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  Stapler waited until Bearcat was talking to his people before speaking to Lieutenant Nolan. “The Army is right.

  We may have to shift closer to Mauritania so they can reach us. I recommend, LT, that while I am at Alpha site, you see how long it would take to get those vehicles out there loaded — just in the event we need them.”

  The lieutenant bit his lower lip, took off his helmet, and ran his hand through his hair. “So, you don’t think we can stay here until help arrives? It looks to me. Gunny, we have everything we need. We got water, food, and plenty of ammunition. We may be able to hold out.”

  “Then, again, Lieutenant, we may not be able to hold out. If they return with that rocket-propelled grenade launcher and more men, we’re going to be up the proverbial shit creek. Especially if they’re willing to lose the number they lost today.”

  “Okay, Gunny. You’re probably right.”

  “I hope not, Lieutenant. All I am recommending is that we be prepared to use the vehicles if we have to. Otherwise, we should remain right where we are until help arrives.”

  “Who do you think attacked us?”

  “Most likely members of the Algerian Liberation Front. It’s the same bunch who attacked the evacuation convoy two weeks ago in Algiers and who still hold about fifty American hostages.”

  “What would they be doing out here in the middle of the Sahara?”

  Stapler pulled another cigarette out, looked at the lieutenant, and raised his eyebrows.

  Lieutenant Nolan nodded as Stapler lit the cigarette.

  “Americans.”

  “Americans?”

  “Sure. They probably came here for the Americans, and we surprised them as much as they surprised us, coming over the hill in those helicopters like we did.” Stapler turned and looked out the window at the burning helicopters and thought briefly of the Marines who never made it out of them. “No, sir. It won’t take them long to figure out there are no other helicopters coming, and they have us trapped here.”

  “What then, Gunny?” Lieutenant Nolan asked, moving up beside the taller man to where he could see Stapler’s face beneath the shade of the helmet.

  “Then. Lieutenant, they’re going to come for us.” The image in the movie where the Indians scaled the wall and fought the soldiers hand-to-hand flittered through his thoughts.

  The screen door opened, and Bearcat Jordan and Professor Walthers entered. Bearcat pulled the chair back from the radio suite and sat down. Quickly, he had the frequencies changed and was calling Alpha site.

  Professor Walthers stopped and spoke to Lieutenant Nolan and Stapler. “I couldn’t help but overhear what you said, Gunny Sergeant. You are right. Never count on being rescued in the Sahara. A great French general in the 1900s — believe his name was Lyantey — said, ‘ Africa, one defends oneself by moving,’ and at the time he was referring to the Sahara desert. Moving is what we need to do. The Tauregs will not allow us to remain untouched long. Most of those bodies out there are Taureg Bedouins.

  They’ll be back. Maybe not today or tonight, maybe not tomorrow, but once they realize help isn’t coming, they’ll be back. This is their land; their country, and to them, we are just one more in a long line of invaders.”

  “Professor, do you think any of them are out there now?” Lieutenant Nolan asked.

  “Past experiences by others with the Tauregs — at least, those who lived to tell about it — have shown they remain nearby. Oh, yes, they are out there. They are out there keeping tabs on us.”

  Bearcat Jordan pulled the chair back. “I’ve talked with Charlie. They’re hunkered down until you get there, Sergeant. As for what the professor is saying, I think that settles it, Lieutenant, Sergeant. By the time you return, Gunny, I’ll have a complete inventory of the food and water available.”

  “Water is more important than food,” Stapler added.

  “We may have to ration if we’re going to be here long or if we need to make a run for it. If it’s edible and drinkable, take it.”

  Bearcat patted his stomach. ‘“Wouldn’t do me a bit of harm to lose a few pounds.” He chuckled.

  “LT, I’m going to have the fire teams start breaking down and cleaning their weapons. One or two at a time.

  Don’t want clogged weapons, and with all this dust floating around out here, it is only a matter of time before it penetrates the mechanisms in our pieces.”

  “Don’t we run a risk doing that. Gunny?”

  “It’s a slight one, sir. We’ll have them alternate. One doing it while two others wait Corporal Heights reports no signs of anyone out there. If there are any snipers, they aren’t firing, and if there are any observers, then maybe we can make them move so that the observation lookout can spot them. This will keep them busy.”

  Stapler looked out the shattered window at the burning helicopters and nodded in that direction. “Eventually we are going to have to send out a recon team to find out what we have against us.”

  Lieutenant Nolan appeared to think about it a couple of minutes before answering. “Okay. Gunny, but make sure they know to take no chances, and if it begins to look like they’ve run into more than they can handle, they need to get back here as fast as possible.”

  “You won’t find anything out there, Lieutenant, Gunny Sergeant. The Tauregs are the true desert people.” Professor Walthers mused. “They know this land like you and I know the back of our hands. What you are going to find is nothing. They’re out there, but you’re not going to see them.”

  “Thanks, Professor. We appreciate your observations, and please feel free to keep offering them We still have to do what we have to do Having you will give us insight into the enemy,” Lieutenant Nolan replied.

  “When will you leave for Alpha site. Gunny?”

  “As soon as the sun drops over the horizon, Mr. Jordan.”

  “I’ll send Peter Karinsky with you. Pete knows the area well and has been here longer than most of us. I’ll feel better once I have all the riggers here. Alpha site is nothing buta small trailer with a few amenities for those stuck out there. Not like the Hi 1 ton here,” Bearcat said, smiling.

  This compound was anything but luxurious. Stapler presumed the rooms in the back of the trailer led off to sleeping accommodations, and from the size of the place, those bunks must be shoved right on top of each other.

  The Marine Corps’ open-bay barracks at Henderson Hall in Arlington had better facilities.

  Stapler found himself and the lieutenant standing alone as the others moved off. The professor stood near the door a few seconds, looking out, before he pushed it open and stepped into the late-afternoon sun.

  “Gunny,” Noland said in a soft voice, “don’t you think you’re being tough on the Marines? They’ve been through a lof in the past two hours… “

  Stapler nodded and tugged his earlobe a couple of times. “You’re right, Lieutenant. I am and they have. And, unless we want their minds to start dwelling on how near they came to dying and on their fellow Marines, whose bodies are still out there, some still inside the burning fifty-threes, we need to keep them busy. I want their minds focused on survival, not death.”

  Nolan took his helmet off and laid it on the table. He opened his mouth to say something, stopped, nodded twice, and said, “Carry on, Gunny I think you’re right.”

  “Lieutenant, we are going to have to talk with Homeplate and Base Butler. They need to understand the precarious nature of our situation and work out some rescue ideas.” He doubled the LT understood the full impact of their situation. “Though we’ve been talking about how we would move out if we had to, the best thing to do is remain right where we are until rescue arrives.”

  Bearcat Jordan thanked a rigger who had entered while the two were talking. As the rigger left the building, Bearcat strolled to where the two stood. “Heinrich is busy on the vehicles. Steve, our cook and supply person, is preparing a ready provisions inventory. Is there anything else we can do?”

  Lieutenant Nolan look
ed at Stapler, who shook his head. “No, sir, we are doing everything we can right now.” “Thanks, Mr. Jordan,” Lieutenant Nolan said. “I want you to know that we will get every one of us out of here.

  That’s what we came to do, and that is just what we will do.”

  “I hope so. I truly do, Lieutenant. I’d hate for us to discover firsthand if the stories are true about what the Tau regs do to captives who fall into their hands.”

  “No, Mr. Jordan, and neither do we.”

  What do they do to their captives? Stapler wondered, but he kept the question to himself. There are some things that you just don’t want to know.

  “Thanks, Mr. Jordan, and you could help us if you would speak to the professor and ask him to keep his young lady assistant away from my Marines,” Stapler added.

  He nodded. “I truly understand, Gunny Sergeant. But it won’t do any good. I think you’ll find neither me nor the professor have much influence on her. Miss. Forester is truly a woman of her own.”

  “I could probably use one word to sum her up,” Stapler said, tossing his cigarette through the broken window.

  Bearcat turned to Stapler as he turned toward the door and stuck his hand out. “Gunny Sergeant, sorry about how we met. I usually don’t fly off the handle like that. You Marines landed at the same time as they launched their attack.

  I bet you surprised the Tauregs as much as they surprised us.”

  Stapler shook the offered hand. “There’s been too many surprises today.” “Yeah, you’re right,” Bearcat Jordan said. He shook his head a couple of times as he hurried out of the office, leaving the two Marines alone.

  “What now, Gunny?”

  “I’ll go prepare for tonight’s trip to Alpha base.” He picked up the lieutenant’s helmet from the table and handed it to the young officer. “You’re doing good, sir.

  Keep telling yourself, ”re going to be all right.’ Two reasons: One, it’s true; two, we want it to be true; and three, our Marines are looking to us to make it true.”

  “That’s three, Gunny, not two.”

  “The Marines never said I had to know how to count.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Stapler spat the dust from his mouth just as the Humvee bounced over a crest in the road, causing him to bite his tongue. God, he hated this place, and he had been here less than twenty-four hours. He had sand in his hair, sand in his boots, sand inside his shirt, and even sand rubbing in his crotch. He reached inside the humvee and tugged the crotch of the pants down, trying to ease some of the discomfort. He rode standing in the center of the humvee, with his upper torso stuck out of the sunroof.

  He heard the voices of the riggers inside, but the noise outside of the humvee blurred their conversation.

  Before the vehicle headed back down the other side, Stapler saw the shadowy outline of the compound on the other side of the hill. That quick glimpse, at least, looked beautiful after ten kilometers of dust, potholes, and losing the road twice. Safety lay ahead. Starlight shone through the clear sky of the Sahara, providing sufficient light reflecting off the white sands to guide them. The moon would have been better, but it had set an hour after the sun disappeared over the horizon. Unfortunately, the road blended too well with the desert. The outline of the destroyed helicopters had been easily discernible against the sand for a brief moment before the convoy disappeared around the ridge and lost sight of the compound. Stapler did a quick estimate of the distance.

  He pulled himself down from the sunroof. “Another couple of miles, and we should be inside the compound.”

  he broadcast into the short-range radio each of the Marines carried. Called a brie;, the radios allowed them to communicate within a couple of miles. The line-of sight VHF/ UHF radios also served as rescue devices when needed, aircraft being able to pick (hem up at a much farther range.

  “These next couple of miles are not (he best. Gunny Sergeant.” said Charlie Grant, supervisor of Alpha site, after Stapler had received an acknowledgment from Lieutenant Nolan a((he compound and was tucking his brick back in its belt case. ‘ of potholes and drop-offs before we get in the bottom. Never know where they are; they shift all the time. We won’t have the light we have now once we enter (he ravine down (here. This slow, downward drive ends a(the base of some small hills that separate this side from where the compound is located.

  It’s a narrow passage through them. Normally, 1 would never drive in the Sahara at night. Don’t much like doing it during the day. One thing you learn early in the desert is to watch the winds. They can whip up without warning, shifting the sands continuously. One moment you know exactly where you arc, and the next … ” He snapped his fingers. “… (he whole scene changes, and you’re lost.

  We are lucky tonight with the wind. It seems to be asleep — like 1 wish I was’ The Alpha site supervisor pressed his face against the window. “T will feel better once we are inside the compound.”

  “Ah. Charlie, 1 know this road like the back of me hand.” said Darren Neil, the driver.

  “Darren, you’re Irish. You think you know everything like the back of your hand.”

  The humvee hit a hole in the road, tossing everyone up.

  Stapler bumped his head on the roof.

  “See, my fine fellow of a man. I even knew that hole was there.”

  Stapler figured it was safer with his body outside the humvee. He stuck his head out the sunroof and looked behind him. The other vehicle, an old Volvo flatbed truck similar to the one in the compound, bounced into the same hole. Both vehicles were driving with their lights out. He lifted his hand and waved. From over the top of the cab, Private Garfield waved back. Stapler had taken three Marines with him for the trip to Alpha site and one rigger to show them the way. Alpha site had two vehicles, one of which was this Volvo flatbed and the other, a small extended-cab Ford pickup. Stapler had nixed the idea of bringing the pickup. The gas required to drive it was more than the benefit they would get by using it. He had ripped the distributor cap off and stomped it until it broke so the enemy couldn’t use the pickup.

  He felt a tug on his pants leg and peered back inside.

  “Gunny Sergeant,” said Charlie. “Up ahead we have to go through a small, deep gap several hundred yards long before we come out on the other side.”

  “Thanks.” Stapler replied and stuck his head back out.

  He pulled his M-16 up beside him and thought about switching the safety off when they hit another series of holes, knocking him around the sunroof and nearly throwing him back into the interior of the humvee. He moved his finger off the safety. It would only take a fraction of a second for him to switch to full automatic.

  The blast blew the front of the humvee about six feet into the air before what was left of the front end slammed down into the crater. It hurled Stapler against the side of the sunroof, nearly causing him to drop his M-16, even as it knocked the breath from him. Sand, dust, and cursing filled the air.

  Stapler pulled himself out through the top. “Get out and find cover!”

  He rolled down the slanted top to the rear of the damaged vehicle and dropped flat on the ground. No gunfire.

  Maybe a mine, he set. it would only be minutes before the enemy showed if they heard the explosion. They couldn’t stay here long. Reload and move out.

  “Be careful!” he shouted. ‘ road is mined!”

  “Well, you can have if, me fine friend, if it’s going to keep blowing up like that,” Darren said from the side of the road where the wiry Irishman had braced himself with his back against the rock wall. Darren looked both ways before quickly leaning forward to push the door shut.

  Private Garfield rolled off the side of the flatbed and ran to Stapler, throwing himself down beside the Gunny Sergeant. “You all right. Gunny?”

  “Yeah. I’m okay. You?” he asked. Stapler grabbed the back bumper and pushed himself up. The pain from his rib near!) caused him to pass out. He Jet himself back down gradually.

  “Yeah. I’m fine, but are
you sure you are. Gunny””

  “Garfield, if I say I’m all right, then by God, I am all right,” Stapler replied through clenched teeth.

  “Well, since you are all right, Gunny, what in the hell do you want me to do?”’

  “The humvee is blocking the road, Garfield. and there is no way we can drive around it with the high banks on each side.” Stapler grabbed the back bumper of the humvee and pulled himself up. grimacing from the pain.

  It was not the first time he had cracked a rib. If the Marines had a dollar for every time one of them broke a rib in their line of work, the American treasury would be broke. He stood and straightened.

  Stapler noticed that those on the flatbed had abandoned it. The riggers pulled themselves up from the sides of the road when they saw Stapler stand.

  “What now. Gunny Sergeant?” asked Charlie.

  “Anyone hurt?”

  “No, just Darren’s feelings.”

  “It was such a beautiful angel, this hurnvee.” said Darren softly. He stayed with his back pressed against the rock wall.

  “We’re going to have to walk the last mile and a half.

  Grab your gear from inside, and he sure to bring the water.

  Garfield, same for your bunch. Then you and Jones take point about fifty yards in front. If you see anything, don’t be brave and engage, come back and get me. You understand?”

  “Yeah, Gunny,” Private Garfield replied and turned to go. “I am sure glad you are all right.”

  “Stow it, Garfield, you can kiss me later.” “Sure thing, Gunny,” Private Garfield said. He hurried back to the truck.

  “Gunny, we aren’t that far from the compound. We really don’t need to take the water and food. We have plenty there.” Charlie added.

  “We’ll take the water, Mr. Grant. A mile and a half can be a long march if we are pinned down or attacked. I’d feel better if we had water along with us.”

  “I think if they were going to attack, they would have by now, don’t you?”