Brown, Dale - Independent 02 (65 page)

 
          
There
was a programmed pause in the speech, planned for applause, but there was
nothing but a few murmurs from the audience. The Vice President pushed his
speech aside and moved to the front of the podium.

 
          
“Well,
that’s the official word. Now let me just talk with you. First, I want to
extend my condolences to the family and friends of the men lost in the battle
in
Louisiana
. It was the first major head-to-head
between law-enforcement agents and smugglers in two years. It highlighted what
these smugglers are feeling. They’re still testing our resolve, arming
themselves like regular armies, and still willing to shoot at us.

 
          
“Are
you making a difference out here? Damn right. The drugs found in the
Louisiana
raid amounted to less than thirty
kilograms, but according to the FBI the street value of that shipment alone was
three million dollars—that’s one hundred thousand dollars per kilo. The DEA
analysts told me that the cocaine found in that raid was no better than forty
percent pure. The users are paying more and getting less. The cartels are
importing garbage and, for the moment, getting top dollar for it. But the
market, even in drugs, can take its revenge on bad supplies. For example, on
the upside is the increase in attendance at drug rehab programs, public and
private, and a greater public awareness of drug therapy versus incarceration.
Judges are taking the users who want or need help out of the jails and prisons,
putting them in hospitals and treatment programs, and handing out community
service sentences rather than jail time in jails that don’t exist. One gram of
cocaine, equal to half the weight of a paper clip, costs one hundred dollars on
the street. It’s far less expensive to attend a drug rehabilitation clinic than
it is to buy cocaine. This new attitude of helping the user rather than
punishing him at huge costs to society has made more room in our prisons for
the
really
hard-core dealers and
suppliers. Several states have adopted life sentences and even death penalties
for
violent habitual
dealers and
suppliers.

 
          
“
America
is in a state of transition. In a way,
we’re going through a sort of drug-dependency withdrawal. There’s pain and
fingerpointing, and some of it is directed against you ... but let me tell you
something, what’s happening in the country,
including
these gang wars and complaints and crowded jails and treatment centers shows
that you are doing your job. You’re fighting and I believe you’re winning this
fight.

 
          
“More
than any other organization, the Hammerheads have proved their worth. Let the
politicians fight each other—you fight the smugglers. If illegal activity is
taking place, the government expects the Border Security Force units on the
scene to take appropriate action—including the use of deadly force ... Look,
the bottom line is this: do whatever you can to avoid killing innocent persons.
Try
not to kill anybody. But if
you’re positive that the suspects understand your orders and are deliberately
disobeying them,
and
you’ve done all
you can to warn them, then remember that you do have the authority to act with,
as I say, deadly force if necessary. Stay within your guidelines, use a
generous amount of common sense and what I believe you call situational
awareness, and I guarantee that the White House will support your actions. I
hope that’s clear enough.” The applause from the crewmen showed that it was.

 
          
Hardcastle’s
office on Hammerhead Two was on a new third floor of the central maintenance
facility. From there he had a spectacular, commanding, three-hundred-sixty-degree
view of the entire flight deck of the platform. The only building taller than
the three-story office was the platform control tower to the south and the
thick steel-and-nylon tether for the aerostat radar balloon, which stretched skyward
like Jack’s bean stalk. The Vice President tried to look up the cable and spot
the aerostat balloon itself but could not—it was flying at almost fourteen
thousand feet and all but blended in with the brilliant blue sky.

 
          
“Very
nice, Ian,” the Vice President said. “A real sea dog’s roost ... Three months
ago you wouldn’t have had an office. Congress was ready to feed you to the
lions—”

 
          
“I
know that, sir.”

 
          
“I
told the President that everybody was overreacting to what you did. You don’t
deserve a dog house, you deserve a command of your own. The President agreed.
The downing of that Customs helicopter in
Louisiana
a couple of weeks ago and the atrocities of
the smugglers have stirred up the public in support of the Hammerheads. The
President might even have approved an air strike against the smuggler’s base,
if we were sure where it was—”

 
          
“We
know
where it is, sir.” McLanahan
couldn’t let it go by. “Both smuggler’s planes headed for the same place after
making their drops—
Haiti
. Their base of operations is in central
Haiti
—”

 
          
“The
report I read said the smuggler’s plane that carried the children crashed just
across the coast,” the Vice President said irritably. “It didn’t land at any
airfield.” He glanced at Elliott. “And we all know that the second plane never
made it even
close
to any airfield

 
          
“That’s
true, sir,” McLanahan said, “but we assumed that both planes were taking a
direct course to their destinations when they crashed. Extending their
projected flight path, we’ve found several possible landing sites—none was in
Cuba
.
Both
planes were heading to
Haiti
.
I checked our records for possible landing
sites large enough to accommodate planes the size of the cargo plane that was
detected out of
Louisiana
and came up with only one real possibility. It’s a placed called
Verrettes, a deactivated World War II military installation, deserted and now
in private hands. This data matches up with radar-data records I pulled from
the computer—”

 
          
“That’s
not enough to go on,” he said. “It’s not enough for a DEA or CIA investigation,
let alone some kind of a full-scale military operation—”

 
          
“Then
let us expand our surveillance in this area,” Elliott said. “I think Patrick’s
right, but we also need more information. Our radar coverage of
Haiti
and the
Dominican Republic
is spotty because of the unreliability and
occasional interference of our aerostat unit at
Guantanamo
by the Cuban government. If we could get
permission to station an aerostat unit on
Haiti
or the DR, or station an aerostat vessel in
the
Windward Passage
we would know for sure.”

 
          
“Haiti,
Cuba, and the Turks and Caicos Islands claim our radar balloons interfere with
commercial aviation, communications, television reception, military flights,
free passage, commercial fishing, even tourism, for God’s sake,” the Vice
President said. “They’re saying we can’t allow our radar energy to cross their
precious borders without their permission. It’s bull, of course, but we’ve got
to play along until we can come up with a bigger bargaining chip.”

 
          
“It’s
garbage,” Elliott said. “The poorest and still the most corrupt country in the
hemisphere lets smugglers use them and we can’t do anything?”

 
          
“It’s
the way it is, for the moment. We’re working on it, State is. That’s it. And in
case you’ve forgotten, people, I’ve managed to keep a lid on the . . . incident
over the
Gulf of
Mexico
.”

 
          
“Pilot
McCauley still denies hitting the cargo plane, sir,” Elliott said. “He says he
made repeated radio calls, made his presence known by direct visual contact and
fired a single warning shot—” “Don’t try to con me, Brad. I’ve seen the tapes
of the ROTH radar data. There’s no question what really happened up there.” He
paused, staring out the windows. “McCauley and Hudkins are out, I’m sorry to
say. Hammerheads can’t afford . . . mistakes like this, Brad. Plenty of
old-timers in Congress are waiting for such an incident to shit-can this
organization. You make your friends look bad, including the President and me.
Anyway, here’s the new poop . . . The President wants you to develop procedures
for dealing with suspect aircraft that have already entered the country
legally, or have been allowed to enter the country. I want a defined set of
rules for intercept crews to follow if they’re in pursuit of an aircraft that
has entered
U.S.
airspace but is believed to be involved with a drugsmuggling operation.
You follow me, Brad?”

 
          
“But
we’ll still have authority to intercept and attack aircraft or vessels observed
to be involved in a drug operation?”

 
          
“Yes—under
careful guidelines. The intercept or attack, for now, has to be in American
territory or airspace, not in open ocean or international airspace. The suspect
has to be observed and recorded dropping or delivering drugs. You have to
verify that the object dropped from the suspect plane was in fact the same
object recovered, and it has to be found that that object contained illegal
substances.”

 
          
“And
all this has to be done before the guy leaves
U.S.
airspace?” Hardcastle said.

 
          
“That’s
it. The Cabinet and some Congressional leaders really got upset over the recent
. . . incident. They say they don’t want the Hammerheads ranging all over the
northern hemisphere shooting down planes or blowing up boats in international
territory . . . The pressure’s on, my friends. I grant you, it’s a hell of a
way to do business, but that’s the way it is. Follow the rules or we’ll all be
out of a job. Hang in there.”

 
          
Elliott,
Hardcastle and Geffar followed along as the Vice President headed for the exit,
but just before leaving, he turned to Elliott and McLanahan. “Take a ride with
me, you two.”

 
          
Aboard
Marine Two, the converted UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, Martindale crunched a
few pork rinds, washed them down with juice and looked at McLanahan and
Elliott. “What about this base in
Haiti
, Patrick?”

 
          
“Verrettes.
I need detailed intelligence on what’s going on there. I know it’s an old World
War II British commando base, and it was used by various branches of the
military for years before being sold to a private corporation. There’s a lot of
air activity out of that base, some of it fast and heavy. I need to know who’s
there, what they’ve got and what they’re doing.”

 
          
“It’s
not the Haitian military?”

 
          
“From
everything I can find out it’s an inactive militia training base, but
Haiti
has no air force except for a few
single-engine jobs and a few cargo planes.”

 
          
“You
really think this is some kind of smuggling ring?”

 
          
“I
think this is
the
smuggling ring. I
also think they’re the ones responsible for killing those children ...”

 
          
The
Vice President looked at Elliott. “Brad?”

 
          
“I
agree. They could be behind the ring that shot down the Customs helicopter in
Louisiana
. We shouldn’t wait.”

 
          
Martindale
stared out the observation window. “Relations with
Central America
and the
Caribbean
basin are pretty sour these days. They act
like the Border Security Force is a smokescreen to cover
U.S.
ambitions for hemispheric military
domination. Can you believe it? Well, we retain access to most of the ports in
the
Caribbean
but only because most are still British crown
colonies or commonwealths—the rest of them are
reducing
cooperation, denying port access and even restricting
passage. We’re being asked for hands off until things calm down some. He looked
at Elliott. “The President went to you through JCS Chairman General Curtis
about that Kavaz- nya thing, didn’t he?”