Murdock lifted to his hands and knees, then lowered and crawled, pushing with his toes in the sandy ground and dragging himself forward with his elbows. It was slow going, but kept his body close to the ground.
No more firing came from the cave.
Then to their right fifty feet away came the deep sound of AK-47’s, More than a dozen weapons could be firing. “Return fire,” Murdock said into his mike. “Jaybird, stay on course.” Murdock could see a shape he figured was Jaybird inching closer to the cave mouth. When they were twenty feet from the cave mouth, Murdock said, “Grenades now, Jaybird.” Both of them threw about the same time. They lobbed two of the hand bombs just over the lip of the cave, where the machine gunner must be positioned behind sandbags and rocks. The four blasts shattered the night and drowned out the firing from the right.
“Ready, Jaybird? Give me the word and we charge into that cave.”
“I’m ready. Go.”
The two SEALs lifted up and bolted straight ahead the twenty feet to the cave mouth. They found it had a four-foot wall across the front with a door to one side. They stopped in front of the wall. Jaybird held a grenade with the pin pulled, and edged it upward and then jolted up and looked over the wall. A scream billowed from inside, and then a shot blasted from inside the cave.
Jaybird pushed the grenade over the wall and ducked. Before the 4.2-second fuse cooked, Jaybird used the radio. “Saw just one man, looked wounded but had a rifle.” The rest of the words were blotted out in a wave of crashing sound of the grenade exploding that was amplified by the cave.
Murdock wished for his night-vision goggles. But they were too dangerous to carry in the open. A customs suitcase check finding them would mean huge trouble. He waited. No more sounds came from the cave.
“Dobler, what do you have on the right? Move the rest of the men that way when you can.”
“Looks like ten men or so with fire sticks. Maybe thirty yards away. We put some grenades into them. Still half a dozen firing. Don’t think we’ve had any more casualties.”
“Move over and take them out. We’re about ready to go inside this one. Send me one man.”
“Roger that. Bradford on his way.”
A few breaths later, Bradford slid to the ground in front of the cave wall.
“We’ll all lift up and fire over the wall at the interior,” Murdock said. “Fifteen rounds each for you guys, then we go in on assault fire. We don’t know how big this cave is. We play it by ear. Let’s play the tune.”
The three lifted up and fired over the wall, then darted to the doorway and charged inside. They couldn’t see a thing. All three went to the ground instinctively.
“Green flare,” Murdock said. He pulled one from the sleeve of his combat vest and ripped off the seal and threw it. It exploded into an eerie green light thirty feet inside the cave. They saw six bodies scattered around. One Afghan stood, his hands over his head. He had three wounds bleeding and seemed ready to drop.
Jaybird ran to him, pushed him to the ground, and cinched his hands together behind him with a plastic cuff.
“Flashlights,” Murdock said. “Let’s see what else is in this bastard of a cave.”
Outside, Dobler looked at the men firing at them. His six SEALs had cover of sorts, a narrow ditch that gave them some protection. Grenades hadn’t done the trick on routing the Afghans. Only one way.
“Franklin, Khai, and Lam, on me. We’re going to crawl around to the left and outflank those fuckers. Let’s go, crawl, now.”
Dobler wondered why he kept going on these fun-filled field trips. He was thirty-seven damned years old and hurting in most places the way a seventy-year-old does. Crawling wasn’t as easy as it had been twenty years ago. He held the submachine gun across his arms in front of him as he dug in toes and elbows and powered ahead.
They were halfway there when he heard a motor start. Then one of their sedans moved slowly toward the enemy rifles. “Hold,” he said into the radio. He watched, fascinated. Who? Oh, damn, that had to be Kat. What was she doing? She had a weapon, a sub gun. Damn, she might just help. The Afghan rifles wouldn’t stop the old Ziv.
He watched fascinated as the car covered the distance so it outflanked the enemy troops, then stopped. A moment later the stutter of her sub gun blasted from behind the Ziv.
“Fire, all fire,” Dobler said. His men fired. They didn’t have the best position, but they all shot up a storm. One Afghan lifted up and tried to run to the right. Four rounds hit him, dumping him into the dirt. The submachine gun behind the Ziv quieted. Then, seconds later, chattered again. Dobler grinned. He could just see Kat frowning and biting her lip as she quickly changed magazines.
Kat rammed a new magazine in the H & K sub gun, and aimed at the dark shadows that had been firing at the SEALs. She lay beside the front tire of the Ziv, mostly protected. Leaning out, she fired again, four three-round bursts. Two more men leaped up and tried to run. They took a few steps, then stumbled and went down. She fired again, aiming at the prone figures in the ditch that gave them frontal protection. Two of them jerked and tried to crawl away, then fell and didn’t move again.
Oh, God! She had killed again. At least two. She flushed out the rest of them. Oh, God. She had killed again. She dropped her head on her hand on the weapon. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Had to be done. Had to. They’d hurt Holt. She’d heard it on the radio.
Where was Murdock? He had headed inside the cave. There was no more firing from the Afghans in the ditch. One man had escaped when he crawled away. She had missed him with her rounds. All was quiet again.
“Kat. Hey, Kat,” Dobler said on the radio. “Thanks for the flanking job. You dug them out of there. Good shooting, Kat.”
She shook her head and brushed back tears.
“Kat, you okay? Kat?” It was Murdock.
“Yes. Yes. Fine. Not even hit, I don’t think. Well, maybe a little nick somewhere. It hurts, but I don’t know where. Yeah, I guess. Oh, damn, Murdock. I killed those men again. I did it again. Oh, God, I’m so sorry. Oh, no. Now it does sting and… and hurts like hell. Hey, you found the warhead yet?”
“Kat, you get inside the car if you can, and stay there. Yes, we have the warhead. We’ll let you know when this place is secure.”
Murdock held the small flashlight at arm’s length and turned it on. The powerful beam penetrated the cavern twenty feet deeper inside. Seconds after he snapped on the light, a pistol fired ahead of him, three rounds blasted off inside the cave before he could jerk down his hand. The light shattered as a bullet hit it and spun it out of his hand. He brought up the sub gun and pounded off three three-round bursts at the muzzle flashes that had burned into his eyes in front. There was a yell, then a scream, and at last a long final sigh.
“You hit, Cap?” Jaybird asked.
“No, but that flash is going to take some repair. I think I nailed the sniper. Let’s try your flashes by the book.” The other two men used their lights, held away from their bodies, and the three SEALs worked down the cave. It had a ten-foot ceiling, and was forty feet long. Another ten feet and they found the back wall. There, on a table with fold-out legs, lay two large packages still swathed in cardboard and bubble wrap for protection.
“First cave is clear,” Murdock said, hoping the radio waves would find their way out of the cave. They did.
“Want us to work the second cave?” Dobler asked.
“No. Go see Kat and find out where she’s hit and how bad it is. We have the warhead in the first cave. Check out Kat. Then find Holt and tend to him. You’re our medic for the rest of this run.”
As Dobler stood up to run to the car, four more soldiers blasted out of the second cave with their automatic rifles chattering. They were simply firing straight ahead. Four rounds went through the Ziv windshield. Then they swung away to the right, away from the second cave and the car, and all ran flat out into the blackness of the night.