Eyes of the Hammer

CHAPTER SEVEN

General Macksey quickly sketched out to Lieutenant General Linders the tasking he'd been handed by the secretary of defense. Macksey wasn't happy about the mission but he was loyal to the secretary and wanted to have a good plan of action ready in case the president really did decide to give the final go-ahead with the Colombian mission. He concluded his presentation by asking Linders's opinion on how they should proceed with the tasking.

Linders pondered the situation for a minute and then started jotting his ideas on a notepad as he spoke. "OK, sir. First we're going to have to get a ground unit to go in and do the verifying. They'll also probably do the final targeting. We don't need a lot of folks. Probably no more than ten to twenty. They've got to be good soldiers, because we damn sure don't want them to get caught." Linders circled the number 10 on his pad.

"They've got to be good at infiltration, exfiltration, and surveillance. I'd say we take them from either the Rangers, Special Forces, or Delta. Delta would probably be the best, but I'm not sure we want to use that asset. As you know they've got other things they're tied up with right now and they're stretched pretty thin just maintaining their counterterrorist reaction force. The Rangers are damn fine soldiers and—"

Macksey interrupted. Linders was air force and sometimes didn't quite understand Macksey's own service — the army. "Rangers are damn fine soldiers but surveillance isn't their mode of operation." Macksey pointed at the black-and-gold Ranger tab on his own left shoulder. "Rangers like killing things. Asking them to go look at something and not do anything is like asking a kid to go into a candy store with a dollar and not buy anything."

Linders nodded in agreement and underlined Special Forces. "If I remember rightly, most of the Special Forces guys have worked a surveillance mission under various proposed wartime scenarios. They're trained on laser designating and electronic beacons, which we're probably going to have to use. They've got the radio equipment and long-range communications ability we'll need to talk to them in country. Also, they're proficient in the infiltration and exfiltration techniques that could be used down there: parachuting, helicopter infil, maritime operations."

Linders's reasoning made sense. Macksey nodded. "I want you to get with the Special Operations Command at Bragg and get us some people. Enough to run two surveillance missions at the same time. One A-Team in split team mode ought to be able to do that."

"Yes, sir." Linders looked at his notepad. "Another thing, sir. I'd recommend we pick a senior officer with some experience to head this thing up. This task force is going to be working with the CIA and DEA, so we need someone who can handle that."

"You have any recommendations?"

"He ought to be of flag rank at least. That limits us. Every general is slotted against a billet somewhere and we just can't pull one out of the woodwork. Plus the guy ought to have some Special Operations experience, and you know how few of those we've got with flag rank."

"How about we pull some colonel and brevet him to brigadier?"

"That would work, sir," said Linders. A thought struck him: "I think I have just the man we need. Colonel Pike. He's got considerable Special Operations experience with both Special Forces and Delta, and he works in my office. He'll be back tonight from Plattsburgh Air Force Base. I'll also get a hold of General Slaight over at SOCOM to OK the requisition of the bodies.

"Initially, we can base these people out of Fort Belvoir. There's plenty of room there since the army engineer school was moved over to Fort Leonard Wood. That puts them close to the intelligence base here in the D.C. area and also close to us. Once the task force is operational we can move them down to Fort Gulick in Panama."

Macksey shook his head. "I don't think Panama is such a great idea. It's still too much in the press. Maybe the aircraft, but not the ground people. Let's keep them based out of Belvoir so we can keep an eye on things and keep it quiet."

Macksey checked his desk calendar. "I've got to go to Fort Monroe for a TRADOC meeting this afternoon and I won't be back until tomorrow evening. I want to see Pike then." Macksey penciled in the meeting. "1800 sharp. I want to brief him personally. We'll run this with Pike as the officer in charge. He'll go to you only for help. Your job will be to provide Pike with whatever support he requests from the Special Operations community. Most particularly aircraft."

Linders stood up and saluted. "Yes, sir."