Chapter 19: War Council

Friday August 1

Morning: The Mansion

Evening: The Pablo

Morning

I had called a war council for 8 in the morning with Tony, Jax, Uncle Martin and Irene at the mansion. I wanted to hear their ideas as a group and work out a timeline. Training had to start soon, the ship and the Panama Canal set the endpoint, when we had to be fully ready to go.

The plan was that Friday evening we would invite selected members with relevant skills to a group meeting at the Pablo, when we would lay out the threat and ask for volunteers. There was no time to waste.

The problem was Tony and Jax together. As my warlord, Jax has a hard time letting go of enemies, and with the turn in our negotiations he had to view Tony as the enemy-in-chief. Also, getting Jax to my mansion always got him on edge, because he had to be bagged. So after he gathered some records I had Irene pick him up with Rojas and Felipe. Once he arrived it took another 15 minutes to get him settled down.

Tony was a steadier person. I needed him as a source, but I could not have him in the room with Jax. So we made do with a one-way mirror and some voice-altering electronics. I also asked Tony to speak Spanish, further disguising his voice.

When everyone was present I laid out the nightmare Aztex plan. For the meeting I had some better satellite photos to go with the maps. I spent a few minutes on the party details. Jax had read the initial report but hearing the hard details and seeing pictures drove it home - this was really happening, 150 or more suicidal maniacs with automatic weapons were coming to kill him. Then I wondered aloud how we might stop them. I looked at Jax.

Jax thought a bit. “We have pilots in the gang ... maybe airplanes and bombs?”

“Bombs good, airplanes bad. Mexico might respond, and in any event the 100% results we need would be an issue. But bombs are part of our response.”

“What about poison?” Jax asked. “Chemical bombs...” He was off track.

“Those are not precise and fall into the ‘mass destruction’ category so the chemicals could and would be traced. Also, we don’t have time for the R + D we need.”

With a nod from me Irene laid out the plan - killing 200 folks from a distance measure in hundreds of yards, using terrible but very conventional weapons - mortars. Jax knew what they were, the idea had come up in his talk last night. She had a mortar and dummy round along. She left out the details on raining steel and fire for now, Jax had dated some Aztex girls in high school. “The shells will trace to a failed African warlord of a decade ago, a firm in Brazil that will say they sold them to a loser so anybody could have them by now.”

Jax wondered about Irene, who had arrived in town less than two months ago, “How do you know such things?” he asked.

“I say I know and am believed. Check your macho ego or my Prince will need a new warlord,” she answered.

I shrugged that I agreed with her, Jax could be a problem and right now I didn’t need that.

“So, what do we need first?” I asked.

Martin and Jax saw the same need, we needed some hard recon and we needed it now. Any connection to Mexico or Central America was a potential problem, given the corruption and criminal activity possible, you never knew who would betray you by intent or accident. Planes were good for final updates, but for now they added nothing to the sat photos. So we decided on a pair of “tourist” type male-female groups renting boats in South Texas, using paragliders, drones, and scuba gear to get a look at the area. Jax had to talk with the Nerds about the drone, they could ship a Red Cloud by air tomorrow for pickup at Padre Island. These people had to get on location soon.

Jax suggested an older couple to run things. “A range of ages looks more legit, parents and kids.”

I agreed.

The next issue, at Martin’s insistence, was an operational timeline. I had figured putting a ship offshore August 29 or 30 was good enough, but Martin insisted on being there a week earlier, to test the transport, fire targeting equipment, plant mines and cameras, etc. for both the primary plan and plan “B.” Tony chimed in that Aztex site prep was the weekend before, spreading poison on the ground and in the air, then they exited for a couple of days while the poison worked. So we had a few days of clear space for test shots and leaving Easter Eggs for evil folk.

Jax asked for more detail. He thought of this as a baseball field and wondered what prep was needed.

Tony laid out the party prep timetable. The Aztexs started the weekend before partygoers arrived, a crew of regulars came down to fog the area, spread pesticide, and clear the grounds of nasties, using sealed tractors. They used what he called a combination lawn-mower and wood chipper to clear a summer of grass growth and any snakes hiding in the grass. They had two tractors in a sealed shed, he pointed it out on the photo. The crew was only there for the weekend, while the poison was fresh it was not healthy to stay longer. Tony suggested we use the opportunity Monday or Tuesday between the sight prep and the party weekends to stroll in, lift some poison for ourselves, plant some claymores, cameras and a radar tracking unit, plus do some ranging practice on the target from the firing zone. Maybe we could collect the shells so no evidence was left.

I pointed out the plane with the VIPs was landing Thursday in the parking lot. We didn’t need to cut it close.

“Plane?Parking lot? Do you mean Helicopter?” Jax asked.

“They have a 10 person airplane called a Kodiak that can land and take off in that field. Figure it is worth $2 million and they won’t need it afterward. The Patron can supply a pilot.”

“Won’t they have cars in the lot?”

Tony explained how they camped next to their cars and went to the party pretty much naked, leaving keys in their cars.

I said, “They will compensate us for our trouble with what is left behind. This is important work, but it is not done for free.”

“Firing zones,” Martin corrected, brings us back to what was relevant. He insisted that Plan “B” had to be fully readied, including test firings, claymores and sensors. “We fire from, and prepare for the jungle as well as the road. We will need elevations.”

Beyond the one refinement Martin got behind Tony’s idea, Tony’s addition of the the claymores and cameras was a new and clever wrinkle, I guess it came up talking with Irene. As military types they were not used to “prepping” a large killing zone, but they were 100% behind it when they heard it. Martin did suggest a “dry run with the vehicle, in case of obstacles.”

Jax knew what a claymore was, he just didn’t expect me to have them handy. “Well, I only have a handful in LA, but getting more is easy,” I said, checking the Patron’s inventory. I would use some that traced back to Venezuela or Guatemala. Both lots were ending their storage life.

Tony volunteered for the Monday poison-stealing/recon mission. Jax had his own 2 nominees, one a former Ranger and the other a marine. I would talk to both.

“Maybe, if poison is an issue, we want different folks Monday and Tuesday.” Irene said. “I’ll backup Tuesday, your spotter needs a good shot for solo or group work.”

The most important feature was the timetable and we spent some time on that. Jax was out-of-his-depth when I talked about freighters, he knew I got my product from someplace, and he didn’t see the 96% of the Patron’s business that was outside LA, but he really had no idea of the scale of the operation. It was safer that way.

To get on location the Sunday night a week before the party the ship needed to leave LA on August 17, my Cousins had a reservation at the Canal for fast passage. People and equipment had to be on board on that date. That gave us two weeks on the ground, minus travel time, to train folks in the mortars and other equipment. Training would be in the dessert. Some training - sidearms, coms, tracking radar - could take place in transit. It was now Friday, our people would have to be at training camp by Sunday night. We had doctors who could write medical notes for the people employed, talking about something potentially infectious, allowing them to keep their jobs while they were gone a month.

The biggest issue was training on the vehicle. One “Jungle Taxi” was at the training location.

“What ‘jungle taxi’ are you talking about?” Jax and Tony asked at the same time in two languages. They were getting in sync.

I said it was like a bulldozer-SUV, and left it at that. Tony immediately volunteered that he had some bulldozer experience, driving in tight quarters at a construction job. That was good news.

But the bigger “vehicle” needed to be packed up in Long Beach, taken to the dessert, used for some nighttime driver training, and then get back to Long Beach for loading on the ship. Rojas and Felipe were already reading the 49 member files, looking for folks with some experience.

As it happened, I was scheduled to take part in a dramatic production titled “Eric Marries Abril” the weekend the ship left Long Beach. Right after the ceremony Irene and I had another live fire engagement in Peru, using folks from both of my families to settle a dispute with some greedy people who requested our intervention. If Irene’s “False FBI” plan worked for the Five we expected to take all these folks to the Colony so they could answering various questions and signing over everything they owned, then make their personal conservation contribution to “Save The Baby Condors,” at the Tribe’s special Buzzard’s Buffet. I would be there for a few days talking to people who would be well hydrated.

Of course, if the Five selected Irene’s plan “B” with the recoilless rifles leading to fire and screaming there might not be anybody important to question, and I would be back sooner.

Then at the end of August, when this operation was raining fire and death on the Crystal Aztexs in Yucatan, I would be at the law firm’s multi-day holiday party where one or more of my future good partners was likely to screw Abril while I showed some partner’s wife what she was missing in bed. Living a dual life keeps me a busy guy.

Jax and Tony did not need all those details, so I just told them the dates I had other obligations coming up. I did not even mention the wedding to Abril, because after all, it was a staged performance and not a real wedding.

During the talk we did not say “APC,” “M113” or “Tank.” We talked about mortars, but Jax was shaky enough that I did not want to expose him to the other ideas just yet.

After The Morning Meeting

When the morning meeting ended we had Jax organize a review/background check of several lists of 49 members who Rojas and Felipe thought had potential. Jax kicked a dozen off the list because they could not take off for the month the job required, had physical issues, or were tied up with something else. Then he got a conference call with his security team talking about who was left. This included April, in her security job she got all the gossip. Now that was useful. When they were done Jax and I called the rest individually to an evening discussion.

Jax took the opportunity to ask me about Irene, he was not used to women who acted like they had killed folks in hand-to-hand combat. I just hit the high points: knife fight with corrupt MPs including one cut in the worst way, rising to chief sergeant of a SAM missile group, all the hardware of which was now listed as missing, including all the command and weapon vehicles. Also, she was my cousin, and descended from a Nazi sub executive officer.

One other thing, I said I was not sure who was deadlier, Irene or Tango. “Tango is very good with a rifle. She is very good with knives and guided missiles.”

Any one of these facts would have surprised Jax, the combination had him speechless.

“Some advice ... maybe you should tamp down the attitude in her presence, scars might not look good on your face and she carves very fast.”

We went back to the lists.

My top priority was people with skills driving a tank or an APC. Shooting a mortar could be learned. I got the list of folks with driving experience.

After the invites I called the “Cousins” to tie down a few details about the ship. The one I wanted, the Tuska Maru, was a gray ship, doing legitimate work but available for special projects. (The Q-ship was “black” meaning it could never enter a regular port or canal.) Tuska had a heavy crane plus a “drive on/off” cargo bay. The ship was on a short legit job in the Bay area, when it was done I ordered it to a pier at Long Beach. We would start loading in 10 days. In the meantime I got the tank crated so it could be hauled tomorrow night to the dessert factory where it was originally reconditioned. There the drivers could practice in it and another of my M113s. Once everything including the tank was loaded the ship would sail to the Yucatan Peninsula on schedule.

Some of our tech people started to make firing grid maps of the area using mapping programs. Others got on the weather, tides and the seas for August 30. We needed eyes on the place, so I also called the potential scouts who would use hang-gliders and paragliders pulled by a boat.

I had sent a pair of the Red Cloud drones to use on the Five in Peru, but after that op I could ship them by airplane and get them to the Tuska while it was in Panama.

Based on phone conversations, I sent out the first group of scouts that afternoon with just the rough co-ordinates. They were a older couple with experience on the water (ex-navy) along with some young folks with hand-glider experience. “Treat it like a vacation. Fly to south Texas, rent a cabin cruiser and a cigarette boat as a tow boat for a towed hand-glider. Use cameras. Get an idea of local land and ocean traffic. Do not touch dry land in Mexico for any reason. You will be contacted by cousins on station.” They were issued military-grade com units that we acquired from Chile.

Once some of the facts went out with our phone calls, people started to spitball Ideas back. They were stumped by the jungle, with only their own experience and no knowledge of my inventory the clever vets figured that mortar fire from the sea was one way to go. Several offered “Commodore Hornblower” bomb ketch references. Others suggested raft designs for the mortars, figuring that weapon recoil needed for the range would tear up a regular boat. (They had that right.) The trouble was, you needed a pretty heavy mortar to reach the pyramid more than two miles from the ocean, and at that range accuracy dropped plus the rate-of-fire opened the door to people escaping. Also, the rounds from those weapons got us to the ‘mass destruction’ area of things that would be traced. We had rejected that option in favor of the M2 mortar which pitched at a shorter range. Besides the US these are used by Mexico and a variety of other nations.