“Sure.”

  “Take ‘em.”

  Two shots spat out of the Sig Sauer barrels, hardly making any sound, just a quiet ‘phut, phut’, that could be mistaken for anything if it was heard. Then two more shots, ‘phut, phut’. Both Somalis fell to the ground, and the two men leapt forward to crouch down in cover next to the corpses. Talley looked around the side of the stone building. There were four more similar structures with a half dozen uniformed Somalis standing guard outside. As he watched, two of the doors opened, and a group of men appeared, also uniformed, and most of them armed with AKMs. He counted them as they milled around in the open. There were thirty-four of them that he could see. Five men carried the ominous RPG shoulder launched rockets. The Somalis watched the doors, waiting for something. Inside the room, out of their view, they could hear a voice speaking on a phone, presumably a satphone. Talley recognized Barre’s voice. His knowledge of Arabic was not flawless, but he got the impression he was shouting at someone to send reinforcements. Of course, as a full General of the Somali Land Forces, he would be able to call on any number of troops who were in the area. And then the General stood in the doorway to address his men. Talley translated for Guy.

  “These infidels have come again to invade the sovereign territory of Somalia. Once more, they think they can get away with raping and destroying our country. And once again, we will stop them!”

  His men shouted their approval, although Talley could see a few of them at the back shuffling their feet nervously. Barre went on.

  “You think it will be difficult to kill these blasphemers? I tell you, it will not. I have personally called on a colleague of mine, a fellow General who leads a regiment of armored vehicles. He is sending tanks! Within the hour, we will have two T55 tanks and two tracked Armored Personnel Carriers here to help us drive them back into the sea. The armor will block the track that these invaders must take to retreat to the sea. We must attack now and force these American dogs out into the waiting guns of our comrades. They will be wiped out forever. We will kill them all!”

  His men cheered again.

  Talley heard Guy murmur, “Which is it, kill us all or drive us into the sea?”

  He grinned. “I guess they’re not too fussy. We can’t get to him, not now, not surrounded by that many men. We’ll have to try again later. And we can’t take on armor, not without heavy weapons. Let’s pull back out of earshot. I have to make a call.”

  They crawled back the way they came until they were far enough away.

  “This is Echo One. Cate, do you read?”

  “Loud and clear, go ahead.”

  “We have a problem. Barre has called in armor. We weren’t able to get near enough to kill him. You need to get back to Colonel Hakim. We have to have air support.”

  She hesitated, then said, “I don’t think that’ll be possible. He made it clear there won’t be any more missions over Somalia.”

  “Then you’d better make it crystal clear that they’d better send in a new consignment of body bags. We’re not equipped to handle armor. We have to have that support, or we die here. There’s no third option.”

  Another hesitation. “I’ll patch you through to Hakim, and you can explain the situation to him.”

  “Fine.” He was abrupt with her.

  Maybe she didn’t press our case hard enough before. No, that can’t be right. She’s one of the bravest and most conscientious soldiers I’ve served with, including both men and women.

  Hakim’s voice came through.

  “Lieutenant Talley, how are things going?”

  “Like shit, Sir. Barre has called in armor.”

  “I see. How will you handle it?”

  “We can’t, Sir. You know that, it’s way out of our league. We need air support, whether our masters like it or not.”

  “They’ve given the orders, Talley. No air support, it’s final.”

  Talley fought to control his frustration. “Colonel,” he almost shouted into the mic, “we have to have something to help us deal with those tanks. You have to find a way around it.”

  He heard Hakim’s breathing. Then the older man sighed. “I’ve done what I can. In the meantime, do your best.”

  There was the sound of another voice, someone speaking to the Colonel in hard, harsh tones. Then the mic went dead. Hakim had ended the transmission. Talley looked at Guy.

  “We’d better start finding a way of dealing with Somali armor. It’s not looking good for the air support.”

  Guy nodded. “So be it. Maybe we could avoid them, go around the houses, and find a different way down to the beach.”

  Talley shook his head. “Whichever way we go, Barre has this place ringed with troops. He’ll know the direction we take before we do. No, we have to deal with this ourselves. Maybe we can get out of here before they arrive. And we need to kill Barre in the process.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do. Why don’t we start by whittling down these troops first? They’re massed together but not for much longer. If we empty our magazines into those men, we could knock down ten or more. That’ll be less to fight later. Then we go back the way we came in.”

  He calculated the odds. Then he nodded. “Let’s do it. And then we run like hell.”

  They crawled back to the position where they overlooked the Somali troops. Barre was still talking to them, but out of sight and hidden inside the room.

  He seems to have a sixth sense for trouble, Talley thought.

  They lined up their weapons on the assembled Somalis. Barre shouted to the troops, and they crowded nearer to listen. Talley and Welland each put out a second clip ready for instant use. The plan was to reload and empty a second magazine into the Somalis, and then run.

  Talley nodded. “Fire.”

  Both of their guns were on full auto, and they spat out bullets at the cyclic rate of ten rounds a second. The magazines emptied in two seconds. They slapped in new clips and fired again; the Somalis were already running every which way in terror, and several more went down. Then the return fire started peppering the ground around them.

  “Time to go, Guy. Get out of here!”

  The SAS man followed him back the way they’d come. They ran across the short distance of open ground and dived into the gully, pursued by bursts of fire from the AKMs. They crawled along the ditch and finally reached the garage. The Delta Six survivors were laid on the ground, and most were in a bad way. Dubois and Brenner’s uniforms were covered in dried blood, and their faces and arms bore the evidence of dozens of cuts from a razor sharp blade. Brenner’s right hand was covered in a filthy, bloodstained bandage. Gerd Fischer was in an even worse state, his lips covered in blood that he periodically spat out.

  Cate came up to Talley.

  “They cut out Fischer’s tongue, and he lost a lot of blood. He’s still losing it.”

  “Dubois and Brenner?”

  “Deep cuts all over their bodies, and both of them were badly concussed with repeated blows from rifle butts. Brenner’s not too good. They cut off two of his fingers. Dubois lost his big toe, right foot.”

  “Jesus! What were they after, information?”

  Cate shook her head. “They were having fun, according to Dubois. They didn’t ask them a thing. They just wanted to hear them scream. The three other survivors are in about the same state. One sustained two broken arms, and two of them lost a finger apiece. Apart from that, they’re suffering from shock due to blood loss and exposure. They need proper medical treatment.”

  Talley nodded.

  Another reason to deal with these animals, permanently. General Barre, I’m coming for you. Believe me, I’m coming.

  “We’re pulling out now, Cate. Get everyone aboard the trucks. Make sure the two Technicals are manned. We’re sure to need them.” He turned to Guy. “It’s time to blow the gates. If we try to ram them, we could damage the trucks, and if we do, well, I’d sooner not think about that.”

  “What about Osman’s armored Mercedes? It must weigh several tons, so it’d make a good battering ram. And he won’t need it any more.”

  Talley smiled. “Perfect and it’ll save your explosives for later. Guy, I want you to drive the Merc. Vince is still covering the back of the mansion. I’ll tell him to meet you at the front, and he can ride shotgun with you, straight out through the gates.”

  “You hope. I’ll have to wreck the car to smash our way through, but that’s too bad. If we make it, we’ll abandon what’s left of it outside the compound, and you can pick us up when you come out.”

  “We’ll be there. Just get the gates open.”

  Guy ran off, and Talley looked around at his pitiful command; a few tired men, trying to save their broken, wounded, and dying comrades. He knew their chances were not good. Every second they were trapped inside the compound was a gift of time to General Barre; time for him to bring up reinforcements, time for the armor to arrive, and time for them to die.

  No, it’s time for Barre to die.

  He kept that thought in the front of his weary mind. Cate was tending to the wounded Sergeant Reynolds. She finished tying off a fresh dressing and stood up.

  “Can we do it, do you think? Can we get out of here?”

  He smiled. “We can do it. Once the gates are down, we’ll head out and drive straight for the beach.”

  “And you think General Barre is going to let us get away, just like that?”

  He hesitated, but she deserved to know the truth. “No, I guess not. And those tanks will be a problem if we run into them.”

  “Yes. You know he offloaded the supplies from the trucks we’ll be using?”

  “Yeah, what kind of supplies?”

  “Several crates of RPGs, launchers, and spare missiles. The writing is in Cyrillic, but I’d guess they’re armor piercing.” She was smiling at him.

  “You’re not serious? Jesus Christ, maybe we do have a chance. Get them loaded back on the trucks. Find out anyone who may be able to handle one of those things, and assign one shooter to each truck. Put two in the lead truck. If we meet the armor, we’ll need to be able to shoot back.”

  She nodded and ran off to supervise breaking open the missile crates and allocating men to fire them. Other men were carefully loading the wounded on board, and five minutes later, they were ready to make their move. Jerry Ostrowski was patrolling the area outside the garage, his Arctic Warfare sniper rifle ready to spit death at anyone who approached. All they needed now was for Guy and Vince to smash through the gates. He looked up as an engine started, and he saw movement. It was the Mercedes. Guy had driven to the opposite end of the compound to have as long a run as possible before he hit the gates, the higher the speed, the greater the impact. And the more chance of breaking through.

  Or breaking something, he inwardly grimaced.

  “Start up, let’s be ready to move. The second they get through those gates, we go.”

  They had four trucks in total, two Technicals and two open backed trucks, all loaded with wounded men, and the RPGs. He watched the Mercedes hurtle toward the gates, faster and faster. He could see Guy and Vince strapped in with the seat belts. And then Guy spun the wheel and swerved away. Talley had seen it too, movement; vehicles arriving outside the gates, completely blocking the exit. A tracked BTR-50 APC in the lead, followed by two Russian built T55 tanks, with a second BTR-50 bringing up the rear. He felt a bitter taste in his guts. They’d done everything possible, and some of the men had paid with their lives. All to be sold down the river by the faceless armchair warriors back at the UN or NATO. Maybe even both. He watched his men beginning to arm and sight the RPGs, but he knew it was useless. They’d be sitting ducks when they fired.

  “Pull back, pull back behind the mansion. We’ll regroup before those bastards start shooting!”

  Virgil Kane was driving the lead truck, and Talley held on grimly as the man wrenched over the wheel and kicked up dust, heading away from the gunsights of the tanks. He gave orders to Guy to get behind the building, and then he glanced back at the Somali armor. The lead BTR-50, quicker than the others, let fly a vicious stream of fire from its turret mounted 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine gun. The heavy bullets smashed into the earth and kicked up a line of pockmarks, tracking all the way up the masonry of Barre’s mansion. Then they were around the corner and out of sight, but only for a few minutes until the Somali armor came looking for them. They stopped. The Mercedes pulled up next to them, and Guy and Vince climbed out. The SAS man looked grim.

  “I’m sorry. I had no choice, not against tanks.”

  “You made the right decision, Guy.”

  “Yeah, what do we do now, Boss?”

  But Talley had no answer. “I haven’t got a clue, Guy. We’re out of options.”

  Chapter Ten

  Talley formed his pitiful force into a defensive perimeter. When they made up their minds to attack, General Barre’s armor would come around the corner of the mansion in formation and hit their flanks. Behind them would come his infantry. To counter them, he had two missile teams at either end of the building, but everyone knew they would have to get very lucky to destroy the T55s. Even the BTR-50s, the tracked APCs, would need a hit in the right place to destroy them. Stopping them wasn’t good enough. The lethal 12.7mm turret-mounted heavy machine guns could still tear them to pieces even if the vehicle was brought to a stop. Vince DiMosta was deployed at one flank and Jerry Ostrowski at the other. Their sniper fire could be the decisive factor if the missiles failed to destroy their targets. The rest of the men were strung out behind any kind of barrier they could find. Even the wounded from Delta Six had taken up positions in the line, using borrowed and captured weapons. Talley walked around, checking their fields of fire, talking to the men, and trying to give them hope. Even if he knew deep down there was little chance of them escaping this trap. Michel Dubois was with Gerd Fischer. The normally savage German Sergeant looked terrible, pale and strained; his mouth still leaking blood from where they’d ripped out his tongue.

  “You know we’re wasting our time,” the Frenchman said, looking up at Talley. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, but his face was still covered in a mixture of blood and filth. “We’re beaten. The best option we could take is a quick bullet in the head before Barre’s men get hold of us.”

  Fischer looked at him, nodding his head slightly. He must have been in terrible pain, and the prospect of even more to come must have been beyond terror for him. He clutched his borrowed AKM in white-knuckled hands, and Talley wondered how he would use it.

  To kill the enemy? Or give himself a painless exit? He looked back at Dubois.

  “We’re not beaten yet, Michel. All of us were chosen for this squad because we’re not the kind of soldiers who pack in when things look tough. We’ll fight our way out of this, and we’ll go home. That’s a promise.”

  Oh, Jesus, another promise. How many of them will I be able to keep? But what’s the alternative? We have to fight, and as long as we’re fighting, we might still make it out.

  The Frenchman sneered, but he didn’t reply. Talley knew what he was thinking; it was that obvious. Except that Talley hadn’t given up, that much was true. Not quite yet, not as long as he was armed and still breathing. He looked around him, Cate was standing by the parked trucks, and he went over to her. She looked tired. They all were. Bone tired, covered in grime, filth, and blood.

  “How’s it looking over here?

  She stared at him. “These vehicles are still partially loaded, Abe, except for the RPGs we took of to deploy and some of the walking wounded who dismounted to fight. What do you want me to do with them next?”

  “The satcom on board?”

  “Yes.”

  “Get on it. You have to try to persuade someone to get us air support in here.”

  She shook her head. “But, you know Hakim won’t do that. The order has been given to block any more incursions into Somalia.”

  “I know that. But, Cate, there’s always something worth trying. I don’t believe things are impossible. It’s just a case of finding the right button to push. What about Rear Admiral Alexander?”

  “The commander of the Abraham Lincoln? What about him?”

  “He commands several squadrons of FA-18 Super Hornets and a heap of other air assets. One word from him, and he could pull us out of the shit.”

  She sighed in exasperation as she pushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. Her face was filthy, but on such a beautiful woman it was impossible to disguise her natural radiance.

  “I’ve told you. Alexander is under orders not to mount any more incursions into Somalia.”

  “I know that, Cate. And he didn’t get where he is by ignoring or disobeying orders. But he has a reputation as a leader who commands immense respect from his men, a leader who’ll stand up for them, no matter what.”

  “He didn’t seem to show anything like that when we went aboard his ship,” she objected.

  “No, that’s true, but he saw us as a threat to his new command. He answers to the President of the United States. We answer to the Secretary General of NATO, and ultimately, we receive our mandate from the United Nations. It’s complicated, and the Admiral is not the kind of man to like complicated situations. But I don’t think he’d abandon men to the enemy. Talk to him direct. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”

  “But, Colonel Hakim is sure to have tried that.”

  “Hakim isn’t stuck here in this shithole. And who’s to know what Hakim is up to?”

  She gave him a sharp look. “You don’t trust him?”

  “I don’t know. But get onto Admiral Alexander, and do your best to persuade him. That’s your assignment.”

  She nodded. “It’s getting light. That won’t make things any easier for him. There’ll be no way to deny his involvement.”

  “Try him. I have to go.”

  He continued walking around his command, talking to the men, attempting to bring some hope to men who were dog tired and stretched beyond normal human endurance. Satisfied he’d done everything possible; he walked back to the parked trucks to see how Cate was progressing.