Captain Prescott nodded at the two and led them to a screen.
“This is a feed from our AWACS plane monitoring the Chinese ship. At the moment, she’s almost dead in the water. A small ship of some sort is approaching her, and it looks like some kind of a meeting or a mid-sea transfer. Either way, we don’t like it. Wanted to let you see this so you know that we know what the Chinese are doing all the time.”
He took two sheets of paper from a small desk area and waved them. “The gist of this signal from the President is that we have a green light to go ahead and stop, board, take control, examine, and generally satisfy ourselves that there are or there aren’t any of the former Soviet Satan missiles on board.
“The only vessel we have in the area is a missile cruiser at Athens. She’s been alerted, and has left one of her helicopters onshore. She will be ready to receive a visiting Sea Knight, if that is what we decide. She is now steaming in the general direction of the Chinese ship, the Star of Asia, a freighter in poor condition.”
“You also got the signal through Navy channels?” Murdock asked.
“Yes, from the CNO through channels. It took a little over an hour more than it did for the message to come from the President. At least we’re legal.”
“So we figure out how to take down a rusty Chinese freighter on the high seas?” Murdock asked.
“That’s the size of it, Commander. I understand your men have done this before.”
“We have. How big is this freighter?”
“About the size of our combat stores ships. Five hundred and eighty feet, about sixteen thousand tons. That’s a generality, but that’s the signals we get back.”
“So, we go from here to Athens in a COD. Pickup the Sea Knight in Athens and join the cruiser in the Aegean Sea. That’s the easy part.” Murdock paused. “Anything about timing of our attack? My men just came off an all-night mission.”
“The President mentions that in the signal. He said if you could get to the freighter sometime tonight, it would be the best scenario.”
“Tonight?” Murdock looked at his watch. It was 1206. “So we’re still nearly eight hundred miles from Athens. The Carrier Onboard Delivery planes make about three hundred and fifty miles an hour. A two-and-a-half-hour flight. Then make connections at the Athens municipal airport, or do we have some military in Greece?”
“We have some military. Athens is about seventy-five miles from the Chinese freighter. We have a COD on board here that you can use anytime.”
“It sounds possible. My men can sleep on the trip. Not more than a half hour on the Sea Knight to the freighter. Then we go out the hatch with our IBSs and go up the freighter’s rusty side and take her down. We’ll need hand and foot magnet climbers, the kind our men use when working parts of the exterior hull.”
“I’m sure we have them. When do you want the COD to be ready for takeoff?”
Murdock looked at his watch again. “We’ll plan a midnight attack. Gives us twelve hours. Let’s let the men sleep two more hours, then we’ll get them up and moving. We’ll need breakfast and box lunches. Also a resupply on ammo and explosives. Oh, do you have two IBSs? Inflatable rubber boats?”
“One of our support ships has some. We’ll get two of them on board within an hour.”
“Good. You’ll clear this with the XO and the captain? I’m getting bugged about going through channels.”
Captain Prescott grinned. “I know the feeling. Yes, I’ll inform them of the plan.”
Murdock stood. “I better get my second up and briefed. You’ll alert the kitchen crew we’ll need breakfast in three hours?”
“Right. Our cooks can come up with any kind of meal any time of the day.”
Murdock grinned, waved, and headed for his compartment. He had to get DeWitt up and moving and briefed. DeWitt knew where Senior Chief Dobler bunked. Two hours’ more sleep for the men, then they would be up.
Murdock wondered how Kat was doing. At least she wouldn’t be along on this run. He poked DeWitt on the shoulder.
“Hey sailor, get up. Time we do it again.”
DeWitt came alert slowly. He sat up, shook his head.
“We’re going after the damn freighter?”
“Roger.”
“Wonder if they have any Chinese troops on board. Ah, probably not. It’s just an old rust-bucket freighter.”
10
The SEALs were ready when the COD rolled up. They had spent an hour checking gear, getting weapons cleaned and oiled, and making everything ready. Kat had come down and sat watching them. Murdock had phoned her earlier and told her that they wouldn’t need her on this mission.
“Kat, our first job is to take down the ship, seize control. Then we can spot a place on the deck, clear it out, and have an LZ for you to step into from a hovering chopper. When we need you to look over the warheads, we’ll call you in. I’m not about to mess with that kind of nuclear power myself.”
“I can go up the side of that ship as well as any of your men.”
Murdock chuckled. “Hey, Kat, I know it. But somebody might start shooting, and that’s our strong point. So let the guys do their thing, and then we’ll use the SATCOM and get you on board quickly.”
“This is assuming that there are missiles and warheads on board that Chinese ship.”
“Assuming, yes, Kat. But there’s not much of a choice where they can put them. They could have ferried them all to land for a trans-Siberia plane ride, but I don’t think so.”
“I’d still like to be with you guys.”
“Well, we’re flattered. You want to go even after what happened early this morning back there in Libya?”
“Yes. I’m working through it. I decided not to tell the President that I wanted to quit.”
“Good. You have a nap and some dinner and if all goes well tonight, we just might be calling you for a helicopter ride come daylight.”
“I’ll be ready.” She paused. “Murdock, thanks for hanging in there with me when I was coming apart at the seams.”
“Hey, nice lady. We all have our seams. See you tomorrow.”
A half hour later, the SEALs trooped into the COD. It was exactly like the ones they had used around the world. A workhorse for a fast ride onto or off an aircraft carrier.
The flight to Athens was routine, well within the range of the C-2A Greyhound. They landed on what looked like a military airstrip, but nobody explained to them where they were. A Navy Sea Knight dropped down within thirty yards of the COD, and the SEALs left one plane for the next. In the interim they moved their uninflated IBSs into the chopper and inflated them, positioning them at the rear of the craft next to the aft hatch. First they would push out the boats, then jump in after them all from about ten feet off the water if they were lucky. Just the way they had practiced that day off San Diego in the Pacific Ocean.
The pilot came back and checked with Murdock after the sixteen SEALs had settled into the bird.
“Commander, we have a little over a half hour flight time. The target ship is steaming at ten knots again in a generally southern direction. As I understand it, you want to jump out about a mile to the front of the freighter and on its line of travel.”
“Right, Lieutenant, and we don’t want the Chinese to know we’re there. We stay a mile away, they won’t hear us. If that old scow has the kind of radar on it I expect it to, they won’t have a prayer of spotting the chopper.”
“That sounds good to me. I don’t think I’ll ever trust those damned Chinese to do or say what we expect them to. We’re out of here in about three minutes.”
The crew chief buttoned up the craft and went with the pilot back to the small cockpit.
Murdock took advantage of the quiet before takeoff to talk to the men.