A lounge chair on the rooftop creaked, making a sound as it could no longer bear the weight.
"Do you like my ponytail?" The female knight in the upper position twisted her waist with an alluring smile.
Compared to her, Stanley Goosby's expression was much more ferocious. He muttered to himself, trying to divert attention, "Very cute, very cute, oh, damn Italian butter walnut cake, red oil hot pot, charcoal grilled beef."
At this time, the phone rang, and the female knight's sobbing panting turned into a wail, "No way, don't answer it!"
"Damn it!" Stanley Goosby complained in frustration, his whole body trembling several times, and then calmed down.
"No, I have to answer it. They know where I am and that I'm home now."
"How could they know you were home?" The woman also lay limply on Goosby's chest, her voice becoming weak and feeble.
Goosby rolled his eyes. "Have you forgotten I work for the FBI, dear?"
He picked up his vibrating phone on the small table beside him and pressed the answer button. "Yes, this is Goosby,"
Jack's voice rang out. "Doc, put on your pajamas immediately, and of course, that beautiful woman next to you."
"What?" Goosby didn't bother to ask why it was Jack calling him. He instinctively pulled up the robe beneath him and wrapped himself and his fiancée in it.
The next moment, the sound of propellers began to rise, and a helicopter appeared from below near the rooftop. Jack, wearing noise-canceling earmuffs, flung open the rear hatch, a bright smile on his handsome face.
"
I need an explanation."
Although Jack had made a good impression on Stanley Goosby during their time in Korea, he had treated him to a sumptuous meal as promised after the mission was completed.
The delicious hot pot, Seres baijiu, and authentic Cuban cigars remained with him to this day.
Still, the thought of his perfectly planned proposal falling through shattered the plan left the doctor fuming. After getting off the plane, he followed Jack, muttering to himself.
"7.8 million innocent people in the San Francisco Bay Area need your expertise," Jack said, quickly shutting down Stanley Goosby's discontent.
Entering the Pentagon's elevator, which led directly to the underground conference room, Jack briefly recounted the recent events, emphasizing their importance.
"This isn't just the minor skirmish in Korea. We're facing a determined general. A single mistake could result in tens of thousands of casualties."
"Bullshit! VX again! This kind of demonic weapon shouldn't have been invented. I don't understand why this country, which already possesses enough nuclear weapons to destroy most of the world, stockpiles this damned stuff."
Goosby, who was more scholarly than Jack, cursed under his breath.
The elevator doors dinged open, and Jack, nodding toward the heavily guarded conference room door, jokingly said, "Perhaps the bigwigs inside can answer your questions. You could go ask them in person."
He certainly didn't dare question them directly, and the doctor only dared to whisper in front of Jack. When he pushed open the door and saw a large group of veterans with stars and badges, he immediately fell silent, answering every question, as obedient as a weak, pitiful, and helpless quail.
"
An airborne surprise attack is definitely not feasible. It's a full moon these two days, and the weather conditions are favorable." Speaking eloquently to the generals was another old acquaintance of Jack's: Jason Hayes, the commander of SEAL Team B.
"We are facing a group of soldiers who have also received special operations training. According to the latest intelligence, at least half of the thirteen soldiers who followed General Hammer to occupy Alcatraz Island are experienced soldiers who have followed him on multiple highly confidential missions in the past decade.
Therefore, the risk of landing and sneaking across the beach is equally huge. Once my team members and I are discovered, Hammer is likely to directly launch missiles.
I have worked with his expeditionary reconnaissance company. They are elite troops who are no less than the Navy SEALs."
When the Marine Corps performs combat missions, it will construct a combined campaign and tactical unit for specific tasks, which is called the Marine Corps Air-Ground Task Force "MAGTF".
The expeditionary force is the largest of its ranks. The Marine Corps is organized into three expeditionary forces, and General Hammer long served as the frontline commander of one of them, the expeditionary reconnaissance company.
The expeditionary reconnaissance company has a long history, dating back to the Marine Corps' Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion during World War II.
After the war, the Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion was disbanded but soon reestablished, with the then-Commandant of the Marine Corps naming it the Marine Tactical Experimental Unit (MCTU).
This unit can be considered an early special forces unit, developing many innovative reconnaissance techniques, such as the use of HALO (High-Apparent-Low-Open) maneuvers, which Jack had previously trained, and armed helicopter infiltration reconnaissance.
Theoretically, the MCTU could even be considered the predecessor of the Navy SEALs, established to succeed this amphibious reconnaissance unit. However, as is well known, the Navy and Marine Corps are two separate branches of the military.
Therefore, the MCTU was never officially replaced, but was reorganized into the expeditionary reconnaissance company, which still exists today.
As early as the Vietnam War, the Expeditionary Force's reconnaissance companies frequently collaborated with the Army's "Green Berets" and Navy SEALs on infiltration operations. While the former might not be as elite as these T1 and T2 special forces, they were well-acquainted with each other.
Alcatraz Island appears on maps to be a palm-sized reef, and in reality, it's not much larger, covering just 0.0763 square kilometers, roughly the size of eleven football fields.
Alcatraz was named after the federal government established a prison on the island. Before that, the natives called it "Pelican Island," and later, the San Francisco locals simply called it "The Rock." While
the average person might think this size is too large for a small force of only 13, intelligence indicates that General Hammer and his men didn't simply paddle to the island in rubber boats.
In reality, rubber boats couldn't carry 15 VX gas missiles, each nearly three meters long, and their launchers to reach an island more than two miles from the coastline.
Their vehicles consisted of an MH-53 Pave Low helicopter and an MH-60R Seahawk armed with Hellfire missiles.
The MH-53 Pave Low, a heavy-lift helicopter, had a payload capacity of 16 tons. Besides the VX gas missiles and their launchers, it could easily carry additional equipment. Furthermore, the helicopter itself was equipped with highly advanced sea-search radar and various sensors.
Furthermore, Alcatraz's unique, high-altitude terrain, surrounded by sheer cliffs and devoid of even a single beach, made it difficult to defend.
Thirteen soldiers, skilled in special operations, defended the island from this commanding position, a task even experts like Jason Hayes found daunting.
Most of the attendees, veterans of the battlefield, frowned after he briefly analyzed the blueprints.
However, Jason quickly shifted the subject and presented his plan: "The only viable way to enter is through the tunnels beneath the prison."
He placed a thick stack of blueprints on the table, and a musty smell immediately filled the air.
"Before Alcatraz became a prison, it was once an old military barracks. The remains are still sealed beneath the prison cellblocks. Even further back, during the Gold Rush, gold mines were dug underground.
There's still an abandoned factory on the island, with a sewage pipe connecting to the abandoned mines. I plan to use these abandoned mines to infiltrate the central area and launch an assault from within.
If we're lucky, we might be able to recapture those missiles without a fight."
Jason's expression faltered. "I studied the blueprints on the way here. Due to the numerous renovations and its age, the underground tunnels are a virtual maze. I need firsthand information."
(End of Chapter)