The leader of the band, identified as Riley in the few whispered conversations, gave a command. One of the figures detached himself from the group. Weapon slung over his back, he opened the fence with bolt cutters. Quickly the ten men squirmed through. The last man laced the cut links back together using parachute cord. In the dim light, the fence appeared whole again.
Riley nodded to himself. So far, so good. He tapped the man behind him and, as the signal was passed back, moved out, leading the way. The group crossed the dirt road that ran the perimeter of Plattsburgh Air Force Base, and entered the blackness of the four square miles of forest that bordered the runway on its western side. Their target was nestled in those woods.
Riley switched on his night-vision goggles. Through them, he immediately spotted the previously unseen infrared chem light that marked their designated path. Riley led his men to the first chem light, sliding through the trees and underbrush with the skill of a man used to such nighttime forays. Approaching the glowing dot that indicated the light, he spotted another one beckoning him onward through the woods to the northeast.
Following the trail of lights, the group of armed men moved like wraiths through the dark forest. Nine hundred meters from the fence, at the last chem light, Riley spotted to his right front the on-off flickering of an infrared (IR) light, indicating someone flicking the IR switch on a pair of goggles as a signal.
Riley moved forward to the man wearing the goggles. Reaching the guide, he turned and, touching the man behind him, signaled the group to move into a tight defensive perimeter. The signal was silently passed back, and after a brief rustling of leaves the entire team was settled down, weapons pointing outward.
Riley put his head next to the guide's and whispered. "What you got, Partusi?"
"Same as the photos. Nothing much has changed. Leave these guys here and I'll show you."
Riley signaled the rest of his party to stay in place, then he moved forward with Partusi another seventy-five meters. He didn't need the night-vision goggles as the ambient light grew brighter. Reaching the edge of the woods, he peered out. The compound was big — larger than he had expected from the pictures — almost three hundred meters by one hundred. It was completely enclosed by a chain link fence topped with barbwire. Riley was studying it from the woods that paralleled the south side, looking long-ways through the compound.
Every hundred meters along the fence stood a guard shack. It was obvious to Riley that the shacks were designed more as places for the guards to stay out of the weather than as defensive positions. Riley could make out movement in the nearest one.
On the right side of the compound, the eastern side, Riley saw the lone tall guard tower reaching fifty feet into the night sky. In the glow of the arc lights that illuminated the compound, he could discern the muzzle of an M60 machine gun poking over the sandbags on top. His eyes continued their inspection.
"Damn," he hissed to Partusi. "When did that thing get moved in?" Riley indicated a four-wheeled armored vehicle inside the fence, underneath the tower. "I thought that stayed over by the main post with the reaction force."
Partusi shrugged and whispered back, "Our asset said sometimes it do and sometimes it don't. Tonight's a don't."
Riley nodded. They had prepared for this possibility anyway, along with many other contingencies. Across the center of the compound Riley counted the massive berms. Each over sixteen feet high, they squatted in two rows of five, with a road between them running north to south. From their asset's briefing, Riley knew that the side of each berm facing the road consisted of a massive iron door ten feet high by twelve feet wide. The other sides and top were covered in earth, masking the six feet of steel-reinforced concrete underneath, which protected the contents.
Riley turned back to Partusi. "Give me the rundown on your surveillance."
Partusi pointed as he quietly briefed. "Got a man in each guard shack. That's eight guards to start off with. Six have Ml6s. Two are armed with M203 grenade launchers — the one there in the southeast corner and the third one up on the west side. The tower's got an M60 machine gun with two men up there. The Avenger, that's what that armored thing under the tower is called, got a crew of three. An M60 is in the turret as its main weapon.
"We also got a Chevy Blazer, with two air force police in it, driving the compound perimeter road about every thirty to forty-five minutes. They really ain't checking too carefully. The guard changed at 2000 so we got this crew until 0400. Nothing much else."
Riley nodded. Everything was just as the civilian base worker they had recruited as an intelligence asset had told them it would be. Thirteen guards on target. Possibly two more in the Blazer. A reaction force of thirty men over at the main airfield that could be on target in six minutes, give or take a couple.
Partusi continued. "The ground sensors are there. Just before dark the air police in the Blazer drove off the dirt road and onto that grassy strip between the road and the fence to check them. They seem to be working. No remote cameras, but the sensors must be relayed back to the reaction force. There's a phone and radio in the tower. The Avenger probably got a radio too; you can see the antenna on the turret. I'm not sure about the guard shacks. Probably landline to the tower, but they haven't been doing any checks that I could tell.
"No air activity since a quarter to ten. Had two F-11’s land then. You can't see the runway from here but it's over to the northeast, beyond those trees up there."
"What about the grating?"
"All taken care of."
Riley considered the situation. He looked at the glowing dial of his watch. The team still had four hours before they did the job. After giving Partusi some final instructions, he went back to the rest of the team. Gathering them in close, he briefed them on the information that Partusi had imparted. Finishing that, he updated the tactical situation.
"Everything stays as planned. Except I want you, Haley, to take out that armored vehicle under the tower right away. Miller, you hit the guard with the M203 in the southeast corner with your first shot. I've already detailed Partusi to take out the other 203 on the west side with his first shot."
He looked around at the faces darkened with burned cork. "Any questions? Now you all know that the air force takes this nuclear stuff real serious. So when the time comes, let's do what we came here for and get the hell out before they even know what hit them."
An army two-and-a-half-ton truck with New York National Guard stenciled on the front bumper rumbled up to the main gate of Plattsburgh Air Force Base. The air policeman on duty stopped it, checking the ID cards of the two men in the front. As he matched the pictures on the cards to the two faces in the front seat, he queried the driver, "Where you heading?"
The driver gestured toward the back of the truck. "We're dropping off unused field rations at your warehouse from our annual training."
The guard waved the truck through. He glanced at the back as it went by. The canvas covering was down and he couldn't see in. He was a little curious as to why they were dropping off rations so early in the morning. The guard shrugged as he turned his attention back to the road. Part-time soldiers, he thought. Probably had to be back at their regular jobs in a couple of hours. He felt a little sorry for them having to be up so late.
Riley signaled the six men forward. They slithered into a dirt drainage ditch that linked up with a creek farther back in the woods. Riley led the way in the opposite direction, crawling through the mud in the bottom of the fold in the earth toward the fence. After passing through the culvert under the perimeter security road and coming out the other side, Riley peered ahead to where the drainage ditch passed under the fence.