Paveways bomb, its warhead containing almost 1,000 pounds of compacted high explosive, sufficient to penetrate the heavy steel hull of a big nuclear submarine.
8
There were 15 men in attendance, including the 12 SEALs who would make the insertion into the island tonight, led by Lt. Commander Rusty Bennett. He sat at the main table with the mission’s forward platoon leader, Lt. Commander Rick Hunter. In front of them sat Rusty’s number two man, the ASDV and landing boat expert Lt. Commander Olaf Davidson. There were two lieutenants, Paul Merloni and Dan Conway; the grappling-iron ace Chief Petty Officer John McCarthy; and the ex-deep water fisherman Petty Officer Catfish Jones. The two SEALs from the bayous, Rattlesnake Davies and the alligator-killing Buster Townsend, were also there, plus four other noncommissioned SEALs.
Standing up behind the table was the overall mission controller, Colonel Frank Hart, now wearing a SEAL uniform, holding a mahogany officer’s baton. Behind him was a large bulletin board to which was pinned a chart of the island of Xiachuan. At the back of the room, allowed to sit in, was Rear Admiral Art Barry.
The doors were locked, and outside, two armed sentries were on duty. No one was permitted entry. And the tension inside the room was high. All of the SEALs sat silently, alone with their thoughts, not least the one they all tried to hide away: “
Frank Hart was slowly pacing the width of the room in front of the chart. There was taughtness written all over his face. “Gentlemen,” he said, “you all know the broad outline of tonight’s mission, which you must regard as covert in the extreme. You are to land on the island, in the south, establish a rendezvous point behind the beach, and then the observation party will move northeast, a distance of six miles, probably through tall jungle, and establish two observation posts as near to the jail as possible without getting caught.
“Now I have delayed this briefing until the last moment, because it is essential that it remain fresh in your minds. For those of you who have not been told, I will now let you know formally. Inside that jail, probably undergoing the harshest form of interrogation, is the entire crew of
“It is unnecessary for me to explain the gravity of that situation, save to say that immediately upon your safe return to the carrier, with detailed maps, diagrams, and notes, we will be sending in one of the largest Special Forces expeditions ever assembled by the United States in peacetime to rescue the prisoners and get them out to the carrier.
“We will attack suddenly and brutally. It is entirely likely that there will be no Chinese military survivors…but, gentlemen, there is one thought that must never leave your minds: Discovery is unacceptable. If you should be caught, the entire mission will be over…because the Chinese will instantly reinforce the island with helicopters, heavy ordnance, troops and maybe even warships standing offshore…and they will remove the prisoners to another jail, none of whom will ever see their homeland again.”
The colonel paused. Allowed his words to hit home. And he walked back across the room before continuing, “I doubt that any of you will ever undertake any mission so carefully observed from the Oval Office…and your watchword must be ‘care’—because if you should be careless even for one split second, and you should be detected even by one guard, we will almost certainly have to abort the mission, because massive Chinese reinforcements will be there inside the hour. Should you kill the guard and get away yourselves, the result will be the same, because he’ll be missed.
“I can only ask your indulgence when I say one more time…for Christ’s sake, be careful.”
He walked to the table and selected a small sheaf of papers, which he first studied and then replaced.
“In my capacity as mission controller, I will now give you our timetable. Each of you will be given a copy that you will memorize and then destroy…two hours from now you will embark in the helicopters and they will fly you with your gear out to the Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine USS
“Right now, we’re two hundred and ten miles south of the Chinese coast, and you will thus make the rest of the journey to Xiachuan in the submarine, running deep toward the mainland until we essentially run out of water, about thirty miles from shore. At that point, the eight underwater SEALs will board the ASDV, which you will see is in dry dock on the deck, and run in to about a half mile from the shore when it starts to get really shallow, only about fifty feet of depth — the ASDV is thirty feet high.
“From there you will disembark and swim in. The water’s warm, sandy bottom, not rough, no sharks to speak of…the other four will make the journey in a small Zodiac inflatable, cutting the engine and paddling in the final thousand yards. The Chinese do have a fast-attack patrol boat moored alongside on the island, but we have not observed it leaving before midnight. We’ll be in by then.
“We then establish our rendezvous point dragging the boat and its cargo up the beach into the cover of the trees. Inside the boat will be two machine guns, two trenching shovels, medical supplies, the radio, GPS, ammunition, a few hand grenades and three smoke grenades, compass, laptop, binoculars, camouflage nets, and two waterproof shelters. Plus, of course, cold water and food. As you all know, it can rain like hell out here in July — it’s doing it now, for Christ’s sake.
“As SEALs you will all be responsible for your own weapons…and the observation party will leave the rendezvous point almost instantly…soon as you’re organized.”
He pointed at the chart, tracing with his baton a line from the southwestern peninsula, where they were scheduled to make their landing, to the northeast where the jail was located. “There are a couple of mountains, both of which you go around…but this one here, north of the jail, has slopes that look to me as if they may give some vantage points right above the jail, and that is where you want to make your OP. Don’t take out the guards, because if you do, the game will be up. Try to find a nice quiet spot and mentally take the place to pieces, bring us back the information…and the Big Team will go in on Sunday night.
“Basically I’d like you guys in position by around twenty-three hundred on Friday night…and on your way out by oh-two hundred on Sunday morning which should give you time to assess the guards, their numbers and patrols throughout the day and night…you will of course leave the island quickly, the same way you entered, via the RV, swimming out to the ASDV, which you locate with the GPS and its homing beep…but four men will remain on the island to help the guys get in on Sunday night.
“The landing point for the main assault force will be different from the departure point right here…because we’re going to have a lot of people leaving, and we want a beach as close as possible to the jail, which will be subdued by then.
“For the prisoner rescue, and the main force extraction, we may have some of our guys in bad shape…we’ll have eight big inflatables working, but it will probably take two, maybe three trips out to the deeper water where our submarines will be waiting. Now I’ll hand you over to your team leader, Lieutenant Commander Rusty Bennett, who will announce the detailed orders…Rusty?”
The iron man from the Maine coast stood up and began immediately. “If it’s at all possible I want the twelve of us inside that submarine very fast. Our gear has already been transferred and the inflatable’s on board. But the Chinese have their own satellites and I don’t want them to get a shot of us making a transfer two hundred miles off the coast. So that means we’re gonna fast-rope it, soon as the chopper gets over the deck, it’s gloves on and down, then straight inside. Anyone not comfortable with that?” The SEALs stayed silent.
“Right, when we exit the submarine, into the ASDV, there will be eight of us. Lieutenant Commander Davidson will be in charge of the exit from the dry dock in company with Petty Officer Catfish, Hank, and Al. Inside the ASDV with me will be Lieutenant Merloni, Lieutenant Conway, Chief McCarthy, Rattlesnake Davies, Buster Townsend, John and Bill.
“The submarine will give us a fifty-five-minute start, while we run in at eighteen knots. Then it will surface while Lieutenant Commander Davidson, Petty Officer Jones, John and Bill very carefully lower the Zodiac into the
