Two days later my D.I. took me to see the First Sergeant again. This time I wasn’t so apprehensive. I could excuse the first time since it didn’t conform to the scenario for which Sarge and Gunny had prepared me. Hell, even the first day of the hand to hand course didn’t conform. It was like some of the people here knew some big secret about me and they were trying to keep it away from everyone else, especially the officers.

We walked past the day room and over to the First Sergeant’s office. I could hear a conversation trickling through the door down at what I assumed was the C.O.’s office but couldn’t make out any words. Sarge knocked on the First Sergeant’s door and we heard “Enter” bellowed back at us. Sarge opened the door and nearly pushed me into the room.

The First Sergeant was there behind his desk but there was another one standing in the room next to him staring at me as Sarge pushed me in. I stood there and Sarge took a seat just like he did last time.

“Well? There he is. What d’ya think?”

The new guy looked me over, “This is a joke, right?”

The First Sergeant spoke up, “Not hardly, Jacobs. Steven’s would you be so kind as to give me fifty? Do it right over there.”
First Sergeant Madison pointed to a clear area off at the side of his office which obviously had been occupied by one of the two chairs that now were before his desk.

The three of them continued talking as I pounded out my fifty push-ups. When I finished, my platoon sergeant/ D.I. motioned for me to come over by him.

“Sit, Stevens. We still got some stuff to hash out.”

They kept talking. First Sergeant Jacobs kept looking at me like I had something contagious.

“Look. Our company graduates basic in a week and a half. We still have the final PT, the bivouac and combat exercises plus our final Field Training Exercise and aggressor force surprise.”

“That’s an idea.” Sergeant Norton said with a big smile on his face.

“What’s an idea?” Jacobs asked.

“Give the kid recruit-sergeant stripes and four guys from each of your platoons. Then hand him carte blanch and let his little group be the aggressor force.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. The company would murder them; and aggressor force comes from the AIT trainees who are about to graduate.”

“We’ll hand him over to the aggressor D.I. and let him acquaint him with the whys and wherefores. A little time on the course to see the lay of the land and then a free hand. Your company won’t know where the attack is going to occur and it might do them some good to be taken by surprise.”

“Care to make a bet to back up your enthusiasm, Frank? You need to lose one once in a while.”

“Okay. How’s fifty sound and I’ll owe you one?”

“Sound’s good to me.”

“And if Stevens comes out on top as declared by the aggressor monitors?”

“You’ve got to be kidding. There’s no way.”

“So you won’t back up your own enthusiasm?”

“Okay. It’s your funeral and his.” He pointed to me. “If he comes out on top he graduates with us and I’ll cover your fifty and owe you another favor. But if we win out then he goes through the next rotation with us and you owe me one.”

“Deal.”

I didn’t exactly like the way this seemed to be going. There were entirely too many ways First Sergeant Jacobs could stack the deck. That caused me to ask, “Who are normally the aggressor force, again?”

“Usually they are part of an AIT group who are close to graduating.”

“Why can’t I have a dozen of them? The company will still out number us by nine to one or more.”

Jacobs looked at me with a smile on his face, “Whatever turns you on little lady. Whatever turns you on.”

I wish people would quit calling me that.

“Wait a minute you two,” First Sergeant Madison held up his hand. “I’ve go a better idea. Mike, instead of pitting your company against Stevens, why don’t you give him one man from each of the company’s squads and make him a free-ranging patrol independent of the balance of your company? Let him and the men you give to him scout for you and, if they can, capture some or all of the aggressor force. That would be a feather in your company’s hat and would also prove Stevens deserves to graduate with you. No outside bets to put pressure on the kid and it’s a win-win. If he pulls it off then he deserves to go on to AIT. If he can’t then he still has some things to learn here and we’ll keep him and show him the ropes. Meanwhile, he could be shown the terrain on which your FTE and AF are going to occur. Let him get a feel for the area and have a free hand to assign his men as he sees fit.”

Sergeant Norton and First Sergeant Jacobs both looked at each other and then at me. I could tell Jacobs still had a lot of reservations about me.

“That would still make his force smaller than the aggressor force. He would only have twenty men, we have five platoons this rotation. The aggressors will likely have a full platoon so he’d be outnumbered better than two to one.”

“So, that just means he has to work a little harder. He’s getting used to it.”

They all sat there thinking about it as smiles began to cross everyone’s face except my own.

“We could kinda take him around to show him a few things so he could get a feel for the area.” Jacobs spoke up.

“Yeah, and maybe work out some blank ammo and blank fire attachments for the fourteens they’d be using so they will cycle okay.” Sergeant Norton added.

“No full auto, just single shot.” First Sergeant Jacobs added.

“Works for me. Hey kid, how much did your mentors teach you about tactics?”

 « t  »

I gave them a quick run down of the books I had studied and the drills Sarge and Gunny had taken me through.

“You know. This might actually work.” First Sergeant Jacobs began to get a wicked gleam in his eyes.

“Those AIT instructors haven’t had a defeat handed to them in quite a few years. It would be good to see a Basic Company given ‘em hell.”

“Don’t forget gentlemen, we don’t want to undermine the confidence the AIT trainees have picked up. We also will need to give Stevens time to bring his people up to speed so they can be effective. Mike, can you handle losing those people for the rest of this week and will it undermine their ability to graduate?”

“I’ll have to clear it with Captain Tipplemann but if he gives the go ahead, and I’m pretty sure he will, then we’ll be sure to pick some guys who can follow orders. If Stevens is given temp cadet-lieutenant rank then they’ll follow him.”

“Looks like we might have a winner here, except Stevens has a phobia about being an officer. Would your guys follow a cadet-sergeant?”

“I’ll make sure they will. Give him a drill corporal’s pot and cadet-E5 stripes and they won’t question his authority. They’ve had seven weeks to get used to it.”

“There’s a company going through it’s FTE and AF this week. Can we get the kid into an observation position so he can see what an aggressor force is all about? That could probably help him plan his strategy.”

I was all for that. Apparently First Sergeant Jacobs was beginning to line up behind it as well.

“They owe me. Let me make the arrangements. Just outfit the kid with his pot and stripes and I’ll let you know where and when.”

“Consider it done. Come on kid, we’re moving you into the empty squad bay where our drill corporals are housed. Let’s go get your gear.”

Sergeant Norton took me out to collect my stuff while the two First Sergeants continued to talk and look at the copy of my jacket which had been received from Battalion. When we got into the hall the conversation down at the other office was still in full swing. We turned and he led me over to my barrack where we collected my stuff and my bedding, I rolled my mattress and then we were off to another barrack building where everything was done in reverse. He gave me a half hour to put everything right while he went out to collect a drill corporal’s pot and cadet-sergeant stripes for me.

It was the very next day when we went out to observe the ambush the AIT trainees were going to administer to an “unsuspecting” basic training company. It was the classic simple crossed fields of fire ambush. A section of road depressed between two ten foot vertical banks... The ambush was made from both sides where each side could cover the bank on the other side of the road leaving no area available in which to find cover. It also gave the advantage of high ground to the aggressors. If a party of sappers came along above the aggressors, then they could only put down the half of them which were on that side. That would allow the rest to escape or carry out their attack on the company marching up into the trap. Not an easy trap to eliminate.

“What’s to prevent the aggressors from saying we didn’t shoot them and continuing on while just ignoring us?”

“That’s the reason the First Shirts are letting the word out that there will be a roving patrol which just might take the aggressor team to task. Now they have to not only prepare their trap for the company, they have to guard their flanks.”

“Oh, great. Why not make things easy for me?”

Sarge smiled, “in a way, we have. The school is going to place eight referees. Two in the company, two with each of the aggressor teams wherever they will be and two with your own personnel. They’ll decide who’s dead and who’s alive. Try not to be dead.”

I raised my eyebrows and dropped them again.

“Yeah, thanks... try not to be dead. I’ll try to remember that Sarge.”

He laughed, “I’m sure you will. There’s still time to back out.”

“After the buildup you and the First Sergeant made for me? Not to be ungrateful but this is beginning to seem like a fool’s errand. Those guys ever heard of Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, or Rommel?” I pointed at the AIT trainees.

“Probably not as effectively as you have.”

“Terrific.”

“Yes. Terrific. They probably know the names and a little of what they’re about but they don’t have a clue as to the deeper thoughts and tactics. And Rommel loved a classic pincer so who and what countered Rommel?”

I thought about it for a moment then began smiling.

“Actually, Rommel had those nice eighty-eights and because he established a large number of camouflaged fuel dumps all across the desert at strategic locations which he would likely travel, he could blitz across the desert very quickly. That meant his limited number of tanks could move and be present wherever he had need for them. Then he used his pincer from both sides as his main force went right up the middle.”

“There you have it, Stevens. Think you can do that with just twenty guys?”

I gave that some thought, “If they’re the right twenty guys who can quickly understand what I want to teach them and if we can start today.”

He grunted, “Then let’s go see First Sergent Jacobs and collect your team.”

The rest, as they say, was history. We didn’t collect all the AIT guys but the refs said we killed over half and captured four. Their ambush failed with only very minimal losses on our side. All of those were my own personnel, which was more or less expected. Four out of my twenty were declared dead and six were wounded. That was half my people which put a very wet blanket on my otherwise happy demeanor. I was transferred to C-2-4 for graduation, and then it was off to AIT and the beginning of my MOS specialties. Eventually I finished it all including some NCO command schooling which was added into the mix. I came out in the top one percent, with only one other person beating me in overall capability and he had been in the army for four years before he received this level of training. I had been poked up to PFC when I left basic and AIT and command school moved me up two more notches in just twenty seven weeks, so with NCO command school under my belt and E-5 on my collar I headed into the final eighteen weeks where I actually began to work with the team I was going to be leading once we took our little trip across the Pacific.

Completion of that preparation moved me up to E-6 just before we moved out. That was also the end of my rapid advancement.

As I mentioned before, the Army or rather active duty was where it all began to come to a head. Probably not in the manner you might think but still that’s where the ball began picking up speed. The actual beginning of our downfall into the intelligence community and the eventual acceptance of our friends pushing actually started with our involvement in a special rescue mission somewhere well behind that Northern eight-ball and which probably would never have happened if I hadn’t gone through the training with Sarge and Gunny prior to my enlistment. There’s such a thing as being too good at what you do, especially in the Army and I’d had nearly two years of it by the time this little excursion came up.

 « t  »

“Viper, the LZ is hot, repeat, the LZ is hot.”

“Copy Mad Hatter, do you have the package?”

“Negative, package is missing. Use alternate 2-1-Lima, 4-1-5-Bravo.”

“Copy, 2-1-Lima, 4-1-5-Bravo. Good Luck Mad Hatter. Out”

“Thanks, we’ll need it. Out”

“Now what, Sarge?”

“Now we locate and acquire the package then get him to 2-1-Lima/ Bravo before Friday at three, preferably alive and well. Come on guys, let’s boogie before Charley figures out our ride outt’a here was waved off and starts hunting for a reason.”

As we hiked our way further into Northern Vietnam I didn’t even want to think about those Zoomies. They had a rough job this time, especially since they didn’t have anything to show for a rushed flight from Thailand over Laos and into this Northwestern part of Nam only to learn we weren’t ready. Now they had the difficult job of trying to fly South over the mountains in the hopes they could be elsewhere before enough of an alert made it out that there would be people hunting for them. A flight like that couldn’t be done all that often and I had just asked for another one for four days from now. Go figure. I’m sure they appreciated that little challenge.

An hour later I and the men I had tagged to come along on this little recreational excursion into the deep wilds of Northern Vietnam pulled up for a breather so we could quietly consider our options. I pulled out the map given to me at the intelligence briefing even as I began wishing Vinh wasn’t so far South of us. Vihn hell, now we were only a hop, skip and a jump from Thahn Hoa and that was about halfway between Vihn and Ha Noi. We were so deep into the enemy’s territory that I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we so much as stumbled over a farmer’s chicken. I begin laying out our present knowledge and probable options in the idiotic premise that the more who knew about this the more good ideas might come from it. I can dream can’t I? Maybe I spent too much time in training.

“The package was missing from the zone and it was crawling with Charley so they probably have him and learned of the zone from him or from the guys that were with him. That doesn’t speak well for the likelihood that he or they are still alive. We’ve got less than four days to find him or learn he’s dead then to get our ass’s west to 2-1-Lima/Bravo. That by itself was going to be quite a little feat. If we’re lucky that will only be about two hundred clicks, so if we don’t find him in the next forty-eight hours we have to move out anyway. If we need more time than that... well, I guess then we’ll begin the long walk home crossing Laos to try to reach Thailand which is about half as far as South Vietnam.

The last place we checked was the closest likely spot they might have been holding him. That was the reason we para-dropped in at night. Hopefully he’s alive around here somewhere. The next place we’re going to check is supposedly a secure location for them as well as one of their hidden depots, although why they bother with tunnels and hidden stuff this far North is anybody’s guess. Intel said there were tunnels under that village with possible connections to two others which are very close by. There might even be one which goes so far as to connect with Bai Thuong. Although once again I haven’t the faintest why they would use tunnels when surface roads would be better and this is way north into their territory. If he’s here then this could be the place. Don’t ask me why they wouldn’t have him in Cho Bo or Hanoi for that matter.”

“Shit, Lyon, I HATE tunnels,” Frenchy injected.

“Who doesn’t, except a ‘rat’.” added Trank, “some of those tunnel rats scare me. A lot of them go in like they want to blow up along with anything they find.”

I looked at him wondering if maybe he really did have a little sense somewhere in that head of his. Trank was the one who I always thought was a bit like those whom he had just denounced.

“Hey Sarge, how far do those tunnels go? Could we sneak in from somewhere way outside?” At least Ralph was doing some thinking.

“Intel didn’t have that info. They only thought there were entrances under the four big buildings in the center of the village.”

“They thought? Great. What are we supposed to do, Micky Mouse the whole thing?”

“You know how it goes. Until we actually put someone in there to look, no one knows for certain. All I know is we want to be in, out, and far away before Wednesday afternoon.”

“Why Wednesday?”

“Because they hope to be allowed to bomb the shit out the whole area Wednesday afternoon according to the briefing I attended. That includes the next two villages as well. Those tunnels are a likely a heavy interim storage location and we aren’t supposed to strike this far North. If our package is alive and in there we have to find him and get him out pronto. And any of his team who might still be kicking.”

“Do you think the tunnels connect the three villages?”

“Intel thinks so but there’s nothing to verify that nor to bring it up as more than a suspicion. You know — Charlie loves tunnels. All right boys and girls, let’s move. Getting there is the easy part.”

My team worked their way the fifty klicks further north toward our village of choice while watching carefully for any signs of enemy activity, that is to say — any activity. Up here everybody was against us. Another hard to spot problem was children up in trees who could signal a distant force. Several times we altered our path due to one or more small roving patrols which were wandering the area. You wouldn’t think they would have all that many out since this was their part of the country and so close to the border with Laos. All we would need was one firefight and any thought of getting closer or further away could be forgotten. Every NVA regular for two clicks or more would be zeroing on the noise. Another stumbling block we discovered were the traps which although seemingly random were set in various locations. Sometimes wildlife tripped a trap but not often enough. Again, why do they have all this so deep into their own territory? Were they expecting us to suddenly come marching into the North like a swarm of locust?

After eight hair-raising hours we found ourselves, “about a klick from the village. This seemed to be a fairly secure location so let’s get a little shuteye in the hopes the enemy won’t expect anyone to be this close to them.” I set up a rotating watch so everyone got a chance to sleep.

“Break out your ration bars, but don’t leave anything around on the ground. I don’t want smell or debris telling Charlie we were nearby. Check your weapons, but do it quietly. And don’t use the oil, share the silicon. That oil has a smell they can spot from a couple of hundred meters away. How’s everyone’s water holding up?”

“I’ve got about a day’s worth”

“Me too. The next time we come across a dirty stream I need to fill up and drop a couple of tablets.”

“Me too.”

“I’m good.”

“If we find water tomorrow, I’ll top mine off.”

“Okay. Everyone keep an eye out for water, there has to be some close by since the villagers would need it. Get some sleep, Murph you’ve got first watch, then Benny, Trank and Frenchy. After that we’re moving again. Two hour watches. That’ll put us at the village about eight or nine so we have a little time to observe for a bit before taking it on.”

“What if there are too many to take on, Sarge?”

“Then we’ll arrange a diversion.”

“Oh boy, I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”

“Knock it off.”

“Hey Lyon, what about getting them to go after themselves like we did at that depot they had?”

“I was thinking something more along the line of artillery or mortars.”

“Mortars? Where the hell are you gonna get mortars?”

“Well, we have a little C-4 and properly used we could make it look like a barrage of sorts. If we get lucky and set something off then maybe they’ll go out hunting which would let us have enough time to slip in and do some hunting of our own. If they really do have a depot under the villages, we could blow that and save the Air boys some trouble. Target of opportunity as it were.”

“Maybe we’ll be lucky and they’ll have some fuel under there. I could get behind that.”

“Okay. Let’s get some shut eye... Murph you up to first watch?”

“Yeah, I can handle it. Besides that gives me the chance for six hours straight. Then I’ll be good to go.”

“Okay. Everyone quiet down and pack off.”

As the guys settled down, Lyon pulled out his map again to do some studying. Checking the compass and verifying a slightly round-a-bout path to the village so they could approach from the North hopefully allowing them to approach from a direction which was less likely to be patrolled. As if... Finally Lyon settled down to get some sleep.

All too soon, Frenchy was butting his boots, “Come on Sarge, it’s the end of fourth watch.”

Eight hours. Well, at least seven. That was a lot more than usual. I opened my eyes looking around. My guys were up and preparing to move. I did my morning rituals carefully burying the evidence under some brush before changing my pack load for the day. C-4 on top. After a little digging I found my own ‘little surprises’ and put them up on top too.

“Lyon, I’ve seen you carry a dozen of those little bottles out on every mission. You have them going out but not when we come back. What is that stuff?”

“Oh, just a little surprise for the enemy, Trank. Something I dreamed up to help a friend before we discovered it was too powerful for the job we had in mind. It became my own little surprise for Charlie instead.. Kept most of it around all this time. Each of these little bottles is roughly equivalent to half of that brick of C-4 you’re holding.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I kid you not. Just wait and see. It will do a lot better underground so we’ll use our bricks up topside and then plant these below.”

“Lemme see one. Are they stable?”

“You could shoot it with a rifle and it won’t go off. Stick a fuse in it and ‘bang’.”

“A fuse... Will one of our timers trip it?”

“Yep. All it takes is fire for a half second or so. Or the intense heat from one of our timer charges. I kinda prefer the old fashioned way. No blasting cap needed. A sniff for nitro won’t find it. It isn’t nitro based. Not a fulminate either, that stuff is too unstable.”

“I like it. Is this what you used on that depot? Where do I get me some?”

“Yep, six of these set that mess off. Next time were at SOG ask me. I’ve got three one gallon bottles filled with this stuff. The secret is to store it in a manner where it can’t develop any pressure. I’ve already used two of the five gallons I started with. Best of all, the ingredients are available on the open economy in Saigon so it’s easy for me to make some more. Other than that there are no special storage conditions.”

“Where do you cook it up?”

“I don’t. It’s a dry mix of simple items which were ground into a fine powder. Pour it into a fire and it just goes away, keep it sealed in that little bottle and add a little fire or a lot of spark and it’s all over, baby.”

“Cool. When do we get to play?”

“Soon, Trank, soon.”

Ralph piped up, “That reminds me, Lyon. Do you think I could have a date with Lynnette when we get back?”

I gave him a slight frown, shook then nodded my head, “Okay. For you Ralph, but no funny stuff. I’ll set it up. Might not be right away though.”

“Wow. Thanks. The other guys’ll be envious for the rest of the tour. You still thinking about getting out after this tour?”

“HEY YOU TWO, no jinxing the mission.” one of my newer personnel who was equally as hazardous to the enemy as the rest of us called over to Ralph and myself.

“Come on, Pork chop, give us a break. We’ve been over here for three already.”

“Yeah? Well, you’re still taking everybody’s fate into your hands.”

“Knock it off you two. EVERYBODY READY?” I pulled my pack on as I stood up, “Ok, let’s move.”

The small group of deadly friends started on yet another small step in the journey to find and hopefully rescue that individual they had been tasked to locate and assist. Hoping to find him alive along with as many of his original team as possible was beginning to look more and more like a pipe dream*. Every hour made it less likely, but sleep before battle is often a precious thing to find. Two and a half hours later our group had evaded three patrols, which were becoming larger even though less frequent. Lyon supposed Charlie was feeling more secure in this neck of his woods. The patrols unfortunately were more erratic in nature though, which tended to indicate one of the enemy bigwigs was likely ensconced here. Hopefully he could be captured and brought out as well. That would likely be a worthwhile coup d’etat.

From a short distance we observed the main village for a little over an hour before a pattern began to emerge. Another hour showed more people coming in and going out of two small buildings than would seem normal. All of our conversations were held in low whispers.

“My count says there should be nearly forty in that one now but all I can see are three,” Ralph noted.

“Yeah, and the one over there only has two in it that I can see but it should have close to thirty. I don’t think that many could fit unless they’re all standing up. That means there are at least two main entrances. Looks like Intel wasn’t that far off. Okay guys, listen up. What I want to do is preset the timers. The first wave is to take out every building except the big one and to redistribute or destroy that pile of supplies sitting next to the small one over there.” I pointed to what was probably some sort of small storage shed.

“We'll waste two quarter charges on nothing, that way it looks like the strike just got lucky. No more than a half bar on any one location except the buildings. Remember the big one remains untouched. The second wave will finish all the above ground supplies, those two vehicles, and have another two or three misses, again no more than a quarter bar wasted on a miss. I think that will pretty much use up our C-4. First wave in twenty five minutes plus thirty seconds, second wave in twenty six. That’s accomplished by setting all timers to twenty six but waiting the thirty seconds after setting the first twelve timers before setting the second set. On second thought add five more minutes to each so we have a little crawl time. Whatever you do, don’t let yourself be discovered. Our diversion is worthless if they find one of us. Start cracking.”

The guys quickly divided their bars of C-4 as two of them set the timers. Thirteen for the first rush and eleven more for the second.

“Hey sarge, what are we going to use down below?”

“We’ll improvise something.”

“Yeah. Right. The last time you ‘improvised something’ we barely got away and all that was left was a big crater.”

“There you go.”

“Terrific. Why did I volunteer for this crazy group anyway?”

“Guess you just like my sparkling personality.”

“Lyon, remind me to have a talk with a shrink the next time we go to Saigon.”

“Now, would I let them mess up a friend? Come on guys, time’s wasting.”

My small group efficiently lined up their charges and cautiously delivered them as close as possible to the entrances to the tunnels. The idea was to collapse them leaving only the one available, at least locally. This would also have the effect of showing us where the other entrances were, if any, out in the jungle which again was probably likely. My guys began returning after they delivered all of their early Christmas presents with nearly ten minutes to spare.

“Okay, let’s back out quietly and watch the fireworks. If all goes well, they’ll send out most of their guys looking for a mortar launch site and we’ll have the opportunity to move in to take prisoners.”

“You’re kidding. Take prisoners?”

“Yeah, I want our package and the big fish.”

“How did I get sucked into this crazy outfit?”

Patting him gently on the face, I answered in a feminine manner, “It must be because you love your little sister, Trank.”

Trank blushed like mad while the other guys smirked at him. I had been the brunt of jokes almost daily back at the base but I had a cadre of twenty or so who would follow me to hell and back even though my physical appearance was very slight, more nearly that of a woman’s. There was even a waiting list of almost twenty more that had recognized my small patrols went out on their missions returning mostly intact having accomplished our assignment and then some. Not the most successful non-com in the unit but close, damn close. Probably the most versatile and well liked.

The six men hunkered down shortly before their carefully orchestrated version of hell on Earth made itself known. After it was over, they watched from the short distance only to discover their original rendezvous point had been nearly on top of one of one of those jungle entrances. That would have been fun. The explosions timed out very nicely, imitating a mortar attack well. Not perfectly, but well enough.

Charlie poured out dispersing into the area nearby. There were perhaps three hundred of them which complicated things a little more than expected.

“Come on you mothers. Get out of there so we can get in that tunnel.”

“With so many here they must be about to move the supplies. Anyone notice any bicycles or other transport around here anywhere?”

“Nope. Maybe they’re staging at one of the other villages.”

“You think? With any luck most of the stuff will still be here then.”

A couple of NVA officers finally showed up. Soon their ranting at the men, who were mostly milling around, began to bring them into some semblance of order. Another minute or two brought some more officers into the mix dividing the men into groups sending about a dozen men back into the tunnels before the rest settled into three more or less equally sized groups which marched off each in their own direction. Hopefully they would enjoy a long fruitless search for the source of the attack.

Quietly, “Okay listen up. We have five topside and probably twenty to thirty in the tunnels. Pretty good odds. Each of you take two of these,” Lyon handed out some of the plastic bottles, “got your lighters?”

They all answered in the affirmative.

“Good, the fuses on each of those bottles are ten seconds. That means after you light it, get rid of it and get the hell away fast. In an enclosed area like the tunnels, one of these makes a bar of C-4 look like Sunday school.”

“You’re kidding,” Pork Chop murmured.

Ralph piped up, “remember a couple missions back? We were out of C-4 and still creamed the depot leaving that big crater? It was six of these set that off.”

“No shit?” Pork Chop tucked the two fused bottles carefully into the pocket on his left leg.

“I need three volunteers to take out the topside fodder. Since they have two in that smaller hut I guess we didn’t close the tunnel there so we need to leave a nasty surprise on the entrance. Keep it quiet when you take them out. We want to find the one’s below lulled into a safe feeling.”

Three moved out as Lyon, Ralph and Trank prepared to provide covering fire if it became necessary.

“Lyon, remind me to tap a CIA goof. I want one of those silenced pistols. It could be really handy in situations like this.”

“You get caught with it and it’ll be your ass.”

“Maybe. It would still come in handy.”

The all clear signal eventually showed from each hut so they moved out to join the others before invading the main entrance to the tunnels.

“Damn, I hate tunnels.”

“Keep it down. In there even a whisper carries.”

The six men moved into and through the tunnel as quietly as they could, space was restrictive until suddenly they were in what appeared to be one of several large storage ‘rooms’.

“Rations. Our rations.”

“Check them for tampering. Some of the stuff we’ve found in the past was poisoned. If they look like they’ve never been opened grab a few days worth for each of us plus a few days worth for four more, then let’s keep moving.”

Two minutes later we were on our way again. Since I was the only one who brought a pack in with me, pretty much because the other guys wouldn’t have been able to negotiate the tunnels while wearing a pack, I became the designated mule.

“Hey Lyon, clean water. It looks like it’s set up for their guys to use.”

“Okay. Fill up, but drop tabs anyway.” I tossed them my canteen and a bottle of tablets.

We continued to explore as time continued to tick remorselessly away. I again checked my watch to find thirty-five minutes had gone by. At best we probably had another forty-five before the search groups would start returning. Things were getting tight. Another cave, this time with munitions. Four of my compact explosive charges went into strategic locations along with timers set to pop them off amidst the ammo and explosives. “Set the timers for four hours. If we’re not long gone by then we aren’t going to be.”

Just then four enemy walked in resulting in a brief scuffle with knives and teeth. End of story, one light cut to our side and four enemy down on the other.

“Get them behind that pile of ammo boxes fast, before they bleed out all over the floor. I want everything to look normal to anyone who wanders through. Try to get as much of the bloody dirt back there too if you can do it without making any noise.”

Three long minutes later we were searching down the tunnel from which the four Tangos had emerged only a few minutes ago.

* pipe dream: Old reference to the hallucinations caused from smoking an Opium pipe frequently found in the Western States during the use of Chinese labor while building the transcontinental railway, and also found for many years afterward in the Chinese quarter of the larger Western Cities.

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DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

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