“I can fight Jack,” Crazy Charlie said, looking pleadingly at the colonel.
“I know you can, Doc, but Sarah, Will, and Ryan need that information, and you can help get it. I need you down there,” he said, nodding toward the shaft.
“Colonel, the enemy is only a thousand yards away,” one of the German commandos called out.
Ellenshaw finally nodded his head of white hair and slowly turned away. Niles looked at Jack and smiled sadly, then he too turned toward the mine’s entrance and left.
“Good luck, swabby,” Jack called out to Everett, who had stopped to hear what he had to say.
“Letting you do the hero thing is getting real old, Jack. This time you may just get your ass shot off,” Carl said as he turned away. “That’s going to leave me with an awful lot of paperwork to do back at the complex, and that is not what I signed up for.”
The Mechanic was very pleased with the way his men had performed.
As he scanned the small contingent lining the front wall of rocks in front of the mine opening, he had to smile. If he had the time, it would be easy to just stand pat and lob grenades into the rocks above. It would decimate the defense line. However, he knew that eventually the Americans would react.
“Commence the attack. Kill them all, and do it quickly.”
As he watched, 256 men advanced through the trees. Then he gestured. Four mortars opened fire. “Take them fast and make sure none escape.”
The lone Air Force C-130J-30 Hercules had flown through the night, refueling once in midair on its long flight from Fort Bragg. The pilot could swear he felt the tops of the trees brush against his underbelly as he hopped over small rises at the base of the Andes. He was sweating while his copilot manipulated the four throttle controls of the venerable old aircraft. As he allowed the yoke to steady, he pushed forward and sent the Hercules into a shallow dive. They had reached the last valley before the drop point. He heard the flight’s engineer open the cabin door.
Lieutenant Commander Scott Englehorn USN, team leader for SEAL Team Five and temporary leader for SEAL Team Eight, stepped up in back of the pilot’s ejection seat.
“Three minutes to IP, Commander. Tell your boys back there good luck,” the Air Force pilot said as he pulled the nose of the Hercules up again in a flurry of motion.
“Hell, besides the other SEAL team, only five of those kids back there speak English, but I’ll pass on your sentiment anyway.” The SEAL patted the pilot on the shoulder. “Thanks for the lift, Air Force. It was a smooth ride.”
“Good luck, Navy,” the pilot said again, feeling for the men that he was about to drop into harm’s way.
The Navy commander stepped out of the cabin and slid quietly down the small set of stairs. He looked at the four lines of men lined up in the hold of the Hercules. His SEAL teams would be the first out of the aircraft. They would be followed by the one hundred men of the main assault element. This young group was what was passing for soldiers nowadays in Europe. They and their nation had just been accepted into NATO and had been on station in the United States for training at Fort Bragg when they were recruited by the president on a purely voluntary mission. As he scanned the eager faces of the men, he saw they had no fear, a sign that they had never faced combat before. He shook his head, sliding among the lines of men. As he moved, the red light appeared in six different areas of the cargo hold.
“Two minutes-two minutes,” he shouted as loud as he could.
He saw the young captain who led the foreign element and the SEAL nodded his head.
“Is Poland ready for this day, Captain?”
“Poland has always been ready, Commander,” the young man said. He looked determinedly into the Navy man’s eyes just as the commander placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I believe you are, Captain. Shall we go and rescue some people on the ground?”
“Yes, Commander, let’s do that.”
“One minute,” the commander shouted as he took his place at the head of the jump group.
The aircraft cargo master started lowering the giant ramp. The men would jump four abreast at seven hundred feet, an extremely low altitude jump. Their parachutes would barely have enough time to open before the tops of the trees would be at their feet. This is what SEALs were used to doing, but the Polish element was making the low altitude jump for the first time. The Navy just hoped the president knew what he was doing. Not only were his SEALs working with an Army element, they were working with a foreign army to boot. The world was becoming a strange place indeed.
The mortars had damaged the front line defense. Three of the German commandos were down before a single shot had been fired at the enemy. Jack went from station to station to check on the men and was making sure they kept their heads down until they had hard targets to engage.
“Colonel, if we don’t take out those mortar positions they can stand off and take us out a group at a time,” the lieutenant from Sebastian’s command said, just as Collins ducked to avoid a near miss.
Jack felt someone slide into the rock-covered position behind him. He turned and saw the green bush headgear and the crossed swords on the side of the hat. It was Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton of Her Majesty’s SAS. Beside him was Sergeant Tashiro Jiimzo, of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Patton nodded his head.
“Colonel, the sergeant and I have an idea, and with the help of our little Vietnamese sniper friend above, I think we can get to those mortar positions without getting our bloody asses shot off.”
“Let’s hear it,” Collins said, and the two men explained what they wanted to do.
“I’ll take my SAS element, and have these generous Japanese fellows along for support. Our sniper friend can keep the closest of the attackers at bay as we wheel around them and hit the first of the three positions-that is something they won’t be expecting, for us to actually sally forth in an attack.”
As a mortar round landed nearby, Jack could only shake his head.
“Well, Captain, I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. Get it done before someone gets a lucky shot in.”
The SAS captain started to salute and Jack gave him a look that said in no uncertain terms that they did not have the time. The captain smiled and then pulled the Japanese sergeant along with him. As Collins watched, the SAS captain was using his radio to explain what he needed from the Vietnamese sniper above them.
“This is getting nasty as hell,” Jack said to the German beside him. “We need that help the president promised and we need it now.”
“Uh, Colonel, you better see this,” the German commando said loudly over the din of gunfire and explosions. He pointed behind Jack.
“Damn it to hell!” Collins cursed as he saw what the commando was pointing out.
On a small ridge close to the second level of their defense he saw Alice Hamilton and Senator Garrison Lee as they slowly made their way along, heading for the mine opening. He could see that Lee was having a difficult time as Alice held on to him. Then Collins angrily shook his head as the old one-eyed man pulled free of her helping hand and brought up an ancient. 45 caliber Colt automatic, firing three rounds down the hillside. He didn’t hit anything; he just looked happy to be shooting at something. Alice slapped at him and they again started toward the mine opening.
“Ballsy old people,” the German lieutenant said and turned back toward the front line of attackers.
“Yeah, they’re something, all right,” Jack hissed.
“Someday you’ll have to explain to me and my men just who the hell you and these people are, Colonel.”