Warshot (The Hunter Killer Series Book 6) Don Keith (red seas under red skies TXT) 📖

the perfect place for this discussion with the team. Its state-of-the-art displays were fed by the ship’s sensor system, but more importantly, her communications systems were fed by myriad outside sources. They could all be integrated and displayed here and would hopefully give them all the data they required to make correct decisions.

Glass and Marine Lt. Col. Stanton Readly, along with Mort Jones, the Portland’s CO, were intently watching the raw video footage from the Black Wing SLUAS that had been relayed to them by the Cheyenne. It proved quite informative.

“I counted at least a half dozen tracked armored vehicles,” Readly noted as he intently watched the screen. “They sure look like Chinese ZBD-3s. Those are airborne fighting vehicles and typically pack a thirty mike-mike auto cannon and a seven-point-six-two machine gun. Real nasty stuff. These sure ain’t Tongan Marines we’re looking at either.”

“Hey, Stanton, what are these wheeled vehicles under those palms?” Mort Jones asked, freezing the frame and pointing at two big trucks.

Readly stared at the image for a few seconds. He finally nodded, satisfied he knew what he was seeing.

“That looks like a pair of FB-6s. They are a Chinese anti-air surprise package. One of the vehicles has a pretty sophisticated phased-array radar while the other is the actual missile launcher. Those two make a deadly team. An airborne assault is going to be a real problem as long as those guys are serviceable. They hide out like that and can lock up on any target out to ten klicks or so. From this firepower, we have at least a battalion of Chinese Marines here.”

“Can you and your guys handle this?” Glass asked. “And assuming you say you can, how in hell do we get you ashore?”

“Damn good question, Commodore. We only have two Ospreys here. That’s thirteen sorties to get all my shooters over there. Figure a two-hour round trip, so we are taking something like twelve hours of continuous flying. Not exactly conducive to your typical surprise assault.”

“What about sending Portland out?” Jones asked. “We leave in the morning, we could be off Niue just after nightfall.”

Glass shook his head. “Not with four Chinese diesel submarines out and about. Too big a risk there.”

Jones piped up. “We need a new travel agent. I don’t see that we can do much of anything with what we have to work with.”

“What about their supply chain?” Readly chimed in. “Remember General Patton’s old saw, ‘An army travels on its stomach.’ They’re going to need groceries, some way of re-supply. Can’t we hit that?”

Glass thought for a few seconds, then replied, “That’s a good start. Only two ways to get supplies in. Either fly them in or haul them over by ship to Alofi.” He punched buttons until he saw a chart of the island. “The place only has one small wharf. The rest of the island is surrounded by reefs and high coral cliffs. We could station ORCA One a few miles off Alofi to warn us of any approaching shipping. We could also use the Ospreys to chase them away. Interdicting air supply, though? That’s going to be a problem until we can get some more assists in here.”

“Excuse me, Commodore,” Steve Weiss, the ORCA Team leader, interrupted. “We have Admiral Ward on the phone. He wants to talk to you.”

Glass took the headset from the commander and spoke into the boom mike.

“Glass.”

“Joe, as if you don’t have enough on your plate, I got a hot one for you,” Jon Ward started. “Seems that our friend King Two-for-One has taken the Deep Ocean Explorer and the crew as hostage. We got a call from their Los Angeles agent. Looks like it happened a couple of days ago. Last satellite pass we could see the ship tied up at the port of Neiafu on Vava’u. That’s the Tongan Island closest to you. The ship’s AIS track confirms it.”

Glass shook his head. This whole thing was spinning out of control. The Tongan monarch and his Chinese allies appeared to be hell bent on causing a dangerous dust-up way out here in this quiet corner of the Pacific.

“What about the crew?”

“We think they are being held in town. The only place big enough and the most likely spot is the city jail.”

“Let me guess. You want me to stage a raid and get them out,” Glass said.

“Good deduction. That would be the plan,” Ward answered. “It’s well within the range of your Ospreys and your CH-53s. I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of kickback, especially if you hit them fast and hard.”

Glass nodded, even though he knew Ward could not see it. He was already running scenarios—including minimum risk to the captives and the island’s civilians.

“Okay, that one I can handle. I’m going to need some help with Niue, though. The Chinese didn’t pick that particular spot for its lovely beaches and vistas.”

“Get me a list of what you need,” Jon Ward shot back. “I’ll be working on it while you are noodling the Deep Ocean Explorer problem. But it’s going to be tough getting much firepower. Pretty much the whole Pacific fleet is heading toward the Philippine Sea, just in case that whole Dongsha Island thing spills over into a major war. It’s tying up everything including most of our intelligence capabilities. All the intel and imagery that we have is on its way to you. Keep me posted. Holler if you need me.”

Ward abruptly dropped offline.

Glass removed the headset and turned to the team.

“Guys, looks like we got ourselves a new knot to untangle.”

21

It was not quite 0700 local time when the government car that had brought Yon Hun Glo from the docks pulled up to the gates of the Tongan Royal Palace on Vuna Road. Though Yon had seen little else that impressed him on the ride over, he was surprised by the enormous, white, wooden structure sitting at the water’s edge. Its brilliant red roof was clearly visible from anywhere in the