The civilians went out the door and sprinted away into the darkness. The one with the wounded leg hobbled as quickly as he could behind them.
More firing came from the front. Adams finished setting the timer/detonators.
"We've got thirteen minutes, Skipper," he said.
The three men ran for the front door. At the moment it was quiet out front. They didn't even hear the tank.
"Ed, what's happening?" Murdock asked his Motorola.
"The tank turned off. I keep hearing more troops arriving, but they aren't firing. Can't figure it out."
"Timers set inside. We have eleven minutes. Let's move to the back of the building. We've got the plutonium.
Move."
The shadows lifted up, and filtered to the right. Murdock, Adams, and Franklin ran that way. They made it to the back just as a barrage of gunfire opened up on the front of the building where they had been.
The jeep purred quietly. "Move it," Murdock said. They drove away to the rear as quietly as possible. Ten SEALs led the way at a slow trot. The civilian pointed where to drive. They came to a half dozen Iranian soldiers in the darkness, but they ran away without firing a shot.
They had to make a slight move to the left to go around some buildings, and when they did, they came into the glare of searchlights and the tank with its cannon aimed directly at them.
"To the right side," Murdock bellowed. Douglas hit the throttle and raced the little jeep behind a building just as a round from the cannon slammed past them and exploded fifty yards away. The tank lumbered forward. Murdock could see a dozen men behind it.
Murdock called Joe Douglas up with his MG. "Lay down some fire around the corner to bleed those troops off the back of the tank," Murdock said. Douglas pumped out 5-round bursts within twenty seconds.
Murdock dug out a quarter-pound block of TNAZ and pushed in a timer/detonator. "I want two more men up here with TNAZ charges with timers in them, now."
Doc Ellsworth and Ron Holt ran up with their bombs ready.
"When that tank gets in range, we set the timers for ten seconds and throw them for the tank treads. Be sure the set is ten seconds. We don't want any preemies. Get ready, he's almost here."
They were taking some return fire from the men in back of the tank, who had moved to the far side now. The tank nosed toward them, now twenty yards away, but it had no target except a building. Nobody was working the machine gun that must be on top.
The tank clanked and clattered forward. Murdock didn't even try to figure out what kind of a tank it was. It was an old one, but still had a deadly sting, with a 75 to 90mm rifle mounted in it. It came closer. When it was ten yards away, Murdock said, "Now." The three set the timers at ten seconds and threw the bombs.
Murdock's went first and landed just in front of the tank tread. He counted off the seconds. Holt's went next, and hit the tread on top and bounced off. Doc Ellsworth's bomb landed just in front of the side of the tread and bounced on the driving mechanism."… eight, nine, ten," Murdock counted. His bomb under the tread went off. The big machine hadn't quite rolled all the way over the bomb, and it exploded with a shattering roar, lifting the side of the tank a foot off the ground. Two seconds later the bomb beside the tread blew up, and then Doc's TNAZ block on the inside of the tread went off, shattering the track and blowing it off the drivers. It acted as a brake, as the tank kept trying to run forward but only pivoted in a circle around the dead track.
"Move it," Murdock said to his mike. "Run. Douglas get us to the fucking gate."
They took some fire from the stragglers around the tank, but nobody got hit. They went to the side a block past more buildings, then the civilian pointed straight ahead, and they found the gate at the end of a street with no buildings.
Murdock had them on a no-shooting rule. No reason to let the bad guys know where they were.
They made it almost to the gate at the fence when the assembly building blew up. At first it was one jolting explosion, then the rest of the TNAZ went off sympathetically and the sky lighted up like a fresh sun. It billowed upward for ten seconds, then they could hear lumber and pieces of metal falling to the ground.
Murdock shot the lock off the steel gate, and the jeep drove through.
He stopped them a hundred feet down the road, and used the radio. "Magic, where are you guys? Did you fade down the fence to the entry point?"
For a moment he heard nothing. He repeated the words. Then a scratchy voice came through.
"Yeah, we moved along the wire. Haven't seen you spooks. Where the hell are you? Passed our entry point. Gate is still wired shut."
"Keep going the same direction. We're at the east end of the plant, just went through a gate in the wire. Get your SEAL asses down here pronto."
"Like to, L-T, but we got ourselves one huge shitpot full of trouble. About twenty of these hairy-assed Iranians between us and you. They look shit-faced mean after that building blew up. You did good work on it."
"How far are you past the hole in the fence?" Murdock asked.
"Thirty yards, still a quarter mile to where I see the end of the buildings your way."
"How's your ammo supply?"
"Damned near zero. I got two rounds for the fifty, maybe half a belt for the MG, no forties."
"Hang tough, we're coming after you."
Everyone heard the exchange. The troops moved up to Murdock, and waited. "Franklin, Holt, stay here with Douglas and Kat. The rest of you on your horses. We double time until we spot some of the Iranian assholes along the fence."
They trotted, with Lampedusa out front, in a semipatrol formation. Lam led them by thirty yards. It was so dark they couldn't see him. They had moved forward to the fence and along it for fifty yards, toward where they had entered the compound, when Lam hit his mike twice, and they all went to ground. Murdock crawled forward until he found Lam.
"So?"
"Thirty yards ahead. Maybe two dozen camel eaters. They been firing now and then up the pike."
"Move up, no noise," Murdock said in his mike.
Two minutes later the SEALs had spread out in an assault formation, in a line five yards apart.
"Fraggers," Murdock said. Every man had at least two. "Both" he added on the radio. He gave the men a minute to get the hand bombs out of their vest pockets. Then he pulled the pin on his first grenade.
"Now," he said. He threw his grenade forward. He heard some grunts as the other men threw their bombs. The ten fraggers went off in quick succession. They could hear wails of pain and fury ahead of them. They took some fire from the Iranians, but the second throw of grenades silenced those weapons.
"Magic, you guys all A-OK?"
"Right as rain, Boss."
"We're moving up to clean house. Don't shoot at us."
Murdock took the first four men he could see and waved them forward. They had their weapons ready for assault fire as they ran along the uneven Iranian hillside. They saw two Iranians running toward the fence. They let them go. There were no survivors on the playing field.
"Double time, Magic. Get your team up here so we can haul ass. The whole place is going to be charging out here looking for our hides in about ten minutes."
The five SEALs squatted, waiting for their men to arrive. They came three minutes later, two running, one limping badly. Magic had the limp.
Gonzalez carried the big fifty McMillan. Ronson watched Magic.
"Fucking glad to see you shebangers," Magic said. "We stayed in our place about ten minutes too long. We shoulda busted out of there before they got the troops in front of us."
"You hit, big guy?" Murdock asked.
"Just a scratch. I can move. Which way?"
They retraced their steps along the fence, toward the gate at the far end.
"Coming in," Murdock said on the mike, and they teamed up with the rest of the group.