The Battle for Houston...The Aftermath (42 page)

“A grand total of 108 people at last count,” Barbara replied sipping a cup of warm coffee. “Twenty-odd buildings in town, one or two large hangars at the runway, maybe an office building and I would assume a couple of single aircraft hangars dotted around. The runway is long enough for a 747 and tarred. Remember the guys told us that it was a backup for NASA or something?”

Buck nodded. “We might as well fly over Cold Bay on our outward leg and give it a once over before we return later today.”

It was still a three hour flight into False Pass from Dillingham and then another hour back to Cold Bay. Luckily the days were long. They would be in and out of radio contact with the two gunships once they spread out, but that was usual in this vast and rural area; most aircraft radios worked up to about a 500-mile distance.

Buck flew south, southwest to get over Cold Bay, slightly south on a direct line from Dillingham to his first port of call.

Slowly and still at a cold 10,000 feet they saw the piece of land the small town of Cold Bay stood on facing eastwards. At that altitude they could just see the town ten miles ahead of them. The runway was easily visible, a long line of black stretching east to west across the bleak ground far below them.

“Town looks normal,” suggested Buck looking out of his forward windshield at the town now a few miles ahead of them. He directed the nose of the aircraft slightly to the south so that Barbara on the right side could get a better view as they passed overhead and the autopilot did its job. “Airport looks much more built up than what you described earlier, Barb.”

“Looks like it,” she replied checking back through the notes handed to her at Elmendorf. “This report, dated about eighteen months ago, states two larger hangars and half a dozen smaller hangars, a small terminal/office building, a fuel point on the port side of the second much shorter runway and one windsock. That doesn’t look like the report to me down there. I’m counting nearly thirty long buildings, three extremely large hangars, several mid-sized hangars and the half dozen single aircraft hangars.”

Buck got out of the left seat to walk back and view the airport now below them and just under their starboard wing. “That’s about it, and I’m sure I saw an aircraft on the apron a couple of minutes ago, but it’s not there now. It seems that either the report is old and outdated, or just plain wrong, or Cold Bay had one of those television makeovers before the networks went down,” Barbara laughed. They would check it out on the way back.

False Pass was the opposite of what they had seen over Cold Bay. The landscape was empty of anything moving, the town looked desolate and lonely and after a couple of circles, Buck put her down on the short runway using every inch of gravel. There was cleared space at either end of the runway and he gauged that under full power he had more than enough room to get airborne again.

The afternoon was cloudless and even though the sun was still high in the sky, the wind was getting icy cold. Winter was certainly only a few weeks away.

There was nobody about and so they decided to walk the fifty yards or so into what would be the center of town.

It was desolate and empty, except for seagulls everywhere and the odd prowling dog or fox.

“Weird!” stated Buck. “It looks like everybody locked up shop and just left town. How could that be if the ferry didn’t come this far?”

“Maybe they were airlifted out of here and that’s why Cold Bay has more buildings than it was supposed to have?” Barbara surmised.

“Maybe Cold Bay has become a new center for all the small towns and inhabitants in the area?” Buck suggested. The buildings looked like they had been empty for months. They looked through several windows and found the insides neatly in place, as if people were expecting to return. The only store-type building was locked up and Buck didn’t want to trespass. It wasn’t their job.

Thirty minutes later they were airborne for the return flight to Cold Bay where they were both certain that they would be given answers.

Lima Delta (
Lady Dandy
’s call sign) to Charlie, are you in range? Over,” Buck asked over the radio as they climbed up to 5,000 feet this time. At the higher altitude the air was getting chilly. They had enough time to reach their destination on time; actually they would be there first, twenty minutes ahead of the others, if they were on time.

There was no response and he waited another thirty minutes before trying again. This time he caught a scratchy noise of a voice. This told him that another twenty minutes would be needed for the closing aircraft to get closer to him and their far higher cruising speeds.

The day was breathtaking, the views over land and sea were rich in colors and they enjoyed their travels around Alaska immensely. Buck told Barbara that it had been some of the prettiest flying he had even seen.

Buck was descending into Cold Bay ten miles ahead of him, had just spoken to one of the AC-130s who was now only thirty miles behind him and rapidly catching up. He switched radio usage to his second aircraft radio, already primed to the locally used radio frequency and asked for landing instructions when a powerful and unseen Chinese missile went into
Lady Dandy
’s port engine and 60 pounds of High Explosive blew the engine, the fuel tanks, and the old aircraft into a million pieces.

Cold Bay, Alaska.

The satellite phone in the operations room at Elmendorf Air Force Base rang.

“Elmendorf,” stated the airman on duty.

“Rogers for PattersonKey, is he there?” the man heard and he looked down his list of phone owners to see who this Rogers guy was.

“Sorry, Admiral, the general is on his way back from the mainland. His ETA, Elmendorf is two hours.”

“OK, tell him that my current position is three miles southeast of Kodiak, and in the area of Chiniak Bay. I have a shore tender I’m about to launch and head into the harbor to see what I can get in fresh provisions. What do you have there to supply us, young man?”

“Frozen salmon, Sir, about two tons on a couple of pallets in the freezer. Other than that, old frozen vegetables and frozen French fries, about a ton of each; that’s all the entire base can spare at this time, Sir.”

“I’ll take whatever you have. I’m sure you have a C-130 on the ramp, load the food aboard and get her into Kodiak. Do you have a heavy lift chopper? Our Seahawks aboard the frigates don’t have the underneath lift capabilities.”

“We have two Jolly Green Giants here, Sir.”

“Good. Ask a couple of pilots to fly one down here to Kodiak to lift the pallets aboard our ships offshore. She can’t miss them. Oh, yes…are the Seals with you?”

“Yes, bored to death, Sir!”

“Get a dozen of Lieutenant Paul’s guys into the 130; they can help the air force men move the pallets around.”

The radio operator hadn’t put the phone down before the radio buzzed.

“This is Elmendorf,” he stated into the receiver.

“
Charlie is that you?”

“Affirmative. Over,” he replied to a voice he recognized—his older brother—Major Harditz, flying one of the AC-130s to Cold Bay.

“
Charlie, get the airfield on high alert. We just saw a single missile launch on our radars, in the vicinity of Cold Bay and I believe it took out Lady Dandy. I think she’s down. We saw a very faint explosion ahead of us and Lady Dandy is not responding on the radio.”

“The general is two hours out on a 747. Do you want me to call him? Over.”

“
Negative. I’ll call on my satellite phone, but get the base on High Alert and a Foxtrot Four over Cold Bay ASAP. Get the fighter airborne, it will take her 30 minutes to get here.”

“Not possible; the only Foxtrot Four with full drop tanks is on her way back with PattersonKey. The other one doesn’t have the range.”

“
Damn. Get the Chinese helicopters to Dillingham for refueling and give Mother Goose orders to fly there as well. We will circle out of range until we hear from the boss.”

The young operator did as he was told and suddenly the air base was busy.

“What!” shouted General Patterson once he was told what had happened by the major. “
Lady Dandy
got a missile? Those bastards are going to fry, slowly. Stay out of missile range; thirty miles and under 2,000 feet should suffice. Do you think the enemy saw you on radar?”

“I’m sure sir.
Pave Pronto
was to our northwest when it happened, at 10,000 feet and fifty miles out; too far for an accurate ground-to-air missile on a propeller aircraft. We were ten miles closer, at 5,000 feet and 30 miles behind
Lady Dandy
when she disappeared from our radar screens. I’m sure that if they are using modern Chinese radar, they must have seen us at least 100 miles out.”

“Agreed! I have absolutely nothing to go in with and fry the bastards. The F-4 needs to refuel. Return to base, we need to launch a full attack. At least we know where they are.” And the call abruptly ended.

For the next several minutes he called up several air bases on the mainland and ordered as many aircraft to head into Elmendorf as he could. Admiral Rogers called him and slowly a plan formed.

Several hours later, and with many unhappy and angry faces around the room, including Preston, Martie, Carlos and Sally, the meeting at Elmendorf started. Outside everybody could hear the noise of incoming aircraft, one after the other.

“OK, ladies and gentlemen,” General Patterson began. “We have confirmed the downing of
Lady Dandy
. She has not returned to any of our bases. Their missile strike was effective and we are 100 percent sure
Lady Dandy
was hit.” There was silence in the room.

Preston was still shocked; Buck, his close friend, unarmed, and in a civilian aircraft, shot out of the sky. He felt a new, raw anger building up inside him. Preston felt it was time to teach these people a lesson, just like the others who had tried to invade the United States.

This time they were fellow countrymen, with greed and power as their main motivation for killing others. Buck and Barbara were good people and Buck was the only one of them who had never fired a bullet at anybody else in anger. He had always worked like a machine, flying people around and getting things done.

“We will have a funeral for our civilian pilots once the people who murdered them are brought to justice,” continued the general. “Now is not the time; we must end this aggression against our country now, and forever.” There were sounds of agreement from the forty people in the room. “I would go and bomb this little town until it fell off the map, but there could still be innocent civilians in Cold Bay, 108 of them at the last count. Plus, Mr. Westbrook and Mr. Bowers and their cronies might have Pakistani Shaheen II nuclear missiles aimed at the mainland. We will meet here again once Admiral Rogers is flown in. He has ordered supplies, and the chopper is already there and about to lift the food aboard ship. The admiral will return with the C-130.

Three hours later General Patterson called a second meeting. “Admiral Rogers, would you like to describe the plan we discussed upon your arrival an hour ago? Ladies and gentlemen, the admiral has a good plan to get our troops deployed in and around this town. Admiral?”

“Thanks, General. The remnants of our U.S. Pacific Fleet, namely one post World War II destroyer and two post World War II submarines are in the Kodiak area. The submarines are preserved Tang Class diesel submarines from the 1950s, and are heading towards Cold Bay as we speak. With our fleet are three light, more modern frigates of the Colombian Navy, loaned to us by Admiral Rodriquez who has given me full authority to make use of his ships. He is in Colombia helping elect a new government.

“It is not much of a fleet, but we must use what we‘ve got. I have with me a map of the land around Cold Bay. Often I thought it was an island, but this whole piece of land is actually connected to the mainland; unfortunately there are no roads to get a large army in there. We have to go in by sea and air, the old fashioned way.

“We have 90 members of Seal Team Six here at Elmendorf and we have two more teams arriving tonight, Seal Teams Four and Five; 280 of the best men the navy has. The Marines are shipping out men with parachutes today from three of their bases in 747s; 1,500 men will arrive tomorrow and a second load of 1,500 the next day. The army is filling the 747 Transporter down at Fort Bragg with the longest range artillery weapons we have. Every helicopter with lifting capacity is heading towards Elmendorf, working their way up the western United States, refueling as they go. We have a Chinese Container ship leaving Hawaii in an hour and will get here at full speed to transfer all this hardware onto the land mass around Cold Bay if we need it. I don’t think we will, but backup is always part of a good battle plan.

“I’m flying in with a separate 747 with enough underwater equipment from San Diego to get our Seals onto land, under the cover of darkness. Now, you see here on the map, Mortensens Lagoon, about five miles south of the Cold Bay runway?” He used a pointer to indicate the locations on the map now pegged onto the wall in front of everybody. “By the way, I will have extra maps here tomorrow. The sea charts show that the submarines will be able to get to within 300 yards of this beach here in about 60 hours’ time. It’s the deepest area with a sandy bottom, few rocks and only a couple hundred yards from the main ferry channel. I’m sure that the channel companies have dredged this area annually. I ordered our ships towards Cold Bay three hours ago and they are currently at 18 knots which is full speed for the slower submarines.

“I have arranged for our incoming supply ship, now five hours southwest of Kodiak, to change course and intercept our ships. Helicopters are transferring the first loads of men, food and equipment to the Colombian light frigates and will do so for the next three days. Distance is a problem, but we can ship needed supplies and helicopters into closer airports as the ships move westwards.

“The two submarines have the old World War II systems of internal/external evacuation chambers to allow men to leave ship while underwater; these chambers were often not designed into our more modern subs. Both submarines can release six men at a time through a pressure chamber while thirty feet underwater and the men can be ejected to the surface. Each sub can transport in fifty men or thirty men with supply packs and, this will also be done under the cover of darkness. Since we are going into fall, we have a seven-hour night window in which to operate close to shore.