CARL, switch out the drones,” said Imri, reaching his hand out the front door.
“Swapping drones,” replied Liora.
Yaron had snatched up Nir’s gear, and Nir was strapping on his plate carrier when he saw the first drone shoot up into the sky. Moments later, the second landed on Imri’s hand. He immediately popped open the back and swapped out a battery. He then stowed both the drone and the old battery into his tactical vest.
“Help us with this,” called out Stavro. Nir turned and saw Dima and Gil racing toward the kitchen, where Stavro and Farzat had pushed aside the refrigerator. There were four handles imbedded in the cement floor. The two 504 men grabbed one set, lifting the heavy block up and to the side. Dima and Gil did the same with the other.
“Okay, everyone down. Now!” Farzat was waving Nir and Yaron over.
As Nir ran, he pulled out a small black case from his vest. Slapping Yaron on the back, he said, “Give me your backup coms.”
When he reached the 504 guys, he passed the cases to them. “Coms,” was all he said.
Both nodded as they hurried the men into the hole. Nir saw them opening the cases and placing the units into their ears as he took hold of the rebar ladder. He climbed three rungs down before he jumped the final couple meters to the ground. Dima, Imri, and Gil were waiting. Yaron followed Nir, trailed by Stavro and Farzat.
“How do we close the hole?” asked Nir.
“We don’t. There’s no time. Besides, it’s Hezbollah. They’ll shoot the house to tiny chunks before they breach the front door. They love to fire the big guns.”
“The trucks have stopped out front,” announced Nicole, who had apparently taken lead on coms. “You’ve got to get out back now.”
“We’re in a tunnel under the house,” answered Nir.
“Gotta love me some 504.” Sounded like Efraim was in the room listening in.
Nicole spoke up again. “Then you better follow the tunnel as far as it will go, because they’re charging up their Brownings.”
“I love a girl who knows her guns,” said Farzat. Nir could barely see him grinning in the faint light. “Okay, follow me.”
They ran, hunched over, under the ground. Nir focused on the back of Imri in front of him as the light faded to darkness. Through the hole in the kitchen, they heard a voice from outside the house call in Arabic, “Come out, Israelis! We know you are there! You have ten seconds!”
Suddenly, Imri stopped. Nir ran into his back, and Yaron plowed into Nir.
“Why’d we stop?” Nir called out in the black.
“The tunnel ended,” answered Imri.
Nir was dumbfounded. “That’s it? This is as far as we can go?”
“What can I say? We’re not Gazan rats who spend their whole lives shoveling underground. We dug this just so we could get out of the house in case of an emergency. An emergency kind of like this,” Farzat answered.
In the background, they could faintly hear the countdown reaching its end. The Brownings opened up. Even underground, the blast of the rounds and the power of the strikes rattled the brain.
“We’ll wait here until they either get bored or run out of ammunition,” Farzat yelled at Nir over the din.
“Where are we?”
“We are about ten meters beyond the back wall.”
Nir tried to picture it. From what he remembered, it didn’t look good.
“Ten meters? That’s it?”
“It was a work in progress.”
Nir pulled a small flashlight from his vest and turned it on. Imbedded into the dirt ahead of them was a rebar ladder. “If this tunnel is a work in progress, then why is this here?”
Farzat shrugged. “Our progress ended about three years ago.”
The shooting began to let up, but then started up again.
Just changing belts, thought Nir. Farzat had turned to Gil, so Nir shook his arm to get his attention.
“When they stop shooting, they’re going to start exploring. And when they start exploring, they’re going to find this tunnel. How do we get out of here without being seen? I’m guessing by now the house is crumbling and the compound’s rear wall is in ruins.”
“Don’t worry, achi. Escape will be easy. We just need to kill them all, then take their trucks.”
Before Nir had a chance to question the man’s sanity, Farzat held up a finger.
“Stavro, let’s introduce them to our little friends.”
Turning, Nir saw the other 504 man slide open a wide metal door that covered the top half of the tunnel wall. He had no idea it was there because he had already gone past it by the time he had turned on his light. From within the built-in cabinet Stavro pulled out an M16 rifle with an M203 grenade launcher attached to the underside of its barrel.
“Pass it up,” the 504 man said, handing it to Yaron. The gun made its way into Farzat’s hands. It was followed up by a bag that Nir could see held 40mm grenades, and finally, a pouch that felt heavy enough to contain nine or ten full 5.56x45mm 20-round magazines.
“They’ve paused the Brownings. Now they’re sending an eight-man scout team toward the house,” said Nicole.
“Remember, everyone, our goal is to blow them up without blowing up their trucks,” said Stavro with a wide smile.
Okay, I knew it before, and this has only confirmed my suspicions. These 504 dudes are kinda nuts.
“Sweetheart, let us know when they’re in the house,” Farzat said. Nir knew that his words had likely grated on Nicole, but all credit to her—she let it go. The 504 man continued, “Now, before you think we’re total idiots, there is a berm just outside this hole. It should give us enough cover to roll out and set up. Once we’re ready, we’ll fire the first grenades. Then you guys let them have it. But, remember, like Stavro said, we’re trying to keep at least one truck drivable!”
“They’re stacked in formation and about to enter the front door,” said Nicole.
Farzat pushed hard on the ceiling above him. A thin beam of sunlight broke through the darkness of the tunnel. He pushed again, then slid the covering to the side.
“Okay, going out,” he said, pulling himself up, then crawling to his right.
By the time Nir pulled himself into the light, he saw that the 504 men really had chosen their exit location well. The berm gave them good cover against both sight line and any rounds sent their way.
Suddenly, there was shouting from the house.
“Apparently, they spotted the tunnel,” said Farzat. He fired off his grenade—foomp. Nir heard a second foomp from the other end of their line. Moments later, the projectiles exploded in the house.
It was great to go after the house, but for Nir it was the guys in the back of the trucks who were of the greatest concern. They were the ones who had the better sight lines and the bigger guns. “Gil, Imri, technical gunner right. Yaron, Dima, technical gunner left.” Four shots rang out, and the men manning the large machine guns dropped to the ground. “Fire at will,” Nir said.
Another two grenades dropped in the house. Screams carried across the open space.
“CARL, sitrep,” he said.
“I can still see movement in the house where the ceiling has collapsed, but don’t know how many. Everyone on the trucks is down, but I can’t see what’s happening behind them,” Nicole answered.
Nir heard a bullet whistle past his head, and then another. He ducked down.
“Farzat, Stavro, keep pumping the grenades into the house. Everyone else, focus on the ones around the trucks. We’ve got to shut down their fire.”
“Root,” came the answers. Rising up just far enough to take aim, Nir sighted a gunner firing over the hood of one of the trucks. Nir pulled his trigger and saw the windshield next to the guy spiderweb. The man dropped down.
Patience…patience…wait the guy out.
The muzzle of the man’s rifle peeked over the hood, followed by his head. Once again, Nir pulled the trigger. This time he didn’t miss. Scanning the scene, he saw that the targets by the truck now appeared to be minimal. It was time to deal with the house.