While doing his exercises, Admiral Suluvana stared out to sea. It would be interesting if he could spot the periscope before the Salawal’s sonar sensed the submarine.
What was that, maybe five or six kilometers out, broad on the starboard bow? Suluvana thought he could just see tendrils of green smoke whisping upward from the sea’s surface. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and focused on the spot. Yes, a pair of green flares smoking on the surface and just beyond he could faintly see the smallest white feather caused by a periscope moving through the water.
Captain Balewegal, the Salawal’s commanding officer, stuck his head out the bridge wing door and shouted above the wind, “Admiral, we have regained contact on the JAHIDIR at a range of three-seven hundred meters. This SSQ-56 sonar is magic. We detected the submarine just minutes after he launched his torpedo attack.”
Admiral Suluvana slammed his binoculars down onto the small steel table. An empty coffee cup skittered across the surface and fell to the deck. The white porcelain cup shattered into a thousand shards. He screamed, “You idiot! Don’t you have the slightest understanding?”
Balewegal stared at the irate senior officer, not comprehending why he was in such a tirade. With all his previous anti-submarine ships, he had never detected a submarine. Now that he finally could report success, his Admiral was furious. The taller, slightly overweight Captain shrank back, vainly trying to hide behind the bridge gyro repeater.
Admiral Suluvana stopped yelling at the helpless junior officer. The effort would be lost on Balewegal. The man had no real intelligence, he served only as a pawn in this great game. But a loyal one; and loyal pawns are to be valued.
Suluvana turned away to gaze toward the submarine. He smiled slightly. Out there a few thousand meters was the answer to all his problems. These new KILO class boats were amazing. They could silently sneak close enough to Indonesia’s finest, most modern ships; and deliver a coup-de-grace with impunity. Even the Americans feared their stealth and torpedoes. With enough of them, he could control all of Southeast Asia. With the four he had, and with skillful placement, he could easily command all the sea-lanes passing through Indonesia.
“Signal JAHIDIR that the exercise is completed,” Suluvana said. “Let us return to port and celebrate our successes. Between JAHIDIR’s uncontested command of the undersea and Salawal’s prowess on the surface, our naval forces are supreme. No one will dare contest our control of the sea lanes that traverse our sovereign waters.”
Captain Balewegal nodded in agreement with the Admiral. He added, “And, my Admiral. With this technology in your able hands, we will be victorious in our quest.”
Suluvana glowered at the man. He growled, “You truly are an idiot! Did your mother drop you on your head when you were a baby? How dare you mention such a thing! I should toss you over the side and pretend you never existed.”
“But, my Admiral,” Balewegal sputtered. “We have planned for so long. The time is now near. Why?”
The Admiral interrupted before Balewegal could complete his thought, “Captain, if you would use your meager intellect for just one second, you would understand. Just the merest hint of what we are planning, in the wrong circles, would cause destruction to rain down on all of us. If you survived President Mustisanissal’s torture cell, you would spend the rest of your worthless life as a broken man. A forgotten prisoner deep in a Jakarta prison. And I would die a martyr, a victim of your stupidity”
Captain Balewegal sputtered, “But of course, my Admiral. I understand. It is just the two of us here. No one can overhear what we say, and, besides, my crew is loyal to our quest. There is no danger.”
Suluvana glared at the Captain. The silence was so intense that Balewegal thought for a moment that the very ocean had stopped its un-ending motion under the Admiral’s glacial stare. Finally Suluvana smiled and said, “Of course you are correct. When you signal JAHIDIR, tell Captain al Meshidar that I expect he and you at my quarters for dinner tonight.”
Balewegal stepped inside the bridge of the frigate.
Suluvana was left blessedly alone as the gray warship made a graceful turn. They would be back in port before the sun slipped below the horizon. There were many things to accomplish before dinner. He pulled General Liu Pen’s message from his pocket and re-read the text. So, the old Chinese spymaster wanted to speak with him about some Palestinian terrorist. Where could that lead?
3
03 Sep 1998, 1013LT
Mustaf listened quietly as General Liu Pen spoke.
The summons to Beijing was a surprise. He had known for some time that powerful, hidden players were pulling the strings around the Arab world. As rich and well entrenched as the Saudi’s were, he had sensed that someone else was behind the curtain. The hidden player was far more resourceful than those old desert Bedouins. Neither the Syrians nor the Iranians commanded anywhere near the capabilities that he had already seen. That meant someone outside the Islamic world was in the great game.
Mustaf suspected that the PRC was playing power broker in the terrorist world. This was the first direct contact he had enjoyed.
He sat in Beijing, in the People’s Army Intelligence Corp’s ornately furnished
