Free Battleground by Keith Douglass Page B

fourth doors too.
    Quinley had almost gotten there when a rifle poked outthe second door and slammed off six rounds well over his head. Most dug into the walls. Nobody got hurt. Quinley surged ahead before the door could be closed, and let the arming handle pop off a grenade, held it two seconds, then threw it into the second room.
    The explosion came almost at once. Quinley jolted forward, came to his feet, and surged into the room with his MP-5 chattering. A few seconds later, he waved out the door with a thumbs-up. Three SEALs used assault fire and stormed down the hallway to the second door and rushed inside.
    Lincoln led them. Now he checked the hall. They weren’t sure which door the second sniper had used. DeWitt had cleared the first room, and Yates and Lampedusa cleared the third room. They had three ahead of them.
    “It was either the fourth or fifth door,” Quinley said. “Sure as hell wasn’t the last one. All that’s left is four and five.”
    “One man on each side of the hall,” Lincoln said. “Same procedure. I’m on one side, Willy Bishop on the other. Same thing Quinley did. Give us some cover.”
    Two more SEALs ran into room two, and were ready for support fire. Lincoln nodded and dove to the far wall, and Lincoln took the near one. The SEALs laid down the covering fire. One weapon poked out of door four, but jerked back in when the fire concentrated there.
    Lincoln had that side. By the time he got there the door was closed tightly. He fired three rounds into the locking area, kicked the door open, and sprayed the inside of the room with 9mm whizzers.
    Return fire blasted through the door. Lincoln had fired from low and to one side. He tossed in a fragger grenade, and when it went off, he was up and charged inside. No shots came from the room.
    DeWitt and the others cleared the last two rooms, and they relaxed.
    “Second floor clear,” DeWitt said into his mike.
    “Nobody exited the joint,” Murdock said. “Good work. You moving downstairs for the first floor?”
    “Roger that.”
    The Second Squad went down the far steps quietly and with caution. They cleared three doors and found no one home. They went through the kitchen, the infirmary, a library, and six more offices. There were no more Kenyan rangers in the compound.
    “Clear all,” DeWitt said. “Where the hell are the hostages?”
    “We found a door with stairs leading down,” Willy Bishop said.
    “Let’s do it,” DeWitt said.
    The stairs were clear. In the basement they saw two small rooms had doors standing open. Big locked double doors led to what must be a larger room just beyond the smaller ones.
    DeWitt tapped on the steel door with the butt of his MP-5. He waited. Three taps came back. DeWitt tapped again, three quick raps, then three slow ones, then three fast ones. Dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot. SOS in Morse code. They heard a cheer from inside. More noises came as the doors were evidently being freed so they could be opened. One door swung open slowly, and a lone man stood there with a bandaged left arm.
    “Lieutenant (j.g.) DeWitt at your service, Mr. Ambassador.”
    First Secretary Frank Underhill let the tears roll down his cheeks. “Thank God,” he whispered, then pulled both doors open wide. “Thank God for the United States military forces.”
    “Hostages freed,” DeWitt said in his mike. “Call in the choppers, Murdock. Time’s a-wasting.”
    The SEALs had never received a warmer welcome. Every one of the hostages hugged the SEALS, and the women kissed them on the cheeks and didn’t want to let go of them.
    “The two women Colonel Maleceia took away?” Underhill asked. DeWitt took him aside and told him what they had found.
    “The redheaded woman was our CIA agent. I’m sure she put up a fight. She’d know the time to pick. Damned shame.Both fine women, both of them.” He paused a moment. “We’re taking out our dead, of course.”
    DeWitt shook his head. “Sorry, but we don’t