by Mike McNeff
Ernie surprised himself by deciding to try to keep Chong as part of the team. During the trip back to Sokcho, Chong fit easily into the group and Rocky and Burke started calling Chong “Gunner” because his given first name was Gun-woo. The next part of his future plans for Gunner needed Robin's approval and Bill Grassley's help. After setting this all up, he went to the hotel where the team rented rooms, called his wife, and collapsed into bed for a few hours’ sleep.
TWENTY-TWO
KURO FLEW THE HELICOPTER at a low altitude even though they already had clearance to enter Vladivostok airspace. Night had wrapped itself around them as they approached the coast of the Vladivostok Peninsula at 1722 hours. A sprinkle of lights appeared ahead of them, growing more intense to the right where Vladivostok sat along the bay.
Winds buffeted the chopper the entire trip and Mark and Shosi, weren't looking too good.
Robin talked to Kuro over the intercom. “Kuro, are you going to make it back to Toyama all right in this weather?”
“Yes, we will make it back just fine. It takes very heavy weather to stop us from flying.”
“How ’bout picking us up?”
“Same thing. Get ready to push the RIB out. There is a patch of brush near the clearing you can reach by following the road I showed you on the satellite photos.”
Robin moved back to the cargo area and began untying the lines securing the RIB. Mark started helping.
“Hold on to those two lines, Mark and we'll lower the boat into the bushes Kuro hovers over.” Mark nodded.
“Thirty seconds to go, Robin,” Kuro announced.
Robin pulled the door latch and pushed the door open. A blast of cold, wet air hit him. The chopper went into a hover and Robin could make out the bushes through his night vision goggles.
“Okay, drop it.”
Robin signaled Mark and they pushed the RIB out and let it dangle for a moment and then lowered it into the bushes, letting the lines go.
“We're good, Kuro. Take off.” The big chopper moved forward at a slow speed to the landing pad just over the next hill. Robin and Mark went to a large tarp at the back of the helicopter and got underneath it with their gear. Just before securing the tarp, Robin signaled Shosi they were good to land.
Kuro maneuvered the helicopter for landing while Ryuu lowered the landing gear. The pad lay in between a row of trees bordering an empty field on the left and an open storage area on the right with the harbor directly in front of them. He saw a truck waiting for him at the entrance to the pad area and also noticed the target ship further to the left. He set the big chopper gently down and began shutdown and the turbines started to wind down from a roar to a whine.
The truck moved closer and two men got. Kuro recognized Sergey Bostroff, his customer in this area. Sergey waved and Kuro waved back. He let Ryuu continue the shutdown while he went to the back to greet Sergey. He slid open the door and greeted the Russian in English, the mutual language the men spoke. “Good evening, Sergey, how are you?”
“I am well, Kuro. I am glad you decided to come early. I have a customer who immediately needs one of the electronic parts you brought because they are leaving tonight.”
“I'm happy we can accommodate your demanding customers.”
“Ha, I only sell to them because I need the money. They are damn Arabs and none too friendly looking. Are you staying with us tonight?”
“Unfortunately, we have to get back.”
“But surely you can stay for one cup of vodka.”
“Of course, Sergey. I cannot leave without toasting our friendship.”
“Ah, good. Let's load the truck and get over to my shop. We'll drink first and do business later.”
The men unloaded several boxes of parts and got them into the truck. When they were finished, Sergey wanted them all to crowd into the cab, but Kuro told them he needed to check something in the helicopter and he would walk over to the shop. The truck left and he went to the helicopter and undid the tarp hiding Robin and Mark.
“Robin, did you hear about the Arabs?”
“Yes, we did. We're going to have to move fast.”
“Look, I can keep Sergey busy for at least an hour, maybe a little bit more, but that is the best I can do.”
“That'll be good enough.”
“Now is a good time for you to move.”
“We're outta here.”
Robin and Mark put on their gear, which included each man carrying two twenty pound haversacks of C4 explosives. They were dressed in black BDUs over wetsuits and wore watch caps which blended with their blackened faces. Robin appreciated the wetsuits which prevented the cold, wet air seeping to his bones.
They jumped off the helicopter and moved to the trees to the left. The trees were against a clay wall surrounding the empty field. The men climbed over the wall and started slowly moving along it to the northwest corner of the lot, directly across and only forty yards away from the target ship. The area didn't have much light.
The two men would move twenty yards and then stop and clear their surroundings of any threats. It took them fifteen minutes to reach the corner. Robin peeked over the top of the wall and saw a small building in a stand of trees and bushes to the right and still only forty yards from the ship. He also saw the open rear cargo door to the ship.
“We're going over the wall and to the right to a small building surrounded by trees and bushes,” Robin whispered to Mark. “You go first and I'll cover.”
Mark nodded and rose up and looked to the right and went over the wall. Robin kept his weapon ready for any threats from the target ship. He saw Mark disappear into the trees. Then he went over the wall and moved next to Mark.
“We'll watch for about fifteen minutes to see what's going on before we move in.”
Mark nodded again and the men surveilled the area for any movement. Within five minutes, a car drove up to the ship and a man got out and sat on the trunk of the car. Another man came out of the rear cargo door. He carried a large briefcase. He stepped on to the dock and walked over to the car.
Robin and Mark were only fifty feet from the men and could see what they were doing. Robin could make out distinct features, but no color with night vision goggles. The men talked to each other for a moment. They didn't act like they knew each other. The man from the ship handed the other man the briefcase and he opened it. Robin could see him taking out bundles of currency.
“If I didn't know better, I'd say we got a dope deal going down,” he whispered.
“That's what it looks like.”
The man from the car took the briefcase off of the trunk of the car and opened the trunk. The other man reached in and took out a backpack, but this one looked different. It looked like a cylinder about 3 feet by two feet and had some weight to it going by the way the man handled it. The shape of the backpack rang a bell in Robin's mind, but he couldn't grasp the thought. Whatever it was, the guy from the ship paid a lot of money for it.
The two men shook hands and parted company. Out of habit, Robin noted the license number of the car as it backed up closer to them. Then it drove away. The other man shouldered the backpack and disappeared into the cargo door.
Robin took the satellite radio and checked to see if he had a connection. He did and he sent a message to Jamie describing the backpack. Five more minutes went by without movement.
“Okay, Mark, let's rock.” The two moved out of the trees and over to the ship. Robin got to the left side of the open door and looked in the lower hold. Seeing no one, Robin jumped onto the deck and dropped to a kneeling position. He swept the deck with the night vision and saw no threats. He waved to Mark who jumped onto the deck. They moved to the center seam of the hull and Robin put his C4 charges on the port seam. He pulled wires out of both haversacks and connected them together. He took a digital timer out of one of them, connected the wires to the timer and set the time for three hours.
Robin smiled to himself as he looked up and saw Mark diligently covering the area f
or any threats. He's learned well. Robin tapped Mark's shoulder and motioned to the starboard seam and the men moved over. Robin started to get the wires out of Mark's haversacks when he heard a sound toward the rear of the ship. He looked over and Mark had his weapon trained on something. Robin moved his head slightly and could see feet on the top of the stairs where they met the tween deck. He heard shouting and talking and recognized Sergey's voice. Robin saw him coming to the cargo door. At the same time, the helicopter started up drowning out the conversation. A man came down the stairway to the bottom hold. The two men met at the corner of the hold, but they were out of sight.
Robin's heart pounded as he raised his silenced MP5 and bent on one knee next to Mark and covered to the front of the ship. The men could barely see each other's face in the gloom. The helicopter took off and as it faded into the night Robin could hear talking again. It stopped and he heard someone going up the stairway. Mark signaled all clear. Robin let his MP5 hang in his sling and resumed setting the other charges. He set them for two hours and fifty minutes. He then tapped Mark on the shoulder and signaled for them to move out.
“What about the ship's communications?” Mark whispered.
“It's too dangerous to try to get up to the antennas while the ship is docked. We'd be seen for sure. Besides, we won't be anywhere near it when the charges go off.”
Mark nodded and they went to the cargo door and checked out the area. They couldn't hear any noise on the tween deck, so Robin signaled for them to move out. They leaped onto the dock and made straight for the corner of the wall around the empty lot and jumped over. They waited for a couple of minutes and hearing nothing they headed back along the wall to an opening at the southeast corner. They used a dirt road Kuro said would take them to the other side of the peninsula and they could find the RIB from there. Robin looked at Mark who grinned. Robin felt good too. They may just get out of this alive.
They were fifteen minutes away from the ship when Robin's satellite phone vibrated.
“Mark, stop. We're getting a message.” The men moved to some bushes and Robin cupped his hand around the screen, hit the unscramble button and read the message.
ALERT ALERT ALERT
PACK IS NUCLEAR WEAPON. MUST RECOVER.
ACKNOWLEDGE.
His heart pounded into his throat and for a moment he remained still. Then he leaned over to Mark and showed him the screen. The same fear Robin felt appeared on Mark's face. Robin looked at the screen again, hoping he misread it, but the words seared into his brain. He slowly pressed three buttons, hit the scramble button and then the send button.
ACK
He turned the phone off. He looked at Mark and simply said, “Let's go.” They started back to the ship with Robin setting a double time pace. They worked their way back to the small building surrounded by the trees. Scanning the area, they saw no one, but heard the ship's engine running. Robin tapped Mark's shoulder and moved in a fast walk to the left side of the cargo door with his weapon ready. The hold was clear and he dropped onto the deck moving to the darkest corner he could find in the front, with Mark following. The cargo door started closing. The two men huddled next to each other and waited in the dank gloom.
TWENTY-THREE
DAVID KEPT THE BOAT at a low speed as he guided it in an area twenty-five miles west of Yonaguni Island. Emmett stood next to him, fidgeting and scanning the night sea with low light binoculars. Other men searched the night from different parts of the boat.
The last position from NSA put the target ship approximately two miles northwest of their location. Emmett thought they should've spotted it by now. He looked over at David, who seemed a lot calmer than Emmett felt. He reached for his satellite phone and David gently put his hand on top of Emmett's.
“Give us a few more minutes, Emmett. The ship is close, I can feel it.”
“Now you're beginning to sound like our boss. He says shit like that.”
“You mean Robin?”
“Yep.”
“I must meet him.”
“Oh, I'm sure you will.”
They motored on in silence until Doug's voice called out, “Navigation lights, ten o'clock!”
Emmett raised his binoculars and caught a flash. He settled the binoculars down and then clearly saw the lights. He took his eyes off the binoculars and could still see the lights now.
“Do you see them, David?”
“Yes, I have them.”
“We'll get ready to launch the RIB.”
David held out his hand. Emmett wrapped his huge hands around David's in a warm handshake.
“Good luck, Emmett. I'd tell you to be careful, but if you were careful, you wouldn't be here, would you?”
“I'm careful in my own way.” Emmett saluted David and walked out of the cabin.
David began maneuvering the boat to bring it behind the tango ship, but keeping a decent distance between them. Gradually, he completed the turn and started pacing the ship. Cái came into the cabin.
“We're ready to launch, General.”
“Good. The ship is doing ten knots, Cái. At that speed and this sea, there shouldn't be any trouble catching and boarding her.”
“Yes, sir.”
David smiled. “I wish I could board her with our friends.”
“I do too, sir, but I am sure they will take care of business.”
“I'm sure they will, too.”
Cái saluted and left to join the team.
As they closed distance on the freighter, Emmett glassed the rear deck for any movement. Suddenly the glow of a cigarette appeared near the stern.
“Rick?”
“I see him.” Rick lay prone over the left side of the RIB with his sniper rifle.
Emmett tried to keep an eye on the stern of the ship and Rick at the same time, but decided to just watch the ship. They came closer and Emmett began to fidget. Several seconds went by and he wanted to scream for Rick to shoot when he heard the muffled shot leave Rick's silenced rifle and the cigarette floated to the sea.
“He's down,” Rick quietly observed.
Emmett saw no one else and waved Cái forward, pointing to the right side of the stern. Emmett readied a boarding ladder. He could see the small deck above the rear cargo door and prepared the hook attached to the rope ladder.
Cái made a good approach and Emmett got the boarding ladder hook on the railing around the small deck in two tries. He grabbed the ladder with his hand and got his foot on the first rung. He climbed to the hook, made sure it held securely and waved Rick up. He could see Doug covering the stern with his silenced MP5.
The ever agile Rick caught the boarding ladder and got his foot onto the bottom rung on the first try. He thought he did pretty good considering he was carrying forty pounds of C4 explosives, as were the other two men. Emmett waved him up and then helped Rick over the rail. He went to the back of the small deck and using a handhold, pulled himself up onto the area in between the superstructure and the starboard exhaust stack. From there he inched his way over an inclined piece of support and dropped down onto the second deck of the superstructure. He cleared right and saw the body of the man he shot. He pulled the body against the base of the exhaust stack. He then cleared a corner to the left and saw a ladder leading up to the top deck and climbed it. Reaching the top, he saw his objectives…the communication antenna for the ship. He set to work disabling them.
Emmett saw Rick go onto the upper deck, turned and waved Doug up, who slung his MP5 back and grabbed the boarding ladder with his right hand. He stepped onto the ladder and grabbed further up with his left. Emmett had moved down to help Doug and in light of the full moon saw him wince, but he made it to the small deck. Emmett pulled him closer.
“You good? I saw you wince.”
“I'm good to go. Let's rock!”
The two men climbed onto the second deck of the superstructure, cleared the outside, set up security and waited for Rick to come down from the top deck, which he did a few minutes later. The sh
ip's bridge sat just forward and up from them and Emmett pointed to it. The other men nodded.
Emmett quietly climbed the steps to the door of the bridge and peeked through the window. He saw two men talking to each other, but not touching the helm or throttle. That meant the ship steered on auto pilot and a good thing to Emmett. Doug came up behind and Emmett signaled for Doug to follow him in and Rick to maintain outside security. Both men nodded.
Doug crouched and moved to the door handle. Emmett pointed to himself indicating he would go straight in and pointed to Doug indicating he should buttonhook to the right. Doug nodded. Emmett raised his weapon and nodded. Doug pushed the handle down and pulled the door open. In one second both men moved into the bridge. The man on the left instantly reached for a pistol on the chart table. Emmett put a two round burst into his head, which pitched the man forward onto the chart table in a crimson shower and he crumpled to the deck. The other man stood stock still with his hands raised. Doug grabbed the man and pushed him face down to the floor and put his knee behind his neck. Emmett put plastic handcuffs on his hands and feet. linking them together and put duct tape on his mouth.
Emmett and Doug came out of the bridge and Rick led the way to a ladder down to the weather deck. All three had their weapons ready and continually scanned the area around them. Once on the weather deck they found the door to the inside stairwell to the tween deck and Rick very slowly led the way down. Suddenly, he stopped and raised his hand in a fist, indicating to the others to stop. He bent down and peered under a ledge. He eased back up, pointed to his eyes and then showed seven fingers, indicating he saw seven enemy.
