Brown, Dale - Independent 02 (98 page)

 
          
Elliott
was shaking his head.

 
          
“General,
I feel strong enough about this to request a leave of absence and fly down
there myself.”

 
          
Elliott
said, “It’s a suicide mission—”

 
          
“I
disagree, but I’d like a little backup when I get down there. I’ll do without,
though, if that’s how you want it.”

 
          
“If
you really think Van Nuys can be turned, we’ll send someone else—maybe use the
DEA agent in place down there—”

 
          
“You
know that won’t work. The contact would be blown, Salazar would kill the
contact and take off, and Van Nuys would disappear too. I’ll have an advantage
over anyone else you can think of.” “And more disadvantages,” Elliott said.
“You’d be going in there with no support, your face is known, you’re not a
hundred percent fit—”

 
          
“General,
like I said and you know, we lose our best opportunity to get Salazar if we
pass this up. We can get a Sea Lion to fly me in tonight and I’ll make my way
to Ciudad del Carmen to Van Nuys. I’ll either convince him to cooperate with us
and take down Salazar ... or I’ll get out.”

 
          
Nobody
said a word. It was the closest Elliott could come to saying yes.

 
          
Isla del Carmen
,
Mexico

 
          
Later That Evening

 
          
In
an estate on the south-central side of Isla del Carmen, about five miles east
of the city, the Cuchillos were presenting their mission plan to Salazar and
Van Nuys. They were in a large office with a spectacular view of the Laguna de
Terminos to the south and the lush green forests of the
Candelaria
River
valley beyond, all still visible in the
rapidly approaching twilight. The office was on the fifth floor of the mansion,
surrounded by bulletproof glass. The estate itself was on top of a man-made
hill that made Salazar’s retreat the highest elevation of any spot in the state
of
Campeche
. The twenty-acre compound was guarded by a
small, well-equipped army of Cuchillos soldiers; the mansion itself was more
like a medieval castle, complete with drawbridges and gates along the road
leading to the house designed to slow
⁷
advancing vehicles.

 
          
Major
Jose Trujillo, the Cuchillos’ senior pilot, was standing by the briefing board
with a pointer. Just like his old military days—in full uniform,
inspection-ready, with all ribbons and awards earned over fifteen years as a
squadron commander in the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force. He was not only
presenting a plan to his commander—he was presenting the Cuchillos as a united,
strengthened force of top aviators ready to go to war again.

 
          
“The
transports will begin launching in one hour for the flight to
Valdivia
,
Colombia
. Our plan is to begin launching aircraft
one every ten or fifteen minutes, as close as possible to our normal departure
scheduling and interspersing these departures with normal civilian traffic.

 
          
“The
slower planes, the light twins and heavy singles, will move out first, followed
by the fight turboprops and then by the heavy turboprops and jets. The fight
aircraft have stops planned in
San Salvador
,
San Jose
and
Panama City
. Some medium-range planes will make stops
in
Costa Rica
and Bluefields in
Nicaragua
. The heavy transports can make it all the
way on one refueling, but we have planned stops for them in
Cartagena
,
Colombia
, and
David
,
Panama
, to resemble our regularly scheduled
flights as much as possible. All our flights will be on approved ICAO
international aviation convention flight plans with Carmen del Sol Airlines
call signs.”

 
          
Trujillo
motioned to Van Nuys, who got to his feet.
“I’ve arranged for customs clearances for all our flights to
Valdivia
. All our flights have no-inspection
clearances straight through. But since we can never count on those to hold up,
each crewmember must be prepared for a full check in case of a no-notice
inspection. That means current passports, current inoculations and all
immigration papers in order. The planes have to be sanitized so as to not
reveal the flight’s actual destination in
Colombia
or any evidence of the deliveries into
North America
.

 
          
“If
they find one scrap of evidence to suggest what we’re carrying, they will
confiscate it and arrest everyone on the spot. If one crewman opens his mouth
and mentions one word about
Valdivia
, drugs or the Cartel to the wrong person it could ruin everything.
Don’t assume a man in a Customs uniform is a Customs officer—he could be a DEA
agent or an informer or a spy. You keep your mouths shut and be alert for
trouble.”

 
          
“Gachez
told me you could guarantee safe passage for all my crewmembers, Van Nuys,”
Salazar said angrily.

 
          
“I
can’t
guarantee
anything. I’ve put
the Cartel’s paid inspectors on duty in the proper time and place for each
flight’s arrival, but I have no control over what actually happens, especially
in
Panama
,
El Salvador
and
Costa Rica
—the
U.S.
has a lot of clout there. You know that
Customs work in these countries is political, Colonel. I’ve set up everything,
that’s all I can do.”

 
          
“It
had better work,” Salazar said. “You are betting your life on it.”

 
          
In
the silence that followed that exchange,
Trujillo
pressed on. “All aircraft are due in
Valdivia
by tomorrow morning. They will begin
loading immediately after servicing and refueling. The bulk of the cargo will
be handled by the Antonov, Shorts and
Douglas
transports, with ten thousand kilos on board the Antonov-26, six thousand on
the Shorts 440 and nine thousand for the Douglas DC-3. The remaining
twenty-five thousand kilos will be divided among the other ten planes.”

 
          
Trujillo
flipped charts on the briefing board.
Instead of a series of lines leading overland from
Mexico
to
Colombia
, this chart had a series of lines going from
Colombia
overwater to several
Caribbean
islands. “The return flights will be long
and difficult. We will divide the planes into three groups. All aircraft will
refuel in northern
Colombia
, either at Uribia or Cienaga. The smaller
planes, the light twins and heavy singles, will fly to remote landing strips in
Panama, Jamaica or Haiti, depending on fuel reserves and flight performances .
. . you all have packages that describe the landing points, with LORAN
coordinates and WET SNOW marker beacon-codes and frequencies—I have produced
instrument letdown plates and instructions for each package in case you need to
use the landing spot in bad weather.

 
          
“The
planes heading westbound will refuel at remote strips in
Nicaragua
,
Guatemala
, and then here at Ciudad del Carmen. Our
alternate for the Mexican planes are
Valladolid
in the northeastern part of the
Yucatan
Peninsula
, where we have our improved recovery strip.
These planes will proceed overwater to drop zones along the Cuban coastline,
the
Straits of Florida
and into Bahamian waters. Flights going to
Jamaica
will proceed over
Cuba
for drops in the Florida Everglades.
Flights refueling in
Haiti
will make drops in the
Turks and Caicos Islands
and the
Bahamas
.

 
          
“The
larger aircraft, after refueling in northern
Colombia
will either proceed north to drop points in
the
Bahamas
, or fly here, refuel and then make drops in
New Mexico
,
Texas
, and
Louisiana
. These flights will be on approved American
flight plans but will divert from their flight plans at the last moment to make
their drops.

 
          
“Our
intelligence informs us there has been no Border Security

 
          
Force
activity in this region or in
Florida
for some time,”
Trujillo
said. “The Hammerhead Two platform has been
towed into
Key
West
for repairs before being moved to the
Atlantic Ocean
side of
Florida
, and the aircraft carrier that in the past has been used to stage
interceptor flights in eastern
Florida
is now at anchor near
Miami
. Aircraft have been observed using it but
our sources believe these are training flights only.

 
          
“Our
greatest threat comes from U.S. Air Force jet interceptors, but that threat is
very limited. We will be saturating the area with over a dozen low slow-moving
targets, only a few of which actually threaten the coast itself. As long as we
stay low and close to normal airways we will not be intercepted. The Americans
have not shown a willingness to use their air-defense aircraft for
drug-interdiction duties. This gives us an advantage.

 
          
“The
planes flying into the
Everglades
are under the greatest threat of interception. That is why I will be flying one
of these planes, along with Captain Estevez and Captain Garzon, our most
experienced pilots. We also will have the Mexican F-5 jets for air cover for
the heavy transports heading into
Texas
and
Louisiana
—”

 
          
A
knock on the door to Salazar’s office, and a clerk hurried in with a note for
Salazar. He read it, smiled, stood and took the podium from
Trujillo
.

 
          
“Thank
you, Major Trujillo. Your plan is a masterwork of deception, operational
redundancy and attention to detail. I thank you and your staff.” To the
assembled pilots: “Well, the battle begins. I have just received an advisory
from Mexican Customs. A United States Border Security AV-22 with eight crewmen
has requested permission to fly into
Veracruz
the day after tomorrow, estimated time of
arrival,
eleven o’clock
local. Our sources are checking out the nature of their visit, but it’s fairly
obvious they will be moving in on us very soon.” He turned to
Trujillo
“All flights will use the
Valladolid
alternate recovery base. Do not fly in
Ciudad del Carmen until further notice. The Border Security Force will be too
late,” Salazar went on. “When the Hammerheads arrive in Ciudad del Carmen ... I
estimate no more than one hour after landing in Veracruz ... our planes will
have completed their missions and dispersed to locations for scrubdowns and
records-updating before returning here. If we do our jobs right we can present
proof to all inspectors about where our planes were at all times. There will be
no evidence of the mission except for a group of happy, tired pilots. Of
course, because of crew- rest regulations you will not be interviewed by
anyone. I will see to that. We will annotate your logbooks to correspond to
your assigned routes and schedules—their inspection will lead to nothing.”