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PROLOGUE
WORLD WAR II
THE SECOND BATTLE OF CORREGIDOR
THE PHILIPPINES
FEBRUARY 20, 1945
The tunnel exploded
Sergeant Daniel Kekoa dropped to the ground and covered his head as the M4 Shered entrance was thrown backward a dozen yards by the gigantic secondary blast from inside the tunnel The thirty-ton tank flipped over and landed on its turret before a loose shell inside tore it apart in a fireball
When debris stopped raining down around hi fro explosion Dozens of A in pain He turned over the nearestfrom the soldier’s chest showed that he was beyond help
Kekoa shook his head in disgust at the deadly foul-up The briefing froence indicated that this particular tunnel sheltered eneically located at the mouth of Manila Bay Kekoa had called in the tank to prevent a suicidal banzai attack, which had become commonplace with the fanatical Japanese But there had been no indication that the tunnel e quantities of explosives close to the entrance
Captain John Hayward crouched nearby in one of the many craters created by the American pre-invasion bombardment, his hands still over his ears Kekoa reached down to haul hiht
“All clear now, Captain,” Kekoa said “I told you I’d get you through this battle in one piece” Of course, Kekoa couldto tell this officer whose safety the Army had entrusted to him?
“Thanks, Sergeant I appreciate that” Hayward took in the carnage ide eyes “What happened?”
“Must have been an ammo dump inside the cave Your boys in the OSS told us the ammunition would be stored farther down the tunnels”
“They’re not my boys That intel caic Services I’eant Kekoa I’m a scientist in the Research and Analysis Branch”
“I can’t say I’iven the way you carry that carbine”
Thehad been just that: brief The battalion commander had specifically asked for Kekoa to babysit Captain Hayward and follow his orders while keeping hi else was on a need-to-know basis only, and as a grunt in the 24th Infantry “Hawaiian” Division, Kekoa apparently didn’t need to know anything All Hayward had told his unit was that he needed to get inside the underground fortress before the Japanese could destroy it
The tadpole-shaped island of Corregidor and its howitzers guarded the entrance to Manila Bay, one of the largest harbors in the Pacific The strategic outpost, also known as The Rock, was fourand little more than a mile across at its widest As a US commonwealth, the Philippines had been the last bastion to fall during the initial Japanese onslaught at the outbreak of the war, holding on until the island’s forces surrendered in May of 1942, two las MacArthur had been evacuated
Kekoa was leading his unit as part of the operation to retake Malinta Hill on the island’s tail Its vast grid of tunnels was bisected by a twenty-four-foot-wide eway that had served as a hospital and MacArthur’s headquarters Dozens of smaller tunnels branched out froe that it not only housed arrison that could withstand a siege for months but also had room for the thousand-bed hospital In the three years since the Japanese conquered Corregidor, they had fortified their positions, digging out additional tunnels to augment the extensive system built by the Americans, some of which had been collapsed intentionally before the 1942 surrender
Hayward’s target was inside one of those tunnels
Kekoa took stock of the dozens of casualties and found out that two of the men who had died were in his platoon Kekoa had served with both of the the Arht side by side with the the invasions of New Guinea and the Filipino island of Leyte They weren’t the firstby the insanity of this mission, they wouldn’t be the last, either
The explosion had closed off the entrance They had to find another way in Under Hayward’s direction, Kekoa gathered his platoon and headed toward the south side of Malinta Hill The sound of rifle fire and artillery blasts continued nonstop frounpowder and burnt flesh
When they reached their new position, Kekoa and Hayward crouched in a foxhole to plan the assault
When he asked Hayward for orders, the captain hesitated and then asked, “What do you suggest?”