Lightship

by Stephan Besik

  "Okay," responded Enzo. "I'll put one down on a neighboring rooftop until I can get the other positioned."

  Enzo put down his sandwich. He flew one of his Mockingbirds to the roof of the building next door while he maneuvered the other into a position from which the Mockingbird had a full view of the front of building. It occurred to him that he had a bit of heartburn. Maybe he should have waited on the sandwich.

  Emmett rotated his chair and stood up to look over Enzo's shoulder. "Check the back and sides of the building for other exits. We may have to burn your second bird on a back door. I'd hate to have the front door staked out only to have them come out the back."

  Jaime volunteered, "I can send one in to cover the back of the building."

  "We're going to need coverage on the back," said Enzo. "There's a regular door back there."

  "Okay, position one of your birdies to watch the rear. Jaime, you do the same, and coordinate with Enzo so you've got different angles. Char, where are your birdies now?"

  "Just coming up now. Looks like a tenth of a mile before they're at the new stakeout."

  "Are they on the road that goes by the front of the building?"

  "Yeah."

  "Okay, hold up two and get them into spots with visibility on the road in front of our target, right after the last intersection. Put your other birdies in sight of the intersection in case we have to chase again."

  "Got it. Cover the intersection and place the other two to observe the road in front of the building."

  There was a little more chatter as Mockingbirds were positioned. Then things got quiet. Everyone settled in to wait again.

  Second Chance

  Whatever had gone on inside the building, the American crews had been waiting four hours. Everyone knew there was a limit to how long they could wait.

  Eight Mockingbirds were in place, patiently watching. A back door had been identified; two of the small drones were hidden a short distance away from the back exit in case it was used by any of their possible targets. Four of the birds were watching the front doors and the road in front of the building, where the Russian officers had entered the building and where they were most likely to exit. Two more of the little drones were positioned near the intersection between the meeting building and the origins of the convoys in case the groups of vehicles got past all of the observers and the team still didn’t have a bead on the man.

  The Panther UAVs and the Superhawks flew slowly through their randomized flight patterns, the human crews of the 'hawks hoping to avoid detection while waiting for a second chance to find their target. A staff meeting made perfect sense for the commander of the RSR Army, so chances were good that the attack team was watching the right place. There was always the chance, however, that they were watching the wrong people; that the intelligence people in what remained of the American government had made a mistake.

  Emmett was the person with the worst case of nerves in the team. He had time limits. This team's daylight shift was running out. In three hours they would have to head back to Truman to refuel and get some sleep. When the night shift showed up the odds of identifying Gorovyak would go down and the odds of a successful strike would go down even further.

  As for the mission as a whole, the squadron had just four more days. When the last day was up, Emmett's first command of a squadron-size mission would be over. If they hadn't found and eliminated Gorovyak, his first big command would be a failure.

  Enzo saw the first signs of additional action. "Em, Jaime, some guy just came out of the building. Looks like he's talking to one of the guys that stayed with the vehicles. Think the meeting is breaking up?"

  "Maybe," replied Emmett. "Let's keep alert. Get the ID software up and running." He got on the ship-to-ship to inform Charlene. "Char, we've got some activity here. Not sure what's happening yet. I'll update as soon as we have more."

  The person from inside stood and talked with the drivers for a while. He appeared to be writing something and there seemed to be a fair amount of banter with some laughter. He turned and went back in to the building. The drivers stayed in a group just outside the door, walking around a little and apparently chatting with one another.

  There was more confusion as the ten soldiers outside the building went in and the other shift came out.

  Emmett suddenly had an uncomfortable, disappointed feeling. "Hey, do either of you have the time over Anapa?"

  "Yeah. I've got about five PM", replied Jaime. "Why?" Then his face fell. "Aw, shit." He slumped back in his seat.

  "What's up?" asked Enzo.

  "I have a feeling we just watched the changing of the guard, and a guy taking orders from the drivers for dinner." Emmett grimaced. "I think this guy is going to come back bearing gifts."

  "Crap", complained Enzo. "Sorry. I thought it might be something."

  "Not a big deal, Enzo. You were right to call it. We don't know what's going to happen or when. Even if this is just dinner for the drivers and a personnel rotation it's better to be on it than to make an assumption and miss our target. I think the man is in the building. He's got to come out eventually."

  The man from inside the building came out again, this time carrying a box. The drivers gathered around and pulled bags out of the box. A couple of men sat on the steps of the building; a few leaned against the nearest APC. They looked happy enough, but with snow on the ground and the sun on its way down it had to be cold.

  Emmett leaned back in his chair and spoke in to his mic. "False alarm, Char. Looks like the drivers are having dinner."

  "Damn," said Enzo. "Well, I guess a man's got to eat. Speaking of which, I wonder if we've got anything approaching dinner food. My lunch was more like a snack."

  Emmett smiled sadly. "What we had is what we've got. At least it's all pretty fresh."

  The three men took turns getting dinner. They did a few more exercises, and settled back down to wait a while longer.

  It took about a half hour for the men with the vehicles to finish dinner. There was another minor alert as a man who might have been the man with the box came out to collect trash a half hour later, and then carried the box around to the back of the building to dump it in a large trash bin. He took a short cut back, entering the building by the back entrance.

  The wait went on for another hour, with the crew getting more tense with every passing minute. It was early evening. They had only one more hour before they had to swap with the night shift and head for home. At ground level the sun was heading toward the horizon, so even the view from the Mockingbirds was becoming obscured by shadows. Although they still had fuel and time, they might not be able to make a successful strike because of the fading daylight. Twilight would be difficult, with too little daylight but too much light to use infrared.

  The next time the doors opened was different. The man who had brought dinner came out first and spoke to the men guarding the vehicles. Each went back to his respective vehicle to wait. Then he walked up to one of the guards on the building. The guard he spoke to appeared to wave his hand at the next man down the line, who continued the waving. The escort troops began to gather near their respective vehicles.

  The doors opened again and the original ten escort troops came out. Emmett sat up. "On your toes, everyone. This might be it. Looks like the troops are going to load up any minute now. The brass must be coming out soon. Enzo, Jaime, I think it's a good bet the brass will come out the front. Get your software up and running." He switched to ship-to-ship and called Charlene. "Char, we've got movement again. This time it looks like they're pulling out. Any opposition concerns from Raquel?"

  "Raquel says nothing in the air around here except birds and our stuff."

  "Okay. If our target shows up I'll take the first shot. I'm going to try for a hit before the convoys start to move out. I don't think I'll miss but if I do you should be ready to go after the boss man with your UAVs. If I get him, line your Panthers up on the FSB training center and take it out. Then recall your drones. Dest
roy your Mockingbirds as you pull out. We want to leave as little as possible behind us. We'll keep on our current flight plan until we know whether the Panthers can make it out. If anything comes up after we shake the hornet's nest, we stay with the drones long enough to unload on the enemy with the air-to-air ordnance carried by the Panthers. If there are any surface threats, we can hit them with the remaining Dragonfires. Then we put our UAVs on automatic pilot to head back to the ship and we head for home. If there's no opposition we can stay here until the drones get to the two relay drones. I'll send the recall command to the relays. Then we head for home.

  "Understood, Em. If you miss we take a shot. If you get him we divert to the FSB base and destroy it. After it's over we destroy the Mockingbirds and recall our drones. Any resistance and we use up the ordnance on the Panthers against any enemy. We recall our Panthers and head for home, preferably once the recalled drones reach the relays."

  "That's it."

  Jaime and Enzo both started talking at once. "Looks like the brass are coming out of the building. Brass are on the steps. They are tagged for identification. Running ID checks now."

  "I've got him!" yelled Enzo. "Ninety percent probability."

  Emmett armed his missiles. "Where is he at?"

  "He's outside the second limo. Looks like they're about to load up. The guys he brought in his limos are still clustered around him. They might be there for a bit. When are you going to shoot?"

  "I'm going to do it now. Situation isn’t ideal but it’s good enough. If I'm anywhere close we should get him. The missiles will free fall for almost two minutes before the motors kick in. I'd like him to be in the limo when the missiles hit but if I wait until he's in it will probably be too late. The vehicles may start to move. I'll have to move the designator and hope I'm on the target when the missiles lock on. I'm going to take a chance and drop them early."

  Emmett adjusted the cameras on the Number One drone to ensure a clear view of the area between the second limo and the building. He turned on the gunsight of the guidance turret. The marshal's convoy was pulled up in a circular drive in front of the building. His limo was in between the other limousine and the APC that had acted as escort on the trip from the FSB center.

  Emmett could see the group of officers clustered around the target. Enzo had circled the man on his screen. He was in the middle of the group, apparently talking to one or two older men while everyone else listened.

  Emmett set the designator for his first missile on the limo.

  "Char, get your Dragons armed and ready to target in case I miss. I'm going to set one designator on the target, one closer to the building and release two missiles one at a time. With luck I'll bracket the target. Even with drop error two of them should make a hell of a mess. Just have to hope he's in the middle of it."

  "Got it, Em. Dragons armed and ready. Are you going to fire from one or both of your Panthers?"

  "Just one. If you see a miss, take the next shot. If you miss too I'll try again but he'll be running and the targeting will be rough."

  He moved the first designator to a spot on top of the limo and dropped the first missile. He set the second designator close to the building entrance and dropped the next missile. He had to hope that the sheer volume of violence in the two missiles would ensure that the guy between the laser dots would be taken out. It would work as long as the target was still close to the spots Emmett had chosen to target.

  Suddenly the entire group of officers around Gorovyak turned toward their vehicles and broke into two groups, one for each limo. The escort troops and the officers in the vehicles that Charlene's team had been following broke up and started toward their respective vehicles. The four APCs from the hotels were parked on the street a short way from the driveway.

  "Here we go, folks." He thought he was too late; the missiles had been in free fall for only a minute. Then he did some quick math in his head and realized that he needed less than a minute more of free fall. Once the rockets lit they would cover the remaining ten thousand feet in just a few seconds. If the limo didn't start moving for another half minute his drop would get the job done.

  "Come on, damn it, stay where you're at. Just another few seconds."

  Suddenly there was a brilliant flash on the screen. A few seconds later there was a second. As far as he could tell the missiles both hit their laser targets.

  Enzo whooped and Jaime yelled, "You got him, Em! You got him!"

  Emmett wasn't prepared to say that yet. "Let's wait and see what we've got when the smoke clears. Hold the celebration until we're sure."

  It took a little time for the smoke to clear enough to evaluate the effect of the attack. Once it did, however, it was certain that the missiles had done their job. It looked as if the first missile had destroyed both of the limousines and had probably damaged the escort APC. Based on the location of the second blast it was likely that it had damaged the front of the building as well as hit everything between it and the limos. There was still smoke obscuring the targets, but to all appearances the two explosions had destroyed the building entrance and anything from the front of the building out to the inner edge of the circular drive in front. Anyone in the area of the two blasts would not have survived.

  Emmett called Charlene. "Char, go ahead and take out the FSB center." He thought about trying to have Charlene use her missiles sparingly but decided against it. He didn't want ordnance wasted, but he also wanted Charlene to get the job done. It made no sense to economize on missiles if they were needed to complete the mission.

  "Got it, Em. Good shooting! Switching to secondary target."

  Emmet zoomed the Panther cameras out to get a better look at the target and the results. It took a while for the smoke to clear enough to get an impression of the damage. When the target area was visible, it was clear that there was nothing left of the limousines or anyone inside them. There were bodies and parts scattered around the target, accompanied by wreckage that had been blown far away from ground zero. The APCs on the street had been pelted with wreckage but looked fairly intact. The drivers and anyone inside the vehicles might be okay, but even they could have been injured or killed by the blast pressure. As far as Emmett could tell anyone who was outside the armored vehicles was dead. As for the building, it was hard to tell. The front of the building was heavily damaged. It was likely there were casualties inside the building. There was wreckage between the drive and the building, but it was hard to tell exactly where it had come from.

  The four APCs on the street pulled away from the curb, accelerating to what was probably their maximum speed. Emmett considered trying to hit them with a couple more missiles, but he quickly dropped the idea. Most of the officers were just getting to their rides when the missiles struck; if they weren't in the APCs they were almost certainly dead. Besides, from his viewpoint the mission was accomplished and it made more sense to keep his ordnance than it did to try to hit what were nearly empty moving targets. The missiles were more valuable than any number of near-empty APCs.

  Charlene came on the ship-to-ship. "Mission accomplished here, Em. I dropped two sets of two missiles each, dispersed around the grounds. Looks like there's nothing left but rubble. There might be some survivors in the wreckage, but my guess is there are few if any."

  "Jaime, get me a view of the FSB facility from Panther Two."

  "Aye aye, sir. Coming up."

  Emmett looked at the view of the FSB training center. Charlene had done a good job. The facility appeared to be a total wreck.

  "Good job, Char. I think we're done here. Time to leave. Set the Mockingbirds to self-destruct. I don't think we need to delay, so set the timers to zero. Jaime, you take the birdies from drone two. Enzo, you take the ones from drone one. Set the timers to zero and let's get out of here."

  "Do we have to blow them up, Em?" asked Enzo. "They're great little guys. I don't think we could have gotten this job done without them. I was just getting used to them."

  "No way to get them
back. They can't get up to the altitude of the Panthers and we can't risk the big UAVs by dropping them low enough to try a pickup. I don't think we could maneuver them back into the pods even if we managed to get the Mockingbirds close enough to try a catch. Besides, we've still got more on Truman. Let's get 'em blown up and start the Panthers back to the ship. I don't want us to hang around out here any longer than we have to."

  "Yes, sir. You're the boss."

  Emmett watched the view of the Gorovyak building as a number of small explosions occurred. From the last positions of the birdies before the attack he realized that some of them might have been damaged or destroyed when the Dragonfires hit. In the heat of the attacks it hadn't occurred to him to move the Mockingbirds out of the likely blast zones to make sure that they could be successfully destroyed after the attack. That was the one flaw he could see in the operation. If anyone did a post mortem on the attack a damaged minidrone might be found whose self-destruct mechanism had failed. On the other hand, finding one probably wouldn't do the Russians any good. They were even less likely to be able to repair or build a Mockingbird than was the Navy. Still it would have been better if they could have been certain that they had destroyed all of the minidrones.

  He got on to ship-to-ship to find out if there was any reaction.

  "Char, any signs of a reaction?"

  Char went off circuit for a short time. "Raq says no signs of any reaction. We're going to keep the scans up though. It's a little early for a reaction."

  "Okay. Recall your Panthers. If Raquel sees anything let me know right away. Otherwise we'll hang here until the attack force gets to the location of the relay drones. Then we'll bring them back as a group and start a slow flight home ourselves. I want to stay in touch with the drones until we're sure they are out of danger."

  “Affirmative. Recalling UAVs now.”

  Back to Bulgaria

  Emmett gave himself a few seconds more, changed his view to the forward-looking cameras on both of his Panthers, and then sent the recall signal. Everything looked good; he could see the evening sun ahead of his drones as they turned west across the Black Sea. With his drones headed home he switched to a channel back to Truman.