Clear and Present Danger

with OMEN to the north. Copy strobes to mark friendly positions. We are standing by at five miles,' PJ replied in his best computer voice.

'Roger, come on in. It's show time. I repeat, come on in.'

'Roger, copy, CAESAR is turning in with hot guns.'

'OMEN, this is SNAKE. Commence firing, commence firing.'

Cortez had them both at a disadvantage, though neither knew the whole reason for it. LaTorre, after all, had talked to F lix the previous day and been told that Escobedo was the traitor in their midst. Because of that, he had his pistol out first.

'What is this?' Escobedo demanded.

'The ambush was very clever, jefe , but I saw through your ploy,' Cortez said.

'What are you talking about?'

Before Cortez could give his preplanned answer, several rifles started firing north of the house. F lix wasn't a total fool. His first reaction was to extinguish the lights in the house. LaTorre still had his gun aimed at Escobedo, and Cortez dashed to the window, a pistol in his hand, to see what was happening. Just as he got there, he realized that he was being foolish, and dropped to his knees, peering around the frame. The house was of block construction and should stop a bullet, he told himself, though the windows certainly would not.

The fire was light and sporadic, just a few people, just an annoyance, and he had people to deal with that. Cortez's own men, assisted by the bodyguards for Escobedo and LaTorre, returned fire at once. F lix watched his men move like soldiers, spreading out into two fire teams, dropping at once into the usual infantry drill of fire and movement. Whatever annoyance this was, they'd soon take care of things. The Cartel bodyguards, as usual, were brave but oafish. Two of them were already down.

Yes, he saw, it was already working. The gunfire from the trees was diminishing. Some bandits, perhaps, who'd been late realizing that they'd bitten off more than -

The sound was like nothing he'd ever heard.

'Target in sight,' Jack heard over the intercom phones. Ryan was looking the wrong way, of course. Though he was standing at a gun, Colonel Johns had not mistaken him for a gunner, not a real one. Sergeant Zimmer was on the right-side gun, the one that corresponded to the pilot's seat. They'd come skimming in so low that Ryan felt - knew that he could reach out and touch some treetops. Then the aircraft pivoted. The sound and vibration assaulted Jack through all the protective gear, and the flash that accompanied the sound cast a shadow of the aircraft before Jack's eyes as he looked for other targets.

It looked like a huge, curving tube of yellow neon, Cortez's mind told him. Wherever it touched the ground, dust rose in a great cloud. It swept up and down the field between the house and the trees. Then it stopped after what could have been only a few seconds. Cortez couldn't see anything in the dust, and it took a second to realize that he should have been able to see something, the flashes of his men's rifles at the very least. Then there were flashes, but those were from farther away, in the treeline, and there were more now.

'CAESAR: Check fire, check fire!'

'Roger,' the radio replied. Overhead, the horrible noise stopped. Clark hadn't heard it in a very long time. Another sound from his youth, it was as fearful now as it had been then.

'Heads up, OMEN, we're moving now, SNAKE is moving. Acknowledge.'

'OMEN, this is Six, cease fire, cease fire!' The shooting from the treeline stopped. 'SNAKE: Go!'

'Come on!' It was stupid to lead them with only a silenced pistol in his hand, Clark knew, but he was in command, and the good commanders led from the front. They covered the two hundred yards to the house in thirty seconds.

'Door!' Clark said to Vega, who used his AK to blast off the hinges, then kicked it down. Clark dove through low, rolling when he hit, looking and seeing one man in the room. He had an AK, and fired it, but shot high. Clark dropped him with a silenced round in the face, then another as he fell. There was a doorway but no door to the next room. He gestured to Chavez, who tossed a CS grenade into it. They waited for it to go off, then both rushed the room, again diving in low.

There were three men. One, holding a pistol, took a step toward them. Clark and Chavez hit him in the chest and head. The other armed man, kneeling by the window, tried to turn about, but couldn't do it on his knees, and fell onto his side. Chavez was there in an instant, smashing his buttstock onto his forehead. Clark rushed the third man, slamming him against the block wall. Le n and Vega came in next, leapfrogging to the final door. That room was empty.

'Building is clear!' Vega shouted. 'Hey, I -'

'Come on!' Clark dragged his man out the front. Chavez did the same, covered by Le n. Vega was slow in moving. They didn't know why until they were all outside.

Clark was already on his radio. 'CAESAR, this is SNAKE. We got 'em. Let's get the fuck outa here.'

'Le n,' Vega said. 'Look here.'

'Tony,' the sergeant said. The only other survivor from Ninja Hill had been a BANNER man. Le n walked over to Escobedo, who was still conscious. ' Motherfucker! You're fuckin' dead! ' Le n screamed, bringing his gun down.

'Stop!' Clark yelled at him. That almost didn't work, but Clark knocked him down, which did. 'You're a soldier, goddammit, act like one! You and Vega - carry your friend on the chopper.'

Team OMEN worked its way across the field. Several men, remarkably enough, weren't quite dead yet. That aberration was corrected with single rifle shots. The captain got his men together and counted them off with his finger.

'Good work,' Clark told him. 'You got everybody?'

'Yes!'

'Okay, here's comes our ride.'

The Pave Low swept in from the west this time, and again didn't quite touch the ground. Just like the old days, Clark . A helicopter that touched the ground could set off a mine. Not likely here, but PJ hadn't gotten old enough to be a colonel by overlooking any chances at all. He grabbed Escobedo - he'd gotten a good enough look by now to identify him - by the arm and propelled him to the ramp. One of the chopper crew met them there, did his count, and before Clark was sitting down with his charge, the MH-53J was moving up and north. He assigned a soldier to look after Se or Escobedo and went forward.

Sweet Jesus , Ryan thought. He'd counted eight bodies, and they'd just been the ones close to the helicopter. Jack switched off his gun motor and relaxed - and really did this time. Relaxation was a relative thing, he'd just learned. Being shot at really was worse than flying in the back of a goddamned helicopter. Amazing, he thought. A hand grabbed his shoulder.

'We got Cortez and Escobedo alive!' Clark shouted at him.

'Escobedo? What the hell was he -'

'You complaining?'

'What the hell can we do with him?' Jack asked.

'Well, I sure as shit couldn't just leave him there, could I?'

'But what -'

'If you want, I can give the bastard a flying lesson.' Clark gestured toward the stern ramp. If he learns to fly before he hits the ground, fine ...

'No, goddammit, that's fucking murder!'

Clark grinned at him. 'That gun next to you is not a negotiating tool, doc.'

'Okay, people,' PJ's voice came over the intercom before that conversation went any further. 'One more stop and we call this one a day.'

29. Fill-ups

IT HAD STARTED with the President's warning. Admiral Cutter wasn't used to having to make sure his orders had been carried out. In his naval career orders were things that you gave and that other people did, or that you did after being told to do so by others. He placed a call to the Agency and got Ritter and asked the question, the one that had to be an unnecessarily insulting one. Cutter knew that he'd already humiliated the man, and that to do so further was not a smart move -but what if the President had been right? That risk called for further action. Ritter's reaction was a troubling one. The irritation that should have been in his voice, wasn't. Instead he'd spoken like any other government bureaucrat saying that yes, the orders were being carried out, of course. Ritter was a cold,