Deadly Force

12

Vice President Adams turned on his SATCOM radio at five minutes until six and set it to receive on the same frequency he had used when talking with the White House.

It had been an interesting afternoon. The sentry had talked to his sergeant, who’d brought him at once to see Mojombo Washington. Adams had been in the leader’s tent at the time. The soldier, in his new cammies, saluted smartly and handed a folded sheet of paper to his commander.

Mojombo took it and read it. He looked up and frowned, then read the words again.

“How did you get this message, Private?”

“Two men in uniforms almost like ours, but they had black marks on their faces like camouflage.”

“Why didn’t you shoot them?”

“They slipped up on me. I never heard them. Then they hit me in my back and knocked me down.”

“Did they have weapons?”

“Yes, sir, some kind of submachine gun. Short ones tied over their backs.”

Mojombo’s voice softened. “Did they tell you who they were?”

“Yes, sir. One said he was Commander Blake Mur something. That he was a U.S. Navy SEAL.”

“Be damned,” Adams said. “They slipped past all of your security to get to this guy. They are experts at infiltration. They could do it.”

“These men, did they hurt you?”

“No, sir. Tied my ankles and hands with plastic cuffs at first, then let me go. They mostly just talked to me.”

“Did they kill any of our guards?”

“I don’t think so, sir. All of our group of guards were present when we were relieved about half an hour ago.”

“Thank you, Private. You did your duty well. You will get a special commendation and a promotion. You’re now a corporal and you are dismissed.”

The man turned, and a wave of relief washed over his face as he hurried out of the tent.

“What does it say?” Adams asked.

“Message to you from Ambassador Oberholtzer.” He handed the message to the Vice President. He read it.

“Mr. Vice President. I hope this message gets to you. First, we must communicate. You have a SATCOM. So do I. It would be most helpful, sir, if you could turn your set on every day at twelve noon and again at six for any messages we have for you or that you might have for us. Leave it on the same frequency you used to talk to the President.

“We are aware of your solid support for the Bijimi Loyalist Party and Mojombo Washington. We are desperate to know more about him and his plans, and what you want to do in the next few days. The President is still concerned about your safety.

“Please let us know what we can do to help you. Two Navy SEALs have delivered this message. They have been instructed not to harm in any way any of the Mojombo forces. I trust they achieved this today and delivered the message.

“If you could confirm your receipt of this message at six o’clock this evening, we can talk.

“May you stay safe and in good health and spirits. I am respectfully your servant: Ambassador Nance Oberholtzer.”

“What time is it?” The Vice President looked at his watch, a solar-tech one powered by the sun or any other light, which charged the batteries. “Good, only three-thirty. We’ll talk with the ambassador tonight. Maybe we can get those SEALs to help us launch some attacks. They are good, fantastic. The best trained and most effective sea, land, or air combat forces ever assembled.”

“How many of them?” Mojombo asked.

“That’s the beauty of them. They work in platoons of sixteen men. Only two officers, but in the field every man is of equal rank. It’s amazing what they can do. We send them all over the world on a covert basis to get our chestnuts out of the fire.”

“Who sent them here?” Mojombo asked.

“That’s one question we’ll have for the ambassador. Let’s write down any more questions you have and we’ll both talk to him.”

The leader of the rebels stood up from the chair and paced around the tent. He sat down, got up again, and walked outside. Vice President Adams waited for him. When he came back he sat down and frowned, then gave a long sigh.

“Is this a good thing? This talking to the center of our enemy?”

“The ambassador is not your enemy. He’s probably the best friend you have in Sierra City. This can only lead to help for you, benefits for you.”

“I have no doubt that these SEALs are terrific. However, they are only sixteen. What can sixteen do against four thousand armed troops shooting at them?”

“Like you, Mojombo, they don’t engage in pitched battles except when they can assure surprise or a crushing blow with something other than manpower. Let’s wait and see what the ambassador has to say.”

“We will wait. In the meantime, we were working on some ideas for attacks on the corrupt politicians. We already hit the main police station and the Army base. Should we burn down the Hall of Democracy, where the legislature meets?”

“Doesn’t seem like a good idea. Maybe we should concentrate on the military. Snipers could infiltrate far enough so you could shoot up the two small helicopters that the Army has. That would put their entire air force out of commission.”

“Yes, good idea. We’ll send a four-man team in tonight to do that. Let me get the men started downstream on our smaller boat. The choppers are kept in the open at the Army camp just north of the capital. It will be a two-day mission. Now what else?”

“Electrical power. Where do you get it from?”

“Most of it comes across the border with Bijimi. We used to be part of that country. The British built the hydroelectric plant twenty years ago. Now it serves four different nations.”

“So we leave the generators alone, and take down the lines that bring the power across the border. That would black out most of the nation and would cause an immediate uproar and problems for the Kolda government.”

“I wonder about that. It would cause government turmoil, but the main losers would be the people, who would suffer the most. Let’s get some better ideas.”

“My Navy days didn’t include a lot of G-2,” Adams said. “The fact is I was a lowly lieutenant in the black-water boats that got shot up six different times in Vietnam.”

“The police, the Army,” Mojombo said. “Those have to be our targets. I hesitate to do anything that will kill civilians or make their lives any harder than they are right now.”

“Yes, I get the picture. My next suggestion is that you’re too far from the center of the action. You need to move closer to Sierra City.”

“But wouldn’t that put us in more danger from a raid by the Army? They could being in two thousand men with weapons and rout us in five minutes.”

“Not if you move into an area and get the civilian population entirely on your side. Then if the Army tries to come in, your soldiers can fight or fade into the jungle and the civilians will come out in the street and totally swamp the soldiers. Civilians always inhibit a fighting force. You told me that the Army units won’t chase you into the jungle. They proved that before.”

“This idea of starting to enlist all the people in a town is good. I’ve thought of it, but haven’t tried it. Say we moved down to the village called Tinglat. We would still be twenty miles from the city. There are over a thousand people in that village who raise some crops, cut wood, and harvest certain trees from the forest. I have friends there. Yes, I think they will support me. I’ll go down there tomorrow with twenty of my men and we’ll talk to them.

“They will be my people. I can protect them from the cheating tax collectors who routinely rob the workers in the villages. We’ll strip the tax men and tar them and cover them with chicken feathers before we float them down the river on a small raft. Yes, I think we can do it. We’ll start to claim territory and the population. When we get one area well protected, we’ll get volunteers to swell our fighting ranks and then move to the next village as we make another jump closer to the city.”

“Now, what about new targets for your night raiders? The government forces will soon be patrolling the river, so you might have to come in by land the last ten miles or so. Any more small Army units you could hit, or government warehouses stacked with foreign-aid food, say?”

“Oh, yes. At least one that I know about. It’s in the north end of the city and is the President’s personal cache of hard-to-get goods. I’d bet there is food enough there to feed my men for a year, if we just had some way to get it up here.”

“You have a market day in town?”

“Yes. With our poor farmers, every day is market day, so they can scratch out a living from their small farms.”

“Most of those wagons and trucks and carts go back up the trail empty, don’t they?”

Mojombo jumped up and laughed. “Oh, you are so right. We can make a raid on the warehouse at night. Transport everything we want into another warehouse farther north in the city. Then the next day…” He laughed again. “Mr. Vice President, I’m tremendously glad that you are on my side.”

Mojombo stood and nodded to himself. “Yes, I have much work to do and people to talk to before tomorrow morning. I will lead the raiders myself. We will need to steal trucks to move the matériel. Such a strike as this will not be extremely harmful to the President and his band of thieves, but it will put them on notice that we know more about him and his piracy than he thinks.”

“I want to go along. I had four years in the Navy.”

“No. It is too risky. You are still my key to the whole idea of a national revolution. I am working on the demands that I will make to the world. But first the talk with your ambassador at six, then the raid tonight and the exodus of the goods tomorrow.” Mojombo paused. “Do I have your word as a gentleman that you will not try to join our force that marches out to the river shortly after dark?”

“I could be a great help. I can still shoot well. Mostly trapshooting now, but the rifle is an old friend who—”

“No. You can’t go. It’s too dangerous. Now, give me your word.”

Vice President Adams scowled and muttered something under his breath while Mojombo grinned and waited.

“Hell, all right. I’ll give you my word this time. But before this is over I want to be in the shooting war, you hear me?”

“I hear you, Mr. Vice President Adams. I’ll be back in your tent in time for the six o’clock radio talk.”

The leader of the Bijimi Loyalist Party slipped out the flap and Adams followed him, then went to his tent and took out the SATCOM. He had it set up and the small dish antenna aimed at the satellite an hour before it was time. He couldn’t sit still. What would he say to the ambassador that he hadn’t already told the President? He’d just tell him the truth. It was time the United States gave this regime a hard time, and helped out this struggling young party leader who wanted to return the government to the people. The U.S. told the world that it supported democracy, so it was time to stand up on this one and make its weight known. He hoped the Navy was sending a task force this way. They wouldn’t even have to come all the way. The Navy jets could do a combat radius of almost 650 miles. At least the F-18 could, and it was an air-to-ground fighter. A couple of passes without any firing and these government troops would panic. He wondered how close the Navy was. Was there a carrier task force anywhere around?

They could pump up a destroyer with a C-53 chopper on it, scoot down this direction at thirty-three knots, and beat the slow aircraft carriers here by a day or two. He’d be sure to ask the ambassador about that.

Promptly at six o’clock the SATCOM just inside Vice President Adams’s tent came on with a call.

“This is Oberholtzer calling Adams. I say again, this is Oberholtzer calling Adams.”

The Vice President lifted the mike he had been holding and pushed the send button. “Adams here waiting for your call. This is all encrypted, isn’t it, so no one else can know what we’re saying?”

“Right, Mr. Vice President. Only those U.S. units that have SATCOMs that are tuned to this frequency at this time. Which makes it tremendously secure. I’m glad to hear from you. Despite your messages, Washington has become increasingly concerned about your situation there. The President doesn’t want you running off on a fire mission somewhere and getting your head blown off your shoulders.”

“Don’t worry. I tried, and Mojombo won’t let me go along. When are you going to send some help for these men? They are fighting their hearts out and have only made a dent in the corrupt Administration that Washington seems to support. We need the Navy to send in some aircraft and some surface craft and threaten the hell out of President Kolda. We’re only two hundred miles from the Atlantic, for God’s sakes. Navy jets can do that in ten minutes. What’s the matter with you people anyway?”

“Mr. Vice President, decisions like that are way out of my hands. As you know, that has to be done in Washington. There is a Navy task force on its way. I’m not sure where it is, but they did say they would send a destroyer at flank speed that will outrace the task force. I’ve had a signal from the task force commander that the destroyer should be offshore here sometime tomorrow. She has two helicopters usually used for antisubmarine warfare, but they can be slightly adapted.”

“That’s not going to help much, Oberholtzer. We need about twenty F-18’s to do a flyover of the Government Building fifty feet over the roof and scare the shit out of these crooks. Why not drop in six or seven platoons of SEALs to grab the President and the head of the Army and do it up quickly?”

“Like I said…”

“Yeah, I know. Not your decision to make. So I’ll call the President again. His set must always be on. What good news do you have for me? A pair of SEALs visited this area today. One was called Blake. A commander.”

“Right, Mr. Vice President. Commander Blake Murdock and another SEAL moved up your way and delivered the message you must have received.”

“So why don’t you send me the whole platoon? What is it, sixteen men? Send them to me so we can get some real firefights going here.”

“Now that we can talk about. The SEALs have guns free for any operation except against the Loyalist people. Maybe we can work out some kind of a joint attack. Hit them from both sides. The SEALs can lay down a devastating amount of gunfire once they get in position.”

“Mr. Ambassador, Mojombo Washington wants to talk to you. He’s right here.”

“Mr. Ambassador, Washington here. We met once, but you wouldn’t remember. What can you do to help us up here?”

“Not a lot, but we’re talking with the President and the Navy. I’ll let you know the minute we have any good news.”

“That is sounding better,” Washington said. “We have a small operation going down tonight, but if it works, it will happen without a shot being fired. Let you know how it comes out tomorrow. So when can you send the SEALs upriver?”

“Have to talk to the commander about that.”

“Is he there? Give him the mike.”

“Just a minute and I’ll get him. What I’m wondering is, will the people follow you if you can get a full-scale revolution going? Can you get enough support for a mass march on the Government Building and throw President Kolda out of office?”

“Probably not without half of the Army coming over to my side. Then we’ll have a chance. The Army is the big factor. A lot of the top officers are unhappy with the current command. I’m working on it.”

“Mr. Washington, this is Lieutenant Commander Murdock.”

“I hear you were almost in Camp Freedom today.”

“Close enough, Mr. Washington. Glad you received the letter. I hope the sentry we gave it to was not punished. He did nothing wrong. He’s a good soldier.”

“Actually I promoted him to corporal. Now. When can you bring your platoon up here and help us plan some attacks and then help us to take down President Kolda?”

“I’d say as soon as you get the support of and control the countryside and half of Sierra City. Then we’d have a chance of taking down the government. A revolution is a tricky affair. The people and the Army are the keys. Like you just told the ambassador, you need half the Army to desert to your command.”

“You’re not very encouraging.”

“There’s a lot we can do from this end, or with your help. Hit at some strategic points that won’t harm the civilians. If you want them on your side, you can’t start by killing half of them.”

“Right. One of my rules is that we will strike at no position where any civilians will be hurt or inconvenienced. For instance, we won’t blow up the water-filtration plant in Sierra City.”

“Good move. I’d like to meet you, Mr. Washington, and talk. You tell your outposts and lookouts that three motorcycles will be coming up the trail tomorrow and not to blow our heads off. We’ll use the password of Harley Davidson.”

Washington laughed. “Oh, yes, the Harley Hog. I rode one once. Then I wanted one for five years. Done. I may not be here by the time you get here, but talk with the Vice President and look over my men. Now, put the ambassador back on.”

“Yes, Mr. Washington,” Oberholtzer said.

“You contact the Navy. Tell them what we need. Also tell the President that tomorrow I’ll be making my demands that the U.S. must meet in order for me to turn the Vice President over to the embassy there in Sierra City.”

“Demands? I thought this was a non-kidnapping situation.”

“I have demands. Quite a few and rather tough to meet, but the U.S. and the rest of the world can do it. I’ll give my demands to the President on this frequency and on an international radio frequency tomorrow night at six.”