Eyes of the Hammer (The Green Berets) (5 page)

Strom frowned, obviously wondering how Hanks could be privy to information that he wasn't aware of. "What kind of deal, sir?"

"President Alegre is offering a way for our two countries to meet mutual goals. We get to strike back at the drug cartel and reduce their production. Alegre has a dangerous internal problem in the form of a powerful criminal element attacked."

"Strike back how, sir?"

Hanks decided he would play with Strom a little longer before dropping the bombshell. He liked watching Strom dangle in ignorance. "That hasn't exactly been spelled out yet. Some of it has to do with a matter before the United Nations that comes up for preliminary vote at the beginning of next week."

Hanks watched as Strom processed that. "The sea-bottom rights issue?"

The director was impressed. "That's part of it."

"What are they offering?"

Hanks couldn't resist the barb. "I thought you could tell me that."

Strom had to admit defeat. "I haven't heard anything, sir."

Hanks was satisfied. "That's good, because this whole thing has got to be kept in real tight. Even if the offer isn't accepted, the very fact that Alegre has made it puts him in a precarious position. If word of this deal leaked, the government down there wouldn't last a week. The cartel would go to war.

"We can't afford to have Alegre fall. He's not the greatest, but at least he's loyal and we can count on him in the crunch. We don't need any loose cannons in power down there."

Hanks could tell he had Strom totally mystified and also extremely interested. Alegre's offer was presently known by only four people in the United States: the president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and Hanks, who had been informed of the proposed deal just twenty minutes earlier over the secure phone line by the secretary of state himself.

Hanks leaned back in his chair. Enough games. "All right. Here's the deal that Alegre presented through the ambassador this morning. Basically the Colombians are offering to allow the United States to conduct covert, unilateral military raids into their country to destroy cocaine processing laboratories."

Strom sat quiet for a few seconds digesting that. "What are the president's feelings on that, sir?"

"The president bought off on it. As you can imagine, Defense wasn't too happy about it, since they're the ones stuck with the dirty work, but the president's so upset over this Springfield thing that he's lost a lot of his patience. The fact that Alegre was the one to offer this deal made the president very inclined to take it up. There still is no solid evidence on who was behind the Springfield attack, but everything points to the drug cartel."

Strom's mind was obviously leaping to some of the implications for the CIA. "How are they going to know where to target?"

"As part of this deal, the Colombian government will provide, through a contact to one of our agents already in country, locations for processing labs they know about."

Hanks looked up. "You know Jameson in Bogota?" Strom vaguely nodded. "Well, he's going to be the one getting the intelligence. Once we get a location, we verify it using satellite imagery. That way we can be sure they aren't leading us on a wild goose chase."

Strom shook his head. "We already did something like that several years ago and it didn't work. In 1986 the army sent some helicopters with pilots down to Colombia on a mission they called Operation Blast Furnace. Basically it involved using our helicopters with their troops. It was pretty much a failure." Strom obviously decided to temper the comparison. "However, this proposal does sound somewhat different."

"It is," Hanks noted dryly. "They're offering to allow our people to hit the processing labs without any Colombian involvement. We have carte blanche. As far as Alegre is concerned we can use anything we want against the designated targets. The president's exact words were that we could wipe them off the face of the earth.' They're not talking about arrests here. They're talking direct military action."

Hanks continued. "Our forces are authorized to violate Colombian air, water, and land space whenever and however they need to, to conduct these missions. All that Alegre asks is that we do it covertly. If word leaked that the government down there was allowing us to do this, he wouldn't last twelve hours before being toppled—both by the drug dealers and by the people. We all know how sensitive Latin American countries are to the presence of American forces."

Hanks decided to let Strom know where he stood on the concept. "It's a good idea. It helps them out by reducing the power of the drug cartel. It helps us out by allowing us to strike right at the source."

Strom's mind was working in overdrive. "With all due respect, sir, I think there might be a problem. How do we know what the Colombians will target for us?"

"Because, like I said, we'll check the information they give us with imagery, which we'll provide to the people doing the mission. Also, the president directed the secretary of defense to have his people verify the target before destroying it."

"Verify? That means they're going to have to put people on the ground. I thought the original concept was to do this covertly." Strom considered the situation. "That means they won't be able to just run in and bomb like we did in Libya. And once DOD puts people on the ground they run the risk of compromise. There are a lot of angles to this that need to be considered before rushing into it."

Hanks shook his head. "Secretary of Defense Terrance raised those objections this morning and the president has already considered them. This is past the debating stage and has reached the action level. That's the main reason I'm telling you all this. You're going to be my case officer for this operation. The Department of Defense will have overall control, but we're going to be relaying the intelligence from Bogota and providing any other kind of intelligence support the DOD people ask for."

"Sir, when did you say we'd get the first location?"

"Within two days Jameson should be getting some information. I've already personally alerted him to be prepared. He'll set up the meet with the contact. From here on out you handle Jameson."

Hanks waited a minute while Strom made a few notes in his file folder. He was interested to see what Strom's reactions were to the whole thing. "Well, Strom, what do you think? If we can hit some of the processing labs in Colombia, what effect will that have?"

Hanks watched as Strom composed his answer. As always the man had his facts. "Sir, eighty percent of the cocaine that comes into this country goes through those labs. However, there are a lot of variables here. It depends on how many and how large the labs are that we hit. The last intelligence estimate I saw from the DEA was that four to six major labs operating down there process approximately eighty-five percent of the cocaine coming out of Colombia that goes to the United States. The other fifteen percent comes out of the numerous smaller labs operated by free-lancers. Each of the three main drug families operates one or two major processing labs. Hitting a major lab, especially if they catch it with a good stockpile, will severely hurt that faction of the drug cartel. Taking down a couple will reduce the flow of cocaine by a considerable degree, at least temporarily."

Strom's mind was already two steps ahead. "We have to consider the aftereffect. What are the other dealers going to think after one or two labs get blown away? I'm sure the Colombian government will deny everything. If they've kept this tight enough in their government they just might get away with the denial."

Hanks interjected. "Their ambassador said this came direct from President Alegre to him personally. No one else is in on it."

"If that's the case," responded Strom, "then the drug dealers will probably believe them. The cartel has bribed so many people in the government and military that they'll know their own government didn't do it. What then? They'll eventually figure out we're doing it. But initially they'll probably think it was one of their own. They have some pretty fierce intrafighting going on all the time between rival groups."

Strom started warming to the idea as he realized it was a good chance to make a name for himself. "We could probably take down a few of the factories before they even begin to suspect it was us. Even destroying just one or two of the major labs would significantly reduce the flow of cocaine for a short while.

"Blast Furnace was a failure because our people had to work with the local Colombian authorities. The drug dealers knew where the helicopters were going to hit almost before our pilots did. Also, the only labs targeted were those operated by small-time people, putting out maybe a few kilos a week. Even then, there were so many leaks, when the helicopters with the Colombian troops went in all they found were abandoned labs. If we can operate unilaterally, without having to notify the Colombians of when and where we're going to hit, we could really do some damage. Especially if they target labs operated by the members of the cartel."

Strom frowned as he considered that aspect. "We'll hold the advantage of timing, but they'll still know the where. If there's a leak, the labs could be moved."

"Yes, but according to the ambassador only the president and the contact will know the locations."

Strom shook his head. "The question I have is how is that contact going to get the locations? It's not good to trust intelligence when we don't know its source."

Hanks agreed. "Nothing's a hundred percent certain. All we can do is verify, both with the imagery and on the ground. If the information is wrong, the military does nothing. If it's right, they slam them. That's one of the reasons I'm putting you on this. It's part of your responsibility to try to make sure the intel is as accurate as possible.

"I agree with the president's reasoning on this. It's a great opportunity to take some positive action. We've been on the defensive against drugs all along. Finally we get a chance to go after these guys."

Strom was considering other potential pitfalls. "What if the press gets a hold of this? 'U.S. Forces Attack Colombian Targets.' What do you think the effect will be, sir?"

Hanks shrugged. "The press better not get a hold of it. But if they do I think the effect will be positive. No one thinks drugs are good. After what happened in Springfield last week, I don't think we need to worry about how the press will react to our striking back at the people behind the massacre, especially if we've been invited to do so by the president of Colombia himself. Look at all the positive press we received when we went into Panama a year and a half ago.

"State has been trying to get the Colombian government to do something for years. Now it looks like some of their pressure has worked. The president feels that if we don't take Alegre up on this offer, we'll probably never get another chance."

Hanks glanced at his watch. He had another meeting coming up shortly. "Defense is currently trying to figure out how they're going to verify and destroy these labs. I imagine Terrance has dumped this on General Macksey's lap. The Department of Defense is also going to have overall control of the actual operation. I want you to be prepared to relay the intelligence you get to whatever organization they set up. I also want you to assign a liaison officer from the Latin American section to work full-time with the military task force on this."

Hanks stood up, indicating the meeting was over. He'd handed off the ball and now Strom had to run with it. "By the way, do your people have anything further on the Springfield massacre?"

"Nothing significant, sir. I think all the suspects are back home in Colombia. The FBI is stymied."

Hanks slapped Strom on the back. "All right then. Let's go out and get some results with this."

CHAPTER SIX

PLATTSBURGH AIR FORCE BASE

NEW YORK

9:00 A.M.

"Damn, I just about peed in my pants when that state trooper whipped out his .357 magnum and started waving it."

Riley glanced up as the briefing room echoed with laughter at Miller's comment. "Hell, how do you think he felt, opening up the back of the van and there he's eyeball to eyeball with ten guys armed with automatic weapons and machine guns?"

Powers looked at Riley sourly. "Laugh all you want, guys. You're just damn lucky that one of those National Guardsmen was a Plattsburgh city cop and knew that state trooper. Otherwise, you might have spent the night in the local lockup until they got it straightened out."

Partusi shook his head. "I thought the air force police were supposed to notify the local cops and state police of the exercise."

Powers snorted. "They said they did. You know how that goes. Somebody always doesn't get the word."

Riley stood up from where he had been reviewing his notes. "All right, let's get our act together. We have to brief their colonel in a minute or so. I want you all to remember not to throw stones or drop dimes. Let's keep this thing professional."

Powers looked at the team leader. "I tell you what, Chief. I'm still kind of pissed off about the way they stopped my truck going off post. Those asshole toy cops had live rounds in their guns. Somebody could have gotten hurt. And that somebody could have been me."