Chapter 5.
Morning came early, we had breakfast at a restaurant near the hotel then took a taxi to the zoo and spent four hours wandering around. We watched the monkeys reach behind and throw chunks of fresh poop at annoying tourists for half an hour but couldn't figure out why they picked certain people to bomb. We've been to the San Diego Zoo before and always enjoyed it, but not the fact that parts of the zoo sat on the side of a steep hill and was not fun to walk, so it's best to always use the overhead cable car ride thing. My advice to anyone going there was to never take a handicapped person to the San Diego Zoo, go to Brookfield or Lincoln Park instead. One more piece of tourist advice I often gave: only visit the Grand Canyon during June.
We stood by the exhibit with the Cheetah and the dog and watched them for a while. Between the two of us I was the animal lover.
"Well, Cheetahs are big cats but they're not like other big cats. Actually, Cheetahs are more like dogs, that's why they pair them at birth with a new puppy and they spend their zoo lives together as BFFs, and they have about the same lifespan too and can eat the same food and get along just fine."
"I had no idea. That's neat, like dogs you say?" he asked.
"Yep, in many ways, like a dog that can run 55mph! You wouldn't want one in your house. Baby Cheetahs are adorable but they can destroy your house and they can scent spray like a fire hose, they're worse than a baby raccoon. They really are a very special animal, I would donate money to help protect the species." I added.
"How you know so much about Cheetahs?" he asked without looking at me.
"Nature shows on PBS." I mumbled.
"You believe everything you see on PBS?" he asked.
"No," I chuckled at his question. We stood there for a long time watching the two best friends panting in the afternoon heat as they relaxed in the shade under trees in their enclosure. I'd heard about many zoos putting dogs and cheetahs together and all of them reported great success, even better than two cheetahs in one enclosure. I told David I wished we could have a dog or a cat.
"Ryan, you turn on the sprinklers in the garden before we left?" He suddenly mumbled to me while we stood leaned against the railing by the enclosure as hundreds of people walked by.
"Yep, we can interrogate them on your computer if you like, I pressed the button for vacation mode as we walked out the door, just like always."
"Nah, I trust you." He added with a chuckle because I've forgotten to do it before. Even with the growing season nearly over even if I forgot we'd only lose some herbs. Our home automation system ran the irrigation in the garden, and the alarm system too. It ran all sorts of stuff when we were away from home.
I looked at my watch, it was 11:51am and I was hungry. David reached into his pocket and pulled out our text pager and pushed the button. He held it out and read the display and pushed a button to scroll through the message, and mumbled, "Uh oh."
"What's up?" I asked.
"Somewhere in San Diego, it says there's a hostage situation, ransom demand and explosives, one known perp and over five hundred hostages on a four hundred foot long cruise ship on San Diego Bay, going on right now." He put the pager back in his pocket and turned to look at me. I turned to face him and stared in his eyes. It was like a standoff to see who smiled first or fidgeted towards the exit.
Whenever possible before we went on one of these missions we often brainstormed about it first to try to get a clear picture of what might be happening behind the scenes. We learned this technique from the FBI and were big believers in its value.
I turned back towards the cheetah exhibit and quietly asked, "Hostage situation on a small cruise ship, how would that work? Pay the ransom or we blow up the ship and kill hundreds of innocent people and jam up the waterway, is that it?"
"Probably, I think it happened once near Macau years ago." David answered but I could see on his face it was more complicated, he mumbled, "...possible military issues if the cruise ship sank and blocked a waterway vital to the Navy."
"Probably no cash involved, very little cash on a cruise ship. Where does the ransom come from?" I asked.
"The cruise line business office." He answered.
"So they demand money and have it deposited to a protected offshore account, then immediately transfer it again somewhere, right?" I asked.
"As far as I know that's usually how they go." He answered with a slight grin while we both watched the dog get up and sniff around his spotted best friend.
"Did the pager say what company owned the cruise ship?" I asked.
"Yes," he pulled it back out and pressed the button near the display then said, "Luxury World Cruises of Portugal. Not a country known for terror or organized crime."
"How far is the ship from here?"
"Maybe three or four miles, but there's a lot of heavy traffic between here and there." He answered as he slipped the pager in his pocket.
"How would the perp get away?"
"Land, sea, or air, they'd get busted on land so that leaves sea and air. Probably out to sea, we're not far from international waters. From there they could go by plane or chopper or submarine or scuba gear. Whenever I hear someone trying to escape by heading out to sea on a fast moving boat I always picture two possible situations: either they're really stupid and think they can hide from airplanes and the coast guard, or they really do have access to some other means of escape."
"Are we looking at sophisticated international criminals or small time hoods? And can't the Coast Guard bust them?" I asked.
"To me it sounds like Mexican drug cartels trying new business ventures, but that's just my opinion." David answered quietly. After a moment he added, "As more states legalize marijuana it means less income for the cartels, they have to test new business lines."
We were silent for a minute then I told him, "What about this: I'm the perp and I owe the cartel money for whatever, they approach me and say if I ran one errand for them they would pay all my debts. They hand me a cruise ship ticket, a bogus passport, and some luggage and tell me what to do and I agree. During the cruise, at the designated stop I'd tell the ship steward I got a big ass bomb on board that will sink their ship and kill hundreds. They must transfer six million bucks into an account on the Cayman Islands within the next hour or I'll blow it up after I call the media and tell them I warned the cruise line hours ago (then I hand the steward the account numbers on a slip of paper and tell them to lower me (and my suitcase) inside a lifeboat. Once the money has been transferred and I complete my escape I'll drop the remote overboard and you can have your ship back. If I'm followed or stopped I'll trigger the bomb. If I make it to Mexican waters safely I'll toss the remote in the sea and everyone goes home alive. Inside their lifeboat I sail between Middle and South Coronado Islands off the coast of Mexico with a GPS in hand. By the time I got there it would be dark outside and I'd sail between the islands and jump overboard and swim to shore where the planes and coast guard cannot find me and await my escape later on. What about that plan?" I asked David.
He smiled and said it might work but probably not because they'd never stop patrolling, and he thought it would be funny if the cruise ship reservation was made under the name Dan Cooper.
"What would foil such a plan?" I asked.
"Carelessness on your part, or a guy with a smart missile on the US Naval airbase, on their ammunition loading pier watching you sail by in a obvious orange and white cruise ship lifeboat. I'd watch you go by and once you're far enough away I'd fire the weapon, with the yield cranked down all the way, 1-2 minutes after I fired the lifeboat, the perp, and the remote detonator suddenly vanish. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. They're out one insured lifeboat and they can keep their millions, their cruise ship, and their reputation. Only the perp gets dead. But, honestly, I think the perp is just a fall guy, expendable, and probably not too bright."
"What if he has accomplices on land?"
"Oh I'm sure he will, that's who bought his cruise ship ticket and fake passport, got the bomb onboard the ship, and owned the Cayman Islands account."
"Can't they set off the bomb without the fall guy?"
"Possibly, but the fall guy and the bomb are essential for authorities to focus on instead of the real criminals."
"Would a cruise ship lifeboat have enough fuel to make it to the Coronado Islands?" I asked.
"Yes, absolutely, he'd need to have stuff waiting for him when he got to the island. He'd arrive at night and have a buddy on the island waiting for him. Those islands are dotted with caves and rocky beaches." David commented. He paused for a moment then added, "So he sails between Middle and South Coronado maybe 600 feet off shore, swims ashore in the dark while the lifeboat continues on its merry way and the coast guard follows it from an airplane like scent tracking dogs but they don't see him swim ashore because ties a foil emergency blanket to his neck like a Superman cape so the IR camera on the airplane can't see him." He suggested.
"Yep, that might work if he thinks he could swim ashore, maybe six hundred feet at night. The guy on the island could run a tiny LED blinker to guide him, Flippers and a facemask and he'd make decent time if the sharks didn't get him." David concluded.
We stood there watching the dog drink some water then he walked over to his enclosure-mate and flopped down beside his best friend the cat with the spots.
"Can you get us on the airbase?" I asked.
"Think so, we're Navy vets with DOD IDs and clearance." He said nodding yes with a smile.
"Wanna go make some money?" I asked again.
"Sure."
We walked away from the cheetah (and friend) enclosure after David stuffed a fifty into the special collection box. We got on the aerial car ride and rode it to the park exit and got the first taxi, she dropped us off at the hotel where we got our case and notified our office we were responding to the cruise ship incident. We asked them to contact the Naval base commander, we'll needed immediate access to the ammunition pier and wanted everyone to stay away, but we needed a fast ride from the main gate to the pier.
David seemed anxious to get there. When we crossed over the bridge onto Coronado Island we saw a cruise ship at anchor in the harbor and tons of police on the shore and all the passengers on the boat deck in their life jackets, it did not look like fun times. He seemed to get more anxious the closer we got to the base. He said he thought he got a glimpse of a lifeboat being lowered down the starboard side.
We quickly got out of the taxi and jogged to the gate but the guards didn't know about us yet so we told them to call the base commander. At first it looked like they were going to detain us as possible suspects in the cruise ship incident then a SP van roared up with its horn blasting, and two guys gestured for us to quickly get inside.
We ran over and jumped inside and he sped across the runways towards the ammunition pier. We took our case and jogged out onto the pier, moments after our arrival a San Diego Police pick-up truck sped up and stopped with squealing tires. One guy with a rifle case hopped out and ran up to us as we examined our best place firing position on the pier. The pier offered us no cover from the blast so we'd have to shoot and run like hell.
The guy from the truck joined us and said he was a San Diego Police Sharpshooter (his badge said `Sniper'), we told him he needed to stay away from us, but he asked to see our IDs, so we flashed him our DOD ID cards which he said looked fake. David walked up close to him and did his best Harry Callahan speech and repeated his order that the sniper to stay away, we were running a secret op. Then David suggested he might find a better shooting position if he climbed on top of the shed near the end of the pier. The cop stepped back and turned to look around, and then he ran towards the shed and unpacked his rifle and put it together.
We went to the far end of the pier and activated the radio gear in our case and put on our AR (augmented reality) glasses, which also gave us voice comms with our office in El Paso.
He spread the case wide open after looking all around us, our closest witness was the sniper, he was on his stomach on the roof of the storage shed about eighty feet behind us.
There was absolutely no activity on the airbase, but it was a Sunday afternoon and this end of the base was runways and there shouldn't be anyone walking around them. All we knew was we expected to see a cruise ship lifeboat come speeding past us. David would fire the weapon after he dialed down the yield, because there were buildings within half a mile of the end of the harbor waterway.
David removed the launcher from the case and pushed the weapon out of the firing tube and twisted a dial at one end all the way down then re-inserted it in the tube. Then he removed the other end cap and fully extended the tube and the sights.
The weapon had an external ring with a numerical scale, you had to grip it tightly and rotate it so the yield number you wanted was beside the large yellow arrow. It was adjustable from one to two thousand tons of explosive. It was a tiny atomic weapon with a rocket motor and a smart guidance system reduced to the size of three cans of kidney beans.
"Should I warn him?" I asked gesturing toward the cop. David paused then nodded yes, so I ran down the pier to tell him if he saw us fire he needed to look away until after the flash, but the cop didn't believe anything I said, so I just repeated the instructions. "When you see us fire you need to cover your eyes and look away, do you understand?" I said with a tone. The guy just chuckled at me and shouted, "Anything you say Double-O-Seven," so I started to walk away but shouted back, "You've been warned Barney." Then I ran back down the pier to my husband who had just finished putting the weapon back inside the firing tube.
Re-inserting the weapon into the tube wasn't easy because when it was removed the fins folded out and had to be held-in while sliding it back inside the tube, a job for three hands. David and I have done it dozens of times over our years with the DOD, but it takes practice to do it alone.
Because we weren't formally dispatched to this incident we weren't getting text updates so we just stood there watching the harbor for an approaching lifeboat. David wanted confirmation but the only person in our El Paso office was the weekend watch lieutenant, so we switched to comms at the Pentagon for up to the minute intelligence.
Then David saw something, it looked like a fully enclosed cruise ship lifeboat motoring towards the entrance to San Diego Bay, I've never actually seen one on the water before. The Pentagon confirmed what we were seeing. They said the cruise line was ready to transfer the ransom money, the ship had lowered one life boat with the perp on-board with a suitcase of stuff, he was operating the boat and appeared to be heading out to sea. The closest place for him to go was Mexico, and they also said two hours ago the SD Coast Guard had been falsely summoned to a sinking freighter up the coast near San Clemente, which meant this perp had a nearly worry free passage to Mexico already arranged. As soon as we heard those words David and I both looked at each other and smiled. We advised them to stall the money transfer for about ten more minutes as we watched the lifeboat get closer. He had to sail past us, in fact we might even be able to smile and wave at him as he cruised by. If the sniper dude could get in a shot then we'd ran out here for nothing.
He looked to be moving as fast as that craft could go, about 15mph, throwing a big wake behind him. Far behind him was a San Diego Police speedboat tailing him about 500 feet back. We watched the lifeboat speed by but never saw any humans to shoot at but David watched closely as it sped past the ammunition pier, making the long turn south towards the open ocean.
On the back end of the lifeboat was an elevated spot with windows where a pilot would sit and steer but there was nobody there, David said he was probably holding a GPS and reaching up to steer the boat from down below. We glanced over at the sniper who was watching the boat through his scope, hoping the perp would pop-up in the window so he could get an easy head shot.
By the time he passed us he could smell the ocean and taste freedom. I asked David how he was going to shoot. He said it was set to fire and fly straight up to about 1,500 feet and track the target, then free fall and detonate about two hundred feet above it, on the lowest yield setting. He said it would be about ninety seconds from firing to detonation. He also told me we should quickly get off the pier because it might create a pretty big wave. I closed the case and got ready to run. I already knew that with a detonation 200 feet above the ocean the blast would never form a Mach Stem so damage to the pier or the airbase would be very minimal, maybe a broken window or two, but that's about it.
I've seen this weapon used on a firing range before, at the lowest setting it would create a sphere where everything would literally be reduced to dust. It would be him, the lifeboat, the air around it, and the water under it, in one second all suddenly turned to dust, a brilliant flash, a loud crack and a thin cloud of dust.
When we saw there were no boats nearby and the police speedboat was turning around (because a coast guard plane was supposedly going to follow him) he raised the weapon sights to his eye and pressed down the large rubberized button and held it down. He followed the orange and white lifeboat as it started to bounce in the rougher waters outside the bay. The weapon beeped at him to confirm it had a lock on the target so he let off the button then held it down again.
With a hiss and a loud pop I saw a fiery blur shoot out of the end of the tube in a puff of smoke. It raced towards the target about two hundred feet then turned sharply skyward and flew straight up towards the clouds and disappeared. David immediately collapsed the tube, we turned and raced down the pier. I yelled at the sniper and told him to look away but he flipped me off so we ran off the pier and got in his police truck and shut the doors and scrunched down on the seats, hands over our eyes.
Two seconds after I shut the door there was a brilliant white flash, and an extremely loud CRACK! The flash looked like all those videos from the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2012, it was many times brighter than normal sunlight. I pressed my hands over my eyes. At the peak of the flash I peeked and saw the bones inside my hand! When the blast arrived it rocked the police truck like in a hurricane, I saw the sniper cop get blown off the shed roof onto the pier. It hit us so hard it made it hard to breathe for several seconds.
We both climbed out and looked towards the ocean, the lifeboat was gone and there was no wreckage on the water, just a wave heading down the channel into the bay. The sniper cop got up and rubbed his eyes and staggered around like he hit his head on the pier. We walked towards him, "What the fuck did you do?" he screamed with one hand over his eyes and his rifle in the other.
We asked what he saw, he described seeing a white ball in the sky above the lifeboat then it got too bright to see anything, then came the sound and the next thing he knew he was on his back on the pier with his rifle still in his hand. He pointed to the ocean and screamed at us, "What the fuck did you do to that lifeboat. Who are you guys?" He asked repeatedly. We thought he'd arrest us but he looked like he just got pepper sprayed.
Dave put his hand on the cop's shoulder and congratulated him for excellent shooting, "You fired once and clearly hit the fuel tank, and it blew-up, no more bad guy, no ransom. Case is closed dude!" When I held my hand up to high-five the sniper he couldn't see anything but the ground, David and I looked at each other and smiled, I could tell he had another plan in his brain already.
We heard a sound as a three foot tall wave crashed into the pier and wiped it clean and continued down the wide channel.
We both congratulated him on being the hero. Shore Patrol vehicles raced up and we introduced the sniper as the guy who fired and exploded the boat, saved the passengers and the cruise ship, he was a hero! But he was very upset because of his head pain and partial blindness. We kept pushing the meme to everyone that drove up, and after the third time he stopped denying that he fired, `Everything happened so fast.' He kept repeating, so we walked off the airbase while everyone was focused on the huge explosion and the wave that raced into the harbor. Just before we left David whispered to the sniper he should remove one bullet and toss it into the water so his bullet count would be correct.
While we waited at the taxi stand I congratulated him on his expert bullshit and wondered what we'd earn for saving a cruise ship, over 500 lives, and the six million in ransom money too. We put our glasses back on to notify our commander but since we were on vacation we went back to the hotel, there would be no debriefing to attend today.
Half an hour later in the heated rooftop pool we made out in the deep end, the huge flash and the boom was the topic of the evening all around the bar. We got a table for two and ordered Italian food and ate in our swim suits. I confessed to David I still hadn't got the mental images of Rudy out of my mind.
I wondered how he got that amazing facial scar? David said he'd seen a similar one before and thought it was for some type of cancer, he scanned through pages of images on his cell then said he thought it was called a Moh's procedure.
We were quiet for a while then he said the only guess he had was maybe he had cancer in his frontal sinuses? It looked really weird, but it almost looked cool on him, combine that scar and the face of an adorable fourteen year old on the body of a tall thirty year old. It was really weird, once you looked at him it was hard to look away, he was so attractive but also so disproportionate. David thought that maybe chemo therapy might have halted male hormone production which left parts of him looking like the head of an eighth grader on the body of a slender 27 year old man.
Later that evening David got a text from our office at the El Paso airport that the cruise line's insurance company had posted a reward. On the TV behind the bar they showed video (again) of the hero-cop that shot the life boat and exploded the fuel tank and saved the day. We laughed since he was still wearing sunglasses and struggling to see. I quietly asked David how they'd explain the lack of lifeboat wreckage on the bottom of the waterway.
At the bar I asked David out loud why that man on TV was wearing sunglasses and shading his eyes. With a straight face he said out loud, "Maybe his eyes were sensitive to light." I slid my foot over and kicked his ankle and we both lifted our beers and took a swig.
I leaned towards my husband and muttered, "I warned him three times, maybe he'll listen next time someone warns him not to look at the flash." The news also showed video of the bomb squad removing a rather large device from the cruise ship, it was about the size of a college dorm trunk.
Back in our hotel room we showered together and fucked standing in the huge hotel shower, then went to bed, we had a long drive home tomorrow.
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