“Is an ETC provided?” Waller asked.
“Conn, Radio. Negative. No estimated time of completion is mentioned.”
Waller gritted his teeth. USS Michigan and its SEAL detachment were making progress, but would they complete the task in time for Mississippi and the other fast attack submarines to defend Roosevelt, or would the carrier be sent to the bottom before assistance arrived?
75
WASHINGTON, D.C.
In the Presidential Emergency Operations Center deep beneath the East Wing of the White House, in a bunker built to protect the president from aerial attack, the president and his advisors were gathered around a table in the executive briefing room. The White House above was still being swept for other bombs Mixell might have planted, with the president conducting business inside the PEOC until it was deemed safe for him to return to the surface.
Joining the president at the table were his Chief of Staff Kevin Hardison and National Security Advisor Thom Parham, while on the phone were FBI Director Bill Guisewhite, CIA Deputy Director Monroe Bryant, and NCTC Supervisor Jessica Del Rio. The topic of the conversation was the effort to locate Mixell and Christine.
Bill Guisewhite provided the latest information. “Mixell swapped vehicles inside the 395 tunnel, which we didn’t realize until the van arrived at the house he’d been renting. After the vehicle swap, the van was driven by a body double Mixell had hired in case he was tracked from the White House. The bad news is that we didn’t have aerial surveillance of the tunnel exits at the time Mixell departed in the new car; our assets were following the white van. The good news is that we know the color and model of the car he switched into, and its license plate number. We’ll locate the car shortly after it passes a speed or traffic light camera. We’ve also got law enforcement on the alert. We’re searching for the vehicle with every means possible.”
“Is there any indication of Christine’s condition?” the president asked.
“Our last intel was when Mixell swapped vehicles inside the tunnel. Christine appeared unharmed at that time.”
“What about the explosives Mixell planted?”
“We’re almost done searching the White House for additional bombs. As you know, we were able to move the C-4 eggs from the kitchen onto the South Lawn before they were detonated. We also located the Secret Service Uniformed Division officer who escorted Mixell into the White House, who was locked in the kitchen walk-in freezer with one of your staff. Both are fine. When Mixell was discovered inside the White House, he wasn’t far from the kitchen, but we don’t know where he went or what he did after locking the officer in the freezer. We don’t suspect he planted other bombs, but we’re conducting a thorough search just in case.”
The president nodded his understanding. “Anything else on this topic?”
“Not at this time,” Guisewhite replied.
The teleconference was ended and a new one initiated, this time with acting Secretary of Defense Peter Seuffert, Secretary of the Navy Sheila McNeil, and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Joe Sites, who were prepared to brief the president on the situation in the Persian Gulf.
“The current scenario is perilous,” Sheila McNeil announced. “Theodore Roosevelt is being engaged again by the Russian submarines, with our ability to sink them being thwarted by anti-air missiles launched by the SSGN. We’ve lost several MH-60Rs — they can’t get close enough to drop their torpedoes — and the weapons launched by the P-8As have been shot down before the HAAWC wing kits release the torpedoes.”
“How are we going to protect our aircraft carrier?” the president asked.
“We have six fast attack submarines on the other side of the minefield. The SEAL detachment aboard Michigan has been working the issue, and we hope that a path through the minefield will be cleared soon, which will allow our fast attack submarines to engage. We’re running out of time,” McNeil admitted, “but the mine-clearing task is almost complete.”
“I understand,” the president replied. “Keep me up to date as events unfold.”
76
STRAIT OF HORMUZ
Two black mini-subs sped through the murky water, passing shadowy mines on each side, plus above and below, as they traveled through a tunnel carved through the minefield. In one SDV, Senior Chief Russ Burkhardt sat beside Kurt Hacker, while the other SDV transported Michael Keller and Dave Narehood toward their destination — the final four mines that needed to be cleared, which would open a path large enough for the waiting fast attack submarines to pass through. Both SDVs were traveling at maximum speed, and it wasn’t long before the last four mines materialized in the distance.
By now, the process of clearing the mines had become routine: attach a limpet to a mine, set the timer, then retreat a safe distance before the limpet detonated. A safe distance had been determined to be about one hundred yards, but that wasn’t what occupied Burkhardt’s thoughts as they approached the remaining four mines — they had only two limpets left.
After mapping the minefield at the beginning of the effort and identifying how to most efficiently cut through the barrier, then assessing their inventory of limpets, they had determined that they would be two limpets short and had prepared for the final challenge. The remaining four mines were the last to clear because they were arranged in pairs, one above the other. While the SEALs cleared the previous mines, working their way toward the final four, the machinist mates aboard Michigan had fabricated two unique hand winches, one for each SEAL team.
Burkhardt shifted propulsion to neutral and let the SDV coast to a halt near the bottom of one pair of mines, while Keller stopped his SDV near the bottom mine in the other pair. In the back seat of each SDV, alongside a limpet, was a manual winch that had been modified, adding a third hook. After setting the SDV buoyancy to neutral, letting it hover in the water nearby, Burkhardt and Hacker slipped from the front seat, retrieved the modified winch, and kicked their fins, sending them toward the lower mine in their pair. Nearby was a thick anchor chain rising through the water toward the higher mine they would need to destroy.
Hacker connected one of the winch hooks to a link in the anchor chain and a second hook to another link farther up, then cranked the winch. Slowly, the upper link was pulled down until it reached the winch. The third hook, which served only to keep the chain link in its new position, was slipped into the upper link and the winch was relaxed, allowing Hacker to remove the original hook from the link, extend the winch, and slip the hook into position several links higher again.
It was a painstaking process, pulling the higher mine down link by link, and Hacker and Burkhardt took turns with the manual labor. Soon, a dark bulbous shape took form above, and Burkhardt and Hacker kept at it until both mines were at the same height, about ten feet apart. After releasing the upper hook this time, Hacker connected it to the anchor chain of the mine beside them, then began cranking the winch, pulling the mines toward each other.
While formulating the plan to destroy two mines with one limpet, the SEALs had been concerned that bringing two mines so close together would set one or both of them off. After the mines had been described to the Navy’s mine experts and been identified, the SEALs had been assured that neither mine would detonate due to proximity to another. It would take a reasonably large surface ship or submarine to trigger a mine’s magnetic field fuze. However, the SEALs had been cautioned not to depress a contact spike as the mines were brought together.