Chapter 4

At six o'clock in the morning he was shaken awake by Ben and Chico, "Are you going with us Sergeant?"

He rolled off the couch and went into the bathroom and changed into sweats. He pulled on his running shoes, actually they were the shoes he wore every day, and walked into the living room.

"We'll let you set your own pace, sir. We do this every morning and we realize that it will take you a while to get yourself toned up. Don't try to keep up with us until you get back into it a little more."

They went outside and started down the road. Ben and Chico ran with the easy gait of experienced runners at the top of their form. Mike started to fall behind almost as soon as he started. After three miles he was exhausted and had to sit on the curb to rest. He was sweating bullets.

As he was resting Ben and Chico came back down the street and passed him on the way back to the house. When he made it back to the house, they were in the gym working out on the machines. Mike striped off his sweats and crawled in the hot tub. He was soaking when the two men came back upstairs.

He told them to get what ever they could find in the refrigerator to fix for breakfast. Ben looked in the refrigerator and told Mike that he would go to the supermarket that they had passed while they were running. They borrowed the Suburban and left for the supermarket.

They had only been gone about an hour when a car pulled up in front of the house. Jake Tyler got out of the car and said something to the driver. The driver pulled away and Jake walked up to the door. Mike had seen the car pull up in front of the house and had gotten out of the hot tub and ran into the bathroom to throw on John's robe that was hanging behind the door. He met Jake at the door and ushered him in. Jake had his briefcase with him and asked if they could sit at the kitchen table and talk. He led the CIA man to the kitchen.

Jake declined his offer of coffee, "Mike, I think I'd better level with you. Ben and Chico are here to get you in shape for a mission that you might not come back from. This Ernesto Guevara is becoming one of the biggest drug lords in South America. He's smart and uses the latest technology to stay two steps ahead of us. We haven't found any of his stuff in two years. We know he's bringing it in, we just can't find it. We've got to take him out. I already told you that he's so powerful that the Army and Navy down there won't go against him. He has a lot of politicians in his pocket and any time we try to get him he finds out about it. When we get to the place where he was supposed to be, he's gone."

"Where do I fit into this mess? Why did you pick me?"

Jake held up his hand, "We've been trying to get you to do some odd jobs for us ever since you left Delta. You've got a lot of street smarts. You're smart when it comes to completing a mission successfully and with discretion. Sure there's a lot of new technology, but the street smarts can't be taught. You either have it or you don't. Your one of the best that Delta ever had. If you hadn't been so pig-headed, you'd have been an officer a long time ago."

" I repeat, where do I fit into this mess? Why did you pick me?"

"I didn't pick you. The President did. He kept up on your file when he was Secretary of Defense. You became sort of a hero to him when you were in Delta. He heard about what happened to your brother and his family; it came up in a CIA briefing. He figured that you now had a fire in your belly. It's hard finding someone with that fire to do a mission for you. The President asked if it was possible to get you back in shape to take over this mission. I told him that I'd try it."

Mike leaned back in his chair, "What's in it for me?"

"Nothing, Mike. If you die, nobody will ever know. If you succeed nobody will ever know. The only thing that I can offer you is a chance to revenge your brother's death."

"What are these two guys like under fire?"

"They've only been on two missions, both small things as Delta goes. They did good both times. We picked these two because they have the fire in their bellies like you do. Both of them had family members killed by drug lords. They're where you were ten years ago in skill. They can do the job. They've read your file and both of them think you're a God. If I was going after Guevara, I'd want them with me."

"How much support can I expect?"

"I'll give you whatever you need. I can't offer that I'll run in and save you if you get into trouble. You're going into a foreign country and the US doesn't know a thing about it. If your captured, we'll deny that we ever knew you."

"You make it sound like the perfect job, Jake."

"It's a piece of shit and you and I both know it. I'm asking you on behalf of the President of the United States to accept this mission. If you refuse, everyone will understand."

"What do we know about this Guevara?"

Jake grabbed his briefcase and opened it. He took out a thick file and started spreading papers out on the table. Mike took each paper and read the information, trying to cement it in his brain.

"Is this a picture of him?"

"That's the latest picture we have of him. That picture's about six months old. His grandparents are still alive, but won't talk to him. He sends them money every month though and they take it."

"How old is the intell?"

"Everything there is no more than a week old. This guy is a ghost. He never stays in any one place too long. The peasants think he's a God because he protects them and buys them seeds for their farms and livestock every now and then."

"Now, the thousand dollar question. Did Guevara order the hit on my brother's boat?"

"We don't know. He lets his men go out and free-lance. It keeps them happy. What they get from the yachts that they plunder they get to keep. Guevara doesn't make them cut him in on the deal. He supplies the boats and guns for them use, but he doesn't pick the targets. They're his men and if he has something else for them to do, his business comes first."

"Do we know the men that raided my brother's boat?"

"No, they all do some piracy when Guevara doesn't have them running for him. It's impossible to tell who did the job on your brother."

"So the only way to get the men that killed my brother and his family is to clean out the whole rat's nest?"

"That's the way the President sees it. He promises you every thing that you need. After we get you close to Guevara you're on your own. I wish that I could offer you more, Mike. I'm being dead honest with you. I'm holding nothing back. If you refuse, believe me, everybody will understand."

"Ben and Chico, what do they know about the mission."

"Everything that you know. These are two good men. They know that if anything goes wrong, we don't know them."

"Tell the President that I'll take the mission. I have to get all of them to get the ones that I want."

Jake took the cell phone off of his belt and dialed a number. He told whoever answered that he had Mike Owens with him. Jake handed him the phone.

"Sergeant Owens? I take it you're accepting the mission. I just want to be sure that you understand that if you are caught or if anything goes wrong the United States will have to cut you loose. We can't afford to be accused of invading a friendly foreign country. I wish you all of the luck in the world. The first lady and I will be praying for your success. Goodbye."

Mike handed the phone back to Jake, "Why is this one drug dealer more important to the US than all of the others?"

"Guevara has a talent for distribution. He's set himself up as the distributor of all of the cocaine in South America. He's almost completely out of the manufacturing end of the business. He runs the all of the other drug lord's product to the US for them. This way he never ruffles any feathers. They all rely on him to get their product on the market. This is why we have to shut him down. The other drug lords have dismantled most of their distribution network and If Guevara is put out of business, it will almost halt the flow of cocaine into the country for a while. It will give us an edge for a while. We might be able to get a handle on the problem."

Mike sat there looking at his friend and thinking. The story sounded plausible enough, but why send just three men in to take out an entire organization. The mission seemed to have a high possibility of failure. He got up to get a drink of water. There seemed to be a few missing pieces to this puzzle. He sat back down and reviewed all of the paperwork that Jake had brought with him. He had Jake repeat the mission and the commitment that Delta would make. After Jake finished Mike looked into his eyes, searching for a clue to what his friend was not telling him.

"There's a lot more to this than what your telling me isn't there? Don't hold anything back on me Jake or I'll drop you and Delta and go after this guy on my own. I'll die doing it but he will too."

Jake became uneasy and shuffled the papers. He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thick file that was stapled in one corner. The file had a top secret stamp on it and at the bottom the words "Eyes Only" stood out in two-inch high red letters. He handed the file to Mike.

Mike took the file and read it. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He reread the file and scanned the photos that where attached to the file with paperclips. Jake hadn't said a word while he was reading. Mike threw the file in front of his friend.

"This puts a new spin on the mission. What were you going to do just let us go in there and die?"

The file told how Iran had bought three submarines from Russia. The United States had protested, to no avail. The President was concerned that the Iranians would use the submarines to harass shipping in the Straits of Hormus. Half of the world's oil passed through the Straits of Hormus. Now two of the submarines were missing. They had last been spotted in the Mediterranean heading for the Straits of Gibraltar.

"Mike those two guys that are going in with you have been training for a year on this mission. Both of them are capable of driving a submarine if they have to. It's next to impossible for just the three of you to commandeer a sub and get it out into the open sea. We don't even know if Guevara has the subs. We have some intell on chatter from the Iranians that they are going to destroy the US with drugs. They feel that we are so decadent that we will destroy ourselves. "

"What about our satellites. Can't you pick them up on satellite photos? Didn't you track them as they left Iran?"

"We were tracking other hot spots. Our satellites have been targeted on Al Queda and our known enemies. South America hasn't been one of our high priorities for our satellites. We saw the subs leave Iran about two weeks apart. Iran had informed us that they were performing some military maneuvers in the Med. It's done all of the time."

"Ok Jake, stop making me drag the information out of you. I want to know everything or you're out of here and I'm going in solo."

"I'll start from the beginning. This is for your ears only. If you mention any of this to anyone, I'll finish out my life in Leavenworth. The Iranians bought three subs from the Russians. As subs go these are ancient history. They aren't the boomers that Russia has. They can still put a hurt on somebody though. The US protested and told the Iranians that if they ever used the subs, the US would consider it an act of war against us and that we would retaliate with nuclear if necessary. We weren't too worried because these were old subs and noisy as shit. We could pick them up any time they left port. The Iranians started shopping around for ways to make them quieter. A French outfit designed and made state-of-the-art props for them that are as quiet as anything that we have. The French government didn't know what the company was doing until after the props were delivered. The props were put on the subs and worked perfectly. The fundamentalists that run Iran have made no secret that they consider us decadent. They see nothing wrong with helping the drug dealers to get the shit into the US and letting us destroy ourselves. Two of the subs turned up missing one day in the Med and the Iranians have stonewalled us every time we ask where they are."

"Now for your end in this. After the subs turned up missing, we stopped interdicting drug shipments from this part of South America. We haven't found anything in two years other than what a few of the independents bring in. A Mullah said in an interview that the Americans are going to drug themselves out of existence. He started spouting off about how it was all Islam's duty to help rid the world of the "Great Satan" and that if they could do it with drugs it was no skin off their noses. We started putting two and two together and started poking around. We heard rumors that Guevara had a submarine and he could get all of the cocaine he wanted into the US anytime he wanted. We haven't a shred of evidence that the Iranians and Guevara are connected. It's that old story, if it looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk-it must be a skunk."

"C'mon Jake, you still haven't told me where I fit into all this."

"We can only poke around so much in a "friendly" country. As I told you, this country's Army and Navy won't even go into that area. They lost two helicopters to stingers a couple of months ago. The morale of their military isn't the best anyhow and a lot of the military brass is on the take or at least looking to get on the pad. We think that Guevara built some kind of shelter for the subs while we were busy elsewhere and is using them to get the drugs into the US. His base is about a mile up-river from the coast and the river is deep enough at that point to keep the sub submerged until they get home. About two years ago, a lot of construction workers started disappearing. A few of them were found floating in the Atlantic half eaten by sharks. There's just too many facts that point to Guevara and the Iranian subs.

"What we want from you is to go in and find out if they really have those subs. If they do, you can take out Guevara if you want, we don't care. After the three of you get out or if you're killed or captured, we'll go in with a full Delta Force and take the subs and destroy the Guevara base and his organization. Then we can rub the Iranian's noses in it and neutralize their efforts in that part of the country. What I told you before still stands, if you're caught or killed, we have no idea who you are."

"What about Ben and Chico? What is really their mission?"

"They have been trained to disable the subs without destroying them. Their primary mission is to disable the subs and notify us so that we can come in and finish what you all have started. We'll have a Delta team standing offshore ready to come in if you find the subs and if you disable them. They can help you get to Guevara and help you after Ben and Chico have completed their mission, but their main objective is to disable those subs."

"Then you're using me as an excuse to go in there after those subs, if they're there."

"Yes, I'm afraid so Mike. We have some sovereignty issues. W can't just go poking around a friendly country with a sizable force. Guevara has the Navy bigwigs in his pocket and they might come in and help Guevara out if we went in with too much firepower. We'd get a real black eye if we went to war with a friendly Navy. This has to be a hush-hush operation. They have to be dead before anyone even knows you're there. If we can neutralize those subs, we think that it will take some time for Guevara's people to gear up enough to be major players in the drug business. We think that Guevara has a lot of small bases that feed into the base where we think the subs are. He keeps his bases small so that if they're taken out, he can rebuild quickly. If there are no subs, all of the other bases are worthless."

"What about Ben and Chico? What if they're captured?"

"Officially, they were discharged under less than honorable conditions. After this mission all of that paperwork will disappear, if the mission is successful of course."

"Why don't you just have one of our subs go in and take out the Iranian subs?"

"Again, sovereignty issues. We think they stay as close to the coastline as possible and have fishing boats off-load the drugs off the US coast. They don't get into international waters until they're off our coast. The damn subs are so quiet that its hard finding them unless you're looking for them and have some idea where they'll be. If we went in after him it while he's close to shore, it would be construed as the US invading a friendly country."

"You'll give us everything we need to get in there and complete the mission?"

"Yes. A lot of what you'll need is already cached in the jungle about five miles from the base where we think the subs are. You'll have access to all of the latest technology that we use. Nothing will be held back. You're going to have to work hard to get back into shape. Ben and Chico will leave you in the jungle if you jeopardize their mission. Your cause is second to ours. We expect to go in on the mission in about three months. That will give you time to get into shape and learn our techniques. You'll also have time to clean up your brother's affairs. We'll send a Navy accountant and lawyer over to help you so that you'll have time to train."

Mike tried to digest the information that he had been given. He had suspected that something was behind the government sending two Delta men to help him get a few pirates. This was never done unless the interests of the US are at risk.

"Jake, why hasn't Guevara flooded the country with cocaine if you can't catch him?"

"He keeps the price up this way. I told you, he's a good businessman. That's why the other drug dealers use him to distribute their product."

"OK, I'll take the mission. Just remember that I get to kill Guevara and anyone else I feel like killing. I won't jeopardize your mission, but I won't leave if Guevara is still alive."

"There's just one more thing, Mike. We don't think Guevara's men are driving the subs. They might be Russians or they might be Iranians. If they are not Guevara's men, the sub drivers can never be found. They have to disappear. Our force will take care of their own mess. If you kill or capture any Iranians or Russians, make sure that no one ever finds them."

Mike nodded his head. Jake got up and started to gather up his papers and put them in his briefcase.

"Were is Ben and Chico? Did you tell them to get lost?"

"My driver told them to stay away until after I left. It was just so that I had a chance to tell you everything that we know about this situation. Don't discuss any of this with them. I've told you some things that I shouldn't have. They've been fully briefed. They know everything that you do. They know that there's a good chance none of you will come back from this."

Jake picked up his cell phone and called his driver. In a few minutes the car pulled in front of the house followed by the suburban. Jake got in his car without a word and Ben and Chico started carrying in the groceries that they bought.

Tallorder64

Chapter 5