"Hell, we gonna be wet anyway," Al Adams said. Murdock looked toward land. He could just make out the shape of a dark mass and some muted lights.
"Five miles offshore," Jaybird said. "Close as the captain wants to take this tub in."
They worked their way down the deck to the fantail, where the Cobra gunship remained tied down. The two RIBs were in the water on short towlines. Now that the destroyer had almost stopped, the RIBs were pulled up and positioned along the stern. One by one the SEALs went down metal ladders to the bouncing RIBs. It took ten minutes to get everyone on board.
Murdock looked at his motley bunch and laughed. "You guys look more like little old ladies than SEALs," he said.
They lined up in the three forward-facing seats with high backrests. The trip would be made standing up more than sitting. The coxswain cleared his craft, threw off the tie-down lines, and they churned away from the destroyer and toward shore. Murdock was in the center next to the console. He yelled at the coxswain.
"Want you to take us in as far as you can, right next to the surf line if you've got the guts. Shorter the swim, the better for my men."
"Sure, and more danger for me and my men," the coxswain shot back. He grinned. "Hell, Commander, if you can go in on a mission like this one, damned if I can't get you in a shitpot-full closer than last time."
They plowed ahead through heavy seas at ten knots. It was a safe speed in the waves, and also held down the noise factor. They were still a mile from the beach when Murdock heard the RIB's radio talk. The coxswain listened closely, then reached over and shut down his engine. The stillness surprised the SEALs.
"What the fuck?" somebody growled.
The coxswain looked at Murdock beside him. "That was Will on the other RIB. He's got an NK patrol craft with a searchlight bearing down on him. Which means he's coming toward us too."
"So we wait?" Murdock asked.
"Yeah, wait and pray and hope to hell he doesn't come straight for us and find us with his searchlight. Those fuckers have a lot of machine guns and some small automatic cannon. Our only chance will be to outrun him if he spots us in his light."
19
The ten-meter-long RIB rocked in the waves. The sea was about the same, with whitecaps showing around them. Murdock looked toward the coast. Less than a mile, he figured. They could swim from there if they had to, but the cold water would sap their energy for a land fight if they ran into trouble.
They waited to find out where the NK patrol boat was.
Five minutes later, Murdock heard the growl of the heavy motors. It was a large patrol craft. North Korea had several of the boats over 150 feet. They were set up with a lot of medium-sized firepower, but most had no missiles. The sound came closer.
"Hang tough, guys. If we have to, we go over the side and swim for the shore. DeWitt will decide what to do in his boat."
The sound became stronger, then faded. Once they saw the yellow swath of the searchlight, but it swung away from them. Another three or four minutes, and the RIB's radio came on. The coxswain grabbed it. He listened and hung up the handset.
A moment later he kicked over the motor and the RIB began to move slowly toward shore.
"Our NK patrol boat buddy is moving the other way," the coxswain said. "Will on the other boat figures we have time to get in to the surf line, drop you guys, and bug out for our sacks back on the destroyer. But for now, we're on a max of five knots to hold down the noise."
It was almost forty minutes later when Murdock spotted the first wave breaking ahead of them.
The light rain kept coming down, as it had since they left the destroyer. He touched the coxswain's shoulder and nodded. The coxswain brought the boat to a stop.
"Tell the other boat driver to have the SEALs meet at that small point of land directly ahead," Murdock said. "I don't know where the other boat is."
The coxswain relayed the message and nodded.
"Let's get wet," Murdock said. The SEALs went over the side, surfaced at once, and did a fast-crawl stroke toward the breakers. Their weapons were tied across their backs. The civilian pants and jackets acted like anchors for them, but they were used to heavy loads in the surf.
Murdock was the third one to body-surf in on a wave. He lay in the wet sand and eyed the beach area. It seemed deserted. He figured the time as a little after midnight. The next wave lifted him and pushed him another five yards inland. He came to his knees, ran bent almost double off the wet sand into the dry, and headed fifty yards down the beach to the point of land he had identified.
He checked behind him, and saw seven of his squad running with him. Everyone had made it through the surf.
When he came to the point of land, he looked across the dry sand and saw three blinks of a small light. DeWitt had made it there first. Murdock waited until he had all of his men, then waved them to the side, and they ran into the patch of woods where the other SEALs crouched.
"Motorolas," Murdock whispered, and the thirteen SEALs and two Koreans unzipped the watertight sections of their combat vests and hooked up the personal radios. Jaybird had taught the Koreans how to hook up and use the sets.
Murdock found Charley, his squad's Korean. "Which way to the town and the resort?"
Charley scowled. "Town due east. Resort, not know. We have to find out. Two Koreans go into town without weapons and talk to people. We pass as North. Have ID cards."
"Let's find the town and someplace that we can hide out until we know what we're doing. Charley, you and Lam lead the way."
They hiked along the side of a dirt road, past half-a-dozen dark houses, on past a field full of rice paddies, and then toward a small hill that had a few pine trees and a lot of smaller hardwoods. At the top of the hill they looked east and spotted the town.
"Chungsan," Charley told Murdock.
The place was larger than he had figured. Every town in the Far East seemed to be large. He guessed there could be twenty thousand people here in the sprawling array of lights he saw in what must be a valley between several good-sized hills.
"How close can we get and stay hidden?" Murdock asked.
"Never been here before," Charley said. "Sorry. Lam and me go out front for look-see."
Murdock put the men down in the thickest part of the woods. There didn't see m to be any activity here. Nothing would happen until daylight. By then they had to have a hide-hole somewhere. He put two men on guard duty and told the others to relax.
Murdock lay in the weeds and brush trying to get warm. He clicked off problems they could run into. Army patrols. Not likely in this sector so far from the front. Civilians cutting wood? Good chance. Their Korean buddies would have to alibi them. Maybe say the SEALs were a special Army force in civilian garb watching for South Korean infiltrators. Should work.
North Korean Army units on training exercises? Could be, but they probably had all possible units at the front.
His eyes drooped shut, and he jerked himself awake. No damn time for sleeping. Too cold to sleep. The cotton pants and shirts would dry out in three or four hours from body heat, if they could maintain it. He got up and checked the sentries. Both were awake and alert. He went up to the brow of the hill and stared down at the town below. Somewhere down there was his target. All they had to do was find him.
Lam and Charley came back two hours later. They had found another patch of woods close to the town that was unoccupied.
"Looks good, Skip. Near a road with no traffic, but should be busy in the morning. Bicycles, I'd expect."
They moved the platoon forward and put them into temporary cover and concealment. Murdock called the two Koreans up and spelled it out.