Boned 3 (Mandarin Connection Book 6)
Page 16
“Brace for impact!” said the Capitan over the intercom.
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Suddenly, two explosions rocked it, and the Capitan knew they were finished.
—————
The Russian submarine flew into the air, buried under huge waves of water and oil.
“Our torps must have hit it!” said Weps.
The Captain and the XO looked at each other, worried.
They still had four fish in the water.
—————
The AWACS flew overhead, followed almost immediately by three F-35s.
The crew on the Betsy Ross cheered, throwing their hats into the air.
Suddenly, there was an explosion at the stern of the boat.
One of their own torpedoes had hit them!
“Abandon ship!” ordered the Captain.
The hull had been breached near the propeller shaft, and water poured into the ship, causing it to raise the bow.
Men jumped overboard, the life rafts sliding down the deck towards the sail.
“Let’s go, Bobbo!” yelled ‘Buck’ Rodgers to his XO.
The two men slid down the ladder alongside the sail and leaped off the deck into the ocean.
Crewmen in the lifeboats next to them grabbed onto them and dragged them into the boats.
The USS Betsy Ross rolled on the surface, not sinking quickly.
Suddenly, there was cannon fire!
Shells exploded past the stern, making huge geysers in the water.
“It’s the Chinese destroyers, Sir!” yelled Weps.
The F-35s flew past, low and at supersonic speed, racing toward the trio of ships.
One of them exploded as a surface to air missile hit it.
The debris rained all over the ocean surface, splashing and smoking.
The other two aircraft peeled off, heading away from the ships at Mach Two.
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“Commander, our submarine is under attack, and we’ve lost one F-35 to enemy fire!” shouted the Comm Officer on the AEGIS destroyer.
“Tell the ‘Zoomies’ to fire for effect!” the Commander ordered.
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The Captain, XO, and Weps watched as the Chinese destroyers closed in on them, guns firing round after round.
Two of their lifeboats were hit and disintegrated, the men riding in them blown into the sea.
“You godless bastards!” yelled Chastain, shaking his fist at the warships.
Suddenly, there was a weird, loud noise and what looked like a giant meteor falling from the sky!
It landed directly on the bridge of the lead destroyer and was immediately followed by three more missiles.
The Chinese ship exploded, and the pieces flew into the ocean near them.
Then, the other Chinese two destroyers were hit, the meteor-like weapons crashing into them, blasting through their hulls and sending them to the bottom.
“‘Zoomies’, Sirs,” said Weps. He was grinning ear-to-ear.
“Fucking ‘Zoomies’!” laughed Chastain.
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Captain Rodgers was brought into a conference room with his XO, the Weapons Officer, Sonar Officer, and Communications Officer.
Dr. Wernher Hartmann and Kevin Mitchum were also summoned, and a secured line was set up to allow the Alpha Team and Black Dog members access to the proceedings.
“Captain Rodgers, we would first like to commend you for your bravery, and that of your crew, in the face of hostile action,” said the Fleet Commander.
Rodgers stood at attention, his XO next to him.
“In addition, it was commendable that you had managed to outsmart the enemy,” he added.
“The Navy is very interested in the capabilities of the Chinese salvage vessel, and also in why the Russians and Chinese seemed to be cooperating in this particular exercise,” said the Fleet Commander.
On the monitors, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were silently watching.
“You will all be receiving the appropriate commendations upon your return to duty, which will occur after debriefs,” said the Fleet Commander.
“Good work, men!” he concluded.
Rodgers and Chastain let their breaths out.
They weren’t sure about whether their involvement with Admiral Decker was going to turn this into a court-martial or not.
“One moment, gentleman,” said the Secretary of the Navy.
The two men looked at each other, thinking the other shoe was about to drop.
“It has come to our attention that diplomatic attaches from the three involved countries have supplied our Office with information that directly implicates the Commander in Chief in these proceedings,” he said, gravely.
“At this moment, the President is being detained and held under arrest for treason against the United States of America”, said the Secretary of the Navy.
Everyone in the room gasped, except for the Joint Chiefs, and the SecNav.
“We are going to have some very interesting questions answered thoroughly by you Officers, and there will certainly be a Congressional Hearing, in light of this,” he said.
“The Senate is already drawing up the Articles of Impeachment, and we anticipate that the Vice-president will be sworn-in within the hour,” he said.
“Your cooperation in this will be appreciated,” he said, looking at the two Navy Officers.
“One final thing and this is directed at the Alpha Team,” he said.
“Yes, Sir,” Derek responded.
“You have orders to find and capture Jonathon Reighland, and Harlon Calloway, using whatever means at your disposal, and at the disposal of the US Armed Services. This includes whatever intelligence assets we can provide to assist in identifying other members of the organization known as Mandarin,” he said.
“Sir, we would like to request the men of Black Dog Security Services, and their leader, Captain David Spalding, to assist us, and arrange for liaising with us,” Derek said.
“Permission granted, Vice-Admiral White,” he said. The SecNav smiled.
“Congratulations, son,” he said.
The men of Alpha Team cheered over the monitor speakers, and Travis and Walt were clapping Derek on the back so hard he almost fell down.
“At ease!” he barked.
“One final request, Sir?” he finally managed to get out, trying not to gasp for breath from all the pounding his teammates had given him.
“Yes?” said the SecNav.
“Well, Sir, it’s like this. We need to get our friends out of jail,” said Derek.
The Secretary of the Navy raised an eyebrow, as the Joint Chiefs chuckled amongst themselves.
“And, just whom might these ‘friends’ of yours be, son?” the SecNav replied, already knowing the answer.
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Brett, Kady, and Sarah were still trying to absorb the fact that Ted was gone.
Under house arrest, Brett tried to amass as many resources as his dwindling fortunes would buy, but he was finding himself stymied at every turn.
“David, what are you finding out?” he asked his friend.
“Brett, I’m sorry, but we’re running on fumes, right now,” said Captain Spalding.
“After the whupping we took from Mandarin, I’m lucky to not be in jail with you!” he said, immediately regretting it.
“Sorry, Brett,” he said, the pain etched on his face.
“Forget it, Dave,” said Brett.
“Any ideas at all as to what we can do?” asked Brett.
“Well, it’s a long shot, but let me make a couple of calls, okay, Brett? Hang in there, man!” he said, and then disconnected.
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“How did David manage to not remain in custody anyway?” asked Kady.
“He told the fibbies the truth, that Black Dog was escorting us when they came under attack,” said Brett.
“They only
had tied us to Decker’s murder, and there was no reason to believe that Black Dog was involved. After questioning David, they released him, but not without warning him not to leave the country,” he added.
Sarah was sitting on the sofa, a glass of Beaujolais in her hand.
She sipped at it, the lines on her face taut with concentration.
“Brett, do you have anyone at all that we can ask for help?” she said.
“I know Martin has been a doll, but I can’t see that he can be of any more use than he has been,” she said.
“There was one other person I thought about, but we’d need to get to Brian and Kim, first,” said Brett.
Kady was sitting in a wicker chair, trying not to think of Ted, and not being too successful at it.
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
She ran over to Brett and her mother.
“Ocaba Bien!” shouted Kady.
The other two looked at her as if she had gone crazy.
“What about it, honey?” asked Sarah.
She took a sip of her wine and made a small smile.
Her daughter had reached the same conclusion as she had already.
But, Sarah wasn’t sure how to broach the subject to her children.
“That has to be where Reighland is at!” Kady said.
Sarah put down her glass.
“What of it? What good is that to us?” she said, looking at the two with narrowed eyes.
Brett stood for a moment, thinking.
“We three can deal with Reighland on our own,” he said.
“We should,” he added.
“But, how? And why don’t we just call David, or Derek, or even the police,” asked Sarah, hoping that they had reached the same conclusion as she.
“Because, Mom, now it’s personal,” said Kady.
Sarah drained her glass and placed the empty crystal back on the table.
“It was personal the last time, sweetie,” she said.
“When that bastard almost killed you two, and then shot me!” said Sarah.
Brett and Kady stared at Sarah.
They had never seen her in such a rage before.
Sarah walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up the secure phone Brett had installed.
She waited a moment and then spoke to the operator.
“Can you get me Om Jaeger?” she said into the phone.
“No, wait. Get me his wife, Barbara!” she said.
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
Captain David Spalding was on his way to the safe house where Brian and Kim, and R.B., waited for news from Brett, or Stephan.
Driving up to the nondescript brownstone, he mentally reviewed the events of the past few days.
After Brett, Kady, and Sarah had been placed under house arrest, he’d been forced to undergo an intensive interrogation by the FBI.
He knew now what had happened, getting a lot of intel from Derek White.
But it was only because of information to which he’d been accidentally exposed during the interviews with the FBI that he’d been able to finger the mole in his own organization.
His suspicions regarding Agent Baker had been correct.
Baker was actually a Mandarin agent, who was put into Black Dog with the cover story that he was an FBI plant.
Baker had been in the FBI for almost twenty years and had managed to get assigned to the Black Dog group as an infiltrator.
Someone in the Mandarin Organization had orchestrated his actions and put him onto the Old Man.
Admiral Decker was close to uncovering the plot, and so Baker was given the kill order.
Baker had been integral in setting up the sting that netted the Ghents and implicated Black Dog in Admiral Decker’s murder.
This had come to the notice of the Director of the FBI when transmissions were intercepted by MI-5 and passed along to the NSA.
These conversations were part of the data captured by the NRO as part of their daily feed.
They were surprised and dismayed to learn that the sitting President had supplied critical operational codes and sensitive security information to a Russian adjunct and a Chinese diplomat.
This information had been revealed to certain members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A sympathetic General had passed along the information to Admiral Decker.
The Old Man had decided to get his friend, Captain ‘Buck’ Rodgers, to deploy the USS Betsy Ross to do a routine patrol off Guam.
The ostensible reason, he told Captain Rodgers, was to do a recon of North Korean resources rumored to be in the area.
The US vessel was compromised using an experimental EMP torpedo, developed by the Russians.
Captain Rodgers reported that the Chinese had developed an arcane recovery vessel and that they were tasked with stealing the complement of nuclear missiles that the Betsy Ross carried.
Through dogged determination and some measure of good luck, they had managed to survive long enough for a US Navy AEGIS attack group to rescue them.
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Agent Baker had disappeared.
This worried Spalding a great deal.
Not only did this mean that Baker could act with impunity, it was very likely he was part of a hit team tasked with tying up loose ends – such as Kim and Brian.
Spalding had learned of their house being burned to the ground, and Derek urged him to go to the safe house with a contingent of Black Dog’s operators.
David Spalding was not a man that took security risks lightly.
The failures of his team weighed on his conscience.
He was indebted to Brett Ghent, he felt and considered the Ghents to be the closest of friends.
Ted’s death shook him deeply.
He blamed himself for not being more alert to the danger, especially after the Marina Sands attack.
Still, there was not much more he could have done, that would have allowed the Ghents, and the Jaegers, for that matter, the freedom and flexibility that was necessary for their busy lives.
As Spalding pulled up into the driveway, his internal alert went off.
Something was not right.
He decided to just keep driving, and then, when he was out of sight of the safe house, parked his SUV.
Dialing Black Dog, he had the Operator conference his Tactical Team in with the Alpha Team.
When everyone was in-conference, he told them his suspicions.
“Derek, this is David,” he said.
“I think we need a strike team sent out to the safe house,” he told the group.
“What’s up, Dave?” said Derek.
“Well, I just saw someone I recognized looking out the second story window, and kept driving,” said David.
“Lucky for me, this is not one of our usual SUV’s. I got it from the local Fed pool when I knew we were in a hurry,” he added.
“So, it doesn’t have all the Black Dog signatures,” Travis piped up.
“Yeah, that’s right,” said Spalding.
“The good news is, I don’t think he recognized me,” Spalding said.
“The bad news is, Bart and Bruce have Kim, Brian and R.B. hostage,” he said.
—————
Kim Wilder had loved Brian Cox since they were kids, and his father and her mother had married.
Brian’s father was an abusive alcoholic, whom her mother had divorced after he had driven Brian from their home.
She and Brian had finally been able to celebrate their love and had a beautiful baby boy.
Now, pregnant with their second child, whom Derek’s spy friend Wernher somehow was able to confirm was also a boy, she watched as Bruce swung R.B. up onto the sofa.
Bart and a strange, but familiar woman stood looking out the windows of the safe house.