by JL Curtis
The old man and Cho looked at each other and both shrugged.
33 Bingo
Cho and the old man stood in the lee of the bridge and chatted quietly as they waited for LT Kai to report one way or the other after the crate was emptied. Aaron and his Marines were wandering through the CONEX stacks when the young Corporal came up with a bedraggled kitten. He brought it over to where Cho and the old man were standing, and the old man looked at it with distaste.
“Where did you find that thing?”
“It was over by one of the CONEXs meowing and scratching at the door. Dunno why, but it’d be dead if it was out here too long. Must have gotten out when we were opening hatches and passageway doors.”
Suddenly, the old man straightened up and reached for his backpack. “Son, show me exactly where you found that cat!”
Everyone looked at the old man strangely, but the corporal led them back to the second of four CONEXs in the second stack. The old man took out his thermal gun and pointed it at every one of the eight CONEXs he could get to in the two rows. Then he went back to the one where the cat was now meowing again. He put the heat gun almost against the metal, then walked to both adjacent CONEXs and repeated the actions. Shaking his head, he walked back to the second CONEX and looked closely at the customs tag, then said, “Cho, get somebody up here with bolt cutters, we might have a bingo here.”
Cho looked at the old man. “John what’s gotten in to you? This is one of what, sixtee…”
“Joe, this is one of twenty-four! How many did your guy say were loaded this morning?”
“Sixteen.”
“So where did the other eight come from?”
Cho just looked at him, and then gave a quick order into the radio. The old man walked back to the end of the stack, and looked up at the bridge windows. He noticed the two-striper staring back at him and walked back to Cho. “Did you ever do anything with that two-striper on the bridge?”
“No,” Cho said. “He’s just the third mate, and the captain had him on the bridge for training.”
“Something about him bothers me, I can’t put my finger on it…” the old man said.
One of the Seals came trotting up with the bolt cutters and the old man walked over to the CONEX. “I think this may be where your kidnapped women are, note this Customs label has been tampered with. Let’s pop this lock and see what we have, shall we?”
Just as the Seal popped the lock, LT Kai’s excited voice came over the radio in Thai, but the old man continued to release the dogs and with a grunt of effort, pulled the locking bar up and swung the door open.
The misma of unwashed bodies, and stale food hit him in the face as he stared at a group of totally silent naked women. Cho stopped talking into the radio and dropped the radio to his side and stared. Suddenly they heard a shot fired, then another from the starboard side. Aaron and his corporal turned and advanced weapons up and ready to fire as Cho followed.
A small boy tried to bolt from the van as the old man heard an AK firing on full auto and heard the rounds impact the door from the starboard side. The old man reached down and grabbed the boy to push him back in the CONEX. He felt a stinging sensation in his right side and upper leg as he pitched the boy back to the women. He saw Cho, Aaron and his corporal turn and return fire past him, so he slammed the door and popped the locking bar back down, then turned and ran for the Port side.
Sliding past Aaron, he leaned back against the CONEX and slid down to a sitting position. Aaron backed around the edge of the CONEX as the corporal and Seal ran to the last rack of CONEX boxes before the bridge. Aaron knelt and said. “You okay? And what the fuck is going on? Who the hell did we just shoot? That dude wasn’t one of ours!”
The old man just shook his head to try to clear the ringing. As he did, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, grabbed Aaron by the front of the vest and yanked him down as he shot past Aaron and put two in the x-ring between the eyes of a surprised Asian in black pajamas with an AK in his hand.
Aaron had landed on his side, and suddenly he fired a three round burst from his M-4 down the lane between the CONEX vans. “Shit, there was another one. I’ve got this side. Can you cover your side?”
“I’ve got this side forward, but I can’t cover aft,” the old man said.
Aaron keyed his radio, and told the corporal to cover aft on the Port side, and have the Seal cover aft on the starboard side. Seals started popping out of the hatches from the second and third holds, and started taking turns providing overwatch and covering fire while others moved forward. More firing erupted forward on both the Port and Starboard sides, both AKs and M-16s then dropped off to silence. LT Kai called all clear over the radio, with a body count of eight killed.
The old man went to stand up and winced in pain, causing Aaron to offer him a hand. Looking down, Aaron saw blood on the deck. “We need to get you checked. You’re bleeding.” He called for a medic and the two of them helped the old man into the crew lounge at the base of the bridge rather than try to deal with the wound on the open deck. One of the Seals came in and poked and prodded the old man, eliciting a wince of pain when he moved his hands down over his hip. He told the old man to drop his pants, and when he did, the medic snickered. He told the old man to lay face down on the table and the old man finally realized the pain was actually in his right butt cheek. Aaron and the corporal both stood with weapons at the ready, pointed at the front and rear entry doors, until Cho lead twenty-two naked women and one small boy holding the kitten into the lounge. The old man looked over and sighed, this just wasn’t his day.
The women were raiding the snacks and everything in the fridge, until the small boy came over to stare at the old man. As the old man was lying on the table he was just about at the boy’s eye height. The boy solemnly held out his cat toward the old man, who finally said, “No thank you son, I think he’s yours. And you can thank that cat for us finding you.”
The little boy clutched the cat possessively and turned to look over his shoulder. One of the women said something rapidly in Thai, and the little boy turned and smiled at the old man before running back to the woman.
The medic finished with him, and gave him a shot in the butt that hurt almost as badly as the gunshot. He helped the old man get his pants back up and his belt fastened tight enough to hold his pants and gun up. The old man tried to get up but between the pain in the butt and the sudden dizziness, he decided to just stay where he was. He felt the ship heeling and he assumed they were turning back toward Laem Chabang. He wondered how long it would take to get there.
The medic had apparently set up shop in the lounge as he treated two of the Seals for minor wounds, one shot in the arm and one shot in the leg. The next thing the old man knew, the Chinese two striper was shoved into a chair next to the table with blood all over his white shirt and a rude bandage on his right shoulder. Cho came over and there was a rapid exchange in some language the old man didn’t recognize, but Cho was laughing when it ended, and the Chinese was just pissed.
Aaron came over and crouched down. “Thanks for saving my butt out there, Mr. Cronin, can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“Hey, I did it for both of us,” the old man said. “If I’d let you get shot, I would never hear the end of it from Jesse!
“Well I won’t tell her if you won’t…” Aaron said and grinned.
The old man laughed. “I don’t think that is going to work when I show back up with a gunshot wound in the butt. My God, all the years in combat, and I come over here on a quiet operation and I get shot in the butt. I’m never going to live this down!”
“If you hadn’t grabbed that little boy, he’d probably be dead right now, so I think that was a pretty good trade,” Aaron said, as he patted him on the shoulder and walked over to the group of Seals standing around LT Kai.
Cho, LT Kai and Som stood with the group, until Cho pulled the LT aside. After about five minutes, Cho came over and kneeled next to the old man, “We’re
going to be flown directly to Bangkok from here, but due to your injury, the decision has been made to lift us onboard the helicopter rather than try to do two boat transfers. As soon as LT Kai’s injured are returned to the Navy ship, they will come back for us. We are on our way back to Laem Chabang with the ship and crew under arrest for smuggling.”
The old man shrugged. “I’m just along for the ride at this point, so I’m going where I’m told. Bangkok works for me though and you’re gonna owe me for a new pair of pants dammit.”
Cho chuckled. “Add it to the bill John, add it to the bill.”
A few minutes later, a helicopter could be heard hovering overhead and the two injured Seals left. Another ten minutes and the helicopter was back. Aaron and the Corporal came in with a Stokes Rescue Litter and eased the old man into it face down, with his backpack under his head for a pillow. After strapping him in, Aaron crouched. “Mr. Cronin, we’re going back to the patrol boat and continue our ops, but when you get home tell Jesse I love her and I’ll see her in a couple of months when we get off this deployment.”
The old man nodded as best he could. “Will do, Aaron, and thanks to you and your corporal for saving my life too. This has been one helluva day!”
Aaron and the Corporal carried the litter out to a cable hanging from the helicopter and fastened it into place. The next thing the old man knew, he was rising into the air and downdraft and spinning under the helicopter. He noted the Navy ship was close aboard the Chinese ship and that was about it. He felt someone grab the litter and with stops and starts, he was pulled into the helo by the crewchief and Som. They slid him crossways in the helo and the crewchief slammed the hatch shut.
That was the last thing the old man remembered until the helo landed and he was pulled out of the helo by men and women in white uniforms. The next time he woke up he was in a hospital bed with an IV running into his arm and a dry mouth. He also realized he was on his back and his butt was cold, which made absolutely no sense. He tried to say something but nothing came out, so he tried to reach for what looked like a glass of water. His movement woke Som and he reached over poured a little water into the glass, put a straw in it and held it where the old man could sip it. The old man croaked, “Thanks, where in the hell am I?”
“Sir, we brought you directly to Bumrungrad, it’s the international hospital here in Bangkok. They have a landing pad on the roof and the colonel felt it was necessary as you seemed to be unconscious for most of the trip. Our doctor came and checked on you and cussed us for not putting an IV with er… the clear liquid that starts with a p…”
“Plasma?”
“Yes, sir, either that or blood into you prior to leaving. Apparently you had lost a good bit of blood.”
“Thanks, Sam. I guess that makes sense. Where’s Joe? And did you get stuck as my baby-sitter yet again?”
Som smiled. “Sir, I do not mind. It has been very educational. The colonel is awaiting me to call him and let him know you are conscious.”
“Tell him I’m conscious, pissed off and hungry. What time is it, better yet, what day is it?”
“Oh, it is Wednesday, sir,” Som said. “It’s about 9:00 PM. You have been out for almost thirty-six hours; I will ask for some food to be sent up.”
The old man nodded. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
Som stepped out the door and a doctor came through immediately after. The old man could only stare, as the doctor looked like the living embodiment of Buddha. He was short and just about round, with a totally bald head and a beatific smile. “Mr. Cronin, I am glad to see you back among the living. We had to put some blood back in you and took the precaution of rechecking the injury and adding some antibiotics to your IV. You should be free to go tomorrow.”
The old man shifted. “Thanks, doc, but I gotta ask, why is my butt cold and I’m not feeling any pressure on it, but I’m lying on my back?
The doctor laughed, “Oh, you are in a special bed, which has a cut section that allows us to rotate patients with bedsores, it just so happens it also works in your case, and the reason your behind is cold, is that you only have on a gown and there is no sheet or gown between you and the air.”
The doctor left and the old man dozed for a little while, until he smelled what he thought smelled remarkably like a Big Mac. Opening his eyes, he was confronted with the sight of a smiling Cho, SAC Hearns and Som, all standing at the foot of his bed. In Hearns’ hand was a familiar bag, and sure enough it contained a Big Mac and an order of fries.
34 Homeward Bound
As the old man wolfed down the Big Mac, a Marine lieutenant-colonel stepped into the room, nodding to Hearns and the others.
“Well, John,” Cho said. “We almost screwed up with you, but at least we got you here in plenty of time and it looks like you will recover with no lasting damage other than a dimple in your cheek.”
Hearns laughed at that, and the others chuckled, and the old man responded, “Joe, if you ever repeat that joke to anybody that knows me, I will hunt you down like the dog that you are! But I do have a question: I never did hear what Lieutenant Kai found, I remember something over the radio, but we got a tad busy about then.”
Cho walked to the door, opened it and looked up and down the hall before returning to the bedside. “John, you were right, there was a hatch there, and it did go into the bilge. One of the Seals found a storage compartment under the water and when he popped it open, out floated one hundred twenty kilos of high grade Afghan heroin, sealed in half kilo sticks with rubber coating that fit perfectly through the gas tank openings on those tractors. And those women were able to give us information on who their captors were as an added bonus. We now know who in Port Security was in on the deals. One of the women was sent to pleasure him the night before they were loaded aboard and she was able to pick his photo out of a photo lineup.”
The old man whistled at that, and Hearns chimed in, “Bout twenty four million in street value, and looks like it was destined for China and points east including Zeta in Mexico, and tied directly to a couple of Tongs operating out of Hong Kong and the west coast that do both drugs and human trafficking. Some of those tractors were supposed to eventually end up in Acapulco after a couple of transshipments, so we’ve got a pretty good look into their methods, but they don’t know it, at least for now.”
“For public release,” Cho said, “this is going to only be about the recovery of the kidnapped women and we will be able to hold the ship and crew for quite a while. These trials take time, especially when we want them to.” Then he smiled, and it wasn’t a pretty smile.
Hearns turned to the Marine. “This is Colonel Betts, he’s on the DAO[28] staff here, and is the primary liaison for the Cobra Gold exercise, and he’s got a few questions.”
The lieutenant-colonel looked around and said, “First, I’d like to stay out of any classified areas, although I’m sure everyone here is cleared, but this isn’t exactly a secure space. The reason I’m here is the colonel with MSOBs is a bit concerned that his Marines got in a shooting situation without his knowing about it, or approving it. Secondly, all we officially have is what Staff Sergeant Miller put in his daily summary that was routed from the Thai Naval vessel, which is decidedly brief.”
The old man and Cho looked at each other and Cho took the lead, explaining the entire situation and the way they came to be on the ship and decisions that were made. The old man said, “Colonel Betts, I just want to make sure it gets documented that Staff Sergeant Miller and the corporal with him saved my butt by taking out one of the guards that had me pinned down and they directly contributed to the saving of those women’s lives.”
Betts nodded, and after a few more queries seemed satisfied that he had the whole story. Cho said, “John what we have is a problem of how to get you home. I know you have a ticket on Cathay Pacific, but I’m not sure you can sit, much less sit for that long a trip. We are looking at options now, but they may require you staying here possibly up to a week until you can safely
travel.”
Betts and Hearns had a whispered conversation and Lieutenant-Colonel Betts said, “We might have an option to get you to Pendleton, but it won’t be quite as glamorous as Cathay Pacific and the flight attendants are nowhere near as good looking.”
Cho looked at the lieutenant-colonel. “How sir would you do that, if I may ask? The only option we could come up with is an air ambulance configuration but those do not exist within any reasonable costs.”
“Well sir,” Betts replied, “it just so happens we have a dedicated lift leaving tomorrow evening out of Utapao. It’s a C-17 direct to Pendleton and as of about two hours ago there were two open stretchers in the package. It’s taking Marines that have been injured in the exercise back to the states for treatment. This happens every year, so we’ve got two packages programmed on the birds whenever they come through between now and the end of the exercise.”
“Colonel, I appreciate that, but I’m a civilian, not retired military, so how could you possibly get me on that?” the old man said.
“John,” Hearns replied, “we can make you official as a govie supporting an international cooperation agreement in the law enforcement side that was injured in the performance of his official duties. That should take care of that.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Betts smiled. “I can go convince the green beanie in the corner office to go along with that, and he can go fight with the Air Force, he owes them a couple anyway.”
Everyone was nodding in agreement and the old man said, “Tell him this old green beanie appreciates it. I was Fifth SF back in Nam.”
Betts and Hearns looked at him with a new appreciation, and both nodded. Cho agreed and said he would get the old man’s things from the hotel and bring them to the hospital, and lay on a helicopter to fly him to Utapao. After a few more minutes of conversation, everyone except Cho and Som left, and Cho turned to the old man. “John, about your pistol…”
The old man said, “Joe, that’s your pistol I was just borrowing it, and there is no way in hell I can take it back with me, especially on an Air Force airplane. They’d shit little green apples!”