group. Lapointe and Phillips were not in sight, presumably still hidden.
As he approached the group, they turned toward him. Ramey said, “This is Jerry, my executive officer.”
“You are in charge?” The woman spoke quickly and clearly. Her English had only a trace of an accent. Her companion remained silent, and his posture spoke of caution. One hand rested on his pistol holster, and Jerry hoped that was just habit.
“I’m the senior officer, ma’am. Matt, here is the team leader.”
“I am Shirin, and this is my husband, Yousef. We are ready to go with you now. What must we do?”
Jerry looked at Ramey, who simply returned his gaze. No wonder he’d called Jerry over. He was the senior officer. Ramey was going to let him deliver the bad news.
“Our plans have changed,” Jerry started. “There was an accident, a fire aboard our submarine — ”
“A fire?” she interrupted him. Your submarine is sunk?”
Jerry tried to explain. “We had a small submarine that brought us to the beach, or was supposed to bring us here and take us back to another, larger, sub. On the way here, we had a battery fire and it sank — ”
“Do fires happen often on American submarines?”
Jerry bristled, but simply replied, “Rarely.”
“So you have no way to take us to the other submarine,” she continued. “How far away is it? Can we swim?”
“About fifteen miles — nautical miles,” he corrected himself. Jerry added, “Over twenty-five kilometers.”
The husband, Yousef, broke into the conversation. Jerry could hear the impatience and questions in his tone. Shirin answered, but whatever she said didn’t satisfy him. He looked unbelievingly at Jerry and Ramey, then fired another question at Shirin. As she started to answer he interrupted her, and she angrily countered.
Although they’d only been talking for a few moments, their rising voices reminded Jerry of their exposed position. “Matt, we’ve got to get off this beach.”
Ramey motioned toward the two Iranians. “Concur, sir, but we need these folks to work with us, and they seem to have their own issues. Maybe Harry can help.” He spoke into his chin mike. “Doc, to me. Pointy, maintain your position.”
Seconds later, the second shadow silently trotted up to Ramey, Jerry, and the two Iranians.
Yousef listened to the American commando, if he really was American. He called himself “Harry,” but spoke Farsi with a Tehrani accent. He was dressed in camouflage and armed like the others. He said he was a sailor, and a medic.
“Your wife is correct, sir,” he said in Farsi. “Our minisub was lost, and we are stranded here. One of our team was killed in the accident.”
Shirin asked, “How do you propose we get to your sub, then?”
Ramey replied, “Our backup plan is to launch a Zodiac — a rubber boat with an outboard motor — from the big submarine. It will come in to the beach and pick us up.” As Ramey explained, Fazel translated for Shirin’s husband.
“But we need to get under cover while I communicate with our submarine.” Ramey pointed toward one dune. It was taller than the rest and ran parallel with the beach. “There. Let’s go.”
With the entire team sheltering along the dune, Jerry watched as Lapointe set up the PRC-117. Although they all had headset radios, Pointy carried the long-range gear. The husband, Yousef, saw the petty officer setting up an antenna and spoke quickly, urgently. Fazel translated. “He is warning you that the Pasdaran have radio listening posts all along the coast. If we transmit, he says we will be detected.”
Ramey answered, “Explain to him this is a highly directional satellite communications antenna that uses frequency hopping. It is very hard to detect the transmissions.”
He then turned to Shirin. “What rank is your husband?” Jerry could see the wheels in the lieutenant’s mind turning. The man’s in uniform. Exactly whom am I dealing with?
Shirin answered proudly, “He is a
The SEALs looked at each other quickly, and Ramey shined a red light on Akbari’s shoulder. The epaulet showed the four open rosettes of a Pasdaran officer.
“He is — ” She paused. “He was responsible for part of the air defenses at the uranium facility at Natanz.”
Jerry could feel the tension rise. There was a noticeable change in Ramey’s tone.
“Tell the captain that our sub will launch a rubber boat with an outboard motor, a Zodiac. It’s fast, twenty- plus knots — over forty kilometers an hour, and it’s armed. It will take about forty-five minutes to get here once it’s launched. It can hold us all, but it will be a little slower on the way back, about an hour. We can be off the beach and aboard the sub well before daylight.”
Lapointe had finished setting up the antenna. Ramey took the handset. Comms were good, and Jerry listened as the lieutenant reported their situation.
Finally, he asked, “The beach is secure. We’re ready for the boat as soon as you can send it.”
Jerry already knew what the answer would be. He heard Ramey say, “Understood.” He gave the phone back to Lapointe.
“They’ll get back to us in ten,” Ramey explained.
Lieutenant Frederickson turned to Captain Guthrie as he hung up the handset. “Sir, I’ve alerted the CRRC crew and they’re gearing up. I’ll lead the mission. We can launch in five minutes.”
“Have you looked at the surface plot?” Guthrie asked. “There are patrol craft between us and the beach. We’ve been tracking them with the UAV and by their radar emissions.”
“They’ll never see a Z-bird.”
“They have good nav radars, Lieutenant. They’re designed to spot small stuff in the water, and a wet rubber raiding craft has a decent radar cross section — you’re not invisible. My guys have been laying out detection circles against a Zodiac-sized target. We’re pretty good at figuring out how to stay hidden, too, but the patrol boats are just too close, and they appear to be showing up every hour or two. And every single last one of them is faster than a Zodiac, some are more than twice as fast. If they see you, there is no way you can outrun them.”
“You can’t call off the mission, sir.” Frederickson almost pleaded.
“I don’t want to, but the odds are against us. We are just too damn far away. It’s very likely that the CRRC will get spotted on the way in, much less the way out. And that would draw attention to our people on the beach. If it was only on the outbound leg you might be able to fight your way clear. But if you get caught on the way in, there is no way you’ll even reach the shore, and it will only make things worse.
“I’ll tell them it’s off for tonight while you work up a new plan,” Guthrie ordered. “Then I’ve got another call to make.”
Jerry didn’t believe it, even after Ramey passed the handset to him and he heard it straight from Guthrie. “Sir, we can do this,” he protested.
“You can’t make it without being spotted. Find cover and sit tight until sundown tomorrow. I’m going to try and get closer and then we’ll send the Zodiac in for you tomorrow night.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Ramey took the phone, listened for a minute, and handed it back to Lapointe. “Our contingency hiding spot is several kilometers to the east of here.” He turned to Shirin. “We’ll hole up out of sight, away from the road.”
“What about our car?” she asked.
“Where is it?” Ramey demanded. Jerry hadn’t thought to ask how they’d gotten to the rendezvous.
She pointed east. “Back that way, about fifteen minutes’ walk.”
Shirin spoke quickly to Yousef, who nodded, frowning. “If it is found, it will lead them to my mother, and then to us,” she explained. “If we had simply disappeared, it would not matter so much.”
Ramey agreed. “We’ll hide your car as well, then.”
She replied, “Good. This way.”
