“One, that there actually is a live bomb on board that can be triggered by the terrorists.
“Two, there is a live bomb on board, but the terrorists have not been trusted by the Arab extremists to know how to trigger it.
“Three, that there is no bomb. But we can’t assume that it is a bluff.
“If we knew which situation we’re facing, it would be simpler. Since we don’t, we have to consider that there is a bomb, it is live, and the terrorists know how to trigger it. With that factored in, it means we have to move swiftly, aggressively, and we must win the fight quickly or simply die in the process along with millions of residents and visitors to London.”
Captain Brainridge nodded. “Yes, Commander, we agree. We must take the threat seriously, and consider it a viable bomb that can be exploded by the terrorists on demand. So, what’s our first step?”
Murdock looked at his team. “We have had no advance planning on this one. If we may now?”
Brainridge waved his permission.
“Suggestions,” Murdock said.
“How about a chopper landing,” Jaybird said. “Lots of open space on most freighters over holds where a bird could come down and dump out thirty men. We spread out and capture the ship and the bomb.”
“If the bird couldn’t land, we could rope down thirty of us from a chopper in sixty to ninety seconds,” Lam said.
“Up the sides with grappling hooks and ropes about 0100 sounds better,” DeWitt said. “This way, no noise to alert the Arabs. A chopper is going to be a warning even before we could get on deck, and the Arabs would have every man ready with submachine guns for us and RPGs for the choppers.”
“We could use limpet mines on the hull and sink her into the harbor bottom,” Senior Chief Sadler said. “Even so, they could trigger the bomb as she was sinking or even when it was underwater. I withdraw the suggestion.”
Murdock looked at the English captain. “How long is the freighter, Captain?”
“About a hundred and twenty meters, about four hundred feet long.”
“Could we consider an airdrop with the square steerable chutes we all use? It should be easy to hit a four-hundred-foot-long ship that’s about sixty or seventy feet wide.”
The SAS men at once huddled, whispering. A moment later Captain Brainridge looked up.
“Commander, we like the idea. We do bull’s-eye skydiving for practice. No reason why a hundred percent of our team couldn’t hit the cargo hatches of that ship at night. Almost no wind at night. She has running and navigation lights on, plus some floods to help keep her safe from boarders. A perfect target. You brought your chutes?”
“No,” DeWitt said.
“No problem, we can provide them. All of your people are jump-certified?”
“More combat jumps than we want to remember,” Murdock said. “No problem there. How many men? We can put sixteen on board.”
“We’ll jump sixteen as well, giving us thirty-two. We’ll jump by twos so we don’t clobber the deck with bodies. One pass with two planes should do it. Jump from about a thousand feet so we can get down fast.”
“Sounds good,” Murdock said. “I’d think that speed is the most important factor here. Do we go out early tomorrow morning to hit the ship about 0100?”
Captain Brainridge nodded. “We have carte blanche from the Defense Ministry. Anything we want. How are you on weapons?”
“We have our long guns, but probably could use some more sub guns, H & K MP-5’s if they are available, plus more ammo. Senior Chief Sadler can get together with your ordnance man and work it out. Can we fly out of here?”
“I’ll get in two jump planes for sixteen each. No sweat.”
“Lead blanket,” Murdock said. “Do you have available a lead blanket that your nuke men use to mask bombs? The lead keeps out any stray or intentional signals to trigger a bomb. As soon as we nail the bomb, we shroud it with the blanket to prevent some bad-ass from setting it off.”
“Yes, capital idea. We’ll get two brought in. After we secure the bomb the lead blankets will be brought in by a chopper to us.”
“Do you have a man who can defuse a nuke?” Murdock asked.
“No. We should have one along. I’ll see if there is one who is jump-qualified. If not we’ll have to ferry him on board by chopper with the lead blankets as soon as we secure the ship and capture the bomb.”
“Good. Have him close by on shore in the chopper waiting for your radio signal. Timing here could be critical. We have no idea how they might trigger the bomb. It could be done with a remote-control radio signal of some kind.”
“We’ll have it covered,” Brainridge said.
“Do we have a schematic of the ship?” Murdock asked. “Where might they hold the nuke?”
“We’ve talked to the company in Tokyo. They faxed us some schematics, but they don’t help much. There are no locking compartments on board. Mostly open holds. They said the bomb could be kept in the forward crew quarters.”
“If any of the crew are left, they might help us find the bomb once we take down the ship,” Murdock said. “We have a man who speaks Japanese.”
“That should cover it, Commander,” Captain Brainridge said. “Send your man with our ordnance expert for your supplies. Let’s get together again at 1800 and see what else we need to do.”
“Right here?” Murdock asked.
“Right here.”
“What about the chutes? You must have expert packers.”
“The best in the world. We’ve never had a chute fail on us,” Captain Brainridge said. “I’ll put in an order for thirty-two chutes to be brought here. We usually keep over a hundred ready to go in our stockroom.”
“Good. If you people use them, we can trust them too. How can we keep in touch?”
The captain signaled, and one of his men brought over two cell phones. “They’re mates. My phone number is on the back, and I’ve got the number of your phone on the back of mine. These will keep us in touch anywhere on the base and for a wide area.”
“Good, we might just need them. See you back here at 1800.”
Murdock walked out of the room, and saw Senior Chief Sadler shaking hands with one of the SAS men. They headed in a different direction, evidently to work out the need for weapons and ammo.
Back in the assembly section of the barracks building, Don Stroh had shown up with pictures of the ship in the harbor in London.
It was big, but not one of the huge ones.
“Too many men,” Ed DeWitt said. “We can’t have thirty-two men parachuting into that one small area all at the same time. We’ll be clobbering each other, hitting cranes and hatch covers. Why don’t we let the SAS chute in and we go up the side on ropes. Got me a bad feeling about all those chutes in that little deck.”
“That’s it,” Murdock said. “As soon as he said thirty-two, something started rattling around in my head. I couldn’t pin it down. Yeah, you’re right. Let me see if this phone works.”
They talked on the phone for five minutes. The captain agreed that his men would parachute in and Murdock and his men would come up the sides of the ship from the water. Captain Brainridge could supply a quiet running boat for them that would hold the platoon. They would have radios in the plane and in the boat to coordinate their arrival. The SAS would drop in as soon as the SEALs were up the side of the boat. They both would take down the ship and find the bomb.
Murdock grunted and put down the phone.
“I don’t know, it doesn’t seem right. Why would the terrorists let us know where they are with the bomb, and then just sit there waiting for something to happen? Doesn’t seem reasonable to me.”
DeWitt frowned. “They’ve only been anchored in that position for less than twenty-four hours. Their ultimatum is only twelve hours old.”