Murdock gave three clicks on his mike and the shooting stopped. There had been no return fire at all from the Chinese. He didn't worry about the four who had gone up to the burning truck. They would not be a problem.
Murdock watched the death scene for half a minute, then touched his lip mike.
"Let's move in. If any of those jeep rigs are working we can take another ride."
Murdock ran toward the roadblock with the other SEALS. There were no live defenders. Lincoln tried all three of the utility rigs. He got two of them running. The thirteen men piled in and they moved down the road, southeast again.
"With any luck we could be at the coast in half an hour," Jaybird shouted to Murdock where they rode in the back of the first rig.
"Good luck has been in short supply around here, Jaybird. We'll see how far it holds on this go-round."
Two miles from the roadblock one of the rigs sputtered and ground to a halt.
"Out of gas," Lincoln said. The men crowded onto the other little truck. Two rode on the hood. Two more clung to the sides with one foot for purchase. They slowed down and kept the lights off.
Another five minutes and they came around a small bend and spotted bright lights ahead.
Murdock checked it out through the Starlight scope on the M-89.
"They have a real one this time." Murdock said. "Looks like two tanks, four six-bys, and maybe fifty troops."
"I move we go around this one," Dewitt said.
"Amen," Magic Brown said.
"One of those tanks is moving its turret around to fire," Murdock said, shoving the weapon at Magic. "He can see us. Let's haul ass out of here."
The men piled off the rig and scattered into the field to the left, which had some small brush and a few trees. Doc Ellsworth had just cleared the ditch and run for the trees when a round from the tank slammed into the jeep. It smashed it ten feet back down the road when it hit, but the fuel tank didn't explode.
"Move it," Murdock called. "Those troops won't sit on their hands down there. We've got about a half-mile head start. Let's make it pay off for us."
Before Murdock stopped talking they were taking small-arms fire. The shots were random, and Murdock figured the Chinese were blanketing the whole area hoping to get some return fire that would pinpoint the enemy.
"Move it," Murdock said again. "Straight away from that tank, and then we'll figure out how to get southeast again."
They jogged away from the tank and kept getting an occasional round from behind. Murdock was sure the Chinese didn't know where they were. He wasn't about to give them any clues.
Five minutes later they slowed it to a walk. They passed a dark building on the edge of a field. Ching said it was a storehouse for the farmland they were going through. They charged through another field and into a blessed grove of trees on a rocky hillside.
Murdock could hear someone behind them. The locals had enough troops that they could have detailed a dozen to take four different directions and try to chase down the enemy. Might work. Any firefight would bring the rest of the Chinese troops in to help and hopefully wipe out the foreign devils. Only, they didn't know who the enemy was. They probably thought the most likely attackers would be the Taiwanese.
Murdock put his men through the trees and came out on the other side near the backside of a village. They hurried along in the field just beyond the houses. He could hear music playing in some of the buildings. Lights showed in most of them. It wasn't even nine o'clock yet. There were lots of people up and moving around. He hoped they didn't run into any kids playing in the fields.
They jogged again. Now they turned south hoping to find the elusive coast of the Taiwan Strait. It had to be over there somewhere.
Five minutes later Murdock heard the Chinese behind them. Evidently this group of hunters had hit the village and turned south as well. Half may have gone north and the other half south. In either case, Murdock knew his men couldn't afford a fight right now that would bring in the rest of the troops.
"Could be some of the Chinese Marines back there," Ching said. He had heard the pursuit as well. "The Marines are the best fighting troops the Chinese Mainland guys have."
"More good luck for our side," Murdock said.
They soon came away from the village into open fields, and then a good-sized hill loomed out of the darkness in front of them.
"Let's go up," Murdock said. He had been rethinking his strategy. As long as the Chinese pursued them, they had to keep running. If they stopped and got into a firefight, it might pull in more troops. Then again, they were now about five miles from the roadblock and the tanks. It could be another sector and there might be no added response. He wanted to shake off the tail.
The hill might do it. The troops behind might be following them with some kind of nightscopes. The Chinese must have brought some. The tracking had been sure so far. If they came up the hill, it would give the SEALS a chance. Murdock moved to the front of the line of men with Red, and together they selected the spot on the ridgeline. The hill was maybe two hundred feet high, with some shrubs and small trees, but not enough for cover and no concealment. Even in the half light of the moon they could see movement on the slope below.
Murdock placed his men along the downslope of the ridge so they could fire over it from a prone position. He set up his machine guns just off center twenty yards, and put the sniper rifles between them. The rest who had long guns spread out on both sides. The Kalashnikovs would come in handy. They could pinpoint the targets fifty yards down the hill in the moonlight.
Murdock brought up his AK-47, chambered a round, aimed the weapon downhill, and waited. The others would hold for his first round before they fired. Murdock had twenty rounds for the AK. When his ammo was gone he'd dump the rifle.
The Chinese came up the hill slowly. There were two point men, but they were doing it wrong. The point scouts should be out at least a hundred yards. These were ten yards ahead. Behind them came a shadowy and ragged line of assault troops. Murdock counted twenty.
They were at seventy-five yards. Closer, they should be closer, especially for the MP-5s.
The lead scouts stopped and knelt down. They started ahead, and Murdock got the idea they were listening. He scraped a metal ammo clip against the AK. The scouts stood at once and angled directly toward the platoon leader.
Yes. Another ten yards. Murdock sighted in on the right-hand scout. He always took the right-hand side and Holt right beside him with an AK, knew that. Ten seconds later Murdock fired. Again the other twelve weapons opened up with a vengeance.
Murdock's man went down with a round through his heart. The other lead scout took two rounds, spun backwards into the dirt, and never moved. The ragged line of assault troops suddenly became more ragged. Six went down in the first SEAL volley. The rest dove for the ground hunting any kind of cover. There simply wasn't any.
Return fire came from four of the riflemen, but they had only gun flashes for targets. Their own flashes drew hot lead. One man screamed. Another leaped up and raced down the hill. He made it unscratched as far as Murdock could follow him in the sparse moonlight.
The SEALS fired for twenty seconds. A long fire mission for most of them. Murdock gave them three clicks on the Motorola and their weapons fell silent. A few counterfire rounds came from below. Murdock could see two men crawling down the hill. A third dragged a wounded man with him.
"Magic, Fernandez, give us a rear guard. Fire for three minutes back here, then run to catch us. We'll be straight south down the hill."
The men moved out. Red took the point as usual, with Murdock right behind him. They jogged down the hill and into another series of small fields with dikes around them. Rice paddies. He was glad they weren't flooded right then.