Operation Barracuda (2005)

"About eight hours. We flew you to Hawaii yesterday afternoon and gave you a sedative to help you sleep. We then dropped you onto the Fishera few hours later and here we are."

"Where are we going?"

"California. We're three hours away. How are you feeling?"

I take stock of my body. There are aches and pains everywhere. My stomach is the worst but it doesn't seem as bad as it was.

"Okay, I guess." I try to sit up and realize I've got an IV in my hand and there's a tight bandage wrapped around my middle. "What's going on?"

"We're building up your strength, Sam. You were dehydrated and had gone without substantial nourishment for what, a week?"

"Something like that."

"You'll be happy to know that your insides are all right. Nothing badly damaged. You had a ruptured peritoneum but by some miracle you didn't develop peritonitis. The doc says you should have received a very bad case of it and perhaps even died, but someone upstairs is looking after you, Sam. The tear in the peritoneum began to heal on its own and you're well on the way to recovery. Doc says it's most likely due to your healthy lifestyle, the fact that your abdominal muscles are in tip-top shape and you do a million sit-ups a day, or whatever it is you do. You're living proof that exercise and diet can save your life. What happened to you, anyway?"

"Andrei Zdrok punched me in the stomach with brass knuckles."

Lambert almost laughed. "I understand you paid him back with interest."

"Yeah? What's happened to him?"

"The Chinese have him in custody. He's in a hospital in Fuzhou and probably not a very good one. You messed him up pretty bad, Sam. The front of his facial bone plate is broken and the orbit of his right eye dropped. If he doesn't die then he'll stand trial for terrorism and espionage in China. He and Eddie Wu, too. They caught him trying to run away from General Tun's base."

"Wait. What happened at the base? The Triad--"

"Your little talk with the head of the Lucky Dragons apparently did some good. The Triad brought an army of three hundred men up from Hong Kong and bombed the place with some Stinger missiles and mortars before rushing in and taking it over. Of course by then most of Tun's men had already moved out. The Lucky Dragons didn't know it, but the Chinese army was three miles away, standing ready for orders from Beijing to do something about General Tun. Those orders never came. When our spy satellites picked up on what was going on, the CIA got together a crew posing as a Red Cross team. They asked for and received permission from China to do a reco

"Why didn't you get a message to me? Colonel, I thought I had been . . . I thought you had abandoned me."

"Sam, I won't lie to you," Lambert says. "We almost activated Protocol Six. If Tun had attacked Taiwan and forced us into a skirmish with China, then that's what would have happened all right. We would never have been able to get you out. We couldn't communicate with you because Mason Hendricks was monitoring our transmissions. We had to stay silent. I'm sorry, Sam."

I nod and shrug. "And the Triad?"

"Most of them got away. When they attacked the encampment, Beijing gave the orders for the Chinese forces to storm the base. That happened shortly after the CIA got you out. The Triad dispersed because technically they're traitors. It's a very strange situation. We think China wants General Tun to fail in a big way before he attacks Taiwan so they don't have to lose face in stopping him. If he doesn't mess up, then they'll have to appear as if they're supporting their general. The hard-liners in Beijing agree with Tun's motives. Anyway, some of the Triads were caught and will most likely be tried for treason."

"What about Jon Ming?"

"As far as we know he got away."

"And nothing has happened in Taiwan?"

"Not yet. It's been a standstill for twenty-four hours. Tun has threatened us with his nuke off the coast of California--he won't say where exactly. I'm hoping you have some things to tell us."

"That I do." I proceed to relate everything I learned. That Tun's submarine launched three MRUUVs off the coast of Los Angeles. One of them is armed with the nuke. Since the control panel at the base in Fuzhou is destroyed, the MRUUVs are operated solely from the sub. Lambert confirms that the U.S. was aware of the Chinese sub when it approached American waters but now it's moved out to international waters where it can't be touched. However, Naval Sea Systems Command provided A

"And what are we going to do with those fuckers when we find them?" I ask.

Lambert winks at me. "Let me ask the doc if you can get out of bed. I have something to show you."

THELMSR is Military Sealift Command's newest class of ship and provides afloat prepositioning of a heavy brigade's equipment and a corps' combat support, as well as surge capability for lift of a heavy division's equipment from the United States. LMSRs can carry an entire U.S. Army Task Force, including fifty-eight tanks, forty-eight other track vehicles, plus more than nine hundred trucks and other wheeled vehicles. The ship carries vehicles and equipment to support humanitarian missions as well as combat missions. The new construction vessels have a cargo carrying capacity of more than 380,000 square feet, equivalent to almost eight football fields. In addition, LMSRs have a slewing stern ramp and a removable ramp that services two side ports, making it easy to drive vehicles on and off the ship. Interior ramps between decks ease traffic flow once cargo is loaded aboard ship. Two 110-ton single-pedestal twin cranes make it possible to load and unload cargo where shoreside infrastructure is limited or nonexistent. A commercial helicopter deck is used for emergency daytime landing, which was how I was brought aboard. The Fisheris a prime specimen of an LMSR.

After the doc removes my IV and clears me to leave sick bay, Lambert leads me through a dozen passageways and hatches to one of the storage decks. Aside from an assorted allotment of military vehicles, I see three strange-looking contraptions that look like wet bikes from the future. Lambert speaks to a crewman, who turns on some lights so we can examine one of the devices up close.

"This is what the U.S. Navy calls a CHARC," Lambert says, pronouncing the word as "Shark." "Or, to be more specific, a Covert High-speed Attack and Reco

"I vaguely remember reading about it being developed," I say. "Tell me more."

"Lockheed-Martin designed and developed it to protect the navy's surface vessels from high-speed armed boats and submarines. Ideally the CHARC will help provide a lethal response for some of the emerging littoral threats that face naval forces today, including small-boat swarm attacks and diesel-electric submarines. Remember what happened to the USS Cole? The creation of the CHARC is a direct response to that incident."

"It looks awesome," I say. And it does. The CHARC is about twelve meters long and consists of two levels of hydroplanes topped by the actual boat in which one or two men can ride. "I imagine it's portable?"