Hunt the Dragon

Chapter Nine

The pilot of the Blackhawk had a Steelers logo tattooed on the back of his neck. Crocker was tempted to tell him about the time two well-known Steelers defensive players showed up at his house in Virginia to work out with him. Within an hour he was just getting warmed up and both of them were puking on his front lawn. But what would be the point? He didn’t want to appear to be a braggart, and it wouldn’t be smart to distract the pilot, especially when they were closing in on their target, a North Korean container ship named the Cong Son Gang. So he dry-checked the HK416 in his lap and kept his mouth shut.

Back in DC, Jeri had started to assemble the pieces of an international conspiracy that involved counterfeit money, illegal arms shipments, and narcotics, possibly originating in China, North Korea, or Iran. Now he was chasing a North Korean ship suspected of playing a role in it. The evidence was sketchy-captured text messages about “valued goods” to an Iranian official in Singapore from a phone linked to Wong and Petroc.

Nevertheless, Crocker was back in the fray and grateful that the hearing in Fairfax County had been pushed back. Two days ago he learned that Captain Sutter had written a letter to the judge explaining the important role Crocker played in protecting the country’s national security and asking that the charges against him be dropped. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to worry about it again.

Everything on the HK416 seemed secure-the AAC (Advanced Armaments Corp.) suppressor, AG416 40mm grenade launcher and AN/PVS-17 scope.

His Black Cell teammate Akil, on the bench beside him listening to “One” by Metallica through his headphones, turned to him and mouthed “Awesome.”

“One” happened to be one of Crocker’s favorite workout songs. Out of the side of his mouth, he said, “Won’t be so awesome when you shred your eardrums.”

“What?”

“Your mama’s so fat the back of her neck looks like a package of hot dogs.”

Akil nodded to the beat of the music and flashed a thumbs-up. A couple of SEALs on the opposite bench laughed. Akil was a knucklehead, but Crocker loved him. Appreciated his family, too, a tight-knit group of Egyptian Americans employed in Akil’s father’s jewelry shops in and around Detroit.

Crocker tucked the gold ankh good luck symbol Akil’s father had given him under his combat vest. Last time he was in Michigan, Akil’s old man had told him about the incidences of anti-Muslim prejudice directed against them-slurs painted on their car, rocks thrown through windows, garbage dumped on their front stoop. It pissed Crocker off.

He tried to be objective. With ISIS radicals routinely hacking off people’s heads and raping women, he understood why many Americans felt outraged and angry. But the guys in ISIS and al-Qaeda occupied the lunatic fringe. Most Muslims were decent people who wanted a better life for their families. Some were freedom-loving Americans, and a few, like Akil, played an important and heroic role in the war on terrorism.

The copilot barked through Crocker’s headset, “Zero Alpha, Tango Two. Eyes on target, one o’clock.”

He jolted to attention. “Copy, Tango. Over.”

Crocker slapped Akil on the shoulder, then pumped his fist up and down and pointed at the forward windshield to tell the members of Team Alpha to get ready. Filling out Alpha were four other SEALs from DEVGRU (Team Six)-Jenks, Tré, Pauly, and Sam. Most of them were guys Crocker had never worked with before. His Black Cell teammates Mancini, Suarez, Davis, and Cal were either on medical or personal leave and therefore unavailable.

A light southeast wind rocked the Blackhawk. They were currently fifteen miles off the coast of Singapore in the Strait of Malacca-a busy shipping lane that had been the scene of hundreds of pirate attacks from 2001 to 2004. Now it was regularly patrolled by the Indonesian, Indian, Malaysian, and Singaporean navies.

Because their target was still in Singaporean waters, the Singapore Maritime Police cutter White Shark, commanded by Captain Kin Han, would do the initial intercept. Earlier this morning Captain Han and Crocker had traded sets of 350-pound bench presses at the SMP gym. It wasn’t something Crocker did often. Instead of adding bulk, he preferred to remain lean so he could shoot and scoot.

The SEALs were in the air to provide backup should the crew of the Cong Son Gang try to evade the Marine Police or things get noisy. Given that this was a North Korean freighter headed for Iran and that the North Koreans had a reputation for being crazy, they had to be prepared for anything.

Crocker slammed a twenty-round 5.56mmx45mm mag in his weapon, checked that everything in his assault vest was secure, then turned left and tried to locate the vessel through the forward windows. The early morning yellow-orange haze obscured the water, making it hard to spot anything, even something the size of a 295-meter-long container ship.

His last week and a half had involved a whirlwind of travel-Vegas to Virginia Beach; Virginia Beach to DC; DC to Coronado, CA; Coronado to Honolulu; Honolulu to Okinawa; Okinawa to the USS Ronald Reagan, stationed in the Indian Ocean off the island of Sumatra.

“Zero Alpha, this is White Shark One, do you read me? Over.”

“Send, White Shark One. Over.”

“Moving into position. Ready to initiate radio contact.”

“Copy. Over.”

The Blackhawk hovering at three hundred meters flattened the chop in a circular pattern. Even with the engines roaring, Crocker could hear EDM blasting through Akil’s headphones. He shoved his shoulder.

Akil turned to him and lifted his grizzled square chin. “What?”

“You’re not gonna be able to hear anything,” he said, pointing at Akil’s headphones.

Akil pulled them down. “This? It’s Swedish House Mafia.” He sang off-key, “‘We’re gonna save the world tonight…’”

“Not like that, you won’t.”

“Whadda you know about music?”

Crocker preferred classic rock like the Stones and sixties-era jazz. Brubeck, Getz, Monk, and Davis were his current faves. He regretted leaving his iPod in the locker back at SMP headquarters.

The haze was starting to burn off, so he lifted the binos and could now make out the long container ship with the rusted white hull and yellow-blue-and-red stack. Looked like it was badly in need of some TLC. Pulling up to one side was a much smaller and sharper-looking white-red-and-blue Singapore Maritime Police cutter.

Five minutes passed without the Cong Son Gang appearing to reduce speed and Crocker growing antsy.

“Zero Alpha, this is White Shark One. The target is not responding to our radio signals, so we’re going to initiate blocking maneuvers.”

“Copy, White Shark One,” Crocker responded. “We’re standing by. Over.”

He wasn’t surprised. North Korean vessels were notorious for not responding to internationally accepted maritime signals and conduct.

“What the fuck we waiting for?” Akil asked as he removed his shiny new Beats headphones.

“For you to get your shit together. Ready?”

“Always, boss.”

“Put your toys away and inspect the rope,” Crocker said, nodding toward the back of the helo.

“Copy that.”

Through his Steiner binos, Crocker watched as the Marine Police cutter positioned itself in the path of the container ship and the ship changed course to steer around it. He glanced down at his Suunto watch to start to measure how long this would last when he heard a rip from the White Shark’s 25mm Bushmaster chain gun and looked up.

Captain Han wasn’t playing. Either that, or the Cong Son Gang was nearing the limit of Singaporean territorial waters and Han was taking this bit of United States-Singapore cooperation seriously. Maybe he had a personal motive. At the gym that morning, he’d talked about wanting to get his daughter admitted to MIT.

Crocker removed the Hellstorm SOLAG gloves from the carabiner on his web belt and pulled them on. The four SEALs on the opposite bench followed suit. On hearing the gunfire, the pilot of the U.S. Navy Blackhawk moved in closer so they were only a hundred meters behind the North Korean freighter and two hundred meters overhead.

Crocker felt the adrenaline building in his system. Below he saw the Cong Son Gang tack left past the White Shark and closer to the eastern edge of Sumatra, which glistened in the distance. Interesting corner of the world, Crocker thought. And one he wanted to explore further. He’d read a lot about Borneo and its rain forests and diverse species, which included orangutans, barking deer, pig-tailed macaques, and huge flying fox bats. It lay about six hundred nautical miles to the southeast.

Below, the White Shark’s Bushmaster and twin 12.7mm machine guns echoed in unison. When the smoke cleared, the Cong Son Gang showed no signs of slowing down.

Stubborn fucks.

Through his headset he heard, “Zero Alpha, this is White Shark One. The target is not responding. Engage! Engage!”

The Blackhawk pilot swooped down and hovered over the forward deck of the Gang at forty meters. A patchwork of orange, rusty-white, and dark-blue shipping containers bobbed and swayed below.

“Ready!” Akil shouted.

“Ready!”

On a hand signal from Akil the copilot disengaged the hatch, whereupon Akil threw the braided-nylon 1.7-inch-diameter fast rope out, located a container to land on, and went down first, expertly and fast. Crocker felt a burst of pride. The other SEALs followed in designated order, ten feet apart. Crocker went last, using his hands and feet to hold the rope and slide down smoothly. Once on deck, he scanned 360 degrees through the AN/PVS-17 scope.

No greeting party or targets in sight. The ship itself looked old and tired. The foremast was literally coming apart and listed to one side. Some of the shoe-fit latches on the hatch covers didn’t close properly, and the bridge tower front was pitted with rust.

Move and cover.

He signaled Akil and Jenks to wait while he, Tré, Pauly, and Sam took the bridge. They slipped past a dozen forty-foot containers, the rubber composition soles of their Merrell boots muffling the sound. Entering the tower, they climbed five levels of metal steps to the bridge. Crocker tried the metal door, but it was locked.

He banged on it and called out, “We’re U.S. Navy working with the Singapore Maritime Police. We’re here to inspect your ship.”

“Door no work!” came the answer.

“Either you open this door or we blow it in.”

“Door no work!”

He signaled to the breacher, Sam, to apply the charges-strips of C-4-then shouted through the door, “Tell all your crew members to stand back!”

As Sam readied the strips and detonators someone unlatched the door from within and let it slowly creak open. Confronting them was a skinny Asian man in black pajama pants and an old white T-shirt with a defiant look on his face. He was holding a.38 revolver in his right hand, currently aimed at the floor but alarming nonetheless.

“Drop the weapon!” Crocker ordered, his HK aimed dead center on the man’s chest, his left hand gesturing down to the metal floor.

The man, who appeared to be in his late forties, grunted disgustedly and lowered the pistol to his side. Crocker noticed he was wearing flip-flops.

“Are you the captain of this vessel?” he asked, stepping forward with his weapon still pointing at the man’s chest.

The Asian man shrugged.

“Sir, are you the captain?”

This time the man stuck out his chin and growled, “Cap-tain.”

“You speak English? What’s your name?”

The man sneered something in a foreign language. Beyond him, Crocker saw Tré, Pauly, and Sam checking a group of crew members huddled near the ship’s command console. Sam shook his head, indicating that they weren’t armed.

Simultaneously, he heard Han over the radio: “Zero Alpha, White Shark One here. What’s the situation onboard?”

“Stand by, White Shark. Situation developing. Over.”

Crocker never took his eyes off the captain. He said, “I’m going to ask you one more time to drop the pistol. Then my men and I are going to inspect the ship.”

The captain didn’t respond. Crocker was trying to decide whether he should shoot him in the leg, smack him with the butt of his HK, or forcibly remove the pistol from his hand. In the last-minute lead-up to the op, this contingency hadn’t been discussed.

He stepped forward until they were within three feet of each other. Suddenly the captain lifted the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. Blam! Blood and brain matter splattered across the bridge wall and floor as the captain’s knees gave way and his body folded.

The gunshot reverberating in Crocker’s ears, cordite cleaving to the inside of his nostrils, he stepped over the body and stood next to Tré, who was facing five frightened-looking crew members. Pauly and Sam peeled away to inspect the rest of the tower.

“Who’s the next in command?” Crocker asked.

The tallest of the men, with a wisp of dark beard on his chin, held up his index finger and said, “My name…Lu. First officer.”

“You speak English,” Crocker responded. “Good.” He pointed to the body bleeding out behind him. “First, I want him covered. Then I want to see your cargo manifest.”

According to the manifest, the Cong Son Gang was transporting rice from Hamhung, North Korea, to Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf. The only other cargo was two small containers of “bicycle parts.” Remembering that Bandar Abbas was a port city in Iran and that Iran was one of North Korea’s few trading partners, Crocker radioed Captain Han of the SMP to board the ship and lead the inspection.

That’s when Pauly and Sam returned, holding a dark-haired man by the collar of his dirty white shirt.

“Who’s he?” Crocker asked.

“Banasheh Nasari, according to his ID,” Pauly said. “We found him hiding in the mess.”

It was a Persian name, which made sense, since the ship was headed to Iran and Jeri had said the Iranians might be behind the larger conspiracy. Nasari was a man of about fifty with a high forehead, black-framed glasses, and a sly, somewhat intellectual appearance.

“Do you speak English?”

He looked back at Crocker with dead eyes.

“Who are you working for? Why are you on this ship?”

No answer again.

Akil tried addressing him in Persian and then Arabic. Nasari didn’t respond to either. Not that it really mattered to Crocker, who had decided that even if Nasari offered information, he couldn’t be trusted.

Once Captain Han boarded, the SEALs descended to the cargo deck and stood guard as Lu and other crew members opened the large deck containers one by one. Han’s men slit open some of the 22.6-kilo (50-pound) bags of rice and crawled through the containers. Satisfied that they were filled only with rice, the group climbed down the metal galley ladder to the hold.

The smaller twenty-foot containers in holds 1, 2, and 3 did in fact hold rubber bicycle seats and pedals. According to First Mate Lu, so did the containers in forward holds 4, 5, and 6. But the door to the forward hold area was double-padlocked shut, and he claimed not to have a key.

“I bet this asshole has it,” Akil said, nodding toward Nasari.

“Do you?” Crocker asked.

Again no answer, just a blank stare.

Instead of searching the ship for the keys, one of the policemen on Captain Han’s team produced a Rotorazer saw with a carbonized blade that cut through the locks like they were butter. Then he swung open the first container and sliced through a thick black plastic lining. Stacked inside were metal barrels packed with a white crystalline substance.

Han put some on the tip of his tongue, tasted it, and spit it out. “Crystal meth,” he announced.

Behind the barrels they found a wooden crate. Stacked inside it were rows of shrink-wrapped hundred-dollar bills.

Lu claimed he hadn’t known they were there, and Nasari didn’t change his expression even when Crocker got in his face and asked, “You knew nothing about this either, did you?”

The SEALs escorted the bills back to Singapore harbor, where they guarded them until U.S. Treasury officials arrived and took possession. Crocker later learned that they were counterfeit, amounted to nearly $1 million, and fit the same 2HK1 profile as the bills seized in Vegas.

Even though Nasari claimed diplomatic immunity and had to be released, it wasn’t a bad day’s work.