long behind which they were sheltering.
She could not at first figure out what the bags were doing there, since the layout in no way constituted an emplacement, and then realized that they were probably used in high winds to help secure the skids of parked helicopters.
The bags had been filled with a thin, high-quality sand, unfortunately, and as the gunfire ripped open the bags, the sand was flowing out at an uncomfortably fast rate. In a matter of minutes they would be well-equipped to build sand castles but devoid of cover. They were going to have to do something very soon.
Oga was lying on his back, his Heckler and Koch MP5 pointed up at the top of the tower. From time to time, a head would appear and someone would try to shoot down, but Oga's accurate snap-shooting in semiautomatic mode to conserve ammunition kept the situation under control. He was talented at this sort of thing, observed Chifune. It was more than standard airborne training.
'How is your CQB, Sergeant- san?' said Chifune. She was referring to Close Quarters Battle training, the highly specialized skills acquired for hostage training or close-in counterterrorist work.
Oga fired twice rapidly at a silhouette appearing over the tower parapet and red mist stained the air. 'Rusty, but coming back to me,' he said. 'They say it's like riding a bicycle. When you get older, you can still do it, but your joints creak.'
Chifune smiled briefly. She had heard much the same comment made about another popular human pastime.
'If we stay here, we're going to get killed,' she said. 'If we advance to attack the guards in and around the doorway, we're not going to make it. There is at least a half-dozen of them and there are forty-odd yards to cover. Also, they will be able to hit us with the fifty on the roof from behind.'
'Which leaves the tower or waiting until help comes?' said Oga.
'Help is going to take twenty minutes or more,' said Chifune, 'even with the quick reaction team.'
'So put a 40mm into the doorway and have Renako hose them down for a few seconds while we kick in the tower doorway,' said Oga. 'My guess, after the helicopter blew up beside them, is tat all the survivors are on the roof.'
'How many do you think?' said Chifune.
'Less that there were,' said Oga grimly. 'Two or three, four at the most. So let's do it.'
Chifune looked up at the tower again. She could take the top off with a 40mm grenade, but they were too close for the projectile to arm, and even if it did the resultant explosion could well take them out too. She made a mental note to take good, old-fashioned hand grenades with her in the future. This obsession with direct-fire weapons was ridiculous. Within seconds of any firefight starting, every sane participant was under cover, and then grenades were the best tools for the job.
Renako cried out and Chifune looked across. The detective's face was screwed up with pain. He reached down and pulled his leg under cover as if it could not move of its own volition. A round had smashed into his foot when it had strayed from behind their meager barrier into the line of fire. His face was gray with shock and there was sweat beaded on his forehead. The pain from such a wound would be intense, even if it was not immediately life-threatening.
'Renako- san,' said Chifune. 'Can you take the roof? We are going to clear it, but you must keep their heads down for a few seconds. Then we can help you.'
Renako nodded weakly. Oga helped him onto his back so that he could watch the parapet, and checked that his weapon had a full magazine and a round chambered. He too had an MP5, but Oga set it to automatic.
'Nothing clever, Renako- san,' said Oga. 'Just spray the fuckers if they show.'
' Hai, Sergeant- san,' said Renako. He felt dizzy and the parapet was going in and out of focus, but he thought he could hang in there long enough.
Chifune had been reluctant to fire her grenade launcher into the doorway since, if Fitzduane was alive, the chances were he would be in that direction. Still, they had just about run out of the luxury of options.
'On my mark, Sergeant- san,' she said, looking at Oga. He nodded.
'NOW!' she shouted.
Oga rose behind the barrier, weapon blazing, causing the guards in and around the doorway to duck temporarily. Almost immediately, Chifune added to the hail of fire with her C-Mag-fed automatic rifle and then sighted the grenade launcher and fired.
The bulbous projectile, looking like a massively oversized bullet, shot from the under-barrel grenade launcher and vanished through the doorway.
Flame and bodies erupted. Chifune hosed the area with the rest of her C-Mag, reloaded, and followed Oga around to the side of the tower and as she was running, firing recommenced from across the roof. The grenade had inflicted casualties, but the defenders were far from out of action.
The tower doorway was half-broken and still burning. Oga hit it at a run, went straight in, and rolled and came up shooting. There was no one there, just metal stairs that led straight up to the small control room and the roof.
A face looked down and Oga fired again. The face vanished, but Oga thought he had missed. He was furious with himself for having fired unnecessarily and thus alerting the guards on the roof.
Chifune crouched beside him. The stairs led to an open door. She mentally worked out the distance and the angle and what the effect of the blast might be. The alternative was to climb up the stairs under fire. The advantage would be with the defenders, and she and Oga certainly did not have surprise on their side.
She did not blame Oga for firing. Had the base been occupied, they would have been dead if his precautionary fire had been delayed for even a fraction of a second. Combat, like most things in life, was about choices. You made decisions and you pushed ahead and you took the consequences if you were wrong. Regret rarely made a useful contribution.
Oga was changing magazines, so Chifune kept a hail of fire going in a series of tight-aimed bursts at where she expected the opposition to be. She could see no one.
'Do you want to be shown up or blown up, Sergeant- san?' she said in a brief lull, and fired again. The hundred-capacity C-Mag was a thing of joy. If fed rounds effortlessly and gave the firepower of a full machine gun.
Oga got the point immediately. 'Go for it!' he said, holding up his thumb. She could not hear him, but the gesture was unmistakable. She flashed him a grin.
Chifune, crouched near the base of the stairs, fired the grenade launcher almost straight up. She imagined she could see the projectile as it entered the control room, and envisioned it continuing and impacting against the roof.
She crouched down and put her hands over her ears. The blast was awesome in the confined space, and a wave of concussion hit her. Debris and dust filled the tower.
She reloaded and fired again at a slightly different angle, in case the roof had blown open at the point of impact the first time, and again there was a violent explosion, though the concussion seemed to be less this time. The roof or some part of the structure had definitely been perforated and was dissipating the shock wave.
'Let's go,' said Oga, and bounded up the stairs. Chifune followed him. Thy had both received similar training for QCB, and without discussion they both fell into mutually supporting roles.
They found two bodies in the wrecked control room. The center of the roof had fallen in and there was a third body under the debris. A single flight of perforated steel stairs led to the remains of the roof.
Oga advanced up it, covered by Chifune. At the top, he vanished for a few seconds and then reappeared with a smile on his face. 'I'm going to look after Renako,' he said. 'You'd better take a look, Tanabu- san. Don't worry. It's safe to look over the parapet.'
Oga, grinning from ear to ear but saying nothing more, rattled down the stairs past her to look after his man. Somewhat mystified, Chifune ascended. Two more dead lay there, their bodies severely mutilated from the grenade blasts and their blood leaching into the dust that was everywhere.
Despite Oga's reassurance, she was extremely cautious in looking over the parapet. What she saw made her rise to full height.
Several guards sat crosslegged on the ground, their hands clasped on their heads. Sitting slightly apart, very dazed, hands also on his head, was someone dressed in what looked like the remains of traditional samurai armor. It was an incongruous sight in this late-twentieth-century battlefield.
