When we were done, barely a foot of the SDV was riding above the water. Every ten or fifteen seconds the SDV would drop into a trough and we’d have to hold on tight as an ocean swell would sweep over the top of the midget sub.
“Ready to load,” I said over my radio to McDonald, while trying to time the movement of the ocean.
The passengers’ compartments in the aft of the SDV slid open and Savage and I jumped in on each side. The SDV was filled with water. Through my mask, I could see McDonald at the front of the SDV with his hand on the joystick controller. There were no windows on the SDV, and the only lights came from the bright console in front of McDonald and the ring of control lights around it for the various systems. As soon as I got in, I grabbed the full-face SDV mask mounted on my right side. I put it on, cleared the mask of water, and looked over to check on Savage to my left.
“Is everybody good to go?” I asked.
“I’m up,” Savage said.
“Ready,” McDonald replied.
“Let’s hope the rest of this op goes as well,” I said.
“Don’t jinx it,” the impassive Savage replied.
“Ok, McDonald, it’s all you,” I said, as the door next to me slid shut.
The Huntington-Ingalls Proteus SDV has a maximum speed of ten knots and a cruising speed of eight knots. The trip into Pakistani waters and onto Gwadar Port was going to take us ninety minutes. The passenger compartment in the SDV is nothing more than a webbed seat in the back of a dark coffin. Between the passenger compartment and the driver’s compartment was an open cargo area that held our gear for the operation, but still allowed us to see McDonald. In a matter of minutes, we were moving at cruising speed and diving to our planned traveling depth of fifty feet.
The Proteus can be armed with several different weapons systems including mines, the Common Rapid Attack Weapon (CRAW), which is used to defeat a torpedo attack, and the Common Very Light Weight Torpedo (CVLWT), which can be used against submarines and surface ships. Unfortunately, we got this Proteus on loan from the CIA and it didn’t come with any ammunition. The Proteus we were using is a prototype built for a competition that was held to replace the US Navy SEALS Mach VIII in 2015. A different vehicle made by Teledyne Brown won the competition, which then allowed the CIA to take the Proteus prototype off of the manufacturer’s hands.
“We’re five minutes out,” McDonald said over the radio system.
I removed my mask and replaced it with the regulator and mask from my scuba set-up. The Nitrox gas mix was the same. I slid on a climbing harness and then buckled on my BCD with the connected air cylinder and put on my fins. I hooked my backpack and rifle to my climbing harness and slid out a SUEX dive scooter from the cargo compartment.
The passenger doors opened and Savage and I each exited from opposite sides. I checked the NAV board on the scooter and headed due east. We slowly ascended as we advanced until we reached a depth of five feet. Savage followed directly behind me until I bumped up against a concrete pillar of a pier and then he joined me in holding onto it. Savage and I removed our weapons and slowly surfaced. We were brushing against a pillar that rose thirty feet to the pier above. Savage and I each tied our scuba equipment onto a rope we wrapped around the pillar and then we marked it with an InfraRed Chemlite.
Savage pulled a REBS mini launcher out of his backpack. I removed the ATLAS ascender from mine. Savage fought the current and got into a position to fire a grapnel hook onto the cement pier floor above. I heard a pneumatic shot and then Savage returned to me with the line and I threaded it into the ascender. With my backpack and rifle slung over my back, I connected the ascender to the climbing harness around my waist and hit the up switch. I slowly rose to the pier from the water. Once on top, I lowered the ascender back down for Savage to use. I pulled my ballistic helmet and night vision goggles from my pack back. In less than two minutes, Savage was beside me.
We were both out on the open on the flat empty pier. Our targets were the six giant cranes located along the empty cargo-handling area. The pier was enormous. There was a smaller cargo vessel tied up closer to the shore and the crane that was tending it was much smaller than the two-hundred-foot behemoths we had our sights on. Big cranes are necessary to load and unload large container vessels; without them, cargo can’t move, and the port shuts down. Savage took off at a trot toward the shore. I did a quick scan for guards and then ran in the opposite direction toward the crane located at the very end of the pier.
I placed cutting charges on two of the four main support beams on the crane. I connected the two charges with det cord and then pulled the fuze igniter. The time fuze was connected to only one of the charges, but the det cord would make sure they would both explode together. I dashed to the next crane. I was setting the charges on the second crane when I heard gunfire from Savage’s direction.
“What’s your situation?” I asked Savage.
“Vehicle patrol spotted me on my way to the center crane. I have them pinned down, but I can see mounted reinforcements heading my way.”
“I’ll rig the demo on the middle crane. Can you hold them for a little while?”
“Yes.”
The fight was intensifying—the gunfire sounding like firecrackers going off. I ran to the middle crane and put the charges in place. I cut the time fuze so it would last only a few minutes and then I screwed the igniter on and pulled it.
“I’ll cover—you run for the water,” I said over the radio net.
From the base of the crane, I started firing at the vehicles and where I could see the muzzle flashes that were firing at Savage. I watched a blur make the fifty-yard sprint to the edge of the pier and disappear into the water. The fire was then all directed at me, but I was at least one hundred yards farther back than Savage was and the fire was too far out of range to be accurate. I saw a line of at least ten personnel advancing toward me while others provided a base of fire. Now that they were maneuvering, it was definitely time to go. I slapped another thirty-round magazine into my HK 416, pointed the IR laser beam at the advancing line, and emptied it in five trigger bursts. Then I replaced the mag and repeated the process as incoming rounds pinged all around me.
The guards were getting way too close for comfort. I sprang up from the prone position at the base of the crane and ran toward the water with everything I had. I saw green tracers flying in front of me. I pivoted as I reached the edge of the pier and fired a parting burst as I felt myself fall. I put my arms out to prevent myself from knifing too deep into the water and kicked to the surface as hard as I could. With my night vision goggles still on, I spotted the IR Chemlite only a few yards away. I held onto my rifle and side stroked it to the concrete pillar where I found Savage already wearing his SCUBA gear and his weapon at the ready pointed straight up. I dropped my backpack and slid into my gear. I clipped my backpack and rifle to my waist harness and retrieved my dive scooter from the securing line.
“Are you ready to go?” I asked Savage.
“On you.”
Just then, the sound of a big explosion filled the night air. The explosion was followed by the metallic screech of the crane falling. I was hoping it was going to fall in the direction of the guards, but I wasn’t completely sure it wasn’t falling toward us. Out of curiosity, I waited until I heard the loud crash of it hitting the ground before diving.
I descended straight down into the water for twenty feet, using the pillar as my guide. Once I caught up with Savage, I aimed the scooter to the open water and took off at two knots. The sonar receiver on my scooter console registered the sonar pinger from the SDV and provided all the navigational guidance I needed to find McDonald. It took Savage and me only ten minutes to locate the sub. The visibility was really bad, and I didn’t know I had found the black SDV until my scooter hit it. The passenger doors immediately opened and we both quickly felt our way inside. McDonald slid the doors closed as soon as we were onboard, and we went immediately to full throttle.
It took me a f
ew minutes to untangle myself from my hastily-donned equipment in the darkness. Eventually, I rid myself of the regulator and scuba mask and connected myself again to the onboard air and communications system.
“Is anybody in pursuit?” I asked.
“Not yet, but I’m sure patrol craft will be converging on this area soon.”
“Are you good, Savage?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I hope they don’t find the other charges.”
I looked at the time on my dive computer. “The next one is going off in less than fifteen minutes. Looking for those charges would be a fool’s errand.”
“Agreed.”
“Could you tell if those guards were Chinese or Pakis?” I asked.
“Chinese. I heard them yelling to each other.”
“Somebody is going to have to tell dear leader they just lost another deep-water port until they can get some new cranes.”
“Yeah, sucks to be them.”
The black SDV cut silently through the Gulf of Oman. The only sound was the electrically-powered propeller behind me and the sound of my breathing.
“We’re crossing into international waters,” McDonald reported after a little over an hour.
“How are the batteries holding up?” I asked.
“We have more battery power than we have air,” he replied.
“How much air do we have left?” I asked, with some concern in my voice.
“Another three hours at least.”
“Don’t scare me like that,” I said.
I felt the SDV slow. McDonald slowly ascended the SDV. He hit a switch and raised the mast on top of the sub. The fifteen-foot periscope mast had a camera that gave McDonald a view of the surface.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I’m at the rendezvous point. I just wanted to confirm that it’s the Nomad.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, I can see Migos on the stern. I’m going to need you guys to swim out and connect the winch hook.”
Savage and I redonned our scuba gear. I could hear McDonald using the thrusters to position the SDV directly behind the Nomad. McDonald brought the SDV to the surface. Savage and I swam out and finned it to the Nomad that was positioned only twenty yards away.
Migos was standing on the back ramp holding a big hook. Savage came up to the ramp and Migos handed him the hook. I swam with Savage and helped him pull the heavy cable and hook to the SDV. He connected the hook to the forward lift point on the SDV and then we both swam back to the yacht.
We helped Migos position the heavy steel roller ramp into the water. Heavy floats kept the ramp from crushing the ramp of the yacht and provided a guide to get the SDV up and over the garage door and onto the main deck. All of the furniture had been removed from the stern to allow room for the sub. The twenty-four-foot-long SDV wasn’t going to fit entirely on the deck; about six feet was going to extend over the tail once the winch hoisted it up.
Migos worked the winch and brought the SDV close to the yacht. Savage and I jumped back into the water and muscled the SDV into position on the loading ramp.
“Bring it up!” I yelled to Migos.
Slowly, the SDV was pulled from the water. The winch bolted to the stern deck made easy work of pulling the four-ton submarine from the water. Once we had it on the deck, McDonald got out of the forward compartment. The sub was still draining water when we began to brace it into position. Once it was braced, we threw a tarp over it and tied it down.
“I hope we don’t run into rough seas,” I said.
“It’ll hold. It’s time to head back to Cyprus,” McDonald replied.
The three of us sat up on the flybridge grilling steaks and drinking Sam Adams beers as we headed south at cruising speed. The added four tons of the sub didn’t alter the ride of the ninety-ton yacht very much. McDonald was behind the wheel at the helm station on the starboard side of the deck. Migos, Savage, and I were sitting around the table on the L-shaped couch on the opposite side of the deck. It was a warm, beautiful night, and this was about the best way I could think of to end a mission.
“Where are you heading when we get back? Are you going back to the edge of the world surfing?” Migos asked.
“Never underestimate the therapeutic benefits of surfing and drinking,” I replied.
“So that’s a yes, then.”
“No, I have to go to Geneva, Switzerland.”
“What’s in Geneva?”
“I’m settling Cheryl’s estate. I have to empty her stuff out of the vault and get it to the broker who is selling it for me.”
“Where’s the money going?” Savage asked.
“She left it to me. I’m going to take her share of the treasure and half of mine and gift it to Father Tellez’s Foundation. He’s going to give it to the Church in the Philippines. The money will go to helping poor kids.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah, we’re even going to have a statue placed in memory of Cheryl on the grounds of the Cathedral in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.”
“Was Cheryl Catholic?” Migos asked.
“No, she was Buddhist. But for a gift of almost two hundred million dollars, the Palawan Archdiocese is flexible about these things. You should see the statue; it’s an all-white eight-foot-tall porcelain Buddha sitting on an elephant.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, it’s a real work of art from the Qing Dynasty. The broker got it from Christie’s Auction; it’s called A Dehua Seated Figure of Samantabhadra.”
“What’s a Samantabhadra?”
“Buddha has a trinity of some sort, and one of the forms is Samantabhadra. He’s the Buddha of action. Which seemed most appropriate for Cheryl. It’s a nice statue, and on the base will be her picture and a plaque memorializing her.”
“That’s a great idea.”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Over the next four days, we took shifts as we traveled from the Gulf of Oman to the Gulf of Aden through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean.
Chapter 26
Gwadar, Pakistan
The Range Rover stopped in front of the wreckage of the crane closest to the pier entrance. Huang and the Commander of the Chinese private security firm left the driver and got out of the back seat and walked the rest of the way to the end of the pier. They stopped occasionally to study the damage. Huang didn’t say anything to the other man until they were on the far end of the pier overlooking the sea.
“How did the men enter?”
“They leaped off the pier into the water when my men confronted them. We believe that’s also how they came in.”
“Don’t you have diver protections systems?”
“When the Naval ships are docked, they always run a sonar to defend against divers. We don’t have any sonar systems when the Navy isn’t present.”
“Where did they swim to when they jumped off the pier?”
“I don’t know. We had patrol craft sweeping the area with sonars within fifteen minutes of them entering the water. We didn’t detect any divers.”
“How do you think they got away? Did they board a boat nearby and escape?”
“There were no boats within 5 kilometers. We think they used a submarine.”
“A submarine?”
“It’s the only way they could’ve gotten out of the search area before the patrol boats arrived.”
“How many men were there?”
“We only saw two, but there may have been more.”
“How many men did you have that encountered them?”
“Four vehicle patrols of three men each.”
“How many of your men were killed?”
“None.”
“How many were wounded?”
“Two, one seriously.”
“It doesn’t sound as though your men put up much of a fight.”
“My men fought bravely, Sir. It was night and my men were ambushed facing an unknown force.”
“You’re right; it
’s unfair to question your men. It’s you who’ve failed. The most logical place to infiltrate a port is from the sea and despite being placed on high alert, you didn’t have a single defense directed at the sea. I will make sure to point out your incompetence in my report.”
“Sir, I had patrol boats in the water.”
“You should’ve had an anti-diver sonar, you fool.”
Huang was furious. He walked back to the sedan alone and left the dejected guard commander to brood. He used the travel time to the airport as an opportunity to analyze the situation. The use of demolitions and diving automatically caused him to draw a connection to Pat Walsh and his CIA paramilitary force. He scribbled in his notepad orders that he would issue regarding the start of a manhunt for Pat Walsh. If Pat Walsh used a submarine for the operation, that would be a major escalation in the hostilities, because it would mean he had help from the US Navy. Up until now, there was no proof of any US involvement in the attacks on the ports. The destruction of the pier reminded him of the destruction Walsh had delivered to his own face. The Minister wanted him on defense, but it was time to strike back. He would keep his plans secret and attack alone so the Minister wouldn’t find out and stop him. Huang decided he would finish what he started in Eleuthera, only this time, he wouldn’t risk trying to capture Walsh. He would just kill him.
Chapter 27
Switzerland
It was late in the afternoon when we docked the Nomad at Limassol Marina. The marina has a big crane that’s used to move yachts into and out of the water. We used the crane to lift the SDV off the back deck of the Nomad and onto a rented flatbed. McDonald and Savage accompanied the SDV back to our hangar while Migos and I refueled and tied up the Nomad.
Rising Sea Page 15