Where had they gone... and why?

Cautiously, Kurebayashi rose, half expecting a sniper's shot from some darkened section of the bridge to slam him down, but no shot came. "Tsuite koi!" he called to the men crouched in the darkness around him. "Follow me!" When no one responded, he shifted to one of his fragments of badly accented Farsi. "Akabeh man biaweed!"

He started forward, his AKM thrusting ahead as he moved. Often, he'd been taught at the training camps in Syria and Libya, heroism in battle consisted of nothing more than keeping your wits about you when it counted and in acting when others about you were reacting. At first, none of the Pasdaran hiding in the shadows moved, but as he continued his lone march toward the Yuduki Maru's superstructure, others, first singly, then in small groups, began following. "Isoge!" he snapped, lapsing back into Japanese as he broke into a run. "Hurry!"

2333 hours (Zulu +3)

Port-side catwalk

Freighter Yuduki Maru

The rescued hostage was less than eager to maintain the SEALs' rapid pace, and twice Murdock had to tell Ellsworth to snap it up, to make the man hurry. He'd sent Magic Brown on ahead to flush any would-be ambushers, and ordered Roselli to bring up the rear, protecting their flanks from the Iranian and terrorist gunmen sure to be close on their heels. He stayed with Doc and the prisoner, pushing aft along the open walkway between Yuduki Maru's superstructure and the side of the ship.

When Brown reached the fantail, Murdock gestured Doc and the hostage on, then doubled back to join Roselli. "Anything?" he asked the lanky SEAL.

"They're on our tail, Lieutenant," Roselli replied. "At least ten of 'em."

"Let's discourage them until the others get away."

"A pleasure." Crouched against the superstructure, Roselli raised his H&K, aiming into the darkness forward. Murdock stood behind, aiming over the other SEAL's head. Shadows moved against the darkness.

"Now!" Murdock rasped, and he squeezed the trigger, loosing a hissing, full-auto burst at the half-glimpsed attackers. A shrill cry wailed from the forward deck. Gunfire barked and flashed in reply, and a bullet howled off steel a foot above Murdock's head.

"Shit, we're gonna get murdered here!" Roselli said.

"Just so they don't murder our guys in the water. Keep firing!"

He spent the last of his magazine, dropped the empty, and slapped in a new one, his last full mag. Thirty rounds... and then he'd be down to pistol and knife. He threw the selector switch to semi-auto.

A scream echoed from astern. Looking back over his shoulder, Murdock glimpsed one of the Japanese hostages flying through the air and into the phosphorescent glow of the ship's wake. Apparently, Doc had been forced to convince the guy to abandon ship; a black shadow followed the crewman — Doc — in a perfect dive twenty feet into the sea below.

"Skipper!" Brown's voice sounded in his earphone. "We're in!"

"Our side's wet too," MacKenzie added. "You guys want to stay aboard and play with your new friends by yourselves?"

"Cast off!" Murdock replied. "Razor and me're right behind you!

He snapped off several quick shots against targets felt more than seen. Murdock could almost feel the irresistible tug of the sea. From the beginning, SEAL training emphasizes that the sea is the SEAL's home, his advantage, his place of refuge, the place to go where the enemy cannot follow. "Okay, Razor," he called. "Over the side!"

"Right, Skipper! I'm — shit!" The deck lurched beneath their feet before Razor could finish the reply, and a dull, two-part ba-BOOM thundered in the night astern of the Yuduki Maru. Turning and staring aft, Murdock could just make out something like a vast wall of white spray, a geyser made dimly luminous by the faint luminosity of the sea itself, rising against the night.

"What in Jesus' name was that?" Roselli asked, his voice betraying his awe.

"Offhand," Murdock said, "I'd say it's that Iranian Kilo."

A second explosion thundered out of the darkness, accompanying a second towering geyser.

"Mat'll hold our playmates' attention for a bit," Murdock said. "Let's go!"

Together, they took three swift, running steps across the deck, catapulted over the railing, and dove head-first into the sea.

Monday, 23 May

1345 hours (Zulu -5)

NAVSPECWARGRU-Two Briefing Room

Little Creek, Virginia

"Once the order was given to abort Sun Hammer," Captain Coburn said, addressing the other officers in the room from the podium at the head of the table, "our people returned to their boats in the water and cut loose from the freighter. Lieutenant Murdock reported some shots fired from the ship's deck, but that the hostiles probably couldn't see much, if anything, on the dark water. Both CRRCs drew away from the Yuduki Maru, lowered a sonar transponder into the water, and awaited pickup by the attack sub Santa Fe."

Captain Paul Mason shifted uncomfortably against the hard wooden seat of his chair. His back was hurting badly already, and the session had just begun.

Most of the senior officers in the NAVSPECWARGRU-Two community were present for the briefing, along with Brian Hadley — the CIA spook from the National Security Council — and Kerrigan and his MIDEASTFOR staff. Kerrigan, Mason thought, would be sure to take the opportunity to scold the SEAL command for its failure yesterday, but it was clear that the SEALs were going to have a further part to play in this drama. Otherwise, Kerrigan would never have bothered calling them all together again to keep them up to speed on events in the Indian Ocean.

"At approximately the same time," Coburn continued, "at 2335 hours, the Iranian attack sub Islamic Revolution was destroyed by two wire-guided torpedoes launched some four minutes earlier by the U.S.S. Newport News. Our attack subs in the area had detected the Islamic Revolution closing on the Yuduki Maru. It is possible that the Iranians detected our operation, possibly by picking up the noises made by our SEALs while they were in the water." Coburn glanced up from his podium notes at Admiral Kerrigan. "The decision to sink the Islamic Revolution was made when the Newport News picked up the sounds of her outer torpedo doors opening, presumably in preparation for an attack against the Yuduki Maru. The attack was authorized by Vice Admiral Winston, CO-MIDEASTFOR, in Naples, after consultation with the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs.

"As for SEAL Seven, the Hormuz Assault Team remained aboard the Iranian oiler until relieved by U.S. Marines flown in by helicopter off the U.S.S. Nassau. They returned by helo to the Nassau, where they are now. The Yuduki Maru Assault Team transferred to a Navy helicopter from the deck of the Santa Fe early this morning and were flown to the Nassau. With them were those two Japanese crewmen, who were flown to the Nassau, where they could be immediately debriefed by our intelligence people.

"So our current force disposition has all of our SEALs back aboard the Nassau, with II MEF. Their current position is some ninety miles off Ras Asir — that's the northeastern tip of Somalia, the Horn of Africa. The Hormuz and her crew are under Marine control and are heading north toward Socotra at nine knots. The Yuduki Maru, of course, remains in Iranian hands." He glanced at the faces of the men around the room, then nodded to Admiral Kerrigan. "Admiral?"

Kerrigan smiled as he took his place at the briefing room podium. He looked, Mason thought, like the proverbial cat that had eaten the proverbial canary, fat, sleek, and contemptuously pleased with himself. SEAL Seven's failure yesterday had let him score big in his campaign against Navy Special Warfare.