Springboard

40

“Sir, it looks as if Wu’s men are clearing roads in the direction of the docks. Some from each casino. There also appears to be some kind of activity around a small freighter in the harbor.”

Kent frowned. “He’s planning to escape on a boat? That’s not very smart.”

“No, sir, it isn’t,” Fernandez said. “All this, just to get blown out of the water by the Chinese Navy? He’s got to have something else up his sleeve.”

“My guess is he does. Go get first squad on the way back to our aircraft and float it out where they can see what’s going on. Tell the CIA guy to get the cars here now, then load up second and third squads and get them rolling, radios on opchan alpha. Get us some other watercraft.”

“Yes, sir.” Fernandez started talking into his radio, issuing orders.

Kent considered his options. Julio was right, the money wasn’t important — let the Chinese worry about that. What they needed was Wu, and they needed to get him and get away before any of the locals figured out what was going on and who they were. They had to move quickly.

“Captain, which casino is Wu in?”

“The House of Good Fortune.”

“Get fourth squad and let’s go. Three cars. We are going to have to run and gun. No time for anything else.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kent grabbed a tactical radio unit and made sure it was tuned to the right opchan. He’d have to make it up as he went along. Sometimes that was the best battle plan you could manage. You had to make do with what you had.

“All squads, listen up. Here’s what we are going to do… ”