Kara continued.
“As you can see, the compound itself is formidable. Solid concrete and rebar outer walls. And it would appear the building itself is made from the same materials. But even more important is what surrounds the compound.”
Kara focused her pen on a dark spot behind the building.
“This is all swampland. In front we have the creek. It is a deceiving term because it is easily deep and wide enough to allow mooring or passage of container ships and barges— it is 165-feet deep and 10.5-feet wide.”
Kara looked down at her iPad and read some notes she had made.
“Reconnaissance photos show there is only one small bridge that accesses the property across the swamp to the mainland right here,” she said, directing the laser on a tiny black line that ran over the top of the brown swamp. “Both sides of the bridge are guarded always by Boko Haram, who are equipped with assault rifles, and there is probably something more formidable hidden from view.”
“Damn.” It was all Hail could think to say.
“That’s not all,” Kara added. “You see these two boats in the intracoastal waterway, the creek, in front of the compound?” She highlighted the boats with her pointer. “Those are Diambu’s boats that patrol the waters in front of his house, day and night. They only come ashore once a day to refuel and change crews. Both boats are heavily armed, and each one has five or more men.”
Renner repeated Hail’s last words. “Damn.”
“That’s not all,” Kara warned. “See right here on the beach,” she highlighted what appeared to be white sun umbrellas on the beach. The umbrellas had been planted in the area where sand turned into green jungle.
Kara continued, “I know those look like umbrellas, but they aren’t. They are the tops of round cement bunkers. We were able to do a flyby in an innocent- looking Cessna to snap some photos from the beach.”
She asked Hail, “Could you pull up the photos that say Cessna on them?” Hail found the files Ramey was referring to. He clicked on the first one.
The photo showed both bunkers from about 300 yards and taken from a plane flying low to the water.
“Zoom in, please,” Kara requested.
Hail zoomed. Sticking out of the wide slot in the bunker was the business end of what appeared to be a .50 caliber machine gun. In the same long slot, next to it was the barrel of something wider. It looked like a grenade launcher or the mouth of a mortar tube.
Nolan said, “Damn.”
“In addition to everything I showed you, Diambu has armed men that patrol the beach on foot and by Jeep on the perimeter of the property. See these little four-wheeler trails on the sides of the property? These paths are patrolled by men in four-wheelers, and the guards are armed to the teeth.
Hail said, “Looks like Diambu is one paranoid individual.”
“I don’t think he wants what happened to his predecessor to happen to him,” Kara suggested.
“And what was that?” Renner asked.
“Apparently, Mohammad Mboso is not alive any longer,” Kara stated.
Hail laughed.
Renner asked the obvious, “Do you know what happened to him?”
Kara said, “No, not exactly. One day, he was no longer making the jihadi propaganda videos he had been making during the last decade. The new videos that were being posted to the Boko Haram Dark Net sites had Diambu as the star. For all we know, Mohammad Mboso could have possibly died by natural causes. But that would be a rare occurrence. Most of these leaders don’t tend to live that long. Many of their deaths occur by spontaneous lead poisoning, if you know what I mean?”
“Or Diambu could have killed him,” Hail suggested.
“No telling,” Kara replied. “There is no honor amongst thieves.”
“Or jihadis,” Nolan added.
Hail took in a deep breath and let it out in a big puff, letting his lips flap together.
“That looks like one tough nut to crack,” Hail stated.
There was a moment of silence as the group pondered the challenges that had been laid out before them.
“Is there any more intel that could be of any use to us?” Hail asked Kara. “Like, does Diambu go into town or visit anyone or have any type of schedule he keeps?”
“There is only one thing that we can focus on,” Kara replied with a note of optimism in her voice. “Marshall, can you please bring up the photo named Sat-Aerial-21?”
Hail searched for the file and clicked on it.
It showed the compound taken from a CIA satellite. Unlike any of the previous photos, this image showed several black dots on the strip of the beach in front of the compound.
Kara told them, “Every morning, Diambu goes for a swim in the intracoastal waterway in front of his house. You see that man there on the trail leading from the compound to the beach?”
She placed the laser on the spot. “That’s Diambu walking towards the water.”
“I also see guards both behind and in front of with what I assume are guns,” Renner commented.
Kara said, “Yes, those are guns. That is the only schedule that Diambu keeps. Other than that, there is no set time when he comes and goes. And whenever he does leave the compound, he has decoy cars that leave at the same time. He can also fly in by helicopter and leave by boat. Trying to get to this guy is a logistics nightmare. But, the swim in the creek is a constant. Every morning around 8:00 a.m., Nigerian time.”
Using the aerial shot that was looking directly down at the compound, the group studied the terrain surrounding it.
Renner asked, “Is that as close as we can get?”
Hail tried to zoom in, but the photo pixelated, becoming even less defined.
“That’s it,” Hail said. “That’s as good as it gets.”
The members of Hail’s team looked at what they had and remained quiet, each lost in their own thoughts.
A few minutes later, Nolan asked, “What are all those little clearings right there?” Nolan used his own laser to highlight spots on the image. His laser made little circles near the side of the house and near the trail that led to the water.
Nolan added, “It’s hard to tell, but it’s as if the brush has been cut back a few feet. The outskirts of the property are pockmarked with these little clearings. Why would they do that? What could it be?”
“Cameras?” Renner suggested.
“No,” Kara said. “There is no pole or anything in the ground. They certainly wouldn’t mount a camera in the sand. They would have it on a pole.”
They inspected the small clearings that Nolan had pointed out.
“I don’t know,” Hail finally said.
Another minute passed.
“I think I do,” Renner said. “I think they are land mines.”
“You mean like explosive mines, like Claymore mines,” Nolan asked.
“Yeah, like that,” Renner said softly.
No one said anything.
“Look at the spacing,” Renner said. “I can’t think of what else that would be. And it would kind of fit, you know? Considering all the lethal surprises that Diambu has set up for anyone that is out to get him, I wouldn’t put it past him to plant dozens of land mines around his property. They probably keep those areas cleared just so they know where they are located.”
“Check this out,” Marshall said, pointing at some large pitted areas around the property. “Do these look like pits that exploded land mines could have made?”
Hail began to count all the pits he could see.
“Looks like maybe five of these deep pits in this vicinity.”
“That would make sense,” said Nolan. “It’s not uncommon for wild animals to trigger land mines. It happened all the time to the Navy SEALs. They would be sitting out there in the jungle and BOOM; some poor monkey had bought it. The animals are just as susceptible to being blown up as a human stepping on one. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hear a land mine go off in the middle of the night every so often. I don’t know what type of animals they have on the island, but it doesn’t take much to set them off.”