SEAL Team 666: A Novel

“Nah, it’s okay. We got some kind of threat and need to find out what it is.” He spared a longing glance at the desk. “Next time for sure.”

She kissed him deeply and let him go.

14

SOMEWHERE OVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.

Macau was plus fifteen hours from Coronado’s Pacific time. By the time they reached their target, it’d be 0100 hours the following day, local time.

Macau was an Asian anachronism, originally developed by the Portuguese as a foothold on Asian trading in 1635. The first treaty allowed the Portuguese sole right to anchor ships and conduct trade, but it didn’t allow them the rights to stay onshore. The Dutch East India Company, who saw themselves as the emperors of sea and trade, already had rights to the Cape of Good Hope, the Strait of Magellan, and the Strait of Malacca, and had repeatedly tried to wrest this important foothold from the Portuguese; they failed in all attempts. Macau became the premier place for the transport of Chinese slaves to Portugal and the locus for what would eventually start the Opium Wars. In the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, signed in 1887, the Qing Dynasty ceded to Portugal perpetual rights to occupy and govern Macau in exchange for Portuguese cooperation with Hong Kong to smuggle and tax Indian opium for increased profits all around. The island nation survived World War II and Japanese occupation, but it couldn’t survive Portugal’s own internal political machinations. So when local Portuguese rule was overthrown in 1974, Portugal decided it was time to relinquish all overseas holdings, thus putting in motion the end of a nearly five-hundred-year relationship with Macau. In 1999, formal sovereignty switched to Mainland China, but Macau’s identity as the Las Vegas of Asia continued with the construction of more casinos.

The island, which had subsequently been connected to the mainland by a silt-laden sandbar and landfills, was located sixty kilometers southwest of Hong Kong. Its flat terrain was broken only by a series of central hills, the tallest rising to six hundred feet. Their target ship was moored on an older section of the outer harbor along the newly reinvented Macau Fisherman’s Wharf. Built as a theme park, it included a forty-meter-tall erupting volcano, a replica of a Middle Eastern fort, a Roman-themed shopping center, an outdoor coliseum, Vasco de Gama Waterworld, and associated shops, restaurants, casinos, and offices.

The wharf where the target ship was moored rested on the other side of replica of a Tang Dynasty fortress, which was still under construction. The hundred-foot battlements hid the area from any possible tourist observation and kept the place as private and secluded as anything could possibly be on the jam-packed island of Macau. The seclusion was an unasked-for yet appreciated windfall to the SEAL team members, who now didn’t have to contend with the possibility of tourists interrupting their operations. They were lucky. Even at 0100 hours, the area on the other side of the fortress construction site would be filled with people eager to spend their money and see for themselves what made Macau such a lusted-for pearl of the Orient.

After the mission brief, which took up the first thirty minutes of the flight, everyone sacked out for five hours. This time Walker didn’t dream. Exhaustion took hold and smashed him down until he was shaken awake by Ruiz.

“Where are we?” Walker asked groggily.

“We passed over Guam an hour ago.”

Walker pulled himself to his feet. The plan’s transponder identified it as a commercial cargo plane, and this C-141 had been painted the colors of a well-known package-delivery carrier. The ruse would grant them access to the airspace and allow overflight of their target. In addition to their battle rattle, each of them had been assigned High Altitude/High Opening (HAHO) tanks and masks. Normally they’d get a chill suit to defray the extreme cold of the upper atmosphere, but they were going directly into combat and they didn’t want to change clothes in the middle of a firefight. Although Walker had never participated in an actual HAHO, he’d practiced them at KIWG.

“Holmes wants to see you,” Ruiz said. He stood next to his gear and ran through it item by item to ensure it was in perfect working order.

Walker glanced at his own pile of gear. Pack. Gator case for carrying his Stoner during the jump. Ammunition box. Body armor. MBITR. Vest. NVGs. Various other pieces of equipment he hadn’t yet inventoried, all of it looking as if it had just come off the shelf of the Super SEAL Team Wal-Mart. Yeah, he knew what Holmes wanted. He’d stared daggers as he’d given the mission brief. Walker had known full well that when he’d chosen to steal a few moments with Jen, he’d have to pay the price. It looked like it was time to pay. Picturing Jen, though, it was hard to argue that it hadn’t been worth it.

“Yes, boss,” Walker said. He stood at parade rest with his hands folded into each other behind him.