Strike Force (7 page)

   The Beretta ARX160 the SEALs carried had a .223 L.R. round that was just like 5.56mm NATO rounds. Wounds from the two were easily confused, but it was hard to confuse either for a wound from a 7.62mm round.

   There were AK-47s aboard the
Sea Shepherd
. AK-47s used 7.62mm cartridges but a hit from an AK-47 didn't make sense even if there were AK-47s onboard the fishing boats. AK-47s had an effective range of 300 to 400 meters and at best were wildly inaccurate even at short ranges. The AK-47s on the
Shepherd
were more scare away would-be attackers than to kill anyone.

   Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Midshipman Tinsdale coming at him from down the hall. Before she could tell him something he didn't want to hear, he rushed back into the operations room, pulling Edie with him.

Chapter 18

Mediterranean Sea
Early Evening, Tuesday, 19 June

Scott was just coming back into the operations room with Edie when he saw a marine collecting pages from the printer. "Those are for me," he said. "I'm Scott Madison Evers. That's my picture you're looking at."

   The marine eyed Scott, continued collecting the printouts. Before Scott could intervene, the marine gave the printouts to the Operations Commander. The SEAL commander clearly didn't like what he saw. He made an angry sound in his throat and showed his teeth while he read. It was like the half-voiced snarl of an angry wolf.

   Behind the SEAL commander, a young navy lieutenant was giving a briefing about AWACS and EC recon. Mission crews aboard the aircraft were apparently active and processing in theatre communications and signals intelligence with AWACS performing its airborne warning and control duties while an RC-135 performed reconnaissance and an EC-130 gathered communications and signals intelligence in preparation to jam enemy signals. Four F-15C Eagles were providing combat air patrol (CAP) support while an airborne gas station, a KC-135, stayed back to refuel the fighters as needed. The official on-station time was still 18:30.

   Scott looked at his watch. The on-station time was 34 minutes away. He frowned as he started thinking, started using his extensive training in analysis and tactics. Nothing was adding up. If disinformation was being put out to counter any real information that got to the media, it meant there was likely an ongoing high-risk operation somewhere that the military didn't want compromised.

   But no one in the operations room was saying anything about any ongoing tactical missions. Everything was tenuous. Lots of planes were airborne, but like the strike group itself the planes were in defensive postures. Only the Checkerboards were out hunting, but so far the marine fighters had no actual targets.

   He asked himself what if the commanders suspected their operations and communications were compromised? What if the early morning attacks had been designed to lure the warships away from one place while another was being targeted? Where were the Mason and the San Jacinto originally deployed anyway?

   The
Shepherd
had been operating between Tunis and Tripoli, following the purse seiners as they followed the tuna schools. If the Mason and the San Jacinto had been under way since before noon, heading back to the strike group, they could have been as far as 300 miles away, given their top speed of about 30 knots. A starting point west of the current position meant the warships could have been somewhere near Algiers. A starting point to the east, meant somewhere near Benghazi.

   Scott looked over at the real-time tactical map of the Mediterranean Sea and studied the current location of friendlies. He asked himself about EC response. AWACS clearly had come from Naples. The RC-135, and perhaps the EC-130 too, would have come from Athens. The area from Algiers to Benghazi included half of Algeria, all of Tunisia, and most of Libya. And yet the strike group was coming together in open waters near the island republic of Malta.

   Something wasn't right--and surely everything was about to go terribly wrong.

   To the SEAL commander, he said, "I can guarantee you whoever you think did this didn't. Call off the strike response. Things are about to go pear-shaped."

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