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"The locals know it's safe to go there during an air raid. The street might be blocked by the time we get out of here."
"Roger, we'll go with the secondary route. Did everybody get that? On the way out we're switching to the secondary route."
The drivers all confirmed that they'd received the order and the group pressed on. The explosions started occurring closer by the second and Rapp briefly wondered if they'd all lost their minds to volunteer for this operation. He'd specifically asked that the bombing start minutes after they'd arrived at the hospital, not before. His greatest fear was that the underground facility would go through a standard lockdown procedure when the bombing started.
They made one last turn, all three vehicles skidding around the corner. The side entrance to the hospital was up ahead on the left and the street was empty. Rapp didn't know if this was a good sign or a bad one. The cars skidded to a halt and twelve doors instantly flew open. Each man had a job. In the backseat of the first and third vehicles Delta operators popped up through the sunroofs and set up their Heckler & Koch 7.62-mm machine guns on tripods. The heavy weapons would eviscerate anything short of an armored personnel carrier, and if one of those or. God forbid, a tank showed up, they had three LAW 80 antitank guided missiles. The three drivers stood next to their vehicles, leaving the engines running. Each carried an M4A1 carbine with an advanced combat optical gun sight, and an M203 40-mm grenade launcher affixed under the barrel grip. The driver from the middle car would cover the door after the entry team we
nt in.
The remaining seven Delta operators and Rapp moved quickly toward the door. Each man with the exception of Rapp carried a Heckler & Koch MP10 suppressed submachine gun. The weapons were silent 9-mm close-quarter killing machines. They were the best weapon available for the job, and if not for Rapp, they would have been left behind. The original plan had been to use AK-74's and AKSU's, the standard weapons of the Special Republican Guard, but Rapp had intervened, explaining that Uday was a gun nut and the men on his personal detail carried the best weapons money could buy.
The Delta operators and Rapp moved toward the nondescript metal door enmasse. None of them knew what to expect on the other side. The lead man shoved open the door just as an earthshaking explosion occurred from a bomb strike nearby.
The Iraqi soldier standing in the small room had a wall phone to his ear and a machine gun slung over his shoulder. His eyes were wide open with fear from either the explosion or the sudden arrival of the Special Republican Guard unit.
Whichever the case, Rapp did not wait around to find out. Remembering his words to the Delta operators, Rapp pushed his way through the men, limping like Uday Hussein would, and in Arabic yelled, "Hang up the phone!"
The man mumbled something quickly into the phone and nervously placed it in its cradle. Snapping to attention, he saluted Rapp and said, "General Hussein, we are under attack by the Americans. We must get you down to the shelter."
"I know we are under attack, you idiot! That is why I'm here. Take me to the bombs." Without hesitation the guard turned and inserted a key into a riveted steel door. He yanked it open and gestured for the man he thought to be Uday Hussein to enter. Rapp did so and stepped into a slightly larger room. The guard nervously inserted another key into a box on the wall. Two heavy doors slid back to reveal a large freight elevator. Everyone piled in and the guard pressed one of two buttons.
Rapp asked, "Is Dr. Lee here?"
The guard would not look Rapp in the eyes. "I'm sorry, General Hussein?"
"The Korean," he yelled.
"Yes, I think so," the man answered nervously.
"Who were you on the phone with when I arrived?"
"Headquarters, General."
"Why?"
"They are sending more men over just in case."
The Delta operators on the street could not hear what the Iraqi soldier was saying, so Rapp said, "Headquarters is sending men! Those idiots! All they'll do is attract attention to this place."
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Two guards were waiting for them. Both were at attention with their rifles at port, standing one on each side of a huge blast door. The guard who had ridden down with them asked, "I can call headquarters, General, and tell them not to send the men."
"Yes, do that!" Rapp yelled. He continued forward, marching with his fake limp through the blast door into a cavernous room, at least 100 feet by 300 feet, with twenty-foot ceilings.
Major Berg appeared at Rapp's side and in Arabic whispered, "Cameras."
Rapp looked up and in one sweep found four of them. He pulled the major close and said, "Deploy your men. Leave two of them here to take care of the guards." Rapp heard a loud humming noise and turned to see the large blast door moving.
"Stop!" screamed Rapp. "I gave no order to close that door!"
The guard at the wall smacked a red button with the palm of his hand and snapped to attention. Rapp barked at him, "Call headquarters and tell them I'm going to cut the balls off of the idiot who decided to draw attention to this place!"
The guard ran for the nearest phone and snatched the handset from its cradle. Rapp looked the length of the chamber and spotted a clean room against the far wall. Inside the glass-walled, environmentally controlled room he could see several people in white lab coats and hair nets. Rapp set out for the room with Major Berg and four of the operators. Rapp burst into the room and looked at the five Korean men covered from head to toe in surgical garb. "Dr. Lee!"
One of the men came toward them waving his arms. Rapp assumed it was Dr. Lee. In heavily accented English he said, "No no you can't come in here dressed like that."
Rapp drew one of the nickel-plated.45's, cocked the hammer, pointed it at the doctor's head and screamed, "No one tells me what to do!"
The scientist stopped in his tracks and lowered his head. "I'm sorry."
