Sweet Song, Bitter Loss by Paul Hencher

Author:Paul Hencher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2020-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN.

Colonel Battista had ordered that an empty office be turned hurriedly into a temporary makeshift incident room, as control centre for Operation Seahawk. A map of the Abruzzo Adriatic coastline had already been pinned to the wall, a map which Battista was studying carefully, his finger moving from one location to another. His mind was juggling with how many possible landing sites required what level of resources. It was an area of expertise in which Battista took great pride, ever since he achieved top grade in his promotion exam for the module ‘Allocation of Resources’. As he looked at the map, he began to have doubts about his earlier assumptions. Perhaps it would make more sense to land the illegals at one of the small bays further south, then take them by road up to the Pescara area.

Battista tried to put himself in the mind of a people-smuggler. All down this coast, the beaches shelve gradually out to sea, so a boat with an inboard motor wouldn’t get close enough to shore to be able to disembark a group of migrants, in which case it would have to tie up at a small fishing jetty. It might be possible to come ashore unseen and unnoticed in the early hours of the morning, but the downside would be that all fishing vessels are known and accounted for by the local community, and an irregular landing would attract attention, especially if a truck was on hand to transport the illegals further north. Then the truck itself being driven at night would add risk to the enterprise, depending on how far it was from landing point to safe house. At one of the bigger ports or marinas, on the other hand, there would obviously be more potential witnesses to the landing, but the coming and going of fishing boats and pleasure craft is more normal at these entry points, and therefore less likely to attract notice. Battista tapped the map with his finger, as though expecting it to provide the answer for him. He came to his decision. Rather than having mobile patrols covering stretches of coast, he would place officers on look-out at the five most likely landing spots, with two mobile teams ready to respond to any report of a landing.

On cue, his Divisional Commanders filed into the incident room for the Operation Seahawk planning meeting, at which Battista began by giving orders for the overall plan.

‘Two officers at each of the following possible landing zones,’ he explained, then, referring to the map, he stabbed his finger on each of the marinas at Silvi, Montesilvano, Pescara, Francavilla, and Ortona. ‘Two rapid-response mobile teams, one here, and one here.’ He indicated points on the main coast road, just to the north and south of Pescara.

‘The operation will commence tomorrow, Thursday, at twenty-three thirty hours until apprehension of suspects. If no landing is sighted, the operation will stand down at zero five thirty Friday morning. Communication between sighting officers and back-up will be strictly by secure radio.

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