"Alpha Leader, this is SEAL One," crackled the radio. "Bearing two-zero-niner. Range five hundred meters. No hostile fire."
"Roger," Nichols replied. "Continue inbound." He clicked off his walkie-talkie, then turned around and yelled to the men in the back of the Huey.
"Okay, heads up. The assault is now in progress. We go in at 0630 hours."
The Deltas nodded as they checked their watches and spare ammo clips. The twenty-three men were all wearing black pullover hoods, each with a thin plastic microphone that looked like a phone operator's. Over these they had Kevlar helmets with protective goggles and light balaclavas, while their bulletproof assault vests included pockets filled with grenades and extra ammo for their H amp;K MP5 assault submachine guns.
Nichols was using a squad of ten Navy SEALs to stage a diversionary assault on the shoreline, the same kind of diversion that had been employed so successfully by the SEALs in the war to liberate Kuwait. After leaving the carrier, they would approach the island at forty mph in a pair of Fountain-33 speedboats, powered by 1,000-hp MerCruiser engines. About one kilometer offshore, they were scheduled to disembark into two motorized Zodiac rubber raiding craft that they had lashed to the bow. If all went according to plan, they would hit the coastline in full view and provide diversionary fire, giving the real assault team an opening to take the two main objectives.
That's when the serious action would begin. Nichols and his men would then come in using Army choppers-two HH-1K Huey gunships and two AH-64A Apaches. The Hueys would hover and drop off the insertion teams, while the Apaches would provide backup firepower that-with their 30mm chain guns, Hellfire missiles, and 70mm folding-fin rocket pods-could easily be mistaken for the end of the world.
The assault was timed down to the second. Three minutes after the diversionary SEAL action began, the two Hueys would set down in the middle of the island and pour out the real assault teams, one team to storm Command and the other to hit Launch Control, massively. He figured if they took both at once, there would be no place for the terrorists to hide. That was the best way they knew to accomplish their first objective, which was to neutralize any nuclear devices safely.
The outstanding unknown, of course, was the location of those devices, and their state of readiness.
You had to assume terrorists weren't suicidal, Nichols told himself… but yet, what about Beirut and the Marine barracks, demolished by a suicide mission? Such things were never outside the realm of possibility. So if these crazy fuckers decided to go out in a blaze of glory, it wouldn't exactly be a first…
"Alpha Leader." The radio came alive again. "SEAL One objective secure. No sign of any hostiles down here."
"Copy, SEAL One." Shit, Nichols thought. The bastards didn't go for it. They're battening down, planning to make a stand. And why not? They've got hostages. They think we're not going to hit the place.
They've got another thing coming. It's just going to be bloodier than we had hoped. If they start using the hostages for human shields…
"Request permission to advance toward Launch Control," came the radio again. "If we're going to provide that diversion, we're going to have to go in."
Why not? Nichols thought. We're already improvising, but maybe the bastards can still be drawn out. It's worth a try.
"Roger, SEAL One," he said, checking his watch. "Watch yourself. It could be a setup." He knew the SEALs were lightly armed, with only a German Heckler amp; Koch submachine gun each, plus a couple of M16s specially equipped with M203 grenade launchers, the so-called "bloop tube." Still, those boys could raise some hell.
"Confirmed."
"Copy. We'll slip in here for five. Kick hell out of anything that's not nailed down."
"Roger, Alpha Leader. If they show their heads, they're gonna know we're in town."