"We have designated this one here," pointing at the map, "as Nail One and this one here as Nail Two." Riley smiled wanly. The captain had come up with the code names. After all, they had decided to call themselves Task Force Hammer.
"We propose sending in a surveillance team, Eyes One, Thursday evening to verify Nail One. Once verification is radioed back, we propose that the target site be hit the same evening, or actually early in the morning on Friday. That's pending coordination of the actual hit force this afternoon by you, sir.
"We propose the split team be pulled out the same morning. Then the second team, Eyes Two, be sent in against Nail Two on Friday night, with that target hit occurring early Saturday morning and that team being pulled out the same morning."
Vaughn paused to check the reactions. Pike was nodding in affirmation. The general knew all of this already. He'd spent most of the morning coordinating aircraft and firepower to support the proposed missions. This update was for the benefit of the civilians.
Westland raised her hand. "Can you mount the first mission that quickly and still be safe? That doesn't give you much time."
Vaughn glanced at Riley, who stood up as the captain yielded the floor to the leader of the first mission. "Yes, ma'am. It's not much time but the mission is pretty straightforward. We'll fly direct from here to Colombia and jump in almost on top of the target. Scope it out. If it's a valid target we'll call in the firepower to level it. Once we verify destruction, we'll get pulled out by a helicopter coming in from Panama.
"It will fly us back to Panama, where we cross-load back onto a C-130. We'll be back here hopefully within twenty-four hours.
"The only things we're waiting for now are confirmation of the Hammer force and exfiltration and infiltration aircraft. Also, we're still waiting for the sterile equipment the agency is supposed to provide us."
Westland fielded the implied question. "The equipment will be here this afternoon."
Riley continued. "We'll be spending the rest of today and tomorrow finalizing our plans and familiarizing ourselves with the equipment. Also, we'll be doing contingency planning for any unexpected occurrences."
General Pike turned toward the DEA agent. "Everything good to go on your end?"
Stevens sat up. "I'll be flying down to Bogota tomorrow. I've got the codes to talk back to you all here at the agreed upon time every day. I'll also be set to monitor the SATCOM from the embassy for all the missions. Like we discussed, I think I can do you all a lot more good down there. Get an idea of what the reaction to the raids is and also let you know the scope of the damage and who you hit."
Pike nodded. "All right. Sounds like everything is rolling. I'll be getting confirmation of our Department of Defense support later this afternoon from General Linders."
Riley was impressed in spite of his misgivings about the mission. They were definitely getting fast action on requests for support for this operation. That was a rare event, based on his experience in past dealings with military bureaucracy.
Pike continued. "You'll be briefing the chairman tomorrow morning to get his approval. Once we have that, Task Force Hammer will be ready to go."
Kate Westland sat in the small office they had given her just off the isolation area. She leafed listlessly through the documents she had brought with her on the drug cartel. She knew that the Special Forces people were still planning in the main room. The equipment had been delivered two hours ago from Langley. Some of those Green Berets had acted like little kids at Christmas, oohing and aahing over the weapons and other gear.
Kate put aside the papers and sighed. Her job for the first mission was pretty much done, and now it was in the hands of the men in the next room. She wasn't happy about that. All her seven years with the agency had been spent at Langley as an analyst. She knew she was damn good at it but she wanted to do more. She had never had the chance to go on a field mission. She felt she had to get some experience in the field in order to round out her career. It wasn't just that she wanted to punch her ticket with some time as a field agent. She wanted to do the job she felt she could. She wanted to be out on the cutting edge instead of always back at the hilt. That was the reason she had joined the agency in the first place.
Thinking about her career reminded Kate of her ex-husband. They'd met while going through the basic agents' course at Langley. In retrospect, it was easy to see that she had mistaken his tolerance of her career as acceptance. It had finally come to a head two years ago. He'd received an offer to move to Berlin and do fieldwork. He'd been shocked when she refused to leave her field of expertise, Latin America, in order to follow him. She had been equally shocked to find out how little he thought of her career. He had never seemed to understand when she told him her job was as important to her as his was to him. He'd filed for divorce two weeks after her refusal. She'd picked up the pieces of her life, pouring her passion into her work. Her proficiency at that work had led her to where she was now.
Strom had said this was an important assignment. She knew that from the simple fact that he had personally given her the mission briefing. But it still wasn't really a field assignment. She'd be sitting here on her butt in Virginia while these soldiers went down and did the dirty work. Maybe if this operation turned out well she would get the transfer to a field site that she had been requesting the last five years.
Kate cleared her mind of this cloud of thoughts and went over to the door. She figured she might as well see what was happening, and find out if the soldiers had any problems with the equipment. She opened the door and stopped as she heard voices raised loud in banter.
"… she could probably kick your butt."
"Yeah, she probably thinks she's hot shit." The soldier's voice went shrilclass="underline" " 'I'm Agent Westland of the CIA and I'm a bad ass. Do you think you men can do the mission in that short amount of time?' " There was some laughter.
The soldier continued. "Remember those stupid equal opportunity classes we had at Bragg? I wonder if she wants to be called a 'woman CIA agent' or a 'female CIA agent'?"
Westland glanced around the room. They hadn't seen her yet. Three of the soldiers, the ones laughing, were gathered around the maps to her right. She saw the intense-looking Puerto Rican soldier, the warrant officer named Riley, raise his head and stare at them.
"Hey, smackheads. If you don't have anything better to do…," he glanced over at her and paused. The three soldiers turned and noticed her for the first time. One of them blushed under his stringy black hair.
She walked over and stood in front of the soldier who had been doing the talking. She remembered he'd been introduced as Atwaters. "Which would you like to be called?" She paused while the soldier frowned in confusion and then she continued. "Butthole or asshole?"
There was silence in the room as she turned and walked back to her office. She heard a few muffled chuckles break out in the room as she shut her door.
Westland sighed as she sat back behind the desk. She'd had to put up with stuff like that ever since she joined the agency. She was so tired of it. No matter what she did, no matter how good she was, it still happened. But she was damned if she'd put up with it, or turn and run away. That's what they expected women to do.
There was a knock on the door. "Come in."
Riley came in. She sensed he was uncomfortable, as though he didn't know what to say. "What can I do for you, Mister Riley?"
"Listen. I apologize for what was said out there. These guys aren't used to working with a woman. Sometimes they say stupid stuff. They didn't mean anything by what they said." He let a small smile lighten his dark face. "I like the way you handled it."