18 FINAL APPROVAL

Alan Dennis’ Office- The Castle

It had been just about twenty-four hours since the last meeting in Alan Dennis’ office. The mood in the office a day earlier was one of defeat and depression. Alan smiled as he jotted down a few more notes. Today, the mood was hope and determination. It didn’t take long for word to spread that a plan had emerged from the many difficulties identified the day before. The best part for Alan was, the plan sprang from his insistence that everyone take the night off and go to the movies.

Looking at the faces of the people jammed into his office, Alan saw expressions of hope, determination, happiness and relief. Even Tara’s carefully controlled emotions seemed to be about to burst into downright giddiness. Alan continued to smile as he looked back down at his notes, silently resolving to never use the words ‘giddy’ and ‘Tara’ in the same sentence again. He looked at his watch. It was time to get this operation under way. He tapped his pen on his desk. The quiet conversations immediately ceased as Alan stood up.

“I’m happy to say that, this time, the rumor mill is one hundred percent correct. We seem to have conjured up a plan,” smiled Alan.

The room erupted in applause, cheers and general relief. Alan pointed to Thomas Austin as the room gave him a several cheers. As the noise settled down, Alan sat back down and looked at his notes.

“Now then,” he said looking over his glasses. “I hope you all won’t be too upset with me as I play devil’s advocate on a few points I’ve jotted down here.

The room fell completely silent. So quiet you could hear a pin drop. Alan looked over at Janet, Thomas and Tara. Janet and Thomas seemed perfectly fine with his last statement. But Tara’s expression fell like a ton of bricks. Looking around the room, he saw a few other’s had the same crestfallen look. Time for some quick damage control.

“Some of you normally aren’t in on planning for operations like this,” began Alan. “But playing devil’s advocate is a normal part of the mission planning process. The idea is to find operational discontinuities and traps now so they don’t pop up when we get out in the field.”

Looking around the room again, Alan saw his quick explanation was all it took to get everyone over their fear that the mission would be scrubbed. Even Tara managed a brief smile as Alan looked back down at his notes.

“Our first problem has already popped up and as usual, it’s from the Met Office,” said Alan.

Almost everyone in the room groaned audibly. Seemed like every time there was an important operation, the weather geeks would rain on the parade. Everyone turned to the man standing by the door.

“Now, now,” said Alan. “I doubt Captain Stagg personally changed the weather just to cause trouble.”

Everyone in the room laughed, except for the man standing by the door. He looked down and sadly shook his head. It wasn’t the first time his forecast didn’t meet with approval. If he’d known being a meteorologist would have resulted in a lifetime of having to explain that there really wasn’t a thing he could do about the weather, he would have chosen a career in the church.

“You really didn’t change the forecast just to cause trouble did you James?” joked Alan.

“Sadly, I’m a meteorologist for The Castle and not Hogwarts,” sighed James. “Us muggle meteorologists really don’t have the magical power it takes to change the weather.”

The room laughed.

“Yet,” added the meteorologist.

The room laughed again.

“Seriously though. Since a component of this operation relies on lighter than air, non-powered aircraft hitting a relatively small landing zone, I’m afraid the forecast is now a factor,” said James.

“How so?” asked Alan.

“From my information, we’re less than 48-hours from go and the winds on station are forecast to pick up over the next few days,” said James.

Alan looked at the various clocks on the wall. He did did some simple math and came up with a number.

“We’re more like 32-hours from landing. Does that make a difference?” he asked.

“Slightly,” said James. “The real wind starts howling in about three days. But at the time you are scheduled to be landing, I estimate the winds to be a good twenty miles per hour.”

“About the upper limit for what we’re planning to use,” said Thomas.

“But there’s still a problem of hitting that small of landing zone in gusty winds,” said David McNally.

“And on a dark and moonless night,” said Janet.

“A dark and moonless night,” echoed Thomas. “Could be the title for my next spy novel.”

Everyone in the room laughed as Alan turned to one of the other people standing by the door of the room. A woman in workout clothes had just fished a small metal object from a leather black bag. It was about ten inches long and had a metal rotating disk with a lot of numbers. She looked up at the meteorologist.

“What’s the forecast wind direction?” she asked.

“Three, one, two degrees,” said James.

The woman spun the disk. Walking up to one of the many maps displayed on the large LCD monitors that circled the office, she looked back down at her disk. The room remained silent as the woman ran a few more numbers on the metal disk.

“And the forecast speed?” she asked.

“About seventeen knots,” answered the meteorologist.

It wasn’t the first time Sibel Papadaki had to do this kind of on the spot flight planning. As the chief pilot for The Castle, she’d often been called upon to boil down her years of experience in the cockpit to something non-pilots could not only understand, but use in planning for a complex operation. Looking back up at the map, Sibel shook her head.

“Based on the forecast, you’ll have a definite crosswind as you’re coming in to land. Those winds will also affect your inbound course from the highway. It’s piece of cake flying for someone with even basic flight instruments. But you guys won’t even have a compass,” she said.

As the conversation bounced between Alan, Thomas, the meteorologist and the pilot, Tara got up and walked over to the map on the LCD. Looking down at the pilot’s old school wind computer, then up at the map she quietly whispered a question.

“If it weren’t for the navigation, could you still fly the route and land it?” she asked.

“Yeah. Easy,” said Sibel.

Tara turned back to the map.

“Put some reference points on the ground,” she said.

“Reference points?” asked Janet.

“People with flashlights, a radio receiver and a GPS,” said Tara.

“We’ve got the prediction of what the winds will be like when we get on-station,” began Thomas. “Once we land, we re-evaluate the winds. The people on the ground then move to the exact spots where we make the first turn and then the final set up for landing.”

“So all you do is look for lights,” said Tara.

“Won’t our targets spots the flashlights too?” asked David.

“Shroud them to make the directional,” said Alan.

“That way you only can see them from the air,” said Tara.

“Okay then,” said Alan. “We have an additional operational component to add. Once we’re at the airport, we immediately dispatch an additional truck with a driver and a three member ground team. They begin hiking in from the highway to their preliminary spots. Then at ‘go’ time, we fine tune their locations.” said Alan.

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

“Good,” said Alan. “Any more weather or aviation concerns?”

Both the pilot and the meteorologist shook their heads.

“All right then. Next on my list is care for Léa,” said Alan.

He looked at Tara who took a deep breath as she heard her best friend’s name. Alan looked over at Janet and nodded in Tara’s direction. But Janet had already reached over and placed her hand over Tara’s.

“Frank? Why don’t you give us the latest medical status and concerns,” said Alan.

Tara looked across the room. The doctor with the little black book was consulting a folder of notes. He flipped a page over, looked over at Tara and firmly nodded once. His message was clear. Get ready for some hard news. The doctor took a deep breath.

“As you all know by now, we believe they’ve been attempting to starve Léa to death,” said the doctor.

Frank Landon felt his own blood begin to run cold. He knew being a doctor for a spy agency would come with an odd assortment of twists and turns. But nothing in med school or his near twenty years of experiences at The Castle had prepared him for what he just said. What was happening to Léa was nothing but ugly, cruel, senseless revenge. He took another breath.

“At this point, they’ve nearly succeeded. Léa only has a day or two left. So when we get there, she’ll be in near critical condition,” said Frank.

A cold silence descended on the room like a dense London fog. It was so thick, you could cut the tension with a knife. The doctor pressed on.

“Normally, I’d want to stabilize a patient like this before we even attempted to move her. But with an operation like this, we need to get her out fast,” said Frank.

No one said a word. Finally, David McNally spoke up.

“Dr. Landon briefed me about this a few hours ago and I think we have a solution,” said David.

David leaned over to the table in the middle of the office. Standing, he picked up a tangled mound of nylon straps. After a few moments of twisting and turning, he gave the nylon a snap and held it up.

“We’ve modified this rig and think it will work,” began David. “One member my tactical team will go in with this. They’ll be on the initial team that breaks through the cell window. Once inside, the other members of the team will place Léa in this rig, then sling her over our commando’s shoulders like a back pack.”

“I can’t emphasize enough how fragile her condition is,” said Dr. Landon. “She won’t be able to take much rough transportation.”

“We know,” said David. “Once they blow the cell door, the team will act as a shield for Léa. That way we can give her the smoothest ride out we can.”

Alan looked up at the doctor.

“Doctor? How does that sound?” he asked.

“As good as it can be,” said Frank.

“Okay then,” began Alan. “Any other snags?”

No one said a word.

“Alright then. Janet Austin will be in overall field command,” said Alan.

After a few moments, Janet reached for one of the remotes on the table in the middle of the room. Pointing it toward the extra large monitor behind Alan’s desk, she punched a few buttons.

“First, the schedule,” said Janet.

A list of operation elements and times appeared on the screen. It was a near minute-by-minute rundown of everything that was supposed to happen during the rescue. She ran though the highlights, pausing only a few times to make sure everyone understood a few of the more obscure points. She clicked the button on the remote.

“Next. Personnel,” said Janet.

Three new lists filled the screen. The one on the right was the support crews who would stay with the airplane once it landed. It included the doctor, medics, flight crew and a security team. The next list included drivers and more medical technicians. The last list had nearly twenty names. Janet’s name was at the top. It included the two tactical teams and the three member team that would carry and protect Léa.

Looking at the lists, Tara was surprised that her name was missing. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It had to be a mistake. She had to be there to rescue Léa. There was no way Janet would leave her behind. It was Alan’s voice as he rapped his knuckles on his desk that snapped Tara’s attention back to the meeting.

“Okay then,” said Alan. “Anything else? No? Good. Operation approved. On your way.”

“Meet in the armory in fifteen minutes for final weapons check,” said Janet.

Without saying a word, everyone turned for the door. David McNally was punching a message on his iPad as he walked out the door. The doctor looked sadly at Tara as he left the room.

Keeping up with Janet, Tara decided she would just tag along and hope no one noticed she wasn’t on the list. As they approached the stairway along one side of The Castle’s underground atrium, Janet looked at Tara.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.

Tara kept walking and stared straight ahead, not saying a word

“The doctor hasn’t cleared you for active duty,” said Janet.

“You can’t leave me,” whispered Tara.

“I don’t want to,” said Janet. “But the doctor says we can’t take someone with two leg fractures on a mission like this.”

They continued walking down the stairs to The Castle’s armory in silence. As they approached the dormitory level, Tara suddenly turned off the stairs and disappeared down the long hallway to her room.

As Janet reached the level just above the docks, she looked up at the dorm level hallway. After a few moments, Janet nodded her head, looked at Thomas and winked. Her husband winked back as Janet looked back up at the line of people following her. Her gaze stopped on the doctor.

Once Tara arrived in her room, she felt her volcanic temper begin boiling up inside. But she was surprised at herself as she decided nothing good would come from an emotional eruption.

“Fuck it,” she said to the empty room.

Instead, she quickly peeled away her clothes and spent the next half hour in the shower. Even though it was early morning, Tara decided there was nothing else she could do but crawl into bed and wait. Just as Tara was about to fall asleep, she heard the door to her room slide open.

“Would you look at that,” said Thomas.

“Talk about lazy kids these days,” said Janet.

Tara leaned up on one elbow. It was clear that Janet and Thomas were mocking her. But she was in no mood to play. Once she learned she wouldn’t be going on the mission to rescue her best friend, it had taken all her emotional strength to keep her temper in check.

“Lazy,” agreed Thomas.

Tara’s head tilted slightly to one side. It made no sense at all for the two people who treated her like their own daughter to be mocking her like this. Didn’t they realize how devastating it was to be told she would be left behind? Didn’t they realize they were killing her?

Looking up, she noticed one of Thomas’ hands and arms was behind his back. He was clearly hiding something. The slight, half smile appeared on her face. She felt a rush of adrenalin course through her body. Fighting to keep her excitement under control, a slightly evil plan popped into her head. Janet and Thomas were clearly having some fun with her. Now it was time for payback.

Normally, Tara slept in her favorite cotton running shorts and t’shirt. But since her best friend had been taken hostage, Tara had started sleeping in Léa’s favorite outfit. It was just one of the small things Tara was doing to keep Léa close during this difficult time.

First, Tara yawned. Then she slowly sat up, stretching her arms toward the ceiling. The black sheets slowly fell away as Tara turned toward Janet and Thomas. She pulled her good knee up and rested her elbow and chin on it, brushing her tangled hair out of her eyes. The rest of the sheets had completely fallen away.

Looking up, Tara saw her plan had the desired effect. Janet just lowered her head and shook it sadly from side to side. After a few moments, Janet slyly looked over at her husband who’s face turned a dark, shade of red.

“You’re the ones who decided to leave me behind. What else was I supposed to do?” asked Tara.

Janet looked at Thomas and nodded in Tara’s direction. They both looked at Tara and smiled as Thomas pulled a medium sized black back pack around in front of him. He held it up, then tossed it at Tara.

“You have three minutes to get dressed,” said Janet.

A wave of euphoria washed over Tara. She was going on the mission after all. Looking up at Janet and Thomas, the full, genuine smile Janet called ‘devastatingly beautiful’ appeared on Tara’s face. Her sky blue eyes sparkled.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

“Two minutes,” said Janet.

Tara carefully pushed her splinted leg off the bed and walked over to the dresser. Pulling on running shorts and the black t’shirt with her favorite word splashed across the front three times, Tara tossed some clean socks over by her boots. Snagging some clean black tactical pants from a dresser drawer as she walked back to the bed, Tara looked at Janet and Thomas.

“Why?” she asked.

“Léa is in bad shape. Having you there might be just what she needs to hang on a little longer,” said Janet.

“It was also a little cruel to leave you behind,” added Thomas.

“What about the doctor not clearing me for the mission?” asked Tara.

“He’s not the only one around here with a little book of blackmail,” smiled Janet.