as easily have been the blink of a lonely lightning bug. He saw the muted flash of a single launch, and not a second later the blinding white-red-black flash of a fragmentation grenade against the floor of one of the towers. The sudden, sharp bark made the men at his side jump, but Kelly wasn't paying attention to that. The tower where men and guns would have been disintegrated. The echo had not yet dispersed through the theater of pines when the other three were similarly destroyed. Five seconds later the gunships came skimming in over the treetops, not fifty feet separating their rotors as minigune ripped into the barracks building, two long neon fingers reaching in. The grenadiers were already pumping white-phosphorus rounds into the windows, and any semblance of night vision was lost in an instant.
'Jesus!' The way that the spreading fountains of burning phosphorus were concealed inside the building made the spectacle only more horrid, while the miniguns concentrated on the exits.
'Yeah,' Kelly said, loudly to make himself heard. 'Anybody inside is a crispy critter. The smart ones who try to run come right into the mini fire. Slick.'
The fire element of the Marine assault force continued to pour fire into the barracks and admin buildings while the snatch team raced to the prison block. Now the rescue choppers came in, behind the AH-1 Huey Cobras, landing noisily close to the main gate. The fire element split, with half deploying around the choppers while the other half continued to hose the barracks. One of the gunships began circling the area now, like an anxious sheepdog on the prowl for wolves.
The first Marines appeared, dragging the simulated prisoners in relays. Kelly could see Irvin checking and doing a count at the gate. There were shouts now, men calling off numbers and names, and the roar of the big Sikorsky choppers almost covered it all. The last Marines in were the fire-support teams, and then the rescue choppers increased power and lifted off into the darkness.
'That was fast,' Ritter breathed as the sound faded. A moment later two fire engines appeared to extinguish the blazes left behind by the various explosive devices.
'That was fifteen seconds under nominal,' Kelly said, holding up his watch.
'What if something goes wrong, Mr Clark?' Ritter asked.
Kelly's face lit up in a wicked grin. 'Some things did, sir. Four of the team were 'killed' coming in. I assume maybe a broken leg or two -'
'Wait a minute, you mean there's a chance -'
'Let me explain, sir?' Kelly said. 'From the photos there is no reason to believe there are any people between the LZ and the objective. No farming on those hills, okay? For tonight's exercise, I eliminated four people at random. Call all of them broken legs. The people had to be carried into the objective and carried out, in case you didn't notice. Backups on everything. Sir, I expect a clean mission, but I messed it up some tonight just to check.'
Ritter nodded, impressed. 'I expected everything to be run by the book for this rehearsal.'
'In combat things go wrong, sir. I allowed for that. Every man is cross-trained for at least one alternate job.' Kelly rubbed his nose. He'd been nervous, too. 'What you just saw was a successful simulated mission despite greater-than-expected complications. This one's going to work, sir.'
'Mr Clark, you sold me.' The CIA field officer turned to the others. 'What about medical support, that sort of thing?'
'When Ogden forms up with Task Force 77, we cross-deck medical personnel over to her,' Maxwell said. 'Cas is on his way there now to brief the people in. CTF-77 is one of my people, and he'll play ball. Ogden' s a pretty large boat. We'll have everything we need to care for them, medics, intel guys to debrief, the works. She sails them right to Subic Bay. We hop them out of Clark ASAP. From the time the rescue choppers get off, we'll have them in California in... four and a half days.'
'Okay, this part of the mission looks fine. What about the rest?'
Maxwell handled the answer. 'Constellation' s whole air group will be in support. Enterprise will be farther up north working the Haiphong area. That should get the attention of their air-defense net and their high command. Newport News will be trolling the coast shooting up triple-A sites for the next few weeks. It's to be done randomly, and this area will be the fifth. She lays ten miles out and lobs in heavy fire. The big antiaircraft belt is within the range of her guns. Between the cruiser and the air group, we can blast a corridor for the helos to get in and out. Essentially we'll be doing so much that they oughtn't to notice this mission until it's already over.'
Ritter nodded. He'd read through the plan, and had only wished to hear it from Maxwell - more to the point, to hear how he expressed himself. The Admiral was calm and confident, more so than Ritter had expected.
'It's still very risky,' he said after a moment.
'It is that,' Marty Young agreed.
'What's the risk to our country if the people in that camp tell everything they know?' Maxwell asked.
Kelly wanted to step back from this part of the discussion. Danger to country was something beyond his purview. His reality was at the small-unit level - or, more recently, even lower than that - and though his country's health and welfare started at that lowest common denominator, the big stuff required a perspective he didn't have. But there was no gracious way for him to withdraw, and so he stayed and listened and learned.
'You want an honest answer?' Ritter asked. 'I'll give you one - none.'
Maxwell took it with surprising calm that concealed outrage. 'Son, you want to explain that?'
'Admiral, it's a matter of perspective. The Russians want to know a lot about us, and we want to know a lot about them. Okay, so this Zachary guy can tell them about SAC War Plans, and the other notional people there can tell them other things. So - we change our plans. It's the strategic stuff you're worried about, right? First, those plans change on a monthly basis. Second, do you ever think we'll implement them?'
'We might have to someday.'
Ritter fished out a cigarette. 'Admiral, do you want us to implement those plans?'
Maxwell stood a little straighter. 'Mr Ritter, I flew my F6F over Nagasaki just after the war ended. I've seen what those things do, and that was just a little one.' Which was all the answer anyone needed.
'And they feel the same way. How does that grab you, Admiral?' Ritter just shook his head. 'They're not crazy either. They're even more afraid of us than we are of them. What they learn from those prisoners might scare them enough to sober them up, even. It works that way, believe it or not.'
'Then why are you supporting - are you supporting us?'
'Of course I am.' What a stupid question, his tone said, enraging Marty Young.
'But why then?' Maxwell asked.
'Those are our people. We sent them. We have to get them back. Isn't that reason enough? But don't tell me about vital national-security interests. You can sell that to the White House staff, even on The Hill, but not to me. Either you keep faith with your people or you don't,' said the field spook who had risked his career to rescue a foreigner whom he hadn't even liked very much. 'If you don't, if you fall into that habit, then you're not worth saving or protecting, and then people stop helping you, and then you're in real trouble.'
'I'm not sure I approve of you, Mr Ritter,' General Young said.
'An operation like this one will have the effect of saving our people. The Russians will respect that. It shows them we're serious about things. That will make my job easier, running agents behind the curtain. That means we'll be able to recruit more agents and get more information. That way I gather information that you want, okay? The game goes on until someday we find a new game.' That was all the agenda he needed. Ritter turned to Greer. 'When do you want me to brief the White House?'
'I'll let you know. Bob, this is important - you are backing us?'
'Yes, sir,' replied the Texan. For reasons that the others didn't understand, didn't trust, but had to accept.
'So? What's the beef?'
'Look, Eddie,' Tony said patiently. 'Our friend's got a problem. Somebody took down two of his people.'
'Who?' Morello asked. He was not in a particularly good mood. He'd just learned, again, that he was not a candidate to be accepted as a full member of the outfit. After all he'd done. Morello felt betrayed. Incredibly, Tony was siding with a black man instead of blood - they were distant cousins after all - and now the bastard was coming to him for help, of course.
