Stony Man - Triple Strike Part 15

But along with the rest of the long list of things that could end his career, Hammer was too busy to worry about it. He had a mission to fly and two tons of high explosive to deliver on the target. If he ran into a golden BB, he ran into it. Worse things could happen he could miss the target completely.

Approaching the target area, he keyed his throat mike. "Striker, this is Hammer, over." "Striker, go."

"This is Hammer, I am inbound vector two-eight- niner. What's the situation down there? Over."

"This is Striker," Bolan answered. "The target is as briefed. There are no flak guns and no SAMs, so you're free to do your thing. Over."

"Roger, copy target clear," he acknowledged.

"Just make sure that you're well out of range. These things make a big bang, over." "Roger, we're clear."

"This is Hammer. Light it up, then."

Hawkins and Manning were on the laser designator, and they had it aimed at the middle of the cave's entrance so all they had to do was switch it on. Unlike the red lasers that were featured in all of the action-adventure movies, this laser was invisible to the naked eye. It wouldn't do to have their targets see a big red dot appear on the ground right in front of them.

"The target's lit up," Hawkins radioed to Bolan on the comm link.

"The target's illuminated," Bolan radioed to Hammer.

"I got it," the pilot replied, seeing the pip appear on his target-designator screen. After locking the aiming point into his computer, Hammer waited until the readout told him that the signal had been accepted by the bomb's guidance units in the belly of his plane. When the red light came on, he banked the F-117A around to come in on his bomb run and opened the doors to the internal weapons bay.

"Look out, baby," he called out over the radio, '"cause here it comes."

Coming out of the west, the aircraft was silent, as well as being invisible to radar. There was no thunder of jet engines to announce its presence and no smoke trail in the sky as was the case with so many conventional jet fighter bombers. Someone with real good eyes might have been able to spot the black speck in the sky, but would have had to know exactly where to look for it.

Because the dust that would be thrown up as soon as the first bomb hit would obscure the laser marker, Hammer salvoed his two weapons ten seconds apart. That way, the blast of the first smart bomb wouldn't affect the trajectory of the second, and it would already have its lock on the laser's aiming point so the dust wouldn't affect its approach.

With the fire-control computer controlling the weapons drop, Hammer didn't even have to punch the bombs off. At the right point, they were automatically released.

"They're on the way," he radioed as he pulled the fighter bomber into a tight turn. "And I'm out of here."

"Roger," Bolan replied. "Thanks, and we'll call in the BDA when it's over. Have a cold one on us."

At Bolan's signal, the rest of the team hugged the earth on the back side of the ridge. Four thousand pounds of HE wasn't the biggest explosion they had ever been close to, but it was more than enough to want to take cover from.

The first bomb went right through the mouth of the cave and detonated ten yards inside. The cave contained the blast of two thousand pounds of explosives like a giant cannon barrel. After banking off of the rear and side walls of the cave, the blast belched out the front, carrying bits and pieces of whatever had been in its path.

The second bomb hit a little farther out, but with even more destructive force. In its case, the blast ric-ocheted off the rock floor and smashed into the roof of the cave with stunning effect. For an instant, everything seemed to be normal. Then, with a groan that reverberated through the mountain, the roof collapsed. Chunks of rocks weighing tons rained down, finis.h.i.+ng the destruction that the bombs had started.

When the roar of the rockfall echoed away, the silence was stunning. Then, the earth shook anew as more tons of rock slid down the mountainside into the void that had been left by the collapse of the roof.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph," Encizo muttered as a cloud of smoke and dust boiled up into the air.

For several long minutes, the entire camp was obscured. Slowly the dust settled to reveal a scene of complete devastation. The cave was gone, hidden un-der a new face of the mountain. The rockfall had also sent huge boulders smas.h.i.+ng through the camp, destroying everything in their path.

Stunned survivors staggered around not knowing what to do next. Most of their comrades had been in the cave and were buried under tons of rock. Their vehicles had been in the cave, as well, along with the majority of their supplies. These Iranians were finished as a fighting force.

"That should take care of that," Hawkins said.

"And I am locked and loaded for a little R and R in Italy before we have to go back."

"Better keep it in your pants, T.J.," James cautioned him. "Haven't you ever heard of a BDA?"

"Katz wouldn't do that to us, would he?" Hawkins wailed.

A Bomb Damage a.s.sessment was a physical examination of the target area after the bomb run was over. Usually it was done to see how much damage the bombs had done to the target. This time, though, it was pretty obvious that walking around down there could be hazardous to one's health.

"Katz wouldn't order us to do a BDA," James agreed with him, and then paused. "But Hal Brognola might."

"b.u.mmer!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

Stony Man Farm

As Air Force Major John Hammer was flying his stealth fighter into Bosnia to deliver its belly load of laser-guided HE, the primary Stony Man players gathered again in Aaron Kurtzman's computer room to watch the fireworks. The satellite video of the Iranian camp was crystal clear, and they could almost see the men on the ground right before the first smart bomb struck.

"All right!" Akira Tokaido yelled as he jumped up and high-rived the empty air over his keyboard when flame and smoke belched out of the cave mouth like a giant cannon. "Go get them Air Force!"

Even Hunt Wethers smiled when he saw the results of his having tracked the Toyota pickup trucks pay off big-time. He always tried to keep his emo-tions closely in check so as not to influence his rational thinking process. Good problem solving required that a man keep a cool mind at all times. But seeing these spectacular results of his work justified a sense of satisfaction for a job well done.

"That should pretty well take care of that." Hal Brognola wore a satisfied smile as he watched the thick, billowing cloud of smoke and dust rise in the air where the cave had been. "And it's about d.a.m.ned time, too. The President has been very concerned about this situation, and I'll be happy to be able to tell him that he can finally put this to rest."

"Wait a minute," Kurtzman said, breaking in on the round of mutual self-congratulation. "We may have a stray truck that didn't get rounded up with the rest.

"No," he added after a pause, "make that two strays."

The silence that followed was deafening.

The program that had put the satellite to tracking the Toyota pickups from the fortress to the camp by the cave hadn't been shut down and was still running. And since the dust that obscured the target area didn't impede its radar-mapping sensors, it was still tracking two of the trucks. The rest of the vehicles had entered the cave where not even the Keyhole sensors could see them, but these two trucks hadn't gone inside before the bombs stuck. "What do you mean?" Brognola snapped. Kurtzman pointed to the upper left-hand side of his monitor. "I've got two of the marked trucks mov-ing out of the area. They were the last two to arrive, and it looks like they weren't taken out in the at-tack."

Brognola felt like a prizefighter had punched him in the stomach. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes," Kurtzman said. "And I don't think that's the worst of it."

"What do you mean?"

"I'11 have to run the tape back to check and make sure, but I don't think that those particular two trucks off-loaded their cargoes before the bombs. .h.i.t. If that's the case, we're back to square one again."

The big Fed found an empty chair and sat down. "Get Katz on the horn," he told Price, "and have him alert Striker about this immediately." "I'm doing that right now," she replied. Wethers's smile was gone now as he brought a detailed map of the area around the camp onto his screen and superimposed the icons marking the last two Toyotas. The cyber-chase was still on, and he wasn't going to let the terrorists get away from him.

Price saw him flick over to the map and asked, "What're they doing?"

"It looks like they're making for the road that runs through the valley north of the camp. When they reach that, they can go either west into Bosnia or try to escape to the east."

"They won't be going east," Kurtzman said. "That's the Serb Republic, and they don't much like Muslims, Iranian or not. They're going to continue west, and they're still going to try to use that nerve gas."

Brognola's hand went into his pocket and came up with two solitary, lint-covered antacid tabs. It was time for him to break into Price's stash before he flew back to report to the President.

Bosnia As ~IE DROVE AWAY from the blazing camp, Major Naslin knew that G.o.d had protected him from the Yankees yet again because his work still wasn't done. The nerve-gas attacks would have to be scaled back now, but they would take place nevertheless. He still had almost two dozen rockets in the two surviving Toyotas. He would have to change the tar-get list and concentrate on hitting the largest towns and hope that panic among the infidels would do the rest.

There was still a good chance that when he was done, all of Bosnia would be Muslim once again.

He looked back at the sixteen survivors of his for-mer hundred-man unit and realized that he was lucky to have even that many left. On the trip out from Asdik's fortress, each vehicle had carried only five or six men. But some of the other crews had been visiting with the crews of the two surviving trucks while their vehicles were in the cave being fitted with the rocket launchers.

Naslin saw their survival as being another sign of G.o.d's favor. He had fewer men, true, but those who had been left were the toughest of the tough. They had been through the fire and had emerged only stronger in their faith and determination to bring G.o.d's vengeance on the infidels. With even only half a dozen men like these, he would still be able to do his duty to the future of Islam.

The modified Katusha rocket launchers he had intended to use to launch the gas rockets were gone, buried under tons of rubble along with the rest of their supplies and equipment. But he wasn't going to let that prevent him from carrying out his mission. There were other ways to launch rockets, but even if they couldn't be launched, the gas attacks could still be made because of his men.

As a last resort, Naslin vowed that he would send his men to detonate the rockets themselves. And he wouldn't hesitate if this time he had to die for the revolution, as well. Suicide as such was prohibited in the Koran, but freely giving up one's life in the conduct of a mission against the infidels was highly praised. The holy martyrs were welcomed into Paradise and sat on the right hand of G.o.d.

He hoped to live to see the glorious triumph of Islam in the West. But if it required his life to make it happen, he was more than ready to die as a martyr to the cause. As were, he was convinced, his men. If he told them that their only path to heaven was through martyrdom, he was confident that they would follow him to death.

The sudden attack had brought home to him the fact that he had seriously underestimated his enemies. Someone, somehow, had leaked information to the West, and the sudden attack was the result. His suspicions were that one of the few Bosnians who was in on the plan had been the traitor. If he survived the next few days, he would track this man down and make him pay for his betrayal.

For now, though, he had to make good his escape so he could deliver the rockets he had left to his enemies.

As THE DUST SETrLED, the Stony Man team could see the damage Hammer's bomb run had inflicted on the base camp. The cave had completely vanished; there wasn't even a trace of where it had been under the tons of rock. When the bomb had brought the roof down, the mountain had slid in to fill the void. There was no telling how many men had been buried in the collapse, but they would remain there for all time. The presence of the nerve-gas rockets under the debris made sure that no one would ever try to ex-cavate the site.

"Are we going to go down there and finish them off?" Hawkins asked as he watched the dazed survivors try to figure out what had happened to them. From the way they were aimlessly staggering around down there, a decent Gift Scout troop could go in and mop them up.

Bolan shook his head. "No. We got what we came for, and someone else can worry about what's left of them. We need to leave something for the UN to take care of after we get out of here."

"We may not be finished yet, Striker," McCarter said as he took off the earphones of their satcorn radio. "Katz says that Kurtzman's satellite is telling them that two of the trucks escaped and are heading west fight now."

"Let me talk to him."

Katz was apologetic when he explained the situation to Bolan. "I'm sorry, Striker," he said, "but Hal wants you guys to keep after those trucks that got away. From what they can see, they appear to be carrying some of the rockets. He knows that you have been pus.h.i.+ng the limits, but you're all that we have on the ground in the area. It's imperative that none of those rockets are launched anywhere in Bos-nia."

Bolan saw the truth in what Katz was saying. He also knew that the Israeli wouldn't commit them un-less there was no other option available. And like Katz, he had an abhorrence of chemical weapons. Even if there was only one nerve-gas rocket unac-counted for, he knew they had to go after it.

"Jack and Hammer are loading up the Black Hawk for another resupply run," Katz continued. "And they'll have attopine injectors, full protective suits and gas masks on board."

Bolan knew that if the nerve gas was used, the protective measures really wouldn't do them much good. The suits and masks worked okay if you were in a static position with medical backup and a de-contamination unit close by. But the way this team operated, they were more than useless, particularly if the nerve gas involved was VX. With that particular agent, a single drop on the skin would kill. A small tear or leak in the suit would be as fatal as not having any protection at all. Their only hope to survive this was to make sure that the rockets weren't fired at all.

"Hold off on the resupply," Bolan said. "We have the chemical-detector unit you sent on the first run, and the suits won't do us any good. We're okay on everything else for the next three or four days, but I'll call you if we need anything."

"As you wish," Katz said before switching subjects. "You'll want to copy down the route they're taking."

"Send it."

As the Stony Man team drove away from the mountain overlooking what was left of the Iranian camp, McCarter had Hawkins give it a wide berth. Even buried under tons of rock, there was no telling if any of the gas had been released. Once they reached the main road to the north of the camp, Bo-lan checked in with Katz again to get an update.

"They're moving fast," Katz said, relaying the information on the Iranian tracks Wethers was tracking, "and they're still heading west."

"We'll head west, then."

THE FARTHER WEST the Stony Man team drove, the more populated the area became. Once they were out of the mountains, the land became rolling hills and valleys. Little villages and farms dotted the landscape, but too many of them proved to be destroyed and deserted when they got closer. The few people they saw in the distance stayed clear of them. They weren't in a gun jeep or an armored vehicle, but with the matte tan paint, the Toyota pickup had a decid-edly military look to it. The locals couldn't tell which side they were on, but experience had taught them that any military unit could be dangerous.

Now that they were coming into the zones patrolled by the UN PROFOR, they had to keep an eye out for them, too, and this was where the Farm came in again. The same satellite that was tracking the Iranians was also keeping track of the PROFOR units and marking them, as well.

At midday, Katzenelenbogen called McCarter. "There's a French mech unit coming your way," he reported. "They're about six klicks to the north, and you need to clear the road to let them get past you."

"Give me their grid coordinates," the Phoenix Force Leader requested.

After marking his map, McCarter wasted no time telling Hawkins to get off the road and up into the wooded hills to get under cover.

Hiding from the good guys wasn't a new occurrence for the members of Phoenix Force. The clandestine nature of their work meant that they usually had to stay hidden from everyone. This time, though, they didn't have a cover story or false papers to let them go free. If they were surprised by a PROFOR unit, they would be disarmed and taken into custody. Katz would be able to free them, but probably not until it was too late.

With their Toyota well hidden in the trees, the commandos dismounted and watched the convoy of a dozen armored cars and personnel carders rumble past on the road below. When the French unit had pa.s.sed, McCarter let them get a mile or two down the road before giving the order to move out again.

MAJOR NASLIN WAS also keeping a sharp eye out for the PROFOR units. With as few men as he now had, he couldn't afford to get into a firefight. And since the Aviano air base hadn't been taken out of action as the plan had called for, he had to be alert against enemy aircraft, as well. Fortunately, though, the trucks that had escaped destruction had been carrying almost a dozen Strella missiles between them, so he could fight back if UN aircraft appeared.

The odds were against him as they had never been before, but a merciful G.o.d had seen him through this trial so far and the Iranian was confident that He wouldn't let him fall now. Not when he was so close to victory. He had been prepared to give his life for the revolution since he had been a child. Never had it been so close as it was now, and he was unafraid.

But his death would be so much sweeter if it came as the price of this victory he sought.

If he was successful, generations of schoolchildren would remember his name on Martyrs' Day. If he failed, even his family would curse his memory.

"WE'RE GOING tO need to get some gas," Hawkins announced half an hour later, "and real soon."

"How much more do we have?" McCarter glanced over at the fuel gauge on the dashboard.

"I'd say about another ten miles or so."

"You should have let me know sooner."

"I was a little busy trying to keep us out of sight of the UN, remember."

"We need a gas station ASAP," McCarter radioed to Aviano. "Can you help us find one?"

"A gas station or just a source of fuel?" Katz asked.

"Just the fuel."

Katz studied the satellite video that was being sent directly to the CP and compared what he was seeing with the large-scale military map of the area on his desk.

"I have some kind of a garage on the edge of the village right over the hill in front of you, a place called Diminia. There's a couple of tracks parked around it and what looks like an above-ground fuel tank behind the building. I can't read any markings on the tank to see if it's gas or diesel, but it's worth a try."

"We're on it," McCarter said and signed off.