“Cease fire fives,” he heard in his earpiece. Then he was inside the top of the slope and the edge of the fortress. It wasn’t that, only a four-foot wall and nothing behind it but another sharp incline up to a jagged peak twenty feet overhead.
He saw three bodies sprawled in the dust. One lifted up and tried to train his rifle on Murdock. A three-round blast from the H & K sub gun jolted the man into a quick reunion with his ancestors. Murdock ran to the far side, but saw nothing except a trail that continued around the side of the pinnacle. There was absolutely no place in this area where a helicopter could land or even drop off a nuclear weapon.
Behind him, three SEALs stormed into the position. Murdock used his radio. “Clear front. Three Chinks visiting their ancestors. No sign of the chopper or the bomb. Come on up.”
Lam knelt down beside his leader. “Want me to check out the trail? Looks like it wraps around this point instead of going down.”
Murdock waved him on his way.
“DeWitt, how is Dobler?”
“Took a graze on his forehead, knocked him out. That could have saved his life. He’s still groggy, but in good enough shape to swear at me. He’s just ahead of me moving up the hill.”
“Good.” Murdock looked around. “Holt?”
The radioman stepped up beside him. “Set up?”
“Right. We’ll check in with CINCPAC. Get them on the wire.”
A minute later Holt gave Murdock the handset.
“CINCPAC, this is Murdock. The Chinese took off with the bomb in a sling under a small chopper. Went up and over the cliffs here on the windward side. We’re on top now, but don’t see him yet. Working around some tall spires hunting. Will let you know what we find.”
“Murdock, keep after him. The parley is still on, and we’re doing almost nothing against the Chinese. I can break loose a chopper filled with Marines any time it will help. They’re close by over there at Kaneohe Marine Air Station. Keep up the good work.”
Lam came jogging back to where Murdock sat in the dust behind the overlook.
“Oh, yeah, found them. The chopper is about a quarter of a mile ahead. It’s in a small open space between some tall rocks. My guess, about twenty troops in a perimeter defense around it. Some have cover, some don’t.”
Murdock jumped up. “Troops. I want Bradford with the fifty and all of the twenties on me now. Have sighted the chopper. Move, move, move.”
Murdock was ten yards down the trail when Bradford and the others arrived. They jogged after him. They had eight of the 20mm weapons and the big fifty.
“We’ll shoot the bastard down before he can take off again,” Murdock told Lam. “He still hooked up to the bomb?”
“From what I saw. Either way it’s a win.”
They hiked for five minutes, and then Lam held up his hand. Murdock moved up six feet, and could see the chopper ahead. The bird’s rotors were moving.
“He’s getting ready to take off,” Murdock said. “Rush it up here, men, and open fire.”
Lam had up his twenty and got off a lasered shot before the others arrived. The round missed the laser mark or had the wrong one, and exploded well behind the chopper against an outcropping.
The bird lifted off and tightened the sling, and then it moved gradually into the air.
Only Lam was firing, the rest weren’t up with them yet. His second shot missed as well, and he couldn’t figure it out. Bradford dropped down, extended his bipod, and sighted in on the bird. He pulled the trigger on the big .50-caliber rifle.
“Motherfucker, what the hell?” Bradford slammed his palm against the weapon. “Jammed. It ain’t jammed in six months.”
The chopper rapidly moved away from them, just as Lam made his third shot, then vanished behind a pinnacle of solid rock and didn’t show to them again.
“Holt, front and center,” Murdock barked. The radioman ran up, dropped to the ground, and pulled out the dish antenna and positioned it until he heard the beep.
“CINCPAC is ready, Cap.”
“CINCPAC, we lost the bomb. The chopper got away from us. Can you track it by AWAC? Need to know where it’s going. Also want that Marine chopper to come get us so we can follow the other bird. Get them in the air, now.”
“Murdock, I’ll have to clear that with the admiral.”
“CINCPAC, I have red signature pre-approval. Get that Marine chopper in here now and have him use this channel. I expect him here in not over ten minutes. Can you track that Chinese chopper?”
“Affirmative, on the track, it’s in progress. Radioing the Marines now. How many men to transport?”
“Fourteen. Some prisoners and civilians, but you can come back and get them. We need that Marine chopper now.”
“Stay on the air, Murdock. The Marines have had a chopper warmed up and on standby. Confirming now. Yes, the Marine bird is in the air. I’ll put him on this channel so he can contact you. We have a good track on the Chinese chopper. It’s currently heading toward the north end of Kaneohe Bay.”
“This is Marine Chopper Charlie One looking for Murdock.”
“Murdock here, Charlie One. We’re on the pinnacles of the Koolau Range almost due east of your station. We’ll give you red flares when we see you. Hit the range peaks and move north-south. We have an LZ near here we’ll use red flares on. There is no enemy action in this area.”
“Moving out, Murdock. Less than two minutes to your mountains. Red flares are best.”
“We’ll use them when we hear you, Charlie One.”
Murdock stared back toward the Pacific Ocean. Kaneohe Bay. Why in hell would the chopper be taking the bomb back there? Had they given up on the bomb bluff? Just what the hell were those Chinese motherfuckers up to this time?
15
“I’ve got them coming in from the north,” Lam said. He had the best ears in the platoon. They all looked to the north and soon could hear the bird, then see the ungainly Sea Knight helicopter with U.S. Marine Corps markings on it flitting along the peaks of the Koolau mountain range.
They had moved into an area three hundred yards from where the Chinese chopper had set down. Now there were no Chinese troops in the vicinity. Murdock had no idea where they had vanished.
Dobler threw out a red flare, and then another one hit the LZ. The big chopper circled once, let down slowly, then hit wheels-to-turf.
“Let’s go get a ride,” Murdock said into his Motorola, and the fourteen SEALs trotted toward the idling helicopter. The crew chief waved at them as they stepped into the aircraft. Then at once it lifted off and over the lowest of the ridges, and slanted down the windward side of Oahu toward the coast.
The lieutenant who flew the bird turned to Murdock.
“You Murdock?”
“Right.”
“You pull a lot of weight around here. Rousted us out quicker than we’ve been done before. CINCPAC says they have a track on that Chinese chopper you were chasing.”
“They know where it is now?” Murdock asked, half yelling so he could be heard.
“Yes, but far out of our area. They do tell me that it stopped somewhere around Kualoa Point. That’s at the top of Kaneohe Bay, across from our base.”
“It stopped?”
“Near as they can tell, but since it was over the bay it didn’t set down. Paused there for a while, then moved on. Funny. When it continued, it was moving almost twice as fast as when it came up to the bay.”
“Why?”
“They don’t know. We don’t know. I’m supposed to take you where you want to go. An honest-to-God red-signature order?”