Without remorse - Tom Clancy [267]
It was hard to pick it out through the rain: a distant rumble, low and tenuous, but it didn't fade. It grew in intensity. Kelly lifted his head from the eyepieces, turning, his mouth open, trying to figure it out.
Motors.
Truck motors. Well, okay, there was a road not too far away - no, the maim road is too far... other direction.
A supply truck maybe. Delivering food and mail.
More than one.
Kelly moved to the top of the hill, leaning against a tree, looking down to where this spur of a dirt road reached out to the one that traced the north bank of the river. Movement. He put the glasses on it.
Truck ... two ... three... four ... oh, my God...
They had lights on - just slits, the headlights taped over. That meant military trucks. The lights of the second gave some illumination to the first. People in the back, lined on both sides.
Soldiers.
Wait, Johnnie-boy, don't panic. Take your time ... maybe...
They turned around the base of Snake Hill. A guard in one of the towers shouted something. The call was relayed. Lights came on in the officers' quarters. Somebody came out, probably the Major, not dressed, shouting a question.
The first truck stopped at the gate. A man got out and roared for somebody to open it. The other truck stopped behind it. Soldiers dismounted. Kelly counted ... ten … twenty ... thirty ... more ... but it wasn't the number. It was what they started to do.
He had to look away. What more would fate take away from him? Why not just take his life and be done with it? But it wasn't just his life that fate was interested in. It never was. He was responsible, as always, for more than that. Kelly reached for his radio and flipped it on.
'cricket, this is snake, over.'
Nothing.
'cricket, this is snake, over.'
'What gives?' Podulski asked.
Maxwell took the microphone. 'snake, this is cricket actual, what is your message, over?'
'Abort abort abort - acknowledge,' was what they all heard.
'Say again snake. Say again.'
'Abort the mission,' Kelly said, too loudly for his own safety. 'Abort abort abort. Acknowledge immediately.'
It took a few seconds. 'We copy your order to abort. Acknowledged. Mission aborted. Stand by.'
'Roger, standing by.'
'What is it?' Major Vinh asked.
'We have information that the Americans may try to raid your camp,' the Captain replied, looking back at his men. They were deploying skillfully, half heading for trees, the other half taking positions inside the perimeter, digging in as soon as they picked their places. 'Comrade Major, I am ordered to take charge of the defense until more units arrive. You are ordered to take your Russian guest to Hanoi for safety.'
'But -'
'The orders come from General Giap himself, Comrade Major.' Which settled matters very quickly indeed. Vinh went back to his quarters to dress. His camp sergeant went to awaken his driver. '
* * *
Kelly could do nothing more than watch. Forty-five, maybe more. It was hard to count them as they moved. Teams digging machine gun pits. Patrol elements in the woods. That was an immediate danger to him, but he waited even so. He had to be sure that he'd done the right thing, that he hadn't panicked, hadn't been a sudden coward.
Twenty-five against fifty, with surprise and a plan, not hard. Twenty-five against a hundred, without surprise ... hopeless. He'd done the right thing. There was no reason to add twenty-five more bodies to the ledger sheet that they kept in Washington. His conscience didn't have room for that kind of mistake or for those kinds of lives.
'Helos coming back, sir, same way they went in,' the radar operator