'And Carey in turn is getting leaned on real heavy from Station Bravo supply. The damn thing is on their property books, and they want an accounting--in writing--now! I need some serious intelligent input and advice on this situation.'
The senior chief spoke up first. 'Lie about it, sir.'
'It's going to have to be a pretty clever lie,' Brannigan said.
'Not necessarily,' Cruiser said. 'You can claim it was lost in the normal course of things.'
'I'd have to pay for it.'
'Tell 'em the enemy stole it,' Chief Gunnarson suggested. 'Or destroyed it with hostile fire.'
'How can I do that?' Brannigan said. 'We won all the battles.'
'Bad luck,' Cruiser said, and then quickly added, 'Well, you know what I mean.'
Ensign Taylor spoke up. 'I have a suggestion, sir.'
Cruiser chuckled. 'All due respect, Ensign, but I don't think you've been in the Navy long enough to get down and dirty about a situation like this. Figuring out a way to get away with it will take a lot of savvy and experience.'
Taylor shrugged. 'I suppose you're right, sir.'
'C'mon!' Brannigan said. 'Let's give the young man a chance. Out of the mouths of babes, right?'
'Well, sir, I've noticed that Petty Officer Murchison has a way with words,' Taylor said. 'Sometimes it's very difficult to understand him. Perhaps if he wrote up an explanation in an ambiguous way that really didn't say anything but looked impressive, the people at Station Bravo could write off the vehicle easily and quickly. They could attach it as an endorsement to their own report of the affair.'
'Great idea!' Brannigan exclaimed. 'They really don't want the damn thing back, but they have to cover their asses. That supply officer doesn't want to pay for the vehicle any more than I do.'
'Murchison is in my section,' Dawkins said. 'I'll brief him on the problem.'
Monty Sturgis, the petty officer of the watch, stepped into the bunker. 'Chopper's coming,' he announced. 'Two visitors. Can't see who they are from here.'
'Right,' Brannigan said. 'I can't wait to see who they might be.' Then he added under his breath, 'Not!'
Ten minutes later, Lieutenant Commander Ernest Berringer entered with PO Doug MacTavish. The SEAL who had been wounded was in good spirits as he reported in. His face, which had taken a combined load of shrapnel, rocks, and dirt in the explosion that injured him, still showed the effects of the incident. But it was obvious he was healing nicely. There was none of the tattooing that Doc Bradley had feared.
Ensign Taylor was happy to see his SAW gunner back in action. 'It's great to have you home again, MacTavish. We've had need of your expertise. You play pretty tunes on that squad automatic weapon.'
'Glad to be here, sir,' MacTavish said.
Berringer spoke in his usual somber manner. 'He's not going to be here long. And neither are the rest of you. A detachment of Army Rangers is coming in to relieve you. You're to be back at Shelor Field by tomorrow at the latest.'
'What's with this shit, sir?'
'All I know is that orders came down to move you guys back to Shelor Field,' Berringer explained. 'And I don't think it's for R and R.'
Brannigan pointed over to the informal supply dump just outside Doc Bradley's clinic. 'It's gonna take us a hell of a long time to pack all this stuff up.'
'Leave it for the Army,' Berringer said. 'All you lug out of here is your personal weapons and equipment. Leave the fifty-caliber machine guns too.'
'Aren't I charged with all that?' Brannigan asked in way of a protest.
'Your name is removed from all supply and ordnance considerations here,' Berringer assured him.
'Does that include the DPV?' Brannigan asked.
'There's never been a desert patrol vehicle up here on Operation Battleline,' Berringer said. 'And you're still going to have to answer for the one that was misplaced during Operation Rolling Thunder.'
'Not to worry,' Brannigan said. 'The paperwork is in the mill.' He turned to his section leaders. 'You heard the commander. Go round up your guys. It's moving day.'
'The chopper will be here at fourteen hundred hours,' Berringer said.
The officers and chiefs left the bunker to muster their sections and teams.
.
SEAL HANGAR
SHELOR FIELD
30 AUGUST 1300 HOURS
BRUNO Puglisi sat next to his buddy Joe Miskoski among the other SEALs scattered around on folding chairs. The last two days had dragged by very slowly. Puglisi whispered, 'They might as well leave this meeting stuff set up permanent.'
'Yeah,' Miskoski agreed. 'I'm beginning to feel like I've spent half my Navy career getting briefed in this freakin' hangar.'
Mike Assad, in the row just behind them, leaned forward. 'Yeah. But this time we're gonna really be able to go at the bad guys down and fucking dirty, man!'
'Sail on!' Puglisi agreed with a wicked grin.
Brannigan, Jim Cruiser, and Orlando Taylor were in the cubbyhole of an office with Commander Tom Carey and Lieutenant Commander Ernest Berringer. When the latter two officers had shown up at Shelor Field after the Brigands' impromptu transfer from the OA, they had kicked up everyone's adrenaline with the revelation of the blueprints of the Zaheya mountain fortress. A well-hidden and skillfully camouflaged rear entrance was plainly shown on the plans. Now they knew how the ragheads had managed to get out and catch up with them during the exfiltration after the HALO attack.
The officers came out to join the rest of the detachment. The Skipper, Cruiser, and Taylor went behind the chairs and stayed on their feet for the briefing that was about to be delivered. Carey and Berringer tacked a blown- up reproduction of the fortress layout on the wall. Then Berringer stepped aside while Carey took the floor.
'I can see the eagerness in your eyes,' Carey said. 'It's show time! You're going into that goddamn place via that hidden entrance. We're going to issue a vocal OPORD to you this afternoon, and when that's done, you'll draw some concussion grenades to take the place of the M-two-oh-threes. There won't be any machine-gun support per se, but the fire support section will all carry individual SAWs. That procedure will be explained later.'
'When do the festivities start?' Pech Pecheur asked.
'HALO insertion will be in the early morning of one September,' Carey said. 'You will launch your attack immediately after landing. You're not going to have a lot of room inside that damn fortress, so you can forget the fire-and-maneuver drill. I'm not going to try to fool you guys. This is gonna be tough and deadly. Figure some hand- to-hand in the deal. And also keep in mind how confined it's gonna be in those tunnels and bunkers.' He turned and indicated the layout on the wall. 'The one thing you won't have to worry about is having the bastards come at you from all directions. When the Russians built that place, they kept it simple and orderly. For all intents and purposes there is only one passageway, but it leads to each separate bunker.'
'Man!' Pete Dawson exclaimed. 'The few guys in front are going to catch all the hell.'
Brannigan interjected himself into the proceedings. 'We've taken that into consideration. Fire teams will be rotated as we progress through the place. That will be the section commanders' responsibility. And as soon as the last team of a section has put in its time, the next section will immediately take over.'
SCPO Dawkins turned in his seat and looked at the Skipper. 'Sir, what about a rear guard? Those Zaheya guys can send some of their own riflemen around the back and come in behind us.'
'That's going to be Chief Gunnarson's responsibility,' Brannigan responded. 'His fire support section with those SAWs is going to set up a perimeter around the area of that rear entrance. There'll be half a dozen of 'em with beaucoup ammo.'
Gunnarson now spoke up. 'I've been wondering about that, sir. We could end up getting hard-pressed out there in the back. SAWs are great, but I'm sure gonna miss those beautiful fifties we left them Army guys.'
'That's been taken into consideration, Chief,' Brannigan said. 'Gomez is going to be with you. He'll bring along his faithful Shadowfire radio for long-distance transmissions. He'll also have his AN/PRC-twenty-six to keep in touch with me. So if things get real hairy back there, he can call in CAS from Shelor Field. There'll be half a dozen F/A-
