Occupied Seattle (Occupied Seattle Book 2)

by Christopher Kennedy

  “That’s what I think, too,” agreed Deadeye. She continued to look at Jet. “Which one do you think?”

  “Well, the convention center is downtown and taking it there would have involved getting it past a lot of people, and you would probably want as few as possible to see it,” theorized Jet. “If you took it to Safeco, though, you could probably get it right to the stadium without too many people noticing, especially if you did it at night.”

  “I agree with that assessment,” said Deadeye. “Do we know what ships were close to those two places? That might help, too.”

  “I don’t know,” said Calvin, “But I know someone that could find out for us. I definitely think you’re on to something. Let me call our friends in D.C. and make them work for us for a change.

  Pulling out the phone, he called the CNO. “Hi sir,” he said when the CNO answered. “I think we’ve solved your problem.”

  “You have?” asked the CNO. “How exactly did you do that?”

  “Before I answer your question,” deferred Calvin, “answer a question for me. What ships pulled into Seattle prior to the attack?”

  “Hang on a second,” answered the CNO. “I have that information here somewhere.” He paused, and Calvin could hear papers shuffling in the background. “OK, here it is. Ships in Seattle…there was a freighter and a container ship that pulled into the southern part of the port, there was a cruise ship that pulled into central Seattle, and a bulk freighter and a car carrier in the northern part of the port. The LHA and the oiler went into Naval Base Kitsap, and destroyers went into Naval Base Everett and into Tacoma. Oh, yeah, there was also a car carrier that went into Tacoma.”

  “Yes, sir, that confirms our thinking,” Calvin said. “We believe that the nuke is at Safeco Field.”

  “Based on the ships in the harbor, you think their nuke is at Safeco Field?” the CNO asked. “How the hell did you come up with that?”

  “That’s easy, sir,” said Calvin. “When the Chinese arrived, they held big groups of our civilians hostage and used them for nuclear blackmail. Everyone involved in the planning knew that, including the big wigs in Beijing. But what if one of those same big wigs didn’t trust the on-scene commander to get or keep the nukes, but believed in the original plan as it was written?” He paused, but didn’t get an answer from the CNO, so he continued. “If you didn’t trust the on-scene commander, but believed in the plan, you’d put one of your own nuclear weapons into one of the other groups; you just wouldn’t tell the on-scene commander.”

  “Well, that makes sense,” agreed the CNO. “But how did you decide it was Safeco?”

  “The other place was a convention center in downtown Seattle,” explained Calvin. “You have to remember that this weapon was supposed to be secret, so the Chinese leadership wouldn’t want it to be seen. If that’s the case, you probably wouldn’t want it being paraded through the streets of downtown Seattle. Safeco Field is a little further outside of town and is also very close to the port facility, whereas the convention center is not. Finally, the ship that was closest to the convention center was the cruise ship. It would have been hard to get a nuke on and off of it without being seen, whereas, it would have been relatively easy to get it off one of the ships in the southern part of Seattle, especially the container ship. As you’re unloading the containers, someone just drives off with the one that holds the nuke and takes it to Safeco. You could even take it to a loading dock, I’m guessing, and no one would ever be any the wiser.” Calvin smiled, having figured out most of the last part all by himself.

  Everyone around the table was nodding in agreement with Calvin’s reasoning. After a pause for consideration, the CNO voiced his agreement. “I think you may be right,” he said. “Certainly, everything you said makes sense.” He paused again. “I’ve got just one more question. How’d you like to take the platoon and go pick up that nuclear weapon for me?”

  Calvin sighed. “Somehow, I just figured you’d ask that, sir.”

  Safeco Field, Seattle, WA, 1050 PDT

  “Looks like you were right, sir,” said Ryan as he drove past Safeco Field on 1st Avenue. Judging by the number of Chinese troops standing on guard and patrolling around the outside of the stadium, it was obvious that there was something important inside it. Unlike many other soldiers they had seen, these were at the highest state of readiness; guns were carried at port arms, where they could quickly be brought into firing position.

  “Yeah, unfortunately,” said Calvin. “Whatever is in there, they want to keep it there.”

  The command team of Calvin, Ryan, Top and Deadeye finished their drive around the field, passing down the north side of the field along Royal Brougham Way. All of the main entrances at home plate, left field, right field, and center field had pairs of soldiers both inside and outside the locked gates. There also appeared to be two pairs of roving patrols on the outside. There would probably be roving patrols inside, too.

  They went back to the Filson’s store at Massachusetts St. and 4th Avenue. The rest of the platoon had appropriated it a few minutes earlier telling all of the store employees and customers that it was time for them to leave. Most of the customers got the hint when a large group of armed men came into the store. One manager objected a little more strongly than the rest and took a little more convincing, but even he left when told that there would probably be a lot of gunfire in the vicinity that he really didn’t want to be a part of. Paris showed him what a bullet wound looked like, and that was all that was required; he was out of the store within 5 seconds, looking queasy.

  The command team entered the store and quickly built a model of the stadium located a couple of blocks away. “This isn’t going to be easy,” said Ryan, “but we ought to be OK if everyone knows and sticks to the plan.” He looked around and saw that he had everyone’s attention. “All of the entrances have pairs of soldiers both inside and outside them, and all appear to be chained.” People started shaking their heads; this was going to suck. While it would be easy to kill the soldiers outside the gates, it would be much more difficult to ensure that they got all of the soldiers on the inside simultaneously. There was a large chance that they would miss one of them, giving them the opportunity to raise the alarm.

  “That’s why we’re not going in that way,” Ryan continued. Calvin had been watching their faces and saw several look up in surprise. Ryan pointed to the east side of the field. “Train tracks run along this side of the field, and it is harder to patrol. Also, the field bends around a little bit, and the guards at the center field gate aren’t able to see the east side of the field. I’m sure they’re not worried about it because there aren’t any gates on that side. There are, however, roll down access doors for bringing in supplies. I’m going to pick the lock on one of those doors, and we are going to enter that way. That should get us into the back of one of the concession stands. From there, we’re going to exit onto the main concourse and work our way around until we can see the field, leaving defensive positions as we go.”

  “Once we can see the field,” Ryan continued, “we’ll make a decision on how to proceed. We believe that the weapon is either going to be on the field or up in an office. For the same reason that the nukes were on the ground floor at the university, we expect this one will be at field level because it probably weighs several hundred pounds. If it is on the field, we’ll try to get it back out the same way it came in, which is probably an access door that they drive the field’s vehicles through. Basically, it will be a smash and grab at that point. We will hit them hard and use whatever transportation we can find there to take the weapon out. We will then evade and return back here, jump into our cars and head back to the hangar.”

  Ryan looked around. “The goal is to be as stealthy as we can for as long as we can. Once our cover is blown, we hit them with shock and awe, and then we run as fast as we can. Any questions?”

  There weren’t any, so the platoon filed out the southern door of the store and went across the train tra
cks to the Seattle Transportation Building. This building was a storage building for train cars that ran in a north-south direction to within about 100 feet of Safeco Field. It was also a blind spot for the guards at the gates to the field; they were unable to see the approaching Americans from where they were. That was not true for the roving patrols. Ryan stuck his head around the corner and saw one of the patrols walking past the door that he had selected as their point of entry. He waited until the patrol was out of sight, and then the platoon sprinted the last 100 feet to the walls of the stadium.

  Lock picking wasn’t a skill that Ryan had practiced recently, and he knew that he didn’t have much time before one of the roving patrols came by, but he forced himself to go slowly. He saw that it was a simple pin-and-tumbler lock, which was relatively easy to open using the pick and wrench that he had improvised. The process of picking the lock was simple in theory, but more difficult in practice, especially since he hadn’t done it in a while. Picking a lock required a great deal of patience, which conflicted with his need to go quickly.

  He started by placing his wrench into the lower portion of the keyhole. Ryan determined which way the cylinder had to be turned to unlock it by putting pressure on the little wrench as he felt for the firmness of the stop. Turning it counterclockwise resulted in a stop that was very firm. Turning it clockwise, the stop had a little more give to it; that was the correct way to open the lock. He put a little bit of tension on the wrench and held it in the correct direction.

  He then inserted the pick into the upper part of the keyhole and began to feel the pins. Finding the pin that was the hardest to move, he pushed it up until it set, pressing it with just enough pressure to overcome the downward pressure of the spring. He pushed the upper pin out of the cylinder; then, when he let go, the lower pin fell back down, but the torque on the cylinder resulted in a misalignment that wouldn’t let it fall all the way down. After setting the first pin, he continued to hold the pressure and set the remaining pins in the lock. Once he set all of the pins, he continued to turn the wrench and the lock opened. He looked back at Calvin. “Piece of cake, sir; just like riding a bike.”

  They were in, and Ryan rolled the door up. Everyone went into the storage area, and Ryan gently lowered the door again. Within five seconds the next patrol came around the corner. There was nothing to see, and they kept walking.

  With daylight seeping through the cracks of the doors, there was enough light to see by in the storage room once their eyes adjusted to the dimmer light. Ryan led them to the door at the front of the storage room and saw that it was locked from his side. He slowly unlocked the door with just the smallest ‘click.’

  He pulled the door open a crack and could see that it was dark on the other side. As he suspected, the door led to a concession area; he could see the various cooking and food preparation areas. Seeing that all of the service windows had their roll-down doors shut, he walked through the dim light to the door that led out onto the main concourse, which went all the way around the first floor of the stadium. Quietly, he opened the door a crack and peeked out. He didn’t see anyone in the direction the door opened, so he opened it a little further and stuck his head into the opening so that he could see in the other direction.

  The concourse was empty.

  Well, not totally empty. He could hear voices coming from the left. He listened for a few seconds before determining that they were coming from the troops that were guarding the right field gate. Those soldiers probably wouldn’t come in their direction, as long as they were quiet. Opening the door all the way, he signaled the troops and proceeded out into the cavernous concourse. Ryan looked at the seating signs and saw that they had come out behind Section 107. Moving quickly, he went to the passageway between Sections 106 and 107, waving the men forward. All of the men moved forward to the wall on the field side of the concourse, with two men, Private First Class Adam Severn and Sergeant Daniel Nguyen, staying behind to watch over their escape route.

  Ryan crept down the tunnel leading to the field and looked onto the playing surface. There, in the center of the field, sat two of the Chinese ZBD-08 infantry fighting vehicles, with deep tracks in the grass from where they had been driven into the stadium. Ryan, an avid baseball fan, added the desecration of the field to his list of things the Chinese still had to account for. As he looked around, he shook his head; in addition to the vehicles, there were also the better part of 100 men camped in right field.

  They’ve only got us outnumbered five-to-one this time, he thought philosophically; it’s our best odds of the day! He knew that, although outnumbered, they had surprise and concentration of forces on their side if they could use them effectively. The problem was going to be getting to the vehicles without the alarm being raised. Once inside the vehicles, the platoon would have sufficient firepower to overwhelm the Chinese. As he looked out to center field, he could see that the gate was still open where they had brought the vehicles into the stadium; they could take them out that way…they just had to get to them first.

  Ryan came up with a plan. Although the Chinese had made it harder for them to get into the stadium by chaining off all the entrances, it was also going to make it harder for the Chinese soldiers that were outside the stadium to get back in. He sent four of his men to attack the right field gate, as well as three additional soldiers to hold off the Chinese troops at the center field gate. He also sent the sniper team with the group going to the center field gate. It would be their job, once the gate was taken, to get into a position where they could cover the field. Tiny’s powerful .50 caliber sniper rifle would be able to reach out and touch anyone, anywhere within the stadium.

  The rest of the troops would be with him for the shock and awe phase of the assault. Judging by the numbers of troops that he had seen on guard and on patrol in the stadium, Ryan estimated that about 1/3 of the Chinese soldiers were down with their tents on the field. Although there was no way of knowing which tents were occupied and which ones weren’t, he wasn’t as worried about it; they still had three anti-personnel rockets for their RPGs, and this was as good a time as they were ever going to get to use them. Having given the teams headed to the right field and center field gates time to get into position, Ryan signaled the twins, who were once again going to lead off the platoon’s attack.

  Playing Surface, Safeco Field, Seattle, WA, 1130 PDT

  Bad Twin fired an incendiary anti-personnel round from the tunnel between Sections 106 and 107. The rocket burst over the tents in right field, slightly left of the group’s center, scattering its 900 steel balls and 2,500 incendiary pellets over a 15 meter radius on detonation. Fires broke out as the tents ignited, and ammunition inside them detonated from the heat. Good Twin fired another anti-personnel round at the same time from his position in the tunnel between Sections 105 and 106. The rocket landed just to the right of the center of the group of tents, with its warhead bouncing back up to detonate in an airburst that sent 800 anti-personnel steel balls scything out to search the tents for victims. In what was probably overkill, the remaining 101st Airborne M67 Gunner, Corporal John Duncan, fired an anti-personnel round of his own from the tunnel between Sections 104 and 105 into the tents.

  During the course of the battle at Bangor, the M67 teams had fired off nearly all of their anti-tank rounds, but had been so busy shooting at the armored vehicles that they hadn’t used any of their anti-personnel rounds. The M590 round was perfect for clearing an area of enemy personnel, as it was a cartridge filled solely with flechettes, pointed steel projectiles with vaned tails for stable flight. When fired, the sides of the canister split, sending out its payload of 2400 steel-wire flechettes. Although they only weighed half a gram, the little pieces of wire dispersed into a cone of approximately 8 degrees that shredded everything in their path. The sides of the soldiers’ tents did nothing to impede them, and they swept through the area like the wind, blowing the life out of the soldiers in the tents.

  Only four of the 37 soldiers that were
in the group of tents were combat effective after the triple blast. Stunned by the blasts, they came out of their tents, trying to comprehend what was happening. All were cut down by the rest of the members of the platoon as they charged down from the stands.

  As the first of the anti-personnel rockets exploded, both of the teams that were attacking the gates fired M203 grenades into the gate areas from around the nearest corners. The grenades were precious, as they only had a few remaining, but if the platoon could get the nuclear weapon, they hoped that the main body of the Army would soon be in town with some needed supplies. The groups of guards at the center field and right field gates were taken completely by surprise, and the two soldiers that survived the grenade blasts were quickly finished off.

  The platoon had killed or rendered ineffective over half of the company in its initial assault, but the other half responded rapidly. Most of them had been on the other side of the main concourse, having lunch as they prepared to come on duty. They quickly discarded their meals and picked up their weapons, running toward the field to see what was happening. Their company commander, Captain Ma Gang, was up in the press box, which he had made his headquarters. This gave him an excellent view of the field, as well as access to the stadium’s public address system.

  Taking in the attack in front of him, he quickly began calling off instructions to his men. He could not allow the nuclear weapon to be taken and directed his men to kill the men running onto the field, while telling the groups at the gates to come around them from behind.

  The nine members of the assault force made it to the vehicles as bullets from the other side of the stands started to rain down around them and ricochet off of the vehicles. The twins threw down their RPG tubes, and one climbed into each of the vehicles. It wasn’t long before both of their motors roared to life. Pausing outside the vehicles, the M67 team stopped to load another anti-personnel round into the weapon, and Corporal Duncan fired it into the main group of Chinese shooting at them from the tunnel between Sections 142 and 143. All of them went down.