that Harvath had gone missing and that police in New Hampshire were actually considering him a suspect made them all want to throat-punch somebody. Then, Nicholas had called them into HQ for a briefing.
At each seat at the conference table, he had placed a copy of the Old Man’s succession plan. Like Nicholas, Carlton had also been a no-bullshit, detail guy.
It was unnecessary. If Nicholas had said “Reed and Lydia are gone. We don’t know where Harvath is. Until further notice, I have been left in charge,” the team would have believed him.
But because of his dishonorable past, Nicholas often felt unworthy around them. He respected their courage and integrity, and worked hard to earn their respect in return. In so doing, he committed to always being one hundred percent transparent with them, and held nothing back in his briefings.
After detailing Kopec’s presence at the safe house, how they believed the murders had unfolded, and then how they suspected Harvath had been smuggled into Canada and then out to Russia via a private jet, he began to get into the pertinent details on their mission.
The NSA had picked up chatter about a Russian Air Force transport plane that had disappeared in bad weather. The plane had taken off from the same airport Harvath had landed at, shortly after his arrival. While coincidental, it wasn’t conclusive. That’s where the next piece of intelligence was so valuable.
Sources in Ukraine stated that right after the plane was reported missing, Kazimir Teplov, head of the Wagner Group, hastily assembled his best men and flew them, along with a ton of equipment, back to Russia. Specifically, they had flown to Alakurtti Air Base south of Murmansk and, according to the Finns, were there awaiting orders to begin some sort of operation. The kicker was that whatever these orders were, they had to do with the missing transport plane.
“U.S. Intelligence believes Harvath was on the plane that disappeared,” Nicholas had revealed. “We believe that Moscow is trying to keep the situation as quiet as possible, so instead of using active military and law enforcement personnel, they have brought in Russian mercenaries.”
It was one shocking revelation stacked upon another.
The United States Joint Special Operations Command had a quick reaction force known as a “Zero-Three-Hundred” team on standby in Germany. They were SEALs from DEVGRU, ready to HAHO jump in as soon as Harvath’s location was pinpointed.
As a demonstration of how serious the President was about getting Harvath back, U.S. F-22 Raptor all-weather stealth tactical fighters had been moved to a base in northern Sweden, and an LC-130 Hercules “Skibird” aircraft was being repositioned from Greenland.
The LC-130 was particularly special, as it was equipped with retractable skis, allowing it to land on snowfields, ice fields, and even frozen bodies of water. To assist in slushy snow or for short takeoffs, the Skibird was one of the few aircraft in the world to be equipped with rockets.
If they had to, they were prepared to send the LC-130 into Russian air space, escorted by F-22s, to bring Harvath home.
There was also talk of having the USS Delaware, a Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarine, slip into the White Sea in order to insert an additional covert operations team just off the Kola Peninsula. Everything was being considered. Nothing was off the table.
The Carlton Group’s job was to employ a lighter touch. If they could get in, get Harvath, and get out without the Russians’ knowing, that was the President’s first choice.
Though he would have killed to be on the assignment, Nicholas’s physical limitations made him a liability. Snow and rugged terrain disagreed with him.
Besides, his role as de facto head of the organization meant he had to remain in D.C. and act as a liaison with all of the other players, including the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA. He was thankful Rogers was helping to coordinate efforts through the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell.
It had been decided, almost immediately, that a kinetic operation was called for. The Russians were unlikely to give Harvath up, no matter how much diplomatic pressure was applied.
Even so, Rogers had been tasked with coordinating a parallel track. With Nicholas’s help, they had come up with an aggressive strategy in hopes of negotiating Harvath’s release.
In the meantime, The Carlton Group team would head to Finland and prepare to cross over into Russia.
The passengers onboard the private jet looked like something out of a hard-core action movie.