Chapter 5
The Road Less Traveled
(continued)
April 19th, 1936, 15:34 pm…Industrial District, Hailar…
Major Li and his men stood to the left of the front loading doors, Cutter and his men were to the right. The two intersection teams were in place. Li could only hope the rear entry team was also in place. Li looked down at his watch, thirty seconds. The time ticked by slowly as men gripped and regripped sweat slick weapons. Finally the second hand hit twelve and Li nodded to Cutter. From Cutter’s side Benjie the “Nose” came forward and placed his hands inside the crack between the two doors and looked up at Li.
“Slowly”, Li whispered. Benjie nodded and started to pull back the right hand door. The door slid quietly open. Once there was enough space to accommodate two men, the teams started to slip into the warehouse. The teams spread out in front of the stack of crates. Once everyone was inside they stopped to let their eyes get accustomed to the gloom.
Li looked over at Cutter and whispered, “Your team right, I’ll go left.”
Cutter nodded and the teams moved out.
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Inside the fortified position, “Rear entry breached”, whispered one of the men facing the rear of the building.
“Affirmative, stand by detonator.”
“Affirmative, detonator ready.”
“Target”, said the sniper.
“Affirmative”
“Shot.”
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Major Li had just cleared the left hand end of the crates and saw the oddly stacked crates in the middle of the warehouse. He also saw the truck at the other end. There was light from that direction also, so he assumed the rear entry team was in. Suddenly Li heard the crack of a rifle and saw flame belch from the crates in the middle. He heard a scream and turned to see Cutter off to the right fall in a heap. From the rear of the building he heard a loud cracking explosion and was almost blinded by the light that emanated from it. Then, all hell broke loose. He heard the staccato roar of the submachine guns and the saw the winking flames stab towards his men.
“Cover!” he yelled as he dove back behind the crates. The roar of the machine guns seemed to go on forever as the crates above him disintegrated in a shower of splinters. He looked down the line of crates to see that Cutter’s team had made it safely behind the wall of wooden boxes. He saw Benjie dragging Cutter’s body behind the cover, then heard the man grunt as he reached down and slapped his calf as if swatting a mosquito. Li watched as red liquid poured from a gash across Benjie’s lower leg. He was obviously injured, but he did not drop Cutter as he finally made it behind the tenuous safety of the crates.
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“Target down!” yelled the sniper.
“Affirmative” replied the commander, barely heard over the chattering machine guns. The firing continued for a few more seconds. “Controlled bursts! Begin extraction by the numbers. One, go!”
The sniper ran in a crouch to the center of the fort and threw open a trap door. “One out” he said as he dropped through the hole.
“Two, Four, standby grenades”, said the commander as he reached down and pulled a grenade of his belt.
“Ready!” the two men who had been indicated said.
“Grenades!” The three men pulled the pins and hurled the grenades, two towards the front of the building, one towards the rear.
“Three, Five, standby grenades”, said the commander as he resumed controlled bursts into the upper row of crates.
“Ready”, replied the men.
“Grenades!” Two more grenades arced out of the fort, one to each end of the building. The two men brought up their weapons and resumed fire.
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“By Bhudda’s hairy balls!” yelled one of the men. “Are they ever going to run out of bullets?!” The top row of crates continued to shower them in splinter and debris, causing a few injuries, cuts, and abrasions.
Li had crawled over to Cutter who was moaning on the ground holding his shoulder.
“Are you alright?!” he yelled in Cutter’s ear.
“Shit, damn, son-of-a-bitch, I am going to kill some dog sucking son of a whore!”
Li looked at Benjie, who was wrapping a cloth around the wound to his leg, “Yep, he’s gonna live!” Benjie smiled.
Then he heard on of the men yell, “Grenades! They are throwing grenades! Get down!”
Son-of-a-bitch thought Li as he rolled himself up against the crates, bringing his knees into his chest. But instead of an explosion there were a number of muffled pops. Li slowly raised his head. “What the hell?”
The machine guns were still chattering away in short bursts. Li looked up towards the top of the crates to see smoke slowly billowing over.
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“Three, Five, go!” yelled the commander.
The two men turned and ran to the trap door. “Three out!” said one jumping into the hole. “Five out!” said the other as he too disappeared.
“Two, Four, go!” The process continued with the next two. The smoke from the grenades was filling the warehouse.
“Two out!”, “Four out”.
The commander fired a few more bursts in both directions and then moved to the hole. He stopped for a moment to listen to the now eerily quiet warehouse. All he could hear was the moan’s from both the front and rear of the building, and the clatter of wood as some of the crates up front fell apart. He smiled. It had been a good job.
“Until we meet again, Major Li.” He said. He then jumped down the hole, closing the trap door behind him.