Noviello energized the bulkhead display with a remote in his hand. A nautical chart of the Persian Gulf appeared, zooming in on the northern tip.
“The launch point is five nautical miles east of Failaka Island. Two four-man teams will head ashore, one per RHIB, with Harrison joining one team and his partner, Khalila Dufour, joining the other. I’ll lead one team, while Senior Chief Burkhardt will lead the other. The mission will occur tonight, as soon as Michigan is in position.”
Noviello pressed the remote control, and a satellite image of Failaka Island appeared on the display. He started with a basic background of the island.
“Failaka Island is Kuwaiti territory, located twelve miles from the mainland. Prior to the 1990 Iraqi invasion, Failaka Island was populated with over two thousand residents, located primarily in the village of Az Zawr on the northwest side of the island. When the Iraqis invaded, they expelled the island’s residents and used Failaka’s buildings for target practice. The island’s infrastructure was significantly damaged and has not yet been fully repaired. Although some residents have returned, many of the homes remain empty. The west side of the island has regained some of its vitality, with the establishment of a beach resort. The east side of the island remains abandoned, except for one location.”
Noviello increased the magnification of the satellite image. “There’s an active facility, built mostly underground, on the east side of the island. Due to this being a short-fused mission, we don’t have much recon on the island — only two days’ worth of satellite images.
“What we do know is that it’s a guarded facility.” A red circle appeared around the end of a road that disappeared into the landscape as it headed underground. “As far as we can tell, there is only one access point, with ingress and egress occurring only at night. A single van arrives at about 2 a.m. each day, departing before sunrise, originating from and returning to Az Zawr near the ferry docks. This is most likely a supply run. As I mentioned, we have only two days’ worth of intel, so we don’t know if this is a consistent daily routine.”
Another click of the remote control and the display shifted from the satellite image to a low-level, daytime view of the island, showing a road angling downward, dead-ending before two large metal doors leading to an underground facility.
“We were able to get some drone footage of the facility entrance. You can see a guard posted on each side of the road, with a small guardhouse on the left containing the door controls.
“Regarding ingress, Failaka Island is surrounded mostly by a sandy beach, so ingress won’t be difficult. Once ashore, we’ll have a half-mile trek to the facility. The goal is to be in position by 2 a.m., when the van arrives and the entrance doors are opened.”
Noviello looked to Commander Peters to see if he had anything to add.
“As Lieutenant Noviello stated,” Peters said, “we haven’t had much time to plan this mission. Sheakoski, Keller, Hacker, and Harrison will join Noviello in the first fire team, while Senior Chief Burkhardt will lead Pickering, Narehood, Meyer, and Dufour. You’ve got two hours to work out the details.”
44
RESEARCH VESSEL ATLANTIS
Bright white lights illuminated the aft deck of Atlantis as Christine O’Connor climbed down through the circular hatch into Alvin’s seven-foot-diameter titanium sphere. Already inside was Ken Hillsley, Alvin’s pilot for tonight’s mission, conducting prelaunch checks. There wasn’t much for Christine to do as she examined the components inside the small sphere she would call home for the next few hours. Packed with electronic equipment and five porthole windows, the visibility in the recently refurbished submersible was an improvement over the three windows in Alvin’s previous sphere, Hillsley explained.
With its new, slightly larger, three-inch-thick titanium sphere, Alvin could dive for up to ten hours to a depth of 6,500 meters — over four miles — and, most famously, had been used to explore the wreckage of RMS Titanic in 1986. Launched from Atlantis, the DSV had carried Dr. Robert Ballard and two others down to the remnants of the ship that had sunk in 1912 after striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean.
Equipped with an array of sensors, including four video cameras and several sonars, Alvin also sported a sophisticated navigation system using a fiber-optic gyrocompass, which would prove critical to guiding Alvin to the location where bin Laden’s body was expected. The submersible featured two robotic arms that could be fitted with mission-specific sampling and experimental gear. The modifications required for tonight’s task had already been completed.
As Hillsley prepared for launch, Christine reviewed the emergency procedures she had been briefed on, which weren’t very challenging. If Alvin became disabled, the outer cladding of the submersible could be discarded via controls inside the vessel. The titanium sphere, containing Christine and Hillsley, would then rise to the surface.
The prelaunch checks were completed satisfactorily, and the sphere’s hatch was shut and sealed. Christine felt the lurch as the hydraulic piston attached to the top of Alvin lifted it from the ship’s deck. The DSV rose slowly in the air, toward the top of the A-frame Launch and Recovery System (LARS) — massive metal arms rising from each side of Atlantis, connected together at the top.
Once Alvin completed its ascent, it was locked into place. The DSV was now suspended above the ship, ready for the next phase. Brian Humm gave the order, and two massive pistons on each side of the LARS tilted the A-frame outboard, swinging Alvin into position over the ocean. The hydraulic ram above them reversed, lowering Alvin into the water where it was released from the piston. The DSV bobbed on the surface while the cable to Atlantis was detached.
When the tether was disconnected, Hillsley turned to Christine. It would take ninety minutes, he explained, to reach the ocean bottom. With no connection to Atlantis, they would be on their own until they returned to the surface.
He opened the ballast tank vents, and Alvin began its descent.
45
USS MICHIGAN
Three hours after their operations brief, as Michigan hovered at periscope depth five miles off the coast of Failaka Island, Harrison and Khalila stood on the second deck in the submarine’s Missile Compartment, each with their SEAL team. Harrison was outside Missile Tube Two with Lieutenant Tracey Noviello and the other three SEALs in his fire team — Sheakoski, Keller, and Hacker — while Khalila waited beside tube One with Senior Chief Russ Burkhardt and the other SEALs in his fire team: Pickering, Narehood, and Meyer.
Each wore a black dive suit and rubber booties and was outfitted with fins and a face mask, plus a rebreather instead of scuba tanks since they’d be underwater only a short time until they were aboard the RHIBs. Each SEAL and CIA officer also carried a waterproof rucksack, containing the weapons and other equipment they’d need for the mission.
Although both RHIBs were stored in the Dry Deck Shelter attached to Missile Tube Two, Senior Chief Burkhardt’s team would enter tube One. With two RHIBs in one shelter, there was insufficient room for all eight SEALs, plus Harrison and Khalila. Harrison’s team would extract one RHIB while Burkhardt’s team exited the other shelter, then grabbed the second boat.