Hail nodded at Kara.
Kara said, “Affirmative.”
She then asked Hail’s team, “Is there anything else you need?”
Hail told her, “Have Pepper call us on this number if he gets any more information.”
She repeated the request into the phone and waited for a response.
Hail watched the CIA woman closely. He could tell that she knew she was being watched. She looked uncomfortable. Hail knew that Pepper wanted to have a private conversation with her, but since they were both on the speaker, that was not possible.
“OK, Jarret. We’re signing off now,” Kara told her boss.
“Good luck,” Pepper said over the speakers and the phone went quiet.
Renner had been busy and when Hail looked up at the big screen, he could see why. Using a yellow line, Renner had plotted the projected course for the Huan Yue as well as periodic time stamps based on its speed. He had also plotted the course of the Hail Nucleus using a red line.”
Renner began to lay out the time lines.
“We are looking at the Huan Yue reaching the heart of the Strait of Tartary in about sixteen hours. Another sixteen hours after that it will enter the Sea of Japan. Then depending on where it makes land in North Korea, we are talking about a distance of 700 to 900 hundred miles or about 75 hours. That means that we need to be in place and operational in roughly three days before the Huan Yue docks somewhere.”
Hail nodded his head.
“For us,” Renner continued, “the Hail can make thirty-three knots and that will put us in the East China Sea in about twenty-four hours. Heck, that would leave us a lot of time if we wanted to position ourselves east of North Korea in the Sea of Japan.”
“Very good,” Hail commented. “We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Kara was still holding onto Hail’s phone. She heard a chirp and noticed that Pepper had sent a photo of the Huan Yue to Hail’s phone.”
“The photo of the fishing trawler was just sent,” she told the group.
“Great,” Hail said, taking the phone out of Kara’s hand. He rolled his chair over to a docking station on the table and set his phone into the slot.
“Go ahead and bring up the photo on screen two,” he told Renner.
Renner accessed Hail’s phone and opened the photo that Pepper had just sent.
On the monitor next to the screen that showed the map, a blue ship appeared.
“Not as big as I thought it would be,” Hail commented.
“Me neither,” Renner agreed.
The white over blue fishing vessel was a mass of jutting beams and pulleys and cables that seemed to surround the ship like a spider protecting its territory with a steel web.
Hail looked closer at the ship.
“Where the hell are they storing this missile section? It doesn’t look like there would be enough room. Are you sure it’s on there?” Hail asked Kara.
“I mean nothing is certain in this business,” Kara responded, “but I would say we are ninety-five percent confident that our intel is good.”
Renner said, “I’m looking over the design of the ship and it has a lot of storage for fish. You could probably fit the missile section in the main holding tank, although it would be a tight fit and I don’t know how they would get it in there.”
Hail said, “Well, if we want to just cut to the quick, our choices, the way I see them, are we drop some eyes on this fishing boat while it’s out at sea, or we would have to do it when it docks. I mean once this thing docks and unloads, there is no way we are going to track a truck with eyes from the sky and not expose ourselves.”
“I agree,” said Renner.
“What do you think, Mercier?” Hail asked.
“I agree that we can’t track the truck from the dock to its final destination from the air. Even with stealth, spending that much time over a major city is asking for problems. I also think there are too many eyes at the dock, even if it’s night time. My vote would be to get eyes on the boat while it’s still out at sea.”
Hail looked at Renner.
“That’s what I would recommend as well,” Renner agreed.
“That makes sense,” Hail said.
Kara said, “I don’t understand a damn thing you’re talking about.”
Hail looked at her with an indulgent expression.
“Well, you will in next few minutes,” He assured her.
Hail asked Renner, “So what are the challenges with a sea interdiction.”
“Same as usual,” Renner said. “Darkness, precipitation, wind velocity, communications and of course besides all that, the drones have to function perfectly.”
This was the first time that Kara had heard the word drone mentioned and she perked up at the sound.
Hail pointed at the photo of the boat. “Can you zoom in closer on the top of the bridge?”
Renner zoomed in closer, centering the top of the ship’s wheelhouse in the frame.
“Can we get any closer?” Hail requested. “I want to see what all those lights on top look like.”
Renner messed around with the zoom and focus until he obtained the best look.
“Check out these amber lights on the top of the bridge. Do we think we could mimic this look on our micro-sized drone?” Hail asked.
Eric Rugmon spoke up.
Kara recalled that Rugmon stated that he managed the production and customization of mission devices and control systems.
“That’s not going to be too difficult,” Rugmon said. “It’s basically throwing an amber ring around the drone.”
“No, it’s going to be more than that,” Hail said. “We have to drop this thing from a mother drone and have it land on the ship,” he said pointing at the top of the ship. “I don’t know about you guys, but it doesn’t look like anyone would venture up on top of the wheelhouse unless there was an emergency, so I don’t think the drone will be noticed up on top.”
No one said anything, which to Hail meant that they agreed with him.
“So I think we need to attach a wings package to the micro drone,” Hail suggested.
“OK,” Rugmon said in an indifferent tone. “We have a few wing packages that will work with the mods you want on the micro drone.”
“So what amount of time are we looking at? When will you have the entire drop package ready to go?” Renner asked Rugmon.
The man in the lab coat thought about it before he answered. He looked up at the ceiling. Hail thought that was funny. Kara thought it was weird.
He finally looked back down and said, “Eighteen hours.”
“I will give you twenty-four hours, so don’t work your crew to death,” Hail told him.
Rugmon simply nodded his head. His face remained slack and impassive.
Kara thought someone should check to see if Rugmon was still breathing.
“No frills on the micro drone,” Hail told Rugmon. “Just a camera and a magnet and a pico drone. We need this thing as light as possible. Put as much battery as you can fit on it, because we won’t know how far it has to fly until it’s party time.”
Rugmon nodded again.
“When the Huan Yue gets to the dock, what are your thoughts?” Renner asked Hail.
“I’m expecting that a big truck with lots of lights on its roof is going pick up the part. So we need to fly the drone from the ship to the top of the truck and not be seen.”
Mercier commented. “Statistically, there is a lot that can go wrong with this plan. Statistically, there is a lot more that can go wrong with the plan, than can go right,” he corrected himself.
Hail said, “If I remember correctly, you said the exact same thing about the plan to kill Chang.”