Brown, Dale - Independent 02 (36 page)

 
          
“This
tragic incident follows two other similar attacks by wellarmed and
well-organized smugglers that have used extraordinary military-like power to
kill Customs Service agents and Coast Guard patrols. In recent weeks twenty-one
men and women have been killed by these terrorists in their attempts to bring
illegal narcotics into the
United States
.
I am
determined that these attacks shall not continue.

 
          
“Under
current law I am unable to direct our military forces to attack aircraft
outside the territorial limits of the
United States
without a declaration of war, or to strike
at suspected drug smugglers in the role as law enforcers. I agree with and
respect those laws. I do nol. believe tactical military forces should be
involved in drug interdiction. They are not authorized or trained in law
enforcement, and the involvement of military forces trained for war offers
fewer options—they are trained to destroy when destruction may not be
warranted.

 
          
“Instead
... I am issuing a presidential reorganization order, effective this date, that
creates a new agency that will officially and temporarily be placed under the
Department of Defense. This new agency will be composed of air and sea
interdiction elements of the Coast Guard and Customs Service, and will retain
full authority to make arrests, conduct investigations, make searches and
perform air intercepts and arrests in international airspace and on the high
seas as well as within the United States. They will exist to secure the borders
of the
United States
. As an agency of the Department of Defense
they will also have authority to employ military weapons and tactics against
anyone considered a threat to this nation, such authority to include attacking
and destroying aircraft or vessels that penetrate or transmit American
territorial boundaries without permission, or commit a crime within American coastal
territories.

 
          
“This
new agency will be called the Border Security Force.”

 
          
The
President paused to turn a page, and to cope with the anger and frustration
that had weighed so heavily on him. This was it, he thought. He had worried—
agonized
—over this decision for weeks.
The public formation of a paramilitary organization, a unit with the powers of
both the FBI, the Coast Guard and the Air Force all rolled into one. No
President had gone this far since the Civil War. But he felt as though a
tremendous weight had been lifted off his broad shoulders. He had acted. And
just as with the Russian
Kavaznya
laser incident a year earlier, he found that action, decisive
action,
was the best response. The only
sure failure was the failure to act . . .

 
          
“This
new agency,” he went on, “will legally exist for the next ninety days under
limited authority from me as commander-in-chief. Later today we will present a
presidential reorganization plan to Congress authorizing permanent
reorganization and creation of the Border Security Force. This measure must be
approved by a simple majority of both houses of Congress. At the same time a
bill will be presented on the floor of the Senate that will create a permanent
Cabinet-level Secretary of Border Security Forces, making it a separate
government department with authority in its area equal to the Department of
Defense. This measure already has the support of the Senate minority leadership
and key congressional leaders. I urge and expect swift passage of this measure.

 
          
The
President paused, looked up from his papers directly into the camera. “In plain
English, my fellow Americans, this means that the
United States
will no longer tolerate smugglers,
terrorists, armed aggressors or any other unidentified or uninvited vessels or
aircraft to cross our borders or airspace. Actually we’ve had laws on the books
for years, but we have never believed we could enforce them because our borders
were so vast, not to mention our bureaucracies. Well, as of today we will begin
to enforce those laws.

 
          
“If
you are a smuggler, if you are a terrorist, if you attempt to enter this
country without permission, we will find you, and we will intercept you. You
can expect to be taken into custody and placed under arrest until your identity
is verified. If you attempt to evade our patrols or ignore our warnings, you
will be attacked and you will be destroyed before you cross our shores.

 
          
“Some
of you might be concerned about accidents, of our patrols attacking innocent
persons, especially Americans traveling by air. I have shared that concern, so
much so that I delayed implementing this program for several weeks. I am sorry
it took the death of Commissioner Ronald Gates and five brave Customs Service
agents before I acted. I have carefully reviewed the regulations to be put into
effect, and I believe that this program will minimally impact on law-abiding
persons who follow the rules and who are not trying to evade the law. I feel
confident that this plan will work. It
must
work.

 
          
“We
have dealt with the situation as a law-enforcement matter. No longer. We will
now use the full power of the American government and all the resources at our
disposal to control access to our shores and apprehend anyone trying to escape
our justice. With your support, we can make this plan work. Thank you very
much, and God bless you.” And God help me, he silently added.

 
          
Hammerhead
One Staging Platform, 0700 Hours

 
          
Six Months Later

 
          
The huge CONVERTED
oil platform had
undergone an amazing rejuvenation. Hardcastle was on his way to his first
inspection of the platform in weeks, flying out from the Border Security
Force’s new headquarters center at
Alladin City
,
Florida
, to the platform sixty miles to the southeast in the
Straits of Florida
. Although the new Border Security Force’s
commander of the first air-operations base had been receiving daily briefings
on the progress of the new base, he was told she’d be amazed at the platform’s
refurbishment.

 
          
A
huge thunderstorm was sitting on the horizon in front of him, but it was
dwarfed for the moment by his thoughts of the breakneck days after the
President’s historic announcement of the formation of the Border Security Force
when the country seemed about to split itself apart, or rather the noisier
opposition forces made it seem that way.

 
          
It
was a miracle that the Border Security Force survived the first ninety days. It
seemed every organization with access to a microphone or camera was telling
America
that the Border Security Force was a bad
idea. Civil rights groups, aviation lobbies, commerce organizations, even
travel and trade groups were going on record with their very vocal opposition.
They felt that the presence of an armed border force would result in panic, a
dramatic loss of trade, accidental deaths, and international condemnation. It
was instantly compared to Communist internal security police and
Russia
’s Border Guards, paramilitary groups that
were in place as much to keep their population
in
as to keep enemies out.

 
          
The
personal attacks were even worse. Hardcastle’s divorce was fair game for
nightly news broadcasts and the so-called “tabloid” news shows, and even the
fact that Sandra GefiFar was a national pistol champion seemed to be a negative
as reporters portrayed her as an ultra right-wing survivalist gunslinger.
GefiFar, Hardcastle, Elliott, even young McLanahan, who had only appeared with
Elliott once before Congress, were all carefully scrutinized by the press. The
rumors were especially wild as the press quoted several “reports from unnamed
sources” that Elliott and McLanahan had almost single-handedly started World
War Three.

 
          
But
despite the initial furor, overall public opinion about the need and usefulness
of the Border Security Force was generally positive. There was little sympathy
for persons who flew regularly from the
Bahamas
or
Central America
to
Florida
—most persons believed they were rich folks
complaining that the government was interfering with their playtime. The press,
assisted by numerous and frequent interviews by Hardcastle, Elliott, and
GefiFar, picked up on reports that smugglers were going to bypass the southeast
and import their drugs elsewhere—it simply meant that the program, at least in
their estimation, was working already.

 
          
Of
course, GefiFar and Hardcastle played a few tricks as well. The Sea Lion
tilt-rotor aircraft with the missiles and machine guns on board was carefully
hidden away, and they had explained that putting weapons on board Border
Security Force aircraft was still “a ways off.” The Sky Lion drone with its
benign bug-like appearance was demonstrated frequently flying over friendly
fishermen and happy families on Sunday outings, wagging its wings and buzzing
around good-naturedly like a friendly hummingbird; while the sinister, deadly-looking
Seagull drone was also carefully left out of the news reports.

 
          
Most
importantly, however, no one had died since the group was formed. All of the
complaints that the Border Security Force was going to cause hundreds of
deaths, millions of dollars in damage and billions of dollars in lost revenues
and lawsuits against the government began to fall on deaf ears. The polls said
that most Americans favored the existence of the Hammerheads—a name that was
also not too widely publicized at first—and everyone involved with the Border
Security Force trotted those polls through every office on Capitol Hill.

 
          
The
Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, at the gentle but insistent urging of
the Vice President, sent the measure to the Senate Subcommittee on Military
Affairs. Many believed this was the beginning of the end of the
Hammerheads—they were sure the plan would get bogged down in rhetoric and
pork-barrel add-ons by the subcommittee’s members. Instead, it was a ploy by
the White House to gather more high-powered support for the measure. The plan
was greeted with enthusiasm by the prestigious subcommittee, which praised it
lavishly before voting in the affirmative and sending it back to Governmental
Affairs. It eventually went back to the full Senate, which passed the
President’s Border Security Force reorganization plan on the first vote.

 
          
The
House, which looked more carefully at the program’s five- billion-dollar price
tag, and the opposition party in particular, which wanted to keep the White
House from scoring such a dramatic victory, kept the measure in the House
Committee on Government Operations right up to the maximum seventy-five day
limit, then allowed it to be sent back automatically to the House floor without
a vote. The opposition tried to kill the plan right then, or at least delay it
past the maximum ninety-day time limit, but the provisions of Title Five,
chapter 9, paragraph 911, were clear—committee
approval
was not necessary before presentation to Congress, only
committee
review.
Committee discharge
was not grounds for disapproval.

 
          
The
full House debate on the measure then went far over the maximum ten-hour time
limit—in fact, it went a full fourteen days past the debate time limit—but
finally the question was called. The Speaker of the House tried one last tactic
to kill the measure—a voice vote, where the Speaker’s ear would decide whether
the “ayes” or “nays” carried. At the very least, the outcry that usually
followed such a blatant device of the Rules of Order would push the session
past the fast-approaching ninety-day limit. But the roll-call vote was quickly
proposed, seconded and accomplished by a weary and frayed House of
Representatives.

 
          
It
was not a resounding affirmation, but it did pass. The Hammerheads became an
official reality. Now, it was up to Elliott, Geffar and the rest of the
Hammerheads to make the new organization a success.

 
          
That
day was happening.

 
          
Hardcastle
was at the controls of a former Coast Guard Dolphin helicopter. Its distinctive
Coast Guard red diagonal stripes had been removed and replaced with the
Hammerheads’ insignia—a hammerhead shark with wings, the same one Hardcastle
had made up—on the helicopter’s nose, along with electroluminescent strip
lights on the sides that highlighted the sixteen-inch-high words: FOLLOW ME.

           
“Shark, this is Hammerhead
Two-Five,” Hardcastle called in. “Request one trip around the base, then
landing on main elevator. Over.”

 
          
“Zero-Five,
this is Shark. Request approved. Remain clear of southeast side. Report when
ready for landing.”

 
          
The
platform looked larger than before. The west side now had a row of three
circular landing pads that projected out over the edge of the platform, which
helped preserve deck space; each pad was large enough for a Sea Lion tilt-rotor
aircraft and all other helicopters in the active military or civilian
inventory. A ramp led from each pad onto the main deck. On the west side of the
main deck inboard of the center landing pad was a large aircraft elevator that
moved aircraft from the main deck down to the hangars and maintenance shops
directly below. Ballpark lights, huge banks of high-powered sodium lights on
tall poles, were arranged around the elevator and parking areas for night
operations and could be raised, lowered or aimed.

 
          
In
the center of the platform was the launch-and-recovery facility for the Sky
Lion and Seagull drones. The Sky Lion drones, being tilt-rotor aircraft like
their larger cousins, could be launched and recovered automatically just like
any other chopper.

 
          
The
above-deck operations building was in the center of the platform, a two-story
steel-and-glass structure that served as the maintenance operations
headquarters, crew lounge and pre-launch hangar for the drones. Hardcastle
noticed that the Hammerhead insignia had been painted on both the north and
south sides of the building, and the biggest American flag he had ever seen was
flapping lazily on a roof-mounted mast.

 
          
At
the apex next to the maintenance center was the electronic- landing-system
transmitter. The ELS provided a side radio beam that guided the Seagull drones
to the platform; once locked onto the beam the drones would follow it right
into the recovery corral, where arresting cables on the deck and a large nylon
mesh backstop net snared the drone.

 
          
The
northeast side of the platform had a four-story air-traffic-control and
security tower. This was also where most of the station’s radio, radar,
data-link and sensor antennae were located. The central- and southeast sides of
the platform carried the most unusual part of the entire facility—HIGHBAL,
Hammerhead Initial Balloon, the aerostat radar balloon launch-and-recovery
area. One hundred fifty feet long and seventy feet at its widest, it carried an
RCA AN/APS- 128 sea- and air-scanning radar that could search for surface and
low-flying air targets out to almost two hundred miles, and for higher-flying
targets out to three hundred miles. HIGHBAL also carried data-link
communications equipment for the Hammerheads’ fleet of remote-controlled
drones. Using the aerostat alone, the drones could operate at patrol altitudes
out to two hundred miles from the platform; if a data-link could be established
between the platform and other ground- or sea-based radars, the drone’s
operating range was limited only by the drone’s own fuel supplies.

 
          
HIGHBAL
was flying this morning up to its maximum altitude of fourteen thousand
feet—nearly three miles up. At that altitude it had a sea-scanning range of
about one hundred-fifty miles and an air- target scanning range of up to two-hundred
miles. Of course, the dark, towering thunderstorms off to the south and west
reduced that range but most smugglers didn’t want to fly through a
Caribbean
thunderstorm.

 
          
“Shark,
this is Two-Five,” Hardcastle called in. “I’ve completed my orientation. Ready
for landing.”

 
          
“Two-Five,
this is Shark,” the controller aboard the platform replied. “Cleared to land on
center deck.”

 
          
“Roger.
Center deck for Two-Five.”

 
          
Geffar
opened the cockpit door for him as the Dolphin helicopter’s rotors spun down after
landing. “Welcome aboard.”

 
          
They
rode down with the Dolphin helicopter to the main hangar deck, where crewman
immediately wheeled the helicopter off the elevator and began to unload the
supplies she had brought. The hangar occupied one-fourth of the entire volume
of the platform— three stories high and nearly an acre in total area. Three
V-22C Sea Lion aircraft or four Black Hawk helicopters could be parked below.
The drone shop was also there, where the small chase-and-reconnais- sance
planes were serviced—the drones were stored in shelves that rose all the way to
the top of the three-story ceiling, and were moved with forklifts.