Payback by Keith Douglass

Author:Keith Douglass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

NAVSPECWARGRUP-ONE

Coronado, California

For the tenth time that morning, Murdock realized how much he missed the use of the Internet and e-mail. The damn lights were still out. A newsman on his battery-powered radio said it might be two more days before all sections of the San Diego area were powered up. Strange how he had come to rely on the Internet for several aspects of his job and his communications with Ardith in Washington, D.C. He looked at the sheaf of papers that the master chief had given him when he arrived that morning. Most of them were routine. MacKenzie had copied them down from SATCOM transmissions. It was still their only communications off base.

The telephone still worked for local calls, but the military radio net had been vital to the whole operation. Murdock had worked through most of the stack of material when Master Chief MacKenzie rushed into the office about 0930 that morning. DeWitt and the platoon were at the O course running it again for time.

The usually calm old salt MacKenzie had a sheen of sweat on his brow and his eyes were spiked open with alarm.

“This just came in, Lad sir. It’s bad news.” He thrust a paper at Murdock who read it.

“From Don Stroh. To Lieutenant Commander Blake Murdock, Third Squad, SEAL Team Seven. We’ve had tight security about the fact that the President and Vice President and his top planning staff have been at a secret retreat for the past two days. The President has kept on top of the attack on San Francisco and the hijacking of the cruise ship and has issued the required orders to deal with the matters. Communications had been with his usual travel group of high performance radios. When the power grid went down yesterday morning just after daylight on the Pacific Grid, it also blacked out the President’s radio communications from his retreat. He’s up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

“Their only communications is by SATCOM, and their last report was four hours ago. It said that they were being attacked by an armed group of men operating like soldiers. They were having to scatter so they wouldn’t be captured. That was the last report we had from him. Something must have happened to the SATCOM.

“One of the last messages reported that the three helicopters at the site were destroyed with what looked like RPG’s. So they couldn’t fly out. The SATCOM report said they were under a heavy military attack and were on the run. Then the transmissions stopped.

“A rescue force is now being put together by the FBI and the military. It has been suggested that two Army Ranger platoons and one platoon of Navy SEALs be included in the package.

“I have made a strong pitch that Platoon Three from SEAL Team Seven be assigned to the rescue force. Will keep you informed. If this plans flies, the forces will be activated almost at once today. Stroh out.”

“The President,” Murdock whispered. He held up his left arm and looked at the homemade bandage.

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