The Keepers of the Persian Gate (2 page)

“Okay… First, we have Mr. Deng Junmin who is the People’s Republic of China’s representative in this operation.”

Deng stood to his feet. He wasn’t very tall. But that didn’t matter. He had a lethal look about him. “Hello, ni hao, I am Deng Junmin, and I hail from the Chinese Central Security Bureau. I have spent the last several months guarding our members at the United Nations. I was a member of the Macau Quick Reaction Platoon. If you have heard of it, you probably know it as the five minute response team.”

“I’ve heard about you guys, you’re a bad ass crew aren’t you?” said a rugged looking SEAL with a deep Southern accent. He looked like the Platoon Chief, that being the highest ranking enlisted man in the team.

Deng Junmin continued. “I was guarding the Chinese representative at the UN Security meeting last night and the Minister saw fit that I was to be the person to represent the Chinese Government in this mission. Please, feel free to call me by the same name all my friends call me, which is Elvis.”

“Why Elvis?” asked Admiral Humphrey.

“Because I have hair like the King!” said Deng. Laughter erupted in the briefing room. However, it was true, Deng Junmin did have hair like Elvis.

“Next we have Senior Sergeant Alexander Puzanov?” said the Admiral

“Yes sir, that’s me,” Alexander said as he put his hand up in the front row. “Please call me Alex. I am Russian Federal Security or FSB. I come from the Russian Embassy in Washington. I am also here on short notice.”

There was a bit of a silence.

“And…who sent you Sergeant?” prompted Admiral Humphrey.

“My Commander… that should be sufficient. I have clearances.”

Admiral Humphrey glanced over to Lieutenant Graham with a concerned look on his face and turned back to Alex with a look as though he wasn’t very impressed. “Mr. Puzanov. I am informed by Agent Rhodes that you were less than cooperative during your security vetting interview this evening. So please indulge us a bit further,” said Lieutenant Graham.

“Forgive me. I’m not one for small talk, but Russia is not happy that this man made his name and fortune selling Russian state technology around the world to our enemies and the enemies of our allies. Russia very much objects to the fact that this type of behaviour can be traced back to us. We wish to put a stop to it. That is why I am here,” said Alex.

More composed, Admiral Humphrey nodded and smiled. “Thank you, Sergeant. Thirdly, we have Marco Montpellier, an agent from INTERPOL.”

Marco stood up from his seat. “Bonjour, hello. I am agent Marco Montpellier and I am here firstly as a representative of INTERPOL and also as a representative of the French Government. When we capture the target, it will be my job to place him under arrest on behalf of the signatories of the International Criminal Court. In order for the target to be extraditable, the extradition must take place from a signatory state. Being the closest member of the Security Council to the Hague, and a signatory state to the ICC, France is the perfect choice.” INTERPOL was given authority by the ICC, via the UN Security Council, to carry out the arrest of the target. Marco’s presence killed two birds with one stone.

“By way of a background, before joining INTERPOL, I previously served for ten years in the Groupes d’Intervention de la Police Nationale in Paris, which is the French National Police Force’s SWAT team,” said Marco.

The Admiral continued with the list. “We also have a Colonel Nasser Murat from the Qatari Special Forces. I will allow Lieutenant Graham to introduce you in a few moments, Colonel, as your role is particularly important in this operation,” said the Admiral.

Colonel Nasser nodded to the Admiral. He was the only member of the task force who seemed to be slightly out of place. Much older than any other member of the team, his hair was fully grey.

“Last but not least, we have Captain Patrick Trimble from the British Army. Patrick is perhaps the most important member of the team in that he is the only individual to positively ID the target in person in recent years.”

Paddy stood up. “Thank you, sir. My na…” Paddy was cut off.

“Captain Trimble, if you don’t mind, I understand you are giving a presentation, so it may be appropriate for you to introduce yourself at that stage of the briefing,” interrupted Admiral Humphrey.

“Oh, yes, of course, sir,” said Paddy.

The Admiral returned to his briefing. “Moving to the operation itself, Lieutenant Graham will command Frequent Flyer from a tactical, logistical and combat point of view. I realise that there may be members of this task force that outrank Lieutenant Graham in the NATO ranking system.

“Take it from me, as a Rear Admiral in the US Navy, that the buck stops with the Lieutenant during this mission and I want that clearly understood. There are members of this team that will each bring something to this operation which will assist the Lieutenant in his decision making process. However, where final calls are required to be made, which no doubt they will be, the Lieutenant has final say.

“Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, without further ado I would like to introduce to you the Lieutenant, who will brief you on the Frequent Flyer operation,” said Admiral Humphrey.

Lieutenant Graham stood up to speak. “Well, gentlemen, welcome to Frequent Flyer. We have direct recent intelligence which tells us that high-ranking Libyan officials are evacuating Libya on a weekly basis, and are being given asylum on Isla Margarita.

“Our mode of transport will be arriving presently, in the shape of a Soviet Beriev. You may even be familiar with this type of aircraft, Sergeant Puzanov?” Turning to the projection screen behind him, the Lieutenant pulled up a black and white picture of the aircraft. It looked like something from a science fiction movie.

“Yes indeed. I wonder how you got your hands on something like this,” said a grinning Alex.

The Lieutenant began to flick through further photographs on the screen. “Gentlemen, I give you the Beriev-be12Nkh, an experimental amphibious military transport. Manufactured at the height of the Cold War, this Soviet built aircraft is capable of touching down on land and sea. The standard Beriev-Be12 was the principal water-based military aircraft of the USSR, and there were over one hundred and forty of them built during the Cold War, with various Soviet Bloc states putting them into service. Most were used as maritime patrol aircraft, light bombers or search and rescue aircraft. There were two military transport versions built. The variant which you see here, known as the Be-12Nkh, was significantly greater in size than the standard Be-12 and was capable of flying longer distances. Today, there are only two remaining in active service. One is in the service of the Russian Government and is used by the Russian Navy to quickly get transport supplies to ships who cannot make it to port through the ice fields in the Barents Sea.

“The other was a gift to Muammar Gaddafi from Leonid Brezhnev, following Gaddafi’s overthrow of King Idris in 1969. As a result, Libya and the Soviet Union enjoyed cooperation on a military level and good relations throughout the Cold War,” explained Lieutenant Graham.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Libya held onto the plane, and from 2000 onwards Gaddafi was said to be keen on using the aircraft as his own personal Presidential plane, on the basis that it was capable of water landings and take-offs.

“Rumour had it, Gaddafi was actually petrified of flying over land,” said Lieutenant Graham.

Indeed, the concept of flying in a seaplane was more appealing to Gaddafi, as he could fly in the knowledge that he could safely touch down on water in the event of engine failure. Following a test flight with Vladimir Putin in 2001, it was suggested by Putin, as a further gesture of goodwill, that Russia would take the plane and refit it to ‘Presidential Standards’. On 7 June 2002 (Gaddafi’s birthday), the refitted Beriev was duly returned to Gaddafi as a birthday present from Putin.

In more recent years, during his tenure as Chairman of the African Union, Gaddafi had become a major supporter of the Caribbean. One of his more questionable beliefs was that Caribbean Islands with populations of African heritage should be eligible for membership of the Union. As such, he frequently made flying visits on his Beriev to the islands, including Haiti and the Dominican Republic. With the Beriev, he could also easily get to certain Caribbean islands which did not have landing strips and were therefore accessible only by helicopter or boat.

“We understand that this is the plane he’s recently been using to get his top brass over to Venezuela in preparation for the pending coup in Libya. Intelligence would suggest that he’s trying to create a government in exile in the event his government is successfully overthrown,” said Lieutenant Graham.

According to intelligence, the Venezuelan government were quite content to facilitate high-ranking officials fleeing Libya. Lieutenant Graham went on to explain how the Libyan government had recently been provided with a series of landing codes so the Venezuelan Air Force could verify incoming aircraft carrying Libyan officials.

“CIA have now compromised those landing codes, and we will be using them to land in Frequent Flyer,” said Lieutenant Graham.

Given the speed with which the operation had been thrown together, a casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that time was of the essence. In truth, it was. The international powers were working around the clock to get agreement that Libya be declared a no-fly zone. If that were to happen, then Frequent Flyer would not be able to take place, as flights out of Libya would be banned.

Despite the little time available to plan Frequent Flyer, every detail had been addressed to an impressive level. The CIA had even borrowed a few ideas from history to ensure the Venezuelans didn’t notice they had been tricked once a heavily armed and predominantly white task force exited the aircraft on the tarmac.

“Agency staff on the ground observing the Del Caribe “Santiago Mariño” International Airport have indicated to us that all Libyan officials arriving on Isla Margarita have so far travelled in blacked-out limousine motorcades,” explained Lieutenant Graham.

“Raid on Entebbe, Israeli Special Forces, 1976,” said Admiral Humphrey.

“Exactly,” said Lieutenant Graham.

The ground transport had been carefully sourced to maintain the necessary effect. In fairness to them, it must have been quite difficult to locate and purchase two identical 1980 Mercedes-Benz 600s on twelve hours’ notice. Additionally, the team would be travelling with two armoured 4x4 Land Rover Defenders.

Lieutenant Graham produced a map of Isla Margarita. Del Caribe “Santiago Mariño” International Airport was located on the eastern side of Isla Margarita, approximately thirty miles from their destination. The target was located at Hotel Margarita, on the Royal Laguna Estate, which was on the North West side of the Isla Margarita on the Macanao Pennisula.

“The hotel is situated in 923 acres of secure parkland. Everything inside the parkland is state-owned, including the hotel, and it is widely regarded as Chavez’s very own Venezuelan equivalent of Camp David. The target has allegedly taken up the entire top floor of the Hotel Margarita,” explained Lieutenant Graham.

The CIA were able to provide the operation with a significant amount of intelligence on the island. This really shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise. After all, at this time, Venezuala had the biggest oil reserves of any country on earth. Moreover, along with Cuba it was one of the few nations hostile to the US that sat right on its doorstep. Therefore, the US had numerous eyes and ears on the ground.

“It seems that the target has already been busy in the past week hosting meetings with local as well as foreign officials,” said Lieutenant Graham.

The hotel sat about a quarter of a mile inland from the beach and from the team’s evacuation point.

“When we land, our transport will take off and proceed back to Ellington under cover of darkness. We will be extracted from the beach to the north of Hotel Margarita. We have several inflatables, and the plan is to row out in a group, rendezvousing a mile offshore. Fast Navy Rigid Inflatables will be stationed two or three miles offshore. They will approach our position and collect us upon our signal,” said the Lieutenant.

Flight time was estimated to be fifteen minutes from the Nimitz to Venezuelan airspace. By the time the team would exit the airport and make it through the necessary checkpoints, it would be 0030 hours. The motorcade would then travel across the Isla Margarita to the hotel compound.

“If local intelligence is correct, the police and security are prepared for arrivals of this nature, and upon the code being given you should have the benefit of a police escort to the entrance of the hotel, thereby negating any potential issues with local law enforcement,” said Erin Rhodes.

It was a complex scenario, but the team received assurances that it was the best way to avoid detection. When they entered the hotel compound, the police cars would cease their escort.

“We will then commence a three mile journey through the forest of the compound. It is here that the SEAL team will exit the motorcade and position itself on and around the hotel. The remainder; that being Agent Montpellier, Elvis, Captain Trimble and Sergeant Puzanov; will pose as armed guards alongside our selected actor Nasser Murat from Qatari Special Forces. Mr. Murat, please?” said the Lieutenant.

Nasser stood up to speak. “Salam alay kum. I am a Colonel in the Qatari special forces. I have recently been on the ground in Libya assisting the rebel fighters. I have experience of the Libyan situation and their culture. I will be impersonating Omar Sanallah, the Junior Minister for Oil.”

The Lieutenant pulled a picture up on screen of Omar Sanallah. Nasser’s resemblance to Sanallah was uncanny.

“It is hoped that given the time of arrival at the Hotel, things will be pretty quiet and the international team can proceed to their rooms under the pretext that the Minister is tired after a long journey,” said Erin.

In line with usual practice, the members of the team would each be supplied with a significant quantity of US dollars in case they had to buy their way out of any situation.