Strike Force (4 page)

   Scott pulled at the neck and sleeves of the long black t-shirt he wore to fit the shirt back into place. While he did so, he looked directly at Captain Howard. He twisted his neck back into place too and a loud crack seemed to settle everything into place.

   "Well then," Scott said boldly, firmly. "Brig? Infirmary? Or would you like to hear what I have to say about how we can get these sons of bitches and make them pay?"

Chapter 8

Ligurian Sea
Afternoon, Tuesday, 19 June

The director's screen faded to black and his speakers began playing the warm orchestra music of
Phantom of the Opera
. He closed his eyes and air played along with master violinists as his soul was swept away and his mind cleansed.

   Selective focus was the cornerstone of his decades of success.

   
Know only what you need to know for success.

   Look no further.

   Ask no questions you don't want answered.

   In another life he would he been a violinist, not a purveyor of the illicit.

   What did it matter who was paying? What did it matter who was doing the killing or who was being killed?

   Life was a dirty game. Everyone paid; everyone killed. Some got their hands bloody; others let others get their hands bloody.

   The buzzing of his phone startled the director, not because anything actually frightened him anymore but because he'd been so lost in his thoughts.

   He was eager for news, but waited for his phone to confirm the call was secure, encrypted and untraceable. Standard procedure was to redirect all incoming calls through multiple routers before being connected to the Secure Mobile Server on his ship.

   He checked his earpiece. It took a moment but soon a green alert and shield icon on his phone confirmed a fully-encrypted and untraceable voice call. "Yes," he answered, his voice full of purpose and inquiry.

   "I'm in place," the female caller replied.

   The director sensed the tension in her voice, felt she knew that breaking protocol might be at the cost of her life. Operatives always worked through intermediaries; they didn't work with the director.
Ever.

   Nonetheless, she was the agent in the field and the only one who could help remedy a crisis that was spiraling out of control.

   "I have an update," she said.

   The director said nothing. His only response was to push the earpiece more tightly into his ear as he waited for her to continue.

   When she spoke, her voice was void of emotion. "I'm taking care of it. The girl, done. The insider, done. Evers, next."

   The director went to his computer. He right-clicked the contingency file that had been prepared, selected Send To and then selected the caller's number. "Sending," he said finally.

Chapter 9

Mediterranean Sea
Afternoon, Tuesday, 19 June

Safely aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, Alexis paused at the bulkhead door. She looked at her phone, saw the text containing the attachment from the director. "Received," she said as she opened the file.

   The called ended.

   She read through the file as her thoughts raced.
I have my final orders,
she told herself, intending to comply fully with everything expected of her.

   She looked at her watch. Less than 36 hours now to do what must be done to change the world and decide everything.

   She knew she was in uncharted territory, that things had gone terribly awry. She was in trouble, but pushed dread from her thoughts.

   Her basic survival instincts had kicked in and she was operating on a new adrenaline rush that coursed through every part of her. It was the kind of high she had after a good kill. The only thing she needed to do now was to make things right with the director and try to get out alive.

   As expected, the HH-60H Rescue Hawk had taken her to the Kearsarge after discovering her in the water and the shipboard triage team had taken her directly for treatment. She was after all unconscious and only partly responsive at the time from the drugs she injected once she sighted SAR and waved them to her.

   The drugs slowed her heart rate and lowered her body temperature dramatically--enough to make it look like she was suffering the effects of hypothermia after being in the waters of the Mediterranean all day.

   Being moved from incoming triage to the infirmary was an unexpected windfall. She easily killed the girl and the insider in the infirmary. She should have been able to get to Evers in the infirmary, but he wasn't where he was supposed to be. He never seemed to be where he was supposed to be.

   After a quick backward glance, Alexis opened the bulkhead door and walked hurriedly down the hall in search of another fortuitous windfall. A windfall whose neck she was going to snap like a twig.

   She was accustomed to following carefully constructed plans, but this situation had completely fallen apart and the director himself had taken over.

   She was unnerved by this, but resolved herself to her task. She had endured no shortage of challenges in her life and had learned to rely on her intellect and training to overcome whatever obstacles were in her way. Her goal now was to do what she must and survive the inevitable backlash no matter what it took.

Chapter 10

Mediterranean Sea
Afternoon, Tuesday, 19 June

The Navy SEAL standing next to Captain Howard snickered, but the captain brushed him aside. "Evers? I've heard about you," the captain said. "Brass balls indeed."

   Scott grimaced. Captain Howard had more than heard of Scott. The two had met before, but it seemed only Scott remembered the encounter.

   Captain Howard returned the look. "Evers, is there a SEAL detail under my command that you haven't harassed or harangued?"

   Scott was too torn up inside to grin, but he almost could have. "Probably not, sir. Nothing personal. My job to protect
Shepherd's
crew and mission. Yours, your mission. The job."

   The last two words set Scott's thoughts spinning again. The j-o-b had always been his excuse with Edie. "Damn you, Edie, for dying on me," he told himself.

   "Evers, what am I going to do with you?" The captain asked. "You deserve the brig. You've earned--"

   Midshipman Tinsdale cut in, "If I may, sir. Evers was my responsibility. Orders were to the mess and then back to the infirmary for further observation, sir."

   Tindale's voice cracked on the final sir and the captain winced. For a moment, the captain seemed unsure what to do. The master chief intervened. He reached out to Scott, shook Scott's hand.

   As the chief ushered Scott forward, he said quietly, "Cooper was my man. You did a good thing out there. Saved him. If Midshipman Tinsdale can recognize that, hell, I can too." Then louder, the master chief said, "Where did you serve, Evers? Too good, too smug not to have."

   "A few too many duties. A few too many wars," Scott said as the midshipman took the opportunity to step away and into the hallway. "Then field operations for the Agency, a few more unnamed wars, and now, well..."

   "Which agency?" the chief asked.

   "The NSA--" Scott caught himself as he was about to say "sir," but he knew better. No master chief was a sir. A master chief was what he was and so he finished by saying, "--master chief."

   As the master chief turned to face the unhappy SEAL standing beside Captain Howard, Scott noted the chief's name tag for the first time. It read: ROBERTS.

   Scott did a double take. Was this
the
Master Chief Roberts he'd heard so much about? If so, the man was a living legend or as much of one as there could be in the close-knit special operations circles Scott traveled in.

   Against the weight of the chief's stare, the Navy SEAL in covert field dress said, "Evers is a risk to security, to our operations. What in the world could he offer up that's possibly worth our time?"

   Just as he had taken a moment to size up the chief, Scott now took a moment to size up the speaker. It was something he normally would have done without a second thought, but he wasn't thinking straight and this wasn't a normal situation. It was an extraordinary circumstance. One that had started with the sinking of the
Bardot III
and culminated in a well-planned, precision attack on both the
Sea Shepherd
and two heavily armed NSW RIBs.

   The one thing he was sure of: The attack was timed and meant to hit the
Shepherd
and the RIBs. But were the
Bardot
and the
Shepherd
targets of opportunity to guarantee of a full-scale naval response in the Mediterranean? Or were the
Bardot
and the
Shepherd
part of a bigger plan--one that also required a full response from the US Navy?

   The SEAL carried himself in a way that spoke of authority and the tall, broad-shouldered man certainly had no qualms about approaching or speaking openly to Captain Howard and Master Chief Roberts. If as Scott suspected, Captain Howard was the Kearsarge's executive officer, the SEAL was likely the commander of covert operations. If so, that meant the SEAL was the overall commander of all SEALs aboard the Kearsarge and that would explain a lot.

   Scott had given the SEALs who tried to board the
Sea Shepherd
no shortage of guff. But he didn't want them aboard the
Shepherd
. It was one thing if the Navy suspected the
Shepherd's
crew were cutting nets and sabotaging Tunisian fishing boats, another if evidence was found that they actually were.

   Playing on his hunch, Scott turned to the captain and said, "Executive Commander Howard…" Next, he turned to the SEAL and said, "Operations Commander…" Then, finally he turned back to the chief and said, "Command Master Chief…"

   He smiled at each of their subtle nods, then continued, "The situation as it I see it is this… Everything is out of control. Someone sank the
Bardot III
in the early hours. The attack was designed to get a direct response from this strike group. Part of your response was to send two heavily armed NSW RIBs, with full crew and SEAL complements, to the
Sea Shepherd
.

   "When the NSW RIBs arrived, a plan already set in motion was carried out, resulting in the sinking of the
Sea Shepherd
and the loss of the NSW RIBs. You believe all or nearly all of the crews from the
Bardot
, the
Shepherd
and the NSW RIBs are lost. You suspect this is the coordinated effort of a terrorist group, but no terrorist group is stepping forward and claiming responsibility.

   "Search and rescue is finding precious little to recover. Seek and destroy fighters are chasing ghosts called out by airborne early warning. The fleet admiral of the carrier strike group has ordered a protective patrol, bringing all the ships back as a safeguard against an attack on the group."

   Scott paused for effect. "How am I doing so far? Close enough to right to call it right?"

   The Command Master Chief moved next to the Operations Commander. Executive Commander Howard said, "If you think you have answers, we're listening."

   "For starters, where were the Mason and San Jacinto? Why weren't they with the main strike group? I also know that right now you're finalizing plans to launch a response strike force."

   "Classified," the Operations Commander said. "And if speculation's all you have to offer, Tinsdale can show you the way back to the infirmary." He paused, stared directly at Scott, then called out. "Midshipman?"

Chapter 11

Mediterranean Sea
Afternoon, Tuesday, 19 June

Midshipman Meredith Tinsdale heard someone pounding on the door to the women's lavatory. The tiny room had one private stall with a door that could be closed, a sink, a shower, and a changing area. It also had a lock on the outer door, which she had secured.

   She squatted down on the toilet and almost dropped her phone as she shouted, "Just a moment."

   Turning back to the phone, she said to the beautiful little face looking back at her, "Momma's coming home soon."

   "Promise, momma?" 7-year-old Sarah asked.

   Meredith smiled and tried to hold back tears that were welling up in her eyes. "Just like I promised, baby girl. Is Gramma Peg there?"

   "She is. Do you want to talk to her?" the little girl replied and there were more tears in Meredith's eyes at how grown up her baby girl sounded just then. "I love you, momma."

   "Oh, I love you too, baby girl."

   "All the way to the stars and moon?"

   Meredith tried to hide her tears as she wiped them away with a tissue. "All the way to the stars and moon. All the way to the stars and moon and back a hundred hundred times."

   She didn't know why she said it exactly like that. It was just something they said to each other and it always made Sarah's face light up.

   Meredith heard the door to the women's lavatory open with a bang and she called out. "Um, occupied. Almost finished. Do you mind? I need some privacy."

   Though she didn't hear a response, she did hear the outer door close again, so she went back to her phone call. In the moment that she'd looked away, Sarah must have handed the phone to Peg and she said silently to herself, "Bye-bye, baby girl."

   To Peg, she said, "I know it's late and I promised to call earlier. I'm sorry. Have you heard from him?"

   Peg pursed her lips. "It's not late. It's after 8 in the A.M. here in Utah."

   "I didn't realize. So much has happened--" Meredith tried to tell Peg she couldn't call before, that she'd tried to get away so many times but hadn't been able to, that she'd lost track of time.