The Wuhan Mission

Xue Lin stepped foot on the grassy edge of the beach still a good distance from the water. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned it on, putting it on airplane mode. She briefly flashed the illuminated phone in the direction of the water. The divers saw it and radioed in. “We see somebody. Standby for confirmation.” The other diver waded ashore and walked up the beach until he could clearly make out the three figures walking towards him. “I have three coming our way. Looks like Mary-Anne in the lead with a machine gun, then the Professor possibly unarmed, and Gilligan in the rear with a long gun.”

“That’s them!” radioed Sam. “Coming in now for extraction.”

The inflatable made a white wake as it motored in the direction of the diver in the water. Jimmy let Xue Lin take the lead. They were her people, after all.

Xue Lin casually put her hand on her pistol as she approached the frogman: “Are you the man giving free speedboat boat rides?” she smiled at him. He radioed back to Sam: “It’s them.”

“Roger that. Standby. We’ll be there in two minutes.” Sam was relieved, but he knew better than to relax before a mission was complete and everyone was out of harm’s way.

The divers both stood at the edge of the water, scanning the distance with their rifle scopes as the boat arrived at shore. The three were helped aboard and the divers climbed on after them as the motor revved taking them backwards off the beach.

The officer on the Mako straightened up in his seat looking at the radar: “Sir, that patrol boat has changed course and has picked up speed. They have definitely spotted us sir. They probably don’t know how big we are yet. We will look like a small boat on their radar. They are at two miles and closing sir.”

The Captain radioed: “Sam get back here pronto. They have a patrol boat in the area, she’s seen us. We’re coming to you, meet you half way!”

“Full speed!” Sam ordered. “Everyone hang on!” The bow lifted out of the water and the boat reached maximum speed.

The Captain revved the engine and pointed the Mako in the general direction of where the inflatable probably was coming from and brought the boat up to top speed. “Tell me when you see us Sam! We are coming at you fast.”

“Roger that Captain. When we are close, you turn ninety to starboard and we’ll come in behind. We’ll do a fast rolling pickup, and get the fuck out of here. Wait, I see you Captain. One hundred meters dead ahead, seventy meters… turn to starboard in five, four, three, two, turn!”

The Mako turned sharply.

Sam yelled: “Everybody hold on tight and lean back!” as the skipper steered hard to port bringing the inflatable up to the stern of the Mako. The Mako reduced speed and the inflatable’s engine revved, and they came to a jerking stop on the deck of the big boat as everyone lurched forward where they sat.

“They are still in pursuit, sir. One mile to the south.”

The Captain pushed the throttles up to full speed. “Let’s outrun them. Intelligence says their patrol boats can only do 50 knots, but we are in range if they want to shoot at us. Technically they shouldn’t, as they don’t even know what we are.”

“We are doing 67 knots sir. They are falling behind now.

The Captain looked darkly at the instruments: “But we will be in Chinese waters for another two hours.”

Everybody was now seated and strapped in. Sam unbuckled and moved up to sit with the Captain. He put the headphones on so he could be heard above the twin engines. “Air support?” he asked simply.

The Captain cooly replied: “If the Chinese put two and two together, we are definitely going to need it.”

Twenty minutes went by with no sign of anything in the air.

“Chopper sir!” the officer yelled, pointing at the radar screen.

The Captain picked up the radio “This is Mako-2, requesting F-16 air support on standby. Our position is  33.289686, 122.571247.

Sam yelled: “We need to take that chopper out and try to stop them getting a visual on us. We don’t need them bringing in their airforce.”

“Jesus! Who are you guys?” he screamed at Sam, half smiling.

“I could tell you but…” The Captain laughed and ordered the SEALs to get on the big guns. “Take him out as soon as he’s in range!”

“Yes sir!”

Jimmy picked up his Barret in the darkness, and unfolded the feet of the bipod under the barrel and lay down on the deck, feet spread, pointing the rifle behind the boat. One of the SEALs smirked in approval: “OK then!” nodding his head in Jimmy’s direction.

The two SEALs watched the dot of light in the distance slowly grow in size to become the Chinese Coast Guard Chopper. They both opened fire with the 7mm gatling gun and the 50cal machine gun. Tracer bullets lit up the air. The chopper took a few rounds, but evaded. The boat sped along on the smooth moonlit surface of the water. Jimmy angled for a shot with his powerful rifle. The Barret was capable of hitting targets at two thousand yards, and used a large round capable of piercing an engine block.