Maybe it was just his natural sense of survival, but Kornev thought it was more than that. He scanned the buildings and docks and hills around them. His gut told him that they were being watched by someone.
Sea of Japan ― on the cargo ship Hail Nucleus
“We’ve got eyes on them,” Alex Knox reported.
Renner was sitting in the big Captain Kirk’s chair in the mission control center. He looked at the video on the big monitor being streamed from the drone named Electric Light Orchestra or ELO for short. Since there was only one drone being manned, that meant that the rest of the crew in the room could turn their attention to the monitor as well.
The video was not high quality. The lack of light and the distances involved were difficult for the tiny camera on ELO to negotiate. Before they had released the drone to be flown into action, Eric Rugmon had warned Hail that the tiny lens only let in a tiny amount of light. That meant that night operations would be a challenge. It was a good thing to know, but both the men understood that they really didn’t have much of a choice.
“So we have a military looking guy and a mafia looking guy dressed all in black standing on the dock,” Renner said to the room. “And in the background we have a big truck with a big crane and long and low trailer. Well, this looks like what we expected. The next thing they should do is pull the missile part out of the boat and set it on that trailer.”
A rumbling of agreement went around the room.
The crew on the Nucleus watched the truck start backing up, bringing both the crane and the trailer closer to ship.
“How is our power on ELO?” Hail asked Knox.
“Good. We are around ninety-one percent.”
There was a loud clanging sound of steel against steel and the door to the mission control room opened.
Marshall Hail walked in and Kara Ramey followed.
Renner looked somewhat disappointed. He had been fully in charge of the mission to drop ELO onto the top of the Huan Yue and he was starting to get into the ‘being in charge’ thing.
Renner slid out of the big chair and greeted Hail with a handshake and Kara with a smile.
Kara looked around the room.
“What do you think?” Renner asked.
“Why does this all look so familiar?” she asked, making a slow 360 degree turn.
“Did you ever see the TV show Star Trek?” Hail asked.
“Yes, a long time ago. Is this the captain’s chair from Star Trek?” she asked, touching the armrest of the huge chair.
“Yes it is,” Hail confirmed. “Well an updated copy of it.”
“Why Star Trek?” Kara asked, turning to look at Hail and Renner.
“Why not?” Hail responded with a shrug. “It’s got to look like something and I always loved watching Star Trek when I was growing up, so wala, you have the Star Trek bridge.”
Kara looked both impressed and confused.
Hail explained, “Kara, we’re not the military. See, look at how everyone is dressed,” he said, swinging his finger in a wide arc around the room.
Kara looked at the Asian woman to her far right. She recognized her as Shana Tran, Mission Communication Analyst that she had met in the meeting. Tran was dressed in a colorful skirt and high heels. She smiled back at Kara and Kara nodded her head in a hello fashion.
Kara continued to scan the rest of the crew working at their control stations.
Next to the fashionable twentyish Shana Tran, was a teenage boy with long clean brown hair that glistened in the dim light. He was wearing shorts and a black hoody jacket. He was intently watching his screens and paying no attention to Kara.
Sitting behind the most outer circle of flight stations, was in an inner circle of computer stations. At two of the stations sat a distinguished looking man and a dark haired woman. She recognized the man as the French scholar she had met, Pierce Mercier. The woman was smiling and waving at her in a childlike fashion. Kara did not recognize her and knew nothing about her, but she seemed friendly enough. Kara returned the wave. Pierce Mercier stood up from his station and walked over.
“Good evening Ms. Ramey,” he said, collecting her hand in his and softly kissing her knuckles.
Kara said, “Bonne soirée à vous aussi, M. Mercier.”
Mercier asked, “Etes-vous ici pour le spectacle ou la nourriture.”
Kara laughed and said, “Les deux.”
Mercier smile and released her hand.
Hail and Mercier and Renner watched Kara complete her visual tour of their mission center.
“Wow, this is crazy,” was her final assessment. She said it with no emotion. It was more a statement than an observation.
Kara looked up at the big screen above the control stations and said,” Oh my God. That’s Kornev,” she exclaimed, pointing her finger at the big blond haired man standing next to the tiny Asian toy soldier.
Hail looked up at the monitor and asked, “Are you sure?”
Kara nodded her head and said, “It’s not the best video quality, but that’s Kornev alright.”
Hail studied the image closely. He watched the two men who were watching the big truck’s crane swing out over the deck of the ship.
“What’s our distance?” He asked Renner.
“No, no,” Renner told his friend. “I know what you are thinking, but we can’t do that. At least not right now.”
Kara didn’t initially understand what Renner was refereeing too, and then all of a sudden she got it.
“No way,” she said loudly. “We can’t take him out now. It will screw up the entire plan.”
Hail looked like a boy who had a toy taken away from him.
“I know,” Hail said innocently. “I was just wondering what our current distance was. That’s all.”
But he knew, that they knew, what he was thinking. Hail was hoping that the men at the dock were within range of the Nucleus’s railgun? Probably not, but it never hurt to ask.
The big man in black and the little man in the grey uniform were talking.
“I wonder what they’re saying.” Hail said.
“Oh, I can tell you,” Kara replied.
She watched the Russian and North Korean intently for a moment.
“Kornev is saying that as soon as the parts have arrived, he is expecting to get paid. And the North Korean is saying that as soon as all the parts are assembled, North Korea is going to turn America into a nuclear waste dump.”
Hail looked impressed.
“Really?” He asked. “You can read lips?”
“Of course not,” Kara said bluntly. “It’s a Russian mobster and a North Korean terrorist. What else would they be talking about? They sure aren’t discussing the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriot’s game.”
Hail felt foolish. Exactly how Kara wanted him to feel.
“Alright, let’s get to work, folks,” Hail announced.
Renner and Mercier went back to their stations and Hail climbed into his big chair. That left Kara standing next to Hail in the middle of the room, clutching her purse.
“Do you want to sit? I can get you a chair.” Hail asked.
“No, I like standing. Sitting makes your ass flat,” Kara said.
Hail wondered if she was joking, but Kara’s expression gave nothing away.
“Well, we certainly wouldn’t want that,” Hail said.
Kara watched the video for a few minutes before turning toward Hail and saying, “I think I should call my boss and give him an update.”
“Sure,” Hail told her.
Kara took the phone out of her purse and the dialed a number. A moment later she told Hail, “I don’t have a signal.”