attackers did not see the three Americans break and run for the site below. They kept to the backside of the dunes as they ran.
The Land Rover was equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun that was perched on the top, and a gunner started firing at the few men left inside the mosque's walls. The two Cobras kept swooping in and firing streams of 20-millimeter rounds into the piles of rubble.
The four-wheel-drive SUV stopped only fifty feet outside the walls and the gunner continued to fire into the ruins. One Special Forces sergeant stood and loosed a full magazine at the Coalition vehicle and managed to drop the gunner, while the rest of his bullets ricocheted off the Rover's armored skin and glass. A circling Cobra fired its remaining rockets and killed the sergeant before he could take cover again.
The vehicle slowly started to advance when the return fire from the mosque fell off to nothing. Three men jumped out and ran for cover. One of the Cobras took up a hovering position a hundred feet over the mosque and covered the ground team as they cautiously approached.
Suddenly, the last remaining Green Beret stood and arrogantly aimed a small tube at the hovering Cobra. The Stinger let loose with a screech as it left the launcher. The three men fired at the man who stood bravely watching the missile's exhaust trail as it tracked the Coalition's Cobra.
The Cobra pilot turned as soon as his missile-warning system lit up. He popped chaff and flares in an attempt to escape. However, the distance was far too short and the Stinger was fast. The small but powerful missile made impact on the engine housing on the starboard side and tore through into the engine itself. The warhead detonated and blew the engine and rotors entirely free of the airframe. The attack chopper simply fell one hundred feet into the largest section of the mosque and exploded.
The three Coalition men ducked the flying debris and then quickly recovered. The first man to fire took a quick and terrible vengeance for their downed pilot. He fired and struck the last of Major Dutton's ground team. The man fell through the tower doorway and lay dead in the sand. The three men stood and waved the second Cobra in to safeguard them as they checked the ruins for survivors.
Collins, Everett, and Ryan saw the Green Beret attack on the Cobra as they neared the last dune before they had to break cover.
'Good for him,' Everett said as he saw the chopper explode.
The three men slowed and then slid into the sand as they came to the edge of last dune. Jack looked around and saw the last of the three attackers enter the tower base. He grimaced as he heard shots fired and screams of men as they were shot down in cold blood.
'Goddammit!' Jack said as he ducked back. 'Dutton should have known better. With the mosque around them, they could have held off a brigade for half a damn day. We've got to take out that last Cobra.'
'The only way we can do that is have a bunch of bullets shot at us.'
'I've got to take the Land Rover; we need that fifty-cal.'
'If we had just one damn grenade,' Everett said.
'Mr. Ryan, you're the fastest. If I take out the fifty-gunner from here, can you sprint the distance before another takes his place?'
Ryan was breathing heavily and it wasn't just because they had run a quarter of a mile. He was frightened.
'No; I would have to start before you take a shot. It won't take long for someone to pop up and start shooting at us again. I'll run, and when he turns to fire I'll take him out. That will give me about twenty yards to cover and the time I need.'
Collins looked at the small navy pilot and nodded.
Everett shook his head and tossed Jack the MP-5. He knew that Ryan had never lacked for balls, but what made him so convincing was that he was always scared to death. Scared men got the job done.
'Don't be shy about wasting ammo, flyboy--empty a full magazine of nine-mil through that sunroof of theirs,' Everett said, and then he pulled out his own Beretta.
'Right,' Ryan said as he looked at the colonel. 'Don't miss, or my boat-surfing days are over.'
Collins was silent as he extended the retractable stock and then wrapped the MP-5s shoulder strap around his forearm. He raised the rear site and adjusted for distance. Then he placed the stock into his shoulder.
'Okay, Colonel,' Ryan said, taking three deep breaths. 'Do some of that black-operations stuff you're famous for,' he said as he suddenly burst free of the dune and ran as if the devil himself were chasing him.
As luck would have it, Ryan broke cover just as the remaining Cobra turned and gained a better vantage point. That was where his luck ended. The gunner on the top of the Land Rover must have had excellent instincts for danger, because before Ryan had taken five steps the gunner started turning the heavy weapon his way. To Ryan it was as if everything went into surreal slowness as he awaited the large-caliber rounds to hit his small body and tear it apart.
Jack kept both eyes open as he aimed. In his peripheral vision he saw the long barrel of the .50-caliber turn in Ryan's direction. Collins took a breath and then allowed half of the air out. Then he sighted again, taking his time. The sight was center-lined on the man's throat. Jack figured that the MP-5 would bolt up at the split-second discharge of the bullet, so he accounted for recoil and pulled the trigger.
Ryan saw the gunner smile as he continued to run. He knew the man had two fingers on the triggers of the machine gun, so he concentrated on running even faster. When he was sure he was done for, Ryan felt something buzz past his left ear. Just when he wondered if the colonel had forgotten about him, he saw the gunner's head snap back, and then the barrel of the .50-caliber slowly rose into the air as the man fell back into the sunroof.
Ryan covered the remaining distance without a rational thought in his head. Just before he reached the Land Rover, he knocked his sunglasses off and then hit the bumper perfectly and bounded up and onto the roof. He actually started shooting before he had aimed into the cab, and several bullets hit the roof with a loud thud. Then he adjusted and fired directly into a man who was rising to take the gunner's place, and then he shot the driver, who was quite shocked at his own death.
Jack stood and along with Everett made a dash for the mosque. At the same moment, the last Cobra completed its turn and saw the two men break from the sand dune. It banked hard and made a run for the sprinting men.
Ryan saw the Cobra, but it had not seen him. He jumped through the sunroof and landed on something soft and wet. He took the handles of the large weapon and hoped he remembered how to fire the thing. He was short enough that he didn't need to lean down to bring the barrel into the air. He aimed at the attacking Cobra and fired. The first five rounds flew out of the barrel and then the weapon jerked out of Ryan's hands, almost breaking his fingers. He cursed and took the .50-caliber again and aimed. He braced himself this time and cut loose a long stream of bullets. He saw the tracers and adjusted his fire until it crossed paths with the slow-moving Cobra just as it started firing its 20-millimeter cannon at Collins and Everett. Ryan's fire hit the cockpit and smashed through the canopy glass and into the pilot and the weapon's man.
Ryan's jaw fell as he watched the Cobra turn over and fall away. The rotors smashed into the scrub and the small helicopter erupted in a fireball.
Fifty yards away, Jack and Carl had stopped and were looking at the downed Cobra and then back at Ryan. The small navy man waved quickly and then ducked as small-caliber rounds struck the Range Rover from the rear. When Ryan turned, he saw ten men running in his direction. It crossed his mind for a split second to turn the machine gun on the charging Coalition men, but he decided that he had pressed his luck just as far as he could for the day. He hopped out and ran to the mosque.
Collins and Everett ran through the opening of the tower base and slammed right into two Coalition men who had entered unseen. Everett slammed the man so hard that he hit the rounded wall, and when he rebounded toward Carl, he shot him three times. The other didn't live quite as long, as Collins in a last-second move raised his 9-millimeter and shot the man twice in the head. Everett almost shot Ryan as he entered the tower base.
Jack didn't wait for the others as he wrapped one of the three ropes around his right boot once and then took up a large loop in his right hand. Then, without hesitation, he pushed off into the shaft. Ryan and Everett followed. Ryan didn't know how to rappel without the proper equipment, so he just grabbed the rope and went hand over hand until it started cutting and burning. As he slid down the rope, he passed Everett and Collins and hit the bottom with a thud.
'Dammit,' he cried out as he rolled onto his stomach. Everett and Collins landed softly next to him and removed the ropes from their feet. 'I think you forgot to train me on that little trick with the rope,' he said as he
