from both landing zones, at least to the extent of available
reserves.
But, as Sikes had noted, there was always somebody who didn’t get the
word.
0411 Local (+5 GMT) Western Coast of Cuba “Helluva good swim.” Sikes
forced the words out, trying to disguise his urgent desire to suck in
deep, gasping breaths.
To his right, Huerta smiled slightly, recognizing the deception.
“You might start finding time from now on to break away from that
paperwork for more IT,” Huerta mused. He took the entrenching tool out
of his backpack, unfolded it, and began digging a shallow hole near the
base of one tree. He’d already taken his cammies out of the waterproof
pack, carefully reversing the vent that allowed him to pump air out of
the plastic container. He stood, stripped off his wet suit, and folded
it carefully before putting it in the hole. He then slipped into his
cammies.
The other SEALs followed suit, metamorphosing from waterborne warriors
to land commandos. Versatility was one of the most critical qualities
of any SEAL team.
After the preliminaries, they set off east, traveling in a widely
spaced, snaking line toward their objective. Huerta took point and
vanished into the shadows. Sikes caught an occasional glimpse of him,
sometimes just the slightest hint of movement, but never saw the man in
profile against the sky, or the slightest glimmer of equipment. It was
as though he was a ghost, an unnatural presence stalking the land.
Sikes tried his best to follow suit, knowing that in the arcane science
of this type of warfare, he was hopelessly outclassed.
Finding the concrete building where their objective was supposedly
housed was simple. At that hour of the night, men’s spirits and
attention spans are at their lowest. With the sun still hours away,
even in the southern tropical climate, sentries around the world found
it difficult to concentrate on the graduated shades of black and shadow
around them. If anyone were still on watch, not drawn off to the north
by the diversion, that is. The SEALs were counting on the Arsenal
ship’s evening the odds.
They clustered together under a small clump of bushes and conferred in
soft whispers and hand movements. Their intelligence said that Miss
Drake was hardly here against her will, although the Cubans might have
been less than cooperative in letting her go. Too, given the prior
incursion of the SEALs onto their island, it might be reasonable to
expect a heavier guard on her. While they publicly hooted about any
threat that a Cuban security force might pose to a team of SEALs,
privately each man knew that an armed guard of any kind could pose a
problem. That, and your luck going sour on you at the worst possible
moment.
A few minutes of observing the compound did much to allay their
fears.
Although the base blazed with lights, there was evidently only one
patrol, and he was a slackard at best, criminally negligent at worst.
The Cuban patrolled at regular intervals, pacing his way easily around
the compound in continuous circles. With a nightscope, Huerta watched
him, noting how the man kept his attention centered on the lighted
areas, never peering beyond the fence into the dark shadows surrounding
the compound.
The Cuban nodded, satisfied. It was doable.
With the arrival of the team outside the compound, leadership of the
evolution had shifted to SEAL3. Sikes waited until he saw the hand
signal, nodded acknowledgment, then darted silently forward. He was
wearing the nighttime version of woodland green cammies, a combination
of burnt green and dark gray that made him part of the night. He
darted twenty feet across open land, then settled down into the grass
surrounding the fence. A few quick experiments told him their
intelligence was accurate it wasn’t electrified, a relief, even though
the SEALs had come prepared to deal with that eventuality if
necessary.
Garcia joined him moments later and pulled an insulated set of wire
snips out of his back pocket. Two minutes later, there was a
SEAL-sized hole in the wire fence.
Sikes and Garcia squiggled through it, found cover, and waited for
Huerta and Carter to join them. Operating in teams of two, they