That was great, but they would still have to find a way through the fence. “What about the fence?”
“I can’t help you with that,” Roddy said. “You have three choices — over, under or through it. Pick one.”
“Thanks, pal.”
Roddy clicked off.
Karl immediately turned off his phone and removed the battery.
Maya did the same with her phone. Then she quietly asked, “What’s going on?”
Checking his watch, Karl said, “Electro-magnetic pulse in about fifteen minutes. We need to find a place to breech the perimeter fence. Maybe the rain has eroded a place to go under it.”
They moved quietly through the forest as darkness slowly came up them, as if God were dimming his lights for them. Karl thought it would be best to move deeper into the jungle, since the terrain moved slightly higher that way. Perhaps the rain had given way some soil and the Venezuelans had not run the fence too deep into the soil. Sometimes with electronic surveillance builders of physical perimeters were less concerned about structural barriers. It also helped that this compound was out in the middle of nowhere.
As Karl moved forward through the jungle, keeping the fence to his left shoulder, he could hear water running up ahead. But by now the darkness, in conjunction with the swirling clouds overhead, had nearly obscured the terrain.
Putting a finger in the air to Maya, Karl slowly moved toward the source of the water. The newly formed creek cut along the edge of the perimeter fence, washing away a large swath of soil and exposing the bottom of the fence. He almost touched the fence, but then remembered that it could be electrified.
Maya had not stayed behind. Instead, she was right on Karl’s shoulder. She whispered, “Can we get under there?”
“I think so,” he said. He checked his watch and saw that they still had a few minutes before the EMP. He still had no idea how Roddy and the Agency planned to deploy the EMP. The easiest way was with a cruise missile launched from a Navy ship offshore. But that would also likely alert the Venezuelans and their Russian overlords. No, Karl had a hunch Roddy had another way. Perhaps a drone.
Now, he sat on the soaked soil and waited, Maya at his side. The first indication they had that the EMP had gone off was a number of smaller explosions inside the compound. These were probably power transformers.
Karl quickly got up and waded into the stream of water. When he got next to the fence, he used a long piece of grass to touch the metal. Nothing. No electricity.
He immediately went into the water and found his way under the fence, barely making it to the other side. Once he got over there, Maya followed him. Karl reached out for her hand, helping her to her feet.
“We need to get moving,” Karl said.
“Right. The first thing I would do is send a patrol around each side of the perimeter fence.”
That’s what Karl was thinking. Together, they hurried across the perimeter road and to the other side, where the jungle had given way to more hospitable terrain. Here, either by nature or design, the forest undergrowth had been diminished by cutting or burning. Yet, the darkness of nightfall and the persistent rainfall shrouded the entire compound in a profound blackness.
There was no way of telling just how long the electrical grid would be out. Hopefully, the EMP had also done a number on their backup generators. He also hoped that any security forces would be forced to check the perimeter fence on foot. That would give them some time.
The two of them made their way slowly through the jungle toward the buildings ahead. Karl’s main focus had to be the largest building covered with grass. From his earlier observations, the building resembled their own design of nuclear facilities — hardened structures that could sustain direct conventional bombing and even potential non-conventional destruction from anything other than a direct hit.
As Karl stepped forward, he could see a number of soldiers moving about the compound quickly, obviously trying to understand the cause of the power outage. Karl’s only hope was that the blast doors on the large nuclear storage facility would not be frozen in place. These facilities were like aircraft hangars, with large doors that slid open like a sphincter, allowing passage of the nuclear missile loaded on its transporter erector launcher. Once outside that facility, the missile could be raised and launched anywhere with enough clearance from overhead tree canopy. It was because of this mobility that the Russians and Americans had come to terms with the INF Treaty in the 80s. Either country could hide the missiles almost anywhere.
Karl vectored around a number of minor buildings, still maintaining cover in the jungle, as he moved them closer to the main nuclear storage facility.
It became immediately obvious to Karl that this compound was still under serious construction. Large bulldozers and other major pieces of construction equipment sat idle. A double row of inner fencing was only partially constructed. This area would keep non-essential personnel with no need to be near nuclear weapons away from the nukes, yet able to provide other services to those essential nuclear personnel. Both the Russians and Americans used a similar strategy at their facilities.
Karl stopped and shot a number of photos of this progress on the fence, which had not been readily obvious from the satellite photos or his earlier images he had shot from the hilltop. This was important information. It probably meant that the nuclear facility was not yet active. Which meant that the first missile to arrive was on its way from Murmansk. But he couldn’t be entirely certain without confirmation. He needed to see inside that nuclear storage facility.
The two of them stepped closer to the main building, making sure to step quietly. This wasn’t a huge problem with the soggy surface. But the rain had turned the entire compound surface into a hog wallow. Once in a while one of them would step into a muck hole and nearly lose a shoe with the upward suction.
Now they moved ever closer to their target. Karl kept firing off shots with the camera, keeping his gun in its holster under his shirt at the small of his back.
In moments, Karl and Maya caught a break.
Stopping Maya forcefully with one hand, Karl pulled her to the ground behind tall grass.
“The blast door is open,” Karl whispered. Then he zoomed in and tried to shoot the inside of the building. But it was too dark to get a good shot.
“Can you see anything through the binoculars?” he mouthed quietly to Maya.
She looked through the clear Zeiss lenses and simply handed the binoculars to Karl.
Karl peered through the binoculars and could now see what they had come to discover. The storage facility was, in fact, empty. He handed the binoculars back to her. Then he whispered, “Stay here. I need to get closer and take some clear shots of this.”
“Why? We have confirmation,” she pled.
True. But Karl knew he needed photographic evidence to support his claim.
More adamantly than before, Karl pointed at Maya and whispered firmly, “Stay here.”
32
Maya was concerned as she watched Karl make his way stealthily across the compound, seeming to know instinctively when one of the soldiers would cross his path.
She took out her phone and put the battery back in, powering it up. Once the cell phone was back online, she saw immediately that she had a problem. No bars. She shouldn’t have been surprised, considering the compound was out in the middle of the jungle. Now she wished she had Karl’s SAT phone.
Regardless, she typed in a message to her contact. As soon as they got within range of a cell tower, the text would be sent automatically.
Satisfied, she returned the phone to her pocket. Then she pulled out her Glock and considered what to do for her next move. She was aware that her relationship with Karl had changed somewhat over the past few days, especially since coming to Venezuela. Could he know more about her background than he was letting on? How could he? She had been careful.