He heard no response. "Let's move it then, double time. You know where we're going, to that hole in the fence. We'll have company before we get there. Let's keep our rough diamond formation. Go, go, go."
They trotted back toward the fence. All were considerably less loaded down than on the march in. They were still a hundred meters from the fence when a mortar round went off thirty meters in front of them. Another one bracketed them twenty meters behind.
"Right flank!" Murdock shouted. "Run like hell, we're bracketed!"
They charged to the right and before they had moved thirty meters, they heard the whispers of mortar rounds, then the flash of six fire-for-effect HE rounds as they exploded tearing up the airfield landscape where the SEALS had been moments before.
They hit the fence and moved to the left. They found the hole and were through it when two mortar rounds hit in the trees beyond the fence.
"Stay with the fence and run downstream!" Murdock bellowed. "Keep away from any airbursts in those trees!"
They ran again keeping a suggestion of a formation. More mortar rounds hit behind them walking through the trees to the bay.
Murdock cut their pace to a fast walk. "They think we're in the trees. The problem is they know someone is down here. Before we can get to our boats and inflate them, there will be some Chinese navy boats swarming all over this bay."
"We've still got our fifties," Magic Brown said.
"Sure, but they'll have mounted fifty-caliber machine guns and maybe some forty-millimeter stuff."
They cut to the shore of the bay and Red Nicholson swore. He had just stumbled over the pile of three rocks they had left as their marker.
Murdock had never seen his men work faster or with more skill. They unearthed the IBSS, inflated them, and had them in the water in platoon-record time. He put three men with the fifties in the front of each boat, and they began moving downstream on the bay toward the ocean.
Murdock looked at Jaybird. He had an amazing knack for tactics. "Shoreline or center of the bay?" Murdock asked.
Jaybird shook his head. "No contest. We stick with the shoreline. We can vanish in these trees a lot easier than getting sunk in midstream. We don't have the equipment we need to play frogmen this time."
"You're right."
That was when they heard the growl of the high-speed patrol boat heading their way from the mouth of the bay.
14
"A Chinese patrol boat?" Jaybird asked.
"You guessed it, and coming fast," Murdock said. "Head for the tree side," Murdock ordered. "Up ahead there are some trees that overhang the water. If we're lucky we can get in there and be hard to spot."
Both IBSS headed for shore at what seemed to Murdock an agonizingly slow speed. The patrol boat growled closer. Now they could see the headlight. It wasn't a searchlight, but aimed the right way it could be dangerous to the black boats and cammie-outfitted SEALS.
It would be close.
The IBSS edged into the overhanging branches of the trees, and were almost completely covered by the time the Chinese patrol boat roared into the area. It had been making S-curve searches, scanning the bay and both shores. Here the bay was nearly half a mile wide and the boat had a lot of water to cover.
The craft paused as it sighted the overhanging branches. The headlight played on them for a moment as the forty-foot craft turned past them from fifty meters. Evidently the searchers saw no movement and nothing else suspicious through the thick growth. The patrol boat turned in another large S and moved on up the bay.
Murdock put the silent-moving craft back into gear. "We've got over two more miles to get to the ocean," Murdock whispered to Dewitt in the other boat. "If we make it, we charge straight east and hope for a pickup. If we get separated, same plan. You have a sonar signaler. We'll stick together if at all possible."
They hummed along the far shore, watching for more patrol boats. Surely the Chinese had more than one in the bay or available for use here.
The second, then the third patrol boat appeared quickly. Each seemed to be working one of the shorelines from the ocean inward. The near shoreline here had trees, but none that grew close enough to the water to hide under.
"If we get spotted, we use the fifties and blast the cockpit of that sucker," Murdock said. "Maybe we can kill any radio transmissions. Then we go for any mounted machine guns we see and then try to shoot out the waterline and sink her."
The word was passed to the second boat. Each had five of the.50-caliber sniper rifles.
Six minutes passed. Murdock checked his watch. It was 0232. Less than six hours of darkness left. If they got caught in the bay or on the land come sunup, they were as good as dead. They would have to take their chances swimming their way out the bay and into the ocean. They had fins and masks on the IBSS, but no rebreathers. They would have to dump all their weapons and ammo and hope. A damn lot of hope, Murdock knew.
The near-shore patrol boat had an active searchlight. It sent out a three-foot beam with a lot of power behind it.
"Get ready to shoot and scoot, you guys," Murdock whispered to the five men in his boat with the big fifties. "We gonna have uninvited company in about two minutes. We shoot first. Brown, take out the searchlight."
Usually the squad leader or platoon leader opens fire first. This time Murdock didn't have a fifty, so he brought up his CAR-15 with the selector on full auto.
The Chinese patrol boat moved closer. It had slowed and the searchlight swept the shore continuously. The beam was twenty meters from the lead IBS when Murdock aimed at the lighted pilothouse of the forty-foot craft and fired a five-round burst.
The heavy fifties barked in immediate response. Bolts were thrown quickly, new rounds were inserted, and another blast of ten of the heavy.50-caliber explosive rounds jolted into the small Chinese craft. The first volley blew out the searchlight and most of the running lights and crippled the steering. The patrol boat slewed sideways. The fifties kept pounding, now aiming lower at the waterline hoping to hit an engine or fuel tank.
Just as the first five-round magazines were running dry on the Mcmillan M-88's, an explosive projectile hit the fuel tank on the patrol craft and it blew up. A huge fireball blossomed and slowly lifted upwards as the boat disintegrated. Parts of the patrol craft fell into the water fifty meters away. When the sound of the explosion faded, Murdock could hear a siren from upstream and then the angry growl of the other two patrol craft heading his way.
"A mile and a half," Murdock said so his men could hear. "We charge ahead, but these IBSS aren't exactly outboard racers." He turned his.50-caliber sharpshooters around the other way. "As soon as you can see any running lights back there, start shooting at them. We might discourage them enough to keep them back at long range."
"Yeah, and we might not," Magic Brown said. "We staying near the shore in case we catch a lucky round that deflates this little gem we're riding in?"
"Damn close to shore. We might be able to ground one of those beasties back there. Let's hear some sound out of those fifties."
The other IBS saw the reverse targeting and did likewise. Murdock hoped it would be enough. Now, with a definite target, he was sure the Chinese would have radioed to their base and alerted some heavier craft and maybe some air-power. He knew the Chinese had good attack choppers and some sleek new fighters. Either one would be bad news.
Jaybird Sterling gave a shout of joy. "Put out one of the damn running lights," he chortled. "Don't know what else I hit. They must know by now that we have some firepower."