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“You have a truck moving on the road,” she told the Brunei army unit on the ground. “Pickup type truck. Rear is, uh, looks empty.”
The army sergeant on the other end of the line thanked her. Unlike yesterday, the responses were sharp and very focused.
McKe
“This is Dreamland EB-52 Pe
“Who the hell are you calling unidentified?” snapped McKe
“Identify yourself,” responded the voice.
“Just like an American,” answered the pilot. “Dreamland EB-full-of-yourself-52, this is Brunei-Air-Force-kick-your-butt-and-spit-in-your-eye A-37B Dragonfly Dragon One. You are in sovereign Brunei territory,” she added. “State your purpose and position.”
There was a brief pause. McKe
“Dragon One, this is Pe
“Well, that’s damn American of you,” responded McKe
“We’ve just finished eliminating the ground-to-air defenses at Brunei International Airport and disabled their fueling capacity.”
“What about our EB-52?” she asked.
“We haven’t touched it,” said the American. “It’s near your hangar at the base.”
McKe
”Unknown at this time.”
“The airport is clearly in militant control, as is the rest of the capital,” said the voice. “Do you have information to the contrary?”
Hopes, but not information, she thought to herself.
“Not at this time,” she answered. “Who are you?”
“Lt. Colonel Tecumseh Bastian. Who are you?”
“Brunei Air Commodore McKe
McKe
“Are you offering to help the sultan, who is the rightful and lawful ruler of this country?” she asked finally.
“We’re here to assess the situation,” answered the American.
“Well don’t take too long to choose up sides,” she told him. “Or there may be only one left.”
Off the coast of Brunei
0540
“Some sort of ship,” Liu told Da
Whatever it was, it was moving, albeit very, very slowly, to the east of the platform. It remained several hundred yards away.
“Who does it belong to, Captain?” asked Boston, who was back by the ladder.
“Good question,” said Da
“Gotcha, Cap,” said Bison.
Da
“It’s not an optical illusion,” said Da
“We’d like to see it,” said Catsman. “I’ll ask Colonel Bastian to overfly it. They’re over the southern portion of the country right now.”
Before Da
“Captain, there’s a boat coming out of the back of it. Looks like there’s a boarding party”
“Be right there,” said Da
Aboard “Pe
0550
“I see where she’s heading,” said Lieutenant Hawkins, working one of the radar boards on the Dreamland EB-52. “Small strip, tiny—surprised she can get out of there.”
The lieutenant forwarded a map image with the strip marked out on it to Dog’s station. Dog zoomed out, getting a better idea of the location, and then brought up a satellite image from the library. The base was indeed tiny, but it was also near the coast and protected by rough terrain from neighboring Malaysia.
“Zen, let’s get an overflight of that area:’ Dog said. “Get an idea of what they’ve got there and whether their defenses can withstand an attack.”
“Sure she won’t try shooting me down?” said Zen.
“She may just take you on,” Dog told him. The pilot—McKe
“I can handle a Tweet, thanks,” snapped Zen, using the somewhat derogatory slang term for the aircraft’s trainer version, the T-37.
If the base seemed secure, Dog thought he might be able to air-drop supplies in. That would be exceeding his orders—but it was the right thing to do, as long as he could find a way to do it.
“Dreamland Command to Pe
“On our way,” said Dog, immediately changing his plans.
Off the coast of Brunei
0551
It didn’t take more than a few seconds to see that the boat was definitely headed for the platform. Da
“Dreamland, are you sure these aren’t our forces?” Da
“Not to our knowledge.”
“Cap, what do you think of going down to the dock? They can’t see the ladder from where they are.”
“Hold off, Boston” The last thing he wanted to do was kill four of his countrymen. “Dreamland—have we checked with the navy?”
“That’s negative, but to our knowledge, they’re not navy” He was authorized to protect himself. If these guys were SEALs, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That wasn’t going to be good enough if he was wrong, though.
“Liu, you got that high-powered telescope trained on these guys?”
“Still working on it, Captain.”
The vessel they had come from was definitely not American; it didn’t appear on any listing of U.S. forces that Da
The boat was fifty yards away.
“Captain?” asked Boston.
“They have MP5Ns,” said Liu.