Duncan stopped at the door leading into the NSW spaces, his hand on the metal doorknob. “She’s a former-wife bitch. That’s the type she is.
She not only has a battery-less dildo, but now she has everything we ever bought, collected or kept. God knows where she took it. I mean, Beau, she took everything, including the car and the mantelpiece that we bought at an auction in Frederick, Maryland! I mean, what type of woman goes into a house and rips out the mantelpiece?”
“But how do you get into a house without anyone knowing and load up all the furniture, take down overhead fans and mantelpieces, and no one calls the police?”
Duncan’s shoulders slumped. He leaned his head on the door. “Beau, she lived there for six years,” he said softly. “Neighbors know her.
You don’t call the police when someone who lives in the place decides to move everything out.” He looked up and grinned at Beau. “If she took the old steamer trunk in the garage, she’s going to get one hell of a surprise when she opens it.”
“How’s that?”
“That’s where I stuck the bag with Sammy’s body. I forgot to bury the damn dog before we left. Shit, Beau, there may be justice in this world after all.”
“And don’t forget, Duncan. Your car don’t work, so if she took it, she towed it.”
Duncan shook Beau by the neck. “Screw you, shipmate.” He laughed.
Duncan opened the door to the SEAL offices and walked in. The arguing between Lieutenant H.J. Mcdaniels and Ensign Helliwell spilled out into the passageway before it ceased abruptly at the sight of Captain James.
“OK, what the hell is going on?” Duncan asked. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but storms had no tempest like a wronged man’s frustration.
Lieutenant Sunney appeared behind Duncan and Beau and followed them into the room.
Beau folded the message and handed it to Duncan, who slipped it into his left shirt pocket. Duncan rubbed his temples. Damn, a headache!
Just what I need on top of everything else.
“Listen up,” he said, ignoring the fact that neither of the two had answered his question. “There has been a change of plans. Beau and I are taking the two four-man teams organized to go on the CH-46 and are embarking with them on the Albany in six hours. Mike, we’ll need to change the load out from a force-protection operation to a hostile rescue.” “I’ll be going, right?” H.J. asked.
“With all due respect, sir,” Ensign Helliwell interrupted. “This is her first SEAL operation and we don’t need to endanger our situation with a rookie. Nothing against her being a woman, Captain, even though she thinks it is, but the other team members have at least some experience.” “Screw you, Ensign,” said H. J.” with her finger poking him in the chest. She leaned over him from her full six-foot height and brought her face six inches from his. “How the hell did you get experience?
Did it come in some midnight wet dream where you woke and lo and behold”—she waved her hands above her head—“Ensign Helliwell is blessed with experience? No, you went and earned your battle scars, and I’m not, I repeat, not going to be kept back because you’re afraid that the big man”—she patted him on the head—“is going to have to rescue the fair maiden. Well, for your information I’m anything but a fair maiden. And—”
“Cut it out, you two. We’re going into a combat, so can the crap.
Lieutenant Mcdaniels goes. She’s a SEAL and already assigned by the Navy to my team. Ensign Helliwell, you’re coming, too. I need your experience and your expertise. Forget she’s a woman. Hell, forget that you’re a man. You’re both SEALs and I expect both of you to act like Navy SEALs. If either of you get shot, we’ll treat you just like any other wounded SEAL.” “How’s that?” H.J. asked, standing back from Bud Helliwell, her voice curious and her eyes questioning.
“We shoot them in the head,” replied Beau, cocking his finger and putting it against his head. “And bang, don’t have to worry about them spilling their guts to the enemy about the mission or the team. I don’t mind telling you that the first time I had—” “Stow it,” Duncan said. “Get your kits together and be prepared to embark on Albany when she arrives.” Duncan went on to explain the purpose of the mission and the specifics he expected.
“Sir, request permission to accompany the operation?” Mike Sunney asked.
“Sorry, Mike. You know the only reason I am here was Washington sending me out to lead that combined exercise with Spanish special forces. Too bad the events in North Africa caused the exercise to fall apart. If not for them sending me, then you would be the one going in.
But I need you here for backup and to support the Marines on what is looking more and more like an oppose evacuation by hostile forces. If we have to pull a
“John Wayne’ and go into Algiers, with guns blazing, to bring out the American citizens, then the battle group is going to need the remainder of the SEALs to support that effort.”
“Yes, sir. I realize that, but you’re a captain and, with all due respect, sir, captains don’t usually go on SEAL operations.”
“This particular SEAL operation the captain does go on,” Duncan replied. “Our mission is to bring out the Algerian President, Hawaii Alneuf, who is hiding from the insurgents. Since he’s a bigwig, they figure a captain should meet him.”
“Yeah, meet him, greet him, do some high-fives, maybe dance a few steps with him, and when we’ve amused him sufficiently, scurry him out of his gone-to-shit country,” Beau added.
Duncan held up his hand to stop the laughter, and added, “Commander Mulligan will brief everyone in about an hour in the Intell spaces.
Mike, have the teams assembled and there on time.”
“Yes, sir,” Mike Sunney responded dejectedly.
“H. J.” hand me the chart you keep in your shirt,” said Dun can.
She unbuttoned the top two buttons and reached inside to extract the chart, which she passed to Beau, who stood between her and Duncan.
“Nice chart,” said Beau. “Lucky chart,” he whispered to himself.
H. J.“s eyes narrowed as she stared at Beau. “You were saying something, Commander?”
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Just thinking out loud.”
Duncan took the papers from the envelope Pete Naismith had given him, and scanned them rapidly as he looked for how they were to make contact with President Alneuf. Satisfied they had nothing to offer other than telling him to go to the location of the villa, he laid them on top of the chart Beau was unfolding on the table.
Duncan pulled a stool up and sat down. He picked up a pencil and leaned forward across the chart. “Here is our destination,” he said, indicating a point along the coast near a small fishing village about twenty kilometers west of Algiers. “We will conduct a submarine debarkation around midnight. Mike, we’ll need two rafts for the Albany, and make sure we have pressure bottles to inflate them. Don’t want to get aboard and discover they lack the capability to inflate them except inside the submarine. Won’t do us much good if we can’t get them outside of the submarine.
“We won’t do the normal approach to shore operations. We’ll still form a boat pool about five hundred yards from shore, but instead of sending in swimmers, we’ll take a boat all the way to the beach. Beau,” he said, “I want you in that boat. If Alneuf is there, put him in the raft and return. If not, then conduct a normal recon when you hit and be prepared to fight a retreat if necessary. When the recon team completes its search, we’ll join them ashore. I would prefer to do a normal op, keep the boat pool off shore and swim them out, but President Alneuf is in his late sixties, early seventies, and I doubt he can swim five hundred yards. My intentions are to load him immediately and return to the submarine. If everything goes right, entire operation will be completed within three hours. Any questions?” Every hand went up. He paused before replying, “Well, write them down for the commodore to answer in the CO NOR I have questions, too, and since we don’t know the answers, let’s busy ourselves getting ready and we’ll answer the questions the way Navy SEALs answer them best: with bullets and brawn. Mike, scrub the snipers, but I want those mini-MGs included — at least two. Have the team outfit themselves with their weapons of choice for close-in combat, and I want stun grenades used.