features. He discovered at least three remotely controlled cameras deployed in the compound. Riley assumed that the cameras were monitored at the nearest pump station, which was pump station 5, only fourteen kilometers to the northwest. According to their intelligence, the remote-control cameras were probably part of the Scoot system sale a British firm had negotiated with the Chinese government a few years previously. The cameras were supposed to have been used in Beijing for traffic control. Apparently the government had decided to use them for other, more important, functions, one of which was guarding this pipeline.
Hoffman could also make out what appeared to be an inner fence consisting of three strands of wire, spaced barely four inches inside the main fence. Cross-referencing with other similar security setups, he deduced that this inner fence was an alarm system, called a T field.
The T-field fence was sensitive to any cutting or tampering with the outer fence, including someone trying to climb it. They were beginning to appreciate the importance of this pipeline to the Chinese based solely on the security dedicated to it.
Keeping that in mind, Riley warned Hoffman and Smith to assume also that the inside of the compound was mined. To reach the berm anchoring the cables, they would have to be prepared to breach a mine field. Once the team got on the ground and put surveillance on the target, they could probably verify if it was mined or not, but Riley intended to worst-case the scenario. It was better to have the equipment and not have to use it, than to not be prepared. Additionally, Riley felt that they had to figure there were regular army patrols along the service road of the pipeline and possibly even overflights by helicopters. It was a military axiom that an obstacle was not an obstacle unless checked and observed at least part of the time.
Riley was impressed with the quality of the satellite imagery they were getting from the NSA. It was top of the line, a vast improvement over what they normally received for training exercises through the Department of Defense. The NSA imagery looked as though the pictures had been taken with a zoom lens from an aircraft at three hundred feet. On a plywood board in the isolation area, Hoffman and Smith put together a 1:25 scale satellite imagery mosaic of the compound.
Stretching his shoulders, Riley took a break from working on the target. He knew that Mitchell was checking on the progress of the other team members, but he wanted to make sure that everything was going all right. As Riley moved about the isolation area, Hooker brought in another batch of messages with information from the FOB.
In his whole career Riley had never seen anything like this setup. Despite its efficiency, it made him a little nervous. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare all this data, and Riley doubted very much that this whole operation was being conducted just to test the reaction of one Special Forces team. He wondered if they were the only mission being mounted or if other forces were in action aimed against China.
Riley watched as Hooker dumped the messages into the in box that Comsky lorded over. The junior medic went through the papers, dutifully logging in each entry, then breaking them down into piles for the various team members who needed to see them. Since the initial mission tasking, the team had been overloaded with information. The hardest part of this phase of isolation was separating what was relevant and what wasn't: making intelligence out of information.
Olinski and Reese were working on the enemy situation in the vicinity of the target, poring through classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Security Agency (NSA) to determine the potential enemy threat.
One of the hardest jobs fell to Trapp. With Paul Lalli, the junior communications sergeant, and Chong, Trapp had begun the task
Hoffman could also make out what appeared to be an inner fence consisting of three strands of wire, spaced barely four inches inside the main fence. Cross-referencing with other similar security setups, he deduced that this inner fence was an alarm system, called a T field.
The T-field fence was sensitive to any cutting or tampering with the outer fence, including someone trying to climb it. They were beginning to appreciate the importance of this pipeline to the Chinese based solely on the security dedicated to it.
Keeping that in mind, Riley warned Hoffman and Smith to assume also that the inside of the compound was mined. To reach the berm anchoring the cables, they would have to be prepared to breach a mine field. Once the team got on the ground and put surveillance on the target, they could probably verify if it was mined or not, but Riley intended to worst-case the scenario. It was better to have the equipment and not have to use it, than to not be prepared. Additionally, Riley felt that they had to figure there were regular army patrols along the service road of the pipeline and possibly even overflights by helicopters. It was a military axiom that an obstacle was not an obstacle unless checked and observed at least part of the time.
Riley was impressed with the quality of the satellite imagery they were getting from the NSA. It was top of the line, a vast improvement over what they normally received for training exercises through the Department of Defense. The NSA imagery looked as though the pictures had been taken with a zoom lens from an aircraft at three hundred feet. On a plywood board in the isolation area, Hoffman and Smith put together a 1:25 scale satellite imagery mosaic of the compound.
Stretching his shoulders, Riley took a break from working on the target. He knew that Mitchell was checking on the progress of the other team members, but he wanted to make sure that everything was going all right. As Riley moved about the isolation area, Hooker brought in another batch of messages with information from the FOB.
In his whole career Riley had never seen anything like this setup. Despite its efficiency, it made him a little nervous. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare all this data, and Riley doubted very much that this whole operation was being conducted just to test the reaction of one Special Forces team. He wondered if they were the only mission being mounted or if other forces were in action aimed against China.
Riley watched as Hooker dumped the messages into the in box that Comsky lorded over. The junior medic went through the papers, dutifully logging in each entry, then breaking them down into piles for the various team members who needed to see them. Since the initial mission tasking, the team had been overloaded with information. The hardest part of this phase of isolation was separating what was relevant and what wasn't: making intelligence out of information.
Olinski and Reese were working on the enemy situation in the vicinity of the target, poring through classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Security Agency (NSA) to determine the potential enemy threat.
One of the hardest jobs fell to Trapp. With Paul Lalli, the junior communications sergeant, and Chong, Trapp had begun the task
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