White Jade (The PROJECT) Page 13

  Men transferred their gear under the watchful eye of a sergeant. The air smelled of rubber, jet fuel and Texas sage. The detail commander was a young Lieutenant wearing pilot's wings on his fatigues. His name tag said Markham. He saluted.

  "Welcome to the 7th Bomb Wing, Colonel. You'll be ready to go within the hour."

  Carter returned the salute. "Thank you, Lieutenant. We're looking forward to the ride."

  "Ever been in a B1 before?"

  "No."

  "It's a hell of an airplane, great avionics and defensive measures. Top speed is Mach 1.2, but we can come in at a hundred and twenty knots at low altitude and lay in precision targeting. You'll be flying in one modified for combat drops of personnel and equipment."

  He looked around. "Where's the rest of your team?"

  "You're looking at it. Just the three of us."

  Carter saw him note the lack of insignia on their uniforms. They had no jump insignia, unit flashes or name tags, just rank markings, and Selena didn't even have those. Lieutenant Markham started to say something, thought better of it.

  "Right, sir. Your jumpmaster is Senior Master Sergeant Johannsen. Once you're in the aircraft, he's your boss. He'll make sure you're checked out and everything is a go for the jump. You've jumped before?"

  He glanced at Selena.

  "We have. Is that Sergeant Johannsen I see coming?"

  The man moving toward them was compact, about five nine and a hundred and sixty pounds. He was dressed in flight gear and wore a radio helmet. Johannsen moved with purpose, tight as a spring, with no wasted energy. He had eyes of pale blue ice and the look that comes from a lot of years in the service. Nick relaxed a little. They were in the hands of a pro. He saluted and gave them the once over. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Selena, but he said nothing.

  Lieutenant Markham said, "They're all yours, Sergeant. Colonel, come back safe."

  Markham saluted, got in his jeep and drove away. Sergeant Johannsen gestured at the bomber.

  "Follow me, sir."

  They walked to the plane and climbed in. It was hot in the Texas humidity but things would cool off soon enough.

  The Humvee was lashed to a pallet near the converted bomb bay. The chute was being rigged by four airmen in flight gear. Johannsen took three chutes from a locker.

  "I packed these myself, Colonel. You may not have used one before."

  "It looks different."

  "This is the High Altitude Precision Parachute System, HAPPS for short. This is the stealth model, no one will see you from the ground."

  "It looks like a skydiving chute, but it's got more attachments on it." That was Selena.

  Johannsen eyed the lack of jump insignia on her uniform. "You've jumped before?"

  "Over seventy jumps. Seventy-two, to be exact. But maybe you could show me the ropes on this unit."

  It was the right thing to say. Nick saw Johannsen relax a little. It was more than rare to see a woman on a special ops mission. Male chauvinism aside, everyone felt responsible for success, even when they didn't know what the mission was about. Johannsen would be lax in his duty if he weren't concerned. His job was to get everyone out of the plane safely. After that it was up to the three of them.

  They put on the chutes under Johannsen's direction. He checked each one, pulling the harness tight. When it was Selena's turn, he paused.

  "The harness is pretty tight. You might feel some pinching—umm—across your chest."

  "Go for it."

  He cinched it up and Selena gasped.

  "This is your main cord. This is your reserve cord, here. The chute is fully steerable. You'll have oxygen, here."

  He attached oxygen dispensers to the chutes. Then he brought three devices that looked like wristwatches out of a compartment.

  "Put these on. This is the MA3-30 altimeter. It tells you everything you need to know. It's got a light switch and you adjust here and here."

  Ronnie and Nick had used them before, but it was new for Selena.

  "Set your altitude before you jump and we'll get you onto the drop zone with airspeed and timing. Your vehicle goes first, then you three. We're going to drop you from 23,000 feet. That gives you around 8,000 feet before you hit the ground, so you won't be up too long."

  "Piece of cake."

  "That's right, Gunny. Give it five after you go out and pull, and you'll be floating down softer than a balloon at a kid's birthday party. You'll be on the ground in no time. Let's get your packs on."

  They strapped on the packs, low in front. When he was satisfied with the rigging, Johannsen reached down into the compartment again and came up with masks and insulated gloves. The pilot was warming up the engines. Johannsen held his hand to his helmet for a moment.

  "Two minutes. Let's get you settled."

  He led them toward the center of the aircraft. Strap benches lined the fuselage. The four airmen were already seated on the port side. The team took seats starboard and strapped in. Johannsen strapped in across from them and said something into his mike. The roar of eight big GE turbofans increased and the plane began to move.

  Party time.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Nick was dozing when Johannsen nudged him awake.

  "One hour, Colonel. Pre-breathing in fifteen minutes."

  Ronnie sat quietly. Selena had packed up her computer. Carter put his hand on her arm.

  "You ready for this?"

  "I guess so. I've never jumped from this high before."

  "It's the same but the air's thinner, you weigh more with that pack and you'll come down faster. The tricky part is compensating for wind speed and direction. But you know how to do that. With the GPS you're not going to miss the landing zone. Even though we start high, we end high too. That makes it simpler. Just stay loose and you'll be okay."

  She nodded.

  "Free fall for five, then pull the cord. Remember to snap your chin to your chest once you're out and keep your hand on your reserve until your chute is deployed. Keep your legs tight together. The shock is pretty hard when the chute opens. Remember to land back from the balls of your feet."

  Carter looked at his watch. "We'll begin pre-breathing soon."

  "Pre-breathing?"

  "This high, we have to get the nitrogen out of our blood. If we go out there without pre-breathing, our own CO2 could knock us out and it's a long way down. Don't worry, this is standard drill. I've been through it before. Besides, the oxygen makes you feel good. When we change over to the bottles we use in the jump, be careful not to breathe any cabin air. Only pure oxygen. Okay?"

  "Okay."

  "Forty-five minutes." Johannsen's voice sounded in her helmet. "Begin pre-breathing."

  They put on the masks. Johannsen hooked up the plane's oxygen supply and they began pre-breathing. Carter felt the old pre-jump feeling come over him. He was always wired before a big jump. He figured you could double that for jumping into the biggest, baddest, highest and coldest mountain range on the face of the earth. He saw the tension in Ronnie, but he'd been through this before. He knew Ronnie was silently repeating the Blessing Way to himself, one of the Navajo ritual traditions. Carter wasn't worried about him. He put his hand on Selena's shoulder and felt her relax, just a bit.

  Another typical day in Special Ops, he thought, except now I'm a civilian, so what the hell am I doing here? He noted the mind chatter and shut it down. The oxygen was kicking in and he felt clear and strong.

  Johannsen's voice crackled in his helmet. "Ten minutes. We're going to depressurize now. Change over to your personal oxygen."

  Nick felt the change in the hold and his ears popped. The plane was slowing down and banking through what had to be mountains outside. His altimeter read twenty-one thousand feet. Most of the peaks in this part of the Himalayas were a lot higher than the plane. He knew the wingtips were only a small mistake away from disaster. He hoped like hell the pilot was enjoying flying between them.

  "Five minutes. We'll open the doors at two minut
es. Weather says very strong wind, watch yourselves. The vehicle goes first and then you three. What order?"

  "I'll go first, then Selena, then the Gunny, here."

  Johannsen gave a thumbs up. "Roger, that. Two second intervals."

  The plane climbed. The doors swung open and a blast of frigid air sucked away the little warmth of the cargo bay. The airmen got ready to dump the Humvee. The wind buffeted the fuselage.

  "I hope we land near that sucker." Ronnie's voice crackled in Nick's helmet.

  "These guys are good. They'll put it right on the money."

  "Set your altimeters at twenty-three thousand." Johannsen's voice came through the helmet.

  They moved to the opening. The engine notes changed as the pilot throttled back and the big plane leveled and slowed again.

  "Get ready," Johannsen said. A green light flashed and the pallet with the Humvee disappeared into the Himalayan night. Johannsen held up his arm for an instant, threw it forward. Carter leapt into nothingness, arms spread wide.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The chute opened clean and hard. He looked up and saw two chutes blossom above. The plane was a dark arrow turning against the night sky. They were on their own.

  A three-quarter moon spilled pure, silver light off the sharp peaks of the Himalayas. The snow-covered mountains gleamed in a shifting tapestry of light and shadow that stretched beyond the horizon. In the distance, Everest and Annapurna grasped at a deep, black sky glowing with stars.

  The wind was bad. Control was difficult. He veered off course, checked the GPS, made a correction. His altimeter read seventeen thousand feet. Carter looked for the Humvee and saw the chutes below, far to the right, almost down.

  Sixteen thousand feet and the ground was coming up too fast. He worked the lines and headed for a flat area. A strong gust made him sheer left. He overshot the spot he'd picked out and came down hard in an area littered with boulders. The shock ran up his bad leg and right into his spine like electric needles.

  He lay for a moment as the chute tried to pull him across the rough ground. The pain was like a knife in his back. He wondered if he was going to be able to get up.

  It wasn't a good start. He got to his feet and another bolt of pain stabbed his back and radiated down his leg. He struggled with his chute against the gusting wind.

  The ghostly moonlight lit the uneven terrain in shades of gray and black. Pools of deep shadow lay among the rocks. He limped back toward the drop zone. Selena was pulling her chute in about a hundred yards away. When he got there, she took off her mask. She took a deep breath of the thin air.

  "That was tricky, that wind…Nick, you're limping."

  "It's nothing. You see Ronnie?"

  "I think he came down over there."

  She pointed at a low rise as Ronnie came trudging over it. They high-fived. Ronnie winced.

  "You okay?" Nick asked.

  "Just a shoulder bruise. I came down a little hard. It's no big deal."

  Now they needed to find the vehicle.

  "Anyone see where the Humvee landed?"

  "It's that way." Ronnie gestured over his shoulder. "I saw it coming in. Maybe a quarter mile from here. That wind screwed things up."

  It took twenty minutes of scrambling over rough stones to find it. Nick's back hurt like hell. The pallet had shattered and the Humvee was half off onto the rocks. It appeared undamaged. They undid the lashings. The engine coughed and started. Ronnie drove a few feet away. They dragged a camouflage net over the pallet and chutes, good enough for the short time they'd be there.

  Carter spread a map on the hood of the idling Humvee and got out the GPS. His back throbbed with steady pain. He braced against the side of the hood to take the weight off his leg.

  "We're here." He tapped the map. "About eighteen klicks west of the mining town. The road is down there on the other side of that rise. Here's the monastery that's our principle landmark and here are the ruins we're headed for."

  "That pilot knew his stuff."

  "Makes you feel good, doesn't it? I could do without the moonlight, but it'll be gone soon. We've got around seven hours until dawn. With luck we can reach the ruins before light and get under cover. I'm going to call in."

  A coded burst to Harker let her know they were down safe and moving toward the objective.

  "Ronnie, you drive."

  He pointed to a spot on the map where a valley wound its way into the mountains, before the road reached the Gurugem monastery.

  "We'll cut north before we get too close to the building and head straight for the ruins."

  They put the packs in back and climbed in. They drove off the hillside and onto the road. It was in good condition, gray and flat in the moonlight. The Humvee vibrated as they drove.

  Ronnie said, "Steering isn't real good. Something might have got bent when the sled came down."

  "Not much we can do about it."

  "Nah, we're still making good time. But I wouldn't want to push it."

  Now all they had to do was get to the objective and find a way inside.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  In Washington, Elizabeth studied the live satellite transmission from nighttime Tibet. She'd gotten the DIA to task a geostationary satellite to her for the duration of the mission. In daylight, it could define the insignia on a uniform collar from a hundred and twenty thousand feet up. At night, the latest infra-red technology tracked any heat source down to the size of a cigarette.

  Elizabeth watched the heat signature of the moving vehicle carrying her team. Nick's coded message confirmed what she could see with her own eyes. They were down safe and heading for the ruins.

  She zoomed out and scanned the surrounding area for signs of Chinese activity. The town of Moincer showed up as a leprous green glow west of the moving Humvee. There was no sign of vehicles leaving the town and heading toward the team. So far, so good.

  Elizabeth had no illusions about what would happen if something went wrong. Political retaliation would be swift and merciless. China was off limits for armed covert ops. It helped that the team was in a remote region and that it wasn't in Yang's interest to draw attention there if something happened.

  It was a long way to Tibet, but Yang was after something important there. Whatever he was after, getting to it first would complicate his plans. Whatever complicated Yang's plans was good, so she'd ordered the team into action, politics be damned.

  She wondered if the relationship between Nick and Selena would be a problem in the field. It didn't take a trained observer to see something was going on between them. Elizabeth thought they were probably sleeping together, but there was some unspoken tension between them. Her first reaction had been to say no when Selena asked to go on the mission. But she had skills needed to boost the probability of success. Elizabeth always decided based on increasing the possibility and measure of success.

  So far Homeland Security had not raised the alert level. It was always a difficult problem. Raise the level and get everyone upset, without certainty of attack? Or wait for more intelligence and risk missing the window of opportunity to stop something?

  Harker was glad she didn't have to make that decision. In her gut, she felt an attack was coming. She had sounded the alarm; now it was up to others. In the meantime, she was doing what she could to disrupt Yang's plans.

  Earlier she'd called State to give them a heads up. After the typical shunting around, she had reached the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Cheryl Wilson.

  "You're telling me a coup is being planned."

  "That is what our best intelligence indicates."

  "What is the source of this intelligence?"

  "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Ma'am."

  "Are you saying I'm not cleared for this information?"

  "That's correct."

  There was an audible intake of breath at the other end of the line. It reminded Elizabeth of a snake hissing before the strike. There was frost in Wilso
n's voice when she spoke again.

  "Everything about China indicates a strong grasp on power by the party leadership. I cannot conceive of an attempt to overthrow the current regime. Your intelligence must be faulty."

  Wilson pronounced intelligence as if the word left a bad taste in her mouth.

  "None the less, in our best judgment a coup is in the works." Harker kept the annoyance out of her voice.

  "Well, Director, I appreciate your call but I believe you are barking up the wrong tree. There is no possible way the PRC will undergo a radical change of leadership. I suggest you re-evaluate your sources and stick to your domestic mandate. Now, I have a meeting to attend. Was there anything else?"

  No, nothing else, you idiot, Elizabeth thought.

  "No, Ma'am."

  "Then I'll say goodbye." Wilson hung up.

  Elizabeth resisted the urge to scream. The arrogance of some high-ranking political appointees never failed to amaze her. They weren't all like that, but with people like Wilson having a say in foreign policy it was a miracle the country got along with anyone at all.

  On the monitor, the satellite images showed the Humvee carrying the team had stopped. Dim spots nearby showed low level activity. That must be the monastery of Gurugem, Harker thought, and the team is deciding the best way to avoid it. She looked at the series of clocks on the wall. With almost six hours until daylight on the other side of the world, there was still time to get to the ruins before dawn.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  In the idling Humvee, Carter scanned a landscape turned ghostly green by his night vision binoculars. The road they'd been following turned out of sight beyond the base of a large hill on its way to the monastery. To the left, a broad valley skirted the hill and headed north. A cold, hard wind gusted without stopping against the vehicle.

  He put the binoculars down.

  "This should take us close to where we want to go." He traced the valley floor on the map. "If we don't run into any obstacles, I think we can get there in four or five hours."

  Selena said, "I have to pee."