“Bet he meant King Kong. He’s taking us to that new movie,” Franklin said.
“Oh, no, it got canceled before it was made,” Lampedusa said.
Murdock and DeWitt entered the compartment. There was no call to attention. This was the SEALs and no brass was present.
“So?” Ching called.
“You won’t believe this,” DeWitt said. “Yes, it is Hong Kong.” He waited for the cheers, and yells and catcalls to subside. “I know, I didn’t have a clue what we could do in Hong Kong in the middle of all those Chicoms.” He shook his head. “I’ll have the skipper tell you. He must understand it better than I do.”
Murdock snorted. “Not much to understand. Believing it is a different story. The mission is this. There’s a Panamanian-registered cruise ship in Hong Kong on a world cruise with almost twelve hundred Americans on board. The Chinese have stopped the ship from sailing, saying that there are spies onboard and they must interview each of the twelve hundred and detain any they consider to be spies. The interviews began yesterday. By the end of the day, they had made it all the way through twenty little old ladies with blue hair and ten older men with prostate trouble.
“Our job is to go in after dark, take out the Chinese security men onboard, get the ship under way, and without clearance or permission to help the crew sail her out of Hong Kong Bay and into the glorious South China Sea.”
“That’s all there is to it?” Bradford yelped.
“About the size of it. Any suggestions?”
“You give them a plan?” Howie asked.
“No. We were trying to figure out the odds and if it was a risk that the U.S. Navy and the State Department could take.”
“Must been a yes,” Fernandez said.
“We will have all kinds of support. The carrier is charging toward the area now at thirty knots to get within striking range of the F-eighteens and the Tomcats.”
“Sounds like an act of war we’re talking about here,” Jaybird said. “Tomcats blasting what, Chinese patrol boats?”
“Yes, and maybe a destroyer or two in the harbor,” Murdock said. “The State Department says that China has perpetrated a mass kidnapping, and any act is acceptable in world opinion and in diplomatic circles to recover our people.”
“We don’t have to worry about that part of it. If they say go, we go. How are we going to rescue a ship of that size?”
“At night, for sure,” Ching said.
“Do we know how many Chinese troops or guards are onboard?” Mahanani asked.
“No way of knowing right now,” DeWitt said. “We might be able to find out.”
“We go in by Pegasus, then underwater to the pier,” Canzoneri said. “Then what?”
“How about we go in with our wet suits over civilian clothes,” Paul Jefferson said. “We get onboard with our weapons and tools, and strip off our wet suits and then we can blend with the passengers and not be so obvious.”
“Good idea, I like that,” Murdock said.
“Does the ship need a tug to get away from the pier?” Howie Anderson asked. “Most of those big rigs do.”
“We’re clear on that one,” DeWitt said. “One of the men at the meet said this ship can get away from the pier on its own. More work and slower, but it can be done.”
“So, we get onboard, take out the guards and any soldiers in residence, and get the captain out of his bunk to take the ship out of port in the middle of the night,” Franklin said.
“We still have our EAR weapons,” Ostercamp said. “We should take both of them on the attack.”
Murdock looked at Jaybird.
“Yes, sir. We should take them for sure. We used up the batteries, but they can be charged up and ready to go with ten shots each in about an hour.”
“Good,” Murdock said. “Now, how do we get from the harbor water onboard the liner?”
“Should be ladders all over the place there from water to dock,” Bradford said. “First we take out any guards on the dock and gangplank. Then we get out of our wets and go onboard with drag bags holding all of our weapons and wet gear.”
“Once we get onboard?” DeWitt asked.
“Hell, we know ships,” Khai said. “We get to the spots the Chicoms would guard: the engine room, the bridge, security, communications room, and engineering. We get them, and we own the ship. Then we clean up on any more guards on the craft.”
“Damn, we did you officer guys’ work for you again on the planning stages,” Jaybird said.
“Glad for the help. The captain says we have been making thirty knots now for two days, over fourteen hundred miles. He says we will be in range for his eighteens and Tomcats by dusk today. He has three units off Hong Kong about forty miles, including a guided missile destroyer that can land a forty-six. As soon as the carrier gets in range for the forty-six to get to the destroyer, we’ll be in a go mode.”
“When will that be?” Jaybird asked. “The forty-six has a range of about four hundred miles.”
“We’ll leave that up to the navigators upstairs,” Murdock said. “So, let’s get ready to travel.”
“What about the civilian clothes?” Jefferson asked. “I didn’t bring any with me.”
DeWitt nodded. “I’ll talk to our carrier liaison. I want the sizes of all of you guys. We’ll have to borrow civvies from the men onboard. Might take some time. A three by five card for each of you with your pants size, shirt, etc. Do it now.”
Murdock went back to the carrier’s captain who was playing chess with Stroh in his cabin.
“Stroh, I didn’t even know you could play chess.”
“He can’t,” Captain Robertson said. They all laughed.
“Captain, we can do it. I’ve talked to my planning committee. We’ve got a weapon that is non-lethal, called the EAR. That stands for ‘enhanced acoustic rifle.’ It sends out a high-powered blast of air that knocks out the people it hits for four hours. Be ideal. We’ll need a Pegasus to get us near the harbor. Then we go underwater to the pier of this ship. What’s its name?”
“Queen of the Seas.”
“When we get to the dock, we’ll take off our wet suits and have civilian clothes on underneath. We take out any guards on the dock and the area with the EAR, then board the ship. We figure to go up the gangplank about oh one hundred.”
“What about worst-case scenario?” the captain asked.
“If we can’t get to the ship, we retreat, call in the Pegasus on the SATCOM and return to the destroyer. If we get onboard and find ourselves outgunned, shot to pieces, and unable to do the job, we go wet, find our Draegr rebreathers and get back to the Pegasus. That isn’t going to happen.”
“Very well, Commander. Our navigator tells me we’ll be within range for the chopper to reach the destroyer about fourteen hundred. Will that give you time to get onboard set up the Pegasus and get to your swim point on time?”
“Looks good, Captain. If there’re any glitches we can delay by twenty-four. As I understand there’s no time crisis onboard the ship.”
“That’s right. But the sooner the better the CNO says.”
“Understood sir.”
“Good luck, Commander. That will be all.”
Murdock stood, came to attention, and walked out of the captain’s quarters with Stroh.
“You didn’t say much in there, big hairy CIA man.”
“Nothing to say, your party.” He frowned. “Speaking of hairy, I’m not too sure about this one. Too damn many variables we can’t tie down. What if they have a company of troops quartered a block away and they get a panic call from some Chicom on the ship? What if—”
Murdock held up his hand. “Hey, we know all the ‘what ifs.’ We’ve talked out a lot of them, we’ll go in and do it by our plan, our book. If that doesn’t work, we adapt, we innovate, we change, we go a different way. Many ways to skin this big ship cat.”