Chapter 24

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Elmore Henry

Lieutenant, Marine Platoon Leader, 6’-0’’ tall, 180 pounds, 26 years old, short blond hair, hazel eyes

General Janya

Police Commander, 5’-6’’ tall, 140 pounds, 46 years old, short black hair, brown eyes

Visothirith Nguon

Prime Minister, 5’-9’’ tall, 170 pounds, 48 years old, black hair, brown eyes

Colonel Pham

Director of Intelligence Department, 5’-7’’ tall, 135 pounds, 34 years old, short black hair, brown eyes

A short time later, Natalie and Clare approached us. Clare was in the lead, and Natalie was carrying the youngest male cub, who was asleep. Clare reached us first.

“Sad!” she sent as she licked Trish’s hand just as the female cub had.

“Yes, sad,” Trish sent to her just as Natalie reached us.

“Are you two okay?” she asked looking at the tears on Trish’s face.

“Yes, just too much time spent thinking,” she told the older woman.

“Yeah, that can be a bad thing at times,” she agreed but went no further.

“Let’s head back. We still have an operation to plan,” Trish told us. We both rose then and joined Natalie and Clare. I called Bob and Susie to wake them. They soon appeared along with their three Kits. We loaded into our Operation trucks and drove back to the compound.

Following taking care of our Partners, I retired to the S-3 and had Joel get out the maps of the main continent. New Phnom Penh was a good 1,600 km or about 1,000 miles from New Bangkok. It was also located further south on the continent than New Bangkok was. It was an inland city but was located on the ‘Mekong River’. It was a huge river that flowed south from the northern mountains of the main continent. Joel had a remark after looking at what I was planning.

“There isn’t any way that we can drive that far here,” he told me.

“You are correct,” I admitted. “We will need to use another means to travel to New Phnom Penh, and there is no way that we can move any of those assault vehicles by commercial air. They just don’t have anything large enough here to carry them. Additionally, there will be three of them if we take an entire platoon, and that’s in addition to our Operation vehicles,” I told him.

“Vehicles, as in more than one?” he asked, picking up on what I had said.

“Yes, I think so. I believe this is a two Team job. There are too many unanswered questions about the southern continent. From the map, it appears that the city of Sihanoukville is the southernmost large city on the main continent and the nearest one to the southern continent. We will need to see if there are planes that can fly to the southern continent from there and return,” I told him.

“How would they know where to land?” he asked. “There aren’t any maps of the southern continent,” he added.

“I know. I’ll need to talk to the satellite people on the Churchill. They should have satellite images of it by now. They’ve been here long enough for that,” I told him.

“Mind if I come with you?” he asked.

“Not a problem,” I told him, as we headed for commo. Sergeant Dohla was on duty when we reached there.

“Good afternoon, sir. Can we do something for you?” he asked as we entered.

“Yes, Dohla, I need to contact the Operations section of the Churchill. Actually, the Satellite Control people in their G-3,” I told him.

“Not a problem, sir,” he told me as he turned to his equipment.

“First Mobile commo to Churchill commo. Come in. Over.”

“First Mobile commo, this is Churchill commo. Send your message. Over.”

“Churchill, First Mobile. Our S-3 needs to speak to your Operations people. Specifically, the Satellite Control people. Over.

“First Mobile, Churchill. Hold one while we contact them. Wait.” The radio went quiet for a couple of minutes.

“First Mobile, this is the Satellite Control Center. What is your question? Over,” was heard then.

“Satellite Control, First Mobile. Captain Jensen wishes to speak to you. Transferring mike to him.”

“Satellite Control, this is Captain Jensen, S-3 for First Mobile. Is it possible to get some pictures of the southern continent? We need to plan an operation there and there are no maps of it. Over,” I sent to them. There was a long pause before we received an answer.

“Captain Jensen, this is Lieutenant Commander Denny. I’m the Satellite Operations Officer. Unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain any pictures of the southern continent other than a vague outline of it against the ocean.

“I realize this may sound strange, but we have tried everything at our command and have had no luck. We’ve tried all of the optical bands from infrared to ultraviolet, radar, lasers, and even old fashion photography on a special satellite, all with no results. We have also gotten no readings an any of the radio frequencies or the television channels, nor any energy readings. It’s like it’s a black hole. Nothing comes out. We have no idea why or how this is possible as we have had no trouble mapping everything else on the remainder of Owen’s World with no trouble whatsoever. Over.”

“Thank you, Commander. We were afraid that might be the case. The locals have been here for over 250 years, and they have no maps or photographs of it either. Thank you again. First Mobile Out,” I told him, turning to look at Joel.

“That isn’t possible!” he said. “They are supposed to be primitive farmers,” he added.

“Whatever they are, apparently they are able to defeat our best and most advanced equipment,” I told him.

“Thank you, Dohla. At least, we tried,” I said before we left. Joel went back to S-2, while I headed for the Colonel’s office. I found Trish sitting at her desk and staring at the wall.

“Are you all right?” I asked when she hadn’t moved when I entered. She exhaled heavily.

“Yes, I’m all right, or at least as all right as I’m going to be,” she told me turning to look at me.

“I tried to get some satellite pictures of the southern continent. I talked to the head guy at Satellite Control. They don’t have any. Apparently, they have tried every means available to them, and haven’t gotten more than a rough outline of the continent in the water. No pictures, no radio or television, and no energy readings,” I told her.

“And these are supposedly primitive people,” she said. “Someone is pulling our chain. Remember that those at my old university told me that there had been no studies of those supposedly primitive people. It is only possible for a very advanced race to be able to do something like that,” she told me. “The question is, ‘why would they do that’?” she finished.

“My thoughts exactly. Getting us near there is going to be a major operation. Once we’re in New Phnom Penh, we can see if there is a plane or a boat that can take us to the southern continent. I don’t believe that we will be able to take the Marines with us. We may need to leave them in Cambodia while our Team tries to reach the southern continent,” I told her.

“You don’t think that those there will be aggressive then?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but if they are as advanced as they appear to be, they may not be. Anyway, we have our Magic to protect us,” I told her.

“Who are you considering taking?” she asked.

“Obviously, Tiger Team and I believe Jaguar Team. They haven’t been on an Operation yet, while the other Teams have. Additionally, Kaera may be a unique experience for them,” I told her.

“All right, and the Marines?” she asked.

“I was going to suggest the platoon that provided security at the Wat. They have spent most of their time here on guard duty and might enjoy really getting out for a change,” I told.

“The Wat wasn’t much of a break for them, was it?” she asked.

“No, it was pretty much what they had been doing the entire time they have been here,” I agreed.

“All right, how many shuttles are you looking at? I presume that is how you intend to reach New Phnom Penh,” she asked.

“I was looking at five shuttles. Three for the Marine Platoon’s vehicles, and two for our Operation vehicles. We’ll need to see about food for us and the Partners in addition to the Marines. We’ll also need fuel for the vehicles and possibly a place for the Marines to stay while we try to reach the southern continent,” I told her.

“We may need a sixth shuttle and one of the spare assault vehicles. We’ll need a radio operator, a cook, and probably Della to do the purchasing plus one or maybe two interpreters,” she told me. I exhaled heavily on hearing this.

“You’re correct. It’s looking like six shuttles or three shuttles making two trips each. I’m not really in favor of that though,” I told her.

Over the next three days, we got everything arranged for the Phnom Penh Operation. Everything but the shuttles that is! The unloading of the contaminated cargoes had already started, and shuttles were at a premium ... even Marine assault shuttles. It seemed that the Admiral had volunteered the use of some of the assault shuttles to help unload the cargoes and return them to the planet ... The remainder were held ready for use by the Marines to check arriving ships.

Finally after much work, I was able to arrange for six shuttles to move us to Phnom Penh. It seemed that the ground warehouses in all of the major cities were full of not only the returned cargoes, but also rice and other products that had been waiting to be shipped.

At the operations meeting that afternoon, we were joined by Lieutenant Norfolk and the Platoon Leader and the Platoon Sergeant of the platoon accompanying us to Phnom Penh. After laying out all of the details for the trip, there was a discussion of the order of departure the next day.

“What order will we be departing in?” the Platoon Leader asked.

“I had planned it to be the same as the order of march,” I told him. “First squad, Tiger Team, Second squad, Jaguar Team, the extra assault vehicle, and finally third squad,” I told him to a frown from him.

“Have you considered sending first and second squads before the other vehicles and ending with third squad?” the Platoon Leader, a Lieutenant, asked. He was 6’-0’’ tall, about 180 pounds, and 26 years old with short blond hair and hazel eyes.

“Do you believe that level of protection is necessary?” the Colonel asked.

“I believe that it is wise to be prepared for any eventually,” the Platoon Leader answered.

“All right, that’s not much of a change. We’ll do it the Lieutenant’s way. Has the airfield at Phnom Penh been alerted to our arrival?” the Colonel asked next.

“Yes sir, Churchill commo has alerted them to our arrival tomorrow,” Greg told us.

“Good, everyone check that your vehicles are loaded and prepared to leave. We’ll load up in the morning and await the arrival of the shuttles,” the Colonel told everyone before the meeting broke up.

After checking all of our vehicles and the Partners, Trish and I retired to her room for a very enjoyable night of love and sex. She was still trying to adjust to the deep desire that she had developed for a child or children.

The next morning, we were up early and had breakfast before going to feed our Partners. This was followed by checking on our vehicles again to ensure that we had everything, and the vehicles were ready. Della drew the fuel cards from Captain Rodeo and handed them out for the trip. The cook was traveling with Jaguar Team, and the radio operator was traveling with Tiger Team. Greg would be traveling with first Squad, the Platoon Leader with Second Squad, and the Gunny would be with Third Squad. Della and the new Translator, Saman Somsuk, who spoke excellent Khmer, would be traveling in the extra assault vehicle with the additional food and supplies.

The first shuttle arrived just after 0800. The First Squad’s vehicle was quickly loaded and it took off. The second shuttle arrived 10 minutes later, was loaded and also quickly took off. The third shuttle didn’t arrive for nearly 20 minutes after the second had taken off. The crew quickly loaded our Operation vehicle, tied it down expertly, and we were off nearly as quickly as the previous shuttles had been.

We arrived over the Phnom Penh airport an hour plus later. We could see that it was a large modern airport with several runways. Much to my surprise, we learned that the first shuttle was just now in the process of landing. Was something wrong, I wondered? The pilot broke into my thoughts just then.

“Captain Jensen, there is a call for you on our channel two from the Liaison,” he told me. I switched channels on my helmet radio, as did the others on our Team.

“This is Jensen,” I said.

“Cleve, there was a little problem when we arrived,” Greg’s voice told me.

“Problem?”

“They wouldn’t allow us to land. They had gotten the message from the Churchill, but had a hostage situation in progress. A group of guerrillas had tried to take some passengers hostage, but the police had stopped then. The guerrillas had retreated to a large hangar where the rest of their group waited and had taken it over. The cops and the airport security forces couldn’t flush them out as they had heavy weapons and rockets in there. They threatened to destroy a number of planes unless they were given transportation to an undisclosed destination. The tower wasn’t allowing anyone to land because of this.

“I talked to the police and the head of the security forces here while we circled and convinced them that when the second shuttle arrived, we would strafe the hangar and on landing, the Marines in their assault vehicles would clear the hangar of what was left of the guerrillas. We needed to wait for the second shuttle and for the police and security forces to withdraw their people to a safe distance.

“You and the others will need to circle for a short time until we have things mopped up,” Greg finished.

“Roger, Greg. Be careful,” I sent to him as the first shuttle touched down and taxied out of the way so the second shuttle could land. We circled for a time while the Marines unloaded the assault vehicles and moved toward the now shot up hangar. The Colonel and the other Team members had heard our conversation so they knew what was going on.

“Cleve, take Bob and Susie to check for anyone who may have escaped from the hangar after we land,” Trish told me, as she and Joel prepared Samson and Sara to deploy as soon as we landed and the vehicle was unloaded. Our shuttle followed the second shuttle in after a time. It had already moved off the runway.

Our shuttle moved over to a taxiway where we were unloaded after it stopped. Joel drove us over to the hangar where the Marines’ assault vehicles were. Approaching the hangar, we could see that the assault vehicles had blown the big doors off of it. The Marines were checking the bodies of the dead guerrillas to ensure that they were dead and not playing possum. Greg approached as we stopped.

“They were some real bad people,” he told us as we unloaded. “As we approached, they fired a couple of rockets at us through the holes in the hangar doors from our strafing them. The vehicle’s defensive systems knocked them down, and then both vehicles fired a pair of rockets and blew the doors off the hangar. The guerrillas must have been massed behind the doors to try to escape. When we blew the doors up, it took out all of the guerrillas behind them. We’ve counted 24 dead,” he told us.

“Are we sure that is all of them?” the Colonel asked.

“We think so,” Greg answered.

“Cleve, send Bob and Susie out to see if they can pick up any scents of someone escaping,” Trish told me just before she and Joel released Samson and Sara for a recon flight.

Bob took the left side of the hangar and Susie took the right side, but they didn’t pick up any scents until we reached the back of the hangar. There was a small personnel door in the large sliding doors there, and they both picked up a scent on checking the area near it.

“Two people move here. Smell blood. We follow,” Bob sent to me.

“One female,” Susie sent to me as they both moved out following the scent of the two people and the blood. I checked my weapon as we moved.