by Mike McNeff
“Saddam Hussein, according to some reports.”
“Are we talking about a chemical weapon? Because I thought the intel indicated he didn't have any nukes?”
“That could be it.”
Robin rubbed his chin as he mulled over Jamie's news. “Okay, I'm going to call Grassley and tell him to pipe all raw intel on this mission to you.”
“They won't do that, Rob. We're not cleared.”
Robin gave Jamie a hard look. “Get ready to receive the info.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Mark, help Jamie. We need to sort this out.”
“Roger.”
Robin walked over to the secure phone and dialed.
“Bill Grassley.”
“It's Robin.”
“What do you need?”
Robin related Jamie's information to Grassley.
“You know, Rob, those NSA guys know what they're doing.”
“So does Jamie. What I'd like you to do is relay Jamie's info to them. If they look at the intel and agree, then I want all raw intel on this mission sent to Jamie, real time.”
Grassley remained silent for a while. “Okay, Rob I'll get back to you.”
EIGHTEEN
CÁI AND EMMETT PARKED A BLOCK AWAY from a white house two tenths of a mile from the northern Nineteen end of the Hualien Air Force Base runway.
“Do you think we have the right house? It's been two hours.” Cái noted.
“It's the closest thing around here matching the intel,” Emmett replied as he scanned the area. “We're going to have to go with it for awhile.”
“Echo, this is Romeo,” Rick's voice crackled through Emmett's radio.
“Go ahead, Romeo.”
“Got a green Subaru station wagon carrying two Middle Eastern subjects heading your direction.”
“Roger, watch out for counter-surveillance.”
“Will do.”
A few seconds later the vehicle came down the street from the north and turned into the driveway. Two men entered the house.
“Okay, the suspect vehicle just pulled into the target house,” Emmett advised.
“All units hold your positions. We have a possible counter-surveillance car in the area and headed towards you, Echo…a blue sedan.”
“Roger, Romeo.”
Emmett watched as the second vehicle turned into the driveway. The driver looked around and then entered the house.
“It's definitely a suspect vehicle, also. Everyone sit tight for a few.”
Five minutes went by and then two men came out of the house, exchanged some words and then started walking in opposite directions on the street.
“Damn,” Emmett whispered.
“Shall we move?” Cái asked.
“Too late now. Just sit tight and hope he doesn't come this far. Echo to all units, they now have counter-surveillance on foot. If you're not in line of sight with the house, pull back.”
Emmett flattened his seat back and ducked down as far as he could. If the suspect saw him, it would probably blow the surveillance, as a large black man was not a common sight in this area.
Cái watched as the man kept coming in their direction. “He is still coming and he is looking all around, even the bushes. He is definitely counter-surveillance. Still coming…still coming…still coming. Emmett, we may be in trouble. He's getting close!” Cái's voice seemed an octave higher.
“Just stay calm, Cái.” Emmett's statement belied his pounding heart.
“But he's getting…hold it!” Cái's voice dropped to a whisper. “He stopped and pulled a small radio out of his pocket. He's turning around and starting back…fast.”
Emmett slowly raised his head and peeked over the dash just as the other suspect came back.
“Echo to all units. Move closer to the house, but get a new position.”
“Roger,” Rick answered.
“Roger also.” Doug confirmed.
Emmett watched the suspects go into the house. “Okay, Cái, let's move back a ways.”
Cái pulled the car onto the road and made a u-turn and moved to a dirt road a tenth of a mile from their previous location. Darkness began to brush the day away as Emmett surveyed the orchards around him and the target house.
“I'm going to check out the house on foot.”
“Be careful, Emmett.”
Emmett grinned. “I was born careful. Just listen to the radio.”
Cái nodded in the gathering gloom. Emmett quietly got out of the car and retrieved a backpack from the rear seat. He put in on and hurried across the road into the orchard. Reaching the edge of the trees nearest the house, he stopped. Pulling a night scope from his pack, he checked out the area for cameras or wires, but didn't see any. The blinds were closed around the house, so he approached the nearest window. He looked past old blinds fraying at the edges, but couldn't see or hear anything. He moved to the next window and as he got to it, he could hear voices.
Through the edge of the blind he saw the man from the sedan. He'd changed from street clothes to black fatigues and his face was smeared with camouflage paint. A pistol sat on the table he leaned against as he pointed to various spots on a paper he'd spread on the table. Unfortunately, Emmett didn't recognize the dialogue being spoken, but he knew the signs of a briefing when he saw one. They were preparing for an operation.
Going back to the orchard, Emmett moved to a position from where he could see the front of the house. He found a place with concealment and a good view. Ten minutes later, two men came out of the house and got into the Subaru. One had a backpack. Both were dressed in black and wore camo paint. Both were armed.
“Echo to all units, two suspects are about to leave the house in the Subaru, dressed in black and cammied up. Both are carrying AK's. Standby for direction of travel.”
“Romeo, roger.”
“Delta, ditto.”
“Okay, they're headed east.”
“We're ready for them,” Doug replied.
Emmett wondered what the third man was up to, but didn't have to wonder long. The other car's lights came on and it pulled out and headed east also.
“Counter-surveillance just headed east, too.” Emmett didn't see him come out and figured another door led to the parking area.
“Roger, we'll watch for him,” Doug affirmed.
“Cái, go to our previous position and wait.”
“Roger.”
As the second car disappeared down the road, Emmett approached the house. He walked past the eastern wall of the building and saw the door the third man must have come from. Sweeping the eastside with the night vision he didn't see any security equipment, but did see the power box. Emmett went to it, located the main switch and turned it off. He looked at the door handle and saw it didn't have a security type lock. For tangos, these guys aren't very security conscious. Pulling out his lock pick set, he chose a pick and quickly popped the latch.
Emmett entered the house with his silenced 9mm pistol drawn. He moved to a front room and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Two straight backed chairs. A paisley covered sofa, a beat up coffee table with an ash tray full of Turkish cigarettes. He crept to the room where he looked through the window and found the easel set up with a detailed topographical map of the area around the air base. There were satellite photos with the legend in Cyrillic, showing they originated from the USSR. Emmett looked in the closet and found three AK-47 automatic rifles, a case of 7.62×39 Chinese rifle ammunition, a rocket propelled grenade launcher, ten rocket propelled grenades, twenty soviet style hand grenades and a case of 9mm pistol ammunition.
As he backed away from the closet, he looked up and his heart slammed into this throat. A video camera stared at him. Praying his move to cut the power disabled the video system, Emmett started tracing the wires and found the recorder in the bottom drawer of the dresser in the room. There were several other cable wires coming in to a video splitter in the back of the recorder. Relief swept through him when he saw the power light on the recor
der remained off.
He had turned his radio down when he entered the house, but now he could hear someone calling him. He turned the radio up and answered.
“This is Echo, go ahead.”
“Suspect three is headed back in your direction.”
Shit! I haven't even started planting the bugs! “Roger. Emmett to Cái.”
“Cái, go ahead, Emmett.”
“Can you arrange a power outage for the area?”
“When?”
“Now!”
Cái did not respond immediately and Emmett grimaced as he imagined Cái cussing up a storm. Cái finally said, “I'll try.”
Emmett got to work looking for good spots to plant the bugs. He definitely needed to plant at least two in the briefing room. Over the radio he heard Rick report suspect three was only three miles from the house. His mind worked furiously weighing the risks for several spots, but he managed to get two planted in that room.
“Suspect one mile out.”
Emmett planted one in the living room and one near the kitchen table and started for the side door.
“Suspect is coming up on the driveway.”
Emmett saw headlights shining on the entrance to the driveway. Suddenly, all the lights in the neighborhood went out. The car stopped. Emmett locked the door and stood at the back of the door, holstering the pistol and drawing his knife. He saw the driver get out and come toward him. The key fumbled for a minute and then made it into the slot and the door opened towards Emmett. He prepared himself for a knife kill, his heart pounding so hard he thought the tango would hear it. He heard the terrorist hit the light switches with no luck.
The tango moved into the house with a flashlight.
Emmett ducked through the door and quickly opened the fuse box and flipped the main switch. Closing the fuse box, he heard the tango call out. Emmett sprinted to the orchard. As he made it to the tree line, the tango's flashlight swept the yard surrounding the house.
Emmett stopped running, but moved deeper into the orchard. Looking back, he saw a flashlight still sweeping the back yard of the house and the edge of the orchard. He made his way back to Cái's location and keyed his radio. “Cái, I'm coming in.”
“Roger.”
Emmett dropped his pack in the back and got into the front passenger seat. Cái immediately did a u-turn and headed south.
“Where you going? I still have to hook the receiver to the phone line.”
“The police and the power company will be all over this place soon.”
“Wow, when you and the general do cover job, you do it up good!”
“There's no cover job and the general doesn't know anything about this.”
“How'd you kill the power?”
“Climbed a tree, broke off a large branch and threw it on the line. We could never get the power killed that fast any other way. Even the general does not have those kind of connections.” Emmett sat stunned for a moment. Then he started laughing.
“Goddamn, Cái, I'm going to tell Rob to pull you out of the rep business and turn you into a full time operator! That was quick thinking…and gutsy. You're the man!” Emmett held up his hand and Cái slapped it with a grin.
“Did you get the bugs planted all right?”
“They're planted, but it was a close thing getting out of there. What's going on with the other two suspects?”
“They are on the mountain behind the base. Rick says they're taking video with night vision.”
Emmett spoke into his radio. “Echo to Romeo.”
“Go ahead, Echo.”
“Break off the surveillance and head back to the command post.”
“Roger. Delta, you copy?”
“Roger,” Doug answered.
“We'll finish the job tomorrow,” Emmett said to Cái. “I don't want to spook these guys anymore tonight.”
NINETEEN
ROCKY, MARV AND MIKE got into one of the two RIBs the team had brought for the mission. They seemed to melt into the night because of their black tactical uniforms and camo paint on their faces. Ernie leaned over the gunwale of Kwan's boat.
“You guys watch yourselves. We'll see you in an hour.”
Mike saluted and started the engine, its noise dampened with a series of modifications developed by the SEALs. Soon the RIB and its three man crew faded into the night.
The rest of the team began final preparations for their infiltration. Ernie poured over the map and satellite pictures one more time, even though every detail was burned into his mind. The enormity of this mission laid heavily on him.
Robin picked up the secure phone. “Hi Bill.”
“The NSA guys…and some of ours, have egg on their face and are very impressed with Jamie's analysis of the intel. The raw feed should be starting in a few minutes.”
“I appreciate it. FYI, the Chongjin recon team is moving in right now and the Taiwan team is on their tangos.”
“Sounds good, Rob. Keep me posted.”
“Always.” Robin hung up the phone and turned to Jamie. “You'll be getting the raw feed anytime now.”
“You're amazing, Rob. I didn't think they'd do it.”
“They did it because you're amazing.”
“Can I be amazing too?” Mark chirped.
“In due time, Mark. In due time.”
The RIB silently kissed the shore just outside the north harbor of Chongjin. Marv climbed out, pushed the boat back out to sea and then moved to a clump of bushes and knelt down. His night vision goggles were already on so he shouldered his pack and flipped the safety off on his suppressed MP5. He did a 360° scan for threats and not detecting any, he ghosted toward the harbor in the blackness, his heart thumping against his ballistic vest.
Moving to the corner of the first building on the south side of the harbor, Marv scanned the vessels moored around it. He didn't see any cargo vessels matching those described in the intel. Knowing intel is rarely on the mark, he decided to look for vessels with a Libyan flag. He made a slow visual search for movement around the buildings and ships, but saw none. He moved out, staying in the shadows, but close enough to the ships to see any flags. He completed the search on all three sides of the harbor and didn't find anything. He headed back to his exfil point.
Rocky stood stalk still in the shadow of a building. Across from him a group of North Korean soldiers surrounded four women, but the soldiers didn't seem to be threatening to the women. They just seemed to be discussing them. The group, however, blocked the rest of his survey of the southern harbor. Rocky turned to try to scout an alternative route and collided with a soldier coming around the corner.
“Shit,” Rocky hissed as he raised his weapon.
The soldier raised his hands with a terrified look. “Don't shoot! I am not your enemy!” He said in surprisingly good English.
Rocky put his hand over the soldier's mouth. “If you're not my enemy, be quiet.”
The soldier nodded his head and Rocky slowly removed his hand. “You don't understand,” the soldier whispered. “No soldier here is your enemy. We hate our government. Our people are starving and they do nothing. You are American, correct?”
“Yes, I'm an American.”
“You are here because of the Arabs?”
A jolt went through Rocky. “Yes, I'm looking for them.”
“You must talk to my colonel. We have information and we need your help.” Rocky hesitated. “Please, come with me. The lives of those women you see over there depend on it.”
Rocky keyed his mic. “Rock to Mike, I've made contact. Code four.”
“Roger,” Mike replied.
“Okay, let's go, but keep in the shadows.”
“Yes, I understand. I am a soldier too.”
Rocky smiled and nodded to the group across the way. When they got to the door, the soldier held up his hand for Rocky to wait and then entered the building. Rocky heard some excited talk and fingered his trigger nervously. The soldier came back with a tall, slim man showing grey hair on
his sideburns. He walked with a ramrod back and as he came closer to Rocky, he saw a worried face.
“This is my colonel.”
Rocky snapped attention and saluted the colonel.
The older man held out his hand and Rocky took it in a friendly shake. The man then spoke to the soldier.
The soldier nodded and translated. “My colonel wishes me to introduce us. I am Lieutenant Chong and he is Colonel Sinchu, of the 1st Battalion, 6th Army Corps. He wishes to know your name and rank.”
“I'm Lieutenant Barnett.”
The lieutenant translated and the colonel nodded and said something in reply.
“The colonel asks what is your unit?”
“Please tell the colonel I apologize, but I can't divulge that information.”
The lieutenant translated and the colonel thought for a minute then started speaking and the lieutenant translated as he spoke. “There were two cargo ships in our harbor here, each carrying teams of Arabs planning attacks on Americans. One ship went to Hualien, Taiwan and left four days ago. The other set sail for Vladivostok and then on to attack the port of Sasebo in Japan. That ship left yesterday. I can give you a description of the ships. I tell you this as a sign of good faith and ask your help in return.”
“Tell the colonel I'm very grateful for the information and I offer whatever help I can. I would like to know how he got his information.”
“The Arabs were braggarts. They actually told me of their plans because I'm the only one who speaks English.”
Rocky's headset crackled. “Ernie to Rock, we're in place.”
“Standby, Ernie…My major is here now. What can we do to help you?”
“The women in the warehouse openly protested against the government in the public square. We have been ordered to execute them. We need you to take them with you. We can't hide them from the secret police here. If you take them, we can simply dig graves and say we buried them.”
Rocky did some quick mental calculations on the load capacity of the two RIBs they had. “Okay, let me go get my major and we'll get things worked out.”
“Do you have any medicine?”
“We have a medic. Why?”
