by Robert Gandt
They were vanishing in the trees. He raised the pistol, holding it in both hands. In the darkness he could see B.J.’s face, Rittmann’s arm around her neck, his face peering from behind her.
Maxwell aimed. His hands were shaking.
It was impossible. The sights were nearly invisible in the darkness. He would hit B.J.
If he missed, Rittmann would kill her.
Impossible.
He drew in a single deep breath. His world shrank into a narrow, dimly lit tunnel. The passage of time slowed, then stopped.
Nothing existed. Nothing but the dull blur of the gunsight, the dark oval of her face. . .
His hands no longer shook.
Freeze the picture. Shut out the world. Squeeze. . .
It sounded like a cannon. He was momentarily blinded by the muzzle flash.
As his vision returned, he saw them in the darkness. B.J. was down, writhing on the ground. Rittmann was still standing, hit somewhere around his throat. He held the knife in one hand while he clutched his neck with the other. Blood spurted from between his fingers.
Maxwell’s eyes went from the red-haired girl on the ground back to the German.
An uncontrollable rage seized Maxwell. In a dreamlike state, he was transported back in time. He tried to take her away. He saw a red-haired girl. It was happening again. You’re losing her. . .
Rittmann lurched toward her.
Maxwelll fired again. The bullet caught the German in the chest. He was blown backwards.
Maxwell fired again. And again. He kept firing until the trigger wouldn’t pull any more. The magazine was empty.
Stunned, he lowered the pistol. Gradually he became aware of B.J. staring at him. Her eyes were large and pale in the darkness.
He dropped the empty pistol and went to her. A dark wetness was spreading over the front of her flight suit.
<>
“You know something? You’re one hell of a lousy shot.”
“What do you mean? I shot Rittmann.”
“You weren’t supposed to shoot me.”
“What did you expect? This is government work. Hold still while I get this antiseptic on.”
Dressing her wound, Maxwell realized again what a brutish weapon the .45 caliber was. Though the bullet only hit the muscle between her neck and her shoulder, just missing her collar bone, it left a two-inch-deep wound that was bleeding profusely.
In Rittmann’s case, the damage was more dramatic. He had fired all seven rounds—the full magazine—into the German. Rittmann was a mess.
Gross overkill. Maxwell could still feel the dark emotions that had taken possession of him. It was the first time he had killed an enemy at close range. No bomb, missile, or cannon. He could still see the look on Rittmann’s face.
“Owww, damn, that hurts!” B.J. said.
“It’s supposed to hurt. That’s how you know the stuff is working.”
The wound was still bleeding. He made a compress from several layers of gauze and pressed it onto the wound.
She winced again, then began to shiver. “I’m cold, Brick.”
“I’m almost finished. Don’t move while I put the bandage on. Then we’ll get you wrapped in the thermal blanket.”
It had been close. He knew he could never duplicate that shot on the firing range—hitting Rittmann in the throat at twenty yards, while missing the body of his wingman.
Well, nearly missing. B.J. Johnson would always have an interesting scar to remind her of how close she had come to a fatal bullet. Or getting her throat cut.
The memory of what happened kept inserting itself back in his mind. He was shocked at the ferocity that had overcome him. Rittmann was dead as a post. What secrets he possessed had exited through the seven bullet holes in him.
A high overcast obscured the sky. The darkness filled in the shadows around them. B.J. complained again about the cold, and Maxwell wrapped her in the thermal blanket from his survival pack.
They huddled in a crevice beneath a large boulder to wait out the night.
“Do I get a Purple Heart for this?”
“No way. You have to be wounded by the enemy.”
“But it was the enemy who caused me to be wounded. That, and your lousy aim.”
“It won’t help your case by making slurs about your commanding officer.”
She lapsed into a silence, and after several minutes Maxwell realized that she was sleeping. She lay snuggled close to him, her head on his shoulder.
Tentatively, so as not to disturb her, he put his arm around her.
Chapter Fourteen
Sana’a
Sana’a, Republic of Yemen
1930, Tuesday, 18 June
Claire saw the battered white Toyota swinging around the corner. As Maloney rolled up to the front of the Al Qasmy, he reached over and opened the right door.
“I know a restaurant not far from here,” he said. “Off the street and quiet.” His face looked puffy, as if he hadn’t gotten much sleep.
She kept her silence while he weaved along the cobbled streets. Maloney, she remembered, loved intrigue. Whatever he had to tell her, he was going to milk it for its full dramatic value.
The restaurant was a hole-in-the-wall called Al-Salah, in a narrow side street about eight blocks from her hotel. The windows were curtained, and an awning covered the sidewalk in front. Half a dozen Yemenis looked up from huddled conversations as they entered. Maloney led her to a back table.
He waited until the drinks came. He looked around, then said in a low voice, “There was another airborne operation today. A team of marines went in to pick up a downed pilot, but they came under fire and now they’re on the ground too.”
Claire listened, barely able to breath. “You said something about the lucky guy.”
“Another Hornet was shot down supporting the marines.”
She took a deep breath and waited.
Maloney said, “What was your guy’s name?”
“Maxwell. Sam Maxwell.”
He hesitated, and she could tell by his expression what was coming. “Claire, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that’s the guy.”
“Is he. . .”
“No details. They think he ejected okay, but no word yet about his situation.”
Claire’s mind raced through the possibilities. They think he ejected okay. If he was alive, he may have joined the marines on the ground. Or he was captured.
Or killed.
As these thoughts played in her mind, the anger swelled up inside her. “What the hell’s going on, Vince?” She knew she was speaking too loudly. The cluster of Yemeni men across the room looked up in surprise. They had probably never heard a woman raise her voice in anger. “Why are they letting this. . . this half-assed little bandit, Al-Fasr, get away with this? Why don’t we—”
“Sshshh.” Maloney was holding his finger to his lips, looking more nervous than ever. He nodded toward the Yemeni men. They had all halted their own conversations and were staring at them.
Claire turned and glowered back. “To hell with them,” she said. She swung back to Maloney. “To hell with all of them. Since when does the United States have to cowtow to thugs who kill Americans?”
Maloney’s nervousness ratcheted up another notch. “Look, Claire, I know how you feel. This is a very dangerous situation we’re in—”
“Dangerous for who? Are you state department people afraid you might lose your precious little jobs if you speak up? What about those Americans out there in the hills getting shot at by—” she paused and glowered again at the gawking Yemenis— “a bunch of stone age ragheads.”
At this, Maloney winced. She knew she sounded hysterical, but right now she didn’t give a damn. Sam Maxwell was in trouble, and nobody was doing diddly crap about it.
Maloney had his notepad out, scribbling something on it. He ripped out the page and slid it to her. “This is the phone number of the embassy security offfice and the address of the front gate, written in Arabic. If th
is thing blows up—and I predict that it will—get yourself there immediately. Give this to a driver you can trust and go to the front gate. The sentries will know you by name. Don’t tell anyone at the hotel where you’re going, don’t take luggage. If there’s an air evacuation, you have to be inside the embassy compound to get on it.”
“You really believe this place will blow?”
“If Al-Fasr comes to town, yes.”
“And you think he will?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don’t you just get out now while you can?”
Despite his inebriation, Maloney seemed thoughtful. “You will find this hard to believe, but I still have a tiny sense of duty left in me. You know, the old death before dishonor thing. I intend to stay at my post.”
Claire nodded and finished her drink in silence. She was sorry she flared up at Maloney. He was still her best friend in this hostile country.
They pecked at dinner, neither of them hungry, and made small talk about everything except what was on their minds. He paid the bill and they left. Passing the table of dark-eyed Yemeni men, Claire glowered again at them.
Outside, darkness had descended over the city. The air had turned chilly. She could see Maloney’s white Toyota parked a couple hundred meters down the street.
Maloney said, “I think you should come with me to the embassy compound.”
“What for? Is this another proposition?”
“You’ll be safe there.”
For a moment, she considered. Maloney meant well, even if he was potted. It wasn’t his fault that she was distraught, worried sick about Maxwell.
“I need to be alone. I want to walk back to the hotel.”
“No way, Claire. Too dangerous. C’mon, I’ll drive you back.”
“I’m okay, really. I just need to be alone. Don’t worry about me.”
Before he could argue any more, she gave him a peck on the cheek, then started walking down the street. She glanced over her shoulder once and saw Maloney watching her. He was leaning against the Toyota while he fumbled with the key. He gave her a wave, and she waved back.
She was half a block away when she heard it.
The sound of the explosion and the concussion arrived together, rocking her like a blast of wind. She whirled in time to see the Toyota’s hood and other assorted pieces clanging off the building across the street.
The car was a fireball. The flaming pyre gushed thirty feet into the air, illuminating the cobbled street in an angry orange glare.
Her first instinct was to run to the burning automobile, try to help. Do something. Maybe Vince had somehow survived. Maybe. . .
She ran a few steps, then stopped. He’s dead, you idiot. And you’re next.
In the glare of the fire she saw figures, silhouettes. Voices yelling in Arabic.
She turned and ran. One of her high-soled leather shoes caught on the cobblestones. She fell, banging her elbow and knee on the rough-surfaced street.
Behind her the voices were coming nearer. She heard running footsteps. Bystanders? Witnesses? Police?
Killers.
She yanked off her shoes and jumped to her feet. Ignoring the pain of the stones on her bare soles, she ran down the yellow-lighted street. She heard them running after her.
<>
An image was floating through Gus Gritti’s mind. In his fatigued imagination he could see his hands wrapped around the windpipe of the dumb sonofabitch who was responsible for putting him and his marines in Yemen.
The only problem was, there were multiple dumb sons of bitches. One was a two-star squid Battle Group Commander who didn’t know an amphibious assault from a circle jerk. Another prime candidate was the pissant civilian tea-sipper who thought marines were as expendable as Kleenex. Gritti would happily strangle either of them.
Another volley of AK-47 rounds pinged off the boulder where he hunched down next to Plunkett. The incoming fire had slackened, becoming more random. Darkness had come, and Gritti guessed that the Sherji would either make an all-out assault on the perimeter, or they would back off and wait for the next wave of helos.
“What’s the count, Master Sergeant?”
“Seven wounded, three dead, not counting the chopper crews. Two on the first Cobra and one the second. Three wiped out in the Stallion.”
“Where’s Tillman?” Lieutenant Tillman was the mortar platoon leader.
“One of the wounded. Sergeant Gonzales reports that he has the north perimeter stabilized.”
Gritti listened for a moment to the sporadic sounds of gunfire. He heard a single sharp crack of a heavy caliber gun.
“Have the sniper teams deployed yet?”
“One in position with the Barrett,” said Plunkett. “The second is getting set up now.” The Barrett M82A1A sniper rifle was an extreme range weapon. It was carried in several pieces by members of the team. The rifle’s massive .50 caliber slug could spread terror by picking off unsuspecting targets—officers, vehicles, antennas—more than a mile away.
That was exactly what Gritti wanted now—some old-fashioned terror among the Sherji before they got their nerve up for another assault.
He still didn’t know what they were up against. How many more did Al-Fasr have out there? Was another wave coming? He was getting assurances from Rivet Joint—the four-engined RC-135 intelligence-gathering jet in orbit off shore—that no heavy equipment was being deployed toward the marines.
Yeah, bullshit, thought Gritti. After this sucker trap, he had zero faith in the battle group’s intelligence sources. At the moment he was willing to believe only what he could see, which included the knowledge that his marines had killed at least fifty Sherji during the initial assault. He also had seen the Hornets decimate another unknown number with their cluster bombs and 20 mm cannon. Al-Fasr’s artillery and most of his armor had gone silent after the bombing.
Now what? War Lord still wasn’t saying whether the TRAP team was being lifted out, reinforced, or to be included in an all-out sweep through Al-Fasr’s stronghold.
Gritti had never felt so frustrated. He didn’t want to sit inside the perimeter waiting for the Sherji to make the next move, but he was too short on perimeter defenses to risk sending out patrols.
“Stay here,” he said to Plunkett. “I’m going to check on the wounded.”
<>
There was a tiny lapse between transmissions. That was to be expected, Babcock assumed, when your call was scrambled, bounced off a satellite, and then unscrambled.
“You have not kept your word,” he said.
“I gave my word that we would not retaliate after the air strike if you did not send in an assault force. But then you sent in an assault force.”
“That was not an assault. You already know that the Marine team was sent for no purpose except to retrieve the downed pilots. No other objective. Now the situation has become very complicated. The President has no choice except to order a strike.”
For several seconds Babcock heard nothing on the secure telephone. He wondered if they had been disconnected. He heard only the tinny background hum of the satellite uplink.
“This can still be resolved,” he heard Al-Fasr say. “My agents in Sana’a report that they are almost ready to initiate the coup. When they give the signal, my troops will seize the military headquarters and the government broadcasting station. We expect no resistance. I will control the Republic of Yemen.”
“Fine. What about our marines on the ground? They have to be lifted out.”
“It will be possible within a day or so.”
“We don’t have a day or so. I’m telling you, the United States will not tolerate letting its soldiers be trapped by an enemy. If you resist another recovery attempt, I cannot be responsible for what happens. A massive strike will follow.”
Another silence of several seconds. “That would be a grave mistake, my friend.”
Babcock was losing patience. “Why are you complicating this? Why are you keeping our marines pinned
down in Yemen?”
“To insure that your government keeps its word. We are at a crucial moment in this adventure, Whitney. I must be certain that the United States will not betray us at the last moment and install one of their puppets in Sana’a.”
“You have to trust us. You have no choice.”
“Choice? Oh, I have many choices. It is you who has no choice, not if you wish to have a presence in Yemen after I control the country.”
“Just tell me that we can retrieve the marines. There must be no more ambushes, no resistance.”
“Soon. I will inform you.”
The tinny sound of the satellite phone abruptly ended. Al-Fasr was gone.
For a while Babcock stared at the silent phone in his compartment. More than ever, he had the feeling that he had made a pact with a terrorist. It was possible that someone would someday uncover a record of these negotiations with Al-Fasr. He would be judged by history as the visionary statesman who secured America’s energy supply for the next decade. Or he would be pilloried as a traitor.
Which? It depended on what happened in the next four hours.
<>
Al-Fasr emerged from the communications bunker, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. The temperature in the Yemeni highlands was balmy, the air dry and cool. He was wearing his usual working costume—tailored olive flight suit, polished boots, sunglasses. On his hip was the ever-present SatPhone and the nickel-plated SIG Sauer semi-automatic pistol.
He needed a walk in the night air to consider these recent developments. This last dialogue with Babcock was worrisome. The Americans would not wait much longer.
One part of Al-Fasr almost welcomed such a development. The U. S. Navy would execute one their classic tactical air strikes, using all the wrong weapons and employing tactics used against adversaries like Iraq and Yugoslavia. It would be a pigeon shoot.
With his concealed air defense assets—the three remaining MiGs, an arsenal of SA-16 air-to-air missiles, and a battery of 57 mm AA guns—he would take a heavy toll on their strike fighters.