t sink quickly, but over four or five hours they would take on enough water to sink so low in the water they would be hard to spot.
The hatch swung upward, and the SEALs slumped on the floor of the chopper. The crew chief called Murdock to the cabin, where the pilot gave him a throat mike and earpiece to the radio.
“Yes, sir, Admiral, you heard right. That Chinese rust bucket is a disguised and camouflaged Chinese destroyer. Those panels swing back to show missile-launching tubes, a 130mm cannon, machine guns, and deck torpedoes. That was all our men saw in the short time they had before they aborted our mission and dove overboard. We have one man wounded and another one hurt and we almost lost one man. Yes, I’ll talk to the President and tell him the same thing. If those other missiles are on board that Chinese man-of-war, it’s going to be damn hard to take a look at them.”
Murdock listened on the earphones.
“Yes, sir, we’ll be in Athens in about half an hour and we’ll be glad to bring our eyewitnesses to a debriefing with anyone you chose. But first I have two wounded I need to take care of. What kind of medical do you have there?”
“Just a small clinic with one doctor,” said the admiral. “We often use a hospital in Athens that is excellent.”
“Could you have an ambulance waiting for my men? One has been shot in the upper chest. Not critical but serious. Another man was revived from drowning with CPR, and I want his lungs checked over.”
“Yes, Commander, we’ll have medical waiting, but we request that you put him in the medics’ hands and come to our debriefing as soon as you set down. There could be a lot riding on this debriefing.”
“My wounded come first, sir. If you can assure me they will be in good hands…”
“They will be, Commander. I’ve seen these doctors in action. The hospital is as good as most in the U.S.”
“Fine. As soon as my two men are in that ambulance, we’ll come to the debriefing.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
Murdock handed the mike and earplug back to the pilot.
“Thanks, Lieutenant, for the ride. You held this chopper as steady on our pickup as I’ve ever seen it done. You do good work.”
The pilot slipped on the radio gear and nodded.
“Debriefing in Athens?” DeWitt said. “They want to talk to our men who were on the deck?”
“About the size of it. A pair of admirals have flown in from somewhere, and somebody from NATO. They said they have already brought Kat over from the carrier. Big party.”
When the chopper landed, an ambulance was waiting. A doctor checked Ching.
“The bullet that hit him is still inside. We’ll need to operate and find it.” He listened to Canzoneri’s lungs and shook his head. “His lungs don’t sound right. He’d better come to the hospital as well. They will be in good hands, Commander, I guarantee.”
A bus took the rest of the SEALs and their equipment to a NATO facility where they would be debriefed. Jaybird, Franklin, DeWitt, and Murdock reported to the meeting room as soon as they arrived. They were told not to change clothes or even wash up. Time was vital.
The debriefing went about as Murdock figured it would. The two admirals were joined by a general from Germany and two nuclear experts, as well as Kat from the carrier. The panel of debriefers sounded more like a courts-martial panel. They grilled the two SEALs who had been on the Chinese ship’s deck.
Jaybird and Franklin reported what they had seen on board the Chinese ship.
“No, sir, I didn’t see any Chinese personnel,” Jaybird said. “I did see a machine gun firing at me and four missile-firing tubes. She’s a destroyer or a frigate and definitely military.”
By noon the debriefing was over. Murdock and DeWitt were asked to stay, along with Kat, to talk to the debriefing team. A civilian entered the room. He introduced himself as Horner from NEST. Murdock remembered that was for Nuclear Energy Search Team. What was he doing here? That team was called in on a broken arrow, a radiation spill, or a leaking warhead.