Scorpion: A Covert Ops Novel (Second Edition) (28 page)

Avery was awake
by eleven, still feeling drowsy and fatigued after ten hours of uninterrupted
sleep, and the pain was more evident, as if it was just now fully registering
with his nerves after his body was finally allowed to relax and slow down after
the adrenaline hangover.

They conducted
the briefing in a secure, cipher-lock compartmental information facility;
Culler, Avery, the four Sideshow members, and an army officer dressed in digital
fatigues with a Special Forces patch who Culler introduced as Lieutenant
Colonel Jerry Arkin from Joint Special Operations Command. Culler didn’t immediately
explain what component of JSOC Arkin represented or why he was in attendance,
and Arkin barely said a word. Instead he listened intently with the others as
Culler conducted the briefing and fielded questions.

By now, Culler
possessed additional satellite intelligence, including FORTE data from the
Department of Energy (DOE) and electronic and signals intelligence intercepts
from NSA.

Over the past
twelve hours, Culler had coordinated with DOE and the National Reconnaissance
Office (NRO), the agency that designs, builds, and operates the satellites
utilized by American intelligence agencies, to re-task the FORTE platform over
Gorno-Badakhshan Province. There are only two FORTE satellites, and they are
nearly always in use over high priority targets in China, India, Iran, North
Korea, Pakistan and Russia. Diverting FORTE on short notice is a Big Deal, and
Culler had called in a few favors and now owed a couple, too. Fortunately, this
particular satellite had already been in the region, scheduled to make a sweep
over India’s Boron enrichment plant, where CIA had gotten reports of increased
production activity. Instead, the satellite passed over Tajikistan’s
Gorno-Badakhshan Province.

 Fast Onboard
Recording of Transient Event is a $35 million Department of Energy-operated satellite
launched into low Earth orbit in 1997. Its suite of optical sensors and RF
instruments detects radioactive emissions and heat signatures associated with
nuclear weapons development and testing, capable of seeing through dense cloud
coverage and penetrating up to fifteen feet underground. FORTE had been the
first asset to detect and analyze the Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons
tests in the 1990s.

HEU is difficult
to detect. The Department of Homeland Security and DOE spent billions of
dollars on detection gear and sensors that failed to reliably detect large
quantities of HEU at American ports and airports. But FORTE’s scans detected
significant levels of alpha emissions radiating from the TCIDC plant. The small
diameter of the emissions’ source core, and the fact that it was located
directly within the plant, all but eliminated the possibility of a natural,
previously unknown natural uranium deposit. It had all the readings consistent
with emissions that were the result of man-made processes.

 NSA’s Magnum SigInt
satellites likewise picked up an increase in signals and communications traffic
from the Gorno-Badakhshan site to locations in Minsk, including a GlobeEx
office, and Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. Meanwhile, CIA’s continued
UAV coverage of the TCIDC facility revealed another nugget.

“Aleksander
Litvin arrived at the facility four hours ago,” Culler said. “The Counter Proliferation
Center reported, and Ukrainian intelligence confirmed, that he left Minsk for
Dushanbe overnight on a private jet, shortly after the incident at Dushanbe
International. From there, he flew directly to the factory aboard a GlobeEx
Transport Ka-226 helicopter. He’s not the only VIP. The Predators spotted
Mullah Arzad’s arrival a short while later, along with someone we’ve since
identified as Ali Masood Jafari, one of the missing Pakistani nuclear
scientists and one-time apprentice to AQ Khan.”

Avery exchanged
looks with Poacher. They both thought the same thing. If Litvin and Arzad were here,
would Cramer make an appearance, too? Culler caught the exchange but didn’t
answer the unstated question.

“So what happens
next?” Poacher asked.

“I’ve received
authorization from D/CIA to launch a three phase operation, codenamed CRIMSON
RETRIEVAL,” Culler said. If the director of CIA authorized the op, then that
meant the president’s national security adviser had given him the green light
to do so, at least tentatively.“First, Sideshow will conduct eyes-on-the-ground
reconnaissance of the target to pave the way for the JSOC retrieval mission of
the nuclear material. Then F-16s will level this place flat to eliminate the
weapons development infrastructure. Rules of engagement are clear: anyone who
stands in the way of your securing the HEU is considered a threat and is to be neutralized.”

It sounded
simple and straight forward enough, but Avery knew from experience that these
things rarely went as smoothly as anticipated by the mission planners and
coordinators in their distant office suites and ops centers. From Avery’s
perspective, he saw a small unit infiltrating hostile territory, with limited
back-up, and going up against a larger, highly trained enemy force, with a
number of variables that could go wrong at every phase of the operation.

Next, Culler
addressed Poacher directly, something that wasn’t lost on Avery. “Your team
will provide vital firsthand intelligence of the target and ascertain enemy
force strength and disposition, and locations of the uranium and the HUMINT asset
being detained here.”

Culler now
regarded Aleksa Denisova as an asset of sorts, although she would ardently
argue against the label. But whatever she was, Avery felt responsible for
her—she was there, in danger, because of him, and she had provided valuable
intelligence that brought them to this point. The Ranger mentality of leaving
no one behind was deeply ingrained into his psyche, just as the Sideshow team
shared the same mindset. Bringing Aleksa out was just as critical to them as
retrieving and accounting for all of the HEU canisters.

Culler had told
Avery he’d help Aleksa get settled in the West and establish a new identity for
her, since it wouldn’t be safe for her to return to Russia after this. That
made him feel better, but he doubted Aleksa would take Culler up on that. She
was too stubborn and principled, and would never accept help from the CIA. She
also wouldn’t run and hide because of a gangster’s threats.

“Colonel Arkin
commands the render-safe special mission unit based here at Bagram,” Culler
said. “His operations staff is preparing for a takedown of this facility. This
operation will be conducted by a small number of JSOC personnel supported by
Night Stalker helicopter crews.”

Specially
trained by the DOE’s Nuclear Emergency Search Team scientists, the JSOC WMD
render-safe units are composed of SEALs, Delta Force operators, and Night
Stalkers, and supported by Rangers and paratroopers. They’re tasked with
securing nuclear facilities and weapons, and neutralizing terrorist WMDs. On
the American East Coast, these units rehearsed takedown scenarios on elaborate
mock-ups of Pakistani, North Korean, and former Soviet nuclear sites. For the
past decade, a render-safe team was stationed in Afghanistan, ready to seize
the Pakistani nuclear arsenal in the event of a jihadist takeover in that
country.

During his initial
briefing with Arkin, Culler omitted many details. The JSOC officer knew only
that this was a routine counterproliferation op against a Taliban WMD facility
in a remote region of Tajikistan. Arkin may have suspected a connection with
the recent news of the CIA officers killed in Tajikistan, but he kept any
speculation to himself.

Culler began
discussing with Poacher bringing in other CIA paramilitary units already
stationed in Afghanistan.

“Sideshow can do
it,” Poacher asserted, dismissing the suggestion, wanting to keep the operation
small. He and Reaper had taken part in JSOC render safe training exercises and
had experience with this type of op. “We won’t need detection or retrieval gear.
We already know the HEU is on-site, and we know what to look for. As long as
they haven’t broken the seals on those cylinders yet and started making bombs,
which doesn’t appear to be the case, according to the FORTE data, we can
operate without fear of contamination.”

“Just the four
of you?” asked Culler, incredulously.

“I’m going,
too,” Avery said.

“Oh, like hell
you are, not in your condition.” Culler nearly jumped out of his chair. “I read
the medical report. A concussion. Two cracked ribs. A hairline fractured
vertebrae. A bruised kidney that will have you pissing blood for the next week.
You’re in no shape to do anything. Frankly, you shouldn’t even be sitting in on
this meeting.”

“My legs are
working just fine, and I can still shoot.” Avery turned to Poacher. “You know
I’m good for it.”

Poacher wasn’t
so sure about that, but he didn’t want to argue. Plus, truth was, he could use
Avery’s skill set. The target’s external security may have been soft, but they
had no way of knowing what kind of opposition they’d face inside the factory.
Litvin’s people were well-trained, and the Taliban were fanatical, dedicated
fighters.

“It’s alright. I
can vouch for him, Matt. I can use an extra body, and I’m comfortable taking
him along. And I’m going to make it clear: I’m the one running Sideshow’s
portion of the op. I’ll keep him in line.”

Avery started to
open his mouth, but then thought better of responding.

Culler
begrudgingly agreed, leaving Avery to wonder why he’d acquiesced so easily.

After further
discussion, mostly coordination between the CIA unit and Arkin, they ended the
briefing.

After Arkin
left, Culler held the others back.

“There’s
something else I need to tell you, another component to your mission that no one
outside of this room will ever be made aware of.” He paused to make sure he
held everyone’s full attention. “Cramer arrived at the processing plant with
Litvin this morning.” 

No one said a
word, but Avery understood now why Culler hadn’t put up more of a fight about
his joining the team.

 “JSOC
cannot
find Cramer alive at this facility,” Culler said. The special operations
community was a small one, and at least a few members of the render safe team,
most of them veterans of Afghanistan, would likely recognize Cramer if they saw
him. Even those who didn’t would probably recognize him from recent news
reports and intelligence briefings. Of course the JSOC men could be counted on
to keep a secret, but D/NCS didn’t want word of Cramer’s treason spreading. “It’s
one thing if his body is recovered from the facility. He’s already supposed to
be dead, after all, killed by allies of the Taliban. But the bottom line is
Cramer needs to be eliminated before Arkin’s team goes in. That’s why your team
is going in first.”

There was heavy silence
as Avery and the Sideshow team processed this. They’d never been ordered to
kill one of their own before. Personally, Avery didn’t have a problem with it,
not after what he’d seen at Ayni and in Minsk. But he knew Poacher and the
others wouldn’t be ready to kill a fellow American and brother warrior.

“If you don’t
feel you’re able to do this, then better to tell me now,” Culler said after no
one responded. “Hell, I’m not sure I could do it. I don’t even like having to
give the order, but it needs to be done. This man is an enemy of the United
States of America, plain and simple.”

“We’ll handle
it,” Avery assured him and letting the Sideshow crew know that, if it came down
to it, he’d be willing to pull the trigger.

“Rules of
engagement concerning the other principals?” asked Poacher.

“I’m unconcerned
with what happens to Litvin or Arzad,” Culler said. “Arzad’s name is still on
the president’s kill list, and Litvin is certainly no friend to the United
States. If he gets away from this unscathed, he’ll run back to Russia and
continue arming terrorists.”

“It’s actually a
nice opportunity to take out Litvin,” Mockingbird said. “The Russians aren’t
going to make a big protest at the UN about a terrorist WMD factory that has their
fingerprints all over it, and they can’t defend Litvin if he’s found there.
They’ll keep quiet about everything and pray that we do, too.”

“That’s what the
president is counting on,” Culler said.

They spent the
next couple hours poring over the satellite and Predator pictures of the plant
and formulating a comprehensive plan of attack.

“When do we go
in?” Avery asked.

“Tonight,”
Culler said.

“What’s our
method of insertion?” Poacher asked.

The Mi-8 Hip, painted in desert tan, was
one of dozens of former Soviet aircraft that the Special Activities Division’s
Air Branch retained for operations in places like Afghanistan, Libya, and
Somalia, where this type of helicopter was still widely used, making it a
familiar sight for locals. When the US conducted offensive military operations
against another country, the first thing it did was destroy that country’s air
defense systems, forcing the enemy to rely on visual contact. Therefore the
Mi-8 allowed American operatives to travel freely and slip past the enemy. CIA also
used the aircraft to deliver case officers to remote, isolated villages to
reach agents in otherwise dangerous, inaccessible areas, or for covert
insertions, like the one presently delivering Avery and Sideshow from Bagram Air
Base into Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Province.

Although looking
well past its prime and barely fit for flight, the helicopter had upgraded
avionics and radar packages, including forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensors
for night flying and an electronic warfare suite for jamming enemy radar. SAD
Air Branch had also installed new titanium blades.

The Mi-8 entered
Tajikistan at 20:35, with a second, identical Hip not far behind. After EAGLE
CLAW, the disastrous 1979 operation to rescue the American embassy hostages in
Iran, special operations forces always deployed with backup aircraft and their
own specially trained pilots and flight crews.

Tajikistan
lacked the sophisticated, modern air defense radar that had been in place
around Syria’s al-Kibar facility. The Tajiks’ systems were early Soviet-era, largely
inoperable and centered primarily on Dushanbe, but the SAD Air Branch pilots
nonetheless flew low to the ground, nap-of-the-earth, following the contours of
the low mountains and deep valleys, giving their passenger a gut-churning ride,
while avoiding the major villages and roads. With near zero visibility, the
pilots relied almost entirely on their instruments and FLIR to prevent hitting
a mountainside or canyon wall.

The first helicopter
carried Avery and the Sideshow unit, who rode out the jarring flight in
silence. The second Mi-8 was a more heavily armed gunship variant, equipped
with six rocket launch rails, and carrying a platoon of sheep-dipped Delta
operators from B Squadron’s Echo Troop. If necessary, the gunship would provide
air support, and the Delta soldiers were there for backup, so that if things
went south, the CIA insertion element would not be cut off and abandoned in the
middle of Tajikistan. If all went according to plan, the Delta platoon would
remain on stand-by for the duration of CRIMSON RETRIEVAL and not be required.

Before
departing, Avery and Poacher’s team attended a final briefing with the JSOC
team, allowing the spec ops troops to get a good look at their faces and
uniforms, to avoid misidentification and a blue-on-blue, in case a firefight
broke out at the TCIDC plant.

Well past the
Afghan border, the land inside Gorno-Badakhshan became vast and open, and the
beat-up looking Mi-8s provided adequate cover for the insertion. A couple of
goat-herding peasants watched the helicopters pass by overhead, but did not
think anything unusual of it, taking the aircraft to be Tajik army troops on
maneuvers. Even if they were alarmed, these peasants were no supporters of
President Rahmon and would not report the sighting to the GKNB, not they would
even have the means to do so, if they so desired.

Lieutenant
Colonel Arkin’s render-safe unit had been pre-deployed from Bagram to a forward
operating base in northwestern Afghanistan, with a dozen MH-60 Black Hawk, MH-6
Little Bird, and AH-64 Apache helicopters. The Apaches carried a full
assortment of Hellfire and Hydra 70 rockets, enough firepower to toast a small
ground army. From their forward operating base, the JSOC render-safe troops were
just a thirty-five minute flight to the TCIDC factory, which was located
approximately eighty-five miles past the border. Additionally, the air force
had F-16s in the sky, ready to offer further support if needed, as well as
waiting to receive the command to level the processing plant.

No one was
concerned about the Tajik air force, such as it was, which consisted of a scant
eight hundred troops, fifteen helicopters, and two transport planes, but if the
Tajiks somehow caught wind of the violation of their airspace, Russian Air
Force MiG-29s would be put into the air from their base at Gissar or from
neighboring Kazakhstan, and that was a worry to the American pilots and
aircrews.

21:48.
Avery
and Sideshow deployed from the Mi-8 about eight kilometers from the target
site. They didn’t want to go in closer than that, so as to avoid being
potentially spotted or heard by any guards on the pre-heater tower. Besides,
eight klicks was an easy enough hike for them.

As Avery’s team
covered the rest of the way on foot, the helicopters settled down at their
waypoint, eight kilometers away from the target. This was a grass plain,
concealed on the south side by low mountains, twenty-five miles from the
nearest village, and three miles from the nearest road. Here, the CIA flight
crews, all former army aviation or air force veterans with combat experience,
shut down their engines and threw camouflaged netting over their aircraft,
while the Delta troops established a defensive perimeter and stayed on the
lookout. Then the pilots stayed fixated to their comms, waiting to hear word
from the insertion element or the command center at Bagram, where Matt Culler
anxiously monitored the unfolding operation, listening for updates and radio
transmissions.

A full moon and
stars filled the night sky, casting a glow over the land below, and making
night optics unnecessary for the CIA insertion element. They walked in a loose
diamond-shaped patrol formation, with Avery and Poacher in the front, Reaper
and Flounder on the flanks, and Mockingbird bringing up the rear, with about
eight feet between each man.

Avery carried
his M4 in front of him, with five spare magazines. While three of the Sideshow
operators opted for suppressed HK 416 5.56mm assault rifles, Heckler &
Koch’s upgraded version of the M16/M4, Reaper instead carried a Heckler &
Koch MSG-90 7.62mm sniper rifle. Each man also carried a holstered Mk .23 SOCOM
pistol. Any killing was likely to be done close quarters, but since they were
going in alone, against superior numbers, and were twenty minutes away from their
Delta backup, they wanted to be prepared and so they packed heavier firepower.
In addition to which, Flounder carried an explosives kit, and Mockingbird and
Poacher both had AG-C 40mm grenade launchers attached under their rifle
barrels. 

They walked in
silence, with Avery or Poacher occasionally using hand signals to communicate to
the men behind them. They maintained a steady pace, making better timing than anticipated;
slowing down only when it became necessary to traverse the steep hills that
sporadically rose up from the ground.

There was barely
any sound around them, other than an occasional bleating goat, chirping
crickets, or the sound of the wind carrying past them. Along the way, they
encountered no one else, but spotted the occasional fox or rabbit, which either
fled or stopped to observe them cautiously from a safe distance. Most of the
villages here are centered in the valleys, where there is fertile soil and
water, not on the flat, arid plains the team now hiked over. The temperature
had dropped to forty degrees, cold but not frigid, and their digital camou
fatigues kept them comfortable and warm.

22:50. When they
were within a mile, the cement factory slowly took shape in the distance against
the dark of the night. Easily discernible were the silhouettes of the tall
pre-heater tower rising up from the ground, with the shape of the Ka-226
perched atop the landing pad, and the remix silo standing high above the
hilltops, near the rock quarry, along with the glow cast over the land from floodlights
and from the moon and the stars above.

Here the team
paused to sweep the terrain through their binoculars or scopes and look out for
any roving patrols. There were none. The only signs of life were those of the
two men lingering on one of the high scaffoldings on the pre-heating tower. As
they CIA element drew slowly nearer, and Reaper scanned the location through
the scope on his MSG-90, he spotted the AK-47 rifles in the hands of the men in
the tower, plus two long RPG-7s leaning upright against the railing. The men
looked of Turkic/Central Asian descent, with hard, weathered faces, and dressed
in native garb.

 The five American
operators approached from the south, from over the hills and in the direction
of the mouth of the kiln. This is a one hundred meter long, rotating tube, six
meters in diameter, into which the raw materials from the rock quarry are fed from
the pre-heater tower and then heated to a thousand-plus degrees as the load
passes down the length of the tube. At the opposite end, the resultant slurry then
passes through a cooler and onto a long conveyor belt inside the mill building.

They would breach
the facility through the kiln. This would be the quietist method of entry, long
as nobody inside turned on the oven and incinerated them, assuming the
infrastructure even functioned as a working cement factory and wasn’t simply a
façade. The previous thirty-six hours of aerial surveillance, contrary to
Cramer’s intelligence reports over the past year, indicated that the plant did
not appear to be in the business of actively producing cement, not even to
maintain the charade of its cover.  

The aerial
surveillance also indicated there to likely be at least sixteen people present,
including the HVTs and the prisoner, Aleksa. It was unknown how many people had
been on-site before the Predators and satellites started watching and were
therefore unaccounted for. It was a fairly large building, three stories high,
and they didn’t know the layout of the interior, only that, unlike the
exterior, it likely did not resemble a cement mill. There must have been some
type of living accommodations inside, since this was the second night Cramer
and the others spent here. The hardest part would be locating Aleksa inside
without alerting the enemy to their presence.

23:06. From the
hills on the south, the team dug in, lay completely still, and observed the
facility. After thirty minutes, the two men in the tower were relieved, and
Avery and Poacher decided to bid their time before moving against the target,
since a fresh set of eyes would be more alert and not yet have grown
complacent.

After several
minutes, one of the men in the tower raised a walkie-talkie to his mouth, said
something, and waited for a response. So there was someone still awake inside
the facility who the guards were communicating with.

Continued
observation, however, indicated that the guards did not appear to check in with
anyone on a regular basis, and they didn’t see either of the guards use a radio
in the twenty minutes that transpired next.

During this
time, another pair of men, one of them brandishing an AK, emerged from the mill
and did a patrol around the factory grounds. They stayed within the perimeter
of the twelve-foot high chain-link fence.

 When the roving
guards came around the south end of the fence, their voices carried through the
still air to the hills. They spoke Uzbek with a smattering of Russian. IMU
mercenaries that comprised the elite of the Taliban’s ranks, and they probably
had Russian/Soviet army training, too.

00:38. Reaper
remained behind, maintaining his sniper’s perch, and covered his teammates’
approach as they descended the rocky hills quickly and carefully, taking
precise, deliberate movements so as not to kick any loose rocks, while staying
within shadows. Reaper watched over them, keeping a bead on the two guards in
the tower through his rifle’s Hensoldt 6 x 42 scope, which was adjustable and
accurate out to six hundred meters.  

Once they
breached the outside of the fence, Avery and the others would still have to
cover the distance to the kiln, and that was an area with large swatches of
land illuminated by lamps. It would be nearly impossible for the guards in the
tower, if they were halfway alert, not to see the intruders. So, Reaper
patiently awaited the signal to drop the two guards, or, if it appeared they
had spotted the team, he’d take them out immediately, hopefully before they
could raise the alarm.

00:57. Avery
stopped at the bottom of the rocky hills in a low gully, where the shadows and
hills still provided adequate concealment. Sixty feet of clear, flat land lay between
them and the fence. They’d be out in the open and exposed, and it was a bright
night. If nothing else, the men in the tower, if they were looking, would at
least see dark shapes scurrying across the land below them.

00:59:27. Poacher
pressed the push-to-talk clipped on his vest near his left shoulder three times
with a two second break between each transmission, the signal to Reaper to
execute. 

Reaper passed
his scope’s illuminated reticle over the first guard in the tower, who leaned
forward with his arms resting against the platform’s railing, gazing into the
Tajik countryside. Reaper centered his crosshairs over the man’s bearded face.
The second guard stood four feet away, his back slightly half turned to his
partner, smoking a cigarette, totally ignorant to the fact that he had precious
seconds left to live his life.