Counter Poised

by John Spikenard

  Almost immediately, the Saudi Air Force launched armed helicopters, which had been on alert for hajj security. The Saudi military primarily used U.S.-made equipment, and their military personnel were trained in operations and tactics by U.S. advisors. Equipped with night-vision scopes and air-to-surface rockets, they began a thorough search for the suspect SUV. With so few cars on the roads at this time of night, it should not be difficult to find.

  Within half an hour, one of the armed helicopters, Makkah One, spotted a SUV on the highway to Jeddah. White with dark patches, it matched the description given by the pilgrim.

  “Do they appear to be aware of your presence?” the ground controller asked the helicopter pilot.

  “No. They are driving at a steady speed.”

  “Okay. Keep them in sight. Stand by for orders.”

  Meanwhile, the Saudi Secret Service arrived at the north entrance of the Ka‘abah, and a weapons expert examined the RV. Satisfied it was an empty shell, they loaded the RV into an unmarked government van and drove away. The sinister cargo was taken to headquarters in Riyadh, where multilingual agents inspected the RV and translated an English-language identification plate. The plate included a serial number and identified the device as U.S. Government Property. Someone had stamped USS Louisiana SSBN 743 on the side of the device so there would be no doubt where it had come from.

  “What is it?” one of the agents asked.

  “It’s a reentry vehicle,” the weapons expert answered. “It’s the part of an intercontinental ballistic missile that carries the nuclear warhead. But in this instance, the warhead has been removed.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “It’s a message,” said the commander as he walked up behind the two men. “The maniacs who have stolen the American submarine are sending us a message. If they had wanted, the device could have still contained the nuclear warhead, and they could have destroyed Islam’s most holy city and shrine. They are telling us that if they can get a warhead to the Ka‘abah during the hajj, they can strike any Muslim target whenever and wherever they want.”

  “If they seek to avenge the strike on Washington DC, why did they not destroy us today?”

  “I don’t know. Hopefully because they are more compassionate than al-Qaeda.” Turning to his aide, the commander continued, “Call the director’s office. Have them wake him up. I need to speak to him, now!” The commander thought carefully of how to choose his words for this call. He was worried about his own fate, but even more, the fate of his cousin whom he had placed in charge of security at Mecca.

  On the road to Jeddah, Ahmed drove in silence as Angel dozed next to him and Juan slept in the backseat. They were three quarters of the way back to Jeddah, and there had not been any sign of increased patrols on the highway. Thankfully, it looked as though they had made it in and out without a hitch. Just ahead was a turnoff to the right for a dirt road.

  “Hey you two, wake up!”

  “What’s the matter?” Angel groggily asked.

  “We’re here at the dirt road where we are meeting Amal with the van. In case we were spotted in Mecca, we’re going to exchange this SUV and drive the rest of the way in the van.”

  Ahmed slowed and turned onto the dirt road.

  In the trailing helicopter, the pilot reported the SUV’s maneuver to the ground controller.

  “Roger. See where they go. They may lead us to accomplices.”

  Instead, the SUV pulled up next to a non-descript van. Three occupants got out of the SUV and walked over to the van. The helicopter’s gyrostabilized telescopic night-vision scope enabled the pilot to monitor every move by the suspects while staying well outside of hearing range. With his lights off, he was completely undetectable from their position. He watched and waited.

  Ahmed approached the driver’s window and asked, “Amal, did we wake you?”

  The driver jumped out and gave Ahmed a big hug. “No, no, little brother. Yuusuf and I were just talking. We note that you are right on time. Things must have gone well in Mecca!”

  “Yes, they did. We believe we were entirely successful, but as planned, I want to make sure we were not followed on the road to Jeddah.”

  “Of course, of course. Let’s trade vehicles. You take the van and continue on to Jeddah. Yuusuf and I will take the Land Cruiser and drive back toward Mecca. If the authorities stop us, they will only find two cranky old men who happened to have an ironclad alibi. We have just ended our night shift working in the GenCon equipment staging area. We have been seen by at least twenty-five other people during the time period you were in Mecca.”

  “Good. Then let’s go!”

  Ahmed, Angel, and Juan started to get into the van when Ahmed stopped. “Oh wait,” he said. “Amal, my dirty laundry is piled high in the back of the Land Cruiser. Let’s put it in the van so I can get it washed when I get back to Jeddah.”

  Ahmed and Amal transferred armloads of dirty laundry into the back of the van, got in their vehicles, and then drove back to the main road. Ahmed turned right in the van and continued toward Jeddah while Amal turned left in the Land Cruiser toward Mecca.

  “Ground, this is Makkah One.”

  “Go ahead, Makkah One.”

  “The suspects have exchanged vehicles and split up. The SUV is now headed back toward Mecca with two occupants, and our three original occupants are now in a van headed toward Jeddah. I can’t follow both. They are separating rapidly. Which one do you want me to follow?”

  “Stand by.”

  “Also, they transferred some massive objects from the back of the SUV to the van. I could not tell what they were.”

  “Roger, stand by.” After a few moments the ground controller ordered, “Follow the van. We’ll have ground forces stop the SUV. Command is concerned about the objects they transferred to the van. They could be other components of the warhead. We don’t want them to have the opportunity to assemble them.”

  “Ground, there are no distinguishing features of the van. It’s like many others on the highway and in Jeddah. It will be difficult to keep track of them once they get to Jeddah.”

  “Roger, stand by.” There was a short delay, and then the order, “Makkah One, Command says take them out. Weapons free.”

  “Roger that. Understand weapons free?”

  “That’s affirmative, Makkah One. Weapons free.”

  The attack helicopter maneuvered to a position behind the van as it neared the outskirts of Jeddah in the pre-dawn darkness. The pilot locked the missile onto the target and fired. In an instant, the van and its occupants were obliterated. There was nothing but scrap metal strewn across the road and the surrounding desert sand. Ahmed, Angel, and Juan never knew what hit them.

  Chapter 33

  USS Louisiana

  “I know, Captain, it’s a great plan, but it’s getting harder and harder to operate this boat with so few crewmembers,” complained the XO.

  “Well, it’s going to get a lot harder, XO. You have to find ways to cross-train and rotate personnel. I know it’s not the way we were taught to do it, but these are extraordinary circumstances. We have to rely to a much greater extent on the automated capabilities of the boat. Remember, it’s just for a few weeks.”

  “But Captain, we normally have a complement of a hundred and fifty-five crewmembers. We’re down to less than thirty!”

  “On a normal patrol, with the full ship’s complement, we have a great many people routinely checking equipment just to make sure it’s operating normally. Others are performing preventative maintenance on redundant systems, which we’re not doing. Others are administrative people tending to necessary paperwork, and we’re not doing that either. Still others are mess-cooking for a hundred and fifty-five people, running the ship’s laundry, cleaning compartments, and performing other services necessary for supporting a hundred and fifty-five human beings living in a tube under the water. We don’t have those luxuries or the demands of that many people on this mission.”

 
“Still, sir, this is an extremely complex boat. I’m not talking about not having people to mess-cook or clean compartments—I’m talking about not having essential personnel to man the ship’s vital systems!”

  “I understand, XO. To a great extent, we have to rely on the quality of the USS Louisiana to perform well and on her automated capabilities to operate without human intervention.”

  “I’ll see what I can do, Captain.”

  “I know you will, and I know you’ll do a great job. That’s why I selected you for this mission. Remember, though, we’re now headed down the east coast of South America, and several of our Spanish-speaking crewmembers are ready to obtain new identities in Argentina and other South American countries. That means another six teams, twelve more crewmembers, will be offloaded in the next two weeks before we round Cape Horn. By my calculation, that should leave us with a complement of fourteen people. We’re going to need those fourteen at battle stations. We’re bound to have a welcoming committee when we get to the Cape. The main ASW forces are deployed around Africa to block our exit around the Cape of Good Hope. But Cape Horn is the only other chokepoint for getting out of the south Atlantic. They would be totally remiss if it was left unguarded.”

  “Captain,” said the XO incredulously, “I can’t imagine how we could possibly run this boat at general quarters with only fourteen people!”

  “Well, XO,” said the captain, “you better think of how we’re going to do it with twelve because at any one time at least one of our fighters will be on patrol.”

  Chapter 34

  “Control, we have a problem here!”

  The panicked call had come from the Missile Command Center on the main deck just forward of the missile compartment where the extracted nuclear warheads were being stored. Within the missile compartment, the boomer’s twenty-four ballistic missiles were housed in two parallel rows of twelve missile silos, which ran fore and aft down either side of the large, open compartment. At the level of the main deck, there was a system of suspended, open-grid, metal walkways. A central walkway enabled crewmembers to travel through the missile compartment, a distance of 125 feet from the forward to the rear hatch. Three-foot wide arms of the elevated walkways also extended laterally between the silos, where they joined up with exterior walkways, which ran along each side of the submarine, between the silos and the hull.

  “Missile Command, what’s the nature of your problem?” asked the captain.

  “Captain, this is Seaman O’Connor. The problem is John Ellis, sir. He’s gone insane! Petty Officer MacKenzie and I were making our rounds, and when we got here to the missile compartment, Mr. Ellis threatened us and screamed at us to get out. He was holding one of the peanuts, sir, and two of the three arming lights were RED!”

  “I’ll be right there! XO, you have the conn!”

  “Aye-aye, sir.”

  By the time the captain reached the forward hatch to the missile compartment, a small crowd had gathered there. Sergeant Ramirez stood at the hatch, armed with a .45 caliber pistol and an M-16 assault rifle.

  “All right, who can tell me what’s going on here?” the captain asked as the crowd made a hole for him to get through. “Where’s John Ellis?”

  Petty Officer MacKenzie stepped forward and said, “He’s still in the missile compartment, Captain, and he has a warhead…I mean peanut…that he is apparently arming. We don’t know why. The way he was screaming, sir, we didn’t want to provoke him. When he said ‘get out,’ we got out!”

  “That was good thinking, Mac. You did the right thing. Where was he when you last saw him?”

  “He was aft, on the main deck on the starboard side. Captain, he looked and sounded pretty crazed when we saw him.”

  “How far aft?”

  “I’d say just one or two silos from the aft bulkhead, sir.”

  “Sergeant Ramirez,” the captain said.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “I may need your and Corporal Williams’s special talents. However, you won’t be needing that M-16. The quarters are too close in the missile compartment for a rifle. It’s like Sherwood Forest in there—no opportunity for a long-range shot. Besides that, even though we took the warheads off, we’ve still got missiles in those tubes and they’re loaded with highly volatile rocket fuel. If the situation deteriorates to shooting, we can’t afford to have any missile silo hit by a stray bullet. We might as well let John Ellis blow us up—either way, we’d be just as dead. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Where’s Corporal Williams?”

  “He’s aft, sir. He was making rounds in the engine room and reactor compartment.”

  “Good. If Ellis is still in the same position, he’s ten or twenty feet from the aft hatch. Sergeant, get Williams on the horn and tell him to stand by at the aft hatch—pistol only. I’m going to try to find out what’s bugging Ellis and see if I can get him to disarm that warhead. If I’m unsuccessful, we’re going to have to take him out.”

  After quickly briefing Corporal Williams, the captain stated, “All right, I’m going in to talk to him. Sergeant, step in with me, but stay here at this end of the compartment, concealed behind a missile silo until we determine Ellis’s current location and state of mind.”

  “Yes, sir,” the marine replied.

  The captain opened the hatch and looked into a seemingly empty missile compartment. With Ellis nowhere in sight, the captain and Sergeant Ramirez stepped quickly but quietly onto the elevated walkway and closed the hatch behind them. Once the sergeant had concealed himself behind the first missile silo, Captain Adams began to walk slowly along the central elevated walkway through the compartment toward the aft hatch. At each intersection between silos, he nervously checked right and left for any sign of Ellis, but there was none. About halfway through the compartment, the captain stopped and called in a loud voice, “John Ellis, it’s George Adams.”

  “Don’t come any closer, Captain. I’ve got an armed peanut, and I’ll blow us all to quarks and bosons!” Ellis shouted.

  He was still aft, at least three or four more missile silos from where the captain stood, and still on the starboard side.

  “John, don’t be rash; I’m just here to talk to you. I need you to tell me what’s wrong. What is it that you want?”

  “I want to take this peanut and get off of this sub, immediately!” Ellis screamed back.

  “But John, that’s not part of the plan. Back on Platform Alpha, you said you fully supported the plan.”

  “Screw your plan, Captain. I said that when I thought your plan included blowing up Mecca as a sign of our determination and capabilities. No one ever explained to me that you were just delivering an unarmed RV. I won’t have it; I won’t go along with that!”

  The captain could hear Ellis sobbing in despair. He took a few more steps through the compartment hoping to get where he could talk to Ellis face-to-face.

  “But John, we can’t do that. If we blow up Mecca, we’ll be killing hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of innocent people. That makes us no better than the terrorists.”

  “That’s easy for you to say!” John screamed back. “You didn’t lose everyone you loved, everyone who meant anything to you in DC.”

  George stopped. How could they have missed that in John’s background investigation? There had been nothing about John Ellis losing relatives in the attack on Washington DC.

  “John, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had family in DC. While it’s true I had no relatives there, I lost some very good friends. And many of the other members of this crew did lose relatives. The XO lost his wife and daughter, and even he agrees revenge is not the right answer.”

  Ellis, still out of sight, continued to sob.

  “John, if we target a single nuke against Islam’s most holy city, the number of radicals will expand beyond our wildest dreams. We will have opened up a can of worms that no one will be able to control. With that many radicals, it would be a virtual certainty they would strike us aga
in with another nuclear weapon. Then we would be forced to retaliate.”

  There was no reply.

  “We’re not trying to cause a nuclear holocaust,” the captain continued, “we’re trying to prevent one!”

  “Those assholes destroyed Washington DC, the capital of the free world. In return, Mecca, the capital of the Islamic world, should be destroyed as an example!”

  “John, in this game, revenge doesn’t work. The Israelis and the Palestinians have demonstrated that time and time again. If we hit Mecca in revenge for DC, they will just hit us again in revenge for Mecca. I don’t want to get into a high-stakes pissing contest like that.”

  “So then your plan doesn’t work at all!”

  “Yes it does. First of all, we hope that by showing restraint and compassion, we will win over the hearts of the majority of Muslims in the world. To date, only a handful of Islamic nations have put forth even a halfhearted attempt to locate and capture terrorists. We intend to provide them with incentive to take on this task with all their heart and soul.”

  “You’re just planning to hit them tit for tat, Captain. Sounds like a high-stakes pissing contest to me!”

  “No, we’re not promising to hit them tit for tat. Our message to the world is that if there is another terrorist attack with a weapon of mass destruction, we will respond with our full force. In other words, if they strike again with a single nuclear weapon, we will respond by striking Islamic targets throughout the world with our one hundred and twenty nuclear weapons. Every Muslim holy site and major city will be destroyed. Our response will not be limited or measured; we will raze Islam from the face of the earth.”

  George took a few more steps, until there were only four missile silos between him and the aft hatch. He still could not see Ellis, concealed further aft and somewhere off to George’s left side. George looked at the aft hatch where he could see the eyes of Corporal Williams watching him intently through the small glass porthole.