Forged in Honor (1995) (27 page)

I won't be in touch for a week or so, but I'll call as soon as I get back...."

Josh held the phone away from his ear and whispered to Crow, "She's not Lakin' this too good."

He put his ear back to the phone and nodded and nodded some more. "You finished bitching?" he said finally. "Hey, I love you, Stef. Keep things straight and make sure Bob ain't screwed over by Ky. I'll call when I get back. I gotta go ...

Yeah, I'll be careful. Love ya-good-bye, hon."

Josh hung up and took a deep breath, then let it out in a single rush of air. "That was a tough one."

Crow smiled. "She's a pistol. Ya done good with her, Hawk."

Josh shifted his eyes to the small Special Forces sergeant standing beside the sergeant major. "How old is your daughter, Sergeant Vee?"

"She's four."

Josh nodded and put his arm over the young soldier's shoulder. "Start workin' on a son as soon as we get back.

Daughters grow up and try to change your life."

Nguyen Vee grinned. "My wife does that enough already."

Crow picked up the bag of equipment at his feet and tossed his head toward the distant helicopter landing pad.

"It's time. They're loadin'."

Josh and Vee hefted their bags to their shoulders. Vee looked at Josh with a searching stare. "Do you really think we're ready for the mission?"

Josh exchanged glances with Crow before forcing a smile.

"You bet."

Three CH-47 Chinook helicopters from Fort Pickett landed at Andrews Air Force Base's ready ramp and were immediately surrounded by armed Air Force security police. The passengers from the helicopters walked down the rear ramp holding bags of equipment and followed Air Force escort officers who led them to a waiting C-141B Starlifter. The large, four-jet-engine monster was sitting on the runway with its turbines whirling. The passengers leaned into the blast of hot air and walked up the rear ramp into the fuselage. Minutes later the engines screamed as the white bird broke its bonds with earth and soared skyward.

Josh unfastened his seat belt and reached down into his flight bag for the folder of satellite photos. Opening the folder, he thumbed through the glossy eight-by-tens until he came to the one he was looking for-his team's assigned recon area. He studied the picture for several minutes, looking for the best way to approach the hidden building, but it was not easy. He had constantly to fight off images of his past.

Finally he tossed the photograph down. It was no use trying.

He knew the ground all too well. The suspected drug production plant was on the plateau where he and Stephen had taken the Horseman test. It was the ground where his mother had watched him pass the test and cried. It was his home.

Northern Burma Xu Kang reined his pony closer to Colonel Banta, who was getting out of his pickup. "Greetings and blessings, Colonel. Who is this bleeding all over the back of your truck?"

"Greetings and blessings, Chindit." Banta casually waved toward the wounded soldier wearing camouflage fatigues. "A pye dog who we caught doing a reconnaissance of the Shaduzup lai house. There were three others, but they are with their ancestors. They made sketches and had cameras.

This one is gutshot and will die soon, but he was able to tell an interesting story I thought you should hear."

Kang climbed down from the horse and opened the tailgate to look more closely at the feverish young soldier. He patted the boy's shoulder. "I am Sawbaw Xu Kang. You've heard of me, eh? If you don't speak the truth your entrails will be fed to the pigs while you still live to watch them feast."

The young man's eyes widened. "I will speak the truth, Sawbaw. I beg you in the name of Buddha, don't-"

"By the gods! I'm not Wa! I don't kill wounded men who speak the truth. Have pride and accept the gods' will." Kang spun around, motioning to two of his nearby Horsemen.

"Take him to the shade in front of my headquarters." He looked again at the colonel. "Is the cobra about to strike?"

Banta nodded with a frown. "His story proves you right, Sawbaw. Our spies in Rangoon have also reported the DDSI's Strike Battalion is on standby alert. One of our young women is sleeping with a sergeant in the unit and reported he has been gone for two days."

Xu Kang hastened his steps. "I must hear your prisoner's story."

Minutes later the old soldier's wrinkled face became a stone mask as he spoke to the young man who was laid on the ground before him. "Now tell me and my Horsemen what you told my colonel. Keep in mind my pigs are hungry. If you are truthful I will see to it that a doctor attends to your wound."

Kang listened for ten minutes as the soldier's voice got progressively weaker. Finally he could barely move his lips.

The old man bent over the soldier and brushed his wet hair from his forehead. "I will see that you rest now." He nodded to the two Horsemen, who gently picked up the limp man and walked him carefully toward the dispensary.

Kang shook his head as he sat back in his campaign chair.

"He will die within the hour ... but now we know an attack is planned. By the gods, I warned the Sawbaws about this!

They were all fools to believe the government. Now it's too late for them."

Banta's eyes widened. "But they must be warned! You must try, or they will all die."

Xu Kang slowly shook his head and said sadly, "They won't listen to me. To them I am nothing but an old man crying wolf. Greed has blinded them and made them deaf." His eyes suddenly focused and locked on the colonel. "We must save the others. Get my son and his family and all the Shan leaders out of Rangoon. Give them no choice. It will be happening soon."

"Chindit, it will take several days to contact our people in Rangoon," said Banta worriedly. "The army is using jammers to make radio transmission very difficult."

Kang closed his eyes and prayed to the gods that he had not received the information too late. Nodding in resignation, he stood. "Send some of your men as backup immediately-we don't have much time."

"It will be a bloodbath when it begins. So many fools ... so many," Banta whispered.

Xu Kang raised his head and looked back at the valley, knowing that after all the years and all the battles he had fought, nothing had changed.

Chapter 14.

1 A. M., 18 June, Rangoon.

The night operations officer gently shook Brigadier Tan's shoulder. "General, the call you've been expecting from Seattle is on the secure line."

Tan, fully dressed, stood up from his office couch and hurried down the steps to the basement operations center. He paused only long enough to glance at the wall clock with Seattle's time and noted that Colonel Po was calling at 11 A. M. in the States. Praying to Buddha that the call would be good news, he picked up the phone and placed the receiver to his ear.

"This is Tan.... Excellent! ... Yes, we will move forward with phase seven immediately. When the last shipment is in and the handoff is complete, finish the business of the loose ends.... Yes, I will be expecting your call in four days.

Thank you for making this morning one to remember. I will pass the good news on to the director." Tan hung up the receiver and turned to his operations officer. "The second ship arrived in Seattle and cleared Customs. Contact our Strike units and have them execute their orders immediately."

The officer motioned to the wall where a chalkboard and map were hung. "Those on the list will be no problem, since our teams have each target pinpointed except for Sawbaw Xu Kang. We can begin strikes on facilities one through four, but our reconnaissance units report clouds over facility five."

Tan waved his hand impatiently and spoke quickly. "Notify the commander of five to have his recon units cut the phone lines and block all road entrances to the factory so that they won't know about the other attacks. Tell him to go in as soon as the clouds clear. Forget about Xu Kang for now we'll find him later."

The major acknowledged his instructions with a quick dip of his chin and strode toward the waiting radio operators. Tan looked at the map and rocked back on his heels, knowing that all the evidence of the government's involvement in producing the white powder would be gone within a few short hours. He smiled inwardly and shifted his gaze to the list of names on the chalkboard. The names were those of the Shan Sawbaws and administrators whom he'd paid handsomely to keep the heroin factories full of workers and to ensure the harvested raw opium was transported to the production facilities. They would all be eliminated, for they knew the junta had sanctioned the labs.

Tan walked to the board; beside the name of Xu Kang, he wrote "FIND HIM!" Tossing the piece of chalk back onto the rail, he strode confidently toward the phone to report to General Swei that the wrath of the White Storm had begun.

.

0235 Hours, Northern Burma "Oh shit," Josh moaned as the huge helicopter dropped and bucked back up, forcing his stomach into his throat. The two remaining passengers beside their team leader made the mistake of smiling. Their faces were eerie enough in the red glow from the interior lights, but smiling made them look like red-faced ghouls with black eyes and mouths. He cussed them both, along with the Air Force Special Operations Command's Pave Low III crew and everybody else who had told him the ride would be "a piece of cake."

Seeing his team leader squirming, Crow leaned closer to be heard over the roaring twin turbo shaft engines. "Hawk, don't embarrass me. The crew bet me you'd toss your cookies in this bad weather. They say we'll be busting out of this little thunderstorm in just a few minutes. Hell, enjoy the ride-some people pay to be bounced around like this."

Josh looked at Crow's red, glowing face and wanted to smash the old soldier's teeth in. His own friend was making fun of his weakness! The bastard! They were all bastards! He clenched his jaw tighter and clamped his eyes shut.

He wanted to remember every detail for the scathing report he would write once the mission was over. Paragraph one, the fucking Agency had rehearsed the infils at Fort Pickett in CH-47s. He knew Chinooks. Hell, he loved Chinooks. They were slow, reliable, and weren't filled with computers-the pilots actually had to fly them. But when he arrived at the staging base in India what did he find? Fucking monster helicopters he'd never seen before except in pictures! Pave Lows? What the fuck are Pave Lows? he'd asked. They'd said they were the newest and best thing going for special ops. Hadn't he been in one before? they'd asked. What else could he do but lie? Sure, he'd said. Then he found out the goddamned things were flown by fucking computers! Here he was in a fucking multimillion-dollar machine flying two hundred knots per hour at treetop level, at night, in a small thunderstorm while passing through the mountains of Burma!

And the fucking pilots were probably reading fucking comic books!

Crow patted Josh's trembling hand. "Hawk, snap out of it, the crew chief says we're four minutes out from the LZ."

Josh filed his future report away and opened his eyes. His partners were unbuckling their seat belts, so Josh forced himself to believe in the computers and tried to lift his hand to pick up the pack at his feet. He found he was frozen to the seat.

The crew chief materialized from somewhere and held up two gloved fingers in front of Josh's face. "Two minutes out, team leader!" he yelled over the engines.

Josh nodded and unbuckled his seat belt. He hadn't realized he was moving until he saw he was holding his pack.

He smiled inwardly, knowing his past experience and training were finally overcoming his fear. Feeling better and more confident, he allowed his eyes to move toward his team members. He gathered even more strength and yelled, "Last equipment check!"

He patted his pockets and all the equipment attached to his body, feeling for the items that were essential for survival and necessary for successful completion of the mission.

"One okay!" Crow yelled.

Sergeant Vee checked his shirt pocket once more to make sure his compass hadn't slipped out and was still tied to his lapel. It was. He nodded. "Two okay!"

Josh stood and barked, "Team leader okay! Stand by!" He threaded his arms through the pack's straps and hefted the weight to his shoulders. He tapped Crow's shoulder. "How much they bet ya?"

Crow held up five fingers. Josh turned and looked at the embarrassed crew chief, who shrugged.

Josh felt the bird beginning its flare to slow its forward air speed. The crew chief stepped forward and yelled into Josh's ear. "Pilot says he scanned the area with infrared coming in and didn't pick up any human activity for miles around. It's clean, so you're good to go. Good luck!" He turned and opened the side door. Josh moved closer to the door and saw a moonlit view of a wind-whipped grassy field he knew all too well.

The bird was still four feet from the ground when Josh jumped, followed by his team. He hit the ground and screamed in silent joy as he ran a few paces; then he dropped to his knees and turned to check if Crow and Vee were with him. They were, and he ducked his head and closed his eyes as the huge bird lifted off like a mini-hurricane and shot forward over the treetops.

The team remained perfectly still, giving their ears and bodies time to adjust from the constant sound and vibration, while Josh scanned the moonlit valley. He was in his element now with the Pave Lows just a bad memory.

He waited another full minute and then whispered, "Get me a GPS check to confirm."