we can home, and when we are close, they will light the field.”
“How?” Supo asked.
“There will be sand-filled tomato cans, soaked in gasoline, marking the runways,” Jack explained. “And, at one end or the other, depending on the wind, a truck will be parked with its headlights on. The pilot will land just past the truck.”
“Is this a Special Forces technique, or something you learned when you were flying here?”
“A little of both, sir.”
“And you think you will be able to see small launches on Lake Tanganyika at night?”
“I think so, sir. And we’re going to take observers with us— give us two pair of eyes.”
“And the Guevara party will not be aware they are under observation? ”
“The aircraft are painted flat black, as you know, sir. They will be hard to spot at night.”
“But the sound of the engines, certainly?”
“I doubt if they will be able to hear the engines over the noise of the engines in the launches, sir, and even if they could, it’s very difficult to determine the position of an aircraft by sound.”
Supo grunted.
“What I am thinking, gentlemen,” Supo said, “is that if it were not for you, there is absolutely no way we could have detected the infiltration of this force into the Congo.”
“Have we your permission to proceed, sir?” Lunsford asked.
Supo nodded.
“You will stay here, Colonel?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good hunting, gentlemen,” Supo said.
“There is one thing, Jack,” Lunsford said.
“Sir?”
“Have you picked your observer?”
“Everybody wants to go,” Jack said. “I thought I’d have them draw straws.”
“Would you have any problems with Anderson?”
Jack considered it a moment.
“No,” he said. “Why not?”
“I’ll have him waiting in the lobby for you,” Father said. “Will you excuse me, sir?”
“You’ll be coming back?”
“I just want to tell Spec5—Lieutenant Fatso—that he can go with Lieutenant Portet.”
“Why are you smiling, Anderson?” Major Lunsford asked.
“Well, sir, I know most of the guys in the WHSA. The one we got from Ears and this one are really going to blow their minds, trying to figure out what’s being said.”
“What’s being said is none of their business, Anderson,” Lunsford said. “And nobody here’s business, either. You read me?”
“Five by five, sir.”
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
TOP SECRET
EARS 0007 2205 ZULU 22 APRIL 1965
VIA WHITE HOUSE SIGNAL AGENCY
FROM: HELPER SIX
TO: EARS SIX
1. REFERENCE YOUR 0007
2. AS SOON AS FEASIBLE TRANSMIT FOLLOWING VERBATIM TO KATHARINE HEPBURN
START MANY THANKS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO OUR MIDNIGHT DINNER WITHOUT DESI ARNAZ AND HIS FRIENDS SOMETIME SOON BAREFOOT BOY
END
HELPER SIX
TOP SECRET
[ FIVE ]
4 Degrees 47 Minutes 37 Seconds South Latitude
29 Degrees 3 Minutes 09 Seconds East Longitude
3,000 Feet Above Lake Tanganyika
0305 23 April 1965
“Hey, Lieutenant!” Spec5 Anderson cried excitedly, “there’s a couple of boats down there!”
“Can you be a little more specific, Fatso?” Jack asked.
“Out the right side,” Anderson replied. “A little bit behind the wing.”
“The way we say that, Fatso,” Jack said as he put the L-19 into a shallow turn to the left, “is ‘possible sighting at 4:30.’ Imagine a clock.”
“Yes, sir,” Spec5 Anderson said, chagrined.
“Specialist Anderson,” Jack said a moment later, “I think you have just won first prize in the Find-The-Floating-Bastards Contest. The prizes are both a cement bicycle and an all-expenses-paid visit to the whorehouse of your choice in downtown Costermansville.”
“You think that’s them, Lieutenant?”
“Well, who else do you think would be headed across Lake Tanganyika at three-oh-five in the morning without running lights?”
“Jesus!” Anderson said.
“Get on the horn, Anderson, and call Helper Base. Say we have two unidentified launches just across the border on a straight-line course toward Kay One; estimate distance to Kay One fifty klicks.”
“Yes, sir,” Spec5 Anderson said.
[ SIX ]
4 Degrees 50 Minutes 57 Seconds South Latitude
29 Degrees 17 Minutes 40 Seconds East Longitude
(4 Miles East of Kalamba, Kivu Province, Congo)
0525 23 April 1965
“Hunter One, Birddog One.”
“Go.”
“They just turned north, toward shore, and are slowing down. I guess maybe seven, eight klicks West of Kay One. They are maybe a klick and a half from shore.”
“Understand seven, eight klicks west, klick and a half from shore.”
“You got it.”
“Maybe you better haul ass; it’s getting light. We don’t want them to see you.”
“I’ll go up a little, and south. Let me know when you see them.”
“They have some friends here.”
“Interesting. Watch yourself.”
“Birddog One, Hunter One.”
“Go.”
“I can’t see them, but I can hear them. They’re coming right at us.”
“Okay. We’re gone. Birddog One clear.”
Master Sergeant William Thomas had taken with him two night-vision devices. One looked much like an outsize set of binoculars, and, since it was too heavy to hold to the eyes, came with