own.
And then just let things fall where they may.
She saw the folly in her earlier assumptions about how she could control this, could help orchestrate an investigation. Jason was right. It didn’t work that way at all. She should have listened to him in the first place.
Now, it was too late.
Chapter 15
The morning had been spent down by the pier. The men were broken up into four groups, monitoring the coming and going of passengers and the ship traffic. Jason’s group consisted of eight men, while several others of the squad looked for places to hole up for the night under cover of darkness. Lt. Gridley and a handful of men stayed behind at the complex to monitor calls between Washington and the Stennis Carrier Group patrolling offshore several miles. Sven Tolar, former Norwegian Special Forces officer, or FSK, and now a freelance SEALs resource team member, was explaining how the port was operated, and what the SEALs should be on the lookout for.
“The harbor can take up to seven large cruise ships before they have to use the older pier a short distance away.” Sven pointed to his left, where a military gunboat ominously sat.
“That’s a little unusual, isn’t it, Sven?” Kyle asked.
“I’ve seen it. They don’t have their own Navy, so they have to rely on the Spanish for their defense. Generally, Madrid doesn’t want to part with their hardware this far away from home, but perhaps, there’s a good reason,” Sven said, shrugging his shoulders. “Or, maybe they’re also looking for the contraband, since we have their permission to be here.”
“So it’s not exactly a secret we’re here?” asked T.J. Talbot.
Kelly Fielding spoke up. “Only approved through diplomatic channels. The local military police and civil guard aren’t supposed to know. But I wouldn’t worry about it.”
She sat back and smiled, wiggling her eyebrows.
Sven leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek. “You’re scaring the Indians, Kelly.”
“Watch it,” murmured Danny Begay.
“My apologies, Native Americans,” Sven corrected. The crowd, including Danny, chuckled.
It had been rumored that Sven and Kelly had hooked up after one of their earlier missions, a relationship that was off and on. Jason had been told it was mostly due to Kelly living in Portland with her former father-in-law, yet still going back and forth doing State Department work on a contract basis. Sven was in a similar stage in his career. It was a matter of timing, Kyle had told him.
Sven continued, “In cases of weather or other issues, like a problem they had several years ago where a cruise ship was towed into port, having run into a fishing trawler several miles off the island, they digress. Before the transport arrived to deliver the ship back to English shipbuilders, it had to wait, tying up two berths because of how they had to secure it. All the passengers had to be disembarked for another ship, so space had to be made for that.”
“I’m going to guess some captain lost their job over that one,” said Jason.
“Oh, but there’s more! When a huge storm arrived, the ships in port had to stay a couple of extra days until the weather cleared, and the whole area was backed up. During the storm, several cruise ships anchored a mile out to sea because there wasn’t any more room and they were low on fuel. One of the passengers was thought to be having a heart attack. Unable to arouse the interest of any pilot during the storm, the captain took it upon himself to run his beautiful ship, the size of a football field, aground at the largest tourist beach on the island. They sent the passenger to the hospital, where it was determined he had heartburn.”
Their group groaned.
Kyle turned to Cooper. “We heard that story, didn’t we? Weren’t we on that ship?”
“I think so, a year or so later,” Coop agreed.
Sven continued, “The captain was tried and sent to prison in Italy, even though he did what he thought best to save the life of the man who was ill.”
“So, don’t have a heart attack on a cruise ship if it’s not convenient to dock,” someone murmured.
“Probably good advice,” answered Kyle. “Although, those of you who were with us on that cruise from Italy to Brazil, when we got attacked by terrorists in these waters, know how generally lacking in real security training the crew on board these ships are.”
Jason had heard the stories of how Kyle, Fredo, Cooper and others saved the ship and