Tracks (53 page)

When Dori turned around, a boy
and two smaller girls were standing in the doorway, hustled in by Sergeant
Marzel, who had followed him to the second floor.

“You Amir?”
Dori
asked. 

The boy nodded, looking down
at the man he thought was his father.

The two girls started to cry
and sat down next to their unconscious father.

“Marzel, you take the boy to
the playground and wait there.  Don’t let him out of your grip!” Dori
ordered.  “He’s the reason we are all here.”

Dori took out a pair of
plastic handcuffs and began tying the man’s arms and legs.

“Tell Yoram to secure the
front entrance until I come down.  Get Shaul and Gidi to come with you,
and bring the woman along too.  She could be helpful.  Gidi caught
her when she jumped out of this window trying to escape.”  

The boy made an attempt to
resist, lunging himself toward his sisters but Marzel lifted him with one arm
and disappeared down the stairs.  Dori finished tying the man. 
Pasting masking tape he had prepared in advance in his ammunition vest over the
man’s mouth, he left him on the floor in his room, took the two girls and
locked them in the toilet next to the bedroom, throwing the key out the window.

He then took three giant leaps
down the steps and retreated with Yoram back to the playground.

CHAPTER
FIFTY-ONE

The building stood dark and
isolated.

Aziz and Devlin crouched at the
end of an alley that overlooked the garage and signaled the two commanders to
the front.  Nesbitt and Lennon crawled forward and received a quick sketch
of the layout from Devlin.

“The two guards patrol around
the building roughly once an hour,” Devlin whispered.  “I suggest we wait
here until we see them, then we can easily sneak in through the back doors.”

“That might take too long,”
Lennon remarked.  “We need to keep in sync with the Israelis.  Once
they attack, all hell will break loose.”

“Yes, we need to be in the
tunnel before they attack,” Nesbitt agreed.

Aziz and Devlin looked at one
another.  It was risky.  The garage had open ground all around it.

But Nesbitt and Lennon were
already signaling instructions to the men in back.

The force split up in
two.  They moved like ghosts, approaching the building swiftly from two
directions, blending in with the terrain.  Devlin, Aziz, and Natasha
tailed from behind crawling on the ground.

It took only three minutes to
cover a bare distance of about fifty meters when the guard appeared around the
corner of the building.  He hesitated a fraction of a second too long
before the large figure of Seal Sergeant Boone emerged from the ground and
silently cut his throat, dragging his body behind the corner,  out of
sight.

The combination lock was cut
once again and the force slid through the metal doors and assembled around the
oil bay.  Two troopers were left to guard the entrance on either side of
the building, anticipating the second guard to arrive shortly looking for his
partner.  A third trooper was left with Natasha at the bay while the rest,
led by Devlin and Aziz, went through the trap door and climbed the metal ladder
down to the tunnel.

The troop huddled as they
reached ground and the tunnel was revealed through the round opening which they
carefully slipped through one at a time.  Once in the tunnel Devlin took
the lead having been through there not two weeks before, with Aziz at his
side.  The bare light bulbs still hung along the ceiling and made it easy
for them to see the way.  The spacious tunnel made its way on a subtle
decline for the first few hundred meters then began to subtly rise again. 
It was even damper than Devlin remembered.

The troop was right behind him
as they carefully inched their way forward.  Devlin no longer worried
about surveillance cameras he knew were non-existent, but unexpected obstacles
such as guards along the way were always a threat.  Just as the first
time, he carefully surveyed each section from behind the bend before giving the
signal to proceed.  The tunnel stretched for almost a kilometer before he
reached the final bend that led to the large, dimly lit, hall.

It was there that Nesbitt and
Lennon took over.  The guard on the couch had his back to them but was
wide awake this time watching television.  His AK-47 was leaning on the
couch next to him.  Nesbitt took aim from behind the bend and shot him in
the back of the head with a silencer. The head disappeared behind the couch and
both Lennon and Nesbitt leaped forward to cement the kill.

Two men were left to secure
the retreat route and the rest continued through the maze of corridors, Devlin
guiding from behind the two commanders.  They reached the more modern
section with steel doors and glass windows and crouched hugging the
walls.  They continued further silently passing the section Aziz and
Devlin discovered as classrooms when suddenly a commotion broke out ahead of
them.

Devlin launched for the Muslim
prayer room he had visited the previous time and signaled Aziz to open the
storeroom he had investigated.   

The troop split up in a hurry
finding shelter in the two rooms, the last of them able to hide just as a burst
of light illuminated the corridor. They heard shouts and hurried boots storming
the corridor, voices excitedly and passionately arguing in Arabic. 

“The communications center is
two doors down on the right,” Devlin whispered to Nesbitt.  “The personnel
office with the safe is the first door on the left as you go out to the yard at
the end of this corridor.”

Nesbitt relayed the
information via a portable radio to Lennon who had taken refuge in the
storeroom with his men.

The commandos went into
action.

Nesbitt opened the door a
crack, looked quickly in both directions and ordered his men to follow.  Lennon
was doing the same with the Seals from the storeroom.

Nesbitt quickly ran, stooping,
for the corner, his men following,
guns
at the
ready.  He checked both his flanks as the corridor split in two directions
and practically crawled to the window to take a look.  As he stood up, a
burst of gun fire shattered the window throwing Nesbitt backward with
force.  The men threw themselves to the ground when more gunfire broke
from behind them.  Bullets started flying from both directions as Lennon’s
men tried to get back in the store room.

They were caught in a cross
fire. 

At the front the SAS men were
taking heavy fire from the split corridor and the courtyard.  Sergeant
Crawford raised his M-16 above his head and fired into the Communications Room,
then jumped in through its shattered window, rolling on the floor firing
blindly.  A man in fatigues, bleeding from one arm raised his gun and shot
the storming sergeant in the stomach.

Two more SAS men followed the
sergeant, shooting the man from short range when more fire opened up on them
from across the room.  They hit the floor and fired back, bullets
splintering the floor around them.  The remaining SAS men crawled forward
firing at the resistance from the split corridor and the courtyard while Lennon's
Seals were firing at the threat from the back.

The corridor became a death
trap.

A grenade came rolling toward
the Seals exploding in front of the storeroom.  Two commandos who were
late seeking cover behind the door were hit.  Lennon crouched at the
storeroom door dispensing orders, trying to raise the Apaches on the radio.

“Razor One, Razor One, this is
Shadow. Come in Razor One!  We’re taking heavy fire!”

The uninjured Seals began to
move along the wall, returning fire towards the back when they noticed the
enemy had turned its attention away from them.

‘It’s Codey and Graham,”
someone shouted the names of the troopers left to guard the tunnel entrance.

“Razor One, can you hear
me?  Come in Razor One!” Lennon was getting desperate. “No reception in
here!” he shouted to the people around him. He had to reach open space.

Devlin and Aziz were pinned
down in the Muslim prayer room.  The door had been blown off its hinges
and they lay behind the walls looking out.

Devlin heard Lennon’s plea and
shouted across the corridor, pointing with his finger. 
“The
courtyard, Sir, that way!”

Lennon heard him.  He
alerted three of his men pointing them in the direction, instructing the rest
to hold off the attack from the back, and followed them toward the courtyard. 
The Seals moved quickly, linking with the sprawled SAS men who were engaging in
heavy fire.  Several grenades were thrown toward the split corridor and
courtyard exit and the men rose and ran into the fire.  They were able to
terminate the fire from the adjacent corridor, but constant gunfire from the
courtyard kept them from venturing out. 

Lennon crouched by the wall
trying to contact the choppers.

This time he was successful.

“Razor One here,” he heard the
confident voice of the pilot. 

“Engage the compound!” Lennon
instructed “And
bring
in the troop carrier! We got
casualties.”

A bullet struck the wall over
his head and he instinctively lay flat on the ground. Heavy fire came from
outside.  Bullets sprayed the walls around them.

The two men he had sent to
sweep the adjacent corridor were just back signaling him that all was clear.

“Start bringing the casualties
in there,” he instructed, shouting over the noise.  Two of the men crawled
back to the main corridor under the barrage of bullets, while the rest remained
in place, engaging the gunfire from the courtyard.

A battle was raging between
the Seals and the force that had attacked from behind, who were caught
in-between the main force and the two commandos who had remained guarding the retreat
route.  Sergeant Boone had no idea how many were there but he kept firing
sporadically, the men around him doing the same.  Someone was tugging at
his boot.  He turned and saw a darkened face talking to him, but he could
not discern what he was saying.  He turned and crawled to him.

“Lennon’s got the corridors
taken and he called in the Apaches to clean the yard.  He wants us to
start assembling the casualties.”

Two of his men, including
Lieutenant Gold, were hit in the initial attack, and two had been injured in
the grenade blast, but he could not get to them, pinned under constant fire.

“Can you spare some men to
help me assemble them?”

Boone looked around. He was
left with five men, excluding
himself
, who were
engaging the enemy. Lennon had taken the rest to get to the yard.

“How many casualties?” he
asked.

“Nesbitt is dead.  So is
Sergeant Crawford,” the trooper informed him. “Larson and Lieutenant Murphy are
badly injured.  If the choppers don’t come in soon we’ll lose them. The
rest are with Lennon holding the fort.”

From the corner of his eye
Boone saw Devlin and Aziz peeping out of the Muslim prayer room.

“Take those two to help you,”
he said, pointing to Devlin, signaling him.  “We’ll give you cover. Tell
Lennon to have the guys on the other side of this corridor take cover when we
chuck a bomb at the assholes shooting at us.”

Boone crawled back to his men
and ordered his explosives guy to prepare an improvised explosive device to
chuck along the corridor.

Goodlad crawled toward Devlin
and Aziz. 

“I need help with the
casualties here!” he called out over the noise.

Devlin and Aziz did not
hesitate.  They joined Goodlad and started pulling the bodies along the
corridor toward Lennon’s position.  Each was pulling a body they were not
sure was dead or alive.

An explosion rocked the
corridor and for a few seconds there was an eerie silence, then part of the
structure began collapsing. They heard Boone call out: “Let’s move!”  The
remaining commandos moved toward the back, blitzing bullets, allowing Goodlad
and his two aides to straighten up and carry the bodies toward the split
corridor and come back for more.

Bobby Walker had managed to
eliminate the second guard who came looking for his partner, shooting him with
a silencer at point blank range before he was called to assist the troops in
the compound.  Together with Brown and Dillard, the two Seals left with
him and Natasha at the garage they quickly left the garage, sprinted through
the tunnel and now joined Codey and Graham who were engaging the enemy’s back
when the explosion took place and suddenly there was a rush of men in fatigues
toward them, firing from all weapons.  The commandos managed to cut down
the first wave but more terrorists kept coming at them.  Being chased by
an unseen force they simply ran into the bullets.

Walker took a bullet to the
shoulder and Codey to the left arm and the five commandos retreated to the
large hall behind the couch.  Seconds later the hall was filled with smoke
and a grenade exploded in back of them but the advancing terrorists had used
the cover of the smoke to flee through the tunnel.

Graham took some shrapnel in
his back and was in obvious agony.  Codey was holding his M-16, shooting
with his good arm and Walker was seemingly unaware he was bleeding from his
shoulder.

The smoke cleared and several
figures appeared moving hesitantly along the wrecked corridor. Codey was
getting ready to fire but Brown stopped him.

“Hold on, I think it’s our
guys… Hey Boone is that you?” Brown called out loud.

“Where did those sons of
bitches go?”  He heard Boone’s Southern accent echoing from the corridor.

“They fled through the
tunnel,” Brown said with obvious relief.

 
“Everyone
OK?”
  Boone inquired. 

“Codey, Graham, and Walker are
hit but they’ll survive if we evacuate quick!”

“Where’s the girl?” 
Boone demanded.

“I gave her a radio and sent
her back to the alley,” Dillard said.

“Let’s head back,” Boone
commanded.  “Lennon’s called in the cavalry.”

The five commandos came out
from behind the couch and joined Boone and his five men in a slow trot back up
the corridor.  A large part of the ceiling and walls collapsed from the
improvised bomb explosion but there was still room to pass among the broken
concrete and fallen bricks.