Brown, Dale - Independent 02 (92 page)

 
          
They
were all watching the replay of the President’s press conference—as expected,
it had been no picnic—along with inserted pictures of the destroyed Hammerhead
One platform surrounded by rescue ships. Off in the background the camera
picked up the looming sight of the U.S.S.
Coral
Sea,
now on station to provide border security and area-interdiction
duties. The commentators were now interjecting their thoughts on the horror
that had occurred in south
Florida
, but the Vice President had the sound turned down as he began:

 
          
“What
a damned nightmare,” he muttered. “Forced to use one of our carriers, even an
old bitch like the
Coral Sea
,
to protect our
own
shores. The press is having a field day.”

 
          
“Anything
is better than leaving the area unprotected,” Elliott said. “The aircraft
carrier is our best option until we activate a new platform.”

 
          
“And
how long will that be?”

 
          
“We
can have a new platform in place in two weeks. Outfitting it for full-flight
operations will take another one to two months. Getting an aerostat unit on
board, another few months. In all, perhaps a year for a fully operational
platform. The plan is to make the new platform less of a command center and
more of a remote airbase—less personnel, less computers, less monitoring
systems. All those functions can be done from headquarters . . .

 
          
“A
better option would be to tow Hammerhead Two from west
Florida
to take over in this area, and move the
Coral
Sea
to west
Florida
. From there it can cruise the Gulf and
stage flight operations that could control the region. We can beef up the
platform’s defensive armament to protect it against attack, but with the F-16’s
at
Homestead
so close and with other Navy ships in the
area I think smugglers will stay clear of the platform.”

 
          
The
Vice President did not reply immediately but closed his eyes and nodded.
“Submit the pricetags for both proposals to me and I’ll present them to the Old
Man. But don’t expect too much. He is plenty pissed off, and when you come to
him asking for money he’s likely to blow his top—”

 
          
The
door to the Situation Room opened and the President along with Chief of Staff
Pledgeman, Secretary of Defense Preston, Drug Control Advisor Massey and
National Security Advisor Curtis entered. The President took his place at the
head of the table, waited as Pledgeman arranged reports and papers around him,
motioned to the stenographer, who was sitting patiently in a corner of the
room, then looked at Elliott for the first time. “Had a busy twenty-four hours,
General?”

 
          
“Yes,
sir.”

 
          
“I
know
Preston
and Chapman and their staffs have debriefed
you.

 
          
I
have their notes here,” the President said, motioning to the folders arranged
in front of him. “General Elliott, why the hell didn’t you notify the White
House of your intention to fly this mission to
Haiti
?” “If we were to have any chance of
stopping the terrorists responsible for the attack on our aerostats and
air-staging platforms we had to act—”

 
          
“You’re
right, but not unilaterally. You don’t have the authority to bomb another
country. You could have caused a major embarrassment to this administration. We
counted on you to lead the Border Security Force in time of a major disaster. I
find you were out bombing some airstrip in
Haiti
—and with Stealth fighters, which you surely
have no authority to employ.”

 
          
The
President paused, staring at Elliott. Elliott stared back. “We all know you’re
a resourceful, intelligent and effective commander, Brad—but dammit, you’re an
agent of the President of the
United States
, not an authority unto yourself.”

 
          
“I’m
sure you realize, Mr. President, that I believe that all my actions were based
on what I thought was necessary and right for security and for the Border
Security Force,” Elliott said. “I do have a responsibility to defend the
United States
, and I did what I thought was necessary at
the time to do that. I made a decision and acted.” “So you did.” The President
folded his hands, took a deep breath and said, “All right, on consultation with
the Cabinet—which was by no means unanimous—no action will be taken against
you. We need to get through this and back on our feet. It’s not an endorsement
of what you did. I expect you to carry out the orders given you and to conduct
operations within your specific area of responsibility, namely the border
identification areas specified in the Border Security Force charter. All other
operations require approval by me. Clear, General?”

 
          
“Yes,
sir.”

 
          
“Brad,
you’re a hell of an officer, a man who can get things done, but if I can’t
trust you I’ll replace you in a heartbeat. My meaning had better be crystal
clear.”

 
          
“It
is, sir.”

 
          
“Okay.”
He opened the first folder in front of him, an agenda of items to consider in
response to the attack. “Let’s talk about what we do next ...”

 
          
“If
I may, sir,” Elliott spoke up immediately. The President looked up from his
notes, suppressed a sigh and acknowledged him with a slight nod.

 
          
“The
first thing you need to do, Mr. President, is fire me and deactivate the
Hammerhead Two air-staging platform.”

 
          
“What?
Elliott, what the hell are you
talking about?”

 
          
“Sir,
the smuggling outfit of Colonel Agusto Salazar has gone underground. We weren’t
able to get an accurate fix on his location when he made his escape from
Haiti
. He could be anywhere in Central or
South America
. I’ve got a plan that I think will help
draw him out of hiding to attempt a large-scale drug shipment, but for it to be
successful we have to convince him that the Hammerheads are being phased out
and that it will be relatively safe for him to make another shipment...” He
looked for a reaction, saw none and rushed on . . . “For that to be believable
you must announce that I will be forced to step down because of my bungling
Border Security Force operations, and that the Hammerhead Two platform will be
towed into shore for repairs and eventual replacement in the Straits of
Florida, where Hammerhead One used to be.” Now he was getting reactions, mostly
incredulous stares. “You will announce that the carrier
Coral
Sea
will be
moved to west
Florida
to replace Hammerhead Two, but instead it will pull into port, at
St. Petersburg
or
Mobile
,
Alabama
, and stay there because of budget constraints and Congressional
opposition to the whole Border Security Force concept.”

 
          
"This
may not be a pretend scenario, General,” the President said, “if you keep on
like this ..."

 
          
“Sir,
we can’t allow Salazar’s group the luxury of developing alternate smuggling
routes and distribution networks across the Mexican border or in the west—the
Hammerheads aren’t set up yet for large- scale operations there. His networks
are already well established in
Florida
and the southeast, and so are the
Hammerheads. But if we make some macho pledge to blast every unknown vessel or
aircraft in the region to hell, Salazar may well not risk sending his planes or
ships into the area and decide to stay underground. If he does that it may take
our intelligence network months to find him.”

 
          
“What
makes you so sure he won’t stay underground and bring his drugs in some other
place, Brad?” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Curtis asked. “This Salazar guy’s a
rat but he’s not stupid.”

 
          
“I
have no guarantee that he won’t ignore what is happening and continue operating
someplace else. But all our information points to one significant fact—that the
drug capital of the w’orld is, and probably always will be, south
Florida
. We’ve noted that drugs that have been
imported someplace other than
Florida
, as far away as
California
, are eventually
tracked back to
Florida
,
where they’re put into the distribution
pipeline. For example, the smugglers killed in the raid in
Louisiana
were members of a
New York
crime syndicate that operates out of
Miami
. We have every indication that the shipment
brought in that night was headed for
New York
but back through
Florida
. There’s no established pipeline for
shipments this size from the deep south to the northeast—they all must go
through
Florida
. The only reason that shipment
landed
in
Louisiana
was because we had the southeast locked up
tight. I feel if we tell the world we will continue to secure the southeast,
especially with heavy weapons, then Salazar will quietly explore entrees in
other areas. But if he perceives what he thinks is a weakness in our operations
in the southeast he might be bold enough and cocky enough to rush in, or at
least surface. Then we have a chance of catching him.”

 
          
“If
you have no platforms or radars watching the coast,” Vice President Martindale
asked, “how are you going to find the smugglers
—if
they’re all that cooperative and try more drug runs?”

           
“With the ROTH radar in Arkansas,
sir. The over-the-horizon backscatter radar can detect planes and vessels for
hundreds of miles, from the
North Carolina
coast almost to
California
. That system can get our planes in close
enough for them to use their on-board radars to complete the intercept.”

 
          
“I’ve
seen the ROTH radar in action,” Drug Control Advisor Massey said, “and it is a
very impressive device. But you pointed out several serious deficiencies in the
system—its lack of reliable altitude data, its atmospheric vulnerability, its
experimental status. Can we count on this ROTH radar to stop Salazar when and
if he tries another drug run?”

 
          
“I
understand there are a lot of ifs here,” Elliott said. “But I believe it’s our
best chance. We can rely on intelligence and informants to find Salazar, and
hope by then that he hasn’t busted the borders wide open and flooded the market
with drugs before we nail him. Or we can try to lure him out by pretending to
be weakened by his attack.

 
          
“Salazar
feeds on weakness and is driven by greed. He’ll return because the chances for
big profits are better than ever before.
But
if we send in the Navy to secure the southeast he’ll stay away and find
another weak spot—and we have a lot of them, especially over the Mexican
border. We’ve seen him move his operation westward faster than we can keep up
with him, and we have to stop him before he establishes a major network there.”

 
          
The
President turned to the others around him. “Comments?” “With respect, General
Elliott,” Drug Advisor Samuel Massey said, “I think this incident has shown us
that we should rethink this entire Border Security Force concept. We may have
called it the Border Security Force, and we may delude ourselves into thinking
this is only a paramilitary organization, but in essence the Border Security
Force, these Hammerheads, are fulfilling a military function, Brad. I give you and
Admiral Hardcastle and Chief Inspector Geffar all the credit in the world. What
you’ve done in the past couple of years has been outstanding. But now we have
to keep an aircraft carrier in place out there, plus pay billions more to
replace what was destroyed—not to mention the irreplaceable loss of life—and on
top of all that we still need to insure that we have adequate military forces
in the region to protect all these assets ... I suggest we disband the Border
Security Force for
real
and integrate
the remaining assets into the standing military forces. We could use mothballed
Navy ships on patrol in place of vulnerable oil platforms. These vessels can
still launch and recover aircraft and drones, and drug-interdiction duties can
be combined with other exercises or patrols ...”