| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 27 - continued |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 11:21:37 07/14/10 Wed
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TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 27 - continued" on 10:56:42 07/07/10 Wed
PREVIOUSLY:
Mac looked up at the crumbling sides of the fortification when she and the others joined Dallas, Bradenton and Bledsoe. The bombs had ripped a large gash which could collapse in on itself at any moment in the fortification’s side.
“The first bunker is right over there, ma’am” Mark said, trying not to let his voice carry.
“Okay, bounding overwatch by twos to the bunker entrance; don’t make it too obvious…they might be on the lookout for infiltrators…”
******************
...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 27
“Okay, Burke and Bledsoe; go!”
The SEAL and Recon Marine hustled across the blasted yard to the bunker entrance, easily blending in with the Fedayeen and members of al Sahood’s unit that were tending to the wounded and recovering the dead. They took cover behind a fiercely burning UAZ Russian jeep which had ended up skidding to a stop in front of the bunker.
Mac and Kayce went in next, following the same path as Burke and Bledsoe. Dallas and Bradenton were last. The smoke and stench from the burning jeep kept anyone from investigating them too closely.
Kayce looked around. “No one’s coming out of these bunkers….”
Burke was looking around at the wreckage. Some of it wasn’t as damaged and that’s when he saw it. “That’s because everything out here was meant to be sacrificed; they are Shahid! Now it all makes sense, Colonel; Sahood considers them expendable in order to get a chance to strike at the 36th!”
Arnie couldn’t believe what he was saying. “But all this equipment--”
But Sergeant Bradenton saw it too. “Battlefield junk cobbled together just enough to look operational!”
“So where are Sahood’s vehicles?” wondered Kayce. The entrance closest to them didn’t look big enough to drive a vehicle into.
Mark Dallas knew. “Still underground in the garages…waiting for the strikes to be finished….”
Arnie said aloud what they were all thinking. “We gotta get in there somehow….”
Mac spotted one lone insurgent carrying a field phone. Every few steps he would stop and speak into his microphone and then start moving again. The Light Colonel could see he was headed toward what looked like a dome just to the left of their bunker.
Kayce saw him too. Before anyone could say anything, she lay down her rifle, got up and ran towards him.
The man halted as Kayce ran towards, then past him and began to beat on the bunker’s sealed doors.
“<>” She cried piteously as she continued hammering on the closed doors with her fists.
The insurgent ran over to her. “<>” he said harshly to her.
Kayce continued beating on the doors, ignoring him.
“Fatah!!” she moans, almost as if she was in agony.
The man grabbed her arm roughly, stopping her wretched calls.
“What are you doing out here, girl?’ He demanded.
“I had just wanted to say goodbye to my boyfriend,” Kayce began, sounding like a woman in shock as she pointed to a destroyed tank.
He took a quick glance at the wreck then turned back to her and shook her harshly. “Are you crazy? You could have been killed! How did you get in here?!”
Kayce did her best to look ashamed. “I know! I know!! I wasn’t thinking clearly…I didn’t think it would be this bad….”
The insurgent gave her a look reserved for the dumbest of animals, but an exceedingly pretty one, nevertheless. He would take pity on her. This time. “Well,” he said gently steering her away from the bunker door, “Let’s get you out of here before the Americans come back to finish the job….”
He took Kayce toward the dome. Pulling on the manhole cover on the culvert attached to the side of the dome, he opened it and allowed her to go in first. As he started to bend down and follow her in, he was grabbed by Al Bradenton. The big Recon Sergeant held him for a few moments while he flailed and tried to break Bradenton’s iron grip. After a few more moments, the man’s struggling grew weaker and then ceased altogether. Bradenton then swiftly turned his head, making certain the man would not come to and alert anyone else to their presence. He took the man’s radio set and set it down by the entrance.
The Recon Sergeant then pulled the dead insurgent outside, a fair distance away from the entrance.
Others of Mac’s team went into the tunnel with Corporal Bledsoe acting as rear guard.
Compared with the stifling heat outside, the bunker was cool. The interior was polished smooth concrete with overhead florescent lighting. The room they were in was seemed to double as an observation area. Off to the right was a driveway leading down further underground. The drive was illuminated every few feet by the same florescent lighting.
“The vehicles must be parked down below….” Mac stated as she motioned for the others to follow.
“It must’ve cost a mint to put this in here,” Kayce said as she left the room and headed down the garage ramp, “Where’d they get the money and materials?”
“I’d say probably courtesy of Osama bin Laden…and Uday and Qusay probably chipped in some money as well….” Al Bradenton quipped.
Mark Dallas shot both junior enlisted troopers a cutting glare to knock off the chit-chat. Even if it was whispered, American voices in an Iraqi bunker would not be met with smiles and hugs.
Mac suddenly froze, causing the others to stop as well. The Light Colonel held her hand up to indicate they had located the enemy. Everyone behind flattened against the closest wall, as voices and vehicle noises could be heard drifting up from below.
Mac exchanged furtive glances with Mark Dallas. Dallas turned and motioned to Bradenton and Bledsoe who moved past Light Colonel.
“We’ll check it out ma’am,” Dallas whispered. “If we see the missiles, we’ll let you know….”
Mac nodded. The three Force Recon Troopers crept down the driveway toward the brightly lit parking area. The Light Colonel watched as they disappeared around a corner.
Above them, Mac and the others could hear bombs starting to fall. That would Patrick Henry’s second strike. Concrete dust sifted down from the reinforced roof as the whole ramp shook. Mac, Kayce and Ryan held their breath as dust filled the air. Down below in the garage area, all noise had ceased.
Lights flickered as the bombing continued – it reminded Mac of those old war movies where the submarine was being bombarded by depth charges. The only thing was that if the roof above them failed, instead of having tons of water rushing in, they would have tons of concrete falling on their heads. She prayed that the roof was as strong as it looked.
Soon the bombing grew fainter and fainter until it grew quiet again. Down below, the vehicle noises and talking resumed.
“How much longer do we give them Colonel?” Kayce asked urgently. She knew that they only had a small window of opportunity and it was growing smaller with each air attack that went on above them.
Staff Sergeant Dallas stuck his head back around the corner and motioned for them to join him.
As Mac and others started toward the garage, the sound of bombing could be heard growing louder and louder above their heads.
More concrete dust sifted down all around them. Again the garage grew silent as the bombing picked up in intensity.
“The missile trucks are down at the far end of the garage,” Mark told the Light Colonel as best he could, given the noise above their heads. “The missiles themselves are still sitting on their trailers – they haven’t been loaded onto the trucks yet…Bradenton and Bledsoe are keeping an eye on them…this way.”
Mac nodded and followed as did Kayce and Ryan. The explosions sounded like they were happening right above their heads.
Apparently heavily armed militia members milling around were not unusual in the underground garage. No one said anything to them as they walked down the length of the bay past tanks and personnel carriers – operational ones – headed towards the missile trucks.
The bombing above their heads receded again. Two strikes down…next would be air attacks by planes from Reprisal. Vehicle crews began working again, making last minute adjustments to their preciously hoarded assets.
Nobody seemed to notice or care as Mac and the others made their way to where the Sergeant and Lance Corporal were watching the missile truck crews. The Light Colonel had expected by now that they would have been accosted by someone asking them ‘what did they think they were doing….’
It was time to act before someone started asking questions they couldn’t answer. Mac turned to her team. “Ryan; you act as our leader. Start asking them questions about where we are supposed to be. Everyone else, play dumb. Speak only if spoken to.”
Ryan and the others nodded. After another moment, the Petty Officer strutted over to a gangly looking soldier wearing an ill-fitting Iraqi Army uniform. Mac and the others cast their eyes downward as Ryan turned back to them and began to berate them in Arabic for their stupidity.
The gangly soldier turned toward Ryan and the others. Sahood had gathered Arab fighters from across the Middle East, so he wasn’t surprised that some of these jihadists might have bought surplus U.S. military uniforms. The Petty Officer turned on his heel and faced the soldier, demanding to know where were their vehicles? After all, *they* were supposed to *be escorting* the missile trucks once they left the compound.
The soldier looked mystified and stammered that he didn’t know what Ryan was talking about. Staff Sergeant Dallas spoke up, saying he thought their vehicles were back toward the front entrance of the garage, but this only earned him a sharp rebuke from Ryan.
The soldier wasn’t sure what to make of any of this; maybe he should let an officer handle this officious jerk. He got Ryan’s attention. ‘Wait here,” he told him and went off in search of someone who could deal with him.
Now Mark Dallas took over, barking at a group of technicians who were standing next to a URAL-375V tanker truck with a red rectangle panel attached to the side of tank. Mac noted the panel had the code +OB [chemical] in Cyrillic and the same code in Arabic script.
The men, obviously suspecting that they had been caught goofing off, scattered, looking for something to do.
“Okay, we got maybe three minutes or less before someone comes back and asks us what the hell we’re doing…” Dallas said as he watched the technicians scatter.
Ryan nodded and produced a canister with a sealed lid from under his Bedouin outfit.
“What’s that?” Kayce asked as she divided her attention between the canister and keeping an eye out for anyone nosing around.
“Courtesy of the CIA; it was designed to make Hydrogen Cyanide inert. I need to dump it into the tanker’s intake valve and then release it into the reservoir tank.”
“How long will take to work?” To Mac it seemed like an awful small amount of reagent for such a large tanker truck of HCN. She hoped Clay and the CIA’s whiz kids had guessed right.
Ryan punctured the seal and began pouring the reagent into the intake valve of the tanker. “Once I release it into the reservoir, it only takes a few minutes. The sloshing around caused by moving the truck takes care of the rest…”
“Well hurry up and empty it in,” Mark replied, “We don’t want anyone seeing you fooling around that intake valve--”
“Company’s coming!” Arnie hissed urgently.
Ryan stood up. The gangly insurgent was accompanied by bearded severe looking man wearing a turban. The tall insurgent was having trouble keeping step with the quick moving insurgent leader.
“Who are you?! Can’t you read signs?! It says ‘no unauthorized personnel beyond this point’!!” He barked at Ryan.
“And I was told to bring my team down here and report for escort duty!!” Ryan Burke fired back with equal venom.
The bearded insurgent dismissed his rebuke. “Escort duty?! You son of cow! Who told you that?!”
“I did, Faheem….” Mac noted that the third man that had joined the two others was wearing a Republican Guard officer’s uniform.
“Faheem looked flustered. “Ra’id [Captain] al Bazz! You did not clear this with me--!”
“I know, and I apologize Faheem,” the smiling officer turned to Ryan. “You and your team should come with me….”
Mac didn’t know what to make of this turn of events, but Ryan wasn’t acting nervous or concerned. (Whatever Burke has up his sleeve better work…) the Light Colonel thought as she followed Ryan. Dallas and the others followed Mac’s lead.
Once they were out of earshot of Faheem, the Captain [Ra’id] seemed to relax. “I was wondering when you would get here, old friend,” he said to Ryan in Arabic as they continued walking.
The Petty Officer had the faintest trace of smile on his face. “Had some trouble with some of Colonel Livingston’s loyalists that had to be taken care of first, Hosan.”
The Captain smiled briefly as he turned to Mac. “And you must be the JAG Corps Marine attorney that Clayton Webb told us all about. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of my countrymen and for trying to stop these madmen.”
Mac didn’t know what to say to him. He merely gave her another smile and turned back to the SEAL. (Just what had Clay told him?) Mac wondered.
“Time is running short, my friend,” the Iraqi Captain told the SEAL. “The first strike force from Reprisal should be here soon. We need to get you and Colonel MacKenzie’s team out of here before anyone begins to suspect…”
“So where are we headed?” Petty Officer Burke asked.
Hosan al Bazz opened a steel reinforced door
“Here; this protected stairwell leads up to the surface.” He shook Ryan’s hand as the others entered the stairwell. “Go with God.”
Mac was the last to enter. She paused and stared at Hosan. She wanted to say something about his bravery, praising his sacrifice. But the words she heard in her mind sounded hollow and fake – he was facing possible death because of what he was doing, and the platitudes coming to her brain just didn’t seem adequate.
Behind them, she could hear running footsteps. The Iraqi Captain quickly pushed her inside the door.
<> He said quietly to her as if reading her mind and understanding what she wanted to say.
Mac’s eyes flared in surprise. There wasn’t any time left—the footsteps were getting closer.<>Mac replied and shut the door.
Through the door, the Light Colonel could faintly hear three pistol reports and muffled shouts and other voices. Ryan jerked his head back toward the door and at her; she could see he wanted to go back and help his friend.
“The Captain bought us time to get out of here, Petty Officer, let’s not make it in vain...”
Ryan Burke slowly nodded. “Aye ma’am,” He said reluctantly.
As they headed up the stairwell, Mac’s team could hear explosions growing louder, signaling that Reprisal’s first airstrike was underway.
The stairwell began to shake violently as the planes continued releasing their ordnance. Mac, Kayce and the others hugged the wall of the stairwell and prayed it wouldn’t collapse on top of them.
The thunderous explosions seemed to go on forever. Mac figured at any moment an iron bomb or rocket would penetrate the stairwell wall and they’d all be dead.
Then, as before, the noise of explosions grew fainter. Mac, Ryan and the others continued their trek up the stairwell – so far no one had tried to stop them. Mac wondered if the Iraqi Captain was still alive.
When they got to the stairwell landing, Ryan tried the door. It didn’t move. Ryan and Mark Dallas pushed against the door – whatever was holding it closed gave way.
A hot acrid wind greeted them as they moved outside. The inside the walls of the blasted fortification looked like hell on earth. The ground all around them was torn and gouged from near misses. The fortress walls were shattered in several places. Al-Sahood’s decoy force was a shattered flaming ruin. Bodies and parts of bodies were everywhere.
Mac tried her best to ignore the carnage. She noted that the others were trying to do the same. They hustled to the side of the fortress to the hole where they had first entered.
They all knew that the next strike from Reprisal would start soon. Mac really doubted they would have time to get far enough away from the fortress to survive. Besides that, some of the aircraft might look for targets of opportunity instead of continuing to beat up the badly damaged fortress. Al Bradenton was first to voice what everyone else was thinking.
“There’s no way we’re gonna to get out of here in time, Colonel.”
“Reprisal’s next strike force will be here soon…” Kayce added nervously as she looked at her watch.
“We’d probably be better off on the stairwell landing,” Arnie Bledsoe observed morosely.
“Or we could just hop a ride with them, Lance Corporal.” Staff Sergeant Dallas said pointing to a distant speck that was growing by the moment.
It was Hatchet 07 – someone…Captain al Bazz? Had told them that Mac’s team would need a fast evac.
“Let’s get back to that hillock,” Mac ordered, “We’re probably gonna take another bungee cord ride.”
Mac and her team reached the hillock just as Hatchet 07 began lowering its SPIES rope.
*~*
Eagle squadron was airborne and winging its way back towards Mirbullah.
Instead of the cluster and laser guided bombs that were given to them on Patrick Henry, the ground crew at Talil Air Base gave them the only munitions that they had on hand – iron bombs and napalm.
Harm wasn’t a big fan of napalm, but he knew sometimes you had to ‘play with the hand dealt to you.’
The attorney/aviator listened to the radio traffic as strike groups from Reprisal and Seahawk pounded Objective India. He wondered for the briefest of moments if Mac was safe. He hadn’t felt any indications that she was in danger or that she was in pain. In fact, he hadn’t felt anything. What worried him most about these, ‘psychic impressions’ as Mac had reluctantly called them, was that he couldn’t even tell if he was interpreting them correctly or not. It could be that ‘feeling’ nothing meant she was fine (…or it could mean just the opposite). He quickly pushed that unpleasant idea from his mind.
As he looked down, he could see they were passing over Mirbullah and in a few moments would be passing over where Colonel Baxter and the 36th MEU had been stalled earlier this morning. After that, it wouldn’t be long before they would be over Objective India again.
“Pie Tin to Eagle Two One, Pie Tin to Eagle Two One, do you copy?”
Harm wondered what news they had. “Pie Tin, this is Eagle Two One, I copy.”
“Eagle; be advised…Big Bird strike has been delayed by squalls over Diego Garcia….”
Harm looked in his mirror at his Radar Intercept Officer. Pete ‘Clyde’ Gibbons looked just as concerned as he felt. The Big Bird strike, meaning the B-52 and B-1 strikes that Captain Ingles had told them would deliver the coup de grace to Objective India, were going to be late. Which meant someone was going to have to harass the insurgents until the bombers arrived. And since everyone else was on their way safely back to their carriers, that meant Eagle squadron (by default) would have to keep hounding al-Sahood’s men until they arrived.
“By how much, Pie Tin?” The aviator/lawyer asked.
“They are at least 30 minutes behind you, Eagle.”
Harm did some quick mental calculations in his head. With the rate of fuel burn and number of passes needed to drop all of their new ordnance, plus the distance back to Patrick Henry – they’d have just enough to get back.
He hoped Mac was having better luck than they were having. “Copy Pie Tin…Eagle acknowledges.”
“Good luck Eagle…Pie Tin out.”
*~*
“Is CPO Davis certain they are here, Commander?” Gunny asked.
‘Rat Patrol’ CO Brad May nodded. “Davis and Petty Officer Broadland have been keeping tabs on Livingston since she had Pelican Three shot down….”
Petty Officer Vickers slowed to a stop. Master Chief Petty Officer Coskill leaned down from his M2-HB mount into the HMMWV cab. “They’re loaded for bear, Commander. I count at least two GAZ gun trucks around those buildings….”
Brad grunted. “We’ll have to take out those gun trucks first….”
*~*
Having left Corporal Raden, Lance Corporal Pogue and Corporal Day with Sergeant Canella and his men, the two NCIS Agents made their way overland towards Objective India.
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t ride with Colonel Baranova, Gibbs….” Tony said. Playing soldier was not exactly his idea of fun.
The senior NCIS Agent smiled to himself. He knew exactly why Tony wanted to ride with the Polish Colonel and it didn’t have anything to do with being tired. “Pulkownik Baranova is our diversion, Tony. We’re going after al-Sahood.”
“You’re the big bad sniper, Boss, you could take out Sahood with one shot; what do you need me for?”
Gibbs tried to ignore the whining tone in Tony’s voice. Tony DiNozzo had been his right hand man since 2001. It hadn’t been easy slipping into Mike Franks’ shoes, but Tony had made the job a little easier for the senior NCIS Agent. For that reason alone, Gibbs was willing to let the former Baltimore police detective get away with more then he would have let others get away with.
Gibbs turned to his senior field agent. “Because we’re going to take al-Sahood and Hamid al-Harib alive, DiNozzo….”
*~*
Mac looked down below and could see they were fast approaching a group of farm buildings where a heated fire fight was taking place. There were two GAZ-66 gun trucks whose heavy machine guns could have been fatal to Hatchet 07, but both of their crews were prone on the trucks’ beds. Obviously, they had been killed before they could bring their heavy weapons to bear.
She could see that Gunny’s and Commander May’s Marines and Sailors were exchanging fire with Colonel Livingston’s troops.
All of the noise of the battle was lost to the thumping rotors of the PaveLow, until the rattle of the big helo’s machine guns signaled that they had entered the fight.
Gunny Galindez looked up and saw Captain Casey’s MH-53M helo approaching with the Colonel and her team still suspended from their SPIES rope. The Special Operations helo had all of its guns blazing away at the one of the abandoned farm houses where Darcy Livingston’s men had managed to get one of the dismounted heavy machine guns from the pickup trucks into action.
The other three trucks were burning wrecks along with a couple of insurgent jeeps. That only left them with two pickup trucks as getaway vehicles. And with the volume of fire they were pouring into those houses, they weren’t leaving anytime soon.
“Sustained grazing and harassing fire! Keep them from taking pot shots at the Colonel and her team!” Gunny told the others.
The Recon Marines of Shark Two and remnants of Shark Three renewed their efforts to stop the members of Shark One before they could hurt Colonel MacKenzie or bring down Hatchet 07.
Despite the volume of fire directed at Livingston’s men, a few of Darcy’s Recon soldiers still managed to fire at the big helo.
Don Casey didn’t like hearing bullets whack and ping off the sides of his heavily armored machine. He knew that if they were taking fire that meant that JAG Corps Colonel and her team hanging onto their SPIES rope, like sausage links tied with string, were also dodging bullets.
He swung the MH-53M helicopter away from the firefight.
Brad May watched as the Special Operations bird retreated. He didn’t blame the pilot. MacKenzie and her team were sitting ducks as long as they were suspended in the air like that.
“Commander! I’ve got a pickup truck at our five o’clock, moving in fast!”
Gunny turned his head toward this newly announced threat and saw several familiar faces. “It’s Staff Sergeant Corbin and his team!”
“Hot damn!” Whooped Logan, “The gang’s all here!!”
“Don’t lose your head, Logan!” Casmir Szymas warned, “This battle’s far from won!!”
Hatchet 07 lowered Mac and her team to the ground a safe distance away from the firefight. It only took them moments to get unhooked and away from the hovering machine.
“Flanking fire!” Mac shouted to her Recon Marines as they swept around to the left of the buildings. “Continue with oblique fire when we get as close as we can!”
As the Light Colonel’s team tried to flank the buildings, Sergeant Williams, Sergeant Dahl and Corporal Burges used their pickup trucks’ machine guns to lay down additional suppressive fire on Colonel Livingston’s positions. Eddie Willet pulled up beside them, climbed into the back of his truck and added his machine gun to the heavy weapons that were chewing up the walls of the buildings.
To the right of Sergeant Williams’ pickup trucks, Commander May and the SEAL Team ‘Rat Patrol’ along with Gunny Galindez’ team and the defectors from Shark Three continued their attack on the buildings.
“We’re not making any headway, Master- I mean, Gunny!” Joe Corbin yelled as he joined Victor and Commander May in their dug-in positions in front of the farm buildings.
Victor nodded. Darcy had at least twenty two dedicated soldiers at her disposal and that didn’t include the platoon of Fedayeen Saddam leavened with squads of insurgents from al-Sahood’s terrorist cell. Even with addition of ‘Rat Patrol’ it was too much for them to overcome.
Gunny squawked his radio. “Sierra Six Mike Actual this is Sierra One!”
“Go Sierra One!”
“Recommend rocket attack, Actual!”
Normally Mac would have delayed, trying to find an alternative. But if combat had taught her anything, it was that sometimes there were no alternatives – especially with time running out.
There was no hesitation in her voice. “Understood Sierra One, Fire at will!!”
Objective India
Thick smoke from obliterated armored vehicles covered the entire fortress. The only sounds other than the detonation of another fuel tank or the pop, pop, pop of ‘cooking off’ ammunition was the roar of Seahawk’s last squadron as they headed back to their carrier.
Then one of the bunker’s blast doors began to move. Slowly at first, then it opened wider and wider. The throaty roar of armored vehicle engines echoed from deep within the bunker. Slowly, one by one, they began to emerge into the smoky daylight like beasts from hell.
The first vehicle to emerge, a Romanian built TR-77 tank, growled loudly as it's V-12 water cooled diesel engine belched out a large bluish oily cloud of exhaust into the hot smoggy air. Almost in unison, the other combat vehicles in the IBDP roared to life and began to surge upward and forward out of another bunker which had just opened its doors.
Behind the undamaged tanks and OT-64 personnel carriers, two sand colored armed ZIL-135L4 rocket trucks rumbled out of the bunker, followed by two MAZ-543P 9M117M1 Transporter Erector Launchers [TELs].
Aboard each of these MAZ trucks was a single SS-1C R-17E tactical missile loaded with al-Sahood’s Hydrogen Cyanide [HCN]. The cross country monsters were followed by five URAL-375 6x6 trucks fitted with box-like containers. These smaller trucks were the ‘eyes and ears’ of the rocket trucks, feeding them meteorological and navigational data crucial to making sure Sahood’s missiles and rockets would land on target.
Behind the URAL trucks, were a brace of UAZ-469 jeeps and a Land Rover. Ra’id al-Bazz sat in the back seat of the Land Rover. Akmed Faheem turned and smiled at the Republican Guard Captain. “It is a glorious day, isn’t it, Captain?”
Hosan al-Bazz nodded. “A glorious day, Faheem, a glorious one indeed.”
*~*
“Take Cover!!” yelled Sergeant Williams. Sergeant Dahl jumped clear of the bed of his pickup truck just as four M-202 rockets buried themselves in the truck’s engine and detonated, ripping the truck to pieces. Sal looked to his right. Don Burges’ truck was belching flames. Thankfully they hadn’t lost anyone but they were down to two trucks. Commander May was more fortunate. He had backed his vehicles away just in time as four more rockets tore up the sand and ground where they had just been.
It had been a classic preemptive strike and had scored, but Gunny wasn’t about give up yet. “All Flash teams fire at will!!” he ordered.
“On the way!” was the answer from Shark Two and Shark Three’s rocket teams.
The house closest to Mac erupted into flames as four rockets slammed into the stone structure.
One of the two Fedayeen pickup trucks blew apart as the second group of rockets slammed into it.
That left Darcy’s men with one pickup truck. Darcy could still get away if she wanted to, but the majority of her men would have to break out on foot if they wanted to escape.
Mac was buoyed by what she saw. They might yet have a chance to stop Darcy. “Flash teams! Aim for the second truck!”
But the teams didn’t have good news. “We’re Winchester 66mm rounds, ma’am!” reported Lance Corporal Crockett.
The Light Colonel silently cursed their luck. To get so close to stopping Darcy Livingston and run of rockets. Well, they still had Shark Three’s Flash team--
“Same here, Colonel; Winchester 66mm rounds!”
---TBC...
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