He felt self-conscious as he felt down each of her legs. No blood there. Wait. Yes. Her right calf was wet. He found the blood halfway down. Still bleeding. He took out his first-aid kit and tore it open. He cut open her pants leg, and then concentrated on getting a gauze pad on the wound and wrapping it tightly with a roller bandage. The leg didn’t look too bad. An in-and-out wound. Must have picked it up while she was outside the car. He wished he had the aid man’s kit.
He had just looked back at Kat’s shoulder when Murdock shouldered into the sedan.
“Two hits, Cap. Left shoulder and right calf. Neither one looks too bad, but she passed out. Shock, I’d say.”
“Let’s get her into the cave, then we figure out what to do. Are we down to two vehicles?”
“Don’t know. Rounds hit the windshield, maybe missed the engine. We’ll have somebody check it.”
They lifted Kat off the ground and Murdock carried her in his arms as they walked to the cave. One of the men had found candles, and had six of them burning around the nuclear warhead.
Kat mumbled something as Murdock sat her down in the cave and leaned her against the wall. There was no furniture except the table with fold-out legs.
Dobler used his knife and cut away part of her sleeve so he could bandage the shoulder hit. It was a ricochet of some kind, and hadn’t penetrated too far, but must have hit her sideways. He treated it and bandaged it.
A moment later, Kat began moaning, then shook her head and woke up.
“Oh, yes, that hurts. What’s going on?” She looked around.
“You were a hero, blasting those Afghan soldiers, and in the process you got shot in two places,” Murdock said. “Neither life-threatening. That should make you feel better.”
“Not much.” She turned and looked at the candles. “Is that the warhead?”
“Yep. You feel like looking at it?”
“I didn’t come all the way out here to ignore it.”
Murdock put down a hand to help her up. She ignored it, and pushed down with her left hand to stand. Her arm crumpled and she whimpered with pain.
“Okay, help,” she said. Murdock caught her shoulders and stood her up. Her face came close to his, and she smiled for a moment, then sobered.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Yes, and hobble and hop.”
“Good. Dobler, find Holt and take a look at him.”
Dobler left. Murdock served as a crutch as they moved across the cave fifteen feet to the table. She wobbled as she stood there looking at the packaging to one side.
“They protected it well enough.” She turned to the warhead itself and nodded. “Yes, a duplicate of the ones we saw in Libya. No problem. Where are my tools?”
Murdock sent Lam to bring them. She turned and sat against the table, letting her left leg keep her in place.
“What kind of time?” Murdock asked.
“Fifteen minutes once I get started. You have out security?”
“Hey, I’m the SEAL here. We have four men on cover. Holt was hit, Lam is getting your kit from the car, and Bradford is checking out the Ziv to see if it will still run. Anything else you want to know?”
“Yes. How in hell did those bullets find me when I was in the backseat of that car?”
“Good question. What the hell were you doing outflanking those shooters? That’s what we have SEALs for.”
“Just seemed like a good idea at the time. It worked, didn’t it?”
“Oh, yes, it worked, and it could have made you one dead GS-15 government employee.”
Lam came running in with Kat’s tool kit. Murdock moved two candles and pulled the warhead assembly over so Kat could work on it while sitting on the table.
“Weird,” she said, but went to work.
“Skipper, Bradford says the Ziv will run, but the whole windshield is shot out and come daylight some cop is going to get damn curious about that.”
“No way we can drive back into Kabul with it that way?”
“Not a chance.”
“Have Bradford take you back to the roadblock and see if one of those Army sedans will run. If so, bring both rigs back here.”
“Aye, aye, Skipper,” Lam said, and ran out of the cave.
Murdock went to check on Holt.
He found Holt where he was hit on the assault. Dobler was bending over him in the darkness, the flash held in his mouth so he could see. He heard Murdock come up, and the second flash helped light the scene.
“Not too good, Commander. Took one high in his chest. Must have caught part of his lung, another one in his left shoulder.”
“Not that bad, Skipper,” Holt said, looking up. “Hell, I can still pull a trigger.”
“Good, SEAL. You keep talking. Dobler. Drive one of the cars over here and get Holt in the backseat and shoot him up with some morphine. Two if he wants them. Kat is going to need one after she finishes the bomb.”
“Kat get hit?” Holt asked. “Damnit, how did we let her take a slug?”
Dobler told him.
“What a fucking little trooper. She can be in my squad on any mission.”
“Stay with him,” Murdock told Dobler, and ran back to the first cave. He sent two men to clear the second cave. There could still be some hostiles in there. They came back five minutes later.
“Only four bodies in there, Skipper,” Van Dyke said. “Must have been those sweethearts of twenties that did it.”
Murdock nodded, and put him back on guard outside. Then Murdock watched Kat. She knew exactly what to take apart, what to leave intact, and where to slide in the charges. They were prepackaged and in with her tools.
Murdock looked at his watch. Kat saw him. “I know, I know. I’m slow working this way.” She sagged, and Murdock caught her.
“I will not pass out, damnit. I will not faint dead away like some Southern belle. I fucking will not!” She looked at Murdock and grinned. “Talked myself through that one. Why does my damned shoulder hurt so much? Just a scratch, nothing to put a fucking SEAL down.”
Murdock chuckled. “Hey, when you start talking dirty I know you’re feeling better. No big rush. You’ve got the con on this one. We move when you tell us to move.”
“Good. It’s always nice to have control, as long as one does not throw up when one is bossing people around.” She laughed. “Hey, I don’t talk that way. Move me around a little more to face this devil. Another five minutes. These charges won’t bring down the cave. It’s solid rock in here, not sandstone or clay.
“Suggest we set charges to seal the front of the cave. We can set the timers on these for ten minutes, then set the timers for the front of the cave for twenty and drive off a ways and see what happens.”
Murdock called to Franklin, and told him to position charges on the mouth of the cave.
“Leave the timer detonators off them until we get done in here. Another five minutes.” Franklin jogged out to the front of the cave where they had left the TNAZ explosives. They had been sewn into their clothes in quarter-inch sheets six by four inches, and had come through the inspections in good shape.
Murdock went back to check on Holt. He sat up and sipped at one of the canteens.
“Hell, Skipper, I’m okay. Just have a little bit of trouble breathing is all. Just a couple of damn scratches. Be back in the pink in a day or two.”
“Yeah, sure you will.” Murdock looked at Dobler. “His shoulder is patched up and looks good. That puncture wound in his chest is bothering him a lot. He’s got to get to a doctor.”
“We’ll see what kind of help Jeru can be on that score. Which means another day in her house. Hope the neighbors don’t turn her in and the cops come. We don’t need another shoot-out on this one.”
By the time Murdock walked back into the cave, Kat leaned back, wiped her brow, and nodded.
“That should do it, Boss. No timers set yet. You give the word and I’ll set them as you suggest.”
“Let me check the guys at the mouth, and the t
ransport.” He ran out of the cave into the blackness of the night. It took him some time to get his eyes accustomed to the darkness. Then he saw the military sedan parked beside the other two cars twenty feet from the cave. The Ziv must not be in the best shape.
“Transport ready, Skipper,” Bradford said. “We’ve put Holt in the Army sedan’s back seat. The other cars are ready. We should have plenty of gas to get back to Kabul.”
Murdock waved at Bradford, and looked at the charges set at the front of the cave. The sides and overhead here looked to be a softer stone than what was inside. He went back to Kat.
“Set them for ten minutes,” he said. She watched him a moment, then pushed over and set the detonators and started the timers.
“I better give you a lift out of here,” Murdock said. He picked her up in his arms and held her in front of him as he carried her out of the cave.
“Set your timers for fifteen minutes,” he told Franklin. Murdock carried Kat to the second car, and put her in the backseat.
Franklin came running up. “Mouth charges set and activated on fifteen minutes,” he said.
“Let’s load up and move out of here,” Murdock said. The men crawled into the cars, and they drove off five hundred yards and stopped.
Kat checked her countdown watch with her flash.
“A little over a minute left for the inside charges,” she said. It was thirty seconds later that they heard the TNAZ go off inside the tunnel. A spume of dust billowed out of the cave’s mouth.
“Good-bye, warhead,” Jaybird said.
They waited.
“Thirty seconds,” Franklin said on the radio. Almost before he finished the words, a cracking roar billowed across the desertlike country and a brilliant flash blossomed at the first tunnel. The slap of the shock wave from the blast pushed Murdock back a step where he stood beside the car.
He ducked inside the front seat. “First car will go take a look,” he said. “The rest of you stay put.”
They drove to the site through the thinning cloud of dust. What had been a cave mouth before now showed as a large rock pile with a small indentation near the top. It would take hundreds of hours of work with heavy equipment to open the cave.
“Let’s get out of Dodge,” Murdock said, and Bradford wheeled the sedan around and drove back to the others.
“All right, so far, so good,” Murdock said on the net. “Now all we have to do is get home. We’ll drive back, but not in a convoy. Keep the car in front of you in sight, but with a few cars between if possible. We’ll close up more the closer we get to the big city. We go back to Jeru’s place and park the cars a few blocks away. Most of us haven’t been there yet. It should still be dark when we get there, but go in by ones and twos so we don’t upset the neighbors.
“Our first job is to find a doctor for our wounded. Then we schedule our flights out of here two by two again. We’ll leave all weapons and explosives here, except the twenty Bull Pup, which we’ll break down the same way and put parts in ten suitcases.
“Better catch some sleep while you can. You may need it. The Afghans are going to be all over this one as soon as they find out. With any luck we’ll be on planes and out of here before they discover that their baby has been blown into shrapnel.”
They drove. They did not stop at the safe house in Khowst, but kept right on the road for the capital. They saw no unusual traffic and no military units racing toward the caves. That was good.
Murdock looked at Kat, who sat stiffly upright in the backseat beside him. “How’s the shoulder?”
“Hurts,” she said.
“You need a little help.” He opened his first-aid kit on his belt, and took out an ampoule of morphine and injected it.
“Yes, thanks.”
He put his arm around her, pulled her good shoulder against him, and eased her head down on his shoulder. Her eyes closed slowly.
“Now, relax, tough guy, and get some sleep. We’ll get a sawbones to take a look at you as soon as we can.”
They arrived back at Jeru’s apartment with no problem. No additional military traffic was seen. They drove up, and Kat insisted on walking into the place. Then she collapsed on a cot. Holt walked slowly with a man on each side of him. He went down on another cot, and looked exhausted.
“We need a doctor,” Murdock said.
Jeru frowned. “That’s a problem. We had one man we could rely on, but he vanished and we think he simply left the country, fed up with the constant upheaval and chaos. Who else?”
She walked around the room, checked Kat’s shoulder, and brought some supplies and rebandaged the wound there. Then Jeru brightened. “Yes, I have it. We’ll call her ‘Martha,’ because that isn’t her name. She’s a medical doctor who went to school in Pakistan because they have better medical schools than we do. When she came back, the government wouldn’t recognize her as a qualified M.D. and no women can work outside their home here anyway. She’s a friend who helped me once before.”
“Can you phone her?” Burdock asked.
“Oh, no. Her phone is tapped and constantly monitored. I’ll drive over there and bring her back. I just hope she’s home. What time is it?”
“A little after 0330. That’s three-thirty A.M.”
“Good, we know she’ll be home. She lives alone.”
“Want me to go with you?”
“No.” She hesitated, and then frowned. “This is important to you. I don’t want to let you down. Maybe you should send someone with me.”
“I’ll go. It’s not only important, it’s vital. We need both of these people.” Murdock motioned to Dobler. “Have the men get some rest. As soon as it’s light we’ll have them head for the airport. Send Franklin along. Have him go to different airlines and change the tickets of two of his friends for earlier flights. Get them all out of here before noon if possible. Different flights or different airlines, so the counter people won’t remember.”
“Got it. We all have money if there are any more charges. We’ll leave here about six. You be careful out there.”
It was less than a half-hour drive into one of the poorer sections of town. Few street lights, litter in the streets. The houses and apartment buildings in poor repair. They parked, and went down a crooked street to a door that had a name on it and the word, evidently in Pashto, for “doctor.”
Jeru didn’t hesitate. She went past the door to a narrow walkway between two buildings and round to the back of the place. There were two doors. She knocked on one, then banged loudly. They saw through a window when a light came on. Jeru let out a held-in breath.
“Oh, good, she is home.”
The door opened a crack against a chain, and the two women spoke quickly. Then the chain came off and Jeru and Murdock stepped inside. The woman wore a robe, her hair was mussed. She rubbed her eyes as she and Jeru talked. Murdock had no idea what they said. Then he heard the word SEALs and he frowned. Jeru turned to him.
“It’s all right, she is one of us. We can trust her with our lives.”
The woman smiled at Murdock, shook his hand, and said something.
“She said you’re the most handsome man she’s seen since she toured Washington, D.C., five years ago.”
“Thank her for me. Can she come?”
“Yes. She needs her bag and some supplies.” The doctor went into another room. She was back in five minutes, in traditional women dress, and with a medical bag and carrying a paper sack.
She spoke to Jeru.
“Martha says she will do what she can and give you medications that you can use through the long flight back to Greece.”
They went to the door. Martha looked out, nodded, and the three went out the door into the small alleyway next to the building behind her home.
They had moved only twenty feet when a man with a gun trained on them stepped out of the shadows. He barked something in Pashto and the women stopped suddenly. Murdock saw the weapon at once and froze.
Jeru whispered to Murdock as the man came
closer, “He says not to move, we’re all under arrest.”
25
Murdock judged the man with the gun. A professional. He stayed six feet away when he came up to them.
“Faint,” Murdock whispered to Jeru. She didn’t look at him, but frowned.
“Oh, my,” Jeru said. She put her hand to her head. Then her knees shook and a moment later she fell against Murdock, eyes closed, arms flapping as she went down. She was still dressed as a man.
“Now look what you’ve done,” the doctor barked at the gunman. “You’ve scared him to death. He’s fainted. We were going to his home for treatment. I’ll have to give him some medication and some smelling salts. What in the world are you doing?”
The gunman, who Murdock figured was a Secret Policeman of some kind, hesitated. When he spoke, he stammered, then coughed. He touched his forehead, where sweat had appeared, and he cleared his throat.
“This person is on our list of subversives. He must be watched. All right, treat him. Then all four of us are going to my supervisor and get some answers.”
Murdock didn’t understand any of the talk. He had one chance with the gunman. He crouched beside Jeru, whose eyes fluttered, then stayed shut. The doctor stayed beside her, and took some pills from her black bag.
Murdock moved slowly, his left ankle out of sight of the gunman behind Jeru. He lifted the hideout from its leather holster and kept it behind Jeru.
“Hurry up,” the Secret Policeman said.
Murdock started to stand.
“No,” the cop snapped. He motioned down with his hand. “Stay down, big man. I’ll deal with you later. It is the tall one, Jeru, we are interested in.”
“Cover is blown, Murdock,” Jeru whispered. “Shoot him.”
A siren sounded somewhere far behind them. The Secret Policeman turned, then looked back. Murdock pulled up the short-barreled.32 and fired four times with a point-and-shoot aim. Two of the four rounds hit the cop’s chest and he went down. His trigger finger spasmed and fired two rounds into the pavement as he fell.
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