Chapter 7: Joint Operations


One of the perimeter boats blew up and sank in seconds, gunfire erupted onto the two others that were immediately visible, both attempted to maneuver away but only one was successful, the other made it only a few yards before the three enemies on board were killed. The third boat made a beeline for the southwest, heading away from the yacht, two boats carrying SEALs pursued as the fourth perimeter boat came into view.

Blackhawk One began its final approach to the stern of the ship, Victor fired at the one man who had run outside to see what all the noise was, the man fell before he even realized what was going on. The helicopter got into position about twenty feet above the landing zone and dropped its rope, "down we go!" Victor said as he took hold of the rope and slid down, followed by Richard, then Roy then the last man. By the time Roy had let go of the rope Victor had already put down another man who was standing in the middle of the room, "hold position!" Victor ordered, "Blackhawk Two move in!"

The first helo had barely gotten out of the way before the second moved into position, four more men rappelled onto the yacht. "Stairs!" Victor ordered, pointing at a stairway off to the side going up, "clear the Bridge!" The four men moved up the stairs as the third helo began to drop the last four SEALs, Victor and his group moved to the opposite side of the deck, he and the other man taking the right side while Richard and Roy took the left. Two gunshots were heard from above, followed by a man calling out that the deck was clear. "Closet is clear, clear the can!" Victor ordered upon seeing the small closet door was open and there was no way for anybody to hide in there. Richard lowered his rifle and pulled out his sidearm, a FNX-45 Tactical, and held it in the high ready position while Roy took hold of the doorknob to the bathroom. Richard nodded and Roy swung the door open, it was empty.

By this time the third group to be inserted had come up behind. "Simmons you're on point, let's go!" Victor ordered.

Back outside, the SEALs were closing in on the fleeing perimeter boat. "Just a little closer and I can open up on these guys!" One man said as he adjusted the M249 light machine gun against his shoulder.

The man driving the boat turned out of the enemy boat's wake in search of smoother water, the other pursuing boat did the same on the other side. Seconds later the men on the M249's began firing and before long thick black smoke began billowing out of the enemy boat. The SEALs continued firing until the boat began to turn left, the pursuers on the left side had to stop short as the enemy vessel crossed their path and continued turning left. After a moment the SEALs realized the enemy boat was ghost riding in a circle, all enemies on board dead. "Make sure" one man said.

One of the men who was shooting an M249 turned and opened a container with a Milkor M32A1 grenade launcher inside. He shouldered the bulky weapon and aimed just ahead of the semi-disabled enemy boat, he fired a single shot that landed right in the middle of it. The vessel stopped turning and rapidly slowed after the explosion, sinking seconds later.

The fourth and final perimeter boat cut around the bow of the yacht, seemingly trying to flank the attacking SEALs. Without being fired upon, the boat stopped as soon as it came into view of the Army helicopters, as the SEALs approached they could see the people aboard had their hands up in surrender. As they boarded to take them prisoner they noticed that the three men were Latino, not Middle Eastern. "Anybody speak English?" One of the SEALs asked, the men remained silent, "English?" The SEAL said, getting only shaking heads in return. "Of course... Make sure they're unarmed then send this boat to the bottom."

Simmons rounded the corner of the stairs leading to deck three with Victor right behind him. They went off to the right at the bottom while Richard and Roy went to the left. Simmons fired at an enemy hiding behind a couch who had left himself partially exposed, Richard got into position just in time to see the man fall as other SEALs moved to watch to top of the stairs leading to deck two. There didn't appear to be anybody else in the large room so he moved forward, checking behind the bar and the small closet behind, which again was open for all to see in. It was clear this room was not used for entertainment, workshop tables could be found all over with various machine parts, containers and drums. As the SEALs moved further into the room they started seeing computers and papers, once the room was cleared, Simmons asked Victor to look at a set of blueprints he had found.

"Oh my god..." Victor said quietly.

"What?" One SEAL asked before hearing gunfire come from the stairs. They all dropped what they were doing and ran to assist. The shooting stopped once Victor got back there, "Go, we got to clear the last two decks, still haven't found the precious cargo!"

As the men moved down the stairs they switched to their sidearms, stepping over a body on the stairway. Deck two's hallways were only about four feet wide so a rifle was out of the question. The main hallway was on the port side of the yacht, just beyond the stairs were two bedrooms followed by a hallway running width-wise. Down that hallway was only a closet but three more, larger bedrooms were beyond it before the hallway terminated at the largest bedroom. The first man stopped and crouched, pointing his pistol down the hallway while the second man grabbed the doorknob to the first bedroom and the third man held his pistol in the high ready position. After a nod, the door was opened, it was empty. The SEAL who opened the door now moved to the front while the man covering the hall took hold of the doorknob to the next bedroom, the third man again held his pistol in the high ready position and the door was opened, empty again.

The SEALs continued moving, clearing the corner and moving to the third bedroom. The man who had cleared the first two bedrooms now crouched and watched the hallway while two men who were further back in the line opened the door to clear. This time the room was not empty, four shots in rapid succession rang out followed quickly by another four rapid shots. "Clear!" The man yelled. The door to the fifth bedroom burst open and a man with an AK-47 ran out, the SEAL watching the hallway put five shots into him before he could raise the rifle.

The fourth and fifth bedrooms were cleared without further incident, a SEAL tried to open the door to the largest bedroom but the door was locked, he knocked his fist against his forehead to indicate he wanted to breach the door with a battering ram. Roy was carrying the breaching tool and made his way to the front, after a nod, he broke the door in and three SEALs ran inside the room. "Red Star located!" One of the men yelled.

"Clear!" Another yelled.

Victor turned around to the men behind him "you six clear deck one, set up remote charges to blow a hole in the bottom of this thing" he said just before heading into the bedroom. He stepped in and saw the man he was sent to rescue. "Mister Constantinovich?"

"Yes" the man replied in English with a heavy Russian accent. He appeared unharmed and clean, it was obvious he had not been physically violated.

"We're here to get you out of here, come with us." Leonid nodded and stepped toward Victor. "Everybody to deck three." The men travelled back up the stairs and Victor lead the scientist to the table with the blueprints he looked at before. "Is this what I think it is?" Victor asked.

"If you think it is a nuclear bomb, yes" the Russian replied, that got everybody's attention.

"What did they have you doing?" Victor asked.

Leonid sighed, "when I was captured I was immediately brought here, the men I was handed off to were not ISIS, they were Spanish, they told me to design a nuclear bomb."

"And you just complied?" Richard asked.

"I didn't at first, but then one of the men put a gun to my head and I changed my mind."

"How long does it take to build one of these?" Victor asked.

"If they have all the materials it would only take a few days if they had a knowledgeable team."

The SEALs went pale. "You've been in captivity for eight months... Are you telling me they could have a massive stockpile of nukes?!" Victor queried.

Leonid shook his head. "I do not think so, in the beginning I did not know what raw materials I was going to have to work with so I had to come up with many different designs, over time I was told what materials I would have and my designs took a more eh... Focused approach... Designing the bombs is a much more time-consuming process than actually building them, this is simply my latest design, it is not even complete."

Victor took a breath. "Okay... How close to finished are these and what would it take to finish them?"

"Around seventy-five percent complete, it would take extensive knowledge of nuclear physics to get them to one-hundred percent."

That was when the men who had cleared the bottom deck reappeared. "Master Chief, charges are set" one of them said.

"Alright everybody topside, time to get out of here" Victor said as he rolled the blueprints up and took them with him. "Whatever chopper you came in on you go out on" he said as he emerged onto deck four "Blackhawks we're ready for exfil, come in one, two, three."

Because of the unique circumstances of the mission, exfiltration was much slower than insertion. It required each Blackhawk to hover in position and lower a harness for each man to connect to and be raised into the helo one at a time. Leonid was taken up first followed by Roy, then Richard, then Victor then the other man who had rode with them. Once all three helos had collected their men they backed off the yacht and held position. "Blow it" Victor ordered over the radio, a second later an explosion could be seen on the starboard side of the yacht. It didn't appear large, but the ship rolled and sank quickly after it. "Red Team could you be so kind as to sink that last enemy boat?"

"With pleasure sir" Rachael replied as she pointed the Apache at the boat. Karen locked onto the small vessel and fired a missile, sending it to the bottom of the ocean. "Red Five, target destroyed."

"Thank you Red Team" Victor said over the radio, "Let's move out!" The convoy of helicopters began the long ride back to base, Victor turned to Leonid, "so mister Constantinovitch... What else has been going on in the last eight months?"