Page 122 of Clive Cussler Ghost Soldier

Max confirmed the departure of the first helicopter with Juan, but after that no other aircraft or boat appeared on his radar screen. There was a better than even chance they’d catch the Vendor with his pants down and wrap his operation up with a pretty red bow.

Murph was back at the weapons station and Linc headed down to the team room. Linc was briefing the Gundogs, giving them the layout of the island, expected resistance, and a warning about the moat of land mines surrounding the building. He also provided a physical description of the Vendor. TheOregon’s special operators would most likely be the ones to lay hands on the arms merchant and haul him back in chains.

Alarms suddenly screamed.

“Missile lock,” Murph said. TheOregon’s radar system automatically flashed three tracks racing toward them on one of the big LCD wall screens.

“Thirty seconds to impact.”

“Helm, evasive maneuvers,” Juan said calmly. He had studied the Vendor’s earlier assault on theOregon. This attack was playing out much the same way. He wondered if these missiles carried torpedoes as well.

“Aye, Chairman.”

TheOregon’s Kashtan anti-aircraft system sped into action, dropping its plates and launching four missiles. Deck mortars thumped giant clouds of radar-confusing chaff into the air. The LaWS laser fired up—but Cabrillo knew it would have no effect.

Seconds later, the three incoming warheads were destroyed by the Kashtan.

“Torps in the water?” Cabrillo asked.

“None,” Murph said.

“Helm, take us straight to the island,” Cabrillo said. “Wepps, stay frosty.”

“Aye,” the two men replied.

Two miles from the island, the HQ building roared with cannon fire.

Stoney’s eyes had caught it just as Juan ordered, “Hard to port.” The ship leaned into its turn just as an explosion geysered into theOregon’s foaming wake, a near miss.

“Wepps, level that building,” Cabrillo ordered. “Helm, evasive maneuvers.”

Murph grinned, his fingers flying across his command console.

Moments later, theOregon’s own auto-firing 120mm cannon opened up, along with its rail gun throwing giant tungsten rods at five thousand miles per hour—the equivalent kinetic energy of a sixteen-inch naval shell.

Thanks to theOregon’s automated targeting and firing systems, every shell and rod slammed into its target despite the ship’s violent turns. Murph’s first shot silenced the island’s cannon. Subsequent rounds targeted missile and machine-gun batteries.

Two minutes after Juan gave the order to fire, the Vendor’s headquarters building was a smoking ruin.

62

Anchored just off the coast, all eyes in the op center were focused on the smoldering rubble of the Vendor’s HQ when it suddenly erupted in a massive explosion.

“This guy has a thing for self-destruction mechanisms,” Stoney said, recalling the automated plane that blew itself up after Juan had compromised it.

“Covering his tracks,” Juan said. His spirits fell. The Vendor was a murderous sociopath, but he wasn’t suicidal. The auto-demolition of his base of operations was proof enough that he had already fled the scene.

“With your permission, Chairman,” Murph said. “I’d like to take one precaution.”

“Go for it.”

Murph launched one of theOregon’s latest devices, a counter-electronics high power missile, aka CHAMP missile. It was essentially a flying EMP machine that wiped out enemy electronics. Murph was concerned about electronically activated mines or other remote-controled weapons systems that could harm the landing party. He also wanted to kill whatever was blocking satellite transmissions on the island. The missile made three runs over the island before it ran out of fuel, and Murph crashed it harmlessly into the sea.

“Let’s put a shore party together,” Juan said. “We just might find a fragment of gold in that garbage heap.”

?

Juan, Eric, and Linda poked through the rubble of the main building for nearly two hours searching for clues as to the Vendor’s whereabouts or his operations. Cabrillo hoped at the very least they would have found the Vendor’s corpse buried in the rubble or tenderized by one of Murph’s tungsten rods. Such was not the case.