“What’s been happening?” he asked.
“Well, about two months ago I started noticing Ed having hushed conversations on the phone. At first I chalked it up to him making plans for some secret rendezvous with one of his twenty-something playmates. I was curious though, so when the phone bill came last month I took a close look to see who he had been calling. He made a call to another country.”
“Another country?” Dan was on the edge of his seat now.
“There was a call to a number in Iran. Why would he be calling Iran?”
Their food came and they became silent. After the waitress left Dan said, “What the hell?!”
“I don’t know,” said Sally. “I didn’t know what to make of it. Anyway, last Monday he suggested we were ready to start testing the tick on humans. Even though none of the rest of us agreed, he brought it up twice more during the week.”
“The clincher happened Friday. The bulb burned out in the lamp on the coffee table in my office. I was having trouble screwing in the new bulb, so I looked down inside the lampshade to better see the socket. I found this attached to the inside of the lampshade.” She pulled out what appeared to be a small listening device. “Somebody bugged my office!”
Dan sat quietly and pondered everything she had said. Finally he said, “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking something stinks,” she said quickly. I don’t know what to make of everything, but something is going on.”
“What could he be up to…?” Dan was thinking out loud.
“I’m worried,” she went on. “He knows everything about our project and I wouldn’t put it past him to sell it out from under us. We can’t afford to fire him and we can’t afford to keep him. I fear he’s becoming a real liability.”
“No, we need to keep him around,” said Dan. We need to have him close at hand so we know what he’s up to. I think we should hire a private investigator to keep and eye on him for awhile and find out what he does when he’s not at the office.”
Sally only had to think about it for a few seconds. “Do it,” she said decisively.
They remained quiet while they ate their food. Dan’s mind was swimming. What was McCoskey up to? He knew he needed to keep a very close eye on this guy.
Chapter 40
September, year 4.
Gabe had finally got up the nerve to ask Monica out on a date. She was paying more and more attention to McCoskey and it was just killing him. He had talked to Jamie about it and confessed his attraction. Jamie told him he needed to ask her out and see what happened. Easy for him to say.
Gabe found the two of them huddled up in her office pouring over some details of the project. He waited, but they didn’t finish. They continued to work up until lunch time. Then the two of them went to grab some lunch together. He figured he had missed the train on this one. He kicked himself for not asking her out months ago, before she had become so attracted to this over-aged loser.
**********
Dan entered Sally’s office and closed the door behind him. He sat down in the upholstered chair across from her desk. “Well, it’s been a month since we hired our little private eye. He gave me his first report today.”
Sally looked up from what she was doing. “Well?” she said.
“Several times each week he goes down to the marina after dark. A small runabout picks him up and takes him out to a yacht that is moored about 200 yards from shore. He stays on board for about an hour and then the runabout returns him to the marina.” He showed her photos of McCoskey boarding the runabout and photos of the yacht taken with a telephoto lens. “Other than that, he didn’t report any suspicious behavior.”
“I think it’s time I had a look at his computer to see what he’s been up to lately,” said Sally. “Take him out to lunch today. Make something up. Anything to get him away from here for an hour or so. I’m going to do some detective work of my own.”
**********
The morning dragged by slowly. Each hour seemed to extend out for days. Sally had only one thing on her mind and it wasn’t work.
The time finally came when Dan gathered up McCoskey and the two of them headed out for lunch. She slipped in his office and closed the door behind her. Sitting down at the desk she opened the lid on the laptop and dove in. Wasn’t this guy even smart enough to password protect his computer? This was too easy.
This thought didn’t last long. As she looked at the files, they were all encrypted. “Damn!” she said under her breath. As she looked from directory to directory she became more and more frustrated. She was considering pulling Monica into the mix to get her help when she stumbled across a file that wasn’t encrypted. The filename was ‘First Show.’ Sally double-clicked on the file and stood in horror at the sight on the screen. It was a video of her standing in front of her bathroom mirror totally naked while she curled her hair and put on her make-up. She just sat there for a long time, dumbfounded. Then she closed the lid on the computer.
Her mind was spinning out of control as she walked back to her office. “Oh, Michael, where are you when I need you?” she said out loud. Dr. Bowles would know what to do. She wished she could call him for advice. He had been dead over two years now and she still had these moments when she desperately needed his advice.
She looked at the clock. Dan and McCoskey had been gone for 45 minutes. She didn’t have long to think.
Suddenly she knew what she had to do. She went back to Ed’s office and grabbed the laptop computer. She took it out to her car and secured it in the trunk. Then she went back into the office and waited.
About ten minutes later Dan and Ed returned. She was waiting for them when they walked in the door. She barked out sternly, “Both of you…in the conference room, now!” As she said this she pointed resolutely with her finger. Neither of them had ever seen her like this. They were both taken off guard. Neither of them spoke as they entered the conference room. Her face was red with anger as she closed the door and took her seat at the head of the table.
“Dr. McCoskey,” she began in a stern voice. “I’m letting you go.”
She intended to lead with this and wait for a reaction. She didn’t have to wait long. McCoskey huffed up and said, “Just what is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re fired!” she raised her voice.
“You can’t fire me!” the rant began. “What grounds could you possibly have to fire me? Why would you possibly want to fire me? I’ve done nothing but pour out my soul for this company since before you even heard of the place! This is my company! I made this place!”
Dan was shocked! What could Sally have possibly found on Ed’s computer to push her over the edge like this? He couldn’t let this happen. They needed McCoskey here close at hand so he could keep an eye on him. “Now let’s all just calm down for a minute,” he tried to be the voice of reason. “Sally, why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on!” she fumed. “This animal has used our own creation against me! I checked his computer while you were at lunch and do you know what I found? I’ll tell you what I found! I found a video of myself buck naked in front of my own bathroom mirror! The video was seen through my own eyes! This freak has already tested the tick on a human! No wonder he’s been so anxious to continue!”
McCoskey spoke up, “What the hell are you talking about Sally?”
“You know damn well what I’m talking about! I watched your little video strip show. You’re finished!
“You can’t fire me,” he began. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I love this company. I am this company.”
Sally cut him off and screamed, “Get out! Get the hell out of my sight! I don’t ever want to see you again!”
Dan scrambled for a way to salvage the situation. He was coming up short. “Let’s take a moment to think this throug
h,” he began.
Ed refused to leave and he continued to rant and rave. Sally went to the door of the conference room and opened it. A small crowd had gathered outside the door. She told the receptionist to call 911.
Ed was beginning to die down by the time the police arrived ten minutes later, but he still refused to leave. Dan was continuing in vain to try to talk some sense into Sally. Sally told the police, “I want him out of here!”
The police escorted Dr. Edward McCoskey from the building and Sally locked the door behind them. Once outside the officers told Ed he was free to go, but he was not to go back into the building.
Ed sat on the bench in front of the building and made a call on his cell phone. For the next few minutes he thought about Sally telling him he was finished. “We’ll just see about that…” he said as a white sedan pulled around the corner and stopped in front of the building. Dr. Edward McCoskey got in and the car drove away.
Chapter 41
October, year 4.
The dark form of the submarine cut silently through the water at 800 feet. It was invisible to the rest of the world as it made the trip though the Arabian Sea and into the Gulf of Oman. The luxury of staying deep was lost as they moved further into the Gulf of Oman since the water became shallower the closer they got to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz was a choke point along the southern coast of Iran where the Gulf of Oman connected to the Persian Gulf. At its narrowest point, only 29 miles separated the shores of the Strait. This was arguably the most important shipping lane in the world. Approximately 17 million barrels of oil were shipped through the Strait of Hormuz every day. These shipments accounted for about forty percent of the world’s seaborne oil shipments.
Because of the narrow throat the strait presented, ships travelling through the strait followed a strict traffic separation scheme. This traffic separation scheme was designed to separate inbound from outbound traffic to reduce the risk of collisions. The traffic lane was six miles wide, including two two-mile wide traffic lanes, one inbound and one outbound, separated by a two-mile wide separation median. Navigation of submarines was a bit tricky in these waters and U.S. submarines had not always remained unscathed.
In 2007 the nuclear submarine USS Newport News, while travelling submerged, collided with a very large Japanese crude-oil tanker. The submarine had been submerged at a depth sufficient to allow the tanker passage. The sheer size of the ship moving overhead had created a differential pressure that effectively sucked the submarine up to the surface.
In 2009 the nuclear powered Los Angeles-class submarine USS Hartford collided with the amphibious transport dock USS New Orleans in the strait. The collision injured fifteen sailors aboard the Hartford and ruptured a fuel tank aboard the New Orleans, spilling 25,000 gallons of marine diesel fuel.
These were treacherous waters to navigate undetected. No submarine captain wanted their name to become know in these waters. The captain of the USS Florida (SSGN-728) was no exception.
The Florida was one of four Ohio-class Trident submarines to be converted from a SSBN to a SSGN. SSBN submarines were called boomers. They carried 24 Trident missiles with nuclear warheads, one missile in each of the 24 huge missile tubes. As a result of arms reduction treaties it was necessary to remove the nuclear weapons from four of the Trident submarines in the U.S. fleet. Modifications were made to 22 of the missile tubes by installing a new vertical launch system. This modification allowed them to carry seven Tomahawk cruise missiles in each tube providing a total of 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. An impressive arsenal by any stretch of the imagination. This was the equivalent firepower of an entire battle group.
The two remaining tubes were converted to lockout chambers to be used by navy SEAL’s for covert operations from sea. The Florida currently had a SEAL platoon onboard. This sixteen-man platoon consisted of eleven SEALS, one dive medical technician, and four fleet support maintenance technicians. Only six of the SEALS would be participating in the current mission. The remaining SEAL’s would remain on standby just in case the mission soured and a rescue attempt became necessary.
Red and the rest of his platoon had spent the past three weeks onboard the Florida as it slowly made its way from Pearl Harbor to the Strait of Hormuz. They spent their time in the forward compartment of the submarine where they worked out six hours every day. Now that they were nearing the strait, the SEAL team commander called them together for a briefing.
Red was anxious about this mission because he didn’t know any details of what they would be doing. He knew he would be deploying from the sub along with 5 other SEAL’s, but he had no idea what the objective was going to be. He gathered around as the commander briefed the group.
“Okay men, listen up. For necessary security reasons, the details of this mission have remained secret up until now. Tomorrow we will arrive on station and begin deployment. I’m briefing you at this time so we can begin preparing the equipment and familiarizing each of you with the mission objectives and parameters.”
The commander unrolled a large drawing and posted it on the bulkhead so they could all see it. He pointed to a spot on the southern coast of Iran as he continued. “This is Bandar Abbas. It’s the main base of operations for the bulk of the Iranian naval fleet. Iran doesn’t have a strong naval presence. They have very little striking power and typically are not much cause for concern.”
“Their naval fleet consists primarily of five frigates, three corvettes, and three kilo-class Russian-built diesel-electric submarines. The kilo’s are small and considered to be the quietest diesel submarines in the world, but their lack of nuclear weapons capability has limited their ability to create a major threat to the world. They also have a Ghadir-class mini-sub and a Nahang-class mini-sub.”
“Our intelligence specialists have kept a close eye on Iran’s naval capabilities over the years, but have expressed very little concern until recently. The submarines are periodically maintained in the covered dry-dock you see here.” He pointed to a long sheltered facility along the waterfront in the Bandar Abbas harbor. “Several months ago the size of this covered dry-dock was expanded to almost twice its original length. Satellite imagery shows there has recently been a flurry of activity around this dry-dock, but we aren’t sure what is going on inside. We have accounted for all of their submarines and verified none of them are currently inside the dry-dock.”
“That’s were we come in. There are some things satellites just aren’t very good at. Seeing inside covered shelters is one of them. We’re going to need human intelligence on this one.”
“The last thing we want to do is cause an international incident or military skirmish. We will send in a small 6-man team. Your mission will be to enter the Bandar Abbas harbor underwater and approach the dry-dock undetected. We want to know what is inside that structure and what activity is taking place in there. I want photographs and thermal imaging. Any intelligence you can provide will be useful. You must remain undetected at all costs. The last thing I want to do is launch a rescue operation.”
Red was getting excited now. He had trained for this type of mission, but most of his missions up to this point had been land-based in Afghanistan. He spent the rest of the next two days preparing his gear for the mission and memorizing maps and diagrams.
**********
The time had finally arrived to initiate the mission. Nightfall covered the surface above. This date had been purposely chosen because it was a new moon. Total darkness was a friend in any covert mission. The submarine had stationed itself 2,500 yards from the mouth of the Bandar Abbas harbor and come to periscope depth. This was a dangerous location for the submarine, but it was important to get the men as close as possible to enhance the chance of their success.
Red and five other highly trained SEAL’s entered the converted missile tubes and donned their gear. Each man wore a wet suit and was equipped with twin
scuba tanks and dive gear. They each had a knife in an ankle sheath and carried a suppressed MP5. It was hopeful that gunfire would remain unnecessary, but if it became necessary the SEALs would be ready. After they were inside the missile tube and the hatch was sealed behind them, they slowly opened a valve to flood the tube with seawater. Once the tube was completely flooded and the pressure equalized, they opened the hatch on the top of the missile tube and exited the top of the sub.
There were two dry deck shelters attached to the top of the submarine just aft of the sail. They opened the door to the starboard dry deck shelter to reveal a mini-sub stored inside. The mini-sub was actually a SEAL Special Delivery Vehicle (SDV). It was a 22-foot long, jet black underwater taxicab. Each of the men had a pre-defined task to do. They winched the SDV out of its berth in the dry deck shelter and checked out its systems. The battery-powered vehicle could travel underwater at six knots for distances up to 70 miles. This mission would not require anywhere near that type of distance.
The SDV was not a submarine that you rode inside of. It was more of an underwater vehicle used to transport men and equipment. The men rode inside cavities on the sub, but they were exposed to the water outside the sub at all times. Its advantage was its ability to remain submerged and deliver men on location quickly without requiring them to expend energy and time swimming.
Two of the men took positions as the pilot and navigator and the other four men assumed the role as passengers. They all connected into the on-board compressed air manifold and closed off the valves on their air tanks. The air in the tanks would be needed once they arrived on-site. It was best to save that air for now.