Classified: Missing Cat-Sub

by Waggoner, Robert C.

  The mark was so busy with the girl he never saw Tony. However the girl saw him clearly. At first she sucked in some air and then Tony gave her the shush sign. Her black eyes acknowledged him. The first thing he did was kick the man in the stomach lifting him clear off the girl and he rolled to the wall gasping for air. Surprisingly, the girl rose up, walked over to the man and she too kicked him in stomach. Tony smiled and said in Japanese, "I presume you are not willingly here tonight?"

  "No and I can see by your dress, you're here to do what I'd like to do to this worthless human. If I may be so bold, if you have a knife, I'd like to borrow it for a few minutes," she spat out with spittle flying. She was shaking all over with hate. Tony could see the man slowly recovering, but he was totally harmless.

  "I see you are serious young lady, so here, take my knife. I'll make sure he doesn't move much," he said while moving over and grabbing the man by his skinny arm, pulled him onto the futon back down. Tony was very impressed at how fast she moved. In a flash she had his evil penis in hand on its way to his mouth. The scream was piercing and Tony quickly stepped on his neck to stop the flow of air. It wasn't long before the man lie still but twitching in the throes of death.

  He thought it foolish of him to take this girl with him, but he couldn't leave her to the police. Ironically, she had a passport. He found out later powerful Japanese men would take her off island to other countries.

  He smiled again as the chopper began to drop down to the remote camp. He almost laughed out loud remember what she said right afterwards, "I need a shower, I'll only be five minutes. I can't leave here without washing his stink off me."

  The Bell landed in a swirling dust bowl. It never rains when you want it to, he thought as he bent down while the blades slowly stopped. His camp boss, Whymar, greeted his boss at the camp shack. The only redeeming factor of the shack was its a/c being powered by a fairly quiet Honda generator.

  Tony sat down at the desk and said, "We have a contract Whymar. I think we need four of our best. We're going to the USA."

  -8-

  "Andy, I think I see something off the port bow. I see a grey shape rather than brown," said Mike. The Navy had expedited the submersible request and by afternoon, Mike with his submersible pilot Andy Whitehaven, was following the exact course of the Vermont. They were almost 110 kilometers off shore where the bottom depth was 100 meters and counting.

  "I see it too sir," said Andy with some excitement in his voice. Like most dedicated military personnel, Andy was embarrassed by the loss of an important new craft. As they slowly moved to the, what was now evident, the missing cat sub, "Sir lets mark the spot using our GPS. Also, my orders are to notify shore that we are in need of pickup. They'll send a Chinook and whisk us away."

  "Okay Andy, let's wrap it up right after I take a few photos for my boss," said Mike.

  Later they were bobbing on the surface waiting for a pickup. Mike called Brad. "You were right on buddy. We marked the spot and will be back on base within an hour or so."

  Brad sat his phone down and without any emotion, stroked Sandy's head and neck. Then he called his boss the president. Brad was put right through. "Report," said Sam Bates.

  "We found it sir. I'm going to use it for bait to catch the people responsible; if that's agreeable to you," said Brad.

  "Damn fine news Brad. Would you care to speculate who was behind it," asked the president.

  "I think I know who is behind it, but our main concern it was China is not turning out that way. However, the source is very nearby, if you get my meaning," said Brad.

  "Yes, I think I do Brad. Your father has been very worried lately. I'm sure you'll tell him forthwith the good news," said the president as he hung up.

  "Son, you took the monkey off my back. Yes, indeed I fretted and worried, but had faith in you and your fine team. Your mother said I should take up gardening with Park. Maybe it's time I took a final break from the service. However, there's still work to be done and I'm not finished quite yet.

  Okay, so that is that and you'll use it for bait, I presume," said Secretary Pratt.

  "Yes, I'm sure it will lead to the east, but need to verify it first. Meanwhile we are digging into some shady politicians and manufacturing firms. I'll brief you and the president in a week or so. Got to go now sir," said Brad.

  Brad and team sat around the warehouse office kicking around some ideas about how the sub thieves might try and remove the cat sub. Agent Jones said, "Brad I'm not much on undersea stuff, but wouldn't it take a fairly large crane to lift the cat sub?"

  "Yes, it would. We need to have someone chase a red hearing thinking we aren’t looking where the cat sub really is. Any ideas team," asked Brad. The silence was broken by Sandy who passed a little gas. Brad chuckled and so it went until it was a round table knee slapping belly laughs. Sandy was delighted and woofed her approval. Finally, Mike wiping his eyes said:

  "I think it's time we went fishing off shore. We need a little downtime anyway. Let's get a local yokel to chauffeur us around. Who knows we might even catch something."

  "Okay," said Brad, "we got Mike fishing and who's going with him?"

  "I'll with him," said Wade. I'll get "Mike to tell me some war stories while we chug a brew and cast our bait out."

  "Wendy, what are you and Jones going to do while we bide our time," asked Brad.

  "I think we need to find out if someone rented/leased a barge or ship with a crane onboard. It would have to be diver equipped also. I think me and Jones will let our fingers do the walking through the yellow pages of the computer."

  "Sounds good team. Billy, what's your contribution to this wait and catch the mouse in the trap game," asked Brad.

  "I'd like to –or I should say, we—would like to keep on the background checks of Carolina and that Senator Totsky. So far he's kept us from finding out about his wealth. He did marry a rich woman who loves to breed race horses, but from what we've discovered, she loses her butt. It appears she has no business sense at all. Her daddy cast her adrift years ago; from what we gather. The senator was from an upper middle level with both his parents' professionals, but far from rich. He's clever that one is -- in our opinion."

  "Stay with it and provide us with a link to Hong Kong. I need that verified before I can take any action," said Brad. All knew what he meant except Alice.

  **//**

  Like most Asians, Angi could sleep anywhere at any time. The flight attendant told her to raise her seat up because they'd be landing shortly. Angi hurried to the restroom to freshen up a bit.

  After customs, she hailed a taxi to take her to Kings Naval Base. The taxi driver shrugged his shoulders and took off. Angi paid with a credit card and tipped the man generously with green dollars. He smiled with a mouthful of gold teeth accenting his black skin.

  Angi walked to the guard station noting it was very dark out and she was hungry. The guards were forewarned that she would be coming. In no time Alice was on her way to pick her up. Angi shouldered her bag and waited outside not wanting those Marines to stare at her.

  For Brad she was about what he expected of an Asian: small, wiry, short black hair and eyes, a stubby nose with thin lips. She was no raving beauty, but not hard on the eyes either. She followed Alice and sat down where instructed. She looked around the room and in no time she spotted Brad as the main man in the room. The aura around him radiated power from within. She'd guessed right in coming here to make a deal of some sort. Agni felt really small and uneducated around this team of professionals.

  Brad said, "Welcome Angness to our country. What can we do for you now that you've come such long ways from your origin?"