“How would we get to the general area?” DeWitt asked.
“We could move you at night with one truck to within twenty miles of their outposts. From there on, it would be up to you how to proceed.”
“Could we use the truck without your driver beyond that twenty-mile point to ram through their outposts and drive in as far as possible before we went on foot?” Dobler asked.
“Yes, we could sacrifice one of our trucks. But would it be wise to let them know someone was infiltrating?”
“Colonel, if you had that strength, would you worry about one truck trying to break through an outpost or two?”
The colonel chuckled. “No. You’re right. They could write it off as a probe, a reconnaissance mission. I see. Yes, it should work. That way, you could get yourselves and a quantity of ammunition, supplies, and explosives in with ease.”
“Maybe closer,” Murdock said. “Once we break through the first outpost or roadblock, they’ll come looking for us. We expect that.”
The colonel stood and walked to a large wall map of Colombia.
He touched the area they were talking about. “You can always vanish into the mountains. There is a high range of mountains on both sides of the river valley. Yes, they are high, rugged, and tough. But they could be your salvation.”
“How long have that many troops been in this threatening position?” Ed asked.
“As near as we know, they have built up to their present strength in the last six months.”
“Do they have buildings or is it in a bivouac situation?”
“They have taken over many buildings so they are inside, have good food, and even entertainment.”
“Good. They must be getting a little soft and used to their easy living,” Murdock said. “That could be to our advantage once we start working against them.”
The colonel went back to his desk. “There may be some urgency. We have heard rumors that the troops up there may be planning on moving within two weeks. They have been doing some training they didn’t do before.”
“So the quicker we get there, the better,” Dobler said.
“Exactly.”
“Can we draw some equipment and rations and goods we may not have?” Murdock asked. “We lost some of our matériel when the truck was hit on the way in here.”
“Anything we have you need, is yours,” the colonel said. He nodded at one of his majors.
“Let us work over some plans tonight and in the morning,” Murdock said. “We will want to leave here so we hit their checkpoint just after dark. I’ll leave the timing up to you.”
“Is there anything else?” the colonel asked.
“We’ll need a good, detailed map of the area,” Dobler said. “A half dozen would be good, especially if they are waterproofed and the size that we can fold for our pockets.”
The colonel said something in Spanish to the major, who made a note.
He looked at them again.
“That should do it for now,” Murdock said. “We’ll need an H&K machine gun in the NATO round size, and another long automatic rifle. We’ll work through Captain Orejuela for those.”
“Thank you, Commander. Anything we can do we will be glad to do. Let me or the captain know.”
They drove back to the barracks, talking about the mission.
“Captain, we want you in on our planning session. We may be at it late tonight.”
“Yes. I want to be there.”
At the barracks they pulled the men around and told them about the mission. There were some questions, then Murdock outlined the general plan to get to the adjacent area.
“Once we get within striking distance of the main camp, we’ll have to decide what we can do and how to do it.”
“Man, we don’t want to get into a land war with four thousand troops,” Franklin said.
“Amen to that,” Bradford said. “So we get in, hit them hard, and vanish into the mountains?”
“Sounds possible. There isn’t any lack of mountains around here. How high do they go?” They looked at Captain Orejuela.
“The peaks go from thirty-five hundred feet up to fifty-five hundred. That’s coming out of a valley by the river that could be no more than six or eight hundred feet above sea level.”
“Lots of trees and brush up there?” Lam asked.
The captain nodded. “Lots of timber type trees and brush. A rain forest. Easy to hide in.”
They talked for two hours about how they could get in, blow the motor pool into rubble, and then get out.
“We send in sappers to get as many trucks as possible,” Jaybird said. “Then we go with our twenty-mike rounds and riddle the place with the proximity fuses and hope to hit some more gas tanks.”
At midnight, Murdock called a halt. “Captain, can you be here at 0800 hours tomorrow? We’ll have a list of items we need, including the two new weapons and some more explosives if you have any C-3 or C-4.”
“I’ll be here.”
As they broke up, Murdock called on Holt. They went outside the barracks and set up the SATCOM antenna. It took three calls to raise anyone at Home Base, the carrier.
“Yes, Roamer, this is Home Base. ¿Qué pasa?”
They used voice, but it was all automatically encrypted both ways.
“Don Stroh. You finally made it. We’re on site in Cali, going on a move soon to short-circuit an invasion force. We could use some more of those twenty-mike-mike rounds.”
“Sorry, can’t do it,” Stroh said. “We’ve had a cease and desist order from the maker. They say not to fire the Bull Pup weapon even in testing. They have found cracks developing in the receiver after two hundred rounds. One of the on-bench test weapons fired automatically actually exploded at 280 rounds.”
“So we’re not supposed to use them?”
“That’s what the maker says.”
“Yeah, I hear you. We’ll let you know how our first go-round goes here. This is just the beginning. Glad you’re on board way out there.”
“The weapons, you won’t use them?”
“We got the message, Stroh. We got the message. Out.”
11
Ron Holt looked at Murdock with surprise flooding his face.
“What the hell Stroh mean, we can’t use the Bull Pup? Our whole attack plan is formed around those twenty-mike-mikes.”
“Pretend you never heard him,” Murdock said. “I didn’t hear him say anything about our not using the Bull Pup. We’ve got them, and we’re going to use them. We’ll check for cracks in the receiver, but we haven’t fired any of ours more than ten times, let alone two hundred and eighty.”
“Yeah, take our fucking chances.”
“Don’t tell anyone what you just didn’t hear,” Murdock said.
The next day, they left the camp promptly at noon after a heavy meal at the mess hall. They had the two new long weapons and another ten pounds of C-3 they would use on the trucks.
The six-by they rode in was not new, but the engine sounded good, and Tony Ostercamp pronounced it fit for the 240-mile jaunt. Tony would be driving when they let the Colombian army man out and went on their own. Murdock rode in the front seat along with Captain Orejuela. He’d keep them on the right road.
The highway was two lanes, blacktopped, but not built for speed. The best they did was 45 mph, and that was down a slight grade. They arrived at Tulua about 1650 and stopped for the box lunches that the mess at Bravo had sent with them. It would be MREs from there on.
They passed the second friendly outpost and roadblock about twenty miles north of Tulua, and the Colombian driver moved to the side of the road and got out. He chattered with the captain for a moment, then ran back to the outpost.