R. A. Heinlein

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 9

With the news of the gold, the Navy salvage crews suddenly didn’t have anything more important to do. Whoever was in charge of the Air Force’s end of the operation had been nice enough to avoid exposing us to the media immediately, instead giving us the option of talking to the reporters.

“Heck no,” I said.

Unfortunately, word somehow leaked out, and Sally Townsend was waiting for us in Japan. She’d managed to get our berthing number and everything and was standing on the pier when the ship pulled up and began docking procedures. I didn’t see the camera man.

I weighed the pros and cons of going down to meet with her. On the one hand, I felt confident that I could keep her from learning anything, on the other I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of a conversation. In the end I decided that if I talked to her she might go away.

“Mr. Canvas, I heard that you were in the area when the North Korean executive plane loaded with gold was discovered.”

The news had said that the plane was flying out of the country with Dear Leader’s bullion stockpile.

“No comment,” I replied.

“I’ve also heard that you were in Washington last week attending a secret meeting with military officials.”

Just how had she found out about that? “No comment.”

“A source also told me that you’re being investigated by the FBI.”

“Okay, I’ll give you a comment about that. Up until you told me two seconds ago, I was unaware of such an investigation.” I had a good idea why, but I truly hadn’t known they were involved. Thanks Sally.

“What about the Inspector General of the DoD?”

“Yeah, they’ve been talking to my lawyer.”

“About what?”

“No comment.”

Her mouth twitched. She wasn’t yet as angry as she’d been after our last conversation, I had at least confirmed that her sources were accurate.

Changing tones, she said, “Mr. Canvas, I have yet to figure out what it is that you do. I can’t tell if you’re a war hero, a mercenary, or a common thief.”

I grinned. “No comment.”

“I’ve been authorized to offer you a contract for an exclusive story. How does five hundred thousand dollars sound?”

I snorted. “It sounds like watching grass grow.”

“I’m sorry?”

“It might be interesting to some, but not to me.”

She bit her lip, as if considering her options. “I can probably get the producers to agree to five million.”

I turned and walked away without another word. It would be nice money, but there were other people on the ship who might value their privacy more than that. Besides, if my face was on the news all around the world, the CIA would probably never hire me again. I wasn’t quite ready to take the money and retire just yet.

After we left port, I called Hanley. It concerning that Sally Townsend was able to learn so much about me. Also, I wanted to ask him about FBI involvement. Maybe that would provoke a reaction from him. The “Alphabet Soup” agencies are notorious for being competitive with each other.

Hanley wasn’t able to tell me much, other than he had only just heard about the FBI coming down on me. That meant that Sally had gotten her information not too long ago. He said there would be an investigation launched into her sources to determine if they were a threat to national security. He also mentioned that the Navy Inspector General was also after Nevis.

We had no immediate jobs, and probably would have stayed in Japan if we hadn’t encountered the reporter. Besides, at sea there were fewer people looking for you.

I reflected on the problems I had. Nevis had the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Navy Inspector General after him. I had to worry about the Department of Agriculture, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General. That was not to mention the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff who were upset with me.

Wow, that was NCIS, NIG, USDA, FBI, DoD OIG, CIA, JCS—this was getting ridiculous. At least we weren’t a public company, or the Better Business Bureau (BBB) might be all over us.

It felt like the whole world was piling on my back. Well, I guess that wasn’t technically true. It was just the United States coming down on me. Selling out and becoming a hermit somewhere was definitely looking like a more attractive option. I decided that I to begin working on a plan to get everything figured out.

---

We cruised at low speed, requiring only one turbine to be running. If we didn’t have anywhere to go, we might as well save fuel. Our heading pointed us back towards Korea. We had plenty of time to do maintenance and fish off the side of the ship. Andy and Hawker, of course, were occupied with internet games.

It was perhaps the slowest trip across the Sea of Japan since motorized ships were invented. I was beginning to wish the CIA would find us a new job soon. It was not our longest drought between operations, but it was getting close. I was almost bored enough to call Princess Celestia to see if she had anything for us.

After a couple of days, we arrived in Korea. It seemed that many members of the media had begun to refer to it without a “South” attached. North Korea still technically existed, but it was hard to say what would happen when the UN finally got things figured out.

Speaking of the media, Sally Townsend was waiting for us. Hawker and Andy were on the bridge with me as we were pulling in.

“Somebody get rid of her,” I muttered.

Hawker grabbed up a megaphone that was kept in the gear locker and stepped out onto the bridge wing.

“Attention Sally Townsend,” I heard her amplified voice say. “Go eat a dick.”

We stayed tied up to the pier for two days. We had enough food aboard and had no need to leave the ship. We didn’t even drop a gangway.

Nika made a breakthrough with her old arms dealer contacts so we packed up and sailed to Russia. Through the magic of numbered Swiss bank accounts and careful paperwork, we received payment for the gold. It was taken off our hands by a couple of men who came out to meet us with an old fishing boat. Sometimes, a disguise wasn’t good enough and you needed an actual run-down vessel to be inconspicuous. They were not interested in where the bricks came from, nor were we interested in telling them.

The actual payment had been a little less than market value due to the cost of hiding the origins of that many numbered bricks. It was still a tidy profit, even split eight ways. All that remained was to divide it into our respective bank accounts. Once again, Jones protested the whole operation, but allowed the money to be deposited in her account.

We were still counting our digital spoils when David called me with problems. It sounded like at least a few members of the alphabet soup organizations were ready to do something substantial to me.

“Nearly all of them have operations all around the world,” he reminded me. “If you don’t come to them, they’ll come to you.”

“All right. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

It may have been stupid of me, but I still held the opinion that I could beat whatever was brought against me. It may not have been exactly noble, or even remotely legal, but I was going to be a free stallion, or, well…get arrested trying.

Agents Hudson and Malvern were very nice to me. They hadn’t yet discovered any wrongdoing on my part, and I used my appointment with them to shrug off an appointment with an FBI interrogation team.

“The Navy tells us that their exploration of your property is part of an ongoing investigation and that we aren’t privy to the details,” explained Hudson. He sounded bitter.

“What, nobody respects the USDA?” I asked.

Malvern shrugged. “The Secretary of Agriculture is a member of the President’s cabinet. We’ve got investigators just like they do. We’ve even got armed agents like they do.”

“That seems unfair.”

“Tell me about it,” said Hudson. “Well Mr. Canvas, we just wanted to update you on the current situation with your property.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re very welcome. Have good day.”

Outside, there was an unmarked car with two men inside waiting for me.

“Sail Canvas?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m Agent Delton of the FBI. This is Agent Hawkins. We’d like to speak to you.”

“You could have made an appointment,” I said.

“Get in the car,” directed Delton. I opened the door to the back seat and slid in. The two agents got in the front and the car pulled away from the curb.

“What’s your business with the Department of Agriculture?” Delton asked.

“They didn’t tell you?”

“They’re being very stubborn about this. You must be someone important.”

“What, the Department of Agriculture standing up to the FBI?” I laughed. Neither agent replied.

They drove me a couple of blocks away to the J. Edgar Hoover Building and escorted me inside. I assumed the interrogation would now become more intense.

It was a very informal interview. It was a standard interrogation room with one way glass and the whole bit, but the procedures were relaxed and no recording equipment was used, or at least none that I could see.

Delton started the questioning. “Do you know Benjamin Nevis?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I’m a defense contractor and I do a lot of business with the Navy.”

“Are you aware that he’s currently being investigated on charges of misuse of military funds?”

“I heard something about that.” I saw an opportunity to trip the agents up and took it. “News has been slow to get to me, though. Lately I’ve been working internationally with the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Delton and Hawkins traded alarmed looks. The thought that they may have accidentally stepped in something bigger than they could handle was frightening.

“What do you do for the CIA?” asked Delton cautiously.

“Things that are classified beyond your wildest dreams.” I dropped the bemused expression I’d been wearing and fixed them with as serious of a look as I could muster. “Do you have any more questions?”

“No, I think that will do it for today.”

They drove me back to my hotel. When I was alone, I called Hanley to tell him what I knew in the hopes that it would be of some usefulness.

“So let me get this straight,” he said, “you’re playing all these agencies off each other in the hopes that it’ll get so confusing that nobody will know who has the authority to arrest you.”

“Either that, or the process will take so long that the statute of limitations will have run out.”

“Canvas, I can never figure out whether you’re a genius or an idiot.”

“I might stay on the line and try to convince you one way or the other, but I have other things to do.”

I got off the phone with him and dialed another number. It was Tuesday, and I would have preferred to meet with Dr. Games in person, but Norfolk was a four hour drive away. With the two meetings I’d had that morning, I was cutting the time a little close, but I managed to make the appointment over the phone.

I told her a little bit about my morning and my situation in general.

“Why are all these government agencies after you?” she asked.

“Truthfully, I’m not sure all of them know. I haven’t been arrested or charged with anything. I haven’t even had any official questioning that I could even have the opportunity to incriminate myself.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we have doctor-patient confidentially,” she said.

“Yeah, you’re probably more in the loop than any other civilian in the country. It’s good to know that I can trust you.” The thought can I really? popped into my mind for half a second, but I discarded it. Dr. Games hadn’t turned me in yet, so I doubted that she was ever going to.

In the next few days, I had several more meetings with what seemed like every government agency on the books, and perhaps a couple that weren’t. Many seemed frustrated that I appeared to be up to something, but what that might be wasn’t entirely clear. One of the Navy IG investigators probably put it best when she said, “The fact that we can’t find anything is what looks most suspicious.”

I told her what I told the rest of them. “It’s the CIA’s fault.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Sally Townsend to track me down, and that line didn’t work on her.

I did invite her into my hotel room to talk, because I had an idea that I wanted to try. “It’s pretty obvious that you can’t come up with enough money to interest me. I was hoping you might be able to do something else.”

She looked interested. “Go on.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard that I’m under a massive investigation by just about every government organization that exists.”

She laughed. “When I began to realize just how much scrutiny you were under, I didn’t believe it at first.”

“If there’s anything you can do to help, I promise to consider that exclusive interview that you wanted.” I hated to feel like I was giving up on the fight, but all the bureaucracy I was tied up in almost made me want to be retired.

She thought for a moment, perhaps wondering why I was changing my mind. “All right. I’ll gather some resources and get back to you.”

She got up to go. “Ms. Townsend?” I said. She turned.

“I’m really sorry for having you locked up.”

She seemed flustered. “Well, I’m not forgiving Mr. Carter for what he did, but I suppose I can see how the situation turned out that way." She left.

Pleased that she hadn't realized that I was Sean Carter, I called the ship to explain my plan. Andy, who had studied a little bit of psychology, commented on Sally’s attitude turnaround.

“It’s not classic Stockholm Syndrome,” he said, “but reporters are usually open to new ideas, and that makes them easy to manipulate.”

“Really?” I said, “and I thought I was just good with women.”

He laughed. “Good luck with the investigation, Sail.”

I learned the next day that Nevis was officially being brought up on charges of mishandling the Navy’s money. I hadn’t managed to come up with anything that might get him off the hook, so I decided to just sit back and let him roast. It would mean that I needed a new contact in the Navy, but that was probably not a big deal.

In the middle of all of this, Hanley found a job for me. “We’re sending you back to China, but for a little bit different reason.”

“I’m all ears.”

“We’ve managed to locate some Chinese biological assets and are in the process of investigating them now. Your ship will be acting as a staging base of operations. You’ll need to bring aboard some new equipment and personnel.”

“Great, when can we begin?” I said, only a little sarcastically.

“As soon as possible. You might as well get out of here before anyone starts asking any really difficult questions.”

Heinlein was standing ready in the Chesapeake Bay just south of Washington. The rest of the crew had sailed the ship around the continent and into position in case I needed to make a quick getaway.

As it happened, I wanted to be as quick in getting away as possible, even if nobody was actively chasing me. Having half the law enforcement organizations in the country investigating you tends to do that.

We docked in Baltimore and waited for the technicians from Fort Detrick to arrive. It was the Army’s main medical research facility.

It had been decided to convert the number three hold into a biological weapons testing facility. Materials were brought aboard for the transformation and we took off again.

The lab was slowly constructed inside hold three while we sailed. The small group of men were able to put it together by themselves and we didn’t disturb them.

The bioweapons people were an odd bunch. They had their own food and places to sleep, and wore the creepy white suits associated with scientific research. Luckily, they kept to themselves and didn’t bother us.

The inside of the hold was lined with plastic sheeting and a combination ventilation and climate control system was installed. From the outside, it was disguised as a cooling system for a refrigerated hold.

I had no idea what kind of things the Army and the CIA wanted to do when we got back over to China, but I hoped it wouldn’t take long so we could get the bio lab off the ship soon. Every one of the crew seemed to feel the same way.

We once again hooked down through Panama and plotted a course across the Pacific. When Hanley got around to contacting me, I asked him what the plan was.

“SAD is going to do a snatch and grab on the Chinese bio weapons.” SAD was the CIA Special Activities Division. They were universally known as hard core badasses, who recruited from SEALS and Delta Force.

“So we’re going to bring them aboard and then what? Use the lab to test them and then dump them overboard?”

“That sounds about right.”

“How are they getting from shore to ship?”

“That depends on Chinese shore defenses. How good is your helicopter pilot?”

Shep was not pleased when we told him the plan. “I’ve been shot at more times in the past few months with this crew than I have in my entire life before.” Still, he never showed any inclination of not wanting to do the flying for this mission.

We plotted our approach carefully. Once again, we were basing out of Korea. It would be a quick hop across the East China Sea under cover of darkness and radio silence. The helicopter would launch and cross over the coastline. The biological weapons facility was located about five miles inland. Once there, we would rendezvous with the SAD team and pull them out. They would attempt to pull out as many weapons as they could and torch the rest.

There was an army depot about eight miles south of the facility. There was all manner of nasty conventional weapons there that we didn’t need being used on us, so stealth was the number one priority.

We had to tie up for three days in Korea until a window of opportunity became available. We left the piers and hung out to sea to give the impression that we were leaving the area in case there were any spies that were keeping an eye on the ship. We waited stationary in the East China Sea until the night of the operation came. We had four hours when there wouldn’t be a Chinese satellite overhead. Unfortunately, it came during a time when we wouldn’t have a friendly satellite, either. You have to take the good with the bad.

We had detailed maps and photos of the area, which were nice but not as nice as real time surveillance would have been. All of us had a couple of days to memorize them.

On the night of the operation, we debated on the best strategy. Launching the helicopter from far away would reduce the likelihood that the ship would be detected so close to the coast. The problem was, that distance would reduce or eliminate any support if the helo ran into trouble. We decided that we had to chance the close approach.

Reducing the flight time also meant that the chopper didn’t need to be full of fuel. The reduction in weight would hopefully give us better maneuverability. Since I was technically running the mission, I decided to be part of the crew flying in. It would give me a little better picture for combat control duty.

Jeff rode in the copilot seat to help Shep deal with the controls and instruments, as well as provide another set of eyes to be on the lookout for trouble. Nika volunteered to go along and operate the other door gun alongside me.

Everything had been timed, and we had to be over the beach and ready to make the pickup at exactly the right moment. At that point, radio silence would be broken and we would be given instructions on landing.

Despite the three people in the helicopter with me, it felt very lonely leaving a relatively secure ship to invade a country that you’re not-officially-but-kind-of at war with. There was little indication what we would find once we were there. Hopefully a SAD team ready to leave with us. Hopefully not an ambush.

Shep took it easy, not pushing our time limit. It would put us over Chinese territory for a little while longer, but allowed us to be more flexible. We had a rough idea where the SAD team was, but we would have to wait until they identified the helicopter and called us in.

After starting a long, slow orbit over the target area, Shep tuned up the radio and waited. We were all patched into it, in addition to the intercom. Shep and Jeff wore night vision. Nika and I didn’t, because the muzzle flash of the machine guns would pretty much negate it.

On our second pass, the radio came to life, surprisingly with a female voice. “This is X-ray India. Authenticate, over.”

Shep said, “This is Charlie Hotel.”

“Look for the infrared,” came the reply. Whoever was on the radio turned on a beacon that could only be seen through the night vision goggles. Shep aimed for it.

The voice on the radio sounded familiar, but I didn’t dare call back any more than we had to. Shep brought the helo in to hover and slowly dropped into the landing zone.

When the wheels touched down, I found myself face to face with three women I didn’t recognize. This was definitely not any kind of SAD team I expected. Regardless, they began handing up metal canisters with some Chinese script on them.

About a dozen of the strange containers were loaded on board and wrapped up with a cargo net. The three women got aboard and strapped in.

When the helicopter was airborne, one of the women took out a small electronic control with a button and a safety switch. She flipped the safety off and pressed the button. A nearby industrial-looking building exploded, leveling it to the foundation. It was quite a bit more boom than I would have expected from the amount of explosives that three people would be able to carry inside.

Almost immediately afterwards, Shep called “We’ve got radar lighting up. They weren’t quite waiting for us, but they sure were ready.”

“Missile launch,” called Jeff. I felt the helicopter pitch over and duck close to the ground. Something whipped by overhead.

“Probably a mobile launcher,” said Shep. “We’re out of sight behind this ridge, but we’ve got a long way to go to get back to the ship. They might have time to drive to the top of the hill and fire down on us.”

“Are you getting this, Andy?” I asked. With a small crew, we were able to have the radios running in real time to make communications that much faster. As a result, Andy already knew what kind of trouble we were in.

“I hear you,” said Andy.

“Beacon coming on,” announced Shep. He’d turned on the helicopter’s GPS locater, which might tip the enemy off, but right now it was more important for Andy to know exactly where we were.

I let Jeff take over coordinating the gunfire. He’d seen the missile being fired, and knew where it had come from. Heinlein lay out to sea, ballast tanks flooded and hull-down to reduce observability. It also helped stabilize the ship in the shallow water. I saw the flashes as the guns began to fire. The distinctive sound of shells impacting began shortly after. Even if the launcher wasn’t taken out, it would certainly give them something to think about.

We flew on and left the coast behind. The gunfire stopped shortly before we arrived at the ship to keep from distracting Shep too much as he came in for a landing. As soon as the wheels touched, we were out strapping the helo down.

I didn’t have to give the order to pull out. By the time the helicopter had finished shutting down, the ballast pumps were already emptying the tanks and the ship was turning away from the coast.

As we relaxed a little bit, the three we’d picked up glanced at each other and then pulled off identical necklaces. Shocked, I found myself looking at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.

We’d encountered the three Equestrian agents before. What they were doing in China—disguised and working for the CIA—I had no clue.

“Yeah, it’s going to take a lot of explanation,” Apple Bloom assured me. I decided to put off that conversation for the moment.

We took the stolen canisters from the Chinese facility to the germ lab in hold three. The Army techs there seemed a little shaken up by the brief battle, which amused me a little.

I led the three mares to the galley where we could talk over coffee. Something told me this conversation was going to be good.

Comments

[RaptorCalloftheShadows]

The CMC . Working for the Central Intelligence Agency. .... DOOOOMED D: WE'RE ALL DOOOOMED D:

[AppleTank]

Explosions, explosions everywhere.

[Riverwing]

I knew it. As soon as they picked up three ladies who were supposed to be hardcore spec ops.