The Guild, Secretive U.S. Intel Operatives
Chapter 5 - Finding The Enemy Base
Palawan was incredible with some of the best beaches Castle had ever seen. Despite their cover operation, they did manage to turn the tour into a bit of a rest stop. The group took in some of the beaches in the area and were blown away by the sheer natural beauty they had observed. Sophia had worn the tiniest bikini with the intent of turning Castle's attention to her, but the group could tell Castle wasn't going for it.
Kate on the other hand had choose to wear a simple one piece, but it drew more attention than Turner's 'almost bare' bikini. Both women were stunning, but it was the way Beckett carried herself, her confidence, and ability to feel good in her own skin that made her more attractive. Not that Turner did not have the same kind of persona, but Kate seemed to show it in numbers over Turner. Castle had tried to ignore it, but when Kate got out of her beach kimono to reveal her one piece, all the attention had been on her. Turner noticed and was bristling with sheer indignation and a little jealousy that she had not been so noticed.
When word got around of the Castle Entourage being at the Island resort, many people had sought them out. It seems that Castle had a fan base in the Philippines. This one time U.S. Commonwealth before becoming an independent nation was probably the most Americanized of Asian countries. The country was very western, as evidenced with most public and commercial signs in English, it's official second language, with the presence of American stores and brands at their malls, to American shows and movies shown on the local TV stations and cinema's, a testament to U.S. influence. The people of the Philippines even followed the NBA and is the one Asian country with its own professional basketball league, a tribute to it's American influence. Basketball was a top sport in the country and the PBA, Philippines Basketball Association, had a large following.
English is the second official language of the country next to the Pilipino language based on the Tagalog dialect, the dominant dialect of the some 160 there, made communicating with locals easy for the team. In fact when a native was in a part of the archipelago that spoke an unfamiliar dialect the default language for communicating was English. It also was American English that was spoken. Where as other Asian locations like Hong Kong, Malaysia, or even Singapore spoke the British English. The one big difference was the Pilipino English speakers talked with their unique accent, but the English was rich with American slang and idioms, so many American tourist felt very accepted, as did other tourists from various countries.
Kate had been publicly acknowledged as the 'official' representative of the American press for the tour. As such, her presence with the entourage was not questioned and her 'official' designation gave her a reason to be with them. LtCol Kwan, on the other hand, had beaten them to Palawan by a day so when an impromptu news conference was held, Kwan was there also. assuming her cover identity of Johanna Tan, reporter for the Chinese national newspaper. Under the guise of a press party, Tan was invited to the celebration. The so called party was really a meeting to discuss the efforts of the group in locating the base camp of Lei Beng. Kwan had provided a map of the islands both natural and man-made that had been already been looked at by the CCP Navy. This island base of Lei Beng was well concealed so as to have escaped detection thus far, even from aerial surveillance. What the group had yet to discover was that Lei Beng's base was underwater and accessible only by submarine. That is how it had been eluding detection.
The Search
They had been searching for days now and Lei Beng's home base still could not to be found. The searches were limited to the day time hours with the group returning to the neighboring Palawan area for anchoring and rest. This after supposedly doing some island hopping. Then on one search they had happened upon a small atoll which was closer to the search area and it was decided to use this as a base anchorage. It had a location ideal for mooring, so there the search parties settled to pass the night hours. Then they restarted the search the following morning. Today had been another day of not finding their target so as Kwan and Castle's crafts anchored together, a meeting was called, on Kwan's boat.
"I am starting to doubt the intel that Lei Beng has a home base here!", Castle says.
"It would appear so, but we have not searched the entire area yet, so let's not get discouraged", Turner replies.
"We certainly must be missing something", Ryan volunteers.
"Well let's figure it out before too long", Espo responds back to the comment.
"Well", Kwan suggests, "let's just get a good night's rest and start over again tomorrow. We may have better luck then."
"Sounds like a good suggestion LtCol Kwan, we should all just get some sleep and be ready tomorrow", Beckett agrees.
Her comments prompts unanimous consensus from all at the meeting. The group retires for the evening to start fresh the next morning.
The next morning Beckett is at the helm of their water craft and is piloting a square search pattern. Espo was monitoring the search radar, Ryan on Sonar; Castle was observing with binoculars for a visual sighting, and Turner had launch an aerial drone for an air borne search.
They had been searching a good part of the morning, and it was getting close to noon. Then Ryan speaks out.
"Bingo, I have something on Sonar", he says.
"Could be a school of fish', Espo replies.O
"No, it's not moving and it's big!"
"How far down Ryan?"
"About fifty feet".
"Get Castle and Turner to don scuba gear for a visual", Kate tells the boys.
"Think that would be safe move, Beckett? There may be security if it is Beng's home base", cautions Espo.
"Talk to Castle see how he wants us to proceed", Beckett tells Espo as she brings the boat to a standstill.
In the end, Castle goes with the visual inspection using scuba gear.
"Turner, you're with me. The rest of you stand by, we'll be on underwater comms."
"Boss, before you go, we have that underwater probe, how about we deploy it ahead of you for a brief Look/See?"
"Good thinking Ryan, get to it."
Ryan is quick to release the underwater probe and sends it in advance of Castle and Turner.
"Got a visual, facility is large. Looks like there is an underwater dock for a submarine", Ryan communicates to Castle as he and Turner are stationary some distance away.
"Any sign of security personnel, or monitoring equipment?", Castles replies over the underwater communication system.
"Looks like camera surveillance , how do you want to approach?"
"With caution, Turner on me."
The two head out slowly from their stationary position to the underwater facility.
As all this was happening, Esposito had gotten on the radio to alert Kwan's group on their finding. Kwan acknowledges and then says they will be there shortly.
Castle and Turner do not enter the facility but stay close enough to take photos which they returned with to the boat. As they get to their boat, they noticed Kwan's boat nearby. They board their boat and quickly download the digital photos that they had taken to the boat's laptop.
Analysis
They were analyzing the photos taken by Castle and Turner now showing up on the laptop display.
"That is definitely a docking port for a submarine and that is the exit tunnel that connects to the exit hatch of the submarine to the entrance of the underwater structure", Espo points out on the monitor.
"I did not know that The Front was so well financed as to have such facilities or even the submarines that would use such a facility", Castle comments to the group.
"The subs are either Chinese or Russian acquired by The Front faction from the CCP Navy", Beckett adds.
"Is the split in the CCP such that there is open defections by sectors of their military along with their equipment for those not content with the present CCP leadership?"
"There has been for some time and the CCP leadership is working to clean up the corruption", volunteers Kwan, "One of my missions is to police such elements and cleanse them from the CCP military. I've been doing it for years and our co-operation with you shows how much we want to rid the system of these rouge units."
"But where are they getting the funding to have such facilities. This is a massive underground base and from the looks of it, is now in fully automatic mode, housekeeping done by robotics until the human elements arrive. This facility is worth in the hundreds of millions", Turner comments.
"Well, LtCol Kwan and myself have suspected the Carter News Media is into more than just reporting news. Seems they maybe making the news that is 'fit to report', to use one of their own slogans", Beckett informs the group.
"Agent Beckett is correct, that is how the two of us connected on the internet years back as we did our intel work on Carter."
"Well then, how do you think we should continue on this mission. There appears to be a definite radioactive signature from the facility, but it most likely comes from a nuclear reactor used to power the base. I suspect the subs tying up to this base may be carrying our missing nukes", Castle states.
"Then I would suggest we install surveillance cameras and monitor the activity over time from our own base. Let's shoot for an initial two week period before we reconvene to look at the surveillance footage."
"Right, do we have enough cameras?", ask Castle of his group.
"What you don't have I can supplement", Kwan contributes, "and I have the labor to install them."
"Great, Ryan get with LtCol. Kwan's people and see what we need for this. In the meantime, we need to learn more about the Carter News Media."
"Agent Beckett and I can take care of that, we've been doing it for years and know who to tap for additional intel", Kwan says looking at Beckett whose face acknowledges the tasking.
"Good, Turner you're with me, donn your scuba gear, lets do some more exploring around this underwater base and see what more we can find".
Having been given their assignments each person gets to work.
Later That Evening
After much of their work had been completed, Kate has the night shift, once again, as Castle enters the galley for a midnight coffee brew before turning in. Beckett was also getting coffee when Castle appeared.
"How's your watch going Beckett?"
"Uneventful so far."
"You and Kwan come up with more intel on Carter."
"He's got scheduled some big-wig meeting with the CCP media in Singapore. It is being toted as a meeting of Carter Media Asian Group. Kwan is going there using her undercover identity and I am thinking of going to represent the U.S. press. More details on this in our morning brief."
"Well good, thanks for the heads up, I will look forward to the full brief."
"Roger that, fill your cup Castle?", she says noticing Rick's empty coffee mug.
"Thanks Beckett. I know I shouldn't but I'm such a coffee addict."
Fortunately the helm station was adjacent to the galley so Beckett would hear any alert should it sound from the instrument panel.
"So did you and Turner turn up anything more on your additional survey."
"Some more perimeter monitors, we mapped their locations."
"Been a while since I kept current on my scuba qualifications".
"Is that your way of suggesting I take you on the next survey?"
"Not if it gets a rise from Turner."
"She's a big girl, she'll get over it."
"Listen Castle, I don't want to stir the hornet's nest here, my remark was solely professional."
"And a good suggestion if it's been a while since you did a scuba op. So your comment was in the effort of keeping current on one of your skills. So totally appropriate."
"Thanks boss man."
"Any time Beckett, my crew has to stay current. So prepare your dive log for the next op. Now, go back to your watch."
"Aye, Aye, sir, permission to resume watch!", she says with humor.
"Granted", Castle responds playing along.
They end their break and Beckett goes back to her watch as Castle turns in for the night.