Book 3 of the GUNTER WAYAN SERIES

Locations and items referenced in The Arrangement   

Socotra Island, Yemen

The third intercept was a second conversation between Ock and Cheup, this one changing the captain’s destination to a platform at a set of coordinates near Socotra Island, where he was to offload missile launch pads.

Oil Platform

As they stepped off the top rung, their mouths went agape when they saw they were standing on a derelict oil platform with nothing but water visible from horizon to horizon.

House of Leadership in Iran 

Parra pulled up the KH-11 reconnaissance photos on Iran, which she’d looked at an hour earlier. These captured Major General Akbar Hassani and the supreme leader’s closest advisors assembling at the House of Leadership in central Tehran—the supreme leader’s residence, bureaucratic office, and principal workplace.

BM-25 / Hwasong-10 missile 

Facility Number One became operational following one year of planning and two of construction. However, before it was finished, Kim Jong-il died and was succeeded by his son. Outside of those working there, only Kim Jong-un’s closest advisors knew of its existence. It delivered its first missile, the BM-25, which had a range of two thousand miles and could carry a nuclear warhead, to Iran three years after the facility was complete.

Hwasong-16 ICBM

The BM-25’s successor, the Hwasong-16, followed in 2020. The two-stage monster was the world’s largest liquid-fueled ICBM. It carried four multiple independent reentry vehicles, or MIRVs, that could strike any city within the United States and Europe.

Gulfstream G450

The Gulfstream G450 was fueled and ready for takeoff from the private terminal of the Macau International Airport. Bikas Tsang sat in the left seat and impatiently drummed the fingers of his left hand on his armrest.

Bao’an International Airport – Shenzhen, China

During the thirty-five mile drive to Shenzhen’s Bao’an International Airport in China, Ock slammed his fist on the steering wheel in frustration.

The Sydney Kingsford Smith airport

The Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, colloquially referred to as the Sydney airport, was built in 1919 and is one of the world’s oldest.

Macau airport

The Gulfstream G450 was fueled and ready for takeoff from the private terminal of the Macau International Airport.

China’s WZ-7 Soaring Dragon drone

Jae-Hwa Ock stormed out of the Korean People’s Air Force operations center in Pyongyang, leaving behind the stunned twenty-three-year-old drone pilot who’d flown the WZ-7 Soaring Dragon that was sold to them by China.

Flash Bang Stun Grenade

Nabar threw a stun grenade inside. This produced a blinding flash of light and a one hundred and seventy decibel sound—both of which temporarily disoriented an enemy’s senses.

Cotton Batik shirt in a blue leaf shadow pattern

When he arrived at the front door, a man in his twenties was waiting. He was tall, athletic, and dressed in khaki pants and a short-sleeved cotton Batik shirt in a blue leaf shadow pattern.

Ingram Mac-11 subcompact machine pistol/submachine gun

As the man thumbed through it, Ock looked past the open front door and into the residence. Inside, he saw an athletic-looking man pointing an Ingram Mac-11 subcompact submachine gun at him.

Very slender vessel (VSV)

It was two a.m. on a moonless night when the VSV anchored within sight of the jagged four hundred ninety-two feet cliff in Uluwatu, Bali.

Canggu

The low-life lived in Canggu, the same village in which he was born. A small coastal community on the south coast of Bali, its three law enforcement officers were on his payroll.

Jungle inlet from sea

He kept the VSV at a pier deep inside a small inlet near his home. Carved out of the jungle by nature, the channel meandered for several dozen miles before ending at a wall of vegetation.

Bangkirai wood

His twenty thousand square feet tri-level residence was an oddity overlooking the rural village, looking more like a Four Seasons hotel than a home. The roof was Bangkirai wood, it had Ujung Pandang stone floors, and the furnishings were custom made from Suar wood to accommodate Wirjawan’s out-of-proportion height and girth.

Suar wood

His twenty thousand square feet tri-level residence was an oddity overlooking the rural village, looking more like a Four Seasons hotel than a home. The roof was Bangkirai wood, it had Ujung Pandang stone floors, and the furnishings were custom made from Suar wood to accommodate Wirjawan’s out-of-proportion height and girth.

Indonesian Ujung Pandang stone

His twenty thousand square feet tri-level residence was an oddity overlooking the rural village, looking more like a Four Seasons hotel than a home. The roof was Bangkirai wood, it had Ujung Pandang stone floors, and the furnishings were custom made from Suar wood to accommodate Wirjawan’s out-of-proportion height and girth.

SS1 Assault Rifle

Pindad G2 Combat Pistol

Each thug carried a Pindad Senapan Serbu 1 assault rifle, called an SS1, and a Pindad G2 Combat Pistol.

Elco EP-50 Electric Motor

With the raft secure, two men brought the one hundred and ninety pounds Elco EP-50 electric motor from below deck and attached it to the raft’s stern.

M-26c TASER

Attached to their utility belt was an M-26c TASER, capable of hitting targets fifteen feet away. Powered by compressed nitrogen, it ejected two probes at one hundred eighty mph, which imparted a fifty thousand volt and twenty-six-watt charge.

Bulgari Resort Hotel in Bali

Gunter Wayan and Eka Endah lived together in a forty-eight thousand square feet mansion at the Bulgari resort in Bali.

The mansion at the Bulgari, Bali

The private investigator and his former assistant, who was a partner in W&E Investigations, recently began living together and used the mansion as their home and office.

Indonesian medium altitude long-endurance drone (MALE)

Durin was silent for nearly ten seconds before issuing a response. “I’m about to test a new medium-altitude long-endurance drone, which we call MALE.

ScanEagle Drone

I have a ScanEagle drone in the hangar,” Durin said. “It has a loiter time of around twenty hours and will be able to search a wide patch of ocean. I can have it ready for flight in less than ten minutes.

KH-11 Kennen satellite

The KH-11 is a two billion dollar monster that’s sometimes referred to as Kennen—for reasons known only to the government. The size of the Hubble Space Telescope, it weighs forty thousand pounds and measures sixty-five feet in length and ten feet in width.

Delta Heavy-Lift Rocket

The KH-11/12 series will eventually be replaced by the Future Imagery Architecture digital imaging spacecraft from Lockheed Martin. These satellites are placed into orbit by a Delta IV heavy-lift rocket at a cost of approximately four hundred forty million dollars.

Mentor SIGINT spy satellite

The higher-orbiting Mentor, is a SIGINT or signals intelligence satellite. This collects electronic transmissions, referred to in military parlance as electronics intelligence or ELINT, and communications between parties, referred to as COMINT or communications intelligence. The Mentor weighs eleven thousand pounds and has an antenna three hundred thirty feet in diameter.

Stinger Missile – FIM 92

Knowing Kim Jong-un’s solution for dealing with those who failed him, he made a spur-of-the-moment decision and ordered one of his men to destroy the drone using a Stinger, an infrared surface-to-air missile.

National Security Agency (NSA)

The current director took a different approach than his predecessors in getting Parra to join him at NSA headquarters. He did this by convincing her the impact she would have on national security would be far more significant if she could run the show for the agency’s global analysis efforts.

NSA data center in Bluffdale, Utah

The one million square foot digital storage facility in Bluffdale, Utah, which cost two billion dollars, is also tasked with decrypting conversations that nation-states and other users believe to be unbreakable.

National Military Command Center (NMCC)

Sitting beside him in a conference room in the Pentagon’s National Military Command Center, referred to as the NMCC, the command and communications center for the National Command Authority, was Secretary of Defense Jim Rosen.

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

Although he could have gone to the joint chiefs and discuss with them what he received, he wanted to coordinate with Winegar first and get his opinion. The DNI was over the CIA, DIA, and other alphabet agencies, and they worked well in the past integrating the functions of both massive organizations to accomplish a common objective.

Israeli Dolphin-class nuclear submarine

Emmet Manker was the Sgan-Aluf, which equated to the rank of commander in the United States Navy, of the seven hundred twenty million dollar Israeli Dolphin class submarine Avenger – a diesel-electric craft built in Germany and put into service in 2017.

Creech AFB, Nevada

    

The Global Hawk would take approximately four hours to reach the island and a little under that to arrive at the platform—both times barely ten percent of their remain-aloft capability. The LRE, MCE, and sensor operator resided at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada—operating the aircraft via satellite link.

RQ-4 Global Hawk

Upon leaving McInnes’s office and returning to her desk, Parra tasked two of the three RQ-4 UAVs stationed at a secret drone base in a desolate area of southeast Saudi Arabia known as Rub al-Khali.

MQ-9 Reaper

Because defense contractor Northrop Grumman only manufactured forty-two RQ-4’s, the two hundred twenty million dollar drones were always in heavy demand. Parra tried but couldn’t get ahold of a third because the others were already tasked. However, she laid her hands on two MQ-9 Reaper drones out of Thumrait Air Base in Tamarid, Oman.

Secret airbase at Rub al-Khali, Saudi Arabia

Upon leaving McInnes’s office and returning to her desk, Parra tasked two of the three RQ-4 UAVs stationed at a secret drone base in a desolate area of southeast Saudi Arabia known as Rub al-Khali.

Ja Ryu Merchant Vessel

The pilot continued to follow the VSV. Fifteen minutes later, it approached the Ja Ryu, a three hundred twenty-one feet long merchant ship flying the North Korean flag.

Hao Chang Merchant Vessel

 

The vessel transporting the missiles and warheads from Facility Number One was the Hao Chang, a five hundred and thirty-five feet merchant vessel. Chartered from a South Korean company, it flew that nation’s flag to create the illusion of legitimacy.

Abby Aurora Merchant Vessel

The Abby Aurora had the pedal to the metal, which meant it was going around seventeen mph. Forty thousand feet over it, the Global Hawk that previously provided imagery for Scops Island was following the vessel.

Bahri Ghazal

“The Bahri Ghazal, which is flying the flag of Saudi Arabia. Bahri is a common first name for a Saudi-owned nautical carrier. However, looking under the covers, another ship bearing this name is transmitting an AIS signal from the Dead Sea.”

Sana’a International Airport in Yemen

Flying from Pyongyang to Shanghai, Ock continued to the Sana’a International Airport in Yemen, which was a generation removed from having facial recognition software, and then to the island of Socotra where a high-speed boat transported him to the platform.

Twelve-gauge bean bag shotgun

Because he was in a hurry, his hand gravitated to the rifle closest to him. However, before grabbing it he saw the box of ammunition beside the12-gauge shotgun.

Heron TP (Eitan) MALE (medium-altitude, long-endurance) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

The Eitan is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). It costs thirty-five million dollars, and the operational parameters are as indicated in the storyline.

Israeli Air Force C-130 J Super Hercules

The Israeli Air Force C-130J Super Hercules, carrying support staff and spare parts, which Talman put in the air at the same time, had a top speed one hundred fifty mph more than the Eitan’s and landed ahead of them.

AGM-114 Hellfire Missiles

Parra and McInnes were speaking with the MQ-9 pilot who sent the Abby Aurora to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. He explained his Reaper carried fourteen AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and two GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bombs on the six pylons under its wings.

GBU-12 Paveway II smart bomb

Parra and McInnes were speaking with the MQ-9 pilot who sent the Abby Aurora to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. He explained his Reaper carried fourteen AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and two GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bombs on the six pylons under its wings.

Thumrait Air Base in Tamarid, Oman

However, she laid her hands on two MQ-9 Reaper drones out of Thumrait Air Base in Tamarid, Oman.

F-35I Lightening II

The attack was to be conducted by two F-35I Lightening II aircraft, a fifth-generation single-engine strike fighter that was developed by the United States and incorporated cutting-edge stealth technology.

Rampage Missile

Once on their own, the F-35I’s descended to two hundred feet above the ocean, which was below Yemeni radar, and headed straight for the platform. Each aircraft carried two Rampage missiles, more than enough ordinance to transform the platform into an undersea reef.

Nevatim Air Force Base (Air Base 28)

Both pilots credited the enormous explosion to the missile fuel carried by ship they destroyed, feeling good about what happened, they gave themselves high five’s after they landed at Nevatim Air Base.

Tel Nof Air Base (Air Base 8)

Tel Nof Air Base, also known as Air Force Base 8, exists and is near Rehovat. It is one of three principal airbases of the Israeli Air Force.

LNG Tanker

A typical LNG tanker does hold more than 33 million gallons of liquified natural gas and, as stated, this equals twenty billion gallons of natural gas.

EMP Device

“My mathematicians have calculated the individual pulse strengths needed for each of the five EMP devices, and we’ve customized them accordingly to generate the required electromagnetic waves.”

Ryongsong – North Korean presidential palace

Colonel Jae-haw Ock, deputy head of the North Korea secret police, had just arrived in Pyongyang after being summoned by the supreme leader to his underground office at his Ryongsong residence, which was just under eight miles from the center of the city.

RSA token

At one time, she’d had unlimited access to North Korea’s offshore bank accounts because she’d set them up and funneled money in and out of them depending on the country’s cash needs. That’s how she could steal it so easily. Each time she accessed these accounts, she required an RSA decryption key. These were only produced by three devices.

 CH-5 Drone

I’m going to test a CH-5 UAV that the Chinese government is trying to sell us as an upgrade to the CH-4’s we purchased from them two years ago.