He lifted his head, watching the three parachutes descending together. Why in the hell did I do this? he thought. I know what I said sounded good, and, it’s going to sound even better when I have a cigar in one hand and a beer in the other, but I’m not a mutter-frigging SEAL or trainedkiller. I’m a cryptologic technician. I operate electronic and reconnaissance equipment. I make love, not war. And, I don’t bail out of aircraft because— Shit! I did this to myself! Who’s leadership book was I believing when I bailed out? My own? Remind me to kick the shit out of myself when—when, hell—if I get back.
He reached up and without thinking about the dangers, jerked the suspension line downward. His stomach tensed. Damn, his waistline was getting a hell of a workout. At the same instant he jerked the suspension cord, Razi glanced at the three aircrewmen and thought they seemed farther away. They need me more than I need them right now, he told himself, and unless I get to them before—
Wind spilled out of the parachute spinning Razi farther to the right. Now the three aircrewmen were to his left, but the bearing drift was in the same direction.
—before! Damn, we’re going to have more problems when we finish this airborne ride. The NRL bunch said they detected two groups of people down there. The smaller group was probably the terrorist bunch, about twenty, I recall them saying. The other group numbered in the hundreds. That’d be those African National Army wanna-be soldiers. Christ! I hate soldiers.
Razi reached up and pulled the left suspension line. He swung slowly to the left. He squinted his eyes. Was the distance increasing between them? The altitude disparity seemed the same. He shut one eye and tried to get a drift-bearing on the three. If he watched them, in a measuring sort of way, and they weren’t moving left or right or up and down as he watched, then they would be on a constant bearing. Constant bearing meant you had a damn good chance of running into each other.
They were drifting slowly to the right. Not much, but enough to add distance between him and them when they landed. He reached up and pulled the right suspension line again. He was getting good at this, he told himself, as he swung to the right. The next sighting showed them drifting to the left. For the next minute or two, Razi alternated pulls on the suspension lines, eventually realizing that each new course turn was causing the bearing-drift to lessen. It wasn’t that Razi believed himself out of control of the situation. It wasn’t in his character to believe there was anything he wasn’t capable of doing. Razi had preached for years the rhetoric of the omnipotence of a chief petty officer; for so long that he believed whatever he did was preordained as correct. When he did something and it turned out right, Razi never got over-excited because as a chief petty officer it was bound to be right. The important thing was to make sure his bosses knew it. He should have been a senior chief petty officer three years ago, but the Navy . . .
When something unexpected panned out good, but differently than what he planned or expected, he reconciled himself with the knowledge it turned out right for no other reason than he was a chief petty officer.
He tugged on the left suspension line. His arms were growing tired from the exertion. He tried a couple of more attempts to fine-tune his direction of fall. Suddenly, after several more back-and-forth attempts to change his direction, he discovered himself lined up with the descent of the others. Razi was neither surprised nor elated. It was just one more proof that there was nothing a chief petty officer couldn’t do when he or she decided to do something. Those three young men should fall to the ground, bow down, and thank me when I reach them. Where would sailors and junior officers be, if it wasn’t for us chief petty officers? They’d still be changing their diapers.
Razi gripped the two suspension lines running from his parachute harness to the 28-foot nylon canopy above him. He glanced up, a brief chill raced through him. Such a flimsy piece of cloth between him and death.
He looked toward the three other parachutes and as he watched, they winked out one after the other as the aircrewmen crashed through the jungle green and disappeared from sight.
”SHE’S RIGHT, SIR,” PITS CONAR SAID. THE FLIGHT ENGINEER reached up and tapped the extinguisher readout. “The second extinguisher is gone, Lieutenant—kaput! If that engine flames up again, we can’t even spit on it.”
“Put her in a left-hand turn and let’s take Ranger 20 up—quick.”
The curtain snapped apart and Lieutenant Commander Chuck Peeters stuck his head inside the cockpit. “We’ve got crewmen outside!”
“Outside? How can anyone be outside?”
“They bailed out before you turned off the fucking alarm.”
Gregory leaned forward and glanced at the altimeter. “We’ve no choice, Chuck. There’s not a damn thing a four-engine aircraft can do to help those who bailed out. Right now, we’ve a bigger problem than them. They’ll be rescued. We need altitude and that’s where I’m taking this bucket of bolts.” He nodded to the right. “If that engine reflames, the only chance we’ll have to put it out is a steep dive. I want as much altitude as possible between us and the ground if we have to do this.”
Peeters nodded. “The radioman has already sent Sitrep follow-ups to Sixth Fleet, Amphibious Group Two, and our detachment at Monrovia.”
“Rota?”
“VQ-2 was one of the action addees. They should have it at the same time as the others.”
“This isn’t going to make Crazy Harry happy,” Babs said.
“Don’t call the skipper ‘Crazy Harry,’” Peeters admonished, his voice shaking. “Damn it, Lieutenant Gregory, we’ve got people below us.”
“There’s nothing I can do, but what you’ve done already, Lieutenant Commander Peeters, and that’s send a position report and an updated Sitrep. You’ve done both. My job is to get this aircraft back to Monrovia with the remaining souls onboard.” The aircraft shook violently as Gregory and Babs pulled together on the yoke, bringing the nose of the EP-3E up. “Besides, as long as we’re gaining altitude, there’s little chance of us flying through them.”
Several seconds passed as the two pilots fought the aircraft into a spiral ascent. “There is one other thing we can do,” Peeters said suddenly.
“What’s that?”
“We can drop a life raft.”
“What the hell—” Gregory started.
“The radio beacon,” Pits Conar interrupted. “The search-and-rescue beacon will start automatically when the life raft inflates. It’ll inflate on the way down, giving the beacon longer range.”
“Plus,” Peeters added as he turned, the curtains closing behind him as he hurried away. “It’ll mark the spot where we’ll need to start our search when we return!”
“What did he say?” Babs asked.
“He said he was going to mark the bailout spot so we’ll know where to start our search when we return.”
“If we return,” Babs added softly.
“Babs, help me keep the aircraft in a left-hand turn as we ascend. This will keep the right engine on the outside of the spiral where higher wind speeds will hit it.”
WHERE THE PARACHUTES DISAPPEARED, A SPRAY OF leaves rose into the air, raining around the holes Rockdale, MacGammon, and Carson made as they penetrated through the leaves, limbs, and vines that reached from the ground of the jungle to a hundred feet above, where the tops of the trees melded together. Razi squinted, trying to see any signs of a parachute. As he watched, he noticed his head was turning to the left. He glanced up at the nylon canopy above him. The wind was pushing him to the right, giving him a right-bearing drift away from the holes where his aircrewmen had disappeared.
Razi gripped the lines tightly and pulled strongly on the left suspension line, looking up to watch the canopy dip in response. He swung to the left as air fell out of the parachute. He looked forward, searching for a few moments for the holes where the three had disappeared. He spotted them. The holes were to his right now. Without looking up, he pulled on the right line, swinging himself around again. Suddenly, his stomach lurch
ed as he fell straight down for several feet before the parachute blossomed out and stopped the fall.
“That’s enough of that,” he mumbled. He stretched his fingers for a moment before retightening his grip on the lines. He’d just walk to where they landed. He thought, How in the hell am I going to do that? Once I hit the ground, I’ll have no idea where I’m at and in which direction they are.
He watched where the three sailors had disappeared, wondering how he was going to find them once he was on the ground. Biting his upper lip, Razi looked down at the leaves on the trees below him. He was close enough he could make out individual leaves. My compass! he thought. Releasing the lines to the parachute, the fingers on his right hand, encased in flight gloves, fumbled with the chest-high top zipper of his survival vest. He hadn’t realized how much he was shaking until then. It seemed an eternity before he finally managed to get a grip on the zipper, unzip the pouch, and grab the military compass. He rezipped the pouch. His small container of water and a power bar was in that pouch and if he left it open and they fell out, it’d be a hungry, thirsty night until rescue helicopters arrived. He held the compass up, steadying it as much as he could from the buffeting of the wind, and lined the needle with true north. It was visual guess, but the bearing from his position and where the other three landed was three-two-zero. He dropped the compass, letting it bob on the yellow nylon cord tying it to the survival vest. He grabbed the two suspension lines and then did what he did badly; he guessed distance. Razi had never had to guess distance while bailing out—he had never bailed out of an aircraft before today. Sure, he talked about it, but like those who can’t do it, he taught it. Three miles. No less than two miles, no more than five miles.
He looked down. What would his landing be like? Lots of trees down there. What if there’s a limb poking straight up, with a sharp point, waiting to rip through his flight suit and impale him? Involuntarily, his sphincter tightened. Jungles had swamps. Down below these trees could be nothing but swamp and malaria. But he’d taken his malaria pills. A vision of a gigantic crocodile crossed his mind, causing his thoughts to migrate instantly to the croc in Peter Pan that constantly chased the notorious Captain Hook. “Tick tock,” he said aloud.
He shook his head. The treetops seemed to be whirling as he approached. Razi saw open space to his right between several limbs. Without thinking, he jerked on the right line, swinging his descent to the right. He was pleased with himself as he crashed through the opening. At the last moment, he jerked his legs up, tucked his head down, and crossed his arms across his chest. Though he intended to keep his eyes open once he reached here, he clinched them tightly, so tight he felt the pressure pushing them back into their sockets.
A limb slammed across his left ankle as he crashed through the trees. Leaves and light branches whipped against the visor of his helmet. His fall slowed, and abruptly he jerked to a stop. Razi opened one eye and peered down. The ground was about ten feet below him. Looking up, the parachute had tangled on the stump of a limb. How it became a stump never entered his thoughts. Ten feet was nothing, unless he broke a leg or ruptured his spleen. Razi wasn’t really sure what a spleen was, but he knew it was something dangerous to rupture.
“Well, I’m here,” he said aloud. He opened his arms, holding his hands out. They shook, and why in the hell shouldn’t they? he thought to himself. It’s a wonder I didn’t piss myself, he thought. Razi looked around the jungle, amazed how quiet it seemed until he told himself that with the noise he made crashing through the trees, his arrival probably scared everything away. At least, he hoped so. “Looks solid,” he said as he scanned the ground below him. “But then, what in the hell do you know?” he replied to his comment.
Brown was the color that came to mind. Jungles were supposed to be lush, wet, and green, filled with man-eating animals. Instead, below him was an open area blanketed with decaying limbs and leaves interspaced with leafy vines that ran from one side to the other as if racing to cross the open area as fast as possible.
He thought, How to get down is the big question? Without thinking about it, he bent his knees, released the leg straps, then reached up and released the chest straps. His stomach lurched again as he fell.
“Oh, shit!” he shouted. His feet hit the ground squarely and instinctively, Razi rolled to the right, coming to rest on his back. He lay there for several moments, breathing deeply, and telling himself how stupid he was. He could have broken his legs and laid there, unable to move, until the man-eaters recovered from the fright he dealt them. Then they’d angrily return to show him what they thought about those who disturbed their domain.
He opened his eyes wide as he sat up and swung his head from side to side scanning the jungle. For some reason it reminded him of the forests of North Carolina, only hotter, more humid, and bears weren’t the main threat here. He reached up and tapped the survival vest, the SV-2B, the main pouch where the water was, then reminded himself that in survival training the instructors said to wait twenty-four hours before having a drink after an emergency situation. Damn it! Bailing out of an aircraft after they tell you not to is damn well an emergency, and a chief petty officer would never disobey Navy regulations.
He leaned to the side and pushed himself up. His left ankle was tender. Razi took several steps. It didn’t seem to be damaged or hurt too bad, just sore along the side where the limb had hit it.
Razi looked in the direction he believed he had to walk to rescue the three aircrewmen. It never dawned on the chief petty officer that his mission was anything but a rescue— Damn, two of the aircrewmen were third class petty officers, and Carson had just put on his second-class crow. What did the three of them know about survival? He had nineteen years in the Navy, nearly five times more than Carson, who was approaching his fourth year. He brushed his gloves together, knocking off the leafy debris stuck to the cloth. Shit! He’d had more time going to the head in the Navy than those three had total Navy service. Petty officers need their chiefs in times such as these he told himself. He glanced in the direction he believed he needed to travel. And, the sooner I get to them the better for them . . . and for me.
Razi reached up and unsnapped his helmet, taking it off. Holding it under his arms, Razi surveyed the surrounding landscape. A tight row of bushes blocked his way. He opened the compass, gave it a moment to steady up, and was surprised to see it was pointed in the wrong direction. Razi took a moment to congratulate himself on using his head when he was descending. This would be one great sea tale when those Air Force bubbas pulled the four of them out later today. He just hoped that he didn’t have to wait for his zoomie comrades-in-arms to finish their golf game or indulge in crew’s rest—the secret, high-five term for taking a nap. We ought to have something like crew’s rest in the Navy, he thought to himself. He smiled as he imagined the vision of Crazy Harry trying to come to terms with the idea that aircrew needed to rest.
He touched his pouch again, listening to an inner voice arguing with him that if he was going to be rescued tomorrow morning or, better yet, this afternoon, then a small drink wouldn’t hurt. He shook off the little devil-thoughts. Devil-thoughts were the bane of ankle-biters. Ignore them or small irritants would overrun bigger concerns, and his biggest concern was to find those three sailors of his. If he was going to be the hero and take credit for rescuing them, then he needed to be with them when the Air Force decided to show up.
He turned right. Nodded when he saw a path nearly fifty feet in this direction, marking it as the clearest from where he stood. Lined up with the compass. He clicked his lips in appreciation, “It is indeed a host of miracles that descends upon you when you make chief petty officer.”
OJO OPENED HIS EYES. HIS HEAD HURT. HE WAS FACE DOWN on the jungle floor. The stinging smell of explosives mixed with the decaying odors of the disturbed humus beneath him. His back and thighs hurt. They felt heavy. Whatever happened involved an explosion; he’d been around war long enough to recognize that whatever exploded had been near him
. He pushed himself into a sitting position before reaching up and running his hands over his head. Then he started down his body, touching places that hurt—his back, his thighs—then he checked his ribs. A moan, which he quickly stifled, escaped as he touched his right side. Thought, Cracked, not broken. Stirred, not shaken. “What happened?” he asked himself. Debris rained from the vegetation overhead. One moment they were standing motionless, listening to the approaching aircraft, and talking about the troops rushing ahead to stop Abu Alhaul, and the next he was lying on the floor of the jungle.
He looked around. His AK-47 lay nearby on the ground, the barrel protruding from beneath a bush. He leaned over and pulled it to him. He blinked, feeling the sting of salt and grit. Ojo wiped his eyes as he turned his head, trying to locate the muffled screams penetrating the ringing in his ears. He saw others crashing through the brush, taking care of the wounded. Some turned toward him. He couldn’t hear the noise he knew they had to be making. Only the screams penetrated the fog of his hearing. He removed his hand, bent his head over, and blinked rapidly, feeling tears wash out his eyes. Finished, he lifted his head. His right eye was clear. Ojo blinked several times, until his left eye cleared. Using his free hand for balance, the jet-black African stood. His dark eyes surveyed the carnage surrounding him. So, the Americans were truly after him. He found it hard to believe since he had calculated so carefully to avoid any offense or action that would give them reason to do what they just did.
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