"The place is a large warehouse with a fence all the way around it," Jaybird said. "Leastwise, that's the way it looked in the satellite photos."
They could hear sirens now. A car with a flashing red light on it tore past the warehouse heading down the dock toward the damaged destroyers.
"Let's go," Murdock called to Lincoln in the cab. Horse Ronson had set up his HK machine gun so it aimed out the back of the truck just over a low tailgate. The other men had their weapons free of water and with a round in the chamber, locked and loaded.
Murdock sat beside the tailgate. They were still in an industrial section. The street was narrow, and here and there trucks were parked along it next to buildings.
A small truck with siren wailing and red light flashing came racing down the street toward them. Lincoln pulled to the side and let the rig go by.
"Seems to be an emergency down at the docks," Jaybird said. The men laughed.
"Coming up on what looks to be a checkpoint of some kind," Lincoln yelled through a sliding panel into the cab. "What the hell do I do?"
"Turn right at the next street," Murdock said. He leaned around the side of the truck and saw the floodlights and two Army rigs pulled up across the street a block ahead. He felt the big truck turn and careen down a side street barely wide enough to let it scrape through between buildings. Just as they turned, Murdock saw one of the small rigs at the roadblock jolt forward. Was it going to chase them? he wondered.
"Go up two blocks and then to the left for two more blocks and then left again," Murdock yelled. "Maybe we can get around the roadblock that way."
Before they turned the second time, the Army rig from the roadblock raced up behind them. Its headlights blinked and then a siren gave a short angry snarl.
"Do it," Murdock said to Ronson. He triggered his 21AI and sent a stream of 7.62mm NATO smashing into the Army rig's windshield and engine. Four five-round bursts sent the small truck slewing sideways into a thin wall and out of sight crashing through the front of a business building.
The SEALS' truck rumbled on, made the next two corners, and surged back onto the main avenue they had left before when they saw the roadblock.
Murdock looked down the street behind them and saw where the roadblock was. Now there was only one rig there, and no one seemed to be looking their way.
"How much farther?" Murdock called to Ross Lincoln.
"Just ahead, Skipper. Maybe fifty yards. What the hell do you want me to do with this rig? I can't just drive up in front."
"Turn down the first cross street next to it and get us away from any street lights. We work best in the dark."
Murdock looked around the side of the truck. He saw the warehouse ahead. It was lit by floodlights. The one fence they had seen in the photos turned into two fences. The place looked like Fort Knox. There seemed to be one layer of security after another. The only thing he didn't see were tanks and a regiment of Chinese infantry ready to defend the place.
Then Lincoln called out again. "Trouble, L-T. Looks like some kind of a half-track weapons carrier coming around the far corner of the warehouse. What the shit am I supposed to do now?"
24
"Stop the truck," Murdock shouted to the driver in the front of the Chinese six-by-six. He waved to the two closest SEALS in the back of the rig who had CAR-15s with grenade launchers.
"Both of you, two HE rounds each at that weapons carrier. Wherever he goes, shoot him up. Do it now." Scotty Frazier jerked the pouch open that held his grenades and loaded one. He had one round off before the other man had his grenades out. Al Adams got his weapon up to use just as the first grenade hit in front of the slowly moving weapons carrier. Adams's first round hit the rig in the middle and exploded with a roar. Two men went flying out of the troop compartment.
Frazier adjusted his aim and put his second round into the carrier as well, stalling it. Adams's second shot hit just behind the rig where half-a-dozen Chinese soldiers had just evacuated the burning weapons carrier. Four of them went down screaming.
"Take it down," Murdock shouted, and the SEALS jumped from the truck and found firing positions. With their silenced weapons at a range of only forty yards, they chopped up the remaining Chinese soldiers. Then a round generated a spark that hit vaporizing gasoline, and the whole rig blew up in one shuddering explosion as the weapons on board went off in the fireball.
They were taking fire now from guards around the target. Murdock put his men in a long line of attackers wherever they could find cover.
Magic Brown, with his sniper rifle and scope, began picking off the outside security.
Murdock and Jaybird checked out the protection around the building. Concrete barriers in front of the place prevented a truck from crashing through the fences. There were barriers inside the fences as well. The fences were chain-link with razor wire on top. As they watched the freigh, they saw two machine guns blasting from the second-floor windows. Magic Brown and Miguel Fernandez, with the other M-89 sniper rifle, concentrated their fire on the chatter guns and soon silenced them.
Murdock didn't know if they'd wiped out the weapons or gunners, or if the fire had been too hot for them and they'd simply pulled back from the window. He'd remember the potential up there. But first came the fences.
"Frazier, put two forty rounds on that chain-link fence gate to the right, the man-sized one. Blow it the hell open."
Frazier heard the orders in his earpiece and loaded a grenade. He had to move to get a shot at the target. He rushed from a stalled truck to an old car of uncertain vintage and bellied down behind it. The shot was easy but would it blast open the door? He aimed, and triggered the launcher. The round hit short and exploded with a roar. His second round hit the gate in the middle and detonated. It blew a foot-wide hole in the chain link but didn't make the gate open. He fired again to the left. This round hit the frame of the gate and blew it off its locks and hinges.
The Platoon Leader grinned and used hand signals as he and three of his First Squad stormed through the gate to the next chain-link fence. Jaybird wrapped primer cord around the gate lock and set a detonator for ten seconds. He jolted away from the spot and the primer cord exploded with a roar. It blew the gate open and Murdock and his First Squad stormed through it to the side of the warehouse.
Ed Dewitt and the Second Squad quickly positioned themselves outside in a defensive formation to provide security for the men inside. They would be needed. Murdock could hear sirens wailing away, and some sounded like they were on rigs moving his way.
Two side doors to the big building were steel, but a small man-sized door in the side of one looked like a possible entry place. Another look changed Murdock's mind. It had sliding steel security bars on this side, and probably inside as well.
To the left was the main entrance, with standard doors. They looked to be wooden with door handles.
Magic Brown shook his head. "Not a chance in hell to go in there," he said. "Fucking doors will be booby-trapped and covered by at least two machine guns inside. They know we're out here now."
Murdock agreed. "Let's try around the corner, a side or back door."
The squad moved with Red out front and the L-T coming next and then the usual combat formation. They took no fire as they went around the corner. There were no doors or windows on this side. The squad sprinted to the back of the building. Two truck doors stood open beside a truck-high loading dock.
Murdock motioned the men to get to each side of the doors. They went in with a rush, weapons at assault-firing positions. They stormed through the doors and met no resistance. They flattened against the sides of the concrete room. One door showed at the end, twenty feet away. The L-T went forward and turned the knob. He eased the door open a crack and looked through.