A Mauser jabbed from an open door. Suleyman fired. The enemy rifleman staggered back as shells slammed into him. Butler sprinted between a series of low sheds, closer to his target with each dash.

He paused in the shelter of the last building as a dozen men, including one of the sappers, caught up with him. A long, narrow dock separated them from the sub, and Smedley saw figures moving behind piles of supplies.

Butler whipped off his campaign hat and held the Thompson at his side. He ran into the open, gesturing wildly behind himself, Suleyman at his side.

A figure on the submarine called, "Kiminiz?"

Suleyman called back in Turkish.

Half a dozen men separated from the shadows ahead of Butler. One shouted, "Dur! Dur!"

Smedley fired, holding the Thompson's barrel down but letting it sweep from right to left across the group. Men fell or spun into the darkness clutching wounds. As the last round spat from Butler's Thompson, an officer in a long gray coat stepped into view.

Butler dropped the submachine gun, feeling the sling's pull on his shoulder, and clawed at his.45. The officer's pistol snapped up and Smedley dove aside. A bullet tugged at his sleeve. Smedley fired as his pistol rose, the upward recoil of the automatic sending his second round into the Turk's gut. Beside him, Suleyman screamed as a Mauser shell slapped into his chest. A burst of Thompson rounds swept Suleyman's killer from the dock.

Smedley ducked behind a stack of cargo and changed drum magazines on his Thompson. He pointed to three marines. "Hold here if the Turks attack."

Butler leapt for the sub, landing heavily on the foredeck. He scrambled up a ladder to the conning tower, firing at a figure in an open hatch, but missing. Smedley reached for the closing hatch. The metal slipped from his fingers as it clanged shut.

"Here, sir!"

Butler dropped back to the foredeck as a marine fired into an open torpedo-loading hatch. Smedley grabbed the hatch cover and nodded to the marine, who pulled a timer and hurled an explosive pack into the depths of the sub. Butler slammed the hatch closed. "Get off! Now!"