“Right.” She wasn’t sure if she sounded convincing or not.
The flying and training were nonstop. Every bit of nighttime was used for training, and they slept during the day. Their tier-one special operations team members weren’t too happy with the way the Navy crews were performing at first. They kept saying things like, “Well, the SOAR guys do it like this…”.
By day five, things had smoothed out. After the aircraft had shut down, Victoria walked with the DEVGRU commander towards General Schwartz’s trailer. “I think your guys are getting the hang of it.”
She nodded. “Yours too.”
He laughed.
“Think this’ll work?”
“I certainly hope so.”
Inside the trailer, the general said, “Our radar experts and engineers are following your flight over water. They still aren’t completely satisfied with the radar signature, but it’s gotten much better. They’ll make some final tweaks to the equipment overnight. Tomorrow you won’t be doing any training.”
Victoria said, “Why not?”
“Based on the latest position of the Chinese fleet, we need you to start on a twenty-four-hour alert. Be ready to go at any time now.”
33
Chase arrived at the JSOC base to find most of the units had packed up and shipped out. He had been traveling back and forth between here and Eglin every other day for almost two weeks. It had been frustrating. He’d been shut out of many of the SILVERSMITH meetings that his brother, David, attended. They had a whole other level of secrecy that they were operating on now. They fed him bits and pieces of information, but all he wanted to hear was that it was time to go after Lena.
That day had finally arrived.
The only remaining unit was the SEAL team he had operated with. He met with them in one of the briefing rooms and asked for an update.
“The Rangers got sent to the West Coast. Delta left this morning. The other SEALs too. Intel says we’ve killed or captured just about all of the Chinese that were INCONUS. That what you’re hearing?”
Chase said, “Almost all of them.” Until now, Chase hadn’t been able to tell them anything about Lena Chou.
The SEALs waited patiently. Attack dogs licking their chops. Chase brought in two men from the SILVERSMITH team, including the NSA signals intelligence expert. They explained the new mission requirement, and why it was so important. Chase noted that they left out his relationship with Lena Chou. He was thankful for that.
The NSA man said, “The Chinese SOF unit is known as the South Sword Team. They’re the Chinese equivalent of naval special warfare and should be considered a top-tier unit. They’re using state-of-the-art communications equipment and following good COMSEC procedures, so we’ve had trouble tracking them.”
Chase said, “But we know where they are headed. We’ve identified the American whom Miss Chou is set to meet with. There is now a counterespionage team assigned to that individual twenty-four-seven.”
The NSA man continued, “Based on communications intercepts, we believe they’ll try to meet face-to-face at one of several locations. Once that happens, she’ll have information that’s vital to Chinese war plans, which she will then attempt to transmit back to Chinese HQ.”
One of the SEALs said, “How long has she been in-country?”
“For over a week, we think.”
“Why hasn’t she met with this guy yet?”
The intelligence briefer said, “You ever try to infiltrate a foreign country under martial law, after an EMP strike, and travel a thousand miles without being detected, then meet with a highly placed spy inside one of the foreign military’s most secure facilities? The highways aren’t really an option. It takes a while.”
“Well, when you put it like that…”
The SEAL team leader said, “What’s our objective?”
Chase said, “The South Sword Team has the communications equipment. Based on the communications procedures needed to operate this equipment, Lena Chou will have to physically be with the South Sword Team when she transmits her newly acquired information back to China. The counterespionage team is going to make sure that Lena gets information we want her to send instead.”
“Did they turn Lena’s spy into a double agent?”
“No.”
The SEAL team leader and senior enlisted looked at each other, frowning. “Then how the hell are you going to get her to send the information that you want her to send, instead of what she gets from the mole?”
“We’re going to swap out the mole with one of ours. A lookalike who will feed Lena Chou bad information.”
The SEAL team leader said, “So Lena has never met this person?”
Chase looked at the intelligence experts, then back at the SEALs. “That’s what we believe.”
A few of the SEALs laughed. “Wonderful.” One of them swore.
Chase smiled. “Look, I know, fellas. You’re thinking this is FUBAR. But operationally, this is our best play. There’s no way to feed the mole bad intel or take him too early. Both of those scenarios could tip off Lena Chou or the Chinese handlers. The best way to do this is to take the mole right as they’re about to meet with Lena and replace them with someone else. If Lena buys it, she brings back the false information and sends it to the Chinese. Then they act on it the way we want.”
“What is it you want them to do?”
“I can’t go into that.”
The SEAL team leader said, “So where do we fit in?”
“If something goes wrong—”
“Which it will,” the SEAL team leader said.
“—then you’ll need to neutralize the South Sword Team before they can transmit.”
The SEAL team leader said, “Well, at least now you’re making sense.”
Two hours later, they were flying east over the Appalachian Mountains in a pair of Chinooks. They landed at a prestaged landing zone near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, just a short flight away from the Raven Rock Mountain Complex where the mole was located.
The SEALs were wearing civilian clothes now and packed into a group of four inconspicuous-looking pickup trucks that were waiting for them at the landing site. Well, they were about as inconspicuous as two dozen extremely hard-core-looking men traveling together can be. At least the heavy weaponry was hidden in the truck beds, Chase thought. The plan was for them to split up into groups of four and look like hunters as they searched for signs of the Chinese South Sword Team. It was a little risky. Special operations air support was minutes away, standing by for their call. And in order to remain covert, they had to accept risk.
Chase spoke with the SEAL team leader through the passenger window of one of the trucks. “I’ll be going back and forth between you and the counterespionage team.”
“Understood. We’ll be scouting out a few of the areas the signals intel folks want us to explore.”
“Be safe. Good luck.”
The SEAL tipped his ball cap, and the vehicles drove off.
Chase drove to meet up with the counterespionage unit. They were holed up in a detached townhome ten minutes from the Raven Rock Mountain Complex. His brother, David, and Susan Collinsworth were both there waiting for him.
She looked nervous. “The mole is a civilian employee at the Office of Naval Intelligence. A GS-15. Name is Edward Luntz.”
For OPSEC reasons, this was the first time Chase had been given these details.
“How do we know it’s him?”
“Intel from China allowed us to uncover his handler. The handler is now in our interrogation center at Eglin and provided information that led us to Luntz. We’ve been closely monitoring him since. Luntz’s communications and activities have matched up to Lena Chou’s assignment.