Countdown: The Liberators-ARC

'Nope,' the Marine agreed. 'And, in light of that, I think we ought to retire the guns on a positive note.'

'I concur,' said Peters. 'Out of ACTION!'

Kosciusko shook his head, watching the sundered container fly up and then splash down. Some people have all the luck.

The chief observer announced, 'Skipper, they're striking the guns.'

'Works for me,' Kosciusko agreed. He jabbed the intercom and announced, 'Reilly, get your Eland and antitank crews on deck to test fire. I'll have Mrs. Liu bring up the containers holding them and the ordnance.'

D-13, MV Merciful, 211 miles south of Cape Town,

South Africa

Mrs. Liu plopped a container on a section of deck covered with PSP. Immediately, the container was opened on both sides, and a small crew of men entered it, scrunched over, and began pushing out sections of the matting to other teams that waited to either side. She then moved the gantry to pick up and move another.

A siren blared, then the loudspeakers carried Kosciusko's voice. 'Cease work. Cease work. The time has run and we are not done. All decking teams, break down the flight deck. Gantry, replace the containers in their hide positions as they are filled.

'We're going to work on this all fucking night and tomorrow night, too, people, until you can assemble the flight deck to standard and on time. Section leaders and company commanders, report when we are stowed and ready to begin again.

'That is all.'

D-8, MV Merciful, 355 miles east of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Lana was squeezed in with Reilly on a single width, folding Army field cot. She awakened, startled by the horrific sound coming from the other side of the closed doors.

Reilly listened, too, for a moment, then began to laugh. 'The Boers or the Brits, do you figure?'

'Huh?' She really hadn't a clue what he was talking about.

He shook his head and said, 'That sound you heard outside our little nest was a bugle.' The call it was playing was, Dismount.'

'Fucking Viljoen.'

'That's Dumisani's job,' he said.

PART III

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Regard your soldiers as your children,

and they will follow you into the deepest valleys;

look on them as your own beloved sons,

and they will stand by you even unto death.

-Sun Tzu

D-2, MV Merciful, fifty miles southeast of Aden, Yemen