“Okay, people,” Ryan began, looking around. “Shorty and I go first. Your Highness, you come next with the women. Robby, stay ten yards back and cover the rear.”
“I am adept with light weapons,” the Prince said.
Jack shook his head emphatically. “No, if they get you, they win. If something goes wrong. I’m depending on you to take care of my wife and kid, sir. If something happens, go south. About half a mile down you’ll find a gully. Take that inland and don’t stop till you find a hard-surface road. It’s real thick cover, you should be okay. Robby, if anything gets close, blast it.”
“But what if –”
“But, hell! Anything that moves is the enemy.” Jack looked around one last time. Give me five trained men, maybe Breckenridge and four others, and I could set up one pisser of an ambush . . . and if pigs had wings . . . “Okay, Shorty, you go down first. If you fuck us up, the first thing happens, I’ll cut you in half. Do you believe me?”
“Yes.”
“Then move.”
Cooley moved to the ladder and proceeded down backward, with Ryan several feet above him. The aluminum rungs were slippery with the rain, but at least the wind was blocked by the body of the cliff. The extension ladder — how the hell did they get that here? — wobbled under him. Ryan tried to keep an eye on Shorty and slipped once halfway down. Above him, the second group was beginning its descent. The Princess had taken charge of Sally, and was coming down with Ryan’s daughter between her body and the ladder to keep her from falling. He could hear his little girl whimpering anyway. Jack had to ignore it. There wasn’t room in his consciousness for anger or pity now. He had to do this one right the first time. There would be no second. A flash of lightning revealed the two boats a hundred yards to the north. Ryan couldn’t tell if anyone was there or not. Finally they reached the bottom. Cooley moved a few feet to the north and Ryan jumped down the next few feet, gun at the ready.
“Let’s just stay put for a minute.”
The Prince arrived next, then the women. Finally Robby started down, his Marine parka making him invisible against the black sky. He came down quickly, also jumping the last five feet.
“They got to the house just as I started down. Maybe this’ll slow them some.” He held the white-wrapped stakes. It might make the ladders harder to find.
“Good one, Rob.” Jack turned. The boats were out there, invisible again in the rain and shadows. Shorty had said that only one man was guarding them. What if he’s lying? Ryan asked himself. Is this guy willing to die for his cause? Will he sacrifice himself to shout a warning and get us killed? Does it make a difference — do we have a choice? No!
“Move out, Shorty.” Ryan gestured with his gun. “Just remember who dies first.”
It was high tide, and the water came to within a few feet of the base of the cliff. The sand was wet and hard under his feet as Ryan stayed three feet behind the terrorist. How far were they — a hundred yards? How far can one hundred yards be? Ryan asked himself. He was discovering that now. The people behind him kept close to the kudzu-covered cliff. That made them extremely hard to see, though if there was someone in the boat, he’d know that people were coming toward him.
Krak!
Everyone’s heart stopped for a moment. A lightning stroke had shattered a tree on the cliff’s edge not two hundred yards behind them. For a brief instant he saw the boats again — and there was a man in each.
“Just one, eh?” Jack muttered. Shorty hesitated, then proceeded, hands at his side. With the return of darkness, he again lost sight of the boats, and Jack reasoned that everyone’s night vision was equally ruined by the lightning. His mind returned to the image he’d just seen. The man in the near boat was standing at the near side, amidships, and appeared to be holding a weapon — one that needed two hands. Ryan was enraged that Shorty had lied to him. It seemed absurd as he watched the emotion flare and fade in his consciousness.
“What’s the password?”
“There isn’t one,” Dennis Cooley replied, his voice unsteady as he contemplated the situation from rather a different perspective. He was between the loaded guns of two sides, each of which was likely to shoot. Cooley’s mind was racing, too, looking for something he could do to turn the tables.
Was he telling the truth now? Ryan wondered, but there wasn’t time to puzzle that one out. “Keep moving.”
The boat reappeared now. At first it was just something different from the darkness and the beach. In five more yards it was a shape. The rain was pouring down hard enough to distort everything he saw, but there was a white, almost rectangular shape ahead. Ryan guessed the range at fifty yards. He prayed for the lightning to hold off now. If they were lighted, the men in the boats might be able to recognize a face, and if they saw that Shorty was in front . . .
How do I do this . . .?
You can be a policeman or a soldier, but not both. Joe Evans’ words at the Tower came back, and told him what he had to do.
Forty yards to go. There were rocks on the beach, too, and Jack had to be careful not to trip over one. He reached forward with his left hand and unscrewed the bulky silencer. He stuck it in his belt. He didn’t like what it did to the gun’s balance.
Thirty yards. He searched for and found the stock release switch on the Uzi. Jack extended the stock, planting the metal buttplate in his armpit and snugging the weapon in tight. Just a few more seconds . . .
Twenty-five yards. He could see the boat clearly now, twenty feet or so, with a blunt bow, and another just like it perhaps twenty yards beyond. There was definitely a man in the near boat, standing amidships on its port side, looking straight at the people approaching him. Jack’s right thumb pushed the Uzi’s selector switch all the way forward, to full automatic fire, and he tightened his fist on the pistol grip. He hadn’t fired an Uzi since a brief familiarization at Quantico. It was small but nicely balanced. The black metal sights were nearly useless in the dark, though, and what he had to do . . .
Twenty yards. The first burst has to be right on, Jack, right the hell on . . .
Ryan took half a step to his right and dropped to one knee. He brought the weapon up, placing the front sight low and left of his target before he held the trigger down for a four-round burst. The gun jerked up and to the right as the bullets left, tracing a diagonal line across the target’s outline. The man dropped instantly from sight, and Ryan was again dazzled, this time by his own muzzle flashes. Shorty had dived to the ground at the sound.
“Come on!” Ryan yanked Cooley up and threw him forward, but Jack stumbled in the sand and recovered to see that the terrorist was indeed running for the boat — where there was a gun to turn against them all! He was yelling something Ryan couldn’t understand.
Jack had nearly caught up when Shorty got there first —
And died. The man in the other boat fired a long, wild burst in their direction just as Cooley was leaping aboard. Ryan saw his head snap over and Shorty fell into the boat like a sack of groceries. Jack knelt at the gunnel and fired his own burst, and the other man went down. Hit or not, Ryan couldn’t tell. It was just like the exercises at Quantico, he told himself, total chaos, and the side that makes the fewest mistakes wins.
“Get aboard!” He stayed up, holding his gun on the other boat. He didn’t turn his head, but felt the others board. Lightning flashed, and Ryan saw the man he’d shot, three red spots on his chest, his eyes and mouth agape in surprise. Shorty was beside him, the side of his head horribly opened. Between the two it seemed a gallon of blood had been poured onto the fiberglass deck. Robby finally arrived and jumped aboard. A head appeared in the other boat, and Ryan fired again, then clambered aboard.
“Robby, get us the hell outa here!” Jack moved on hands and knees to the other side, making sure that everyone’s head was down.
Jackson moved into the driver’s seat and searched for the ignition. It was set up just like a car, and the keys were in. He turned them, and the engine coughed to life as yet another burst of fire came from the other boat. Ryan heard the sound of bullets hitting the fiberglass. Robby cringed but didn’t move as his hand found the shift lever. Jack brought the gun up and fired again.