“Our job is to go in after dark, take out the Chinese security men onboard, get the ship under way, and without clearance or permission to help the crew sail her out of Hong Kong Bay and into the glorious South China Sea.”
“That’s all there is to it?” Bradford yelped.
“About the size of it. Any suggestions?”
“You give them a plan?” Howie asked.
“No. We were trying to figure out the odds and if it was a risk that the U.S. Navy and the State Department could take.”
“Must been a yes,” Fernandez said.
“We will have all kinds of support. The carrier is charging toward the area now at thirty knots to get within striking range of the F-eighteens and the Tomcats.”
“Sounds like an act of war we’re talking about here,” Jaybird said. “Tomcats blasting what, Chinese patrol boats?”
“Yes, and maybe a destroyer or two in the harbor,” Murdock said. “The State Department says that China has perpetrated a mass kidnapping, and any act is acceptable in world opinion and in diplomatic circles to recover our people.”
“We don’t have to worry about that part of it. If they say go, we go. How are we going to rescue a ship of that size?”
“At night, for sure,” Ching said.
“Do we know how many Chinese troops or guards are onboard?” Mahanani asked.
“No way of knowing right now,” DeWitt said. “We might be able to find out.”
“We go in by Pegasus, then underwater to the pier,” Canzoneri said. “Then what?”
“How about we go in with our wet suits over civilian clothes,” Paul Jefferson said. “We get onboard with our weapons and tools, and strip off our wet suits and then we can blend with the passengers and not be so obvious.”
“Good idea, I like that,” Murdock said.
“Does the ship need a tug to get away from the pier?” Howie Anderson asked. “Most of those big rigs do.”
“We’re clear on that one,” DeWitt said. “One of the men at the meet said this ship can get away from the pier on its own. More work and slower, but it can be done.”
“So, we get onboard, take out the guards and any soldiers in residence, and get the captain out of his bunk to take the ship out of port in the middle of the night,” Franklin said.
“We still have our EAR weapons,” Ostercamp said. “We should take both of them on the attack.”
Murdock looked at Jaybird.
“Yes, sir. We should take them for sure. We used up the batteries, but they can be charged up and ready to go with ten shots each in about an hour.”
“Good,” Murdock said. “Now, how do we get from the harbor water onboard the liner?”
“Should be ladders all over the place there from water to dock,” Bradford said. “First we take out any guards on the dock and gangplank. Then we get out of our wets and go onboard with drag bags holding all of our weapons and wet gear.”
“Once we get onboard?” DeWitt asked.
“Hell, we know ships,” Khai said. “We get to the spots the Chicoms would guard: the engine room, the bridge, security, communications room, and engineering. We get them, and we own the ship. Then we clean up on any more guards on the craft.”
“Damn, we did you officer guys’ work for you again on the planning stages,” Jaybird said.
“Glad for the help. The captain says we have been making thirty knots now for two days, over fourteen hundred miles. He says we will be in range for his eighteens and Tomcats by dusk today. He has three units off Hong Kong about forty miles, including a guided missile destroyer that can land a forty-six. As soon as the carrier gets in range for the forty-six to get to the destroyer, we’ll be in a go mode.”
“When will that be?” Jaybird asked. “The forty-six has a range of about four hundred miles.”
“We’ll leave that up to the navigators upstairs,” Murdock said. “So, let’s get ready to travel.”
“What about the civilian clothes?” Jefferson asked. “I didn’t bring any with me.”
DeWitt nodded. “I’ll talk to our carrier liaison. I want the sizes of all of you guys. We’ll have to borrow civvies from the men onboard. Might take some time. A three by five card for each of you with your pants size, shirt, etc. Do it now.”
Murdock went back to the carrier’s captain who was playing chess with Stroh in his cabin.
“Stroh, I didn’t even know you could play chess.”
“He can’t,” Captain Robertson said. They all laughed.
“Captain, we can do it. I’ve talked to my planning committee. We’ve got a weapon that is non-lethal, called the EAR. That stands for ‘enhanced acoustic rifle.’ It sends out a high-powered blast of air that knocks out the people it hits for four hours. Be ideal. We’ll need a Pegasus to get us near the harbor. Then we go underwater to the pier of this ship. What’s its name?”
“Queen of the Seas.”
“When we get to the dock, we’ll take off our wet suits and have civilian clothes on underneath. We take out any guards on the dock and the area with the EAR, then board the ship. We figure to go up the gangplank about oh one hundred.”
“What about worst-case scenario?” the captain asked.
“If we can’t get to the ship, we retreat, call in the Pegasus on the SATCOM and return to the destroyer. If we get onboard and find ourselves outgunned, shot to pieces, and unable to do the job, we go wet, find our Draegr rebreathers and get back to the Pegasus. That isn’t going to happen.”
“Very well, Commander. Our navigator tells me we’ll be within range for the chopper to reach the destroyer about fourteen hundred. Will that give you time to get onboard set up the Pegasus and get to your swim point on time?”
“Looks good, Captain. If there’re any glitches we can delay by twenty-four. As I understand there’s no time crisis onboard the ship.”
“That’s right. But the sooner the better the CNO says.”
“Understood sir.”
“Good luck, Commander. That will be all.”
Murdock stood, came to attention, and walked out of the captain’s quarters with Stroh.
“You didn’t say much in there, big hairy CIA man.”
“Nothing to say, your party.” He frowned. “Speaking of hairy, I’m not too sure about this one. Too damn many variables we can’t tie down. What if they have a company of troops quartered a block away and they get a panic call from some Chicom on the ship? What if—”
Murdock held up his hand. “Hey, we know all the ‘what ifs.’ We’ve talked out a lot of them, we’ll go in and do it by our plan, our book. If that doesn’t work, we adapt, we innovate, we change, we go a different way. Many ways to skin this big ship cat.”
“Yeah. Figured you’d have an answer. I still think it could turn into a whole bucket full of worms.”
“If it does, we’ll throw the bucket overboard.” Murdock turned and looked hard at the CIA man. “Hey Company man, you have any late dope you aren’t telling me about?”
“So help me, Murdock. Just what you heard. The captain of the Queen of the Seas is a Dutchman who speaks good English. He has a lot of Filipinos in the crew as well as Dutch and Greek. Most of them speak English. Best I can do.”
“Tell the president we’ll do our best. I better get back with the men.”
The SEALs hooted at some of the clothes that came for them. They at last found something to fit everyone that wasn’t too outlandish. None of them looked exactly like upper-class tourists, but the only ones they had to fool were the Chicoms.
The timeline held. At 1400 they took off in a 46 chopper heading for the destroyer. It had positioned itself thirty miles off shore from Hong Kong. It would be an hour and a half on the Pegasus at twenty knots average. Murdock didn’t think about the timing. He’d do that after they were on the destroyer and had checked out the Pegasus and all of their equipment. They wore their civilian clothes to get used to them. Murdock chuckled as he watched his men in the chopper. What a motley crew th
ey were. They looked like some college tennis team heading for a match.
An hour later, Murdock settled into the quarters they had provided. His crew was fed and then told to get some sleep. They would be up all night and would need the rest.
Murdock and DeWitt talked with the destroyer’s captain, a three-striper named Lason.
“We’ll have a SATCOM on line with you on channel two,” Larson said. “The Pegasus will also be on the channel with a SATCOM. As I understand it, any exfiltration support you need will come from the Stennis in the form of F-fourteens and F-eighteens. Now, how do we work out your timing?”
They kicked it around figured an hour and a half in the Pegasus to a point just off Hong Kong Harbor.
“We can get you within two miles of the harbor entrance, but beyond that we could get in big trouble. There’s a whole shitpot full of islands around there, and the harbor is on the north side of the island. We’re south of that.”
“Two or three miles out will be fine. A warmup for our work on shore. Do we have any idea where in the harbor the cruise ship is?”
“No, but those things always have a million lights on them. Should stand out like a WP flare.”
They decided they would shove off in the Pegasus at 2200. That would be an hour and a half for the boat ride, a half hour to swim into the port and another half hour to find the ship. Then they could be in position by 0100 to take her down.
For weapons assignment, they decided on taking all of the H&K MP5s they had.
“Should all be close-in work,” DeWitt said. “Be sure to have a pistol along and two mags.”
Murdock had the only Bull Pup for any long-range action, and Bradford and Mahanani were given the EAR guns. They wound up with ten MP5s, the Bull Pup, two EARS, and one Colt M4A1 with grenade launcher. Their drag bags were light this time. They would carry only weapons and ammo, and a few grenades. Murdock decided to take a few quarter-pound chunks of TNAZ in case some of the Chicoms barricaded themselves.
When the Pegasus slowed to five knots, the SEALs could see the massive lights of Hong Kong across the water.
“Looks like a circus over there,” Ching said.
“Over ten million people,” Jaybird said. “That’s the size of New York City and Chicago thrown together.”
The Pegasus had the throttle at five knots as they worked through the West Lamma Channel due north to the East Lamma Channel and on north until they could see the sweep of Victoria as it rounded the north side of the Hong Kong island. It would be a three-mile swim around Victoria and then slightly south into Hong Kong Harbor itself.
They could see Kowloon just across the bay from the harbor and New Kowloon to the north, one giant sea of lights.
The young ensign named to lead the Pegasus crew was not happy. “Hell I’m ten miles inside territorial China already,” he wailed. “You guys can do three miles, can’t you? Figure that’s about how far it is around the city of Victoria there to the harbor.”
“No sweat,” Murdock said. “When you come back for us, if you have to, we’ll get to this point. We hope to be sailing out on the ship with a batch of Navy fighter escorts.”
The SEALs had been suited up in their wets and Draegr rebreathers. Murdock gave hand signals and the SEALs went into the water, one by one. Both squads were tied together with buddy lines that stretched between the eight men with Bravo and the six on the Alpha Squad. They went down fifteen feet, checked their compass bearings and headed for the harbor.
After a mile, Murdock surfaced with his men and saw thirteen dark blobs in the water nearby. They swam together compared notes and dove again. Their next surfacing would be at the edge of the harbor to see if it was like the charts they had seen.
They swam through the dark waters in their two teams, counting strokes until they came to what should be two more miles. Murdock came up last, and found DeWitt eying the harbor. The big luxury cruise ship wasn’t hard to find. It indeed had five to ten thousand white lights outlining the ship itself, on the lines from the bow and stern to the highest point on the ship, and glowing on every deck.
“Half mile more,” Murdock said. They dove again. This time they had tied all fourteen men together. Now was no time to get lost.
They were about to surface when they heard the snarl of a motor through the water. They went deeper and felt the ship plowing the waters overhead as it moved out the channel.
Murdock gave two sharp jerks on the buddy line and surfaced. Soon all the SEALs were spitting water and breathing fresh air. Murdock found DeWitt.
“Big freighter,” DeWitt said. They all heard the next sound, the eerie whine of a high-speed engine. They turned toward the harbor and saw a patrol boat with searchlight and flashing red lights heading directly for them. It was only a hundred yards away.
“Dive, dive, dive,” Murdock said and the SEALs pulled on their rebreathers and duck dived, then stroked surely downward to get to twenty feet. Murdock scowled through his mask. How could anyone know they were there? How could a Chinese patrol boat be coming after them?
17
The SEALs, still tied together, swam forward underwater. Murdock could hear the craft coming closer. All he could think of were depth charges. What if the boat had them and set one at twenty feet? It would blow all of the SEALs right out of the water and into hell. No, no, patrol boats didn’t have depth charges. He’d been seeing too many submarine movies lately. So what was the patrol boat doing?
It came closer and Murdock wanted to hold his breath. Then the engine sounds were louder until they rumbled directly over the SEALs.
A moment later it was gone, speeding away, and the sounds coming softer with each minute. Murdock gave two quick tugs on the buddy line that were repeated down the row and the SEALs went up. Murdock looked around as soon as his face broke the surface. They were off course. They were around the point of Victoria and could see into the harbor. Another quarter of a mile.
He pointed down and they dove and swam forward on Murdock’s new course. He used the underwater compass and moved strongly forward. Just inside the harbor, the SEALs surfaced again. Now they could see the luxury liner at the dock. The huge white-painted ship was awash with light from all the strings of bulbs. Murdock surveyed the area.
Jaybird popped up beside him. “That old dock just aft of the cruise ship might be a good spot to set up.”
“You and Lam check it out,” Murdock said. He gave three jerks on the nylon line and the SEALs untied themselves. They were a hundred yards from the old dock. “We’ll move slowly toward shore,” Murdock whispered to the man closest to him and the word was passed to the rest. They submerged and swam toward the shoreline that was built up to the water’s edge with warehouses, docks, and a pair of freighters.
Jaybird met them just off the freighters. “Lam is scouting out the area again, but it looks good. Nobody around. Hasn’t been used for a while. Some construction going on topside. Plenty of room below it and a dry route to the dock. Puts us about fifty yards from the end of the liner.”
“Let’s move,” Murdock said and the SEALs swam on the surface doing an easy breast stroke with only their faces out of the water.
The water ended twenty feet from the foundations for the pier and the ground was mostly dry. The SEALs found their spots and pulled off their wet suits and Draegrs and put them in their drag bags. They arranged the bags so their weapons were on top. Then they checked out each other. They had on their civilian clothes and while not looking like your ordinary middle-age tourist, they might pass for the part.
Murdock and Lam went to the top of the steps up to the dock, and surveyed the luxury liner. There were three soldiers guarding a closed loading hatch that was dock level a quarter of the way down the long ship. At the gangplank near the center of the ship were eight guards, four on each side. Two more Chinese soldiers stood guard at the top of the gangplank.
“Get an EAR up here,” Murdock whispered down the steps. Bradford came up.
“She’s fully
charged and ready to go,” Bradford said. He looked at the targets. “Should get all eight of them at the gangplank first with one shot. Then a second one ten seconds later for the three guys at the hatch.”
“Bring up the other EAR,” Murdock whispered down the steps. Fernandez came up with it. Murdock moved aside to make room for the other gunner. “Bradford, take the gangplank, then when the two men at the top start down, nail them.”
“Fernandez, you have the three men at the loading hatch this side. Let’s do it.”
The men both nodded. “Sight in and fire on my command. Ready, and fire.”
The soft whooshing sound of the enhanced rifles hardly made a dent in what they realized was a low level hum of late night traffic on the island.
The eight guards at the gangplank dissolved into masses of sleeping jelly, as they fell where they had been standing. None of them moved after hitting the concrete. Some excited chatter filtered down from the guards at the top of the gangplank. Fernandez’s round had blasted the three closer guards and they wobbled a moment, then went down, their rifles clattering on the concrete dock surface.
Bradford watched the guards at the top of the gangplank. They hesitated then both ran down the steps. Bradford led them just a hair and fired. The blast of enhanced air slammed into the two men. Knocked one man off the gangplank to land hard on the concrete twenty feet below. The other one sagged and passed out on the steps themselves.
The SEALs had on their new Motorolas, replacements for the ones they had taken swimming in Bangladesh.
“Jefferson, Bradford, and Ching on me,” Murdock said. “We’re the first up the gangplank. We’ll clear and then the rest of you charge onto the ship in a rush and get to your assigned areas. Let’s move.”
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