“Makes sense. About what I’d do. So, the President and his advisors and the Secret Service shields probably aren’t in the ranch house or the other buildings.”
“Roger that, but there could still be some of the staff. You don’t run a place like this with Mom and Pop.”
“True, so we can’t hit them with the twenties.”
They stared at the setup again. Murdock moved his view to the left and grunted. “See to the left of the buildings, that flat area just below the level of the ranch house?”
“Oh, yeah, Skipper. Looks like three burned-out Fifty-Threes.”
“Agree, and next to them are?”
“Two smaller choppers, maybe the ones the bad guys arrived in.”
The two SEALs looked at each other and grinned.
“Oh, yeah, what do you make the range, Skipper?”
“Eight hundred yards,” Murdock said, and pumped a 20mm round into the chamber on the Bull Pup, then sighted in the laser on the chopper nearest him. When he had the target he squeezed the trigger. Seconds later the airburst ripped through the pristine-pure high Sierra air right over the first chopper. Shrapnel rained down on it, and some hit the second chopper nearby. Murdock didn’t use the laser on the second round. He sighted in and fired. The contact round jolted into the engine compartment of the bird, and it exploded in a gush of flames, soon involving the second helicopter.
“Two men just ran out of the ranch house,” Lam said. “They are looking at their transportation out of there. Now they are zigzagging back to the house like they expected to be shot at.”
“So, they know we’re here,” Murdock said. “Let’s get the troops up here and move forward.” He flipped his lip mike down from where it rested against his floppy hat.
“You men heard two shots. We just splashed two enemy choppers. There are terrorists at the ranch house. Let’s chogie that way and figure out what the hell to do.”
Ed Dewitt came up with Jaybird and Senior Chief Sadler.
“How many men?” Jaybird asked.
Murdock rubbed his jaw. “Chopper that size could pack in maybe eight men. So we’re looking at sixteen, maybe eighteen tops.”
“The fucking odds don’t seem fair,” Sadler said. “I mean, those poor sods up there don’t have a tinker’s damn chance in hell.”
Murdock put down his glasses. “DeWitt, take Bravo up that gully over there and position at the left side of the buildings. My squad will work the right end and when we get within three hundred yards, we’ll take a look and see what we have. Move out.”
Murdock held his Alpha Squad until DeWitt had traversed the hundred yards to the left side of the complex and the ravine. Then Murdock moved his men over the ridge in the cover of the trees and down the far side. Eight hundred yards to the ranch house. He wondered if those inside would realize that a much better armed force was coming against them and that they couldn’t hold the buildings. Would they flee into the brush and trees as well and try to get lost? It depended what they had done so far. If they had captured and murdered the President and his staff, their job would be done and they would exfiltrate out of the area, and try to reach a Korean settlement in San Francisco or Los Angeles where they would blend in.
Lam led the squad as scout. He moved from tree to tree and hurried through brushy areas, then went flat as he saw something ahead he didn’t understand.
“Come take a look, Skipper.”
Murdock moved up, bellied down in the grass next to Lam, and pulled out his glasses.
“Off about three fingers from that big pine out there, looks like a red splotch. Could it be a red shirt or a dress?”
They concentrated with their binoculars. “Moving,” Murdock said. “Oh, yes, that’s a dress. Must be part of the President’s party or staff. Get up there without getting shot by the Secret Service and let them know we’re coming.”
“Roger that,” Lam said, stowed his field glasses, and eased to his feet. A moment later he vanished into the brush and trees. The red dress was less than a hundred yards ahead. Well away from the ranch house but within sight of it. They must have seen the Korean helicopters destroyed. Murdock knew the general route Lam would take to approach the friendlies. Try as he might, he couldn’t detect the scout as he moved through the trees and undergrowth.
Murdock used his mike and told the rest of the SEALs what they had found. He told the squad to come up to his position. The other men spread out five yards apart near Murdock waiting to see what happened.
The Motorola earpieces spoke.
“Skipper, I’m at about twenty yards from them. I have four civilians. One definitely Secret Service with his Uzi with stock extended. Another is an older woman. The other two are young women, who might be on the staff at the ranch. I’m moving in softly.”
Lam pushed up the mike so it touched his floppy hat, and edged around the pine tree and then angled into some heavy brush. He worked ahead slowly now, not moving a branch, not stepping on a dead branch or pile of leaf mold. He put weight on his foot only when he knew it would not make any noise.
Ahead was a six-foot-wide open space. To go around it would take twenty minutes. He watched the four people. All could see the opening if they looked his way. Two faced away from him. A third sat on a log staring straight ahead. The Secret Service man moved back and forth watching mostly uphill through the trees toward the ranch house.
Lam waited until the man turned and headed away from him, then darted across the opening and faded into the brush. One of the women staring straight ahead turned and looked at the opening, but Lam had gone across it. She shrugged.
Lam moved again, slowly, cautiously. He came within ten feet of the group, and waited until the Secret Service man paced away from him. Lam surged forward silently and walked beside the government security man.
“You must be Secret Service,” Lam said.
The man jolted around, started to swing the Uzi upward, but Lam caught it and kept it aimed away from him.
“Hey, I’m a friend. Easy with the sub gun. I’m Lampedusa, a Navy SEAL. We’ve come to help you.”
The Secret Service man stepped back, his eyes still wide, sweat popping out on his forehead. He shook his head in wonder. “How in hell did you do that, slip up on me that way? I’ve been watching for anything.” The Secret Service man shook his head again and grinned. “Damn, but I’m glad to see you. I’m Horowitz. How many SEALs are there?”
“Sixteen of us, sir. Let me call up my boss.” He flipped down the mike. “Skipper, all clear to come forward. Four here are A-OK.”
“You on a radio net with the other Secret Service people?” Lam asked.
“Yes. We check in every hour.”
“You lose anybody on the attack?”
“One of our men is missing, doesn’t report on the net. We don’t know what happened to him.”
“So your net may be compromised. The North Koreans could have one of your radios listening. Are all of the civilians safe?”
“Not sure. The commander of the North Koreans said they would execute prisoners every half hour. We’re not sure if they did or not. I watched the first one. They said they would kill Secretary Alvarez. I saw the shot and saw her fall, but they might have faked it. They did it again a half hour later. I heard the shot. I don’t know if anybody was killed.”
“So don’t tell your net that we’re here. They only know that somebody blew up their choppers. We like to surprise the North Ks.”
“You took out their helicopters?”
“Yeah, with a twenty-mike-mike rifle.”
“You kidding. A round that big from a rifle?”
“New. Show you one when they get here. Where are the rest of the party and the President?”
“Our plan was to scatter if anything happened,” Horowitz said. “The Koreans came in suddenly and burned our birds, and we knew we couldn’t hold the ranch house so we all split. The plan was for two men to take the President and two more to take the Vice President generally to the north. I know they made it out of the house and to their first holding point. Beyond that we haven’t heard much except the net checks.”