They called a halt at 0530. It wasn't dawn yet. Lampedusa had found a craggy little canyon with lots of twists and turns and places where the cloudbursts had sent torrents down the place, carving out holes, sharp edges, and sinks.
"Just like before," Murdock said on the Motorola. "Find yourself a hole and crawl in. Have your camo cloth ready to cover up for the spotter plane. Anybody have any trouble, give a yell."
Murdock watched Kat. She was the first one to pick a spot, settle in a hollow, and pull the camo cloth over her, right up to her eyes. He eased down beside her.
"You get in any rounds back up there?"
"Yep."
"Hit anybody?"
"Don't know. Actually I don't want to know. I fired the damn weapon like I was supposed to." There was a sharpness in her tone. He looked at her but she didn't say anything more.
"Right. You did fine. Some sleep wouldn't hurt." Murdock checked the covers for each of his people. Ed did the same. Murdock said he'd take the first watch of two hours. They'd be in place all day, so some sleep would be good. "If we hear that spotter plane, I'll give some clicks on your Motorola."
He watched the sixteen settle down. Within ten minutes he had trouble remembering who was where. Most of them he couldn't pick out from twenty yards away. He found his own spot where the water had dug out a two-foot-deep gully and squirmed into it. He sat with his back against the end of the hole and watched.
"Murdock," Kat said softly. She was about ten feet away.
"Yes."
"You do good work."
"Thanks, Kat. So do you."
She was quiet then and Murdock turned to watch a small tarantula moving up on a large beetle. It would be no contest once the tarantula got its stinging tail working.
An hour later he heard the first buzz of an airplane motor.
"People, Third Platoon. We have company. A wee aircraft somewhere to the north. Not sure how far away or if he's coming our direction. Just want to be sure you know he's about. DeWitt, take a squad check."
Murdock listened as all seven of his squad members checked in. Murdock did the same for First Squad. They reported in order of march.
"So, everyone's awake, we'll see where our little buddy airplane goes."
It was quiet then. Now and then they could hear a whisper from a soft breeze that missed them in the gully, and the call of an occasional bird. Murdock didn't remember seeing a bird since they had landed in this desolate spot. Must be a desert hawk or a vulture of some kind.
The tarantula struck once, and the stunned beetle turned toward it. The second lash of the tail penetrated the beetle's shell, and a moment later the black bug collapsed on its legs and the tarantula moved up for its meal.
The sound of the plane came closer. Murdock moved lower in his hole and pulled the camo cloth up higher. He wished he had brought some binoculars. Next time.
A moment later the aircraft flew directly over them across the gully, so the pilot or observer would have only a few seconds to look into the ravine.
"Surprise," Murdock said in his mike. "Check your cover, he'll be back. Don't think he can see our foot tracks from even that altitude, but can't be sure. Next time we wipe out our tracks before we hole up."
They waited fifteen minutes and couldn't hear the plane.
"Doubt if he'll be back now," Murdock radioed. "Let's get some sleep."
He looked over at the small animal war. The victor had eaten and left. There was nothing remaining of the big black beetle but the hard shell and two spindly legs.
Survival.
That's what life is all about. Especially for the Third Platoon right now. Survival. His job was to get his men, and Kat, out of Iran without losing anyone.
Survival.
"Murdock?"
It was Kat.
"You don't sound asleep."
"Not nearly. How many men did you say Iran has under arms?"
"Over half a million."
"Oh, damn. And only seventeen of us."
The silence stretched out.
"Logically, it seems that they should be able to throw a couple of thousand troops between us and the coast, stop us cold."
"It would seem so, wouldn't it, Kat?"
"Hey, Lieutenant. I know you and your men are good — hell, the best at this kind of work. But the odds of a thousand to one say there really isn't much you can do."
"Kat, they have to find us before they can stop us."
"After last night's hit on their people, they will damn well know which direction we're headed."
"True, Kat. True. They still have to find us."
Another silence.
"How long before they fly in the reserves? What will it be, paratroopers dropping in on us out of the daytime sky?"
"Probably. And trucked-in troops when we get down far enough that there are a few roads into this barren, desert wilderness."
"Murdock, we practiced that chopper rescue at sea, when we went up the rope ladder. Couldn't they do that on land just as well, or even set down on a gully floor somewhere?"
"Could. But then you have an open overflight of a foreign military force. Plainly an invasion of a sovereign nation. The brass doesn't like to do that sort of thing."
"Remember that old World War Two movie, They Were Expendable?"
"I remember the title. We're not in that class. The SEALs never leave one man behind on a battlefield, let alone a whole fucking platoon."
"Sorry, guess I'm thinking too much."
"Never hurts to think, Kat."
"Yeah, maybe. I'm done thinking. I'm gonna snore."
Murdock chuckled. "You do that. I'll never tell."
"Murdock?"
"Sure."
"You said we never leave a man behind. What if a two-hundred-forty-pound man got killed. Say today. How can we carry that man's body out forty miles without compromising the rest of the platoon?"
"Point taken. I buried one SEAL on foreign soil. Last mission we towed a body through the surf and out to sea for a submarine pickup. I didn't like either job. I'm going to do my damnedest to see that I don't have to do either one of them again."
"But it could happen?"
"Absolutely."
"Good night, Murdock."
"Yeah, dreams of D.C."
Murdock looked over to where Kat lay, but for a moment couldn't find her. Then the ground moved slightly, her camo cover. He nodded, and stared down their back trail. They were on the side of the gully well off the small valley's floor. He could see over two small ridges they had climbed.
His head snapped to one side as he refocused on one spot along the back trail. Had he seen a flash of light? He concentrated on the area, and it came again, a flash of sunlight off something.
Off what? An Iranian soldier's unblued rifle barrel? A shiny unit metal pin?
He estimated the distance. Not more than two miles. Could there be a force of Iranian infantry that close to them? There was no way their tracks directly to this ravine could be missed by a land unit.
Murdock spoke softly into his mike. "DeWitt, we may have a problem. Check the back trail. Thought I saw some sun flashes back there."
"I'm looking," DeWitt said. "So far nothing."
"I'm higher on the ravine," Jaybird said. "Let me give it a five-minute scan. If they have a unit that close, we just jumped into a sinkhole of deep shit."
27
Jaybird watched for the flash. It was two or three minutes later when he spoke. "Oh, yeah, I see it again. One odd thing about it, I don't see any movement."
Ed DeWitt chimed in on the Motorola net. "Yeah, I had the same feeling. Either the troops are hunkered down there resting, or it's something not connected to Iranian military."