Brown, Dale - Independent 02 (67 page)

 
          
“No,
Arkansas
. Someplace . . .” She paused, thinking
twice and thrice about saying any more. “Someplace you never heard of.”
Arkansas
? He had heard nothing about a radar site in
Arkansas
. But it wouldn’t do to push for more right
now. She’s smart enough to get suspicious about being pumped for information.
“In any case, it sounds promising. Congress won’t give up on you now . . .”

 
          
“Especially
not if the smugglers keep using children to try to protect themselves from
attack. It was the most obscene thing I’ve ever seen ...”

 
          
“I
couldn’t believe it either,” Van Nuys said. Which was the truth— until Hokum
and the other gangsters had given him his so-called options—go along or go
down. They were capable of anything.

 
          
“Well,
I don’t think that will work again,” Geffar went on. “Hardcastle was always in
favor of attacking the smugglers, and he very well may get what he wants. The
Vice President has more or less left it to the discretion of the on-scene
commander ...”

 
          
At
Geffar’s request they drove into Key Biscayne to her apartment so she could
change out of her uniform overalls into a dinner outfit for the evening. She
left to take a shower and get dressed.

 
          
When
he heard the water running and the shower door open and close he went to the
cabinet where she kept her service pistols, unlocked the door with her keys,
retrieved her Smith and Wesson .45 and ejected the seven-round magazine with a
push of a button.

 
          
He
had taken a major risk, but of all the things she wore or took with her
regularly, her .45 automatic was the only thing he could recognize that she had
with her most of the time. Some women wore the same bracelets, or earrings, or
the same shoes most of the time or at work—not Geffar. Her pistol was the only
accouterment she consistently brought along, so it was the obvious—if the most
dangerous—thing to be bugged.

 
          
She
used to take frequent trips to the shooting range at Homestead Air Force Base
to hone her already considerable marksmanship skills but rarely had time to do
that any more. Her work on the Hammerheads’ first air staging platform gave her
little time for any actual field work, so the risk of her actually using her
weapon was low.

 
          
He
flipped out the first three bullets and inspected them. The top bullet was a
powerful miniaturized antenna-and-transceiver unit, tuned to a precise
high-frequency, low-power setting; the second bullet was a battery that powered
both the receiver and the third bullet, which was a digital microchip recording
unit. The transceiver unit picked up impulses from a remote microphone—in this
case, one of several tiny buttons and bugs attached to Geffar’s flying boots,
clothes, telephones, office furniture and around her apartment— encoded the impulses
into scrambled digital bits and recorded them on the microchips in the third
bullet.

 
          
The
bugs were the latest sleeper technology units, activated only by voice;
otherwise they were shut off so as to be undetectable by conventional
bug-sweepers. The information recorded by the bugs would be stored and
transmitted to the receiver in short bursts whenever they were in close
proximity to each other, which significantly reduced the chance of
anti-eavesdropping or bug-sweeper devices from detecting them.

 
          
Van
Nuys quickly retrieved all three bullets, replaced them with real shells,
quietly snapped the magazine in place, and put everything back exactly the way
he had found them. He knew very well that ultimately this was the wrong way to
play this. He would, after all, be on the hook to the drug-smuggling ring no
matter how useful his information was, would be exposed or killed at any time
it suited his blackmailers. Sooner or later he would be caught or compromised .
. . He knew that his only real chance to recoup from this disaster and save his
skin would be to cut a deal with Geffar, the Border Security Force, the Feds.
In exchange for immunity from prosecution and protection in the federal
witness-protection program he could let them in on any meets, inform them of
what the smugglers were going to do and help set up an arrest. He didn t know
much about the smugglers that had him against the wall—not yet, anyway—but he
should find out more while he got his affairs in order before going to the
feds, which meant playing this game a bit longer. After carefully and quietly
relocating his assets in offshore banks, he could afford to go underground.

 
          
For
now, though, he had no choice but to continue spying on Geffar for these
Colombian animals.

 
          
Verrettes
,
Haiti

 
          
Two Days Later

 
          
“They
have almost succeeded in closing off all of
Florida
to air and sea traffic,” Field Captain
Enrique Hermosa said. He used a large chart of the
Caribbean
basin as he spoke, indicating points on the
chart with a wooden pointer.

 
          
It
was Salazar’s weekly situation briefing, a carry-over from his days as an
operational Cuban Air Force squadron commander, when he insisted on an overview
of force deployments, order of battle, command setup, and intelligence updates.
The atmosphere was deadly serious. For the first time in the Cuchillos’ short
life they were facing an enemy that, it seemed, had more firepower than
themselves.

 
          
One
of the flight commanders asked, “What parts do they control in
Florida
? Are you saying they control the entire
southeast side of
Florida
?”

 
          
“No,
lieutenant,” Hermosa told him, “they control
all
of
Florida
. The coastline of the entire state. In fact, they may control most of
the southeast
United States
itself.”

 
          
Colonel
Agusto Salazar wreathed himself in a cloud of Cuban cigar smoke, not pleased
with what was being presented to him, and ten of Salazar’s Cuchillo flight
commanders uneasily studied the chart. Salazar told Hermosa, “It is impossible
to completely control such vast territory. There has to be a weakness.”

 
          
“Sir,
I am giving you information passed along by our intelligence operatives and by
our informants in
Florida
, including information from Maxwell Van Nuys,” Hermosa said. “It is not
my analysis. Would you like me to continue?” The chief of the exiled Cuban
smuggling ring waved a hand impatiently to indicate that he
did.        .

 
          
“They
have activated the new landing platform off the coast of
Sarasota
,” Hermosa went on. “The aerostat radar unit
had been active at that location for several months, but now it is capable of
launching their Sea Lion aircraft, unmanned drones and standard helicopters.
This new platform is only fifty miles from our new ingress route to the Ten
Thousand Islands area of
Florida
. Many of our carriers and agents in that area were killed or arrested
during our last drop there. It is inadvisable to use that corridor for
deliveries for the next few months. This Border Security Force, Hammerheads,
has reinforced its small base at
Key West
, taking over interdiction duties from the
Coast Guard, and our informants tell us that their aircraft have staged out of
Freeport
on
Grand Bahama
Island
. Of course they have had an operational
aerostat unit on
Grand Bahama
Island
for years.”

 
          
He
motioned to his chart and placed a clear plastic sheet over it, which laid
colored circles around each Hammerheads base in the southeast
United States
. “In summary, sir, American Border Security
now has the capability of electronically patrolling the entire southeast
United States
,” Hermosa said. “They have tied together
radar sites from
Wilmington
in the state of
North Carolina
all the way to
Brownsville
,
Texas
. This means they can fly one of their
drones from takeoff points in
Florida
all the way to one of these places, and
they can maintain contact with their forces. Also, Van Nuys reports to us
something about a new radar installation, a long-range radar located within the
United
States
. We have no more details on this.” Another angry burst of blue smoke
from Salazar. Hermosa hurried on. “Their air fleet is small but building. They
can launch drones from only four
Florida
bases—the new platform near
Sarasota
,
Key West
, the platform south of
Miami
, and their headquarters in south
Florida
. But once launched the drones can fly for
several hours and can be controlled from long distances through their radar
network. Both of their model drones can be armed with air-to-air and
air-to-surface weapons but they usually aren’t because of their unreliability—”
“Where is the command point for these drones?” Salazar said. “On the first
air-staging platform, Hammerhead One. Although we believe any launch base can
control them at any time, and that they may even be controllable from other
aircraft, our intelligence indicates that the drones are controlled strictly
from Hammerhead One and that the other installations are used as command relay
points. The aerostat radar units act as radio command relay stations.

 
          
“But
their most dangerous weapon is the Sea Lion tilt-rotor aircraft,” Hermosa went
on. “The Border Security Force has deployed armed Sea Lions into bases from
Savannah
,
Georgia
, to
Mobile
,
Alabama
, and they have been reported to be seen at military and civilian bases
all across the
United States
. The two platform bases regularly carry
four Sea Lion aircraft each, and the ground bases usually have one or two. The
Sea Lion aircraft carry eight multi-purpose heatseeking missiles, capable
against both air and surface targets, and three hundred rounds of thirty
millimeter ammunition, also multipurpose. They are as fast as our turboprops
but have the added advantage of vertical flight—”

 
          
“We
know
that, Hermosa,” Salazar said. He
also disliked hearing it.

 
          
“In
summary, sir, all of our southeast air operations are in jeopardy. Chances of
success in continued air operations into this entire region are low—the
probability of one of our large aircraft making it all the way through
restricted American airspace for a successful drop is . . . perhaps one in
fifty—”

 
          
“One
in fifty!” a senior pilot broke in. “That’s a lie. I can take any aircraft in
our inventory straight to any location in
Florida
. Just give me a chance, Colonel Salazar.” A
number of pilots agreed out loud.

 
          
Hermosa
held up his hand. “According to information from Van Nuys, the Border Security
Force may not even withhold fire from aircraft or vessels carrying the
children. Anyway, they have orders to use force if intruders do not respond—”