They watched part of the movie Battle of the Bulge, and then it was time to go to work. Murdock stationed the men where he wanted them, then he, DeWitt, and Senior Chief Dobler each took one of the roving patrols with an extra SEAL along.
Murdock and Jaybird settled into the humvee. The driver spoke no English. The other Oman soldier knew only a few words of English. Murdock and Jaybird knew no Arabic. It would be an interesting night.
Murdock checked in by Motorola with his men every hour. By midnight there had been no problems. DeWitt’s roving patrol had found two small boys trying to slip in the main gate. They had been caught by the gate guards, given a sound lecture, and sent running back the way they had come.
“They try to steal something,” one of the guards told DeWitt. “If they can’t steal anything, they hope for a gift of food when they are caught.”
The gentle motion of the humvee as it rolled slowly around the compound’s outer road lulled Murdock to sleep. Jaybird shook his shoulder when time came for the radio check.
“Dozed off there a little, Commander,” Jaybird said. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody you went to sleep on guard duty. As I remember, that used to be a hanging offense.”
“Not true,” Murdock said. “It was a simple and immediate firing squad. None of this uniform code of military justice jazz.” He shook his head. “This is tough duty. I’m not used to it.”
The radio net check went without incident.
Just after 0320, Murdock heard gunfire. He got on the net for a report. It came almost at once.
“Skipper. Bradford. We took five rounds of rifle fire here at the ravine under the wall. We returned fire at their flashes but don’t know if we connected. No more firing. The bad guys seem to have vanished.”
“Anything on your NVGs?” Murdock asked.
“Not a thing out there on the night visions, Skipper. We’ll keep a sharp lookout for the next couple of hours. My best bet is they took off like a herd of turtles.”
“Roger, Bradford. Stay tuned.”
The rest of the night was quiet. When the SEALs came back at dawn, they found Lam and Adams waiting for them. Murdock frowned.
“You two were supposed to get a good night’s sleep and heal up for when we need you,” Murdock said.
Adams snorted. “Hail, Skip, I can shoot just as good now as always. Want me to do some push-ups for you? Damn arm hardly hurts at all anymore.”
“Let it heal up, Adams. I catch you doing push-ups, I’ll ship your skinny ass back to the ship and slap you in a hospital bed.”
Adams grinned. “Aye, aye, Commander. Had to give it a try.”
Lam just waved. “Checked out you guys on the Motorola,” he said. Looks like you didn’t need me after all. I was ready to choggie out there to the hot spot.”
Holt walked up to Murdock then, holding out the handset to the SATCOM radio.
“The king of the CIA wants a word,” Holt said.
Murdock took the handset. “Yeah, Stroh, what’s happening?”
“Too much. We just had a report that two more of the small countries around the area are having trouble. There’s a serious challenge to the government in Lebanon. Two regiments of the army have attacked the government offices, and there is heavy fighting. A colonel has declared martial law in Beruit and claims victory. He’s premature. Most experts there say that the loyal Lebanon army and air force will defeat this upstart colonel, but it will be close.”
“You expect there could be trouble here?” Murdock asked.
“Damn right. It looks like every country in and around the Persian Gulf except Iraq and Iran is either being attacked or is having internal problems. It doesn’t seem to be a random situation, according to our Middle East experts in Virginia.”
“So, I’ll warn the authorities here, hope for the best, and be ready for the worst. Any idea how long we are to stay here?”
“Depends on what happens, if and when somebody attacks. Just hang loose.”
“Easy for you to say with three squares a day and a good bed to sleep in. We’ll try. Out.”
Murdock went to find Colonel Khalof. He was in his guarded office. The SEAL commander wondered if the sultan had such good protection. Murdock told the colonel about his talk with Stroh.
“Yes, we have been hearing. It is bad all over. Somebody is rattling everything. At least our army is loyal. There is no chance for a coup here.”
Murdock rubbed his jaw. “Colonel, there’s an open space to the west of the palace. I wonder if it would be possible to pull in a battalion of infantry for some maneuvers.”
“I don’t think that our troops need…” He stopped. “Ah, yes, I see. Have them on hand in case anything happens. Good idea, Commander. I’ll talk with my general. I’m sure that he’ll see the value of a small maneuver program at this time.”
Murdock left, feeling a little better. Most of the SEALs slept the rest of the day. They would go back on guard duty that night at 2100, shortly after dark. They would be ready.
This time, Murdock left Jaybird in the roving patrol and he took the most vulnerable location around the perimeter, the eight-foot stone wall at the back of the grounds. He had also asked the colonel to double the interior guards, especially those around the walls. It was done.
Murdock sat with Harry “Horse” Ronson and his H & K machine gun at a lookout port in the foot-thick stone wall. The slot was three inches high and a foot wide and would barely accommodate the NVGs. Murdock scanned the two hundred yards of cleared area in front of the wall.
Nothing moved.
He gave the goggles to Ronson, who took his turn at the view port.
Slightly after midnight, they surveyed the area again. Ronson grunted.
“Take a look, Skip. We got company.”
Murdock took the NVGs and checked. He saw an infantry squad of uniformed soldiers moving forward slowly, then dropping to the ground. He hit the Motorola.
“Back wall, we have invaders working forward. Anyone else see them? Fire at will.”
A trigger pull later, Ronson laid down a stream of five rounds across the first squad he saw. He could fire through the slot. He checked, then fired a nine-round burst. Murdock checked out another port. Half the men in the lead squad were down. Another squad rushed forward. They were still a hundred yards from the wall.
Murdock heard firing from both sides of his position then. The attacking infantry had no protection, only the semi darkness of a moonlit night.
“Let’s use some mike forties,” Murdock said. He watched through the port, ducked when a scattering of fire slammed into the rock wall, then looked again. Four of the 40mm rounds landed near the moving infantrymen. More men screamed and went down. A dozen kept running forward.
The machine gun chopped into them again, wounding two, then a 40mm WP hit in the middle of the group, spraying its white, superhot burning phosphorus over the troops. Six more went down, screaming at the pain of the instant burns that kept right on burning through cloth, skin, muscle, and bone. The WP was impossible to put out. It had to burn itself up.
Murdock saw the attack slacken, then stop. “More forty mikes,” he said. “Let’s push them back where they came from.”
Six rounds of HE 40mm slammed into the area, knocking down four more of the troops and sending those who could move charging to the rear.
“Let’s hold fire,” Murdock said on the radio. Only then did he realize that none of the sultan’s troops inside the wall had been firing. Unbelievable. Why not? He’d find out as soon as he could locate Major Jabrin. Where was he? Murdock had seen him earlier. He had no communications to use to contact the colonel. He tried the radio, but none of his men had seen Major Jabrin in his own humvee.
Jaybird came on the net. “Skipper. I parked the humvee at the gully under the wall. We got in a few rounds supporting you up there. But now, it’s too fucking quiet. Where did they go? There must be more of them. Why just one try? Got to be coming back again. My guess is they’ll pull back, then hit the hole under the wall.”