16:26 (Madrid Time)
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Naval Station Rota Air Terminal
Southern coast of Spain
Carrying their personal bags, the four members of the team walked down the ramp of the big C-17A cargo aircraft, finally stepping on the tarmac of the military airfield servicing the Rota Naval Station. The day was a typical one you would expect in Southern Spain in May: sunny and hot. A young and very pretty female navy lieutenant that had been waiting with two Marines at the foot of the ramp greeted them with a smile and a handshake.
‘’Welcome to Rota, lady and gentlemen. I am Lieutenant Jennifer Wells, Assistant Intelligence Officer at COMNAVACTSPAIN{4} Headquarters, and I was tasked with greeting you and guiding you to your accommodations. I am also tasked to help you as much as I can during your mission in Spain and to serve as your liaison officer as needed with the Spanish Navy, which is technically in control of this station. With me are Staff Sergeant Chris Rohmer and Corporal Dave Hatfield, who are part of the Marine squad attached to your team as a close protection force.’’
Erik smiled back in turn at the small brunette in tan summer uniform while shaking her hand.
‘’And my name is Erik. My partners are Dean, Julie and Ian.’’
The brunette didn’t miss the fact that Erik had not given family names, nor did she miss the appreciative glint in Dean’s eyes as he was examining her. The two other newcomers were however not like what she would have expected from CIA agents on a field mission. One was a rather dumpy and nearly ugly mature woman, while the other screamed ‘Nerd’ from ten feet away. The two first ones however were much more typical of CIA paramilitary agents.
‘’We have our vehicles nearby. If you are ready, I will guide you to your assigned facilities.’’
‘’Thank you, Lieutenant, but let us first bring out our equipment: it won’t be long.’’
‘’We can help you with that, sir.’’ Volunteered the Marine staff sergeant, making Erik nod with appreciation.
‘’Thank you, Sergeant. We have a total of two crates to take out of the plane.’’
If Jennifer Wells was hoping to see what the team’s equipment consisted of, she was soon disappointed, as the two big polymer crates brought out had no markings on them. The Marine corporal then ran to his vehicle, an extended cab pickup truck, to roll it closer to the aircraft’s rear cargo ramp. Loading the backpacks, kit bags, briefcases and equipment crates of the team in the truck took only a couple of minutes, time that Jennifer Wells took to go get her navy staff car. Erik and Julie took place in her car, while Dean, Ian and the two Marines went in the pickup truck. Erik smiled to Jennifer, who was driving, as she started rolling away from the cargo plane that had brought his team to Spain.
‘’So, where will we be located on this base? I understand that it is a joint facility with the Spaniards. I hope that the Spanish Navy will not come to pay us a visit while my team is at work, Lieutenant?’’
‘’Don’t worry about that, mister: the Spaniards may in theory control this base with us, but we actually pay all the bills, so the Spaniards tend to let us do our things pretty much without interference in the parts of the station that we occupy. To answer your first question, your team will have a number of rooms to itself inside the old decommissioned VLF antenna complex of the Naval Security Group Activity, situated just besides this airfield. While the VLF array itself has been dismantled years ago, the building complex in the center of the array’s grounds that housed the signal analysis and cryptanalyst crews is still standing and functional. At its peak, it housed over 1,500 specialists. Now, only a handful of communications specialists still work there but the main building still has hard, protected communications lines and satellite antennas. The lodging facilities in it for your team will be somewhat Spartan, but the place has the benefit of being completely secure and is well isolated from the other installations on the station. For one thing, the Spaniards never set foot in there, unless formally invited by us for an official visit.’’
‘’That sounds perfect to me, Lieutenant.’’ Replied Erik, truly satisfied by this. Jennifer Wells then glanced quickly at him.
‘’I was told next to nothing about the mission given to your team in Spain, mister, except that it was vital for our national security and that the Navy would give your team full cooperation and support.’’
‘’Unfortunately, I can’t tell you more at this time, Lieutenant. Men already died because of suspected leaks here in Spain and our mission is strictly compartmented. I do want to tell you however that the Navy’s help is highly appreciated by me and my team.’’
‘’Thank you, mister.’’
‘’Please, just call me Erik. We may be staying anonymous with you but there is no need to stay so formal. Can I call you Jennifer when in private?’’
‘’I don’t have a problem with that…Erik. Your big partner, Dean I believe, gave me the impression that he found me pleasant. Should I expect advances from him soon?’’
That made Erik grin with amusement.
‘’Normally, yes, as he loves female company. However, he is a consummate professional: while on duty, he can stay as cold as an ice cube, even in front of a naked young woman.’’
‘’Oh! Too bad: he is quite handsome, actually.’’
Erik didn’t reply to that, his attention attracted to a still distant group of buildings standing by themselves in the center of a large, paved round area. That area was huge, with a diameter of nearly a half mile. Only one road crossed that area to link the group of buildings with the road circling the Rota Naval Station. From afar, it looked to him like a perfect base location for his team.
Erik was soon able to better detail the buildings as the two vehicles transporting him and his team turned on the single road crossing the round, paved area around the buildings. The main building, made of white concrete blocks, had three levels and sported a number of small satellite communication antennas on its roof, while the few annexes closely surrounding it had one or two levels. A tall water tower stood just behind the main building, while an empty parking lot was located just outside the paved circle. Erik noticed a few dozen cars parked in front of the main building, besides the main entrance to it.
‘’How many people exactly still work in this building, Jennifer? Are their offices close to ours?’’
‘’Don’t worry about them becoming indiscreet, Erik.’’ Replied the young naval officer. ‘’Less than 150 specialists and staff members from Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Two still work inside this building and their offices are on the opposite side from the wing you will occupy. They were also told not to venture near your wing and to keep their mouths shut about your team’s presence here. The Marines that will provide close protection to your facilities have orders not to let anyone, save me and my superiors, approach your team. That Marine squad is already in place and our security specialists made sure that no bugs have been hidden by anyone.’’
‘’Excellent!’’ Simply said Erik. However, despite Jennifer’s assurances, he was already planning to fully sweep for electronic eavesdropping devices the rooms assigned to his team: one was never cautious enough in the line of work he was in. He didn’t speak further until they had stopped their vehicles near the main entrance and were stepping out on the concrete pavement.
‘’Would it be possible to get a couple of cargo plates for our kit, Jennifer?’’
As a response, Jennifer looked at Staff Sergeant Rohmer and gave him a curt order.
‘’Sergeant, have two of your men bring cargo plates to the main entrance.’’
‘’Right away, maam!’’ Responded the Marine NCO before switching on the microphone of his portable VHF radio and speaking in it. Erik and his teammates used that time to start taking out of the Marine pickup truck their personal kits and two equipment crates. Jennifer Wells would probably have been shocked by the sophistication of the electronic equipment contained in one of the crates, while the arsenal inside the second crate would have attracted a few envious remarks from Sergeant Rohmer. Julian Moore had not lied when he had promised to provide to the team the best equipment available in Langley, some of which was still unknown to other U.S. government agencies. Two Marines, in combat uniform and fully armed, soon showed up, each one pushing a large cargo plate mounted on castor wheels. The team’s luggage was quickly loaded on the plates, which then followed the group inside the main building. After a short trip down a large but deserted hallway, the group entered a cargo elevator and went up to the top floor, where they exited and followed another deserted hallway. Erik nodded in appreciation when they passed a Marine standing behind an improvised sentry post located at a right angle turn at the end of the hallway, his M16A2 at the ready. Another Marine sentry was visible at the other end of the new corridor, while two Marines stood beside a door on one side of the hallway. Like in the case of the two corner sentry posts, their posts were provided with improvised protective parapets made of concrete blocks piled up three-deep. Any attempted assault by some enemy commandos against the team’s facilities was bound to prove costly to attackers, something that made Erik feel much reassured now. Nodding to the two Marines guarding the door, Jennifer entered a large, mostly empty room that had four windows to one side and five doors connecting with adjacent rooms. The only furniture in the room consisted of six work desks with swivel chairs on wheels and one large table surrounded by six chairs, plus two steel filing cabinets.
‘’This room was chosen to become your main working area. The five doors along the side walls give on four offices, now empty except for beds and lockers, and on one bathroom. The windows are covered with a fine metallic mesh that prevents any electronic signal from within the room to be detected and intercepted from the outside. All the wiring, like in the rest of the building, is contained inside protective pipes, while each wired network is widely separated from each other. This was built like this because of its original goal of serving as an office for cryptanalysts and code breakers and the room is still certified as safe for the handling of classified materiel of up to and including ‘Top Secret Codeword’. You will find a number of wall connection boxes near the work desks that are linked to roof-mounted satellite communications antennas or to secure telephone land lines. There are as well two steel filing cabinets on which you will be able to put padlocks of your own in order to store your papers. I hope that this will satisfy your needs, lady and gentlemen.’’
‘’Uh, would it be possible to install a small table with a coffee machine, a microwave oven, a hot plate and a small refrigerator in here, Lieutenant?’’ Asked Dean Price, attracting a smile on Jennifer’s face.
‘’All that and more is already available in the room opposite this one, which is used as a guard room by the Marine squad assigned to your team. Since they have no classified equipment in their room, the Marines also enjoy the benefit of a large color television connected to a cable service. You will thus be able to relax and watch American news and programs during your breaks.’’
‘’That is if we manage to have time for breaks during this mission.’’ Said Julie Prost while eyeing the setup in the team’s room. That prompted Jennifer into looking cautiously at Erik.
‘’And may I ask how long this mission of yours could go on, Erik?’’
‘’Hopefully, two weeks at the most. If it goes much further than that, then that will mean that we probably failed and that our target has slipped away. I’m sorry if I can’t tell you more but this whole thing is very sensitive, with very dramatic possible consequences in case of failure.’’
Jennifer eyed him for a moment before nodding her head.
‘’Very well! Do you need anything else at this time?’’
‘’I have two questions, actually. First, how can we contact you quickly?’’
In response, Jennifer took out a calling card and quickly scribbled a number on its back before giving it to Erik.
‘’Here is my calling card. I wrote on its back my confidential number at work. You will find a secure telephone in the Marines guard room, along with a base directory. In case of a real emergency, Sergeant Rohmer can call instantly for reinforcements via his own encrypted portable radio. What is your second question?’’
‘’We will need to rent cars during our stay. Where could we go for that?’’
‘’The station’s Navy Exchange has a car rental office, with a couple dozen cars to choose from. One of Sergeant Rohmer’s Marines could drive one of you there when you will need it.’’
‘’Excellent! Be sure that I will commend the Navy’s assistance to our superiors once we are back in the States.’’
‘’Glad to be of help. Well, I will now let you alone, so that you can set up your things. Don’t hesitate to call me or to ask Sergeant Rohmer if you need anything else.’’
‘’Will do! Thanks again, Jennifer.’’
The young intelligence officer was about to leave when she hesitated and stopped, turning to face Erik again.
‘’Uh, by what name do I designate you and your team to my superiors? I’m afraid that just ‘Erik’ won’t do with them.’’
Erik smiled, understanding her problem.
‘’My codename in the CIA is ‘Sparrow’, while Dean’s codename is ‘Stryker’. The codename for our team on this mission is the Nemesis Team.’’
‘’Nemesis… Right!’’
Jennifer then walked out with her Marines, leaving the team alone in their new setting.
Erik’s first action once Jennifer and the Marines were gone was to make a silent gesture to his teammates, who understood at once what he wanted done. As they opened the crate containing their electronic equipment and took out of it detectors meant to find eavesdropping devices, Erik visited quickly the five adjacent rooms attached to the main working office. The four offices turned into bedrooms were small but adequate, while the plumbing in the bathroom was functional but also typical of the 1960s, when the complex had been built. Returning in the main room, he went to Dean and put one hand on his left forearm, making him stop.
‘’I will take care of this here, Dean. Go get a Marine to drive you right now to the Navy Exchange, so that you could rent a car before the rental office closes for the day. And please rent a four-seat sedan instead of some convertible muscle car: we may need to fit all of us in it in case of an emergency. You may however choose a model with an opening sunroof if you find one.’’
If Dean was disappointed by that directive, he didn’t show it and gave his bug detector to Erik before walking out. The latter then assisted Ian and Julie in thoroughly checking their rooms for electronic spyware. After twenty minutes of checking, Erik was convinced that the rooms were safe for their use and switched to the task of unpacking and storing their personal kits and equipment. Once he was finished with his own kit, Erik went to see Ian, who was unpacking and hooking up to secure feeds their computers and communications gear with the help of Julie.
‘’Ian, I will be across the hallway for a moment, talking with Sergeant Rohmer.’’
‘’No problem, Erik. We should have at least one computer station in place here and linked to Langley within ten minutes.’’
‘’Excellent! I won’t be long.’’
Going out in the hallway and closing the door behind him, Erik briefly nodded to the two Marines guarding his suite before going to the door on the opposite wall of the hallway and knocking on it. A muffled welcome answered him nearly immediately and he pushed open the door, walking inside a large room similar to that given to his team but furnished differently, with sofas, a table with chairs, a large flat screen television set and a kitchen with a small refrigerator and a microwave hoven. Two Marines were present in the room, one of whom was Staff Sergeant Rohmer. Erik walked to the table, where Rohmer was writing some notes on a pad, and sat facing the lean Marine in his early thirties.
‘’Could we talk in private for a minute, Sergeant?’’
‘’Of course, sir!’’ Replied at once the Marine NCO before looking at his soldier present in the room. ‘’Neil, could you leave us alone for a moment?’’
‘’Sure, Sarge!’’
As soon as the Marine had disappeared in one of the side rooms and had closed the door behind him, Erik spoke to Rohmer in a low voice, his face reflecting seriousness.
‘’Sergeant, what were you told about my team and how to interact with it?’’
‘’Uh, basically that me and my men were to provide close protection to your team and its facilities here and also to filter the visitors that would show up on our floor.’’
‘’And who were you told to let pass?’’
‘’Lieutenant Wells or any of her superiors from COMNAVACTSPAIN Headquarters, plus my own superiors. Is that okay with you, sir?’’
The frown that appeared on Erik’s face told him at once that it was not.
‘’Sergeant, that makes for way too many people to my taste. Please understand that our mission has been deemed critical to our national security and that secrecy and discretion is paramount. Just knowing about the presence of my team here is already too much, except in the case of a very few senior officers here, plus Lieutenant Wells. In particular, I won’t appreciate visits by senior officers whose sole intent would be to claim their authority to watch over my operations around Cadiz. Thus, I would like you to brief your Marines and tell them to stick to the following rules: first, except for Lieutenant Wells and for her immediate superior, the Intelligence Officer at COMNAVACTSPAIN, any military visitor will have to get the approval of me or one of my team members before he or she can enter our work area. I don’t care if it is an admiral: he or she will still have to wait for our approval before being given access to our main room. Anybody who ignores that rule and tries to barge in will have to be stopped by your Marines, by force if need be.’’
‘’But, you can’t expect my Marines to turn away an admiral, sir?’’
‘’I actually do expect exactly that if that admiral becomes too pushy or nosy, Sergeant. Know that both the Chief of Naval Operations and the Undersecretary for the Navy signed a letter in support of my team’s mission. That letter specifies clearly that only the officers with a strict need to know verified by me will be allowed contact with my team. That same letter also says that any Navy personnel is to assist my team to the maximum extent possible if asked to, and that without any questions asked in return. Here is a certified copy of that letter.’’
Rohmer took the folded letter that Erik had just taken out of one pocket of his jacket and read it quickly. What he saw made him give a bewildered look at Erik.
‘’Damn, your mission must be really important to elicit such heavyweight support from the Navy. Do you have any other rules about access control, sir?’’
‘’Yes, I do! My second rule is simple: no civilian visitors! Even if they claim to be CIA employees, diplomatic couriers or technicians sent to repair some of our equipment, turn them away. In fact, no civilian government employee in Spain is supposed to know about our presence here, thus such claimants may very well be hostile agents and should be treated with utter suspicion. If you have any doubt, ask one of my team members. Lastly, and most importantly, no Spaniard is to be given access to our work area, for any reason. I don’t care if that Spaniard is the rear admiral commanding this base. If visitors ask questions about our presence, your men are to say simply that they can’t answer. They are then to verify the identity of those visitors and to note down their names and claimed positions, along with the time of the visit and any detail about them that could be pertinent security wise.’’
‘’Hell, this sounds even tighter than access control at the White House.’’
That attracted a disillusioned smile on Erik’s face.
‘’Well, I wouldn’t use that place as an example of tight security right now if I were you, Sergeant. Swiss cheese has less holes in it than the White House security these days.’’
‘’Right!’’ Said Rohmer, smirking, while giving back the letter to Erik. ‘’I will brief my men at once on your access rules and will emphasize to them that there are to be no exceptions to them. I actually suspect that some of my men will secretly enjoy being able to tell, politely of course, some senior officers to fuck off.’’
That in turn made Erik smile in amusement.
‘’Yeah, I can imagine that, Sergeant. One last thing: tell your men to forget what they see and hear on this floor. Blabbing about my team while in some local bar may get them in big trouble, if you see what I mean.’’
‘’Oh, I hear you on that, sir.’’
Rohmer then watched Erik get up and leave the guard room. Turning in his chair, he looked outside through one of the windows while his mind reviewed the rules just laid out by the CIA man. He didn’t even dare to try guessing at this time what kind of mission that secretive team was here for.
Dean Price was back in the team’s office at a bit past six in the evening, two pizza boxes and a large brown paper bag in his hands.
‘’Hi guys! I brought supper, for those of you whose stomach is not too upset by jet lag.’’
‘’Goodie!’’ Exclaimed Ian Dorset, eyeing hungrily the pizza boxes. ‘’My stomach doesn’t feel like its supper time, but it sure feels like lunch time.’’
On her part, Julie Prost didn’t waste time either in joining the others at the table, on which Dean had put the pizza boxes and the paper bag, from which he was extracting a collection of soda cans, plastic utensils and paper napkins. Dean showed a set of car keys to Erik as he was sitting down at the table.
‘’I rented a Nissan Murano SV with electric sunroof. It has a decent V-6 engine in it and has plenty of space for four persons.’’
‘’It will do.’’ Replied Erik. ‘’Under what name did you rent it?’’
‘’I identified myself at the rental office as Don Wilder, a Department of Defense civilian contractor.’’
Erik nodded, satisfied. Himself and the other members of his team all had come to Spain with multiple sets of fake identities, backed up with top quality false passports and complete sets of driver’s licenses, social identity cards and bank and credit cards. They also had plenty of cash money with them, in order to leave as little of a paper or electronic trail behind them if they had to move around Europe…or the Middle East. One of Erik’s false identities for the mission was also as a DoD civilian contractor, this one named Eric Manning. The four of them started eating the pizzas with gusto, with Dean speaking again after three minutes.
‘’So, Erik, how do we proceed from now on?’’
‘’I believe that a discrete preliminary reconnaissance from afar of Graschev’s residence is in order. We will also go examine the warehouse belonging to him in the Santa Maria commercial port area. If given the chance, we will install a few of our remotely-controlled surveillance cameras near both the residence and the warehouse. We will then play it as it goes from there. We will use our DoD contractors identities for the time being and will carry only compact, concealable weapons: no big holster rigs, big guy, sorry!’’
Dean sighed at those last words.
‘’But I feel naked without my Desert Eagle. Could we at the least hide heavier weapons in the car trunk, in case of trouble?’’
‘’That we can do, although I fervently wish that we don’t attract attention right away. We may have to watch that Graschev for a while before getting clues about his weapons trafficking business. However, I am confident that surveillance of his residence and of his warehouse should lead us to something solid: this guy is not in the business of peddling only a few pistols or rifles at a time and he needs a large, secure facility to receive, repack and ship large shipments. Julie, I will need you to dig into the business history of his import-export company. See if he regularly uses specific cargo ships to transport his official goods. Also, check for the recent arrival in Cadiz or near future planned departure of cargo ships from Cadiz towards Middle Eastern or Turkish ports. If you could gain access to the port’s traffic schedule, even better. Keep your computer link hidden, though.’’
‘’Of course, Erik!’’ Replied Julie, faking indignation. ‘’I am not in the habit of searching for dirty linen on the Internet with an IP address that screams ‘CIA’. Your little weasel here showed me quite a few tricks about this in the past couple of years.’’
Ian grinned on hearing that, his mouth full of pizza.
‘’She ain’t bad now…for an amateur.’’
‘’An amateur?! I was punching computer keys when you were still in diapers.’’
‘’Maybe, but you’re still an amateur compared to me.’’
‘’Uh oh!’’ Said Dean, grinning himself. ‘’It’s ‘Nerd vs Geek’ again!’’
‘’Enough about that, children.’’ Gently chided Erik. ‘’Ian, for your penitence, you will dig into Graschev’s recent telephone and computer communications, on top of his banking transactions. Watch in particular for contacts with the Middle East or with Islamic groups. Once we will have that background data and will have his residence and warehouse under remote visual surveillance, we will then institute a round-the-clock watch of Graschev, so start thinking about some staggered sleep time soon, people.’’
They took about twenty minutes to eat, then went at their respective tasks. While Julie and Ian worked on their computers, Erik and Dean took out of their electronic equipment crate a few select items, then put those items in a large sports bag. Another sports bag was filled with backup weapons and spare ammunition. A digital still camera with zoom lens and concealed body radio sets with earphones and special sunglasses completed their equipment for their planned evening outing. Dean smiled to Erik after putting on his own sunglasses, which had polarizing lenses.
‘’Don’t I look like the typical American tourist?’’
Erik glanced at him but simply smiled. The sunglasses he and Dean were wearing were far from normal ones. In reality, their stylish frames hid a micro CCD camera connected to a radio transmitter also embedded in the frame. With those sunglasses, what he or Dean saw could be sent by radio to the team’s work place inside the naval station, via a separate amplifier and transmitter unit that would be hidden in their rental car or transported on their persons. Erik and Dean could also use them to discreetly take still pictures of persons they encountered, to run them later through a sophisticated face recognition program. Those sunglasses were a recent addition to the CIA bag of tricks and had been developed and designed, like other items, following suggestions by Erik and Dean, based on their past field experience. Their present mission was in fact going to be a first for many pieces of equipment they had brought from the United States today.
At about seven in the evening, with still two and a half hours of daylight left, Erik and Dean walked out of their top floor office and went down to their rental car, parked near the main entrance. With Dean taking place behind the driver’s wheel, they were soon leaving the base by the western main gate, taking the A-491 highway that went around the base and heading east. Dean turned south on Highway A-4 after a few miles, now heading directly to Cadiz. From what they knew, Viktor Graschev had chosen to build for himself a residence in the area of Puerto Real, east of the Cadiz Peninsula, where housing was much less crowded and constricted than in the old Cadiz itself. That coastal area was also nearer to the port of Santa Maria, across the bay from Cadiz, where Graschev had a warehouse in the name of his company, ‘Meridian Import-Export’. With Erik carefully navigating for Dean with the help of a detailed local road map bought at the Navy Exchange, the duo soon took the CA-32 Highway that paralleled the Rio San Pedro, west of Puerto Real. They then went off the highway and on a secondary road that ran through a mostly denuded, semi-arid alluvial plain area. Another turn and Dean was driving down a dirt and gravel road leading to the San Pedro River. Once he entered a patch of trees, he slowed down, then turned off the road and parked behind a clump of trees before looking at Erik.
‘’Time to change our registration plates.’’
Erik nodded and got out with Dean to help him: such a procedure was standard for them when doing discreet surveillance or scouting. It took them only a few minutes to do that job, exchanging the American plates for fake Spanish civilian ones. Once that was done, the duo sat back in the car and drove back on the dirt road.
Finding and identifying Graschev’s villa was not hard, since they had studied detailed, high resolution overhead satellite pictures of it