"Which would be great news for us," Murdock said. He scowled for a minute. "We better know which. Lam, you tuned in?"
"Yes, sir."
"How about a small scouting mission. You can stick to the shadows this early for most of the way. You'll need to get up that second small ridge to check it out."
"On my way. I'll leave my vest here and take my Colt. It's what, about two miles. That's about fifteen minutes each way. I'll try out the Motorola at two miles and see what you receive."
"Go, take care. If it is the Iranians and they come at you, we'll have the fifty out and warmed up."
"That's a Roger, L-T. I'm on my way."
Murdock saw a patch of bare sand twenty yards ahead of him collapse, then Lampedusa lifted out, left the camo cloth, and jogged down the ravine, careful not to step on anybody.
They watched him work along the Iranian hills. Some of the time they couldn't see him in the shadows. The desert cammies blended in well with the barren landscape.
He made it up the first slope, and paused. He couldn't see the flashing from there.
"The flashes keep coming," DeWitt said. "Still looks like the same spot. No movement is a good sign."
Five minutes later, they saw him cresting the second ridge. He flattened out, and seemed to look over the top. The report came in snatches on the Motorola. It was line of sight, which helped.
"Nada… see… neg… On my."He broke off the transmission, and jogged back down the slope, into more shadows.
Fifteen minutes later he was back.
"Some kind of a tin can. It was off our line of march. Maybe one of the prospectors left it there. Bright and shiny with the label torn off. It rolled back and forth between two little ridges, and flashed the sun on most of the moves."
Murdock told them to get back to sleep.
Ed DeWitt said he'd take the watch. He said Franklin would be next up in two hours. Murdock pulled the camo coverup over him and tried to get comfortable. He didn't make it.
"Lieutenant, you might try counting the live Iraqis and the Saudi Arabians that we saved by blowing up those nukes." It was Kat. "Iran would have run roughshod over this part of the world. All they would have to do was drop one bomb to take out a secondary Arab city, and the whole subcontinent would fall right into their laps."
"About what State said in some of their comments. They were dead set on killing the Iranian project. If we make a little noise about it, it could slow down efforts by other Arab states to try the same thing."
"Like Iraq. Yeah, I agree."
Murdock shook his head. "Somehow visions of pretty Arab girls with veils on jumping over a fence don't help me sleep."
"You'll think of something. Good night again, Murdock."
"Yeah, Kat, good dreams to you, too."
Murdock figured he must have nodded off. The next thing he knew his earpiece yelped at him.
"We got trouble, L-T." It was Franklin's voice so it must be after 1000 hours. "That damn spotter plane is coming back. He's been around this area for five minutes, but this time he's coming dead over us going up the gully the long way. Gives him a good look at our little colony here."
"Everyone check your camo cloths, be sure everything is under cover," Murdock said loudly in the mike to be sure to wake everyone.
DeWitt took a squad check, then Murdock did the same. All hands were awake and covered.
Then the light plane swung into place directly over the ravine. There were no tall mountains around it, and the small bird had to be no more than fifty feet over the top of the hill that had spawned the ravine. Murdock marveled at how slow the plane flew, then figured it had a headwind to keep the wing fooled about the stall speed.
The plane seemed to hang in the air almost motionless, then dipped its nose slightly. The engine gunned, and it flew on over the hill above the gully. "Did he see anything?" DeWitt asked.
"Not fucking much," Ron Holt said.
Lampedusa came on. "Don't be too sure. I hear a chopper."
They were all quiet for a minute. "Oh, yeah, I've got him coming straight up our gullet. He can take all the look time he needs to." It was Joe Douglas talking.
"Check those coverups," Murdock said. "Everyone stay undercover, and don't even breathe. He'll be over us in about thirty seconds. Small chopper, not more than a four-man rig. No more transmissions."
Murdock knew it was highly unlikely that the small chopper would have a scanner-type receiver that could pick up anything broadcast by checking all frequencies a hundred times a minute. But they kept quiet anyway.
Murdock had a slit in the camo cloth over his eyes to watch through. The chopper came straight at them, up the length of the twisting and turning ravine. It was about seventy-five yards long here. Plenty of room for the troops, but also a small area for the chopper to concentrate on. The bird moved slower, then hovered well down the gully.
Murdock worried that it might get so low that it would blow the camo cloth right off his men. Then the chopper did a little dance as a serious updraft caught it and boosted it twenty yards more into the sky.
It came down a little, and still the men inside appeared to concentrate on the spot where Third Platoon had hidden. It moved closer, then had to lift a little to clear the sharp side of the canyon's wall.
Murdock saw the rotor wash from the chopper kick up dust in the canyon. The ship moved higher so the dust wouldn't obscure everything on the ground. A flap of one of the cammo cloths lifted up a moment, then settled back down, covering the SEAL.
Murdock held his breath. The chopper moved forward, up the slope, went past where Murdock and Kat lay, and higher, until it had to surge upward to get over the top of the canyon's slopes.
Then it was gone.
"He will be back," Murdock said in his mike. "Make sure that all the corners of your hideout camo cloth are secure. We almost had one whip off somebody a moment ago."
As he finished saying it, the helicopter made a return run, working down the slope this time, keeping a little higher so it wouldn't kick up dust, but this also kept the men inside from making a detailed observation of the area.
Murdock eased apart the camo cloth and watched the bird move down the slope. At the bottom it paused, hovering, dropped down to ten feet, and kicked up a storm cloud of dust and dirt, then lifted away, and vanished over the next hill to the north.
"L-T, I don't think he'll be back this time," Doc said. "I should check on Magic."
"Go," Murdock said.
A piece of the desert opened up and folded back, and Doc Ellsworth scurried down ten yards and pulled back another piece of camo cloth. He worked quickly, removing the old bandage, adding some disinfectant, then wrapping the wound again. When he was done, he eased the leg back under the camo cloth, piled sand around the outside of it and hurried back to his own hide hole.
"L-T. Like I told Magic, his leg doesn't look any better. A little more swelling. There's infection inside the wound that I can't get to. That slug has got to come out in thirty-six hours."
"Right, Doc. We'll try to figure something." He checked his watch. It was 1042. Too damn much daylight left. He figured this first day would be the hardest, while they were the closest to the nuke plant.
"Let's get some more sleep," Murdock said. "Who's on watch?"
"I am," Kat said.
Murdock started to protest, then shook his head. "Good, Kat. Stay awake, stay alert to any sound or sight that might get us in trouble. Yell into your mike if that chopper comes back or you see any paratroopers hitting the silk."
"Aye, aye, L-T. I can do that."
Murdock lifted the edge of his camo cloth and looked over at Kat. She had pushed up a little so her face was out of the camo. It gave her a good view of the canyon and the hills beyond and the sky. She was set.
Murdock couldn't go to sleep. The adrenaline still pulsated through his system. It had been close with that chopper. One loose chunk of camo cover and they would have been made. Running in the daylight would have been fatal for them.