The Rat Patrol 4 - Two-Faced Enemy by David King Read Free Book Online Page B

again when Tully and he went to the sand once more. He could hear the sound of voices plainly now, the granting singsong of the Arabs and the guttural noises of the truck driver and the Jerry officer, neither of whom he could see. The sands ran with the churning sound of the halftrack treads and he could hear the heavy breathing of the truck motor.
    "This is it," he whispered to Tully as he saw Moffitt and Flitch separating and running toward the halftrack.
    A burst of machine gun fire rattled in the night as Tully and he dashed for the drums. Troy did not turn his head as the Arabs stood hesitantly, looking toward the sound of the firing. Another burst followed by a third and fourth rattled in quick succession. Jerry had spotted Moffitt or Hitch or both of them, Troy thought, loosening a grenade from his belt, pulling the pin and clamping the lever in his hand. Fifty yards from the piled drums, he stopped, threw his arm back and hurled the grenade. Tully's grenade landed as Troy fell to his face. There was a shattering blast and a mass of flame shot into the sky. Another explosion, billows of flame and smoke. The whole oasis was lighted as the truck and drums burned fiercely. A single shell from the seventy-five millimeter gun cracked over the roaring gas and oil and then there were two nearly simultaneous explosions. The halftrack was burning now, a separate fire at the edge of the oasis, Troy rolled to his feet and turned to see Tully starting toward him. Crouching, they zigzagged away from the fiery oasis. Now he looked and saw racing from the flaming halftrack two forms he knew were Moffitt and Hitch. All four of them ran without halting until they finally were beyond the range of light from the fires. When Troy stopped with Tully and turned to look, the bright flames from the gasoline were edged with black from the oil. It was an angry, churning, seething cauldron at the north edge of the oasis.
    "We just blew our water supply," Troy told Tully and grinned.
    "Guess we'll have to draw our water from Dietrich," Tully drawled as they started trotting back toward the pocket where they'd left the jeeps.
    Moffitt and Hitch had reached the depression before them and Hitch had started both motors.
    "Straight ahead to the oasis," Troy shouted, leaping into the back and bracing himself at the machine gun. "We'll rake the ashes to make sure no one gets away."
    The jeeps hurtled from the pocket in single file and spun through the rocky sand, swerving and skidding. They drove toward the fires without lights. At the edge of the oasis, Troy could see a handful of figures withdrawn from the flames, standing helpless and motionless. As the jeeps neared the dump, Tully swung to the left toward the burning truck and drums. Hitch drove to the right toward the flaming halftrack. Troy loosened his gun and blasted a running group of bare-chested Arabs. When he'd cut them down, he waited until the jeep was beyond the fire and then he fired burst after burst into the oasis. On the other side, he heard the stutter of Moffitt's gun. Tully pulled up beside Hitch near the waterhole.
    "We need water," Troy called. "Cover me. I'm going in to see if we wrecked it or it's contaminated."
    He jumped to the ground and ran toward the middle of the oasis. A light machine gun or machine pistol rattled off to his right and he dropped to the ground, rolling to his left. The heavy sound of the Browning chopped away near the ground at one thick-stemmed palm. When the light machine gun did not open fire again, Troy jumped to his feet and went to the waterhole. It was an open seepage hole, but it had been walled with stone. He dipped his finger into the water and tasted it. It was warm and brackish but not contaminated. He trotted back to the jeeps.
    "Tully, Hitch," he called. "Drive in, fill the radiators and the cans. Doctor, let's check the Jerries."
    The four-man crew of the halftrack were dead and their uniforms were badly burned. Troy and Moffitt went looking