Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 05 (20 page)

           
“My point is, sir, what we learned
after ten years was a simple lesson: If the government wants a strike or recon
mission done, call on the armed services to do it,” Patrick said. “If they
don’t have the equipment or the training, either get them what they need, or
don’t do the mission.”

 
          
“Neither
are options, Patrick,” Freeman said. “We don’t have the funds to equip an
active-duty unit with the equipment you developed at HAWC, and we don’t have
the time to train an active- duty flier on how to use the equipment you
designed, tested, and flew in combat. Our only other option is to withdraw all
the ISA technical groups from their deployed positions, which would hurt our
intelligence-gathering capabilities—to the contrary, we want to
assist
these cells and allow them the
chance to do even more.”

 
          
“ISA
can take care of themselves, sir,” Patrick said. “If they can’t, if the
situation is too hot for them, yank them out. If the situation’s too hot for
ISA, it’s probably at the wartime stage anyway.” “That’s the whole point,
Patrick. Future Flight’s mission is to prevent any situation from escalating
into the wartime stage by the careful, controlled application of strike
assets,” Freeman said, “and I’m talking about ISA, and I’m talking about the
B-2A stealth bomber.
Iran
has done exactly the same thing: they’ve
drawn a line at the entrance to the
Persian Gulf
,
daring anyone to cross it. The rest of the world is completely paralyzed with
fear;
Iran
knows this, and they’re going to take advantage of it.”

 
          
“So
your solution is to play high-tech terrorist, too, right?”

 
          
“In
a manner of speaking, yes! ” Freeman replied resolutely, slapping a hand on his
knee. “Who the hell says the
United States
has only two choices—war or peace?—pardon
my language, Dr. McLanahan.”

 
          
“Wendy,”
she said. “And your language doesn’t offend me, sir— but frankly, your ideas
do.”

 
          
“Then
I’ll try to explain them,” Freeman said. “Listen, Patrick, Wendy: my job is to
coordinate the
United States
’ national security affairs
before
they get to the guns and bombs
phase. In peacetime, that usually means intelligence operations—trying to find
out what the bad guys are doing before they do it, so we can pursue diplomatic
and legal solutions and avert war. Sometimes NSA uses field operatives, and in
very rare instances we’ll use military forces to help out in security or
direct-engagement situations. But we’re expanding that role now to include
military and paramilitary options. Our means are less ‘hide-and-seek,’ more offensive
than pure intelligence operations, but the goal is the same: find out what the
bad guys are doing before they do something so we can pursue diplomatic
solutions and avert a war.”

 
          
“You
can sugarcoat it all you want, General,” Wendy said, “but the bottom line is
the same—it’s terrorism. If Iranians were doing the same to us, we’d call it
terrorism, and we’d be correct.”

 
          
“And
what about that Gulf Cooperation Council attack on
Abu
Musa
Island
?” McLanahan said. “
Iran
says the attack was conducted by an
American stealth bomber and Israeli F-15E attack planes, which I believe is
bullshit, but they got one observation right: the attack had to have been made
by precision-guided weapons.”

 
          
“So
what if that’s true . . . ?”

 
          
“So
the British Aerospace Hawks flown by
Oman
and the
United Arab Emirates
don’t normally drop precision-guided
munitions,” McLanahan said, “and the Super Puma and Gazelle attack helicopters
normally fire only AS-12 missiles, which are short-range optically-guided
missiles, not very useful on high-speed night attacks—they need spotters to
find targets for them. And those Peninsula Shield crews weren’t trained in
using Maverick missiles, especially the imaging-infrared version. That tells me
that the missiles were laser guided, probably Hellfires or French AS-30L
missiles. And since none of the aircraft involved in the attack carries laser
designators, the designators had to be on the ground, which meant you had
commando teams lasing targets for the PeninsulaShield pilots. Who were they, General
Freeman? Marines? SAS? Green Berets? The CIA?”

           
“What in hell difference does it
make, McLanahan?” Freeman retorted, silently very impressed with this
civilian’s accurate analysis. “The GCC attacked hostile
offensive
weapon systems—”

 
          
“You
didn’t answer my question, General. Who was it?”

 
          
“You
don’t have a need to know,” Freeman shot back. “Why am I arguing about this
with you, McLanahan? You of all people, you and your mentor Brad Elliott,
Misters Damn-the-Torpedoes, Praise God and Pass-the-Ammunition. The GCC
destroyed what they believed was a hostile force on disputed territory.”

 
          
“Instead
of negotiating!” McLanahan said. “General, they performed a
terrorist actionl
They weren’t defending
themselves, they attacked a foreign base without warning or without a
declaration of war. That’s an act of terrorism.”

 
          
“That
‘foreign base’ was getting ready to attack GCC ships and American-flagged
tankers transiting the Gulf.”

 
          
“Really,
General? When?” McLanahan interjected. “
Iran
has had those missiles on that island for
years and hasn’t fired one missile except for live-fire exercises. But the GCC
struck first, and I think the
U.S.
helped them.”

 
          
“You’re
guessing.”

 
          
“It’s
not a big stretch of the imagination, sir,” McLanahan said. “It’s a logical
assumption. The GCC might have started this whole conflict because they got
exasperated or impatient about the negotiations over Abu Musa and the Tumbs.”

 
          
“And
now the President has ordered the
Abraham
Lincoln
carrier group to stay out of the Persian Gulf for the time being,”
Freeman pointed out, “which is making many of our Middle East allies
nervous—which means Iran is already winning the war that always occurs before
the shooting starts, the
psychological
war.” McLanahan paused at that—he knew Freeman was right.

 
          
“I’m
sending in ISA and the team you worked with, Patrick, Madcap Magician, to keep
an eye on
Iran
’s carrier battle group and other Iranian military assets,” Freeman went
on. “Every suspected Iranian nuclear, chemical, or biological warfare base or
storage dump will have an ISA agent nearby; every Iranian bomber, fighter,
rocket, or missile base capable of striking the
Lincoln
battle group or reaching targets in Saudi Arabia, Turkey,
Kuwait, or Israel will have an agent watching it. If the Iranians try to make a
move, and one of those special bases is involved, I want to know about it, and
I’ll recommend that the President order that base put out of commission.

 
          
“Now,
both of you know the chances of a Navy A-6 or a large flight of Tomahawk cruise
missiles reaching an isolated Iranian military base are pretty slim—and you
know the B-2A is the only platform that can make it. Loaded with the right mix
of anti-air defense and Disruptor-type weapons, we can accomplish the mission
with a very low probability of collateral damage or risk to the American crews
involved.”

 
          
Freeman
paused as he noticed Patrick’s surprised expression, then smiled at the former
bombardier. “Ah, I see the name ‘Disrup- tor’ got your attention. C’mon,
Colonel, you didn’t think all of Brad Elliott’s little experiments could be
kept secret forever, did you? Especially not the Disruptor series.”

 
          
Wendy
looked confused, which pleased Freeman—so Patrick McLanahan
could
keep a secret, even from his wife,
who had once held as high a security clearance as he. To Wendy, Freeman added,
“General Elliott was very involved in research and development of non-lethal
weapons, which he called Disruptors. Elliott and HAWC became proficient enough
in killing from very long range with very high precision—toward the end, he
began to experiment in ways to simply disrupt, damage, or discombobulate
something from long range and with high precision. The Disruptors are
non-lethal air weapons, designed to confuse, frighten, interrupt, or intimidate
the enemy without killing or destroying anything. We used some of these type
weapons in the Persian Gulf War, but some of the new gadgets Elliott concocted
put those to shame.

           
“When Dreamland was closed, we
turned some of Elliott’s work over to the Air Force Air Weapons folks at Eglin,
but most we turned over to Sky Masters. They have some prototypes ready for
testing.” Freeman turned again to Patrick, the same mischievous smile on his
face. “All we need is a seasoned B-2A crew member or two to test and train and
get ready to fly. Interested, Patrick?”

 
          
“I
can’t fly a B-2A by myself,” Patrick said. “You’ll need several crews.”

 
          
“One
for now,” Freeman said. “We may recruit more later.”

 
          
Patrick
hesitated, looked at Wendy, then shook his head. “Sorry, sir, I’m still not
interested,” he said resolutely.

 
          
“If
you agree to begin, you’ll be fully compensated by the National Security
Agency,” Freeman said. “You’ll receive pay and benefits equivalent to a GS-19,
the equivalent to an 0-6 in the military, whether or not you fly a mission.
You’ll be relocated completely without charge, given dependent and survivor
privileges, plus extra personal-support services granted to senior NSA
members.” He paused for a moment, looking at the floor, then said, “I know
you’ve been thinking about selling the tavern. We could assist with that, or
assist in helping you keep it.”

 
          
“How
in hell did you find out about... ?” But Patrick already knew the answer—it was
easy for anyone, not to mention the National Security Agency, to find out those
things.

 
          
“In
fact, one such opportunity has already presented itself,” Freeman said. “One
cover we were considering using was Sky Masters, Inc. They’re a well-known
defense contractor, downsized like all contractors but still viable. They’re
relocating some of their offices and R-and-D facilities to
San Diego
, and they have a new rocket test facility
on unused government land near Tonopah. We even know that the Top Gun bar on
the waterfront in
San Diego
is for sale—if you wanted to stay in the tavern business, that would be
your opportunity. I know Dr. Masters has already given you several job offers.
It may be time to accept one. You can of course accept his generous pay and
benefits package as well as NSA’s. The climate change might be of some benefit
to you as well, Wendy.”

 
          
“Is
that your
medical
opinion, General?”
Patrick snapped. “If I wanted to work for Masters, I’d have accepted his
offers. I didn’t because I’m not interested in working for a company that does
business with the same government that uses its best people, then discards them
like so much dirty tissue paper. That goes for your offer, too. The money and
the climate don’t concern me as much as the way you treat—or should I say,
mis
treat—those who believe in what they
do.” “I’ve told you what your mission is, Patrick,” Freeman said. “Your mission
is to
protect
your fellow ISA agents.
If the job calls for a military response, we’ll send in the military, but we’re
going to send in ISA and other NSA assets
before
the military, just as we did before you went in as a HAWC bombardier, so we can
gather as much intelligence information as possible. I’m just looking for a way
to protect those men and women who will risk their
lives
to avert war.” “You haven’t convinced me that we won’t be
called on as the President’s private little gang of thugs and assassins,”
Patrick said warily.