Chapter 44

Chuck

We were on the second leg of the flight going to Hawaii. We had refueled and picked up a passenger that I didn't know, and from the way John acted, he didn't know him either.

Before going to the head, I started a fresh batch of coffee then headed to the rear of the plane. Wanda told me to stop by her when I got back.

I passed John, the Marshal, and Sam Nightfox going to, and coming from, the bathroom. When I sat next to Wanda, she said, "You received a secure transmission that I've printed out. I'm sorry but I don't have any secure covers. You'll have to keep it on you until you can read it and shred it. It says, 'For your eyes only.'

Moving to another seat, I read the three page document. It didn't make any sense the first time through, so I had to read it a couple of more times. That's when I realized that page three was missing. I went to Wanda, "Wanda, there are supposed to be four pages. See if you can print out page three for me. The transmission may not be up for us anymore. If it isn't, you'll have to send an interrupted transmission memo."

Wanda logged back on and was able to print the transmission again and this time it included the third page. As soon as I read the page, I understood what the whole thing meant. I needed to brief both John and Sam Nightfox. There was nothing that said the Marshal should be briefed, but there was nothing that said he shouldn't. I would take a chance and tell him. I kept the fourth page of the message as it had a map and times printed on it.

I sat next to Sam and said to all of them. "Sam doesn't know why he's on this airplane and why he's going to Hawaii. John is in the same boat and I don't think anyone anticipated you, Marshal, would be coming along."

"John, you have a specific responsibility while we are in Hawaii and the Marshal can help. Your ability to talk to various government agencies will be important."

"Sam," I said looking at him, "I assume you brought along field clothes."

Sam nodded and said, "That was about all they told me to bring, except for my equipment."

I looked at John and said, "Sam is going to act as observer, spotter, and cover. The activity will occur tomorrow morning, but Sam and I will have to be in place tonight. We will also need to have the information you will get and give by then."

With their interest at the level necessary, I began to explain what was happening and what was expected of Sam and me. When I was done, John said, "Now that you're a part of those folks, they are going to use you a lot. This must be something strenuous or they wouldn't have brought Sam along."

I looked at John and said, "It also could mean the odds of mission completion are not that good. They need you more than me."

Sam was nodding and said, "I've been on these before, but never with someone like you, Chuck. You're like a civilian, not an ops person. With that fake leg of yours, I think I know who you are though. Your reputation is growing,"

I said, "Let's focus on the mission, as it appears to be serious enough that a lot of people could be hurt if we are unsuccessful."

The Marshal was a little ashen-faced and said, "The collateral of this is too much to even contemplate. This should be a bigger operation than just you two."

I looked at the Marshal and said, "Actually, Sir, the fewer people who know about this, the better chance we will have to complete it. Please, don't divulge any information of this to anyone. The repercussions could be very serious."

John's head snapped up and you could see the cloud come over his eyes. Just the thought of what he could be requested to do was more than he could handle. He just looked at the Marshal and said, "Say nothing to anyone. Absolutely nothing, please."

I think the Marshal got the picture and nodded. I went over what John needed to accomplish and told him to sit next to Wanda and begin using the satellite phone so we could assure ourselves that the first part was in place.

The Marshal asked, "What can I do? Anything?"

I told the Marshal, "You can stay silent and pray everything goes as planned. I may need you to intervene later, but not beforehand."

"Got it," the Marshal said.

Sam asked me, "Do you think you can make a shot like that? The way it looks and sounds, it's like somewhere around thirteen to fourteen hundred yards. That's beyond the accuracy of almost any kind of rifle."

I said, "I've never fired from that distance, but from the looks of the operation, I should have more than one shot. Probably three or four to get the hit we need."

"Man, that's still a long way," Sam said. "I wish we could get closer."

"I do too, but I don't know how. We'll see. We'll do some recon while we can. We'll get to Hawaii in the early afternoon there. We'll see what we can get to go take a look at the countryside. The group I'm with has an interest in an air charter company and we might be able to get a small plane or perhaps even a helicopter to use. I'll have my secretary call ahead to see what we can get."

John had finished his call and came back to tell me, "I talked to the highway department and they said they were going to be at the bridge working before nine. I have their frequency so we need to pick up a radio from the Service with multiple frequency capability."

Sam said, "I have two handhelds in my gear. Now I know what they are for."

"Excuse me a minute," I said. "I need Tiny to do something for me."

"Tiny, can you call Crystal or Bear to find out if I can get an aircraft or even a helicopter this afternoon. I should have it rented for at least two hours. Be sure to tell them I'm rated for rotary wing."

Tiny sat with Wanda and used the satellite phone. A few minutes later he said, "You can have either one. They said they have both an old Huey or rather a converted Huey, a Bell 210 and a 172 that are open and available."

"Thanks, Tiny, appreciate that you took care of that for me."

I told Sam, "Do yourself a favor, we're both safe, let's get a nap so we're fresh when we land. We'll stash our stuff and take off as soon as possible. We'll make your contact at the appointed time and know if this is a go or not."

I found an empty seat and put the back down as far as possible. I was asleep instantly in the mode to 'sleep while you can.' It's amazing how the body recognizes that it needs the rest for a future event. Of course, it could have been all the training I had before.

Wanda woke me gently and said we were on approach and we should put our seatbelts on. I woke Sam and he sat up smiling. My kind of guy, ready.

As soon as we landed, we were directed to a new hangar where I could see the S&S logos on the walls and floor. When the door of the G5 opened, a big lady rushed on the plane and hugged Tiny. She found Steve, then looked at me and said, "And the new owner investor, Chuck Johnson." She hugged me and said, "We have all kinds of things to show you all, but from what I heard, Chuck needs to borrow an aircraft. What do you want, Chuck? Fixed or rotary?"

I said, "How about the Huey? If it's in good condition, it would be a good useful aircraft."

Crystal said, "If you know Jimmy, then know his dad is more finicky than Jimmy is. He is so meticulous everything is perfect."

I told Crystal, "We need to put our gear somewhere secure. Is there a place here?"

Steve heard me and said, "Let us take your gear. I'll keep it secure until you're back. We're probably going to be at one of the resorts by the time you get back. Someone will bring you to us."

I looked at Sam and he nodded. The big guy, Bear gave me a handshake and a hug, then said, "How's the human target doing, you been shot lately?"

I laughed and said, "Not really. Tell me where is this Huey you are letting us test drive."

Bear pointed to an older man standing next to a Huey and said, "That guy right there will check you out. If you do the preflight correctly, you'll fly right out of here. That's how he hires pilots."

Sam and I walked over to the guy and I introduced myself to him. He said, "How could I ever forget you. You were the one getting that airplane, the B-200 and the one who helped my son get his job down in Florida. I'll not forget you son. Show me what you know about this bird so you can do whatcha got to do."

I looked for the card and reached behind the seat to see if a card was there. It was. I had already begun the shake, rattle, and roll of checking out the aircraft. I was climbing all over the aircraft, in excess of what the card required, because that is what Joy and Tank had taught me. When I was done, I remarked on the chain at the rear and he said, "Its fine with some slack. Just watch it when you do your postflight. Write it up if you think it's excessive."

I asked, "Is this where you want it when I return?"

"Put it on that platform, if you can," he said, before handing me a business card. He said, "The airport frequencies are all there, so make sure you treat this as a busy place. They'll give you a direct if you ask for it."

I told Sam, "Get in and buckle up. Put the headset on and I'll get us running and turn on the intercom."

Because I had been flying the 210 so much, I was flipping switches and listening to the turbine spooling up quickly. It's funny how you tap the same gauge lenses regardless of what kind of aircraft you're flying in. You always seem to be checking for a sticky gauge or one that is misreading.

I dialed up the tower and identified myself, "Pine Air, this is Huey 9740 ready for taxi instructions."

The tower came back with "Huey 9740, Pine Air, you're cleared to runway 18, clear and fifteen, light and variable. You're cleared for direct takeoff."

I repeated the message and lifted off, hovering slowly as I lifted to about fifteen feet. I drifted toward the runway, checking for any ground traffic. When we hit the runway, I began climbing as soon as we were going down the runway.

It only took us about forty minutes to find the exact road and terrain we were to set up on. We made approaches from both sides of where our ops point was to be. We hovered over the spot to see what kind of look we would have.

We slowly went down the side of the mountain, and then about halfway to the target area, we found a little washed out area that was almost invisible from above. Sam kept saying, "I need to get off and check it out. It looks good, but is it too good? Set down up top and let me check it out."

I said, "We don't have any protection. I can't let you go alone."

Sam pulled a Glock from his boot and said, "I'm not totally bare. Let me check out the second ops. If we can make it there, that would be a guaranteed spot."

I backed the helicopter up, set it down on top, and let Sam get out. I watched as he went down the side of the mountain without disturbing the terrain. He was an experienced field man. I watched as he checked the area in all directions and he kept disappearing in the canopy, perfect cover.

From a few hundred yards away, I watched as he made his way back up the hill with out trampling the vegetation. This was more difficult than going down.

He wasn't even puffing when he got into the Helicopter. The man was in shape. When he had his headset on, he pushed his button and said, "There weren't any tracks around the area and it doesn't look as if anyone has ever been there. That's where we will set up. Let me mark our map, but I'm not sure we should divulge our change of ops. When we meet my contact, we'll decide. You've met the people we deal with, if anything is out of the ordinary, we do the mission, but we do it our way."

"Roger that," I said, glad to have an experienced man with me.

We meandered around the bridge area and went up the highway, then out toward the water before turning back toward the airfield. When we came back to the airfield, I saw a platform with 9740 on it and knew that was where the helicopter was supposed to go. I did a Joy approach and hovered about three feet off the ground and slid gently up over the platform and dropped to it just as gently.

When the bird was shut down, I began doing the postflight inspection and was very thorough. The chain at the rear was the same so I let it slide. I looked at the aging helicopter and marveled that it was still kicking. I wondered how much action it had seen thirty-five or forty years ago.

We were walking toward the ops building when the old guy came out of the hangar. He said, "Thanks for putting the bird on the platform. That's something I can't seem to teach the tour guys to do. None of them can hover worth a shit. They're good pilots, but not great, if you know what I mean."

We shook hands and he said, "There is a car and driver waiting for you up at the ops building. Come see me before you leave. I have an old helicopter you might like."

Sam said, "I have a cell phone that I'm going to turn on when we leave this field. It's off so it can't be traced. If we can, I want to stop along the way to make the call."

We found the car and the young driver and told him we weren't in a big hurry to get back. We had him stop near a pineapple field and under a bunch of trees. Sam turned on his phone and made his call. I couldn't hear what the conversation was about, but I could see him jotting notes on his hand. He hung up the phone and shut it off.

When we were en route again, Sam said, "Let's get ready for some fun as soon as we get back. I think we'll enjoy our night and morning."

At the resort, Steve took Sam and me out to a row of cabanas and said, "I put you two out at the end here in case you need to have easy access to leave. Whatever it is, good luck and be careful. Chuck, when you have the chance, go to the office area here. You remember the place. You can find us through there."

Sam and I changed into our field clothes, complete with vests and combat vests. We loaded up with extra magazines and then I got out the fifty caliber. I said, "I don't think I need to take the 308 for this one. I'll only use explosive rounds for the truck and hope it doesn't have armor. If it does, I'll have to blast the cab."

Sam Nightfox looked me in the eye and said, "I'll bet you didn't know anything about any secondaries did you?"

"Where in the hell will they be? There won't be anything left for a quarter mile when that truck goes."

"They will be stopped at the bridge. If they get out of their car, you'll need the 308. These secondaries are very important and must be eliminated. They are as important as the truck."

I pulled the 308 out and checked it then slid it into the field case. I said, "The problem with all this is that I don't have a close up rifle. I'd feel a lot better with one."

Sam pulled out what looked like a tinker toy. It was a wadded up bunch of metal and plastic. He said, "Here, this is your present. The range officer said you would like this. Let me show you how it unfolds."

The bunch of junk became a useful looking weapon. Sam took one of his magazines and seated it then pulled the breach to chamber a round. He handed it back to me and said, "Disarm it and fold it back up. That little piece will be your backup. Note it has the single fire, burst, and full auto modes. It's accurate too. The only thing you don't have is a night scope."

I released the magazine and jacked the round out of the chamber. I pushed a release buttons and the M-16 folded up into a bunch of metal and plastic. It fit neatly into a small sack that hung from my side or belly. I swapped four magazines for my Glock for four for the M-16. We both jumped up and down to make sure we didn't jingle. Sam asked me, "Do you still have your ID?"

I said yes and pulled the chain from my T-shirt. He nodded and said, "I don't know what you're capable of with one foot, but I've been assured you won't hold me back. If we get separated, we're on our own unless we're back to back."

I nodded and we prepared to leave. Sam used his cell phone and made a call that was less than twenty seconds. He said, "We'll go to the eighteenth green and get picked up there. The course is empty and we'll be fine."

We reached the eighteenth green and almost instantly a very quiet Huey dropped to the green to let us on. There was a crewman with a door gun that gave us a hand up. We were not even sitting when the helicopter swooped away heading toward the target area. The crewman pointed to a cooler and then to his mouth. Sam opened the cooler and took out three sandwiches and three Cokes. By the time we finished with the sandwiches, we were getting ready to land near the ops site. The helicopter did a couple of sweeps in all directions to make sure there weren't any infrared signatures on the ground. When they were satisfied, we set down, and the pilot did something I didn't believe. He shut down.

When all was quiet, the pilot said, "We are screened from the horizon here and can't be seen from the road. We are to wait here until you finish your mission, then carry you back. As you see, we have some snacks and I know you have some MREs in your pack. Water is at a premium as we only have a couple of dozen bottles, and you two each have a canteen. We should be fine though. Let me do a postflight on the bird, so I know we'll takeoff."

The crewman loosely spread a camouflage net over the helicopter so it couldn't be seen from the air or from a distance.

When the pilot came back, I motioned for Sam to step outside. I said, "We should tell them that we have an alternate ops point."

Sam said, "Yeah, probably, but this is really spooky. They never do something like this. I mean, never. We do our job and they come get us. They didn't give us any alternate pickups, so that is that answer. What do you think? Do you want to trust them?"

I said, "Tell you what, we'll do our thing, and when we come back to the chopper, we'll break up and come back from two directions. The door gunner would be the one to watch out for. The pilot only has a sidearm. If the door guy fucks with his fifty, do him. If the pilot fucks with us do him too. Just don't mess up the helicopter; we need it so we can get out of here. The target could have people following that could be a problem. I'll do the truck and the secondaries, then we'll book."

I said, "I only have two magazines of seven rounds each for the fifty. All fourteen rounds are explosive. If I have to use the 308, I can fire ten rounds and reload a ten round magazine. If I have to fire that much, we're in deep trouble. I'll leave the cases in the Huey and carry the weapons in."

Sam nodded and we went back to the Huey to break out our weapons and get into position. We used the neat little hot water contraption to make some instant coffee then began getting ready for the night. I told the pilot that we found a better ops point that took a couple of minutes to get too. He gave us a frequency to use if we needed assistance. Sam dialed it into the handheld radios and gave me one.

I checked my cell to make sure it was off, then the two of us began the trek to our ops. We went off in the wrong direction, then doubled back below the ridge so they couldn't tell where we were. We went downhill quietly and were soon ensconced in the little washout covered with trees. Sam broke out his optics and sighted in to the road and the bridge. He said, "I have seven hundred to the road and seven fifty to the bridge. Can you do both without changing sight adjustments?"

I was looking at the target area through the scope of the fifty and said, "I can and will. These will be good targets but I have to remember I'm shooting down so the gravity won't affect the round as much. I have to aim a hair high."

I took out the 308 and checked the target distance and found it to be what had been called. That's when I began to sweep the entire area, looking for anything out of place or any movement. Sam was doing the same and only once did he say "Look over at my three o'clock. There's movement, what do you see?"

I put the 308 scope on the area and saw what looked like a dog playing with another dog.

I said, "If this were in the states, I say wolves or coyotes, but here I think they are wild dogs."

Sam said, "That's what it looked like to me too. I'll watch to make sure that's all it is."

I said, "I'm surprised we didn't pick them up with the infrared earlier."

"Me too." With that, I focused on the area until I saw the two dogs go into the ground. They had a burrow there. I said, "They have a dugout over there. They were probably in the ground. They didn't have collars and definitely acted wild."

I said to Sam, "Get some sleep; it's going to be a long night. We have ten hours before that truck gets here unless they come early. That, they might do."

While Sam was asleep, a car came from the east and headed west in the direction the truck was going to come from. That was the only traffic I saw. I woke Sam and I snoozed for a couple of hours, then we reversed and he slept. I went back to sleep at four and woke up at six, and noted Sam watching the dogs through his scope. He said, "I think they have pups. I've seen little heads poke out of the burrow a couple of times."