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  ACTION

  AT

  KHES ANH

  •

  The Marine operating the M-60 machine gun was the first one to open fire and then all hell broke loose. Woods’s team had caught the overconfident NVA off guard. He pressed the push-to-talk switch and called for the air and artillery support before signaling for his men to withdraw. The jungle erupted in a bright fireball and a heat wave reached out between the thick vegetation.

  Woods yelled, “Back off a hundred meters!”

  The team broke contact and started running and fighting away from the NVA. Woods set the pace so that he wouldn’t lose anyone. Sanchez acted as rear guard along with the Marine carrying the M-60.

  Woods guessed the distance and stopped running. “All right!” he yelled. “Stand and fight!”

  Also by Donald E. Zlotnik

  Survivor of Nam: Baptism

  Survivor of Nam: P.O.W.

  Survivor of Nam: Court Martial*

  Published by

  POPULAR LIBRARY

  *forthcoming

  Copyright

  POPULAR LIBRARY EDITION

  Copyright © 1988 by Warner Books, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Popular Library® and the fanciful P design are registered trademarks of Warner Books, Inc.

  Popular Library books are published by

  Warner Books, Inc.

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  First eBook Edition: September 2009

  ISBN: 978-0-446-56679-7

  YO! DAVID!

  So how are you doing in the war zone? When are they going to wise up and make you a sergeant? They’re talking about promoting me, but I think between you and I, they only want to do that because they’re embarrassed that I’m a corporal and a “hero” of the Vietnam War. Can you believe that shit! They keep coming in here and telling me that I’m some kind of hero. I don’t think a day goes by where someone from the Pentagon doesn’t stop by my room and ask me questions about being a POW. What in the fuck do they think it was like, a fucking girl scout camp? I’m getting pissed off but I wish they would leave me alone. I could use seeing your ugly face. Man I need a friend…

  Spence

  Contents

  ACTION AT KHES ANH

  Also by Donald E. Zlotnik

  Copyright

  CHAPTER ONE: The Skull

  CHAPTER TWO: Five-Card Stud

  CHAPTER THREE: The Black Tiger

  CHAPTER FOUR: The Yardmaster

  CHAPTER FIVE: RECONDO Justice

  CHAPTER SIX: The San Francisco Gull

  CHAPTER SEVEN: Shakedown Mission

  CHAPTER EIGHT: War!

  CHAPTER NINE: Night Escape!

  Epilogue

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Skull

  The wasp flew down close to the various forms of thick vegetation that covered the jungle floor, instinctively knowing what she was hunting for under the large dead leaves on the ground and under the loose bark of the fallen trees. She landed frequently and raced over the matted flora, stopping frequently to probe into every dark nook and cranny that could possibly be a hiding place for the prey the powerful force within her body was demanding she find.

  The spider made a small mistake by clicking his mandible nervously when he looked up and saw the hunting wasp fly over his camouflaged hunting blind. He had never seen a spider wasp before, but he knew she was an enemy who would have to be fought to the death.

  She landed softly only a few inches in front of the hiding arachnid and folded her wings lengthwise over her back. A constant movement played over her body as she sized up her prey. She moved from position to position in front of the spider, looking for an opening where she could attack. The spider was used to being the hunter, not the hunted. He moved back under the large leaf he was using as a day shelter, trying to get out of sight of the irritating creature darting around in front of him.

  The disappearance of her selected prey forced the hunting Pompilidae wasp to venture into the dark recess, bringing an instant reaction from the giant ground spider. He attacked. She moved with a speed faster than the human eye could follow and darted back out into the open, followed closely by the attacking spider.

  The wasp reacted entirely on the instincts that had been bred into her species over millions of years of evolution. She waited until the spider raised his two front legs, exposing his mouth parts and the soft underbelly between his legs. She darted forward and flipped her stinger into the spider’s unprotected abdomen. The effect of her paralytic poison was instantaneous. The giant spider was still alive but unable to move.

  The wasp took a few seconds to clean herself and then started looking around the immediate area for a place to dig a burrow. A beam of light filtered down through the trees, flashing off a nearby white object, and the wasp ran over the ground until she reached the bleached object that had been wedged tightly between the surface roots of a giant mahogany tree. She crawled in through one of the circular openings, dropped down to the dry earth, and began digging in the loose soil, throwing dirt out between her rear feet in a frenzy until the burrow was large enough to hold the spider she had just paralyzed. She had wasted no effort; the hole was exactly the right width and depth.

  The giant ground spider lay on the matted, decomposing vegetation with his legs curled up tightly against his hairy abdomen. He could see clearly and his internal organs functioned perfectly; only his motor muscles failed to respond to his commands. He saw the black creature scurrying over the ground toward him with her iridescent, blue black wings flickering as if to state that flying was her true means of transportation but she could run better than most insects.

  She reached her prey and started dragging him toward the freshly dug burrow. The effort on her part was total as she struggled to pull the much larger creature along the ground. She used her legs and wings in the task, and slowly the paralyzed spider started moving over the earth. There was no doubt that she could drag the spider over to the hole and wedge him inside; she had calculated everything before she had attacked him.

  The wasp gave the spider one final shove and was satisfied that it was wedged safely in the burrow. She exited the hole, turned, and immediately backed down into the tunnel until she touched the spider with the rear of her abdomen. She laid a single white egg in the paralyzed ground hunter’s soft underbelly and left the burrow. The task of sealing the nest was quickly accomplished, and she paused for only a second on the edge of the skull’s right eye socket to check one last time that the burrow was well camouflaged before taking off to find another spider for her next egg.

  The spider lay in the dark burrow, still alive but paralyzed. He had no conception of time, nor did he have the ability to reflect on what had happened to him and the destiny that awaited him when the twitching larva would awake and start feeding off his living body. If he had been human, the situation he was in would have driven him insane, but he wasn’t human, he was a giant ground spider and he was hungry and angry because he couldn’t hunt.

  The Marine AMTRACK billowed a solid column of black smoke straight up in the air until the sea breeze caught it and spread the particles of unburnt diesel and carbon out over the sand. The Marine lance corporal driving the large personnel carrier moved it forward a hundred meters on the beach, braked it, and rested his helmet against the steel opening of his driver’s compartment as he watched the engineer mine-clearing team sweep the beach ahead of him.

  “How fucking much farther do we have to go!” The Marine engineer private removed one of the earphones to his mine detector so he could hear his sergeant.

  “Another mile up the b
each until we reach the Army Support Command…” The sergeant wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hairy hand.

  “Why can’t those Army creeps clear their own fucking beaches!” The Marine private had a legitimate gripe. The Marine combat unit was only temporarily assigned to Qui Nhon until it could be resupplied and reequipped for an upcoming major operation on the Khe Sanh plateau near the Laotian border.

  “Stop your bitching and look at it as a chance to test your equipment before we get in the real shit up at Khe Sanh.” The Marine gunnery sergeant pulled his cap down over his eyes to block some of the glare from the early morning sun and looked back at the squad that had taken refuge on the shady side of the AMTRACK. He reached into the pocket of his chicken plate and removed his cigarettes. He tapped the fresh package of smokes against the ceramic armored vest he was wearing before opening it and removing one of the cigarettes. He wanted to go back by the AMTRACK and get out of the sun, but a Marine sergeant did not stand in the shade when he had even one of his Marines suffering out in the hot sun.

  “Look at this!” The engineer who had been walking nearest to the shoreline paused and pointed down at a white, sea-scrubbed skull. The human cranium, complete with its lower jaw, was located exactly at the high tide line on the beach. “A VC souvenir!” The Marine lance corporal leaned over to pick up the skull.

  The gunnery sergeant heard the engineer yell out to his friend and casually looked over to see what had caught the men’s attention. He saw the skull, but he also saw that the skull was placed about seven inches above the high tide line. “STOP! DON’T MOVE!” The gunnery sergeant dropped his freshly lit cigarette on the sand, stepped into the engineer’s footprints that he had been walking parallel to, and gingerly placed his feet exactly inside the pattern. The Marines leaning up against the AMTRACK immediately burst into action. One of them jumped up and manned the M-60 machine gun mounted on top of the fighting vehicle, while the rest of the squad took up fighting positions around the huge machine. The Marines hadn’t been so relaxed that they were derelict. They were walking a hundred meters out in front of a barbed-wire perimeter that was manned by Army personnel.

  “What the fuck is going on, Gunny?” The engineer pulled his earphones down around his neck and looked slowly from side to side. He had frozen in his tracks, obeying his sergeant.

  “Just stay where you are until I check out that skull…” The NCO had reached the Marine closest to the object and beckoned with his arm for the remaining engineer to come over to where they were standing. “Sweep with your mine detector as you work your way over here!” He tapped the engineer standing inches in front of him. “Put on your headset and sweep the area around us … and do a damn good job!”

  The engineer nodded and replaced his headset. A dull hum filled his ears. He adjusted the volume on his hand-held detector and slowly moved it from side to side. He checked the area around the skull twice and then looked over at the gunnery sergeant. “NOTHING, SERGEANT!” He thought that he was speaking in a normal tone of voice, but with the headset on, he was yelling.

  “Check the area directly under the skull!” The sergeant pointed and the engineer obeyed.

  “Holy fuck! It’s hot!” The engineer kept his mine detector directly over the skull and nodded his head. “There’s something under it!”

  The gunnery sergeant had served in Korea during the war and was well aware of the different types of communist land mines available. He spoke in a very calm voice, realizing the young Marine nearest to the skull was on the verge of panicking. “Easy, move real easy … There’s nothing to be afraid of…” He motioned for the AMTRACK to remain where it was and then pointed over at the other member of the mine-clearing team. “You stay there! Sweep the area around you and then lie down flat on your stomach!”

  The young Marine obeyed his gunnery sergeant without questioning his motivation.

  “Now…” He directed his attention back to the Marine standing by the skull. “You take your time and sweep the area surrounding the skull … I want you to listen hard for even the slightest sound of metal. We’re looking for a wire … a very thin wire that should be only an inch or less under the sand…”

  The young Marine started moving the square-shaped sensor head on the wand he was holding slowly over the sand around the skull. He reached behind him and adjusted the sensitivity of the battery-operated detector to its maximum level.

  The gunnery sergeant removed his chicken-plate armored vest and gently laid it on the sand behind him. He wanted to have as much flexibility as he could when he lowered himself down on his hands and knees in front of the grinning skull.

  The Marine engineer lying on the warm sand fifty meters away from them pulled his steel helmet down low over his eyes and watched the sergeant stretch out on the sand. He could see that the senior NCO had removed his K-Bar knife from its sheath and was gently probing the loose sand around the skull.

  “What do you think … Sergeant?” The Marine holding the functioning mine detector could feel the sweat dripping off his chin. He looked down and saw the wet spot growing larger on the sand in front of him. “This is some shit … not like it was back in training…”

  “You’re wrong there, Marine!” The gunny spoke as he probed the sand. “It’s exactly like it was back in training … Watch me and you might learn something!” The NCO pushed the blade into the loose sand under the edge of the skull that would have been the side containing the person’s right ear. He stopped. “Found it…” The voice revealed only the slightest hint of nervousness. He knew that he could not panic even a little bit, especially with the lives of his men at stake. He removed the knife and used the blade to carefully shove the sand aside layer by layer until he could see the dark green color of the antipersonnel mine.

  “Is that it?” The young Marine’s eyes grew larger as more and more of the round canister was revealed.

  “Yup … basic commie shit … I defused hundreds of these in Korea…” Confidence filled the old NCO’s voice. He located the firing mechanism and, using only the sharp tip of his knife, he cleaned away the fine grains of sand until he located the tiny hole where the safety pin had been. The NCO reached back into his rear pocket, removed a small piece of stiff wire, and slipped it through the hole, disarming the mine. “See … easy … just like back in training…”

  “Yeah … easy shit!” The young Marine let out his breath before he even realized he had been holding it.

  “Here…” The gunnery sergeant rolled over on his side and tossed the skull up to the engineer. “Your souvenir!”

  The engineer caught the skull with his free hand and took a half-step backward to maintain his balance. The NCO remained lying on the sand and dropped his cheek down against the fine grains; they stuck to the side of his face with his sweat acting like a temporary glue. He closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath before opening them again. He focused on the small, almost indistinguishable metal prong under the tip of the engineer’s boot. He knew instantly what he was looking at: a bouncing betty antipersonnel mine. The mine was designed to pop about two feet in the air when it was tripped and explode about nuts high. He blinked, trying to clear his vision, but the prong was still there. He looked up and saw the young Marine admiring the blazing white skull.

  “Don’t move … not an inch!” The command presence in the sergeant’s voice froze the Marine. “You are standing on a mine.”

  “Oh shit!” Fear sprang instantly over the man’s face. “Oh shit, Sarge!”

  “What in the fuck is your problem, kid!” The NCO remained lying on his side and scanned the sand as far as he could see for any more of the tiny, three-pronged heads. He knew that he would have to risk detonating a hidden mine to reach the Marine. “You just saw me deactivate one mine. The one you’re standing on is a pressure-release type … remember those from your training?”

  The youth nodded his head.

  “Good! This is easy stuff … just don’t move, and keep the pressure o
n your toes.” The NCO raised himself to his hands and knees and then stood up slowly to take the single step over to where the Marine stood. He lowered himself down again and used his K-Bar as he had done earlier until he reached the safety-pin hole. The bouncing betty was a small tin-can-sized mine with a six-inch shaft on top that had a three-pronged firing device. The mine was buried down in the sand with only the tips of the prongs showing.

  “I’ll have you out of here in a minute!” The NCO reached back in his pocket and removed another piece of hard wire. He disarmed the mine and smiled. “You’re free to step back … but step in one of your own footprints!”

  The engineer closed his eyes and raised his foot, expecting to be blown to pieces. Nothing happened.

  A gull screamed.

  “Fuck! I damn near pissed my pants!” The Marine looked up at the circling gull.

  The gunnery sergeant stood up and slipped his arm over the Marine private’s shoulder. “If you won’t tell them, neither will I … but that damn gull nearly got me to piss my pants too!”

  The infantry squad leader called out to his men to return to the AMTRACK when he saw the gunnery sergeant returning with his two engineers. He waited until the trio was close enough to the fighting vehicle so he wouldn’t have to yell before speaking. “What’s going on out there?”

  “The VC must have slipped into shore last night and booby-trapped a skull.” He nodded his head at the skull the Marine engineer held in his hand.

  “Fucking nice!” The infantry sergeant smiled. “That would look good on my AMTRACK.”

  The engineer looked over at his gunny and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t care.”

  “We’ll give it to you for three cases of cold beer.” The engineer NCO wasn’t about to give the trophy away for nothing.

  “Come on! Two cases … one cold and one warm.” The infantry sergeant knew as well as the engineer did that cold beer was very hard to come by.