For the next ten minutes I sat silently begging the team to get a move on. I held my breath and prayed. My prayers were not answered. Before the rear door opened I heard the sound of gunfire. The distinctive sound of an AK 47 filled the night.

Since it came from inside the hotel, I could only hope it was from our guys not the Cubans. I let out my first breath when the rear door opened and three people came running outside. Two of them were part of the extraction team. They seemed to be leading a third person. My guess was that El Doctore would be sleeping in either an American bed, or a watery grave. It all Depended on how fast the Cubans got their act together.

As soon a the three man team was on the patio, I began a making a mental countdown. The rear guard should be out any minute. Sure enough the came on the run. I quickly slot out all the lights. The patio area was ceased to exist in the darkness.

I pulled on my night glasses just as Eddie said, "There are men coming around the corner." I had already thrown the sniper rifle aside. The scope would be a nightmare anyway. Eddie began pouring fire into the group of men women or children coming around the building. In the darkness there was no way to tell who we were shooting at. The only people I kept track of were our guys.

"Heads up we are coming through." The voice belonged to Jason. The words were just out of his mouth when we began taking fire. I had known all along that it was just a matter of time before someone spotted and zeroed in on our muzzle flashes.


Jason spun around, then fell to the ground. "Eddie get him to the boat, I'll make some noise."

"Let me check to see what he needs first," he suggested.

"Hell no drag him. If he dies he dies, but we don't have time to check him. If pulling him kills him, then so be it. We are not going to die on this piece of shit island."

I poured all the fire I could toward the building. I just unloaded the mags to keep their heads down. After a few minutes head start, I headed for the boat. I jumped over the sides of the rubber and canvass covered foam sides of the boat. The outboard motor was already running.

Eddie was shooting blindly into the dark. I took the magazines from Jason's pack and joined him. There was sporadic fire from the beach but nothing even came close to us. At least not as far as I could tell.