Peace - A Navy SEALS Novel (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 3)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Jessup turned away, still smiling, as he nodded in grudging agreement with what he had heard. “Some men never learn the difference between honor and commitment, Peace. I see you know the difference. I could trust very few with the kind of commitment it takes to be a Seal. You can understand my reticence with a Seal becoming a CIA operative along with it.”

  “I do understand, Sir,” Peace replied. “I just wanted you to know I am the only mole, as you call it, in Seal Team Six. Lieutenant Righter and Chief Jenkins were just as reticent as you about my involvement with the CIA; but they know I would die for either of them, or my team, without a second thought. I want you to know that too, Sir.”

  “I won’t be the last word on whether you stay in Seal Team Six, Peace; but I will do everything in my power to make sure you remain there.”

  “Thank you, Sir!” Peace barked, coming to attention again, and saluting.

  Jessup returned the salute formally, and offered his hand, which Peace grasped tightly in his own. “I guess we can go on to more mundane things now. They want you to be present at every interrogation on the Regan, with body bag and pig guts on site.”

  Peace smiled at first, and then he burst into laughter, with Jessup joining in.

  Nearly fifty yards away, Bull looked over at Dan, as Seal Team Six followed the movements of their Commander, and Peace. When the two men started laughing uproariously, Dan returned Bull’s uncomprehending look. Bull grinned.

  “I see the chain of command has been added into the mix-master of Peacenik operations.”

  “Well,” Dan replied doubtfully, “at least Jessup hasn’t called over guards to put 007 under arrest. Whether that means he won’t be shot at dawn or not, I don’t know.”

  “Man, there have to be some people upstairs who see the long view, don’t you think, Lieutenant?” Bull asked, still mesmerized by the sight of Jessup pounding Peace on the back like an old friend, sharing a personal joke.

  “Sometimes,” Dan said, with a stony look on his face, “I’m very sure of very little, when it comes to the guiding forces of our government. Perhaps, the Commander and Peace have arrived at the same point in their negotiations.”

  Bull nodded slowly, as he turned, a slow smile forming. “I’m very glad my allegiance to Seal Team Six, and my allegiance to Peace, were not tested, Sir.”

  Righter met Bull’s gaze, his face a mask of emotion. “So do I, Chief… so do I.”

  __

  Dave turned the volume down slightly, as he and Commander Jessup watched a video screen of an interrogation process in progress. Ibrim, sitting across from a manacled prisoner in a specially designated room, conducted the interrogation aboard the USS Regan, where all the detainees were quartered under heavy guard. Peace sat near Ibrim, glaring at the sweating prisoner, his arms folded over his chest. Chief Jenkins acted as guard. He knew Peace’s body language, in the process they had pioneered, to be able to act with just a simple roll of the eyes from Peace.

  The engineering department had refined Peace’s makeshift lie detector to include a permanent panel on a table near the prisoner. It incorporated a web of wires and sensors, which were attached to the prisoner; but were actually only good for reading out his pulse and heartbeat. If Peace activated the transmitter, he carried, red lights flashed on the counsel, and an irritating warning beep would begin sounding. They had been interrogating the tanker’s crew for five days straight.

  A specially shielded American tanker, with a cargo hold made into a hazardous waste containment area, remained tied up to the Iranian tanker. They had finished the final transfer of materials earlier in the day. The Iranian tanker would be escorted by the carrier fleet to Bremerton, Washington, where an area of the Naval base there had been prepared to receive it. All special operations units would be debriefed at the Naval base before being flown back to their duty stations. The Iranian tanker would be confiscated until a military tribunal assessed the cost of operations the United States incurred in retrieving the deadly cargo.

  Bull watched the proceedings from behind the prisoner, who intently watched the monitor near him. The prisoner would alternate glances between the monitor, and the open black body bag next to him. A refrigerated unit near the bag hummed as it kept the pig parts from making the compartment unbearable to be inside. When a prisoner was brought into the room for the first time, Bull would open the container, and hold the prisoner’s face near the gelatinous slop inside. The interrogation would begin shortly after the consequences of lying, or holding back, were explained to the prisoner.

  “This is the last one, isn’t he, Dave?” Jessup asked, yawning.

  “He’s the last, Sir,” Dave acknowledged. “We retrieved a treasure trove of info from them, thanks to Peace’s interrogation invention.”

  “Yea, even with the refrigerated unit, when Bull holds those guys’ faces over that stuff, it even makes me want to puke. I can imagine what it might be like for them.”

  “Will there be any chance of keeping this quiet?” Dave asked, turning to look at Jessup.

  “I’m not sure,” Jessup admitted. “We’ve kept the number of personnel, involved directly, to an absolute minimum. The only people in the room were either yours or mine. You and I are the only ones observing.”

  “Mancuso’s doing the editing,” Dave added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I guess we’ve done everything we can; but I’ve already heard rumors circulating around the ship, speculating about what we’re doing.”

  “We have as much plausible deniability as we can arrange. The tanker crew is going directly to Gitmo, but the rumors will really fly amongst the prisoners. Some of it’s bound to get out.”

  “The ones held at Gitmo have spread so many goofy rumors, this one will probably get old quick if the media don’t get hold of it,” Dave mused. “It’s not like we really are torturing them.”

  “In this day and age, our media would want our blood for this, even though we’re trying to prevent a disaster,” Jessup said. “There’s really no telling how the Pentagon would react if there was an outcry.”

  “Yea remember back in ‘03, when that Colonel fired his sidearm near an Iraqi prisoner to get information vital to saving his own men’s lives. He would have been crucified if not for the public, urged into action by talk radio,” Dave replied. “Then Abu Ghraib just about halted interrogations all together. The Pentagon would hang us out to dry without a moment’s hesitation on this.”

  “I’m the one who told Peace to employ his innovation,” Jessup admitted. “I told him it came from higher up, that they were impressed with his methods.”

  “I doubt he believed you,” Dave commented, turning to Jessup as he spoke. “He may not have thought it came from you; but he’s been schooled on what the suits would consider cruel and unusual.”

  “Lieutenant Righter told me you recruited him in Syria,” Jessup said, nodding in agreement with Dave’s assessment, as they watched Ibrim wind up the interrogation on the screen. “I didn’t think much of it when I found out.”

  “I’ll tell you something, Sir,” Dave said, taking off the headset he had been wearing to listen in. “I spoke the lingo, and I heard the Syrian woman in the car give us away; but I was still processing it in my mind when Peace sent them all to meet Allah. I figured we could use a guy like him when he left the Seals. It seems my description of his skills at language and combat started something in motion.”

  “He could have been an officer in charge of his own team,” Jessup replied, watching Peace carry out the last of his belligerent act for the prisoner’s benefit, as Bull pulled the man to his feet for the Marine guards from the Regan, who had entered the room. “I tried talking him into OCS; but he just thanks me politely, and says he’ll think about it. After the third interview of offering, I gave it up. He won’t even take the promotion test for fear he might get transferred.”

  “They can’t stay Seals forever. I found that out.”

  “You can’t stay in CIA special ops forever either,
” Jessup grinned, “yet here you are, still plugging away.”

  “The bullshit’s in smaller quantities,” Dave retorted, “Sir.”

  “I expect so,” Jessup laughed. “I would like to get a few of these guys to stay in the Navy, and not get drawn away by you glamour boys.”

  “All the more reason to blend a little when we can. We might have an easier time if we’re all on the same page.”

  “I have to admit, we pulled this op off as smoothly as it could have been done,” Jessup agreed.

  “Yea, especially with the little surprise thrown in with Senorita Matuse, and having to tightrope walk with an international incident.”

  “Mexico has already lodged a formal complaint with the UN,” Jessup revealed.

  “Hey,” Dave shrugged, “they don’t want to work with us, they’ll have to get used to getting bitch slapped when they get out of line. Have you heard if they’ve taken our enterprising Colonel into custody?”

  “Rumor has it they give him up or we take him.”

  “Well, well, well, I guess it takes coming close to having the West Coast become dead earth for a century to get somebody serious,” Dave replied. “You know what the wildcard was through all this, don’t you, Sir?”

  Jessup nodded thoughtfully, still watching the screen as Ibrim, Bull, and Peace gathered up their equipment. “Peace.”

  “If he hadn’t been in the right places at the right time, wilding through a complex set of events, we may have been in deep shit,” Dave acknowledged. “I heard he’s going to be a Daddy, and married, all at the same time.”

  “Yea, Dan filled me in on the list of personal escapades he’s been involved in these last few months.”

  Dave laughed enthusiastically, nodding and pointing at the screen. “The little prick’s like an evil harmonic convergence.”

  “You think it’s funny,” Jessup leaned back with a sigh. “You didn’t have to play host to the San Diego police department, traipsing into my office over his extracurricular activities. Then, of course, I have to be interrogated by my own superiors, some of whom wouldn’t know a MAC 10 from a BB gun. Silly me, I had thought Seal Team Six the most stable special ops crew under my command.”

  “They are. They just have a wildcard in their midst to keep you all on your toes.”

  “We have a training regimen for that,” Jessup countered. “Shall I list the adventures, Seal Team Six has been involved in, since your mole came out of the closet.”

  “No,” Dave laughed. “I think you should leave those details in the ‘need to know’ file.”

  “Agreed,” Jessup replied, standing up. “Shall we go debrief our interrogation team?”

  “Sounds like fun. I bet they’re glad it’s over.”

  __

  Seal Team Six stood at attention in front of Commander Jessup, who sat at a table in an Officer’s Wardroom on board the USS Reagan. Jessup looked at the material in front of him, gauging how much or how little to say. He looked up after another moment of contemplation.

  “At ease, gentlemen.”

  Seal Team Six snapped to an at ease posture.

  “Congratulations, men,” Jessup said. “I just wanted you to know just how well I thought you performed on this mission. It’s been a long haul out here. They’ve readied a birth in Washington, at Bremerton, to take in the tanker. They can’t off load it’s cargo out here as we had hoped.”

  “Will we be going to Washington too, Sir?” Dan asked.

  “Yes,” Jessup replied. “No one leaves this carrier group until the tanker is ported safely. We don’t want any further speculation on this until the President has the whole operation as a fate accompli. I’d trust you guys without a thought; but those are the orders. The accommodations here on the cruise ship, Reagan, are to your liking?”

  “They’re fine, Sir,” Dan smiled, hearing the rest of his team voicing their amusement. They had all been in worse places. “Will we be in the guard rotation for the prisoners?”

  “No, they have their bus tickets to Gitmo, and the flight crew flies right back after dropping their load. Only Alvarez, and Colonel Matuse’s daughter will be staying aboard the ship. The Marines can deal with them.”

  There were audible expressions of relief. Even Peace was sick of watching the prisoners’ every movement. Jessup laughed in appreciation.

  “You guys make crappy guards. Don’t think I haven’t heard about your first session on guard duty, Petty Officer Turner.”

  This time there was loud laughter as Nick looked around sheepishly, before mumbling an apology.

  “Anyhow, get in some training, and get rested up,” Jessup continued. “You guys get a week off when we get back to San Diego. I wish it could be more; but chances are we’ll be getting the call to wipe out the last of this ring, wherever it may be.”

  “We’ll be ready, Sir,” Dan assured him.

  “Dismissed,” Jessup said, with a wave of his hand.

  Seal Team Six snapped to attention with a chorus of ‘Hoo-ya’ before turning sharply towards the exit hatch.

  “Peace, hang back for a moment,” Jessup called out, as Seal Team Six exchanged uneasy looks.

  Peace stood back at attention in front of Jessup.

  “Sit down, Peace,” Jessup said, indicating the chair on the other side of the table.

  “Thank you, Sir,” Peace replied, sitting down stiffly in the chair.

  “How are the wounds, kid?”

  “Much better, Sir,” Peace answered enthusiastically. “ I’ve…”

  “Liar,” Jessup grinned, cutting Peace off. “You think I’m blind? I’ve seen you gimping around when you think no one’s looking.”

  “I just need a couple of weeks, Sir,” Peace offered. “Doc says…”

  “Don’t bring Chief Jameson into this, you duplicitous turd,” Jessup snorted. “He’d say whatever you asked him to say. The medical staff on the Regan tells me it could be months before you can pick up your duties at a hundred percent.”

  “No, Sir, it will not take me months. I’ll be ready. Give me a chance, Sir. No way would the Lieutenant let me go on a mission until I prove to him I can do it. I’ll be in for some pain when he and Chief Jenkins decide to test me. They won’t risk the team in the field with a gimp along.”

  Jessup stayed silent, leaning back in his seat. He straightened a moment later and nodded. “Okay, I trust the Lieutenant to call it honestly. If he says you’re a go, I’ll back him. We need you. If we go to the Middle East again, your language skills will be invaluable.”

  “I speak Chinese too, Sir,” Peace added.

  “Yea, well so does Tony Chin. I don’t want to lose you, but you may have to make a career decision if those wounds prove to be an ongoing concern.”

  “They won’t, Sir,” Peace insisted steadfastly.

  “Hey, you’ve always got the CIA,” Jessup kidded him. “Dave would take you in an instant. Hell, he told me he wanted you in Syria. His superiors decided to make you my CIA mole liaison.”

  “Would anything short of ceremonial suicide convince you to accept my apologies, Sir?”

  Jessup laughed. “What about it? You have to consider your options if your recovery doesn’t go as planned.”

  “I don’t consider failure an option yet, Sir,” Peace replied quietly.

  “I don’t want out unless I’m a detriment to the team.”

  “Very well then,” Jessup said, clasping his hands together on the table. “Chief Jenkins and Lieutenant Righter put you in for the Navy Cross, along with another Purple Heart.”

  “I did my job, just like…”

  “Can the self deprecating crap, Peacenik. They know you did your duty when severely wounded, saving the lives of both Chief Jenkins and Chief Jameson, not to mention playing a key role in Righter’s little adlib with the on coming Mexican Army. You’ve earned the Cross, and if I have any say in it, you’ll be getting it.”

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  “Hey, it’s not much. Most everything
we do in the Seals never sees the light of day. I guess you’ll fit right in at the CIA. Seal Team Six will all be getting their just rewards, but in secret as usual.”

  “May I ask you a question, Sir?”

  “Yes,” Jessup replied, “just so you know you may not get an answer.”

  “What chance did they give us to take the tanker at sea?”

  “Let me explain it this way. The bombers were in the air the whole time until Righter called in for mop up. That was one hell of a job you guys pulled off. It will become a Seal Teams’ study as textbook sea insertion. It was a real nail biter for me, and a few others, aboard the Regan. I’ve grown awfully fond of you meatheads.”

  “Were you against the mission, Sir?”

  “It’s not that I thought it couldn’t be done,” Jessup answered carefully. “Getting aboard that sucker, without knowing what you’d face with sea conditions, really was one aspect I thought could doom the op before it ever started.”

  Peace smiled. “Yea, Dan felt the same way. He said if we could get on deck undetected, it would be a cakewalk.”

  “The success quotient quadrupled the moment your team exited the water,” Jessup agreed. “I heard you’re getting married.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Peace replied. “Chief Jenkins and I plan to take the team with us up to Tahoe for a double wedding on the Nevada side. We’ll be able to stay a little longer than we hoped if you’re giving us a week.”

  “That’s a pretty expensive outing, Peace. Why don’t you let me help you out with some of the expense,” Jessup offered.

  “My fiancé’s Father insisted on picking up the tab for the whole thing, but thank you for the offer. Would you like to attend, Sir?”

  “I’d be honored, Peace; but someone has to stick around in case word comes down to round you goldbricks up. I’ll try like hell to make sure you guys get the full week.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  Jessup stuck out his hand. “Congratulations, Peace. Don’t push your comeback too hard, or you could screw yourself up even more.”