“Then we should be seeing some visiting aircraft within a few minutes,” Captain Kim said. “When they arrive, my ship will come within a few paint thicknesses of this fine vessel. The aircraft will not be able to fire their missiles for fear of striking your ship. Or if our frigate explodes from their missiles, it also will severely damage the Royal Princess.”
“I was worried about that.”
“Captain, sir. I have six blips on the radar coming from the east at a high rate of speed. Estimated at twelve hundred miles an hour.”
“The glorious U.S. Air Force has arrived,” Captain Kim said. “Can you get their frequency so we can talk to them?”
Captain Van Derhorn picked up the phone, called his communications center, and gave the order. A moment later the radio chatter by the pilots came through a loudspeaker in the Bridge. The radar officer handed Captain Van Derhorn a microphone on a long cord. The pilot’s voices sounded clearly.
“This is Blue Leader. We do a flyover first and inform Senora about the situation.”
“Roger that, Blue Leader. This is Blue Four. How low are we going?”
“This is Blue Leader. We drop down to five hundred for the flyover. Don’t want to upset any china down there.”
“You sure we have two ships below, Blue Leader? This is Blue Six and I have only one blip on my radar.”
“We’re still ten miles off,” Blue Leader said. “Could be he’s hiding behind the cruise ship.”
“We have confirm that it’s a frigate?” Blue Six asked.
“The report from the liner said it was disguised as a freighter. The same ship we saw earlier. They did some fancy concealment.”
“Coming up on the target, Blue Leader. Less than a mile off.”
“Blue second half, after the flyover, do a turnaround to the left, we’ll take the right. We come back low and slow for a better look,” Blue Leader said. “Here we go.”
The men in the bridge ducked instinctively as the blasting roar of the six F-18’s slammed overhead and vanished into the blue sky.
Captain Kim took the mike, keyed the talk button. “Blue Leader, this is Captain Kim of the North Korean Frigate Najin 531. You will not engage my craft. If there is any hostile military action, I will personally kill ten passengers on board this liner. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
“What the hell….”
“Who is that bitch on the air…”
“Captain Kim. This is Blue Leader. We can blow your frigate out of the water and not touch the Royal Princess. Then what would you do?”
Before the Korean captain could answer, another voice came on the air.
“Blue Leader, this is Senora. You are restricted to observation only. You do not have guns free. I repeat, you do not have guns free. Confirmation?”
“This is Blue Leader coming in low and slow. The frigate is about forty yards from the luxury liner. We could take her out.”
“Blue Leader, this is Senora. You do not have guns free. Do another flyby, obtain any data possible, and return to base.”
“Senora, that’s a Roger. Negative on free guns. Making flyover now. Returning to base.”
The roaring, grinding, thundering sound of six F-18’s in a tight formation made the men in the bridge duck again, even though they knew the planes were coming.
When the sound died, the cruise ship’s captain looked at the modern pirate in uniform.
“Captain Kim. What are you going to do now?”
“First you are going to order up captain’s dinners for me and my two men here. Then I’ll go on the promenade deck and pick at random the first ten victims I will kill. Your men will use your digital cameras and take pictures of the faces of the ten, and you will then transmit them on the Internet and explain what fate awaits them if there is any action against this ship.”
10
The CNO, the President, the CIA chief, and the FBI director all heard about the ultimatum from the frigate commander at about the same time, 1640. Radio messages flew back and forth, secure phone calls were made, and at 1740 it was determined that there should be a night assault on the ship by two platoons of SEALs. Murdock’s platoon would take down the luxury liner, roping down from a CH-46 chopper to the fantail of the big luxury liner, which was usually used for driving golf balls and trapshooting.
The second platoon would drop into the water behind the luxury liner, swim to the Korean frigate, and blow off her rudders and otherwise disable her. Both ships would be dead in the water for the night.
Word came to the SEALs through channels, and Masciareli bellowed over the phone for an immediate scramble to get to the chopper at North Island. They would take two birds and land in a baseball field in the small town of Guadalupe, just west of Santa Maria. The SEALs had ten minutes to get their gear ready and in the truck to go the six miles to the North Island Naval Air Station where the CH-46’s were waiting.
From takeoff to landing would take an hour and forty-five minutes, the pilot told Masciareli. First Platoon of Team Seven would also be on the mission, with Lieutenant Joe Socha, the platoon leader. He had fifteen men fit for duty. Murdock used all sixteen of his men. On the flight one of the door gunners motioned for Murdock to go up to the pilot. They put a headset on him, and he heard Admiral Kenner’s voice.
“Commander, any suggestions for this party?”
“Yes, sir. We can’t get on board silently, so we’ll need a diversion. If Lemoore could send over four or five choppers to make a fake attack some two hundred yards from the bow of the liner, it would be a big help. They could buzz the area, throw out flares, and fire door guns into the Pacific. Create a lot of noise. Then if two or three F-18’s could buzz the ship, it would be another help. All coordinated for the exact time that we come in and touch down.”
“Sounds good, Murdock. I’ll contact the CNO. Has any attack time been set?”
“Sometime after dark. We can go in at midnight or 0200. Whenever the other assets are ready. One more thing. One squad can disable that frigate. I could use the other eight men from Platoon One with me on our chopper to take down the liner. Somebody said there were fifty armed North Korean sailors on board.”
“I’ll talk to the CNO on that too. Hang in there, Murdock. I’ll get back to you on this frequency.”
Murdock went back to the men and yelled out what the admiral had said.
“Help we can use,” Jaybird shouted. They settled down for the rest of the hour-and-forty-five-minute ride.
They came into the field marked by four red flares ten minutes early, and settled down on the lighted city recreation baseball field. They were five miles from the beach, and the two ships were about three miles offshore. As soon as they landed, the pilot motioned for Murdock and handed him an earphone and mike.
“Commander, this is Admiral Kenner. We have some support for your idea of a diversion. The birds will drop some depth charges as well and cause all sorts of racket three hundred yards off the bow. The choppers will fire door guns, shoot flares, and try not to run into each other. We’ll have six F-18’s making passes over the area, not the ship. The commander at Lemoore said he could have his chopper people assemble at the ball field where you are and coordinate everything. He’ll put up his Eighteens when we have the time set. He’ll have the six choppers on your site within thirty minutes. Want to establish an attack time?”