CHAPTER 4 – A NICE MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE
23:50 (Madrid Time)
Friday, May 29, 2015
Greek cargo ship MV Heraklion
Inlet, port of Santa Maria, Spain
Erik cautiously stuck his head above the level of the weather deck of the cargo ship, where steel railings ran along the upper sides of the MV Heraklion, looking quickly around for any sentry or crewmember through his night vision goggles. Seeing none except for one man in black coveralls standing on the starboard open wing of the bridge, way at the back of the ship, he quickly climbed over the railing and crouched in a shadow area created by covered piles of crates tied to the deck. After another look around to make sure that nobody was looking in the direction of the bow, near which he was hiding, he activated his combat diver’s radio transceiver’s microphone.
‘’The way is clear for the moment. Climb aboard quickly!’’
‘’Coming up!’’ Replied at once Dean before starting to climb the light but robust boarding telescopic aluminum ladder that had been pushed up from their submerged Swimmer Delivery Vehicle, or SDV in short, and then hooked to a side railing of the MV Heraklion. Two U.S. Navy S.E.A.L. commandos, who were staying with the SDV in order to pilot it away after they would be aboard, held the bottom of the ladder to steady it and also stood ready to help pass to the two CIA agents their waterproof packs full of equipment and weapons. Dean, who had tied to his belt the end of the nylon ropes attached to their packs, soon climbed aboard the cargo ship and joined Erik in his hiding spot. The two men, communicating in brief sentences by radio with the S.E.A.L. commandos below the waterline, then pulled on the ropes of their packs, lifting them out of the water and up to deck level, where they quickly but quietly swung them aboard. Apart from those equipment packs, Erik and Dean had climbed aboard with much smaller packs attached to them that contained their primary weapons, ammunition and a few tools. Their FN 90 compact bullpup automatic carbines were already slung across their chests and ready to fire as they quietly carried their equipment packs to their hiding spot. As Erik told by radio to the Navy commandos that they could leave with their small submersible, Dean used the shoulder straps of his big pack to load it on his back. Erik then did the same, following which they cautiously went to the forward access deck hatch they had selected in advance when studying the blueprints of the MV Heraklion in Rota. They were helped by the fact that dozens of big wooden crates mounted on pallets had been fixed to the open weather deck with ropes and chains, then covered by huge canvas tarps to protect them from the weather and from waves, thus creating nice obstacles to visual observation for any sentry. That had proved necessary for the crew of the cargo ship to do since the cargo holds were now filled with stacks of steel sea containers, which Erik and Dean knew to be containing the weapons and ammunition destined to ISIS, themselves hidden behind a few rows of boxes of more legitimate merchandise. The crates on the deck contained in contrast legal cargo, like canned foodstuff, kegs of beer or wine and paper products.
Getting to the hatch, which actually was a vertical panel set in the steel bulkhead formed where the higher bow section rose from the main weather deck, the two CIA agents entered the bow section and proceeded to a small, rarely used storage compartment one deck down. Putting down his big pack in a corner of the compartment, behind a few old steel drums, Dean looked around at what would be their sea accommodations for the eight-day sea trip to Turkey.
‘’Well, it ain’t the Ritz, but it will have to do.’’
‘’More importantly, it should be a fairly safe hide for us.’’ Added Erik as he himself put down his pack. ‘’With the toilet compartment on the deck above us and its adjacent janitor’s compartment, we will be able to go wash and relieve ourselves with minimal risks during our trip, as the crew nearly exclusively uses the facilities situated in the stern, in and under the bridge superstructure. Well, let’s take off our diving equipment and unpack our things, so that we could make ourselves comfortable here. However, we will keep our kit behind those barrels and boxes, so that a casual look inside from the entrance hatch won’t reveal them.’’
The two men then stripped out of their dry suits, masks and closed circuit breathing systems, all courtesy of the U.S. Navy, revealing their black tactical commando outfits underneath. Next, they unrolled and spread out on the steel deck, behind the cover of the old barrels, the foam mattresses on which they would sleep. As discussed earlier in Rota, Erik and Dean then fitted long, fat sound suppressors on their FN 90 carbines before cautiously leaving the compartment to go do a visual reconnaissance of their section of the ship. As they arrived at the nearest ladder leading up to the next deck, Erik eyed the steep set of stairs and the short passageway it was in and took out of his small equipment bag a miniature, remotely-controlled camera mounted inside a small, dark plastic dome. Going in the constricted space between the foot of the ladder and the watertight bulkhead behind it, he fixed the camera dome in an upper corner that was in a zone of shadow. He didn’t need to deploy as well a solar energy panel for it, as a ship standard electrical outlet was conveniently situated a few feet away, fixed to a wall of the hallway. He ran the thin power chord up from the outlet to the ceiling, alongside the steel pipe containing the ship’s power wire, then running it among the bundles of wires and pipes running overhead, finally connecting it to the power supply pack of the camera.
‘’There! This camera will be able to show us anyone approaching our hiding place. Let me add a motion detector alarm sensor and run command wires to our compartment and we will then be much safer. We will also put a similar set of camera and motion sensor above, near the washroom compartment that we will be using. Go find a good spot to place and hide a remotely-activated Claymore mine that will cover the passageway where the door of our compartment opens, while I finish the job here.’’
‘’How about putting another Claymore mine right here, at the foot of this ladder? This way, we could catch anyone in the back after they came down from the upper deck.’’
‘’Do it!’’ Approved at once Erik.
The work on the deck level of their hiding compartment took them mere minutes, following which they climbed the ladder to go on the upper bow deck, which was level with the open weather deck just aft of their location. There, they did a visual reconnaissance of that part of the ship, noting what could be of eventual use or interest to them. Most of the compartment there were used for the storage of materiel typically used once in port, like supplies of paint and thinner for the hull and reserves of thick ropes, cables, chains and canvas tarps. To their satisfaction, the small washroom compartment they were interested in proved to include as well a shower stall, on top of a toilet and sink. The adjacent janitor’s compartment had a huge sink, nearly the size of a bath tub really, plus drying racks for mops and shelves full of cleaning supplies. Erik nodded his head as he eyed the washroom facilities.
‘’Perfect! This will make our sea trip a lot more bearable. Let’s wire this area for remote surveillance, then we will be all set.’’
‘’While we were going around those crates on the open deck, I noticed a few pallets of canned foodstuff. I know that we have brought with us some field rations for our trip, but we had to limit their quantity in order to leave enough space in our packs for our equipment, weapons and explosives. I could go discreetly grab a few boxes of food tins after we are finished here.’’
Erik gave an amused look at his partner, but mentally conceded that he was right: if some unexpected stop or delay in a port or at sea lengthened in any way their trip, they would then be in danger of running out of rations. That could be truly problematic if it happened while stopped in some port short of Turkey, when sailors and stevedores would be running around the ship to load and unload cargo, thus rendering any move by them risky.
‘’Such food reserves could come handy, effectively. Just don’t turn our hiding compartment into some eatery counter, though.’’
It took them about fifteen minutes to install a camera and motion sensor to cover the approach to the washroom, plus another set inside the washroom proper, and place a Claymore mine covering the passageway, running their control wires down a small vertical ventilation shaft that conveniently passed as well through their hiding compartment on the level below. That same ventilation shaft also gave a chance to Erik to run two wires connected to tiny whip antennas, once Dean had installed them on the open bow deck as part of his excursion for canned food. Those whip antennas were going to allow them to receive and send messages via satellite telephone and to receive signals for their GPS locator, even while hiding inside the ship. For that part of their work, Erik accompanied Dean outside on the weather deck to provide him close protection while he fixed the antennas and foraged for foodstuff. There was still an armed guard visible standing on the open bridge, watching the waters around the cargo ship. A more detailed look revealed to Erik a second armed guard, also dressed in black coveralls, watching the access gangway and the quay next to the ship.
Dean had finished his job of fixing the two satellite whip antennas and running down their wires through the ventilation duct and shaft and was now cautiously crawling outside on the weather deck, around the tarp-covered crates and pallets loaded with wooden boxes, checking the markings on them in order to find something of interest in term of foodstuff. There were a few feet of separation between the piles, something that gave him some good concealment while he was crawling around. In some cases, the crewmembers had played it easy and had used a single large canvas tarp to cover two adjacent piles or crates, thus creating covered spaces protected from the elements, something that added yet more concealment for his movements. The first thing of interest he found was a pile of wooden boxes of canned food stacked on wooden pallets covered by a single tarp. Using his flashlight fitted with a red filter, Dean read quickly the markings on the sides of the boxes, smiling to himself when he found something to his liking.
‘’Tins of pre-cooked Spanish paella: that could be a nice variation from our field rations.’’
Cautiously sliding out one of the top boxes from the pile and putting it down on the deck, he used his combat knife to pry open its top and examine its content He found it full of large, family portion sized tins of paella, each enough to feed at least four persons.
‘’Excellent!’’
Using the equipment bag that had contained his Claymore mines, wires and antennas, Dean stuffed four of the big cans in it, then closed back the box and replaced it in its original place. Moving to the next pallet, he found it loaded with boxes of tinned sardines. Taking out a top box and opening it, he saw dozens of small, hand-sized sardine cans inside and took a dozen of them before putting the box back in place. His last stop was at a pallet loaded with canned tuna, where he picked up twenty of the small round cans. His equipment bag now quite heavy, Dean turned around and walked on all fours to return near the bow access hatch, staying between the covered piles and with all his senses on alert. A slight movement that he glimpsed between two piles he was passing by made him stop and back a bit in a hurry. Grabbing his silenced FN 90 carbine, he listened carefully for a few seconds while hidden behind a pile. After a moment, he heard a faint metallic noise that he knew too well: someone had just taken the safety off a weapon, no more than a few feet away. Dean thought furiously, trying to figure out who that could be. It certainly wasn’t one of the guards used by Graschev to protect his shipment, as he would have no need to hide like this. It couldn’t be a crewmember either: even if one had been stealing tins of food from the cargo, he would not be armed. That left a stowaway like him and Erik, someone interested in tracking the cargo of weapons destined to ISIS. Dean smiled at the irony of things when the truth dawned on him. Staying behind his cover, he spoke out in a soft, low voice, using English.
‘’Miss Qalibaf, is that you?’’
There was a moment of silence before a female voice replied to him, clearly hesitant and suspicious.
‘’Who are you?’’
‘’The Great Satan sent me to prevent those weapons from reaching ISIS.’’ Answered Dean in jest, using the pejorative term by which the United States was often called by Iranian leaders. There was more heavy silence before the female voice spoke again.
‘’How do you know my name?’’
‘’We used our crystal ball. The mayor of Tehran can be proud, as he has a truly brave daughter. Look, I believe that we are working towards the same goal here, so why not forget about our political differences for this mission and coordinate our efforts.’’
Yet more silence. Dean stayed patient, realizing how unsettling this encounter could be for the female Iranian agent. He then heard the noise of a weapon safety being put back on. That encouraged him in speaking further to the Iranian woman.
‘’Miss Qalibaf, me and my partner have found for ourselves a storage compartment in the bow where we hid after getting aboard. It is located near a washroom, so is ideal to hide during the sea trip to Turkey. You are welcome to hide with us for the duration of this voyage.’’
‘’And what tells me that you won’t kill me quietly in my sleep during the trip?’’
‘’The fact that we won’t need to do that, unless of course you try yourself to kill us, which would only help Graschev’s henchmen. I doubt very much that you could take out by yourself a whole squad of Russian Spetsnaz soldiers. However, me and my partner can and we do have the weapons needed for that. We have a mutual interest in preventing ISIS from getting these weapons. Let’s forget our political and ideological differences during this trip and cooperate to thwart those barbarian bastards.’’
There was more silence before Dean head the shuffling noise of someone crawling towards him while dragging some kind of bag on the deck. A young woman with neck-length dark hair then cautiously stuck out her head and looked at Dean.
‘’Alright: let’s go to your hiding place. We will be able to discuss further once there.’’
‘’A good decision, Miss Qalibaf. Follow me as quietly as you can.’’
With the Iranian woman, who seemed to be wearing a black diving suit, trailing behind him, Dean continued on all fours until he arrived at the last pile of crates nearest to the bow access hatch. He could see with his night vision goggles Erik, crouched in the opening of the hatch and waiting for him, his FN 90 carbine at the ready. Erik had also shut the internal lights of the passageway, so that no light showed up outside. Dean then activated his throat microphone.
‘’Sparrow, this is Stryker: I found a friend hiding among the crates on the deck while foraging for food. She agreed to call a truce and to come hide with us for this trip.’’
‘’She? Don’t tell me that it’s Qalibaf!’’
‘’It’s her alright. We are now going to rush past you to enter the bow.’’
Dean then twisted his head around to look at the Iranian agent.
‘’We are going to cross that open deck space at a crouch and enter the bow section through an opened hatch facing us. My partner is guarding the hatch, so don’t be nervous on the trigger.’’
‘’Don’t worry: I put my pistol on ‘safe’.’’
‘’Good! Wait two seconds after I go, then follow me.’’
Dean next made a short dash across the open space and crouched behind Erik once inside, waiting for Qalibaf to follow him. She did so after a short moment and also crouched inside the passageway as Erik closed quietly the access hatch. Only then did he put the lights back on, allowing the two men and one woman to look at each other. With his FN 90 still at the ready but not pointing directly at the Iranian, Erik spoke in a neutral tone after examining visually the female agent. She had an oval face with soft features, large brown eyes and a slightly brownish skin that gave her a certain exotic air. She wore a diver’s wet suit, with a mask, tuba and a pair of fins hooked to her belt and with a watertight small pack now at her feet, while she held a compact, silencer-equipped pistol in her right hand. The pistol was presently pointed down at the deck, something that reassured him a bit about her.
‘’If you will follow us, Miss Qalibaf, we will guide you to our hiding place, where you will be able to change and then eat and drink if you wish so. You can’t have that many rations and water bottles in that small pack of yours.’’
‘’Effectively, mister. I had little time to equip myself for this trip and had to improvise. I was counting on stealing food and water during this trip.’’
Erik nodded in appreciation at that: she was proving to be both gutsy and dedicated, although she was obviously enjoying little field support from her organization, contrary to the extensive means presently at the disposal of him and Dean.
‘’Then follow me, miss.’’
The trip to their hiding compartment was short, being only about fifty feet away and one deck down. On entering it, Farah looked quickly around the compartment, noting the old barrels placed in line off the walls, so that they could hide the occupants from the door. Slowly and ostensibly, she then put her handgun back in the waterproof pouch containing her meager kit and supplies while eyeing the two Americans facing her. Both men visibly relaxed a bit on seeing that and let their weapons hang by their slings but kept looking at her, while she detailed them in turn. The one who had found her on the deck was tall, a good six foot in height, and was wide-shouldered, with a muscular body. His face was handsome, with brown hair cut very short, but his eyes said that he meant business. His partner was a bit shorter and less muscular, but his body was lean and nervous, while his brown eyes were presently as cold as ice. He wore medium-length brown hair and a short beard. Farah’s eyes narrowed when she studied his face.
‘’Didn’t I see you before, in the Puertobahia Hotel, mister?’’
‘’Yes, you did, miss: I played the German tourist on you then, so that I could follow you.’’
‘’I remember now. But, if you were able to follow me to my hotel and inside it, how come you didn’t do anything against me later? Our nations are all but sworn enemies.’’
While the shorter man’s mouth formed a smile then, his eyes stayed cold as he answered her.
‘’We didn’t attack you because you were not our target for our mission. Our mission is to prevent ISIS from getting those weapons, while finding out as much as possible who precisely is involved in this crazy plot.’’
‘’And that also happens to be my mission. Since you followed me to my hotel, you must know that I had a partner. Unfortunately, he was killed by Graschev’s men at the port warehouse, while we were trying to find out what was in the weapons shipment.’’
‘’We know! We had a small camera hidden inside the warehouse and we saw Graschev’s men when they carried the body of your partner inside after killing him. We also saw you run away from the warehouse just before that.’’
Farah tensed up at those words: those two American agents were decidedly a bit too efficient and well informed to her taste.
‘’If you had the inside of the warehouse under surveillance, then you must know by now that your good ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, has its hands all over this deal, along with the Russians.’’
‘’I must qualify your statement about that, miss. While some powerful players in Saudi Arabia are involved in this plot, it does not mean that they have the sanction of the Saudi government or of King Salman.’’
‘’And that’s supposed to change things a lot?’’ Replied Farah in a sarcastic tone. The smaller American shook his head slowly.
‘’Not a lot, as a matter of fact. Either the Saudi government is behind it, or it is being undermined by an extremist faction sympathetic to ISIS and Al Qaeda. Either way, it is something we definitely don’t like. However, that particular problem will have to be dealt with at a much higher level than ours. Our concern right now is to prevent those weapons from getting to ISIS and to unmask those involved in the transit of these weapons. Are you ready to work with us towards those goals, while forgetting for the time being the ideological differences between us?’’
‘’If that is the price to pay in order to complete my mission, I am sure that my superiors in Tehran will understand.’’
The taller American then spoke up, sounding somber.
‘’It is a good thing for you in this case that your father is so influential in Tehran. He is supposed to be a pragmatic man, from what I know of him.’’
Farah smiled very slightly then, warming up a bit to those two enemy agents.
‘’He is! He also happens to be a qualified commercial pilot and has the good of the citizens of Tehran at heart. He will be able to understand the need for this truce between us.’’
‘’And we will abide by that truce, miss, as long as you don’t initiate hostile acts against us or against the interests of the United States.’’
‘’That is quite a large qualifier, mister: the interests of the United States keep changing and expanding as it finds new reasons to push itself around in the World. By the way, my name is Farah. Since we are stuck together for the duration of this trip, we might as well be on a first name basis, right?’’
‘’You may call me ‘Stryker’. My partner is ‘Sparrow’. Now that we have introduced ourselves, how about that you change out of that diving suit? I can guide you to the washroom above us, where you will be able to wash away the salt on your skin and then change.’’
‘’I will gladly take your offer…Dean. I hope that you are not counting on playing the peeping tom upstairs?’’
‘’Don’t worry, Farah: when on a mission, I can be all business and no play.’’
Somehow, the way he said that convinced Farah that he was not lying. She thus grabbed her equipment pouch and followed the big American out of the compartment and up to the deck above, where he showed her a small and austere washroom with a shower stall in one corner.
‘’I will stay outside the door and keep a watch for any armed goon or sailor while you wash and change. I will just ask you to make it quick and not waste time: no perm job on your hair, please.’’
Farah, who was starting to find the bigger American to be decidedly more likeable than his partner, at least in appearance and demeanor, frankly smiled at his attempted joke.
‘’Don’t worry, Stryker: I didn’t bring my hair blower with me on this mission.’’
‘’Excellent! I will be outside the door. If you hear some kind of fracas, don’t panic and simply dress back quickly, then wait for me to open the door. Just don’t shoot immediately without looking first who is coming, though.’’
He then closed the door, leaving Farah alone in the small washroom. The first thing she did then was to take out her pistol and put it on the side of the sink, near the shower stall, so that she could grab it quickly if something happened. Only then did she peel off the neoprene wet suit that clung closely to her body, revealing a bikini under it. Showering and drying herself, she slipped a panty on and clipped a bra in place, then put on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a pair of socks and running shoes. The whole process took her a bit over twenty minutes. Rolling in a bundle her diving suit, with her wet bikini inside, took her another two minutes. Dean was patiently waiting in the passageway, partly hiding behind a big pipe that ran vertically between decks, when she came out of the washroom. He gave her a quick glance up and down before pointing the nearby ladder.
‘’Good! Let’s go back to our luxury cabin. Are you hungry?’’
‘’A bit.’’
‘’Then I will open a can for you once there.’’
‘’A can of pork or a can of worms?’’
Her joke then brought for the first time a genuine smile on his face.
‘’Well well, an Iranian agent with a sense of humor: that’s refreshing!’’
‘’Did you think that us Iranians are all crazy religious fanatics screaming ‘God is great!’ all the time?’’ Farah replied while following him towards the ladder. He twisted his head to look at her as he was about to climb down the steps.
‘’No! And neither are we Americans all depraved capitalist exploiters screaming ‘God bless America’ all the time. Well, maybe the part about ‘God bless America’ is true.’’
Farah had to restrain herself then from not openly giggling at that.
Once back in the storage compartment, Farah unrolled her wet suit and suspended it, so that it could dry out. She was finishing to do that when Dean approached her with a few small tin cans in his hands.
‘’Here are a couple of cans of sardines and of flaked tuna for you. I have a can opener if you need to use one. Do you have water with you?’’
‘’I do have a bottle of water with me, thank you.’’
She took the cans offered by him and put all but one sardine can in her bag and took out a set of camping utensils and a bottle of water, then sat on a small, empty plastic crate turned upside down. She discreetly watched the two Americans as she ate her sardines. They also opened a couple of cans of fish and ate them, sitting while facing her. She didn’t fail to notice that, while they had put down their carbines, both wore pistols in either shoulder or belt holsters.
‘’Do you mind if I put my pistol shoulder holster on after eating?’’
‘’Go right ahead, miss.’’ Replied the one nicknamed ‘Sparrow’, who was still rather formal with her. ‘’Graschev’s goons could show up without warning and it is thus good policy to be ready for them if need be.’’
‘’Thank you! So, how do you propose that we go about this mission while stuck on this ship, Sparrow?’’
‘’Well, as much as I would like to blow up this ship and its cargo of weapons right away, I have orders to find who is supposed to facilitate the transit of these weapons once we hit port in Turkey. We suspect that the Saudis and the Russians are not the only ones to have their hands dirty in this affair.’’
‘’If it would be only for my opinion, I would say that the Turks have something to do as well with this. The Turks have been rather passive concerning ISIS, even while those barbarians were committing massacres right on their border. Also, their president is hostile to President Assad of Syria, whose army is in turn fighting ISIS.’’
‘’…and a few other groups.’’ Added Dean, making Farah nod her head.
‘’I would lie to say that you are not right about that, ‘Stryker’. However, if the Turks, or some people in Turkey at the least, are aiding this weapons scheme, then we may not be able to expect any help from the Turkish authorities once in Iskenderun.’’
Erik nodded once at that.
‘’You are correct about that, miss. We will thus act as if the Turkish authorities are complicit in this, which means that we will work completely undercover in Turkey. Do you have a passport and other identity pieces with you that would allow you to go around in Turkey?’’
‘’I have the papers and cards I used in Spain with me, along with some cash. In view of how well equipped you seem to be, I suppose that you are not lacking either in false papers?’’
‘’Correct! What I am hoping to do is to see in Iskenderun who will show up to pick up the weapons. Then, we could get the information we need from that somebody.’’
‘’What about the Russians escorting the weapons right now?’’
‘’Ideally, we will evade them during this sea trip and get off the ship as soon as we arrive in Iskenderun, so that we could both be free of them and be ready to follow whoever will pick up the weapons.’’
‘’That sounds like a feasible plan to me. So, we just hide during this trip and do nothing in the meantime?’’
‘’Not exactly. While I want us to follow this trail all the way to Turkey, we have to ensure that we can destroy those weapons in the case our opponents decide to change their plans and reroute the weapons. We will have to be especially alert when this ship will make its scheduled stop in the port of Limassol, in Cyprus. A lot of questionable dealings happen in Cyprus, due to its proximity to many countries bordering the Mediterranean. I intend to place a few demolition charges in place, just in case.’’
‘’A sensible precaution, I must say. I concur.’’ Said Farah calmly. In reality, her mind was now going into high gear, trying to fit that piece of info with the plan of action she had received from her superiors in Tehran before sneaking aboard the ship. Blowing up the weapons, while an acceptable solution if things went badly, was certainly not the preferred one in Tehran. Erik, after looking at his watch, made a show of starting to undo the laces of his running shoes.
‘’It is late and we had a long day. We all should catch some sleep before this ship leaves Santa Maria.?