Operation Hail Storm

by Brett Arquette

Kara walked into a stark conference room occupied by three men and two women. Instead of a conference table, there was a long stainless-steel table, shaped like a banana that sat in the middle of the room. Littering the polished metal surface were monitors, screens, keyboards, mice, styluses and speakers. Kara could tell that this meeting was going to be very different than any other mission planning session she had experienced.

  On three of the four walls without a tinted porthole, there were flat screen displays taking up the bulk of the horizontal revenue. The floor was made of well-worn metal marred countless times by the wheels of the lightweight chairs that were scattered haphazardly around the room.

  Hail grabbed two of the nearest chairs and slid them toward the group of people already assembled and waiting for them around the table.

  Hail pushed a chair under Kara and turned his chair backward to sit cowboy style.

  “What’s first?” Hail asked.

  “How about some introductions, Marshall?” Shana Tran suggested.

  Marshall looked embarrassed.

  “Of course, I’m sorry,” he responded. “Everyone, this is Kara Ramey, our liaison from the CIA. Thus, she will assist to obtain intelligence from her agency.”

  Everyone said hello in one fashion or another.

  “How about we just go around the room quickly? You can introduce yourself and tell Kara what you do.”

  Since Shana Tran had spoken up earlier, Hail gestured for Shana to begin.

  “Hi, Kara. I’m Shana Tran, Mission Communication Analyst.”

  “I love your outfit,” Kara said.

  “Well thank you. I designed and made it myself.”

  “You’re kidding me. I wish I could do stuff like that. A dress seems would be so hard to make.”

  “Well, it’s not that hard. I mean it took me a while to—”

  “OK, OK,” Hail interrupted. “We’ll have time for the fashion segment of this meeting later. Let’s continue.”

  The person to the right of Tran spoke up.

  “My name is Gage Renner. I’m a mission analyst, and I specialize in remote design and aeronautics. We already met on the plane. Well, we didn’t meet on the plane. You were on the plane, and I was here, but we talked—”

  “We understand,” Hail told his tongue-tied buddy.

  The next person said in a lyrical French accent, “Nice to meet you, Ms. Ramey. My name is Pierce Mercier. I’m a scholar with a background in oceanography, meteorology, botany and zoology. It is basically boring stuff compared to what these guys know.”

  “Oh, not at all,” Kara said. “I think all of those things are very interesting. I take it that you speak French?” Kara asked.

  Mercier replied, “Oui, parlez-vous français aussi?” (Yes, do you also speak French?)

  Kara responded, “Oui. Je suis contente de faire votre connaissance.” (Yes, I am glad to meet you).

  Mercier smiled. “Moi aussi.” (Same here).

  Hail waited patiently until the exchange was over, hoping he didn’t have to cut that off as well. The French dialogue eventually stopped and the next person in line introduced themselves.

  “My name is Eric Rugmon. I manage the production and customization of mission devices and control systems.”

  Kara noticed that Eric Rugmon appeared to be all business. Kara thought the man looked like a minion from the Despicable Me movie. He didn’t smile or give a hint of wanting to be Kara’s buddy. That was OK. She never had a problem making friends, especially men. Rugmon wore a white lab coat, but he wasn’t the only person in the room wearing a lab coat.

  The next person to introduce herself was a woman, and she was wearing a lab coat as well. She looked bookish and quiet. Kara considered maybe she and Rugmon might have a thing going on. They were both cut from the same cloth. At least their lab coats were.

  “My name is Terry Garber. I’m in charge of the laboratory, laboratory production, new product research and product adaptation.”

  Kara wanted to ask her what all that meant, but with Terry Garber being the last person in line, Hail was already taking control of the meeting.

  “OK, with that out of the way, what’s our first move?”

  Renner said, “We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with. What’s the scope of this mission?”

  Hail looked at Kara as if to say, you’re up.

  Kara scanned the faces looking at her.

  She cleared her throat and said, “We’re currently tracking a Chinese fishing trawler called the Huan Yue that is steaming through the Sea of Okhotsk, and it’s headed toward North Korea.”

  “Can we bring that map up on screen one?” Hail requested.

  A large map of the North Pacific Ocean appeared on the screen.

  “The Sea of Okhotsk is right here under Russia” Renner said, pointing to the spot with his cursor. “We’re talking about a thousand miles from North Korea, depending on the current position of the trawler.”

  “Do we have any assets near there?” Hail asked.

  “We still have the Hail Laser located in the Bohai Sea right here,” Renner said, putting the mouse pointer on the other side of North Korea. “Unless the trawler decides to loop around South Korea, we’re assuming it would dock on the east coast of North Korea. The Hail Laser is on the opposite side of North Korea, but we could reduce that distance by moving it to the Yellow Sea.”

  Renner dragged the cursor lower on the screen. “That move would take about twenty-four hours. If we improve the Hail Laser’s position in the Yellow Sea, we would still have to traverse the North Korean land mass by air, which is only about 200 miles wide.”

  “That’s doable, right?” Hail asked.

  “It really depends on what we’re supposed to do with this trawler,” Renner said, looking confused.

  Kara spoke up, “The trawler is carrying a large ICBM section headed to North Korea. The mission at hand is to track the large missile part that is on the Huan Yue to its final destination on land. At that point, we would like to set up some sort of surveillance to inform us when the majority of the parts have arrived. At that point, we want to blow them all up.”

  Renner actually started laughing.

  “Is that all?” he asked. “Maybe we should just overthrow the country while we’re there?”

  Kara ignored Renner and said, “I don’t think I have to explain to anyone in this room why North Korea would like an ICBM.”

  Renner’s smile faded and Kara continued, “If we all think that The Five was a disaster, then just wait until North Korea has the discretion of lobbing nuclear bombs at the other side of the planet. And to tell you the truth, my agency doesn’t believe that your—your—company,” Kara said, “has the means to interdict this shipment, especially in the narrow time frame we have. But short of an overt action on the part of the US, we don’t have much choice in the matter. It’s you guys or nothing, and nothing is the worst choice.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere,” Hail said, trying to lighten up the mood. “Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Let’s get some ideas flowing on the initial contact with the Huan Yue.”

  Mercier asked, “Do we know where the ship will dock in North Korea?”

  “No, we don’t,” Kara said. “But it will take a big crane to remove the section of the missile from the Huan Yue, so we would expect it to dock at one of the major ports in Rajin, Chongjin, Wonsan or Hamhung. We currently have AWACS tracking the vessel. When it turns toward land, we will have a much better idea of where it’s going to dock.”

  “What time frame are we looking at?” Hail asked.

  “Like I said,” Renner replied, “that depends on exactly where the Huan Yue is right now.”

  Hail looked at Kara.

  “I think it’s time to make a call,” Hail told Kara.

  “I agree,” Kara said. “Where’s my phone?”

  Hail ignored the question and asked her, “Do you know the number?”

  “Sure,” Kara replied. “Where’s my p
hone? I will make the call.”

  Hail took his own phone out of his pocket and handed it to Kara.

  “It doesn’t matter if you have your phone. We’re surrounded by iron and steel. My phone is routed via Voice over Internet Protocol to the cellphone transmitter on deck that links to the satellite. Just use it for now,” Hail requested.

  It was apparent that Kara didn’t want to use Hail’s phone, but she couldn’t think of an excuse to avoid the request.

  She took Hail’s phone from his hand, pressed some numbers and waited for her boss, Jarret Pepper, to answer.

  “Put it on the speaker,” Hail told Renner.

  Renner intercepted the VOIP signal and routed it to the conference room’s ceiling speakers.

  Kara was surprised when she heard Pepper’s voice fill the room.

  “This is Pepper,” the man said.

  Kara composed herself and started the conversation with, “Jarret, this is Kara. For reasons I can’t go into right now, I’m speaking on an unsecured phone that belongs to Marshall Hail. You should also know that we’re coming over the speakers in the conference room right now, and Mr. Hail has his mission planning staff in attendance.”

  There was a long pause as the director of the CIA considered the information.

  Then he said, “OK, where are we? What do you need? How are things going?”

  Kara got right to the point.

  “Everything here is shipshape. But we need to know the current position of the Huan Yue.”

  “Give me a minute,” Pepper said, and his phone was muted.

  Less than thirty seconds later he came back on the line and said, “The Huan Yue is in the Sakhalin Gulf.” Pepper then read off a long string of latitude and longitude numbers and directions. Renner typed the position into the computer.

  Pepper added, “It’s currently moving at twelve knots and should enter the Nevelskoy Strait in about six and a half hours if it maintains its current speed.”

  Renner started plotting red graphical dots on the map on the big screen.

  Kara asked, “Do we have any further information on where the ship might dock?”

  “I’ll have to check the latest intercepts to see if they provide any new insights,” Pepper said.

  Hail thought the man’s voice sounded upbeat and positive. This was a very different man than the one Hail had met in Washington.

  Renner got Hail’s attention and made a cutting signal under his neck.

  Hail whispered into Kara’s ear. “We need to mute the phone for a moment.”

  Kara said, “Sure.”

  “Jarret, we will be back in just a second,” she told her boss, and Hail watched her mute the phone. Kara lowered the phone to her waist and then she pressed the mute button a second time, quietly unmuting the phone.

  “We need to get steaming,” Renner said to the group, but his suggestion was directed at Hail.

  Renner pointed at the dots on the big screen above them. “If the trawler stays at twelve knots, it would be possible to pour on some steam to get us in theater by the time it docks.”

  “That’s if it docks in the southern part of North Korea,” Kara informed everyone.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Renner said. “We don’t need to be on top of the action but if we’re within five hundred miles, we can become more tactical than we are right now.”

  Renner looked back up at the computer display. The crew watched as he ran the mouse from Indonesia to just below South Korea while making mental calculations.

  “I think we can be somewhere here in the East China Sea by showtime. If the Hail Laser has any issues, their being close is a great back-up plan.” Renner said.

  “I’d rather run the operation from the Hail Nucleus,” Hail stated. “Let’s do it.”

  Since Kara was using Hail’s phone and still had Pepper on hold, Hail walked over to a phone that was bolted into the iron wall and removed the receiver.

  “This is Hail. Let’s leave port immediately and proceed toward the East China Sea at best speed.”

  Hail waited for a response and said, “Very good,” and hung up the phone.

  Hail told Kara, “All right, we’re ready to get Pepper back on the call.”

  Kara pretended to press the mute key again.

  “Hi, Jarret, are you there?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I’m here,” Pepper played along.

  “Does anyone have any more questions for the CIA?”

  “Yeah, what type of fishing trawler is the Huan Yue?” Renner asked.

  “Checking,” Pepper said.

  Ten seconds later he reported, “The Huan Yue is a double-rig beam trawler used primarily in the flatfish and shrimp fisheries. It is a medium-sized high-powered vessel. It can tow gear at speeds up to 8 knots with 2,000 horsepower. Do you want me to send a photo of the trawler to this phone?” Pepper asked.

  Hail nodded at Kara.

  Kara said, “Affirmative.”

  She then asked Hail’s team, “Is there anything else you need?”

  Hail told her, “Have Pepper call us on this number if he gets any more information.”

  She repeated the request into the phone and waited for a response.

  Hail watched the CIA woman closely. He could tell she was aware of being closely observed. She looked uncomfortable. Hail knew that Pepper wanted to have a private conversation with her, but since they were both on the speaker that was impossible.

  “OK, Jarret. We’re signing off now,” Kara told her boss.

  “Good luck,” Pepper said over the speakers.

  Renner had been busy. When Hail looked at the big screen, he could see why. Using a yellow line, Renner had plotted the projected course for the Huan Yue as well as adding periodic timestamps based on its speed. He had also plotted the course of the Hail Nucleus using a red line.

  Renner began to lay out the timelines.

  “We’re looking at the Huan Yue reaching the heart of the Strait of Tartary in about sixteen hours. Another sixteen hours later it will enter the Sea of Japan. Then, depending on where it makes land in North Korea, we’re talking about a distance of 700 to 900 miles or about 75 hours. That means we need to be in place and operational in roughly three days before the Huan Yue docks somewhere.”

  Hail nodded his head.

  “For us,” Renner continued, “the Hail can make 33 knots, and that will put us in the East China Sea in about 24 hours. Heck, that would leave us a lot of time if we wanted to position ourselves east of North Korea in the Sea of Japan.”

  “Very good,” Hail commented. “We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  Kara was still holding onto Hail’s phone. She heard a chirp and noticed that Pepper had sent a photo of the Huan Yue to Hail’s phone.

  “The photo of the fishing trawler was just sent,” she told the group.

  “Great,” Hail said, taking the phone out of Kara’s hand. He rolled his chair over to a docking station on the table and set his phone into the slot.

  “Go ahead and bring up the photo on screen two,” he told Renner.

  Renner accessed Hail’s phone and opened the photo that Pepper sent.

  On the monitor next to the screen that showed the map, a blue ship appeared.

  “Not as big as I thought it would be,” Hail commented.

  “Me neither,” Renner agreed.

  The white over blue fishing vessel was a mass of jutting beams, pulleys and cables that seemed to surround the ship like a spider protecting its territory with a steel web.

  Hail looked closer at the ship.

  “Where the hell are they storing this missile section? It doesn’t look like there would be enough room. Are you sure it’s on there?” Hail asked Kara.

  “I mean nothing is certain in this business,” Kara responded, “but I would say we’re 95% confident that our intel is good.”

  Renner said, “I’m looking over the design of the ship and it has a lot of storage for fish. You could probably fit the missile
section in the main holding tank, although it would be a tight fit, and I don’t know how they would get it in there.”

  Hail said, “Our choices, if we want to cut to the quick, as I see them, are to drop eyes on the fishing boat while it’s out at sea or when it docks. Once this thing docks and unloads, there is no way we’re going to track a truck with eyes from the sky and not expose ourselves.”

  “I agree,” said Renner.

  “What do you think, Mercier?” Hail asked.

  “I agree that we can’t track the truck from the dock to its final destination from the air. Even with stealth, spending that much time over a major city is asking for problems. I also think there are too many eyes at the dock, even if it’s nighttime. My vote would be to get eyes on the boat while it’s still out at sea.”

  Hail looked at Renner.

  “That’s what I would recommend as well,” Renner agreed.

  “That makes sense,” Hail said.

  Kara said, “I don’t understand a damn thing you’re talking about.”

  Hail looked at her with an indulgent expression.

  “Well, you will in the next few minutes,” he assured her.

  Hail asked Renner, “What are the challenges with a sea interdiction?”

  “Same as usual,” Renner said. “Darkness, precipitation, wind velocity, communications and the drones have to function perfectly.”

  This was the first time that Kara had heard the word drone mentioned, and she perked up at the word.

  Hail pointed at the photo of the boat. “Can you zoom in closer on the top of the bridge?”

  Renner zoomed in closer, centering the top of the ship’s wheelhouse in the frame.

  “Can we get any closer?” Hail requested. “I want to see what all those lights on top look like.”

  Renner messed around with the zoom and focus until he obtained the best look.

  “Check out these amber lights atop the bridge. Do we think we could mimic this look on our micro-sized drone?” Hail asked.

  Eric Rugmon spoke up, “That’s not going to be too difficult,” Rugmon said. “It’s basically throwing an amber ring around the drone.”

  Kara recalled that Rugmon stated that he managed the production and customization of mission devices and control systems.

  “No, it’s going to be more than that,” Hail said. “We have to drop this thing from a mother drone and have it land on the ship,” he said pointing at the top of the ship. “I don’t know about you guys, but it doesn’t look like anyone would venture up on top of the wheelhouse unless there was an emergency, so I don’t think the drone will be noticed up on top.”