The Battle for Houston...The Aftermath (48 page)

For the next couple of hours of darkness, the third Seal team arrived after Major Chong. Only forty men swam to shore, floating in the rest of the baggage the major had floated in on; namely high explosive packs, timers, and detonators. The arrival twenty-four hours earlier had been delayed to get Chong aboard the submarine.

Lieutenant Murphy was the last man to reach dry land as the submarines quietly reversed and then slipped down the channel one at a time and away to the other shipping now a hundred miles south of their island base. General Patterson had asked Admiral Rogers for the ships to retreat further out to sea, in case they were spotted by the two Gulfstreams after takeoff.

The three lieutenants got about setting up their plan of attack. They had 95 men against an army of 3,000. Fair odds they thought. No other weapons or equipment had been landed anywhere in the area, and they were told that it was impossible, other than by helicopter. So they were on their own, apart from thousands of Marines and two other Seal Teams currently at Dillingham an hour’s flying time away, but ready to jump into the fight. The fighter jets and attack helicopters were over 15 to 45 minutes flying time away, and with a bit of accuracy the naval ships could rip the airfield to shreds, once the civilians were out of there. The frigates had the exact coordinates of the airfield on maps, and they would know their own from old-fashioned sea navigation, accurate enough at ten miles, to put several dozen nice holes in each aircraft hangar every minute.

The Seal leaders were impressed that the single 72-MM guns on each of the frigates could fire up to a hundred rounds a minute into a building the size of an aircraft hangar with 90 percent accuracy, when necessary. Once the Gulfstreams were flown out they just needed four hours to get back into range.

Three hours later and a couple of hours after dawn, the Seals heard the roar of jet engines and, minutes later they all made sure everything was under camouflage as the first Gulfstream swept by at a few hundred feet above the ground, and about a hundred yards to their west; they watched it as it turned right to head north. It stayed low, didn’t climb as a normal aircraft would on take-off, and it disappeared quickly leaving two steams of dark exhaust fumes in its wake just above the horizon.

The second jet did exactly the same fifteen minutes later and followed the path of the first one and within seconds was also out of sight.

“Birds have flown the coup,” stated Charlie Meyers into his satellite phone and Alaska and the entire United States commenced preparations for battle.

Wong and Chong, dressed in their uniforms, carefully headed towards the closest enemy jeep. The men, checked for sleeping more times in the last twenty-four hours than in the recent six months, were alert this time.

“Halt, who goes there?” ordered a voice as they neared. “Show yourselves, or we shoot!” stated the voice in Chinese.

“Well done, soldiers,” replied Colonel Wong standing up. He had tried to bend down as close to the jeep as possible, knowing the Chinese backpacks would give them away. “It seems my checking on you has paid off.”

“Password,” ordered the sergeant, brandishing his AK 47 at the two men.

“Mao,” replied Wong. “Colonel Wong and Major Chong inspecting your admirable attention to duty, Sergeant Do!” The man and the rest of the five-man missile squad stood to attention and saluted. “Major Chong will be in charge of checks from tomorrow, and I think you should tell the men he is far stricter than me. He was part of the Chairman’s personal guard unit until the Chairman left for America.”

“Yes, Sir!” shouted the men in unison.

“May I ask one question, Sir?” the sergeant asked.

“Yes, replied the colonel.

“How did you get to the south of us? We had eyes and binoculars checking for you since we arrived at dawn this morning.”

Major Chong felt a lump in his throat, and his face felt like it was going white, but his trusty colleague always seemed to have an answer for everything.

“Easy, we used the noise of the jets to walk through the open areas while you were all looking up at the flying aircraft. Were any of you not looking skywards when the jets went overhead?” Nobody replied, but nodded to each other. “Question answered, Sergeant. Keep up the good work.” And the two men headed up the road towards the airport as if they owned the airfield.

“Pretty close one there, Chong. Our free time walking around here is getting suspect with a few of the men. As Charlie stated, he needs to know every internal fortification inside the airfield by tonight, so we are going to find you a clip board, find my friend the lieutenant driving the jeep, and he will take you around, and you can make a map on the paper as he drives you to every post,” stated Wong as they headed up the road. Colonel Wong often pointed his swagger stick in unimportant directions, In case anybody was watching them. Over several dozen soldiers were.

The password was given and they entered the gate. The colonel asked for a jeep, and this time a sergeant arrived driving the same jeep as yesterday.

“Where is the lieutenant?” asked Wong carefully handing his backpack to the major to place in the rear of the jeep.

“He took off this morning in one of the jets, his usual guard detail, Sir,” the sergeant responded.

“Oh well, I hope he enjoys his trip. How many men does he command in the aircraft?” asked Wong.

“A full detail of twelve men in each aircraft, sir. Your friend, the lieutenant, is in the first one and my Lieutenant Fung and his men are in the second.”

“Sergeant this is Major Chong, my second-in-command for ground inspections today. I want a full report from the major by midday, so no tea breaks, understand?”

“But, Colonel, the checks are already in progress with Captain Chung Wo; he does it every day,” the sergeant responded, puzzled.

“I know, but sometimes even officers need to be checked. We are checking more for cleanliness, cigarette butts and dirt, not the guard details, understand?” The man nodded.

First the sergeant was directed to Corporal Bo’s office where a clipboard and paper were found, Colonel Wong’s name tag retrieved and then Wong asked the driver where the main runway maintenance was located. The sergeant didn’t know but he asked somebody sweeping a pathway outside Hangar Two and he pointed to the rear of the building next to the American prisoners’ building on the other side of the runway.

The two guards were in place as usual and since he had arrived after inspection this day, the prisoners were doing odd jobs around the area, guarded by several smoking guards.

He found what he was looking for in the maintenance area; a sprayer used for spraying bugs. He used to have one at home and it had a line from the sprayer-handle to a backpack tank. It was an American model, he noticed as he had seen the sprayer before. He carried it out and asked the driver to head over to Hangar Three.

Here he issued orders for two guards to take the heavy packs out of the back of the jeep; he lifted the spray unit onto his back and ordered the men carrying the packs to follow him to the hangar steps. The lieutenant in charge of the large guard detail checked his badge and he reached the steps as the jeep headed out of view.

“Just leave them here,” he ordered the two men as they reached the bottom of the long staircase. “They are full of cans of toxic spay for the smell in there. Tell your lieutenant that the general might be coming to inspect later today, so be prepared for a visit.” The two men saluted and left the colonel and his twenty explosive devices as they returned up the stairs.

It took Colonel Wong two hours to find the best locations for the fist-sized blocks of C-4, including a timer and detonator Major Chong might have helped swim in with. The timers were set for a pre-determined time, which gave them and the travelers in the jets, time to arrive and finalize plans. They didn’t have the luxury of radio or phone detonators, and the timing had been carefully planned with all interested parties here, at Dulles and at Andrews to proceed with their agendas.

Charlie Meyers was hoping to carry in a few more packs later that night, but this mission was setup in case he and his men weren’t able to get in.

There were no real openings, apart from underneath, in and around the rocket motors. Wong managed to squeeze a pack high up, inside, in-between and a foot away from the three rocket motor exhausts pointing downwards. He hoped that it would be cool enough to allow the rocket to get out of its hole before it exploded, but it didn’t really matter; he hoped he wouldn’t be anywhere near here when the explosives detonated. The magnetic attaching device would not let go once bonded to a metal and Wong had to be careful and analyze the location before clamping the charge to the rocket.

He placed a second charge right on the tip of the 55-foot high rocket. He found a high 12-foot section ladder, placed it up against the 25,000 pound missile, climbed up the remaining 30 feet and did his best to shape the charge to blend in with each of the rocket tips as best he could. He was quite surprised how sharp the tip was, and slowly molded the C-4 to cap the point. Only the timer stood out, but it was nearly invisible once he got down again. For the next hour he placed the remaining charges in and around the dozens of vehicles inside the hangar. He also found the mechanism which opened the hangar roof and placed his third and last one around it.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” asked a stern voice from behind him.

“Colonel Wong on General Lee’s orders looking for any animals making that foul smell in the underground area,” replied Wong, slowly standing up, turning, and looking into the eyes of a well-muscled Chinese soldier, also a colonel. Holding the nearly empty pack in his left hand tightly he felt in his right pocket for the Glock and silencer Charlie Meyers had given him, and looked the man of equal rank straight in his eyes.

“How many of you stupid soldiers realize that the smell is not from an animal, but from rocket fuel. Are all you army soldiers so stupid?” the man responded looking at Wong as if he was a really dumb soldier.

“I’m sorry, Colonel Wo,” Wong replied checking the man’s name tag on his uniform “but I’m only in charge of cleanliness here on base, and yesterday the general asked me to check out this foul animal smell before he comes down here later today.

“How many times do I have to tell General Lee it is not from an animal? He is so typical for an army officer. He knows nothing about technology, only how to shoot people. Now, Colonel Wong, I will escort you out of here, and you are not to return to Hangar Three again, understand?” Wong nodded. “I will make explicit instructions at the security office that only General Lee, me and my men, and the engineers only, are allowed down here. People like you are not, and never were. Cleanliness! What a stupid department for a colonel. Now follow me.”

Wong retrieved his second, now empty pack and the sprayer in the underground section and the larger man was about to lock him out and close the door behind him when he realized the colonel might find the explosives.

“Colonel Wo, I have just sprayed toxic animal poison in there. If you go back in there for longer than a few minutes, it could eat your lungs away. I was only following orders and was about to hurry out when you found me. I suggest nobody goes in there for at least twelve hours, or they might never come out again.”

“Stupid idea you spraying poison in there! Don’t you know how volatile rocket fuel is? And I’m certainly not getting my lungs damaged. I’ll lock it and tell the guards not to allow anybody in until the engineers go in after dark,” replied Colonel Wo, smartly stepping out of the door to save his lungs.

“I would also recommend giving the engineers the night off as well, or they should enter with gas masks. It states on the cans twelve hours, but maybe the manufactures are wrong. I would give it at least another six hours to make sure.”

“That’s fine, nobody needs to be in there until the aircraft return and everything is fully automated anyway. Colonel Wong, if I ever see you close to this hangar, my private domain, ever again, I will personally string you up and shoot you. Understand? Now go and tell Bo to destroy your name tag. You won’t need it anymore.”

After Bo cut up the tag, he headed over to Hangar One. His legs were still slightly weak from the surprise meeting with the Commander of Hangar Three and it took a while for his pulse to return to less damaging levels.

He looked around and saw two jeeps on the large airfield, both at opposite ends and it looked like Chong was doing his job.

His only concern now was the prisoners and he watched as Colonel Wo headed into Hangar Two before he headed into Hangar One. Wong needed the larger man to forget about him a little. He headed upstairs to the living accommodations and saw the lounge was empty. Most of the doors were closed to the bedrooms and he checked for the radio, which was supposed to be in the Hangar somewhere. It hadn’t been downstairs, and he knocked on the closest door to the communal area, nobody shouted anything and he walked into an office with a radio sitting on the center desk. The room was empty.

Colonel Wong placed his second to last charge under the steel desk the radio was on and closed the door behind him.

Hangar Two was also pretty much empty. He realized that Colonel Wo must live in this hangar as he was pouring himself a cup of tea when Wong climbed the staircase and looked around the communal area.

“Following me around, Wong? Tell me, how come I have never seen you on base before?”

“I usually work while most of the men are asleep. Many areas of the airfield are cleaned at night by my staff when you soldiers are asleep. Because of my orders to spray Hangar Three this morning, I am late on my checks on my staff, which cleaned in here last night, Wo. Some stupid soldiers work while the real soldiers sleep,” Wong replied not letting the bigger man dominate him.

“Well, tell your cleaning detail that my room, Room Three, needs the paper shredder emptied. It hasn’t been for weeks,” stated Wo, heading with his cup of tea to his room.

This time Wong, pretty angry, marched into the hangar’s radio room and saw a man, a sergeant, behind the desk. “Sergeant, I’m not in a good mood and need to check this room. Go! Make yourself a cup of tea!”