Modern Warfare

Bahia, Kino, Sonora, Mexico

Casa De Bustamante

Park had set up the secure satellite communications unit in the spacious living room.  The airy room allowed for good signal to the circling communications satellite, high overhead.   He had been talking to someone in Pacific Command for over twenty minutes.  Suddenly, he stiffened.  “Sir, yes sir.”

Peters walked over from where he had been sitting.  “What’s up?”

“Get Ping Pong down here right now.”

Peters was going to ask more questions but the look on Park’s face silenced him.  He shrugged and went to go find Ping Pong.  When they returned, Park was still talking on the satellite phone.  “Here she is, sir, one moment.”

He handed Ping Pong the handset.  “It’s for you.”

Ping Pong made a face but took the handset.  “Hello?”

The voice on the phone was very formal.  “Captain Harris?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“Captain Nancy Harris, formerly Travis, service number 3544366?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“Ident.  Alpha Foxtrot Lima.”

“Fuck, I don’t carry those cards in my sweats.  Who is this?”

“Ident.  Alpha Foxtrot Lima.”

“One minute.”  Ping Pong went upstairs to find her purse.  All embassy personnel had been issued little laminated cards that were to be used in case of an emergency in order to identify themselves.  Each card had challenge response codes they were supposed to use. One set for “everything is fine” and another for “I’m in trouble.”

She walked downstairs and took the handset back from Park again  “You still there?”

“Ident.  Alpha Foxtrot Lima.”

She read the all clear code off the card.  “Whisky Zulu Sierra.”

“Hold one for SACPAC.”

She looked at Park, an astonished look on her face.  Park just shook his head.  He had no idea what was going on.

“Captain Harris?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Do you recognize my voice, Captain?”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

“Captain, I am about to violate at least ten regulations.  You are under no obligation to follow my orders in any way.  I am not in your chain of command.  Do you understand me, Captain?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Captain, I am afraid that something extremely dangerous to the United States is going on in northern Mexico.”

Ping Pong snorted and before she could stop herself, blurted out, “Well, no shit!”  Realizing she had spoken aloud, she belatedly added.  “Sir.”

The Admiral just laughed.  “Well, glad we’ve got that sorted out.”  He paused.  “I need you to get out to the desert and document what you find.  We have an issue that I am dealing with and we need that evidence.”

“The fact that we have Russian Spetsnaz troops and PLA regulars on the ground here isn’t enough?”

“We think that the Russians are feeding disinformation directly into the Pentagon.”

“And we defeat this disinformation campaign how?”

“I need intel.  Counts of troops, vehicles, reports of their movements.  You know the drill.”

“Get a P-8 down here and I could tell you.  One hour with the AN/APY-10 and I could tell you exactly.  Sir.”

“Don’t I know it.  Look, Captain, this is not the correct way to go about it, but regular channels are being blocked from upstairs.  Will you help me?”

“Sir, this would be much easier with some air support.”

“Is Captain Peters with you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Put him on, please.”

Ping Pong handed the handset to Peters with a smirk on her face.  “It’s for you.”

Peters picked up the handset.  “Yeah?  Who’s this?”  She watched Peter’s face turn from annoyance to confusion to alarm in just a few seconds.  “SIR!  YES SIR!”  He listened for a few moments.  “Yes SIR!”

After a few moments, he disconnected the call and turned to Ping Pong with a scowl.  “That was a dirty trick!”

Park put up a hand.  “Was that really SACPAC on the phone?”

“Yeah.”  While there were many Admirals, SACPAC was always The Admiral to those who served under him.  You could hear the capitol letters when they talked about him.  It had become so pervasive that his actual name was never used.  Just one of those strange things that happen when someone becomes larger than life like SACPAC had become.

“Isn’t he retired or something?”

“Apparently, he’s been restored to active duty, temporarily.  Working with Red Team at Pearl.”

“Well, fuck.”  Park looked at Ping Pong who just looked determined and back to Peters who looked amused.   “So?”

“So, he just ordered me to do what we were going to do anyway.”

“Can he do that?”

“He’s a fucking five-star admiral.  I didn’t ask about chain of command.”

“Aren’t you retired?”

“Not anymore.  Apparently, I’ve been activated also.”

“Well, shit.”  The secure comms started beeping.  “Who the fuck is that?”

Peters laughed.  “My guess?  160th SOAR.”

Pacific Command

Joint Base Hickam Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

“AN ASSET WILL BE ASSIGNED?  WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN AN ASSET!?!”

“Sir, I mean that we will ask to have someone assigned to us and they will report back.”

The Admiral sat back down, trying to calm himself.  It wasn’t this child’s fault that they had no idea what was going on in Mexico.  By the look on his face, he had never made an actual decision in his life.  “Lieutenant…  McKenzie, is it?”  The hapless Lieutenant nodded, beginning to understand the hole he was in.  “You are sitting in Pacific Command.  Pacific Command is the premier command of the US military.  Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Pacific Command does not ask for things.  Pacific Command issues commands and subordinate commands take action.  This is the way Pacific Command works.”

“Yes, sir.”

The leader of Red Team, Commander Lee, took pity on the junior officer.  “Admiral, if I may.  I think what the Lieutenant was trying to say is that since Mexico is part of Northern Command that we would liaise with Northern Command and thus gain the intelligence we wanted.  Isn’t that correct Lieutenant?”

“Sir, YES SIR!”

“Very well, please reach out to Northern Command J2 and we can get a SEAL team out of San Diego assigned.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

Lee gave the Admiral a crooked grin and continued the meeting to discuss the unusual People’s Liberation Army (PLA) movements.  They had seen large formations gathering up into groups as if going on deployment and then simply dispersing.  This could mean a readiness exercise, but it wasn’t normal.  Anything that the PLA did out of the ordinary was a concern for Pacific Command and thus for the newly reconstituted Red Team.  According to the Chinese government, only a couple thousand troops had been assigned to a peacekeeping mission, not the huge numbers that they saw moving around, preparing to deploy.  However, these movements along with the activity in Mexico had caused the team to issue a red alert up the food chain.  Oddly, that alert had been met by complete silence.  A concerning outcome for Lee and The Admiral.

Hours later, the phone rang.  “Admiral Lensten for you sir.”

The Admiral picked up the phone, noting it was a secure line.  “Bill, how are you this fine day?”

“I’m fine, sir, thank you.  Did you ask for a SEAL team to investigate PLA activities in Mexico?”

“Yes, I certainly did.  Very concerning activity over in China, I don’t like the look of this.”

“I agree, sir.  Just so you know, your request will be denied.”

“Denied?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Any idea why that is?”

“The Joint Chiefs have decided that we have been provoking Mexico with our illegal activities within their country and we should stay on our side of the border, exclusively.  Northern Command has been given a stand down order.”

“Did command actually use the term ‘illegal’?”

“Yes sir.  We have also been informed that our intel on Chinese activity within Mexico is incorrect and alert levels have been reduced across the board.”  Lensten paused, considering how much trouble he would be in if he continued.  “We have also lost track of the Russians the CIA captured.  Admiral, I’m very concerned about what is happening.  The administration has fired the Air Force Chief of Staff and he was the only one speaking out about the new isolationist policies.”  Lenston sighed, clearly disturbed by these events.  “Sir, any advice for me?”

“Pray we’re both wrong about what’s happening.”

After hanging up with Lensten, The Admiral filled Commander Lee in on the conversation.  Lee was silent.  Shaken by the turn of events.  “Do I have to tell you what I think this means?”

“Do you mean that the Chinese and/or Russians have been playing a game with us, have likely suborned our civilian leadership by stroking their massive egos?”

“Pretty much, yes.”

“But that’s not the worst case, is it Lee?”

“No, sir.”

“No, the worst case is that we have decided as a country to turn our backs on the rest of the world in a manner predicted by those same actors, and those actors are now going to take military action previously not possible due to the strength of the US military and our allies.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And this was the plan all along.”

“It looks that way from here.”

“But the Chinese and the Russians playing ball?  When did they ever do that?”

“When did it serve both their interests before?”

“So, worst case?”

“Worst case the Chinese get California and the Russians get Alaska.”

“What about Mexico?”

“The Chinese and/or Russians already control Mexico.”

“We don’t know that.”  He slammed his fist on the table.  “DAMMIT!  We just have to find a way.  If they court martial me, so be it.”

The commander was silent for several minutes.  As an intelligence specialist, he had worked closely with the special operations community.  Because of the nature of their missions, the Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) was quite close to other intelligence units.  In fact, despite some well documented inter-agency rivalries, the CIA, Special Operations and military intelligence communities were all quite close due to many years of operating together in places like Afghanistan.

“Sir, I may know someone who can help.”

The Admiral stared at Commander Lee for a moment.  “Are you sure you want to do this?  I’m not in your chain of command anymore.  Pacific Command will go ape shit if they find out.”  Although The Admiral didn’t know who Lee had in mind, any sort of communications outside the chain of command was extremely dangerous.

Lee grimaced.  A security violation like this, especially going outside of his chain of command could end his career.  Does my career matter if this is what we are afraid it is?  “Sir, I happen to know that 160th SOAR is on TDY to Luke.”  The fact that the 160th was on temporary duty to Luke Air Force base in Arizona was not something that he should know, but a friend was a major there and they had discussed the situation in Mexico the day before.  “It’s only about 300 miles from Luke to the area outside of Hermosillo where those F-35s were attacked.”

“Can you make a call?”

“Yes, sir.”

Fifteen minutes later, Lee was on a secure video call with Major Watkins of 160th SOAR.  “Trevor, thanks for taking my call.”

“No problem, Eugene, what’s up?”

“I think this has to be off the books, Trevor.”

“It’s like that, is it?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Watkins rubbed his face in his hands.  “OK, this thing is going to shit anyway, what’s one more shitty thing today?”

“Why, what’s happened?”

“Oh, the mission I was supporting to get one of your pilots out of Mexico just went pear shaped.”  Watkins picked up a piece of paper and read from it.  “’Subject X-RAY is currently seconded to the Mexican Navy and is unwilling to comply with our recall order.  We have forwarded this to command for clarification.’  I mean, what the actual fuck?”

“Wait, there is a Naval Aviator in Mexico?  On the ground?”

“Yeah, we were supposed to do a snatch and grab on her; there is an advanced team on the ground there now.”

“Wait, her?”

“Yeah.  What are you a chauvinist?  You guys have lady pilots these days, you know?”

“Yes, but there aren’t that many female fighter pilots.  If one was missing, I would have heard about it.  Hell, if we were missing any birds I would know.”

Watkins looked at another document.  “Not a fighter pilot, a P-8 pilot.”

“What?  We aren’t missing any P-8s either.”

“Says here she was attached to the embassy.”

“Oh fuck.  It’s Ping Pong.”

“What?  Oh, yeah.  It says that’s her call sign.”

Lee picked up a phone, he didn’t have to ask SOAR for a favor anymore, they were already ordered to do what they wanted anyway.  “Admiral?  You’re not going to believe this.  Do you remember that P-8 pilot we met during the congressional hearing?  Yes, the woman.  Remember that she married the captain of the Kidd?  Yes, I saw the movie also.  Yes, sir, well, do you want to guess where she is right now?”