Deathrace (22 page)

“I want every man to take care of his own chute and harness. Bury them down the sides in the gullies where moved dirt won’t be a clue. Lampedusa, we’ll leave our gear and chutes here for Franklin and Douglas to take care of. All of you find a hide hole and get situated. You can get some sleep in before dawn. Lam, let’s get the hell out of here.”

They used their NVG, night vision goggles, and that helped out at once, showing a gentle slope down from the saddle to a small valley below and then a ridge beyond it. They climbed the second ridge without finding much in the way of an easy route to the nuke plant. It would be muscle versus the mountain.

Murdock checked his watch every half hour.

They took a break at the top of the third ridgeline. From there they could see the lights of the factory.

“Not sure if they have a night shift or if those are security lights,” Murdock said.

“They must have barracks or houses, supply and stores, a whole damn city up here. Wonder how many workers they have inside that place.”

“Too many, I’d guess,” Murdock said. “I hope they are beyond the point where they need a night shift. We’ll have to chase all the civilians out of there before we blow the place.”

An hour later they lay just outside of a high wire fence around the nuclear bomb operation. The wire could be electrified; they’d find out about that later. Here earth-moving machines had widened a good-sized valley by shaving off the sides of hills until the space was big enough for the complex.

Murdock figured it was about a half mile long, with a series of large and smaller buildings. They’d have to find out which one held the final assembly.

“Up there, L-T. See where that cut is on the hill? The fence is not quite as high as the cut. We could jump over there easily if the damn fence is juiced.”

“Noted,” Murdock said. “Which building is the one we want?”

“We watch them for a while,” Lam said. “My guess would be the smaller one in the middle with the extra lights around it.”

As they watched, a jeeplike vehicle came around the corner of the structure, paused, and two men in the rig went up and checked on the doors. They got back in, and drove around the far corner of the place.

“So, probably no workers inside that one at night,” Murdock said. “Does it get special protection, I’m wondering.”

They ducked low into the smattering of weeds and boulders as a vehicle swung out from the nearest building and drove to the fence, then along it, as it made a circuit around the part of the fence they could see.

When it was gone, Murdock lifted up and checked his watch. “Better time this one. I figure the jeep is on a schedule, and makes the rounds of the fence every so often. Be good to know. We’ll have to be through our hole, and have the fence rewired, and be out of sight forward before the driver comes back here.”

“L-T, we gonna move up during the afternoon and get here just after dark?”

“Sounds good. That will give us ten hours of darkness to get the job done and haul ass out of here. They’ll hound us all the way to the coast. Probably bring in a blocking force once they see where we’re headed. That could be rough. First we have to get those bombs taken care of.”

A half hour later the jeep did its run around the fence again.

“A half hour should be time enough,” Lam said.

Murdock stared at the complex. Where would be the best place to breach the fence? There should be the least security at the far end, but then they’d have a longer run to whichever building they needed.

They heard a chopper. It lifted upward from the far side of the largest lighted building, and swept over the complex end-to-end, then it did a circuit of the fence with its brilliant spotlight tracing a twelve-foot-wide circle on the ground, as it moved along little faster than a walk.

“That could be real trouble,” Lam said.

“We’ll have to take it out early on. I hope they have only one. Wish there was some way we could know how many troops they have inside that wire.”

“Looks like we’ll need a diversion hit,” Lam said. “We send three guys up to the far end, maybe one of the fifties, and an MG. We put some forty mike-mikes in there and blast a building with the fifty, and MG, and get them all shook up.”

“At the same time we breach the fence and go through silent as a ghost,” Murdock said. “Yeah, it might work. We’ve got our work cut out for us on this one.”

Lam rolled over and stared at his commander. “Skipper, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t I go in now, move around enough to find which building is the final assembly? I can work around there until almost daylight if I have to, and then get out, and wait for you guys to come tomorrow night. That’s later on today, I guess.”

Murdock shook his head. “Too dangerous. They could nail you, and know we were coming, and be ready.”

“No chance they could grab me, L-T. I can hide in a damned tomato can. Been doing it all my life. How in hell we gonna shoot our way in, and then try to find the right building? Not a chance. If I go in, and find the right spot, and get out and tell you, we’re well ahead of the game. If I get in, and don’t find it, and get out, we’re no worse off. I can find it. No shit, L-T. Think it over.”

“Nothing to think over, Lam. Your idea is good. Should I risk you or not?”

“Not much of a fucking risk, L-T. The big risk is not knowing where to go once we get inside. As soon as they
know we’re here, they’ll put all their guns inside that final assembly building we want, and hold us off until they fly in reinforcements. No other way. I got to get through the fence and see what I can find out.”

“Jump over down there?”

“Yeah.”

“How will you get out?”

“Dig under at one of the gullies the cloudbursts make. There’s one over there, a foot deep under the fence already. Quicker to jump over now, and then dig out when I find the assembly area. Is it a go, L-T?”

Murdock scowled into the darkness. The kid was right. They needed more intel. He’d had no idea the place would be so big, so many buildings. Slowly he nodded. There was no other reasonable way.

“Okay, Lam. You take my MP-5 and four mags. The silenced rounds might help.”

“Hey, I won’t waste anybody unless I have to. The first body that shows up in the morning, they’ll have security scouring all the hills around here. No bodies, I decided that. I might have to knock out one or two.”

“Okay, Lam. One other thing. While you get over the fence, I’ll move up with my K-bar and dig out that gully under the fence so you can slip right under it when you need to. I’ll be in the light so it will have to be a low motion kind of operation.”

“Done,” Lam said. He handed Murdock his issue Colt M-4A1, took the MP-5, and extra mags. He dabbed more cammie makeup on his face, hands, nose, and ears. He tugged down his floppy hat. “I’ll see you right here if I find the right building quickly. If not I’ll have to move back a couple of ridges after I get under the fence. No sweat. I’ll either find the right building or give it one hell of a try. What I won’t do is tip their hand. See you around, Skipper.”

Lam moved away in the darkness, toward the cut in the hill three-hundred yards away. Murdock watched him go,
sent along his best wishes, and then began working toward the small wash under the fence so he could dig it deeper.

Lam lay near the splash of light along the fence, and evaluated it. He could spot no lookout towers or sentries in the area. If somebody watched the area with binoculars, it would be on a casual and intermittent basis. He had a good chance of going over the eight-foot fence, and not being seen.

He was about to move when he heard the chopper coming. He blended in behind a two-foot rock, well out of the airborne spotlight, and waited for it to pass.

When it vanished down the way, he came up and moved to the edge of the fence. The slope of the hill put it higher than the fence here, and he held the MP-5 in one hand to his chest, and jumped. He hit on the hard ground, and did a shoulder roll to take up the force. The MP-5 stayed on his chest. He rolled once, and then lay perfectly still.

Nothing happened.

Good. He crawled out of the lights on the fence slowly, so anyone watching would not notice him by movement alone. After what seemed like two hours, but was only about two minutes, Lam was in the shadows between the lighted fence and the buildings. He was about in the center of the complex. He came to his knees, then his feet, and ran bent over toward the nearest building.

Just then the jeeplike rig’s headlights cut a path through the darkness, as it drove around a building two down from the one he aimed at.

He paused and watched the small truck move away, and darkness return. There were two nightlights outside the small warehouse-type structure. He had no idea what kind of uniforms the Iranian soldiers wore. Be nice to get a set to put on over his cammies. An idea.

He walked casually through a bloom of light to the building and then along it to a door. He tried the handle. It
wasn’t locked. Trusting souls. He pulled it open. No alarm. A moment later, he was inside with the door closed.

Lam took a penlight from his shirt pocket. He used it to check the building. It looked to be a machine shop of some kind. Definitely not a final assembly plant. Check one off the list. He headed for the same door he’d come in.

Just before he reached it, the knob turned, and the door opened outward. Someone spoke in normal tones. Then another voice answered, before a man came through the door, and closed it. In the dim light, Lam saw that the man was an Iranian soldier.

Lam was six feet from him. He lunged forward. Just as the soldier turned to see what was coming, Lam slammed the heavy butt of the MP-5 into his head. He went down with a grunt, and fell unconscious to the floor.

Yeah, he was big enough, Lam decided.

Five minutes later, Lam left the building dressed in the soldier’s uniform and cap. The unconscious form had been tied hand and foot, gagged, and stuffed into a closet in the machine shop. Nobody would find him until morning at least.

Lam moved easier now. If he met anyone, he’d growl at them, and go on by. He checked six more unlocked buildings. None was the final assembly. Then he came to a one-story structure set apart somewhat from the rest. It had brighter lights around it. Lam walked up to it in the open and began checking doors, as if he were a security man. The first three were locked, the next opened, and he stepped inside.

All the lights were on. The interior was laid out in six individual areas. In each one was an elaborate worktable, a hoist, a battery of tool cabinets, and what could be shelves for parts. On each worktable was what looked to Lam like a partially assembled nuclear weapon. They were larger than he had figured. But these would be crude and unsophisticated
compared to the U.S. atomic weapons. He’d found it. This had to be the final assembly building.

Three men worked at each assembly area. He turned and, as casually as he could, walked outside, shielding the MP-5 from view. He had no idea what weapons the Army men here would carry. The one he met had been without any firearm.

Just before he went out the door, he heard the chopper coming overhead. He paused at the door, felt as much as saw the brilliant beam of some kind of stream-light spot from the chopper wash over the building, and then it was gone.

He stepped outside, and headed back the way he had come, angling toward the fence. One of the military-type jeeps came around the corner, and caught him in its headlights. He slowed to let the rig pass him, but instead it rolled up beside him, and stopped. One man in the jeep said something to him. He growled, and waved the man on past. The question came again, and Lam screeched some words he was sure weren’t Farsi. The man behind the wheel shrugged and drove on.

Lam let out a breath, and walked directly away from the building into the shadows. He paused beside a pile of wooden boxes. No one seemed to have noticed him, or to question his presence. He waited a minute, then walked into the darkness between the buildings and the lighted fence. He angled to the left where he had left Lieutenant Murdock.

When he got closer, he saw slight movement at the lighted fence area. He stopped and concentrated on it. Yes, that was the small gully under the fence. Now it was considerably deeper. He watched again, and saw a hand dig a knife into the dirt and slowly drag it backward. The L-T was still there working on the opening.

Lam ran then through the semidarkness between the buildings and the lighted fence. He came close to the spot, and called out softly.

“Lieutenant Murdock. Lam, coming out.”

He heard a grunt, and the hand and knife moved backward.

Just then the chopper began its run along the fence. Lam saw the figure on the other side of the fence roll several times away from the wire. Lam dropped to the ground rolled into a ball, and lay perfectly still. He was outside the direct beam of the powerful light, but it splashed to the sides a dozen feet.

Lam held his breath, expecting at any instant to be shot by a door gunner working a machine gun. The chopper moved slowly but didn’t pause at the escape spot. Then it was past.

Lam wanted to run, but he walked to the lighted area, dropped to the ground, and crawled as slowly as he could stand it toward the fence, and the enlarged escape hole. It looked big enough.

It took him three minutes to cover fifteen feet. Headfirst, he decided. He turned on his back and worked his head under the wire in the little gully. Good so far.

He pushed with his heels. The MP-5 caught on the bottom of the wire. He pulled it to his side, and pressed forward again with his legs. The wire snagged his ammo pouch, then came off. A moment later he was under the wire, and crawling slowly away from the light.

Twenty feet later, he was in the darkness.

“You do fast work,” Murdock said just behind him.

“Oh, damn, sir, you scared the shit out of me. How do you like my new uniform?”

“Iranian military, I’d say. Keep it, we may need it later on tonight. You found the place?”

“Roger that, sir. It’s the one-story building down from that intensively lighted one. Eighteen guys in there. Three of them working on each of six different bombs. I have no idea how close they are to finishing anything.”