The flight lasted no more than fifty minutes, but it gave me time to think. If we did manage to launch an operation against the new drugs complex, everything would depend on surprise. If the narcos got wind of a rescue attempt, or thought an attack was coming in, they’d top the hostages for sure. This meant that we had to get in covertly, establish an OP, discover the routine of the place, and take the defenders by surprise.
The pilot never bothered to gain any great altitude, and air currents coming off the mountains made the flight pretty rough. I was glad when the plane banged down hard on the dirt runway at Santa Rosa, and there was Sparky, waving like a lunatic from the edge of the strip. I thought he was taking the piss out of us for coming back early, and spending all our money while he’d been hoarding his. Not at all. He was frantic for me to get on the satcom link to Tony in Bogotá.
‘But I’ve only just left the bugger,’ I protested.
‘I know, but there’s been a development. He says you’re to call immediately.’
‘OK, guys.’ I looked round. ‘Leave the Colombian stores on board. Everyone get their personal kit packed up and ready for the off. We need to load all our ammunition and PE, as well. Make sure we don’t leave anything behind.’
‘Aren’t we coming back?’ somebody asked.
‘Might be. Might not. It depends how things go. Anyway, we’re off in a few minutes.’
Sparky had the spike of the little dish aerial stuck into the ground outside our accommodation block, but the satellite had wandered out of range, and for a couple of minutes we couldn’t make any contact. Then, having checked with his compass and reset the elevation, he suddenly hit it spot-on. The call went through, the line clear as clear.
‘Tony — hi. What’s on?’
‘The bastards have split the party. We got two separate reports from the toads within a few minutes of your leaving. One party’s gone to the Caquetá, all right. But the other’s in Cartagena.’
‘Jesus! Where’s that?’
‘It’s a port on the north coast.’
‘Fucking hell. Who’s where?’
‘One toad said that the gringa and four gringos, one old and three young, have been taken to the Rio Caquetá.’
‘That sounds like our party, with a couple of PIRA in tow.’
‘Yeah — but listen to this. The other toad said that a gringo con cabellos rubios had been put on board a ship at Cartagena.’
‘Jesus Christ! Fair hair — that must mean Peter, the Rupert.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Do we know what ship it is?’
‘Yep. It’s a cargo vessel called the Santa Maria de la Mar. Nine thousand tons. Panamanian registered. It’s making ready to sail for Amsterdam.’
‘God almighty. They’re trying to get him out of the country. The PIRA must have found out he’s from the Regiment.’
‘Right. They’ll beat the shit out of him to make him talk.’
‘Maybe they’re aiming to get him back to Northern Ireland. Tony, we need to hit that ship. Maybe we’d better turn round and come back.’ I thought for a moment. Then I realized that what we needed were the special skills of the Boat Troop. We could undertake more or less any operation on land, and a couple of us had trained for short periods with the boat guys. But if it came to a ship assault we were neither fully trained nor properly equipped.
I said as much to Tony, then added, ‘We’ll carry on with our own operation. But I’m going to call Hereford and get the Boat Troop put on standby.’
‘Wait a bit. It’s not that easy. If we’re going to hit the ship we’ve got to hit the lab at the same time. And vice versa. We need two operations, co-ordinated down to the last few seconds. Otherwise the narcos will top the other half of the equation.’
‘OK. Two operations. But, Christ — when’s the ship due to sail?’
‘Some time tomorrow. Our information is that she’s heading for an offshore island, to trans-ship drugs. Our best tactic will be to hit her there, when the crew’s not expecting anything. But we need to know where she’s going. The toad said Amsterdam. That could be right, in the end, but it could be disinformation. She could head in any goddamn direction. What we’ve got to do is get a tracking device on board her before she sails.’
Even as he talked, in my mind I was seeing the guys in the Boat Troop. I knew several of them welclass="underline" Steve, Roger, Merv — all first-class operators. This looked like an ideal task for them.
‘The trouble is,’ I said, ‘our lot will never get here in time. They have to go round about four stops on the way, like we did, spread over several days.’
‘No,’ replied Tony. ‘But mine will. The SEALs’ll get there. There’s a team on standby in Florida all the time. Your government will have to clear it from England, but I’m going to call my guys right away and give them advance warning that they’re gonna go stick a device on the ship while she’s still in port. A hit out at sea or at an island would be another matter. That would stir the diplomatic shit, and it might need clearance from the Pentagon. But we can get a bleeper in place without anyone knowing.’
‘Great! Go ahead with that. I’ll speak to the headshed in Hereford and tell them the score.’
‘Listen,’ Tony said. ‘You got a pencil and paper? I did a couple of calculations, based on the satellite information. On your jungle location, you need to chopper in towards the target without getting close enough to alert anybody. The best thing will be to cut straight across from the base at Puerto Pizarro to the north of the target. Aim for the tributary and come down that. That way, you won’t fly closer to the laboratory than eight or nine ks, and nobody’s going to hear you. If you head out from the base on zero-eight-seven degrees, you’ll hit the Rio Cuemani ten ks north of the new airstrip.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘I got a note of that.’
‘South of the big river,’ he went on, ‘there’s a solitary mountain. I guess it’ll stand right out of the flat jungle. Looks like it’s got a conical peak. You’re never going to be closer to it than fifty ks, but you’ll see it away to your right. When you get level with it, you’ll be coming to your tributary.’
He went on to describe the precise layout of the landing-strip, the link road (which didn’t run straight, but wound through the forest) and the buildings of the laboratory itself. As he talked I wrote and sketched details in my note-book.
‘Thanks, Tony. Zero-eight-seven will be our heading. I’ll get on to Hereford now.’
I was about to line up the call when I saw Captain Jaime heading towards us. Pretending I felt happy, I said, ‘¡Hola, Capitán! Embarrada.’ A big problem.
He seemed a bit disgruntled, and wanted some explanation. I gave it, itching to be on the move. ‘How many days will you be away?’ he asked.
‘One or two,’ I said casually. ‘That should do it.’
Of course I hadn’t a clue. But I could see that he was getting the shits worrying how to keep forty-odd men occupied.
Sparky tuned his dish again, and we got through to Hereford. Again they put me on to the CO. I briefed him on the situation, then said, ‘Boss, this has the makings of a first-class international fuck-up.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said the Colonel. ‘We’ve got the diplomatic side well under control. I don’t think there’s going to be any attempt to stop you. We’ve already cleared the SEALs’ involvement with the US government. It’s great that Tony Lopez is there to liaise.’