Free Operation Southern Cross - 02 by Jack Shane Page A

go this time?” he asked Weir.
    The CIA man smiled darkly. “Weren’t you listening? I just told you they’re giving you a chance to get a little revenge.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Weir smiled again. “They’re sending you and your guys into Venezuela…”
    Suddenly Autry was paying attention again. “Venezuela?” he asked. “Why? What’s the mission?”
    Weir replied: “An operational FAD.”
    FAD—for forward armed deployment. In one sense, a routine Special Ops assignment. Usually FAD missions were about tracking down a certain piece of intelligence—sometimes from a person, sometimes not—that was crucial to U.S. interests and couldn’t be had by any other means. Autry had been involved in dozens of FAD missions over the years. But why Venezuela?
    “Is this connected with them trying to shoot us down?” he asked Weir.
    The agent blew out another cloud of smoke.
    “Not entirely, no,” he replied. “Our friends in D.C. think you guys stumbled upon some kind of arms shipment the other night. Something the wogs didn’t want you or anyone else to see. And that’s why they shot at you.”
    “Just our luck,” Autry said, adding: “Coming out of one situation and flying right on top of another. But what were they moving that was so important they’d shoot down U.S. aircraft just to keep it a secret?”
    Weir shook his head. “That’s just it,” he said. “No one knows for sure. But there are some theories…”
    “Such as?”
    “You know what a Bear bomber is?” Weir asked him.
    Autry thought a moment. “The Russian Tu-95?”
    Weir nodded. “Right—the big Russian muthafucker. It’s their equivalent of our B-52. Turbo-prop engines, extremely long range. Can carry tons of ordnance, cruise missiles, nuclear bombs.”
    “Yeah, so?” Autry asked. “What’s that have to do with anything?”
    Weir lowered his voice a bit, even though there was no way anyone could hear them.
    “This information is just speculation,” he told Autry. “But a theory going around says that in addition to increasing their army to two million men, the Venezuelans have also bought a squadron of these Bear bombers, airplanes thought to be scrapped years ago under one of the arms treaties. As this premise goes, they were secretly acquired and refurbished by the Chinese—or the Indians, or the North Koreans, take your pick—and then sold to a certain radical element within the Venezuelan military. The planes are being brought in, in pieces, on tramp steamers and cargo ships so as not to attract attention. You might have gotten close to a couple of these ships the other night.
    “Now, none of this is good news. Like I said, these airplanes are like our B-52s. To have an aircraft of such destructive potential in South America would be a major disruption in the balance of power. No one else in the region flies anything bigger than a fighter, so even a half dozen of these rebuilt Bears would pose a threat to other countries in the area. Colombia certainly, Brazil. All of Central America. And the U.S. would feel very uncomfortable if these increasingly unstable Venezuelan politicians have access to such a powerful airborne weapon.”
    “So where do we come in?” Autry asked.
    “They want you guys to go down there and scope out a piece of territory,” Weir replied. “It’s where some of our great minds think the Venezuelans are building an air base. One big enough to handle these large airplanes but also in an area where no one would suspect them of building it. Now, if such a thing is happening, how far along are they? That’s the important question. Because if they have a field almost completed, and they get these planes put together and operational, it will be a lot harder for us to convince them to get rid of them.
    “So, they want you guys to sneak in there and see what’s what. Off the record, though, everyone’s just praying that any bomber base is just in its infant stages and that this is something we