THE contact team's return to the platoon caught everybody's attention. As Chief Matt Gunnarson passed through the perimeter, he ordered a hundred percent alert, warning of the possibility of an attack by reinforcements. The SEALs observed fire team integrity in placement and formation as everyone did his best to find the most advantageous field of fire within the illumination of his night vision goggles. Meanwhile Lieutenant Jim Cruiser and Chief Petty Officer Gunnarson reported in to Brannigan and Senior Chief Buford Dawkins.
'Our boy wasn't there,' the 21C informed the skipper. 'But a group of real pissed off mujahideen sure as hell was.'
The main thing the Skipper was concerned with was the potential of more fighters suddenly appearing out of the east. 'How'd the firefight go?' he asked Cruiser.
'There's no doubt we got them all,' the 21C reported. 'I think there was ten, but Chief Gunnarson estimates maybe nine. Neither one of us is sure. There was somebody in the village shooting up flares until Puglisi kicked off some grenades from his M-203. There might have been one guy alone or a couple.'
'If he survived and isn't wounded, he's probably already legging it for his home base,' the senior chief said. 'That means the warlord or whatever he is, will be sending out every swinging dick he commands to get us.'
'Then we'll kill 'em, by God, Buford!' Gunnarson said.
'Or we'll kill as many as we can until they kill all of us,' Brannigan countered. 'Remember that asset at the briefing said there was two or three hundred of the bastards?'
'Well,' Cruiser remarked, 'here we are one way or the other.' He winked and grinned. 'This sort of situation makes you wish we were still doing those short raids. Hell, normally we could hightail it back to the water for pickup by boat.'
'The nearest water is about eight hundred miles from here, sir,' Senior Chief Dawkins said. 'That would take a lot of hightailing.'
'It's not going to be easy to call in a pickup,' Brannigan said. 'If those mujahideen have Stingers, they'll knock down any aircraft that comes for us:'
'They probably have plenty,' Cruiser said. 'The CIA gave those fucking things away like lollipops when the Afghans were fighting the Russians.'
Brannigan took a deep breath. 'Okay. Let's get everyone on their feet. We'll be better off at our base camp on West Ridge. I want to get across that valley between it and this mountain before daylight.'
The senior chief turned to the fire teams on the perimeter. 'All right, people. Off and on! We got a fast trek to make before the sun comes a-shining with the dawn.'
The platoon reacted quickly, moving out of the rocks to form up.
Chapter 5
BASE CAMP IN WEST RIDGE
AUGUST
0830 HOURS LOCAL
THE top of the mountain's crest was as bare bones as it had been for eons. The small creek, not more than two yards wide, meandered through boulders, rocky outcrops and scrub brush. James Bradley tested the stream with his potable water chemical analysis kit, and found it to be safe for human consumption. That was great news. It meant no one had to use the water purification tablets that created a sour taste.
The sixteen men of Lieutenant Bill Brannigan's platoon occupied this pristine location without giving the slightest visual evidence of their presence. The soil was firm, without dust, thus the SEALs moving from spot to spot as they took up security and firing positions left no boot prints. Vital sound and light discipline so necessary for concealment came as instinctively to these veterans as did breathing and swearing. The SEALs blended deeply into the environment, making them deadly as cobras.
Brannigan set up his CP within an area enclosed by a natural wall of rock. A roof of thorny brush was put on top to provide overhead cover, and the entrance was blocked from sight by more vegetation and stones. The skipper killed a half dozen scorpions during the first few hours of occupation, and the surviving poisonous insects seemed to have concluded that, as Shakespeare wrote, 'the better part of valor is discretion.' They became discreet to the point of disappearing from sight.
Now, on this second day of the operation, Lieutenant (JG) Jim Cruiser, Senior Chief Petty Officer Buford Dawkins and Chief Petty Officer Matt Gunnarson crowded into the CP to drink instant coffee and have an official confab with the Skipper. Brannigan took a sip of coffee, grinning at his senior subordinates. 'I was just wondering how many times I'm destined to sit in the middle of harm's way in the company of you guys and your ugly mugs.'
Dawkins emitted a country-boy chuckle. 'We ain't in harm's way, sir. Hell! We're on Harm's Freeway.'
'Actually, we're on Harm's Freeway going north in the southbound lanes,' Cruiser added with a grin.
'It's more'n that. We're on Harm's Freeway going north in the southbound lanes with no off-ramps,' Gunnarson interjected in uncharacteristic humor.
'In other words,' Brannigan said, 'we're up the proverbial shit creek without a paddle. We were supposed to spend ten days in-country, but that's no longer applicable. The fact we were attacked in lieu of meeting a defector pretty much brings this mission to a screeching halt.'
'It's time for an expedient aerial exfiltration,' Cruiser said.
Brannigan shook his head. 'Those mujahideen must have Stingers. The bastards know we're here now, so they'll nail any aircraft that comes in the area and tries a landing. There's a big possibility that we're going to have to get out of here by ourselves. The country west of here is made up of foothills and ravines. It provides damn good cover and concealment, but would mean a long walk through unfriendly territory in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. One big downside is that Al Qaeda is split up and scattered all through those areas. It would just be a matter of time before we attracted the sort of attention that leads to complete disaster. The situation would really have to deteriorate before I'd choose that particular option.'
'We'll be needing a supply drop if we stay here much longer,' Cruiser said. 'Our chow and ammo won't last forever.'
'A fast-flying aircraft could make a low drop while spewing out flares,' Brannigan said. 'That would keep the Stinger projectiles off it.'
'But that would reveal our location to the mujahideen,' Gunnarson protested.
'Hell, Chief!' Brannigan said. 'It's like I said. They already know we're up here. There're only two frigging mountains in this goddamn OA. They've probably figured we're on this one by now. And if they haven't, they soon will.'
'One way or the other we have to make a decision,' Cruiser pointed out.
'Don't worry about that,' Brannigan said. 'All decisions will be made by SOCOM. That means they damn well might tell us we're on our own.'
The sounds of approaching footsteps broke into the conversation, and they looked up to see the radio operator, Frank Gomez. He knelt down and handed a message to Brannigan. 'It's from SOCOM, sir. It's in reply to the SITREP you sent out earlier.'
'Now we're going to get the word,' Brannigan said. He read the neatly printed missive that Gomez had decoded from the five-letter word groups. 'Well! SOCOM seems a bit wishy-washy. This is an order to stand fast and go on the defensive. They need some data to send a resupply mission to us:'
'In other words,' Senior Chief Dawkins said, 'nobody back in SOCOM has figured out how to pull us out of this shit.'
'From what I read into this, it appears that they're concentrating as much on getting us out as they are on giving us another mission,' Brannigan said. 'Something's going on and we're in the middle of it.'
'You can't be sure of that,' Cruiser commented.
'Why not?' Brannigan remarked. 'They have definite plans to resupply us, and that means there's a task in the offing. It might not be anything more than a potential mission that could be called off later. Either way, I have no intention of us just sitting on our asses in these rocks and thorns to await their bidding. We'll do a little sneaking- and-peeking along with some combat patrols to keep that warlord son of a bitch off balance. I want to create an atmosphere that will strike fear in his evil heathen heart.'
'It's as we concluded,' Cruiser remarked. 'We're going north in the southbound lanes. Even with resupply, we can't stay here forever.'
.
