Chapter 58
Langley
It was often said that timing was everything. For DDO Flynn, it had never seemed more critical than right now.
“I need an exact flight time,” he said to the working group assembled in the conference room.
As soon as Orion had acknowledged their latest message, he’d convened a planning session with the key players.
Everyone was bone-tired, running on strong coffee and carts of subpar food hauled up from the CIA cafeteria.
By choice, however, not a single person had gone home.
The watch team, the desk analysts, every agency liaison—all remained on duty, because they knew lives were at stake.
Not to mention the biggest intelligence coup in generations.
The DOD coordinator answered, “According to the crew of the LC-130, the flight from Summit Station in Greenland to PAWS 24916 will take three hours and fifty-two minutes.”
PAWS stood for Polar Area Weather Station. Unit 24916 had been in place for five months, an automated system that transmitted wind, temperature, and other atmospheric data on a three-hour cycle. Now that desolate outpost had become the center of America’s national security universe.
The DOD specialist went on: “According to the aircraft commander, the best site for landing the LC-130 is one mile south of the weather station. This is based on his evaluation of ice-thickness plots and satellite analysis of the surface conditions.”
“I take it the SEALs will escort our people from the weather station to the LZ?”
“That’s the plan, sir. They will also, of course, provide security if any elements of the Chinese or Russian contingents take up pursuit.”
“Is there any evidence of that?” Flynn inquired.
“No,” replied the ISR man. “We’re still watching the crash site from overhead, although there are occasional gaps in our coverage. The anarchy we saw earlier has given way to a tense quiet. The Aurora has sunk, and it appears that the Russians have commandeered the Snow Dragon 2.”
“Commandeered?”
“That’s a bit of speculation on our part, based on what we’re seeing and some communications intercepts from inside Russia. The salient point is that we’ve seen no indication that anyone from the crash site is trying to chase down Orion.”
“What about the weather?”
An Air Force meteorologist who had been called in for her Arctic expertise answered, “Visibility is the most critical factor for LC-130 to land on the ice sheet. Before they even try to put down, the pilots will have to make a few passes over the LZ to assess the surface. Right now, the conditions look marginal. The most recent webcam image from this PAWS station shows one mile visibility. That wouldn’t be enough to land, but it’s an improvement over what we’ve had for the last day.
The wind and temperatures are still extreme, but those are less of a factor for landing. ”
“All right, people,” Flynn said uneasily.
He wasn’t happy with the preliminaries, but he knew they had to move on.
“We’ve got three variables to sequence. The arrival of Orion and Falcon at the weather station, the arrival of our SEAL Team soon after, and the projected landing time of Logair 51.
” This was the call sign of the LC-130 mission.
The 109th Airlift Wing typically used Skibird, but that had been a nonstarter.
Using their unit call sign, on an open-air traffic control network, could compromise the mission by telegraphing that a highly specialized aircraft was headed toward the area.
The Chinese, they suspected, had already brought down one aircraft, and the MSS had a nasty penchant for doubling down on their mistakes.
Logair was a call sign normally assigned to logistics flights flown by DOD contractors, and one that likely wouldn’t pique anyone’s interest.
The DOD specialist picked up: “The LC-130 is our limiting factor. It can’t arrive early because fuel will be extremely tight, and the plan is to leave her engines running.
Once we have a reliable estimate of when everyone will be in place at the weather station, we can time her takeoff to arrive soon after. ”
“All right,” Flynn said. “Three hours and fifty two minutes, maybe add twenty minutes for slop. We’ll call it four hours and fifteen minutes total. All we have to do now is figure out arrival times for Orion and the SEAL team.”
“Orion and Falcon should be the first to arrive. The nearest ice the Cheyenne can punch through, unfortunately, is almost thirty miles away. That means the SEALs will arrive roughly an hour behind them. I’ll send messages to both requesting their best estimates.”
“Speaking of the Cheyenne,” the DOD specialist stated. “Does she stay on station after the SEALs disembark or does she go back under the pack?”
The ISR man said, “I think she should stay in the area as a backup. Just in case anything goes wrong with Plan A. That said, I wouldn’t leave her on the surface. Too much chance of a satellite spotting her, especially if the weather improves.”
“I agree,” Flynn replied. “Let’s order her to submerge as soon as she drops off the SEALs.
But I want her to stay in the loop. Have her use a buoy or her communications mast, whatever it takes to maintain a signal.
Our evacuees already have limited comm, and we don’t need any more holes in the network.
What about logistics for the LC-130’s landing? ”
The DOD specialist answered, “As I mentioned, the crew plan to keep the engines running after touchdown. That should help minimize the chance of mechanical issues. For the same reason, they’re not going to lower the aft ramp.
It’ll be a hot load for our exfils, engines running, but that’s not a problem.
The loadmaster can guide them to the side boarding door.
Six people and one small case come on, and then they take off immediately.
With any luck, the aircraft won’t be on the ground more than five minutes. ”
Flynn thought that sounded like a dream. And it probably is.
“The aircrew also sent some special instructions to be forwarded to the SEALs for marking the landing zone.”
“Aren’t they trained to do that?” Flynn asked.
“They’re well trained in establishing LZs for a variety of aircraft and conditions.
But landing a four-engine transport on the Arctic ice pack isn’t in anybody’s syllabus.
Truth is, a landing like this has never been attempted at such a high latitude.
The LC-130’s skipper wants the SEALs to bring as many flares and lights as possible to illuminate the LZ.
We’re talking about low-light conditions on the best of days, and getting a visual on the landing surface is going to be critical.
Suffice to say, this is not the time nor place for a hard landing. ”
He released his team to make it all happen.
There were a lot of moving parts to the mission, a lot that could go wrong with equipment, weather, and communications.
But what worried him more than anything was the Chinese.
They appeared to be cut off for the moment.
Snow Dragon 2 was damaged, stuck on the Arctic version of a sandbar, and if the intel could be believed, it was currently under Russian control.
But if the Chinese were anything, it was tenacious.
They wouldn’t surrender Sky Fire without a fight.
He was certain that if they could come up with the means to do it, they would strike. But how and when?
Flynn needed to get Kasey and the others out of harm’s way—and do it before the Chinese got their act together. If he could do that, he would have Sky Fire once and for all.
And there it is again, Flynn thought. The key to everything. Timing.