“What was that?” Murdock asked on the net.
Dobler told him as he ran again for the Ziv. He found Kat in the backseat, unharmed by the second attack.
“Kat, where are you hit?”
“Not sure, it’s all kind of fuzzy to me.”
“Does either arm hurt?”
“No.”
“How about your legs? Can you move them?”
“Yes, but I still hurt.”
“Murdock has the warhead.”
“What?”
“I said Murdock found the warhead in the first cave.”
She sat up. “Good.” She handed him the MP-5. “Then we certainly should get over there right away. Do you have the extra flashlights, the big ones?”
“In my pack.” He edged out of the car and helped her to the edge of the seat.
Kat smiled at him in the darkness. “It’s a good thing we found the warhead so quickly. Those last gunmen were accurate with their rounds.”
“Too damn accurate. You sure you don’t know where you’re hit?”
“No, just fuzzy, fuzzy, fuzzy.”
“Will you be able to work on the bomb?”
“Oh, that. No problem. Let’s get over there. The first cave, you said?”
He told her it was, and moved back from the rear door. Kat put her feet out of the car to the ground, and stepped out of the backseat. She gave a little cry, and crumpled to the ground. Dobler swore. He knew the signs. She was either shot extremely bad, or she had fainted dead away.
He knelt beside her. “Murdock, you hear that? She wants to come work on the bomb but just collapsed beside the car. You better get over here and help me find out where she caught that bullet.”
24
Murdock scowled. “Is Kat hit bad? Head shot? Anything visible?”
“Not that I can see in this light,” Dobler said. “Hate to move her until we know. We’re secure here?”
“Should be. Blink your light to let me spot you.”
Dobler gave him three blinks of his small flashlight, then three more. He got two blinks back, and looked at Kat again. He pushed his hand under her back where she lay on the rear seat. No blood. He shone the light on her chest, then on her shoulder. Blood. It was high, upper arm just below the shoulder joint. Might not be that bad.
He felt self-conscious as he felt down each of her legs. No blood there. Wait. Yes. Her right calf was wet. He found the blood halfway down. Still bleeding. He took out his first-aid kit and tore it open. He cut open her pants leg, and then concentrated on getting a gauze pad on the wound and wrapping it tightly with a roller bandage. The leg didn’t look too bad. An in-and-out wound. Must have picked it up while she was outside the car. He wished he had the aid man’s kit.
He had just looked back at Kat’s shoulder when Murdock shouldered into the sedan.
“Two hits, Cap. Left shoulder and right calf. Neither one looks too bad, but she passed out. Shock, I’d say.”
“Let’s get her into the cave, then we figure out what to do. Are we down to two vehicles?”
“Don’t know. Rounds hit the windshield, maybe missed the engine. We’ll have somebody check it.”
They lifted Kat off the ground and Murdock carried her in his arms as they walked to the cave. One of the men had found candles, and had six of them burning around the nuclear warhead.
Kat mumbled something as Murdock sat her down in the cave and leaned her against the wall. There was no furniture except the table with fold-out legs.
Dobler used his knife and cut away part of her sleeve so he could bandage the shoulder hit. It was a ricochet of some kind, and hadn’t penetrated too far, but must have hit her sideways. He treated it and bandaged it.
A moment later, Kat began moaning, then shook her head and woke up.
“Oh, yes, that hurts. What’s going on?” She looked around.
“You were a hero, blasting those Afghan soldiers, and in the process you got shot in two places,” Murdock said. “Neither life-threatening. That should make you feel better.”
“Not much.” She turned and looked at the candles. “Is that the warhead?”
“Yep. You feel like looking at it?”
“I didn’t come all the way out here to ignore it.”
Murdock put down a hand to help her up. She ignored it, and pushed down with her left hand to stand. Her arm crumpled and she whimpered with pain.
“Okay, help,” she said. Murdock caught her shoulders and stood her up. Her face came close to his, and she smiled for a moment, then sobered.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Yes, and hobble and hop.”
“Good. Dobler, find Holt and take a look at him.”
Dobler left. Murdock served as a crutch as they moved across the cave fifteen feet to the table. She wobbled as she stood there looking at the packaging to one side.
“They protected it well enough.” She turned to the warhead itself and nodded. “Yes, a duplicate of the ones we saw in Libya. No problem. Where are my tools?”
Murdock sent Lam to bring them. She turned and sat against the table, letting her left leg keep her in place.
“What kind of time?” Murdock asked.
“Fifteen minutes once I get started. You have out security?”
“Hey, I’m the SEAL here. We have four men on cover. Holt was hit, Lam is getting your kit from the car, and Bradford is checking out the Ziv to see if it will still run. Anything else you want to know?”
“Yes. How in hell did those bullets find me when I was in the backseat of that car?”
“Good question. What the hell were you doing outflanking those shooters? That’s what we have SEALs for.”
“Just seemed like a good idea at the time. It worked, didn’t it?”
“Oh, yes, it worked, and it could have made you one dead GS-15 government employee.”
Lam came running in with Kat’s tool kit. Murdock moved two candles and pulled the warhead assembly over so Kat could work on it while sitting on the table.
“Weird,” she said, but went to work.
“Skipper, Bradford says the Ziv will run, but the whole windshield is shot out and come daylight some cop is going to get damn curious about that.”
“No way we can drive back into Kabul with it that way?”
“Not a chance.”
“Have Bradford take you back to the roadblock and see if one of those Army sedans will run. If so, bring both rigs back here.”
“Aye, aye, Skipper,” Lam said, and ran out of the cave.
Murdock went to check on Holt.
He found Holt where he was hit on the assault. Dobler was bending over him in the darkness, the flash held in his mouth so he could see. He heard Murdock come up, and the second flash helped light the scene.
“Not too good, Commander. Took one high in his chest. Must have caught part of his lung, another one in his left shoulder.”
“Not that bad, Skipper,” Holt said, looking up. “Hell, I can still pull a trigger.”
“Good, SEAL. You keep talking. Dobler. Drive one of the cars over here and get Holt in the backseat and shoot him up with some morphine. Two if he wants them. Kat is going to need one after she finishes the bomb.”
“Kat get hit?” Holt asked. “Damnit, how did we let her take a slug?”
Dobler told him.
“What a fucking little trooper. She can be in my squad on any mission.”
“Stay with him,” Murdock told Dobler, and ran back to the first cave. He sent two men to clear the second cave. There could still be some hostiles in there. They came back five minutes later.
“Only four bodies in there, Skipper,” Van Dyke said. “Must have been those sweethearts of twenties that did it.”