AK 239: The Enemy Is Already Here

TK-20

Jennifer and Captain Vasili are on the conning tower of the sub.

Jennifer says, “I couldn’t have done it without my partner, former Navy SEAL, John Denning.”

“This country owes you two a great debt. Destroyer escorts will be with you from Carrier Group 7 shortly. Sit tight.”

Jennifer looks at Vasili and shrugs her shoulders, “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

General Norton, “In the meantime, you have a few of your friends dropping in to say hi first. Norton out.”

Vasili and other Russians all look confused as to what that might mean.

Jen knows exactly what he means as she looks to the clouds breaking as the sun rises.

She whistles to me, pointing in the air.

As the light begins to barely crack through the heavens for another day, I see the greatest sight a military man can see:

The cavalry!

The FBI HRT Gold Team looks to have done a HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) jump and they’re coming in fast.

The rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs/RIBs) are dropping in with the team. I trained most of these guys so I thought,

Let’s see how they hit the water.

It’s a beautiful sight to behold.

The sun starts to peak over the snow covered Alaskan mountains which adds to the picture perfect scene.

These guys silently hit the freezing water. For a split second I actually felt a bit sorry for them.

Why am I feeling sorry for these guys? I was in that freezing water yesterday for over ten minutes. These guys have on proper gear and are already in their boats!

In no time, they’re heading for us.

Spectacular! I’m proud to have trained them!

I hand signal to them and one of them breaks off toward me, guns drawn.

As soon as they near me they realize who I am. Their team leader is John Smith. That’s right that’s his real name. I did an FBI FBC (Full Background Check) on John A. Smith. Believe it or not, that really is his real name.

John’s nickname is: Skull.

I think, I’m probably the only guy in this bay that knows how he got the name.

As a former SEAL, on one of his first jumps, he somehow became tangled in his own parachute.

He ended up hitting the ground headfirst.

After he came to, his first words were, “My head kinda hurts.”

Back here on the beach I smile at him and say,

“Hey Skull! What took you so long?”

Skull drops his weapon and with his game face on saying,

“I was pushin’ for an ROE kill order on you, Bones.”

(Don’t ask. I’m not telling anyone how I got the nickname: Bones.)

Skull and his Gold Team partner pulls all four of us into their boat and we head for the sub.

As we pull to the sub, there looks to be a problem.

Jen yells down to me, “SEC DEF just ordered the boat searched. The captain has some conditions.”

I’m worried.

“Permission to come aboard, captain?” I yell to Vasili.

He answers, “Permission granted. But just you.”

I look at Skull and he says,

“Go for it, Bones.”

So I hop off our small inflatable boat and onto TK-20’s hull.

I climb the steps built into TK-20 until I’m on top of the hull. I enter the center tower door that leads me to the conn. As I pop out of the conn hatch I ask,

“So what’s the problem?”

Vasili looks at me long and hard and says, “I want asylum in Nebraska.”

I look at Jennifer and say, “Okay that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jennifer says, “There’s more.”

“Oh, okay,” I say, “What else?”

Vasili says without hesitation, “I must have your word that you will give all 120 of my men asylum too. Anyone that wants can return to Russia.”

I’m speechless. “Well I, you see, our courts will decide on a case by case…”

Vasili, “They will fight right here and right now if I don’t have your word.”

I’m supposed to be SEAL, FBI, and now judge and jury for 120 people? I think to myself.

But there’s something about this guy that’s honorable and trustworthy.

“I suppose if you vouch for all of your men, I could say, yes.”

Vasili immediately salutes me. “Thank you, commander.”

“But I’m not a commander and…”

“You’ll always be commander to me!” says Vasili.

There’s such honesty, sincerity and childlike wonder in this man that either I’m a fool or I just saved the world from nuclear war.

To this day, I still prefer to think the latter.

I look at him with wonder and curiosity. “So what will you do now captain…”

“Retire! Retirement sounds really good.”

Vasili hands me his top-secret operational file saying, “The boat’s yours, commander.”

I’m not a commander but, again, all I do is shake his hand and say,

“Thank you, captain.”

Stone, meanwhile, is still trying to pull his large soaked self onto TK-20’s steps.

“Damn it. I need some exercise!”

Tony and Jimmy are trying to help his immenseness by pushing him onto the hull.

Looking around I say, “I suggest we get inside the Typhoon as radiation from that explosion has to be falling all around us.”

All of us tough men look at each other and cannot believe any of us thought of this.

We all quickly scramble onto the sub.

I grab the phone from Jennifer,

“John Denning to NORAD, general are you still there?”

General Norton says, “Go for Norton.”

“General, there is radiation all around this area. Please tell your people that the boat is now yours.”

General Norton says, “Thank you, Denning. Notifying now.”

The sun has now gracefully ascended above Mt. Lazaro on nearby Duke Island.

Stone has managed to get on top of TK-20’s hull as a floatplane lands right next to the sub. Out pops a 400-pound Eskimo with another old, long, Winchester one-shot hunting rifle.

“You need me pops?”

You’re a day late and a dollar short, son” says Stone.

“What?”

“Never mind. Get in the plane and go home. There’s radiation everywhere.”

“I fixed the radiation at work, dad!”

Everyone looks puzzled.

Stone says, “That’s great son, now go home.”

“Okay, popsie,” says Stone’s son.

The kid has already closed the door and is heading away as Stone shakes his head.

“Ever since he was little he always called a radiator, radiation.”

Everyone now gets it, slowly saying, “Ahh.”

The Northern sky near Mt. Lazaro is lighting up the water, trees and snow as the FBI HRT Gold Team boards TK-20, weapons drawn and pointing at all the threats.

“We’ve been given orders to search your boat. Do we have your permission, captain?” asks Skull.

Vasili, “Yes. My men will co-operate with you.”

Skull says, “Thank you, captain.”

While the sub is being boarded by Skull, he listens on his headpiece,

“I have just been given orders to stand down.”

Skull gets back on his boat as an MH-60R comes flying in low and hot (armed).

Racing right behind is the guided missile destroyer, USS Hoon.

I say, “This is probably a SEAL platoon. I’d bet anything they just spent the last ten minutes inbound looking over the schematics of your boat to thoroughly clear it.”

Vasili, “Good luck. This thing’s been retrofitted for the last five years. You have no schematics.”

I say with confidence,

“Don’t be so sure.”

Vasili says, “That’s what I love about you Americans. Absolute confidence.”

“We Russians, we overthink everything!”

I’m standing on the conn of TK-20 with Jen and Captain Vasili and fully expect to see SEALs repel down onto the hull of TK-20.

This helicopter is the newest Romeo model of the series with one top-secret exception:

There’s a giant round device under the cockpit area. I was told by senior Naval Intelligence not to write anything about this device.

However, based on my current status (See: Book Number Two) I have no choice but to warn you about this exotic and very deadly weapon system.

Skull shouts up to us, “I’ve been given an order: All of you must enter TK-20 immediately and await further instructions below.”

At that time I didn’t think anything was unusual about the order.

Captain Vasili salutes and disappears below. Jen follows him. I’m the last person off the conning tower when I remember we left our phone up there. I climb back up there and witness the most bizarre sight of my life.

These, for lack of a better word, ghosts, don’t repel but literally beam from the helicopter to TK-20’s hull, in a sharp, tiny, blue, laser beam.

A small bright blue cloud gathers just outside the hull and grows larger. Once the cloud reaches the size of three distinct eight-foot tall ghosts, they look to be sucked right inside TK-20’s hull!

The ghosts act as if the ship’s hull wasn’t even there!

Their vapor trail looks only to be made up of ones and zeros.

It’s very difficult to describe them any further, so I’ll just show you a picture taken by a Russian sailor on his phone when confronting these “things.”

That is an actual picture of the ghosts taken by a Russian sailor on TK-20.

One Russian sailor said,

“I see ghosts!”

Vasili’s crew already has a nickname for these guys:

TIM!

The Invisible Men (TIM)!

I had no idea about their weaponry or capabilities, at this time, but as every Russian sailor that confronted these things said:

“Uzhasayushchiy!” which means: “Terrifying!”

Another Russian inside said,

“I thought I was at a rock concert with lasers going in thousands of directions.”

“Then I saw them.”

“Terrifying!”

I am told this Top Secret system is called a: Ghost Protocol Generator (GPG). Again, the U.S. Navy asked me to not talk, write or say anything.

The reason I’m showing you this is:

My life is now in grave danger.

Apparently, because I saw:

“The ghosts!”

I don’t have any hesitation in telling you there are thousands of great, dedicated men and women serving in the armed forces of the United States of America and Russia. However, today, I question many of the motives of the politicians that are giving the admirals and generals their orders.

I yell down to Jen and Vasili, “Come up here, you’ve gotta see this!”

So Jen and Vasili climb back up to the conn with me.

No sooner does Vasili reach the conn than I look over his shoulder (to this day I don’t know why) and see something moving in the water. At first I think it’s a reflection, as I look closer it looks like a gun and it’s pointed right at us!

I yell, “Gun!” just as a shot goes off.

I shove Vasili to the deck of the conn. Jen hits the deck as well.

Automatic weapons begin firing from all directions. All three of us on the conn are unarmed. Fortunately, we are surrounded by the most reinforced steel part of the ship that is designed to punch through several meters of Arctic ice.

Vasili tries to peer over the conn but I pull him to the deck.

Good thing!

A couple of rounds go whizzing right where his head would have been.

Jen and I look at each other trying to plan our next move when the gunfire stops.

“Stay down,” I say to both of them as I peer my head over the conn.

When I stand, the MH60R is flying away!

Why?

And right behind them is the USS Chung-Hoon, both in full retreat.

They should’ve had at least one SEAL sniper on the helicopter! I think to myself.

No one was even manning the .50 cal.

As a former SEAL, I find all of these tactics really confusing and just plain weird.

However, my primary concern is the area of the sniper threat.

I see nothing but bubbles.

That’s a bad sign.

It’s likely the threat has on full SCUBA gear, including air.

A couple of Vasili’s men at the base of the conning tower are shooting wildly into the water. Other Russians are yelling all sorts of things as they exit the sub. I have no idea what is being said. All I see is Vasili, standing, yelling at them to calm down.

All of a sudden the Russian sailor is shot right in the heart and falls onto the hull.

Vasili goes nuts. He tries to head down the conn ladder but I grab Vasili’s hand and stop him.

“Wait!” I firmly tell the Captain.

He insists, “I’m going down there!”

“But they’re targeting you. They will kill you. Stay here.”

Vasili and I look each other, eye to eye. I can see he agrees.

Then I do the dumbest thing I might have ever done in my life (and I did some pretty crazy things as a teen). I jumped on top of the thick, ice breaking, top rail of the conn.

Jen yells as if I’m crazy, “What are you doing?”

I look back at them and say,

“Stay here! And close that hatch!”

With that I jumped off the side of the conning tower. As I’m falling I figure it’s only about twenty feet to a nice slick, black, gentle slope (SEE: TK-20 Photo on the front pages of this book). If I hit the bottom front of the conn just right I’ll miss the ICBM doors and slide right onto the side of the hull and into the water, just like a waterslide!

Well, that was the plan anyway.

What happened was a bit different.

I hit the bottom of the sloping conning tower sideways, which took out one of Vasili’s men, still firing at the water. I hit him and we both careen off the hull as his weapon wildly shoots bullets in every direction. We then flew another thirty feet before hitting the water.

I instantly see powerful rifle rounds shooting at me:

Underwater!

The bubbles generated from this are tremendous, which means just one of these rounds could put a really big hole in me and ruin my day!

I see exactly where the threat is because of the direct line of bubbles to the firing weapon.

The threat is smart.

He’s deep and out of eyesight.

I figure: If I can dive deeper, he won’t be able to see me as the light from above is giving away my position.

I start diving when I’m hit.

I don’t know how badly.

All I feel is excruciating pain in my left arm.

I pull up my arm to assess the damage when I realize it wasn’t a bullet that hit me. I see a threat in full SCUBA gear at my ‘6’ swinging again with his six-inch serrated knife!

We struggle as bullets continue to fly at us through the water.

I’m able to grab the arm of the threat with the knife and stop him from swinging again. However, his free hand tries to grab my throat. I have to use my other free hand to fight that.

I realize that the crazy Russian kids on TK-20 are now shooting at me too!

I have threats coming from me in at least four directions: Two human arms, and two people shooting: One underwater and at least one on the surface. That roughly translates to my ‘3’ ‘6’ ‘9’ and ’12’ o’clock. In other words, I’m being attacked from all four directions!

A nightmare scenario.

As we fight, I try to turn my body away from the bullets and put my immediate threat in the line of fire. Then I realize my ‘6’ is to the boat and I’m likely to be hit by one of the kids AKs on the sub.

I’m also quickly running out of air and feel the need to breathe. Again, I go back to my SEAL training. We had days and days of this and I hated every minute of it!

But, now, glad I did every minute of it as all the training once again comes rushing back.

I position my body so that the kids on the sub shooting are at my ‘9.’ That way my center mass is “slightly” less likely to be hit. This means the underwater shooter is at my ‘3.” Trouble is: It’s also slightly less body mass for my knife wielding opponent to be hit. As we struggle, I open myself up again to that SPP-1, a very powerful underwater rifle.

I’m finally able to free one of my hands and punch him in the throat. This stuns him long enough for me to rip off his mask. To my surprise, he doesn’t panic in the least but continues fighting. Clearly, he’s been well trained too.

I’m looking for any dirty, cheating thing I can do to get the advantage when I somehow dislodge the knife in his hand. As I do, I see a beautiful gold ring with a very specific crest. As the knife slowly sinks I think: Do I go after that?

That thought was quickly banished, as I would need to turn my back on this guy and dive for it.

Impossible!

He now kicks me and I wince in pain. I’m forced to retreat.

I think he’s coming for me. However, when I look around: He’s swimming away! My instinct is to follow but then I suddenly realize: I need air!

So I come flying up to the surface trying to yell,

“Don’t shoot!” but nothing comes out.

My lungs scream in pain for air.

My ears are ringing.

My vision looks partially black as if I’m in a tunnel.

I then experience that exhilarating feeling the rush of oxygen as your body tries to recover.

Four Russian sailors with AK47s pointed at me are yelling.

Vasili is now on the hull yelling,

“Ostanovit’! Nestrelyat’!

Roughly translated is also what I’m trying to say:

“Stop! Don’t shoot!”

Vasili is holding a young, dead, sailor in his arms as two Russians quickly put their guns down and jump in the water. Skull is racing toward me in his small boat.

Skull drags me as the Russians push, and pull me into the inflatable boat.

Exhausted I say, “They got away!”

Skull looks up to two other boats saying,

“No they didn’t!”

“I need to ask Vasili something,” I tell Skull.

“You take it easy right here with me, soldier.” says Skull.

Thank God that round to your head was an SPP-1 and not an ASM-DT, says Skull.

I answer, “You think it was an SPP? All I saw was a gun and pulled the captain to the deck.”

“Skull says looking into the water, “You’re lucky. You both could’ve been killed!”

I’m looking into the water and all that comes out is:

“Ya.”

Skull is listening to his headset as gunfire goes off in the distance.

“Gotta go,” says Skull.

“Wait!” I say, trying to listen to Vasili.

“Four guys went out the hatch,” Vasili yells to me. “Three got away. Nikolai Alexi is my second in command and two other officers.”

I yell, “Does he have a gold ring on his little finger of a snake and cross?”

Yes!” says Vasili.

“Come on. Let’s go,” I say.

Skull looks at me long and hard, making a determination if I can still fight or not.

Apparently he thought: Affirmative!

As he hit the gas!

I found out later Vasili ordered his soldiers to stop shooting into the water or I likely would’ve been killed.

Skull said his men are using a new sonar gadget to track the three fugitives in the water. He said, it’s so secret that he couldn’t even tell me about it. Then he proceeded to tell me about it: “It” can track any human underwater. “It” can differentiate between a dolphin and a person.

Suddenly, the FBI boat takes a couple of rounds of fire from the Russians underwater.

Although, apparently, “it” cannot defend “it”self yet.

By the time we get there the boat is sinking and so are the wounded guys in the boat. We’re down to two boats.

A medic jumps into the damaged boat to attend to the wounded.

The boat with “it” on it is barely floating in the water. Apparently, no one had thought of what might happen if “it” got really wet.

The wounded were taken off the boat and head for a medical team on the USS Hoon just outside the mouth of the bay.

The last boat, besides us, breaks off searching the water for any sign of movement. Skull hands me a Dräger closed circuit oxygen rebreather and a gun.

“A…nd go!”

We both fall back into the water and head for the bubble trails.

It’s hard for me to see beneath the surface as there appears to be glowing phytoplankton that light themselves and make it hard for us to see anything.

After searching the entire area and finding nothing, we give up the search.

We climb back into our small, inflatable boat empty handed.

Skull tells me,

“SEALs inbound.”

“They’ll take it from here.”

“Our orders are to escort TK-20 out of here ASAP.”

I see four SH-60s inbound as we head back to TK-20.

As I’m climbing onto the hull of the sub I look back and witness another beautiful sight:

A SEAL platoon from Team 7 in full tactical gear jumping into the water from those four choppers to search for the three remaining Russians.

“If anybody can get ’em those guys can!” says Skull.

Then I say, “Get me back to the sub.”

Skull heads me back to TK-20.

The last FBI inflatable boat breaks off from us and gets on the front side of TK-20 and escorts her out of Kendrick Bay.