Free Blitzkrieg: Origins of the Prime: A Superhero Spy Thriller by Christopher Vale

care of your gear if you gentlemen will come with me,” he said.
    “Certainly,” Tom said. “Thank you.”
    Ensign Waters walked back around the front of the jeep and climbed into the driver’s seat while Tom sat beside him in the passenger seat. Axel climbed into the back and, after some prodding, convinced Rolf to do so as well. The giant of a man squeezed into the seat, pushing his brother tightly against the other side.
    Ensign Waters drove the jeep down the hill to the ferry that would take them across Guantanamo Bay to the windward side of the island. About an hour later, the men sat in a briefing room sipping glasses of cool water while being sheltered from the heat.
    They did not have to wait long before the door opened and a group of military officers entered. Tom, Axel, and Rolf stood, shaking hands with each of the men. The officers were introduced as Captain Cook, commander of the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Colonel Harley, commander of the Marine Barracks, Commander Jones, head of naval intelligence for GTMO, and Captain Austin of the Coast Guard cutter Persistence . Everyone sat around the large conference table.
    Captain Cook glanced around at the other military officers and then back at Axel, Tom, and Rolf, before speaking. “Well, gentlemen,” he began, “we aren’t really sure what you’re down here to do, but we received orders to provide you with whatever you needed.” He let that hang in the air for a moment. “So, what do you need?”
    Tom smiled.
     
    ***
    The plan was a simple one. Sail the USCGC Persistence north from Guantanamo Bay to a location off the coast of Cuba, just south of Havana. From there Axel, Tom, and Rolf would take a small craft to the beach, landing under cover of dark, and rendezvous with an anti-Castro Cuban who would lead them into Havana and return them to their boat once they had the defector. They would then take the boat back to the Coast Guard cutter and sail to Florida. Tom had insisted that they come up with a fall back, in case they could not make it back to their boat. They had devised a secondary escape plan which involved traveling the length of Cuba to Guantanamo City and from there crossing over into the U.S. Naval base. Colonel Harley escorted Tom, Axel, and Rolf out to the fence line that separated the base from the rest of Cuba to determine the feasibility of that plan. He had tried to explain to them that it would be much too dangerous, but Tom insisted that they have a look for themselves.
    Axel and Tom stood atop an observation post situated on the shore of the Guantanamo River, on the leeward side of the bay. Colonel Harley and two Marine sentries stood just behind them. From their vantage point they had a clear line of sight into Guantanamo City, which appeared to be a couple of miles away. Guantanamo City was a small workers town, the primary industry being a food processing plant. There was very little else surrounding the city other than military outposts watching the Americans.
    “So if we had to, we could travel down from Havana to Gitmo City and then cut across to the fence line?” Axel asked.
    The Colonel chuckled. “Not if you value your life,” Colonel Harley said before spitting a stream of brown liquid from his mouth over the side of the observation tower. He waved his hand over the open area between the city and the fence line. “We call that the Cactus Curtain ,” he smiled, clearly amused by the name. “Cuban asylum seekers kept fleeing Castro’s regime by coming into Gitmo, so the Cuban military planted cacti to dissuade them.” He spit another stream of brown juice before smiling broadly at Tom and Axel. “But it ain’t the cacti that is the problem. It’s the minefield. There are rows and rows of land mines between us and them.” Tom and Axel looked at each other and then out over the minefield.
    “Is it possible to navigate through the minefield?” Tom asked.
    “It is certainly possible to traverse the minefield.