Murdock took in what the CIA man said, and looked at his crew. "All right, let's plan this puppy from the ground up. What do we have to work with, the Seahawk?"
Jaybird spoke. "The SH-60 Seahawk is an ASW chopper, but if they take out all of the missiles and depth charges, it should be able to carry twenty-five hostages with no luggage. The Seahawk has a range of seven-hundred-eighty-one miles at four-thousand-feet altitude, with auxiliary fuel. So the three hundred miles to Nairobi and back is no problem. We'll need two of them to exfiltrate the forty-one hostages."
Magic Brown spoke up. "So to keep it all coordinated, we need another Seahawk to transport us in with all of our goodies, and to get us out of there without a lot of bullet holes in our hides."
"That leaves our assault on the compound," Murdock said. "My guess is that this colonel-general will keep the hostages in the easiest place to contain them a basement room if there is one. Meaning we won't hit any friendlies when our gunships strafe hell out of the place to dislodge the crew that the fat man leaves there when he moves on."
"Does this task force have any Cobras on board?" Miguel Fernandez, Gunners's Mate First Class, asked.
"Not on the CVN, but there should be an amphib ship along in the fleet," Murdock said. "It's got a bunch of them. We've used them before. Only problem is they don't have the range. They top out at four hundred miles max. We'll have to go with something else."
"What about a pair of F-14 Tomcats?" Joe Douglas asked. "They can't fire their missiles, but they can use their twenty-millimeter cannon."
Murdock pointed his finger at Douglas. "Yeah, sounds about right. We'll talk with the flyboys about it."
Stroh rubbed his face with one hand. "Damn, sounds too simple. Does Kenya have any air capability at all?"
"You're the one who should know that," Murdock said. "Give your buddies in Langley a call and ask them. Whatever air they have, another pair of Tomcats riding a wide shotgun circle around the embassy should be enough to handle any trouble."
"I'll ask them when we get a list of things," Stroh said. "Now, we need to know how to find this embassy. It's on 2249 R Street North West. Remember, Nairobi is a town of just over two million people. We don't want to blow up the wrong compound — say, strafe the hell out of the French Embassy."
"The pilots will know how to find the place," Jaybird said. "That's their job. So we're in on the ground. What weapons do we take, our MP-5's and the M-4A1's?"
Magic Brown chimed in. "We'll still need the sniper rifles and the MGs. Sounds like our usual weapons."
Murdock looked at Ed DeWitt. "Ed?"
"Regular shooters plus four fraggers for each man. It's close-in work. Kill House stuff. The MP-5 will do fine, but we won't need the suppressors. Get more range that way."
"Agreed," Murdock said. "We all have our regular weapons, and a double load of ammo. We can get any more we need from the carrier's supply and stash it on board our chopper. Don't forget the forty-mike-mike grenades. Our side arm will be the Mark 23 again. This time we won't have that hellish long silencer, so be glad."
"Looks like a regular shoot-and-scoot operation," Red Nicholson said.
Murdock turned to Stroh. "My guess is the President doesn't want to wait another day on this. We get on station at 0200. Does he want us to jump on those choppers and head inland right then? The Seahawk will do about two hundred mph. That's an hour-and-a-half trip if we're right at the coast. If we're a hundred miles off the coast of Kenya when we launch, it'll take us two hours.
"Stroh, talk to the skipper of the Monroe and see if he has three Seahawks and at least four F-14's we can use. Then find out how far we'll be from Nairobi at 0200."
Stroh had been taking notes. He nodded, stood, and hurried up to the cockpit.
Murdock looked at his crew. "Let's see if we can get some shut-eye. We'll need it. We can't make any more plans until we know for sure we can get the choppers we want."
The Greyhound COD landed on board the carrier after dark, and caught the two wire.
"Any landing you can walk away from," Murdock said as he supervised the unloading of the cargo plane, and moving all of the SEALs' equipment, ammo, and collapsed IBSs to a spot where they could be loaded on one of the Seahawks.
A white shirt, a safety guide, led Murdock and his men off the flight deck and into a mess hall where a hot meal waited for them steak, spare ribs, or fish, and all the trimmings.
Murdock sat across from a three-striper who said his name was Commander Lewis.
"We've made all the arrangements you asked for, Lieutenant. We have a new position for you. As of 0200 we will be about forty miles off the northern part of the Kenya coast. That's three hundred and thirty-five land miles from Nairobi. Flying time to your target in the Seahawk is about an hour and forty-one minutes.
"First we thought of the Sea Knight. She hasn't got that kind of range. They top out at about four hundred twenty miles. The Seahawk is the right bird. We've stripped down three Seahawks for you, the SH-60B. They're ASW hunters. We've taken out the torpedoes, most of the armament, and the missiles. We'll move in to the three-mile limit and the Seahawks can get you there and back with a load of twenty hostages."
"The KIAs, sir?" Murdock asked.
"The dead will have to wait, Lieutenant. We don't expect this coup to last long. We've got plans."
"The Seahawks it is, sir." Murdock looked at Don Stroh, who had his mouth full of steak. "Stroh, what about the timing?
"Just got a signal from the White House. We are to begin the operation at the earliest possible time. Meaning as soon as we get on station about 0200."
"Commander, what about the F-14s?" Murdock asked.
"Yes, we'll go with the Tomcats. No missile firing but they can take a load of twenty-millimeter rounds and give you good close ground support."
"Are they ready to roll?"
"They will be ready when you are, Lieutenant. We'll send the Tomcats out well after you leave here so they can be on target and give an almost continuous attack starting fifteen minutes before you arrive at the embassy."
Murdock stood. "Men, chow call ends in five minutes. At 0200 we'll be in the air. Let's move it."
When the SEALs got to the Seahawks, the one the SEALs would ride in had been loaded with all of their gear and ammo except for the IBSS, which were stored. Murdock saw the F-14s roll out and two get positioned. They wouldn't take off for an hour yet. The Seahawks would be near the target when the Tomcats strafed the place with the 20mm cannon.
Murdock settled back against the side of the chopper and thought it through again. Yes, they had the best scenario. They had an hour-and-forty-one-minute flight. By the time they got there, the compound would have been pounded by the Tomcats for ten or fifteen minutes. The SEALs' chopper would set down inside or on the street close to the embassy, and his team would charge in and take out any Kenyan soldiers left there alive.
The other two Seahawks would wait for an all-clear signal to come in to pick up the hostages. The first twenty would go out in the chopper the SEALs arrived in.
Murdock saw four of the SEALs sleeping. Good. Nobody was wound up tight. This should be a walk in the park.
An hour and a half later, he was in the cockpit of the chopper looking down at the U.S. Embassy grounds. A Tomcat swept down, fired a salvo of 20mm rounds, and slanted up and away. The radio chattered.
"Slowboy, that you? Sweepers ready to retire and circle. Be available for any special targets."