Seal Team Seven #19: Field of Fire (18 page)

“We’re about seven and a half miles almost due north of our original LZ. We’re up the north road. We’ll hear you coming. You’ll get one red flare at the LZ. Anticipate no ground opposition. We’re between two Syrian camps but there’s little activity. Most of the troops must be at the front. Your ETA, Skyhook?”

“About twelve minutes, Search. I’m lifting off now. Set your countdown watch.”

“Roger, out.”

Lam had cut some branches from the small trees and hid the rear of the pickup, which stuck out from the brush. Murdock called them all together.

“Hey, guys, and ladies. We’re in a tough situation here, but help is on the way. In ten minutes a chopper should land in here and we’ll be heading for the first leg of getting you home. Have any of you ever ridden in a helicopter?”

A few hands went up. “This one won’t have side doors on it, so I don’t want anyone falling out. We may have to all stand up or sit on top of each other. The point is we’ll be moving toward Israel and on to a ship just off the coast.”

“A Navy ship, sir?” one of the boys asked.

“Yes, a cruiser with a chopper pad. We need to get away from these trees. Jaybird, find us an LZ.”

Five minutes later, Jaybird called on the radio. “Troops got a good one, nice and level for a change. Come south about sixty yards or so and stumble onto me. One red flare for the chopper, Commander?”

“That’s a roger. We’re moving.”

The SH-60 came whirling in right on schedule and landed near the flare. Jaybird stomped out the burning flare and Murdock handed the girls on board, then the boys jumped in.

“Getting crowded in here,” a girl said.

Murdock decided it was like a Japanese subway when they all got onboard. Only fifteen and they were all standing. Murdock didn’t know what he would have done with two more. He stood at one door, and Jaybird guarded the other one.

“Let’s move, Lieutenant,” Murdock yelled and the pilot lifted off and headed south. He kept low as he worked almost due south. Murdock had been standing facing the side door with hands on the sides as a human safety strap. He turned around to face the rest of them and found a young woman almost nose to nose with him. She must have smiled but in the blacked-out bird Murdock could barely tell where she was.

“I’m Kathy Burnett,” she said. He recognized the voice as the one he had talked to before. “I’m a senior in Marine ROTC and I’ll be going into the service next spring.”

“I bet you’ve been holding this bunch together. Are they all pretty tough?”

“Most of them are now. The last two days have not been fun. I hate it that we lost those two guys. Mike was trying to protect us when they shot him.”

“We’ll get them back, but it’s going to take some time.
There’s a chance this invasion will be thrown back.”

Murdock felt the bird climbing. They had been yelling to make themselves heard. Now Murdock watched the ground fade into blackness.

“We’re probably climbing to get over the frontline action,” Murdock told the group. Some of them heard him. A moment later he heard something hit the outside of the Skyhawk. Then another hit.

“Ground fire?” Kathy asked.

He nodded, then he felt the slap of a round that hit his shoulder. The blow knocked his left hand off the side of the chopper and he swung inward. The girl caught him.

“You’re hit,” Kathy said. “You hang on to me. Somebody else is holding me so we shouldn’t fall out.”

Murdock fought down a wave of giddiness. Just a little rifle round. What the hell was he going to do, pass out in this civilian woman’s arms? He blinked then shook his head and heard the engine change its throbbing tune.

Slowly the rise of the chopper slowed, then stopped, and it began to head downward. At first it wasn’t rapid, then it increased. The engine revved and then revved again and the blades overhead continued to sing their lovely tune. Murdock tried to look outside. He couldn’t.

“Are we near the ground?” he asked the girl … Kathy.

“Not sure, we must have taken a round in the engine. It sounds real ragged, like it could stop almost anytime. We’re doing a controlled descent, that’s what they call it. Let’s hope we get low enough before anything gives out.” The mini-second she said it she knew she shouldn’t have. That’s when the engine quit and the rotors were on free-wheeling trying to lower the eighteen thousand pounds of machinery slowly to the ground.

“Hang on,” Murdock shouted in the sudden silence. One girl screamed. Then they hit. Murdock felt the landing gear crumple and the body smash into the ground. The big fuselage teetered a moment, then rolled slowly to the right as the long rotor blades slashed into the ground and shattered into pieces.

Murdock felt himself lying on top of other bodies. He knew he had to get up. From below someone pushed.

“Commander, can you get up to the door?” It was Kathy. “It’s almost over the top of us. The other door is in the dirt. We have to get out of here.”

He struggled to lift himself, then the chin-ups came into play and he rose enough to grab the side of the door, lift himself up, and belly over the aluminum. Then the pain in his left shoulder crashed in on him. He turned and slid to the ground. The pilot and copilot crawled out of the smashed cockpit and hurried around to help the rest of them out the one side door. SEALs lifted the students as high as they could, and the pilot and copilot reached up, grabbed them, and lifted them out. Murdock sat on the dirt and rocks. This area looked as if it had been burned off lately to prevent anyone from using the grass and shrubs as cover. His arm drilled pain into his brain.

Someone knelt beside him and pulled the first-aid kit off his combat vest. He could see her in the faintest of moonlight.

“You’ve done this before?”

“First-aid course, yes sir. Not on one who was bleeding. Catsup we used then. Hold still. The slug must still be in there. Probably from an AK-47. The Syrians use a lot of those NATO-round weapons. I’ll tie it up so you don’t bleed to death. Then we’ll figure out how far we are from the front and to Israeli lines.”

“Are you sure you’re not twenty-eight and a major in the Marines?”

“Sorry. I’m twenty and I’ll be a senior next year.” She paused. “If we get out of this one alive, that is, I’ll be a senior. There, that’s better. Now stay put while I talk to the pilot.”

They had all the passengers out of the chopper. Bradford came to find the commander and frowned at the bandage.

“You take a round, sir?”

“Afraid so. I was playing door. How far are we from the bad guys?”

“Not the slightest. I’ll ask the pilot.”

“Kathy already went to talk to him. She’s in ROTC. Might come in handy. Anyone else hurt in the crash?”

“Not that I know of. The kids are pretty shook up, but they’re young, they can take it. What do we do now, walk?”

“First we get away from this bird. It could blow up at any time. I smell leaking fuel. Help me move everyone south a hundred. Then sit down and wait. I’ll find the pilot.”

The pilot stood beside his craft shaking his head. “We didn’t pick up any ground fire through there before, none at all. They must have called out all the men and waited for us to come back. Sorry as hell to lose my bird. We aren’t anywhere near the MLR. At least nobody got killed.”

“We better move south, Lieutenant. Get away from here. Gonna be troops looking for it any second now.”

They moved. Kathy found them on the walk.

“The pilot says we’re just into Israeli territory. We’re maybe five miles from Zefat, and about fifteen to twenty to the front lines of fighting. It surges back and forth.”

They had just found the rest of the SEALs and students when Lam stood up and frowned. “Skipper, I heard something a while ago and didn’t get it for sure, but this time I’ve got it. Oh, oh, look over there. See that searchlight? It’s almost for sure attached to the chopper I can hear that must be searching for our sixty. That bird with its stream light is heading directly for us here in the open.”

“Listen up, everyone. That chopper is hunting us and the downed bird. Scatter, don’t be within ten yards of anyone else. Lie down and be absolutely still if the light comes anywhere near you. Cover up any white or light clothing. Go, now. Move, move, move.”

The students and SEALs spread out and huddled on the ground. There was some grass here, but mostly rocks, sand, and some small shrubs. Three SEALs curled around shrubs, making the plant look larger. Others went into a fetal position to look like a rock. The chopper swung toward them, then turned at right angles and covered an area a half mile away, then it turned back toward the SEALs. By the time it reached them it had angled fifty feet beyond the nearest SEAL, and it soon turned again and flew away from them. At the far end of its sweep, Murdock got the people on their feet and jogging away from the area.

They moved generally south, keeping the highway in sight but not using it. They saw several military convoys also going south to the action. Both the chopper pilot and copilot had hideout weapons that they now carried. A short time later, Kathy found Murdock and checked his arm.

“You have a penlight?”

He gave it to her and she looked over his wound, then bandaged it again, unbuttoned his shirt, put his left arm inside, and buttoned it again. “Works almost as good as a sling. If I had on panty hose I’d take them off and use them. They work great for an arm sling.”

Murdock frowned. “You’re Kathy Burnett, you said.
Don’t I remember a Senator Burnett, maybe from Colorado?”

“Not that I know of. There is a Senator Burnett from Idaho. He’s my father.”

“Your daddy carries a lot of weight in Washington. I’m glad he does. Now, with all of your military training, how the hell do we get past the Syrian front lines and then through the trigger-happy Israeli fighters without getting ourselves shot to pieces?”

“First you get me a weapon.”

“Can you shoot?”

“I’m on the rifle and pistol team in my unit. I’ve fired everything from a twenty-two to a forty-five and most of the automatic rifles including AK-47s, M-16s, your MP-5s, and I love to throw hand grenades.”

“I give.” Murdock reached to his left ankle with his right hand and pulled out the. 38 six-gun with a two-and-a-half-inch barrel and handed it to her. “Five rounds, hammer’s on the empty chamber. Don’t lose it.”

“Any more rounds?”

“You have any pockets?”

“Most jeans have a dozen.”

He reached into his combat vest and handed her a new box of. 38 rounds. “This should do you unless we really get into trouble.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

Lam came up beside Murdock. “What about a farm truck, Skipper? We’re in Israeli territory, they should be friendly.”

“So how do we get a truck through the fighting? Better we keep off the road and watch for an opening in the lines somewhere. How far to the front line?”

“I heard some heavy explosions a few minutes ago. Tank guns probably. The Syrians don’t have any one-five-fives down here. I’d say we’re maybe four to five miles away.”

“Kathy, how are the other girls holding up?”

“Fine. Well, mostly fine. Monica is a bit of a wimp. But she was the one on the Internet chat room, and I hear that saved our asses.”

“Watch her. We’re as fast as our slowest person, who probably is Monica. Shepherd her if we hit trouble. Your assignment, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir.” Kathy went back with the main group and found Monica.

“So how do we get through the fighting?” Lam asked.

“Best we do it at night. Our only chance. Outside of that, I don’t have the foggiest. We play it by ear and see what develops.”

“Maybe steal a Syrian six-by and drive right through their lines.”

“Sure and give the Israeli gunners a real target. We wouldn’t get halfway across no-man’s-land.”

Twenty minutes later, Monica sat down and refused to move another step. “Why did they shoot down our helicopter? We should be on the ship by now, not traipsing around out here in the cold and maybe getting shot at any minute. Damn, I just want to go home.”

Murdock heard about the mutiny and walked up close enough to hear. He continued until he stood in front of Monica.

“I understand you don’t want to walk any farther, Monica.”

She looked up, frowned in the darkness, and nodded. “Oh, yes, mister frogman, you have that right.”

“Fine with me. Let’s move. The rest of us are getting out of here. If you want to stay and take your chances with the Syrian Army, that’s your right. You have a nice evening.”

Murdock walked forward and everyone else followed him. They were all fifty yards away before Monica screamed at them, jumped up, and ran to catch up. “Bastards,” she shouted. “You fucking bastards. Just wait until I tell my dad about this.”

Murdock heard the rumblings of war ahead of them. “Monica, if you’re lucky, when you tell your dad, he might just think that you’re too old to spank. I don’t agree, but he might think that way.”

Jaybird came in from the left flank nearest the road where he had been a lookout. “Skipper, there’s a big convoy
coming down the road. At least two tanks, a whole pot full of infantry. They’re sure to have security out on both their flanks. We probably should veer off to the right, away from the highway for at least a half mile.”

“Agreed. Lam, head us out at a forty-five to the right and we better pick up the pace. Lam, how far to the fireworks?”

“Two miles, top, Skipper. I can hear small arms now.”

“Roger that, Lam. SEALs, I want all of you on the left side of our little band. Let’s string out into a column of twos, and stay five yards apart. Kathy, help us on this with the kids.”

They were barely a half mile from the road when the convoy and the troops came by. Lam put his people in the dirt, silent and still as the flankers roamed within two hundred yards of them. When the Syrians were well past, Murdock decided to keep his squad farther from the road. They hit some cultivated fields then, and farm buildings. But they were too close now to consider any transport.

“Skipper, I’ve been thinking,” Lam said on the radio. “We’ve got two twenties and a pot full of ammo. And the sniper rifle. And then the rest MP-5s. How can we set up a diversion or a simulated Israeli attack that would pull troops out of a frontline position and leave it temporarily undermanned?”