Death in the Congo: Book 5 in the Dan Stone series

by David Nees

  The afternoon wore on. Dan and Muko remained motionless. They watched more patrols come and go on the path to their left. Patrols also were going in and out of two other paths spaced out around the camp.

  Finally, Dan motioned for them to go back. Muko turned and led the way. As they approached the two huts Muko let out a soft weehoo just before the two of them stepped into the small clearing.

  “Wow, we never heard you coming,” Marcus said. “You’re becoming a regular jungle stalker.”

  Muko went over to his two companions and started talking to them, telling them of the day’s events. Dan got out of the ghillie suit. He was sweating.

  “I need some water. That suit is bloody hot.”

  Santu handed him a bottle of water and Dan sat down to go over what he had learned.

  Chapter 37

  ___________________________________

  R oger Abrams sat in Henry’s office. Garrett Easton had told him to talk to Henry. An hour ago, he had been sitting in Garrett’s office which, unlike this small, cluttered space, was spacious, with its wood paneling and large, mahogany desk, all giving testimony to Garrett’s stature as DDO at Langley. Even Roger’s modest office seemed luxurious compared to his old friend Henry’s. Still, it was easier to have an off-the-record meeting here. Fewer people would notice.

  “Garrett’s got to alert the Director. And he’ll want to include Garrett’s information on his PDB.”

  The PDB was the President’s Daily Briefing, which gave the chief executive a quick look at what was going on in the world, gleaned from highly classified intelligence analysis. It included reports not only from U.S. intelligence sources but from other sources—countries and agencies with whom the U.S. shared information.

  “Is this about China?” Henry asked.

  Roger nodded.

  “Is it actionable?”

  He suspected Roger was priming him for a black op if the higher ups decided something had to be done. For that to happen, they would need to further clarify what was now only a vaguely disturbing collection of pieces of information. One could put them together to form a very dire conclusion that would seem to require extreme measures in response. Or one could put them together to be nothing more than China’s maneuvering, trying to fiddle around for more leverage in world politics. Not something to be ignored, but not something worthy of any serious action.

  Henry didn’t get a clear answer, and when Roger left with a promise to keep Henry updated, hourly if necessary, Henry called Jane into his office. If any action was called for, it would be Henry’s small black ops group that would handle it. That would involve Jane, his assistant and Dan’s handler. No one above Henry would know any further details.

  Her office was located just off of Henry’s and was even smaller; about the same size as the one shared by Fred Burke and Warren Thomas, the junior members of the team. Fred was the researcher. He loved combing records and databases looking for needles in the haystack. A piece of information that unlocked a puzzle and brought it into focus. Warren was the team’s computer geek. He could hack into any system in the world. Jane was in constant fear that Warren would get snatched from her team by someone above her at Langley or recruited to work over at the NSA.

  She really didn’t need to worry. Warren felt he would be just another geek over at the NSA, listening to transmissions that the algorithms kicked out for human review. He was much happier being in their small black ops group. He felt a greater sense of purpose and accomplishment. His work seemed important. The group couldn’t operate without Warren’s ability to get into systems and steal information from them, monitor them, or take them over.

  Jane sat down across from Henry. “What’s up? What triggered Roger to descend to the basement and visit his old pal?”

  “Don’t be sarcastic,” Henry replied. “We like it down here. The less seen, the better.”

  “I know. But sometimes I get a little ticked when the AC doesn’t work or, worse, the heat gives out. This is a chilly place in the winter.”

  “Garrett’s worried. He talked to Roger,” Henry said, steering the conversation back to the topic at hand. “The NSA’s been monitoring the increased communications between Beijing and its embassies around the world, along with other signals. Garrett’s sure something’s up.”

  “Something’s up as in happened or something’s up as in going to happen?”

  “The latter. But he doesn’t know what. However, there are some items that make the situation a bit more ominous.”

  Jane didn’t respond. She knew to let her boss go through his points. If the higher levels in the CIA were concerned enough to have Roger talk to Henry, the situation could be one that required extreme action. Probably action that no one could ever know about.

  “Much of the increase in phone and email traffic has been between the Communist Party of China, the General Secretary, and the Central Military Commission. There’s also more traffic to embassies. We can’t decipher most of it. but the volume is disturbing. Something’s going on.”

  Jane waited for Henry to continue. The CIA so often had to satisfy itself with reading the proverbial tea leaves when trying to decipher China’s moves. They had few assets on the ground to give them HUMINT and therefore had to rely heavily on SIGINT, or signals intelligence.

  “Something's always up, isn’t it?” she said. “If it’s not China, it’s North Korea. Between the two of them, they keep things jumping in the far East.”

  “This is different. More pointed as far as we can tell. The messages we can translate show an increasingly more aggressive messaging towards Taiwan. You know they’re about to elect a conservative president. China doesn’t want that to happen.”

  Jane shrugged. “What are they going to do?”

  “Henry didn’t answer but continued. “The Chinese press is now shouting about American provocation with our warships entering the South China Sea. We’re planning another sail-through to reinforce the fact that we consider that body of water to be international. They’ll depart from Okinawa. They won’t go through the Straits of Taiwan, that’s too provocative at the moment, but they’ll sail down the South China Sea to Singapore. The Chinese seem to be more worked up about this mission than the others preceding it.”

  “They won’t do anything. They’re not stupid.”

  Garrett continued. “They’ve put their coastal batteries on high alert. The military is moving more missiles and men to the coast. We know two of their subs have launched out of Shanghai. We don’t know if they’re headed south or not.”

  “So, this is different?”

  “Garrett seems to think so. I’m not sure. I wouldn’t call it a normal reaction to our passage. We’ve done this before with lots of fussing and threats of disturbing the international order and our trade agreements.” He paused for a moment. “This seems to be sharper, more bellicose.”

  “Is this actionable? Are we supposed to do something about it?” Jane wondered what the hell they could do.

  Henry shook his head. “We’re just being put in the loop. Think about it for a moment. Think about the unthinkable.” He leaned forward on his desk. “What if the Chinese were to attack Taiwan?”

  “They’d never do that. They know we’d respond.”

  “But would we? Roger and Garrett aren’t so sure. And exactly how would we respond? We’re not going to drop nukes on them, start WWIII over Taiwan. We’re not going to invade the island after the Chinese have overrun it. That would take them only about twenty-four to thirty-six hours.”

  “But the Taiwan army, their air force…”

  “They could be wiped out that quickly with all the missiles China can throw at them.”

  Jane thought for a moment.

  “How does this fit in with our carrier group sailing through the South China Sea?”

  “It could be the provocation. The explanation to the world. China could say they were provoked into an attack. By us. Then they had to invade Taiwan because it joined in the
provocation. They’d pitch it to the world that it was all defensive on their part.”

  “Damn,” Jane said in a derisive voice.

  “You know,” Henry said, “many countries would buy into the propaganda. The UN would call for everyone to remain calm. For us to not escalate the situation. Meanwhile, China would have taken over Taiwan and established their control over the China Sea.”

  “Not everyone would believe that. I can’t believe we’d abandon Taiwan so easily.”

  “We wouldn’t? This administration’s been apologizing for the U.S. since the president got elected. Garrett sees that. They’re doing everything they can to cozy up to the Chinese. They’re happy to let our industries go offshore to the Chinese. They want to increase our trade connections to them with sweetheart trades deals that rip us off. The result is that we’re going to be more and more held hostage to the Chinese.”

  “Okay. I see Garrett’s point, but what can we do about it?”

  “I’m trying to figure that out. But if we’re called to act, it’ll be something Garrett and Roger want done very much off the record.”

  Chapter 38

  ___________________________________

  A fter returning, the men ate some MREs with the trackers now joining them in what seemed to them to be magical meals that heated themselves without fire. Dan pulled out a piece of paper, placed it on the ground, and marked out the location of their camp and the rebel camp. Marcus and Roland squatted around him.

  He drew a circle on the paper.

  “It’s a rough circle about a quarter mile around, maybe four, four hundred, fifty yards.”

  He drew in the buildings and marked where the captives were being held. Santu watched over the men’s shoulders as they went over the details.

  “I’m estimating about fifty men. They’re sending two and four-man patrols out on the trails leading from the camp.” He marked the trails he had identified.

  “They won’t be doing that at night. During the day there were four sentries stationed around the perimeter. We can assume that will continue at night. But the number might increase. I timed the shifts. They were two hours long.”

  “Won’t be any longer at night,” Marcus said. “Could even be one-hour shifts.”

  Dan nodded. “They have enough men to do that. No one has to stay awake very long.”

  “So, we have to plan on just an hour or less once we neutralize the guards,” Roland said.

  “By ‘neutralize’ do you mean kill them?” Santu asked.

  The three men turned to look at him.

  Roland smiled. “Hey you’re a sharp one, aren’t you? We’re not going to sit them down and ask their permission, or tie them up so they can try to kill us later.”

  Santu shrank back and said nothing more.

  “Once we take out the guards, we’ve got a good chance to get everyone out,” Dan continued. “The walls are not large logs, like a log cabin. They’re vertical sticks, maybe four inches in diameter at most, with mud chinking.”

  “Without a saw, we’ll be making some noise,” Marcus said. “Sticks breaking at night are going to draw some attention.”

  “Can we take off the door? You said it’s locked, but maybe we unscrew the hinges?” Marcus asked.

  “That’s a possibility. If it’s bolted, were out of luck. We can undo screws or pry out nails with a knife, but that’s about it.” Dan said.

  “How about a distraction?” Roland asked. “Let the goats out? Start a fire?”

  “I’d rather remain stealthy. Once the rebels know their captives are gone, they’ll come after us.”

  “They will have pygmy trackers,” Santu said in a tentative voice. He seemed to be cautious of interrupting such serious conversation.

  “So, it’ll be our pygmies against theirs?” Roland asked.

  Santu slowly nodded his head. “I can talk with Muko about the situation. He may know who they are. If they’re from a different tribe, they will not get along. If the same tribe, that might provide an opening in our favor.”

  “What do you think?” Roland asked, turning to Dan.

  “The rebels probably treat their pygmies worse than the forest supervisor back in Donga,” Santu said.

  “Not sure how that helps us. We don’t know where they’re kept and we don’t have the luxury of Muko sitting down to talk with them.” Dan thought for a moment. “Still, you go talk with Muko. See what he knows. We can decide on that later.”

  Santu got up and left the three alone.

  “That’s a bat-shit, crazy idea,” Roland said. “Much as I like Santu, I don’t want to sit around waiting for the pygmies to talk things out.”

  “I agree,” Marcus added. “We neutralize the guards, get in, get the hostages, and beat feet through the jungle. We know what to do if they follow—”

  “You mean when they follow.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Marcus replied. “We set ambushes. Hit and run. We’ll have them moving so slowly after a couple of hits. Strike and fade away. With our trackers helping, we slow them down while the others get away.”

  “One problem, even if we get away,” Dan said.

  Marcus and Roland looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

  “The rebels may send a group to the village where we were dropped off. They probably know where the NGO group entered the forest and expect we did the same.”

  “Muko has to find us another village to get onto the river,” Marcus said. “Another way back to Donga. I sure as hell don’t want to walk all the way fighting a rear-guard action.”

  While they were talking night fell, suddenly, as it does in the tropics. The twilight of the forest switched to almost solid darkness. There was a small amount of starlight to be seen through the canopy.

  The men stopped talking for a moment.

  “We going in tonight?” Marcus asked.

  “We’re pretty far into a third quarter moon, so it won’t be up until about 2 or 3 am. The longer we hang around here, the more chance they might move the captives, or do something else. They’re negotiating. I saw someone taken into the commander’s house and then back out. I’m guessing he’s part of the process.”

  “If they’re negotiating, maybe we just let them pay a ransom and get them released,” Marcus said.

  “I’m not willing to bet on that.” Roland said. “Things could go sideways and then we’re not in position to act. They don’t have any idea we’re here. They think they’re safely hidden. From what you describe, it doesn’t look like they’re worried that much about security.”

  Dan nodded his head. “They don’t think the army can find them. Whoever’s holding them feels like he’s in control.”

  “That’s ’cause he doesn’t know we’re here,” Roland said.

  “Okay. Here’s how we do this.”

  Dan laid out the plan on the sheet of paper. They used their headlights now that they knew they were far enough from the camp and couldn’t be seen.

  Santu came back and said that Muko didn’t know who the pygmies were that were helping the rebels, but they were not from his immediate family group or tribe. That information ruled out any negotiating which further trimmed the options and reinforced Dan’s plan.

  The men put on tactical vests. They each had five thirty-round magazines in their pouches, plus a sixth in their AK-47s. They put on black watch caps and rubbed mud on their faces. Santu and the trackers watched with great interest as the men prepared for the upcoming action.

  Dan motioned Muko over to him and he and Santu sat down with the tracker.

  “Tell Muko I want one of his men to be ready to start a fire. One I’m going to prepare. He and the third tracker will come with me and lead the captives when we free them.”

  Santu communicated what Dan had said.

  “When we leave with the captives, he is to lead us towards the village where we started. Do not hide the trail. We will move fast and leave a clear sign of where we’re going. After an hour, he must change
direction, to the west, further into the forest. The trail should now be harder to follow. An hour later, he must turn to go back to the river and lead us to a different village where we can get boats. This time he must not leave any trail.”

  After Santu relayed what Dan had said. Muko started talking to him in a serious manner.

  “He says what you ask is not possible,” Santu said after listening to Muko’s sharp comments. “The other whites will leave too much of a trace. They do not walk through the forest they way you do. He cannot hide their trail.”

  “Tell Muko to do his best. Two of us will defend the rear. We’ll keep the rebels from catching up, even if they can follow. It is important to slow them down so we have time to get on the river.”

  With the plans set, Dan got the fire prepared. He took two MREs and pulled the tea bag-like pouches from the heating bag. There were four separate sections, each filled with magnesium and iron particles. Dan cut them open and poured the particles into a long sheet of paper. He rolled it up and sealed it on each end. Then he packed it up with a bundle of dried sticks.

  When he was done, he handed the bundle to Muko along with a pack of matches. Through Santu, Dan gave Muko instructions on how to set a fire. He was to start the fire against the back wall and, with another match, light the roof thatch. He must wait for Muko’s signal to start the fire. Once started, he was to join Marcus and Roland.

  At 10 pm, Dan had the group move out. Muko led them. The other trackers didn’t like moving at night, but were convinced to go after Santu told them Dan had the protection of the forest spirits, something it was easy for Muko and the others to believe having seen him command heat, become a forest animal spirit and move through the brush as quietly as a pygmy.

  Muko led them to the approach trail. Before it reached the camp perimeter, they moved back into the brush. Dan went over the plan. Marcus would remain on this, the east side of the camp, to deal with that sentry. The others would move around to the opposite side of the compound. From there, Roland would go to the north side to take out a third sentry. Dan would handle the fourth one, after neutralizing the sentry on the west side. They had packed throat mikes and ear buds for their trip to Africa, and Dan had brought them along for the rescue op.