Seal Team Seven #19: Field of Fire (23 page)

“You have to press hard and firmly,” Millicent said. “The human skin is really rather tough.”

He tried again and this time the knife sank into the flesh as he drew it down two inches. Louise screamed and lifted up in bed, then fainted and fell back. Blood ran out of the cut. Millicent soaked it up with the sponges and spread the wound.

“Now, cut again, a little deeper. See the layer of fatty tissue? We need to get through that.”

Mahanani felt sweat beading on his forehead. He used the knife again and cut through the fatty tissue. Millicent spread the tissue apart. Mahanani looked in awe at the inside of the woman’s body. He could see a section of intestine. Millicent probed into the area with her fingers, pushed more tissue aside, then separated the muscles until she found what she wanted.

“Here it is, the appendix. Now, all we have to do is cut off that little extension. First, I’ll tie it off with a double knot below and above where you cut. That stops any bleeding and keeps the vile stuff in the appendix from leaking into the body cavity. You cut it off, and I’ll hold it and lift it out. Then I’ll be ready with my needle and thread and sew up any ruptures.” Millicent sweat as she reached in with the sewing thread and made the two tie-offs using double knots, and leaving a quarter of an inch between them. She wiped off her hands, then blotted her face and looked at Mahanani. “Ready?”

He nodded, put the sharp blade between the two thread tie-offs, and looked at the nurse. She nodded. Mahanani took a deep breath, steadied his hand, and sliced between the ties. Millicent held on to the end of the appendix as he cut, and then she quickly took it out of the way. She sponged the area with fresh sterile sponges, then using the curved needle from her sewing kit, she made six cross-stitches on the small area just behind the thread tie and cut the thread with a pair of scissors. She sponged the field around the intestines again. “I want to pick up any foreign matter that may have been introduced here,” she
said. Then she finished and pulled the muscles and fatty tissue back in place and stitched it all together neatly. To finish she used more thread and made several stitches, pulling the incision skin back together where the corps-man had cut through it.

When she was done she wiped the whole area with the antiseptic twice and put a sterile bandage over the incision and taped it in place. Then she looked up at Mahanani and hugged him. “We did it, we did it. I think we saved Louise’s life.”

Back on the fantail, Murdock used the SATCOM again to talk to the chopper pilot, who had pulled fifty yards away.

“We’re secure here, SH-60. Check with your CO for orders.”

“That’s a roger, SEALs.”

Murdock called the carrier and told them that the emergency operation was over and seemed successful. The doctor should continue to the yacht and check out the patient. Half of the SEALs had sacked out on the fantail. They had no idea what they were supposed to do. After all of the rush, rush, this had turned into a letdown for most of them. Not for Mahanani.

“You should have seen me. There I was operating on this woman. Blood spurting out everywhere. We were down to the last chance to save her life. I wielded the razor-sharp fish filleting knife and made the final cut to remove the diseased appendix.”

“Sure you didn’t vomit in the cut-open body when you saw that blood?” Jaybird called.

“Barfed? No way, not our glorious medical corpsman,” Miguel Fernandez said. “He couldn’t-he’d passed out the second he took that fish cutter in hand.”

Mahanani grinned. He’d done good and he knew it and that was all that mattered right then. Yes, he’d done a surgery. Those months of training had at last paid off.

Murdock came back from talking on the SATCOM. “Just had word from the carrier. She’s working a patrol pattern now instead of moving our way. The
Shiloh
will rendezvous with us. The doctor is still on the way in an
S and R chopper. He’ll come down by hoist and remain with the patient. The cruiser should get here before daylight. It wasn’t clear how far away from us she is. When she arrives she’ll put on a tow rope and haul us back into Haifa. No rush in our leaving the yacht, so we’re on light duty until we hit port.”

“Unless Don Stroh calls with another strange mission for us,” Gardner said.

One of the crewmen came up to Murdock and spoke quietly with him. He grinned and left.

“Now here’s some good news. The chef on board said he just found enough spaghetti and canned sauce to whip up a whole bunch of pasta, if anyone is interested. Should have enough for everyone, including some garlic toast and soft drinks.”

“The passengers and crew eat first,” Murdock said. “The SEALs will be at the end of the line.”

“Story of my life, end of the line,” Canzoneri said.

Bill Bradford came from around the bow of the ship with a grin. “Hey, Skipper. You told me to monitor the SATCOM. I sure as hell did. Somebody wants to talk to you. Your old buddy Don Stroh and he sounds so excited that he can hardly talk.”

“Here we go again,” Jaybird said. Murdock hurried to the bow to take the call from Don Stroh.

Haifa, Israel

Less than twenty hours after the spaghetti dinner on board the yacht
Inspiration
, Murdock and his top planners sat around a table at the Rahat Air Base. Israeli Air Force General Menuhin greeted them and turned the meeting over to Don Stroh. Murdock hadn’t had a chance to talk to Stroh before. He and the rest of the SEALs didn’t know what was coming next.

“Gentlemen, we have a problem, as one of our astronauts said a few years back. We could be facing a serious breach of top secret knowledge, skill, and training. We don’t want that to happen. You know about the EMP and the pulse bomb that put Haifa back into the Stone Age for a few hours. The city still hasn’t recovered from the effect of the electronic blowout.

“As most of you know, the United States abandoned the flux compression generator type of EMP bomb years ago. We’re so far past that that our top men in the field hardly remember it. One of those top men is Ronen Kugel. You may think that’s a German name, but it isn’t. It comes from the old-time Jewish Ashkenazi, Jews of central or eastern European origin. The point here is that Ronen is an American scientist who had been visiting with his brother’s family here in Israel.”

“He got himself overrun by the Syrians,” Jaybird said.

“Correct, just like the college kids. He’s extremely high up in the physics field where the government is working to develop ultra-high-temperature superconductors to create
intense magnetic fields. If any of you understand that, please explain it to me later.

“Right now Ronen is somewhere in northern Israel behind Syrian lines. We want him back unharmed and in his right mind. He is a national asset that we can’t afford to lose, or to have captured and utilized by the Syrians.”

“So we go in and bring him out,” Murdock said. “Any idea where he might be, where he has been, who he might be hiding with?”

“No, no, and not really,” Stroh said. “We know that originally he was in Karmi’el, that’s about twelve miles below the buffer zone between us and Lebanon. Yes, well above the line the Syrians moved to on the first day of the invasion. His wife had been with him but went to Haifa the night before the invasion for a meeting with friends. She talked with him by cell phone that evening, and he said he would stay there for another week and then join her in Tel Aviv. That was our last contact with him. His cell phone was blasted into mush like everyone else’s.”

“Where are the front lines of the battle zones now?” JG Gardner asked.

One of the army generals at the table went to a large-scale map on the wall and using a pointer showed how the magnetic markers gave a visual depiction of the MLR.

“We have regained much of our lost territory,” the general said. “However in this central section where Karmi’el is situated, we have run into intense opposition. Our MLR around that central zone is still well over fifteen miles into Israel.”

“Do you now control Zefat?” Murdock asked.

“We do and most of the territory north of there to the buffer zone.”

“Did you bring out the bodies of the two American students killed near Zefat?” Murdock asked.

“We did, yesterday if I’m correct on that,” the general said.

“So how do we get across the MLR?” Lam asked.

“I understand you men are good at doing that,” the general said.

“Only when we have to, sir,” Murdock said. “This time we won’t have any pretty girls to sing for us.”

“Chopper in, chopper out the only way,” Jaybird said.

“Officially we’re not part of this war,” Don Stroh said.

“So make it a black op,” JG Gardner said. “Paint the I.D. off a Sea Knight. Fly it in here from the
Stennis
and we’re in business.”

“That would be a way in,” Murdock said. “We fly Israeli territory up to Zefat and then cross the MLR and drop in as close to Karmi’el as we can get and start our search. Somebody there must know where he is or where he went.”

General Menuhin looked at Stroh. Stroh looked back at Murdock. “Hell, Stroh, a black op is nothing new to you or the carrier. You can stash the Sea Knight back at Zefat for a quick retrieval and we’re back in the barracks in time for morning chow.”

“I’d have to talk to Washington.”

“You already used the SH-60 into enemy-held land,” Gardner said. “What’s the difference?”

“Nine college kids with important fathers, that’s the difference.”

“One other difference,” Murdock said. “That was an Israeli sixty, not one of ours. It was shot down, remember, and the pilots were Israelis.”

“Yet this man is a high-up biggie in the pulse bomb department and you won’t even pop one Sea Knight to get him back?” Senior Chief Sadler asked.

Murdock shook his head. “Stroh, tell the CIA if they want Ronen back, they are going to have to risk some assets besides sixteen SEALs. We can’t function on fumes. We need some go power.”

Stroh hesitated. “Can you guarantee that the bird won’t be shot down?”

“I’ll guarantee it, Stroh,” Gardner said. “Of course my guarantee isn’t worth a cent when the Syrians start popping away with their AK-47s. Just one of those NATO-sized rounds in an oil line or a fuel tube and that bird is history. You know that. The CIA knows that. How bad do you want Ronen back in safe territory?”

General Menuhin held up his hand. “We can help here. We can give you solid support right up to the MLR on the ground, then do some intense attacks with tanks and infantry where you want to cross the main line of resistance. You’ll do it at night, so there shouldn’t be a lot of action from the MLR. Still a five-minute firefight right at your crossing point should give you enough cover to get into the occupied zone. Can you inform Washington about that, Mr. Stroh?”

Don Stroh nodded. “Can and will. Actually I’ve been given carte blanche on this problem. I can use any assets we have as long as I don’t sink a carrier. We’ll bring in two forty-sixes, the Sea Knights, from the carrier. Base them here. Can we get fuel and resupply for them?” Stroh asked, looking at the general.

“Anything you need.”

“Then I’ll get right on the horn and fly in two forty-sixes, one for backup. What time is it?”

“A little after sixteen-hundred,” Lam said.

“I’ll have the forty-sixes here in two hours. Let’s plan on going in as soon as they are ready after that, say eighteen-thirty. Be more than dark by the time you get to your landing zone.”

“Get the coordinates on that town,” Murdock said. “You SEALs, let’s get back to our quarters and work over equipment and check on ammo. We will need some. General, who can our chief see about ammo?”

“I’ll send a man to your quarters,” the general said and then stood. The rest of the men shot to attention. “Gentlemen, good luck, and call me if you need anything.”

“Special mess?” Jaybird asked.

“I’ll call the mess hall nearest you,” one of the Israeli colonels at the big table said. “Be there at seventeen-hundred.”

Stroh walked with them back toward their quarters.

“Looks like we’re flying blind again,” Murdock said. “A real search and rescue mission. I like it a lot better when we can pinpoint where we’re going and how we get there.”

“Hey, I got you two choppers. No high and dry this time.”

“At least you keep us employed,” Jaybird said. “Better than sitting on our asses for six months on some carrier fucking around the South Pacific or the Persian Gulf.”

“Yeah, how do we get out of that duty?” Rafii asked.

“The CNO told your captain to take your platoon out of the rotation list,” Stroh said. “I thought you guys knew that.”

“Most of us did,” Murdock said.

“Have you got a picture and description of this Kugel jasper?” Gardner asked.

“Actually I do. One taken just last year. In my kit. I’ll get it right now and meet you in your quarters.”

“Ronen Kugel.” Murdock said. “You say he’s about fifty. We’re going to need chapter and verse on him. We don’t want to snatch the wrong guy.”

“I’ll have it. Get suited up and some chow and I’ll meet you well before takeoff. I’ve got to get those two Sea Knights in here.” Stroh turned and walked quickly away toward his own quarters.

It was old hat to the experienced SEALs. Get back from one mission and turn around fast and go out on another one. The newer men were still a little surprised by it all. Mahanani got his gear ready quickly and took his medic kit to the base hospital. He told the officer in charge what he wanted.

“I can’t just give you those supplies,” a captain with medical insignia said.

“Sure you can. Call Colonel Rothman over at General Menuhin’s office. The general said to ask if we wanted something. I can make the call. Oh, no phones yet. So use that radio over there. I bet you can raise the colonel.”

Mahanani grinned as the captain talked to Colonel Rothman.

“Yes, sir. An unusual request. Yes, I understand. Any-thing he wants that he can carry. Right, sir. Thank you.”

The captain put down the radio and laughed. “Well, you do know people in high places. Right down here. I’ll
let you talk to Lieutenant Tamar. She’ll be able to get what you want.”