Part 28 (1/2)
Kil let that sink in. ”Saien, I can't thank you enough, man. I know Rex and Rico are good people, but they haven't driven tanks off bridges with me or fought off hordes of those things or slept on top of coal cars. You get my meaning?”
”Yes. I get you. When do we make the plans?” Saien asked.
”We meet in the SCIF in ninety minutes. I'll go over what I already know so both of us are on the same page.”
Kil proceeded to remind Saien about John's encoded messages and to inform him about the overhead support they would likely be receiving during the operation.
”So you see, we're actually going to have a shot at this. We're not completely alone and afraid,” Kil said.
”Well, maybe not alone.”
”That's fair. Your country has kept much from you. What other secrets sit behind underground vault doors?”
”G.o.d only knows.”
After outlining the location of the facility up river, Kil sketched it in his journal.
Along the way to mission planning, Kil stopped off in radio for a moment to check in with the watch.
”Any luck?” he asked the tech.
”No, sir, still dark. Nothing but the usual old pre-recorded HF chatter out of Keflavik, the BBC loop, and the airport recordings from Beijing. The spectrum is quiet. Sonar had a hit earlier today though.”
”Sonar? They hear another boat?” Kil inquired.
”They say they heard something, but won't put their b.a.l.l.s on the block to claim it was a boat. You'll have to talk to them for the real story, sir. I wasn't there.”
”No worries, just keep trying to hail the carrier. I'll be going ash.o.r.e tomorrow, and will likely be gone a few hours if not longer.”
”You're going in? Sir, you don't even want to know what they are-”
”Yeah, I don't. Stow it,” Kil said. ”Just keep your mind on the comms and that's it. I'll see you when I get back.”
”Aye, aye, sir.”
Kil and Saien continued their route to the SCIF, squeezing through the claustrophobic pa.s.sageways. Kil said jokingly to Saien, ”Well, I guess that's that. RUMINT started. Soon it will be all over the boat that we're going ash.o.r.e. We better hide our belongings while we're gone. I doubt many will expect us to be back. Might be some light fingers aboard while we're away.”
”What is RUMINT?” Saien asked.
”Just military jargon for rumors, you know, gossip. That sort of thing.”
”Ah, like the rumors I hear about the carrier. How it is sank by a Cuban missile.”
”Yeah, sure. For one, Cuba is likely overrun all the way to the GITMO fence line with undead, and two, even if the regime still had any Soviet missiles with the range and accuracy to hit the s.h.i.+p, they would be long past shelf life and useless. Good example though, Saien. That's a laugh. Maybe the Castros can launch a few captured exploding cigars,” Kil said, thinking that Saien probably didn't get it.
Three hard knocks on the door announced their presence at the SCIF. After a moment of scrutiny through the gla.s.s, the door was unlocked and they stepped inside. The security display was not in place to prevent uncleared persons from entering the cla.s.sified nerve center of the boat as much as it was to prevent infected persons from entry. All secure areas required a visual check for signs of infection before entry was permitted.
Monday cleared his throat, gesturing Kil and Saien to the table. ”Over here.”
At the table were Captain La.r.s.en, the boat's chaplain, Rex, Rico, Commie, and Commander Monday. A large map was laid out on the table.
Monday began the briefing immediately. ”We are roughly sixteen hours to go time with a hard start of ten hundred GMT tomorrow. Aurora will be on station for six hours to cover ingress and egress and we'll have the portable UAVs up as well, but the captain will not allow them to follow you to the facility. He'll explain in a bit. Of course, time will be tight, you'll need to be swift inside.”
”Besides recovery of Zero, is there anything else we need to know or look out for?” Rex asked.
Monday hesitated for a moment before turning to La.r.s.en. ”Sir, we got authorization to break the seal on the mission files?”
”Yes, we were authorized the instant we entered Chinese waters. Go ahead,” La.r.s.en responded.
Monday spun the alpha dial on the safe; after an audible click, he stepped aside for La.r.s.en to spin the bravo. No one person had full access to the container that held certain launch codes and other critical files.
La.r.s.en cranked the handle and pulled the drawer open, revealing light to things that rarely saw it.
”Okay, let's take seats.”
With room for only six at the war table, Commie stood behind La.r.s.en. The captain broke the seal on the doc.u.ment pouch and pulled a stack of doc.u.ments from where they had sat since some time before Virginia left Panamanian waters.
”Okay, most of you think you know generally where the facility lies. In saying that, I'll pa.s.s this satellite shot around the room. Virginia is currently here.” La.r.s.en pointed to the mouth of a river on the westernmost portion of the Bohai. ”The facility actually lies in the Tianjin region just southeast of the Beijing region. I apologize for the deception but if the boat was taken siege, I couldn't risk a breach. No one onboard, besides those in this room, knows the true and exact location of the facility. This is why the UAVs can't accompany you to the doors. We have no choice but to remain surfaced during the operation so that we can remain in contact with you as well as maintain data link with the Scan Eagle birds. The birds will be protecting the submarine, watching for threats while you ingress. Questions so far?” La.r.s.en asked, scanning around the table.
Kil raised his hand. ”What about the nearby-airfield-and-stealing-a-Chinese-helicopter part of the plan?”
”That was a necessary deception to deceive those not privy to the fact that you would be a.s.saulting a facility elsewhere than Beijing. The Tianjin region is less populated and as you can see, the facility is only five miles inland from the river,” La.r.s.en answered.
Rico elbowed Rex, not wanting to ask the question himself.
”Okay, I'll ask. Sir, how are we getting upriver? It seems pretty snaky and easy to get lost in the dark. Lots of shanty river docks and other things around in that satellite image. The RHIB will be noisy and draw attention from both sides. Could cause trouble. We don't have GPS anymore, and it'll be tough to pick the right beach.”
”Yes, which is why we are taking Virginia upriver. We'll be so close to the riverbank you can hand paddle the RHIB in if you want, or even swim, but I wouldn't advise it. Topside watch reports bodies in the water. A lot of 'em, and some still moving. Our inertials navigate solely by internal laser gyros, and are not dependent on outside GPS signals. We'll be within a centimeter of optimal landfall. We will also have our top sonar operator sitting at his station to a.s.sist in navigating Virginia through the shallows.”
”What are we going after, really?” said Kil.
La.r.s.en flipped a few pages into the mission doc.u.ments, stopping on a photograph taken off angle and seemingly in secret. ”This is Zero, or what the Chinese codenamed as CHANG. Pa.s.s this around.”
The photo depicted something encased up to its neck in a block of glacial ice. It wore a suit made of some type of alloy. Its face could not be seen through the helmet visor. The only indication that it still moved was the odd contorted positions of its hands, partially protruding from the block of ice.
”The helmet, it's still on. They didn't remove it?” asked Kil.
La.r.s.en responded quickly, ”No, they didn't, or at least they didn't until the Chinese president ordered them to do so. We think that order was issued early December of last year according to the NSA intercepts we were able to recover. The timing is of course impeccable. We can't prove it, but the COG believes that the anomaly started when CHANG's suit integrity was compromised by the Chinese. I think you all know the rest of the story, in 3D.”
”So we make it to the facility, get inside, and find this thing. Then what?” Rex said.
”You disable it and bring it back to the boat. We freeze it in the modified torpedo tube we've prepared, and transport it back to COG scientists,” replied La.r.s.en.