Indies inferno, p.1
Indies Inferno, page 1
Indies Inferno
Edward M. Hochsmann
Haldago Bay Studio
Copyright © 2023 Edward M. Hochsmann
E-book ISBN: 978-1-956777-91-8
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-956777-06-2
All rights reserved.
Edward M. Hochsmann asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews and properly attributed to the author. This assertion likewise extends to all named characters in this book and the concept of USCGC Kauai, none of which may be used in other works without the written permission of the author. For permission requests, write to the author, addressed “Attention: Permissions” at info@edwardhochsmann.com.
Edward M. Hochsmann
PO Box 209
Milton, Florida 32572
www.edwardhochsmann.com
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks, and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the text have endorsed the book.
Cover and illustrations by: SpudzArt©
This book is dedicated to my parents, who successfully managed to raise a son in challenging times and become a good friend to him after he left home to join the service. It is also dedicated to the Coast Guard, the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States, and its complement of supremely skilled, committed, and courageous professionals. They stand the watch and lay their lives on the line every day to save others, defend the homeland, protect the environment, and promote maritime commerce.
Semper Paratus
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Main Characters
Select Technical Terms
Prologue
Epigraph
Part I
Dilemma
Hot Pursuit
Accessory
New Mission
Guardian
Misdirection
Part II
Distress
Conflagration
Paradise
OpTempo
The Silence of Death
Alarm
Grim Prognosis
Part III
Sortie
Undercover
Exfiltration
Inferno
Catastrophe
Uncertainty
Recovery
Resolution
Coda
Notes from the Author
Acknowledgement
Books By This Author
Coming in 2024
About The Author
Main Characters
Haley Reardon, Lieutenant, U.S. Coast Guard. Haley is a superbly competent, hard-charging young officer working her dream job—command of the patrol boat Kauai on the front lines of Coast Guard operations. She is realizing that having a loving relationship is not necessarily a liability for a commander and is exploring a relationship with DIA Agent Simmons.
Benjamin “Ben” Wyporek, Lieutenant, U.S. Coast Guard. Ben is the executive officer or second in command of the Coast Guard cutter Kauai. He is a young but experienced and heroic officer, holding the complete trust of both Haley and the crew. Ben is trying to balance his extremely demanding and dangerous job with his devotion to his new) wife Victoria, the love of his life.
Victoria Carpenter Wyporek. Victoria is a neuro-diverse mathematical genius, formerly an analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency, who met Ben during a joint operation almost a year ago. Her mild autism condition makes some ordinary life activities challenging. She is deeply in love with Ben, who helped her leave her safe but sheltered and unfulfilling existence. She struggles with her fear for Ben’s safety when he is out on missions.
Dr. Peter Simmons. Simmons is a field agent with the Defense Intelligence Agency. He has a talent for deception, which has led to his success as a DIA field agent but is the antithesis of Ben’s ethos. Simmons also has a risk-seeking bent that borders on pathology. He shares a cordial relationship with Ben and is supportive of his relationship with Victoria, his protégé and sister of his beloved late fiancée. He met Haley at Ben and Victoria’s wedding and has been becoming closer to her since then.
Marcus Porter, Cadet First Class, U.S. Coast Guard. Marcus is a young officer trainee on an Academy summer intern program with the Coast Guard UAV team on the island of St. Ignatius. He is in for far more adventure than he expected.
Isabelle Jones. The beautiful young deputy administrator of St. Ignatius. Just a couple of years out of college, she is the youngest elected official in the island’s history and is the liaison with the Coast Guard and U.S. Geological Survey teams.
Select Technical Terms
ASAP
As Soon As Possible
CARE
Climate Annihilation Response Emergency
CO
Commanding Officer
DIA
Defense Intelligence Agency
DNI
Director of National Intelligence
EMCON
Emissions Control
EPIRB
Emergency Position-Indicating Radiobeacon
FC3
Fire Control/Command and Control
Gitmo
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
GPS
Global Positioning System
MEDEVAC
Medical Evacuation
NSA
National Security Agency
OBS
Ocean Bottom Seismometer
OOD
Officer of the Deck
Port (side)
To the left when facing forward on a boat
Quarterdeck
Entry point for a ship/boat when moored
RHIB
Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat
SCIF
Special Compartmented Information Facility
Starboard (side)
To the right when facing forward on a boat
UAV
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
USCG
United States Coast Guard
USGS
United States Geological Survey
WILCO
Will Comply
XO
Executive Officer
Prologue
The environmental extremist group Climate Annihilation Response Emergency, or CARE, began as the U.S. version of similar movements in Europe dedicated to ending petroleum production. The U.S. group’s members were as fervent in their beliefs that the world’s end from climate change was nigh as their European counterparts and started off employing their tactics of vandalizing artwork and disrupting traffic in major cities. But the U.S. is not Europe, and it was only a matter of time before activities such as these escalated into deadly violence. The break point involved a grieving father whose young daughter had died in an ambulance blocked from reaching a hospital by a CARE protest. Outraged by their public, unrepentant dismissal of her death, he gunned down and killed six of the group at another CARE protest the following week before being killed by the police.
It was a galvanizing development. The public, the mainstream press, and the government had already had their fill of the group’s sanctimonious rhetoric and intransigent behavior, and this new threat to public safety was the last straw. A zero-tolerance policy was quickly enacted by municipalities across the country, dusting off and vigorously enforcing existing permit regulations for public gatherings. CARE members who attempted further disruptions were instantly arrested, removed by force, and held for prosecution to the maximum extent of the law. The litigation normally attending such heavy-handed government policy was conspicuously absent—not even the American Civil Liberties Union would take CARE’s phone calls by this point.
Rational people would take stock of the event and the intense and near-universal negative reaction to their approach to engage in some self-reflection. Many CARE members did and quickly disassociated themselves from the movement. Unfortunately, this left a rump of the most fanatical members, dedicated to the furtherance of the cause by any means available. They were well-supported in this by wealthy dilettantes, industrialists seeking profits in “green” products, and other shadowy organizations interested in the destabilization of society. Unlike the radical groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s, CARE did not have to support itself via bank robberies or other illegal activities that would draw the attention of law enforcement. They could lie low, planning and gathering the resources needed for a first strike of maximum impact.
As CARE’s membership dwindled and activity subsided, law enforcement interest in the group waned and intelligence focus shifted to higher-priority threats. Plans to infiltrate undercover officers into the organization were shelved and operations scaled back to passive monitoring of the social media activity of known group members. The law enforcement community missed the relocation of CARE’s center of gravity to Florida and the group’s research into potential targets for
The planners managing CARE knew they had only one shot—after any attack, the terrorist designation would quickly follow and end any chance of further operations in the U.S. The first one had to be big, not some trivial pinprick like blowing up a gas station or two. They considered and discarded options for attacks on airports and airliners, railroads, and key land-based infrastructure. The chief problem was the one enduring legacy of the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks: the hardening of such targets against threats posed by foreign and domestic terrorists. These were not invulnerable, but security was thorough and resilient enough to defeat any but the most dedicated and skilled attackers. Besides, mass casualties would just intensify the public animus toward the organization with no chance of advancing the cause.
Like an airport attack, an assault on a vessel moored in a U.S. port was considered and discarded—security in the significant harbors was as tight as a major airport and few were close enough to highly populated areas to achieve the desired audience factor. Besides, the firefighting and response capabilities of these facilities were substantial and likely to contain and extinguish any fires started in the attack.
Vessels underway, on the other hand, were far more vulnerable. If one could be effectively attacked within sight of a large population area, the impact could be huge. The problems were timing and firepower. A ship is generally in sight of land only for brief windows of time while entering and leaving port, leaving little room for error in the attack’s timing. The other problem is that ships are very large, heavy things, designed to survive damage from most natural threats. Gunfire, small rockets, and even direct impact by explosive-laden UAVs were unlikely to cause much damage. A large amount of explosives, positioned right next to the hull on detonation, would be required. This left a small, fast vessel acting as a powerful torpedo as the best option.
After resolving the question of the delivery vehicle, manning became the next problem. There was no question that this would be a one-way mission, and the planners were worried about leaving its success to the resolve of a human operator, even among the fanatics of CARE. Early on, they decided that a remotely piloted boat was the best option, teamed with another vessel that would guide the boat to its target via on-board video camera and radio control. The purchase and clandestine rigging of a large recreational boat for remote control was an easy undertaking.
For the payload, the planners knew authorities would be watching for purchases of explosives and even large quantities of precursors. They carefully sent CARE operatives to purchase small amounts of ammonium nitrate, ostensibly for agricultural use. Over time, they accumulated enough of the compound and powdered aluminum to fill four out of five of the fuel tanks on the boat. These were sealed, awaiting the time of launch, when gasoline would be added as the boat was fueled for the mission.
For the target, the planners considered and discarded the idea of attacking a cruise ship. It could kill many people, but the ships were so big that sinking or even disabling one would be highly unlikely. Like an attack on an airport or airliner, it would hurt more than help the cause. Likewise, the idea of an attack on a large cargo vessel was dismissed. They eventually decided that an attack on a medium-sized tanker bringing in refined fuel would provide a spectacular visual and the clean-up would remind everyone of the horrors of continued dependence on oil.
Now, they had the plan and weapon available. It was only a matter of awaiting the arrival of a suitable target.
I came into a place void of all light, which bellows like the sea in tempest, when it is combated by warring winds.
Canto V of Inferno, Part I of Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Part I
Dilemma
USCG Cutter Kauai, North Atlantic Ocean, eleven nautical miles southeast of Port Canaveral, Florida
11:13EDT, 12 June
Haley
Please, God. I don’t want to have to kill anyone today!
Lieutenant Haley Reardon, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Kauai, took another long look at the suspect boat through her binoculars and then swung her gaze back to the tactical screen. They were closing to five hundred yards range and Chief Hopkins had already given the helm order to bring them on a parallel course with the target. Within one minute, Haley would have to make the most difficult decision of her career.
Every sensor they had, from the hyperspectral imaging camera on the unmanned aircraft flying overhead, the high-resolution electro-optical camera on Kauai’s mast, and now her own eyes screamed this boat was loaded with explosives and unmanned—essentially, a robotic improvised explosive device aimed straight at the tanker they were there to protect.
Her hands shook as she thought, but what if I’m wrong and this turns out to be just another boat with a bunch of CARE loons hiding somewhere aboard?
It would not be the first time she had given the order for lethal fire—the other occurred six months previously at the Haitian island of Ile Ste. Michel. They were shooting back in self-defense on that occasion, protecting Kauai’s retreating small boat from machine gun fire from a Chinese armored car. This was different—an American boat that was not shooting at them, but giving every sign of being a deadly bomb. She wondered at how in such a short time this turned from just another ordinary patrol to a matter of life and death.
Fifteen minutes earlier…
For the third time in the last two weeks, the Kauai was at General Quarters Condition One with her crew in combat helmets and ballistic vests and weapons manned and loaded. It was sunny and getting quite warm already, typical June weather for Florida’s Atlantic Coast. Haley was thankful to be inside the air-conditioned bridge when wearing the heavy protective equipment and felt sorry for the two crewmen standing outside at their fifty-caliber machine guns.
Haley leaned forward in her command chair on the bridge, scanning between the video screens on the Fire Control/Command and Control console, known as the FC3. The left-hand screen showed the real-time video feed from the electro-optical camera on the cutter’s mast—it was trained on the tanker Paul Morris, following three hundred yards behind them. Kauai’s position and any targets being tracked in the vicinity were shown superimposed on the local geography on the tactical display on the right-hand screen. The FC3 system fused information from multiple sources into the target display, both the feeds from Kauai’s radar and the AeroVironment T-20 unmanned aerial vehicle currently loitering overhead.
The mission was close escort, this time leading a pair of response boats from Station Cape Canaveral and shepherding a medium-sized tanker of fifty-two thousand tons carrying a split load of diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline for offload ashore, conveniently in Kauai’s homeport of Port Canaveral, Florida. This was normally a job for a single response boat or maybe the eighty-seven-foot patrol boat homeported in Cape Canaveral, not a highly equipped, special operations cutter. But these were not normal times.
The environmental extremist group CARE had become a genuine physical threat over the past month, and special intelligence suggested they were preparing for a public act of extreme violence somewhere in Florida to focus attention on their cause. Forcibly boarding and setting a sizeable tanker afire within sight of the beaches and generating a massive cleanup effort would make a significant impression, both psychologically and economically. This made industrial ports like Tampa, Jacksonville, and Port Canaveral prime targets, and internal security was beefed-up accordingly. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard, along with Brevard County Sherriff and port authority police patrol boats, covered the port approaches and internal waters to intercept and ward off any suspected attackers of transiting vessels. Haley shook her head at the thought that anyone with a functioning brain would conclude this would be a sound approach to combat climate change, but it was a sign of the pervasive and increasing insanity of the world.
