He reached through the bars and ran his fingers over the keys.“I could,” he admitted, frustration etching lines across his forehead, “with equipment.I don’t have any way to.Not here.”
She took a deep breath through her nose and slowly let it out.“Then we wait, I guess.”She didn’t mention Jerry and his friends.One, she didn’t know if she could trust Engineer Emauel Ramriez.Two, she couldn’t know for certain where Jerry and his team were right now.
They stacked up in the corridor around the corner from the comms room, backs tight against the bulkheads.Fisher had confirmed at least one guard at the door.
Ibrahim traded Fisher his Glock 47 for a suppressed QSW-06 pistol, and Brock accepted one from Anderson and handed him his Heckler & Koch.Ibrahim weighed the pistol in his hand as if trying to imagine how it would fire.From behind him, Jerry put a hand on his shoulder.Brock raised his pistol to the ready position and nodded.Peña put a hand on his shoulder.
At Fisher’s mark, indicating that the guard turned away from them, the two men rushed around the corner.Jerry watched as Ibrahim reached the far man and incapacitated him while Brock slipped inside the room.
The pistols fired almost silently, the steel firing pins making more noise than the bullets exiting from the muzzles.Jerry heard a faint grunt, then Ibrahim gave the all-clear signal, a low whistle, before he dragged the body of the Chinese militant into the room.
They moved with stealth and precision, silently making their way further down the corridor to the comms room.Jerry had expected a small room with some communication equipment.However, when he walked in, Sanders looked around and said, “Well, turn off the smoker and call me done.Who knew we could run a country from here?”
Walls of screens and workstations lined one bulkhead.He identified a sonar detector, a ham radio, VHF radios, a UHF rig, a wall of telephones, and three fax machines.The other equipment was foreign to him, but Anderson whistled under his breath and slipped his suit jacket off.He walked over to the sonar and tapped the screen.“The ship rafted up alongside isn’t the only one here.There’s something else just out of sight.”
Peña walked over to him.“Any idea what it could be?”
Anderson shook his head.“It’s been a few years since I took the Navy course at Little Creek, but it’s smaller than the cargo ship outside.”
Brock gestured to the corner.“Three crew dead.”
Peña nodded.“Plus the two we took out.”
A dull gray device about the size of a bread machine sat like an uninvited guest in the middle of the aisle in front of the fax machines.
“JN-1105A,” Fisher said.“Blocking cell signals.When we unplug it, it might alert the OPFOR.”He looked at Anderson.“Heisman?”
“Never trained on it.Only ever seen pictures.”
Fisher nodded.“Same.Why couldn’t they be good commies and use a Russian Zhitel?”
“Very inconsiderate of them,” Anderson agreed.
Peña said, “I’d rather not let them know we’re onto them, much less coming for them.”
Fisher nodded and pulled a chair out to sit at a work station.He used his handkerchief to wipe blood from the screens.“Let’s see if we can get our voices back without alerting our new friends.”
“When you do, let Ozzy and my wife know.Emma is Twenty-Four Ten moving forward.She’ll get us all connected.”Peña looked at Anderson.“Chase, do you have your phone?”
“I do.”
“Fisher will hook you up with the app as soon as you have connectivity.We’ll use a group chat app for comms.”He gestured at the wall of phones.“Can we call the chapel from here?”
Anderson chimed in.“Depends on what they did to disable the equipment.Looks like an S-VOIP system, so it should be localized and unaffected by the jammer.They might have just powered down the router or the dish.We can find out.”
“If they don’t respond, try using the phone.But, Ozzy knows it’s coming either way.”
“Roger.”
“Daddy,” Ibrahim said from the back of the room.“You’ll want to see this.”
Jerry followed Peña through a door.Two walls of screens filled the room.Clearly, this was a security room.The screens showed different decks, passageways, and dining rooms.“Heisman!”he called.
Immediately, Anderson stood in the doorway.“Jorge?”His eyes lit up, and he came further in.“I would have thought this was in security.”
“Same.”Peña gestured.“Get us some eyes?”
“Gladly,” Anderson slid into a chair and pulled a keyboard closer.He examined the screen in front of him and flipped through a binder at the workstation.The system instruction set had helpfully been written in six languages.He nodded and started typing.Immediately, the screens changed, showing passageways, the cargo area, and the promenade.
