American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Holy shit! Why did this gang of mafia end up in the Bay of Pigs? Isn't this a bad omen?

　No, my mission this time wasn't to land on the beach, it was just a quick in-and-out pick-up and evacuation...

　So, probably, I shouldn't be that unlucky, right?

　Feeling anxious, Fili drove to the port of Miami and was immediately stunned by the amount of waste on the dock.

　"Is this a wreck dug up from the seabed? How much kickbacks did the agent in charge take to buy such a pile of junk?"

　Chapter 52: This broken ship sinks so fast!

　In order to prepare for the sea crossing operation of the Cuban mercenaries of the 2506th Brigade, the CIA prepared a total of five transport ships and two landing craft, collectively known as the "Garcia Fleet" to commemorate General Garcia, the famous leader during the Cuban War of Independence (the mercenaries believed they were "restoring a free Cuba").

　In order to conceal the truth, or to deceive itself, the "Garcia Fleet" was registered under the name of a shipping company owned by Cuba - because the White House stated that in order to package this war as a spontaneous revolution of the Cubans, no American merchant ships could directly participate in the invasion.

　Except for the two landing craft, the sailors of the five merchant ships are all Cubans or Spanish-speaking people from other Latin American countries.

　But in fact, Castro had already known about the fleet almost since it was formed, but he just didn't know the landing location.

　This makes sense because no one in the United States knows where the mercenaries carried by this fleet will eventually land.

　Since even the Americans had not yet decided where to land the 2506th Brigade, Castro of Cuba naturally had no way of finding out.

　According to the original invasion plan, the "Garcia Fleet" would load up with supplies in New Orleans, USA, and take with it some Cuban exile politicians who had volunteered to join the war. It would then sail to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, where it would pick up the 2506th Brigade's expeditionary force and finally sail to its destination.

　Since the mercenaries' target was now the Dominican Republic, the fleet's final assembly point was also changed to Miami, Florida.

　Sadly, although the CIA reportedly allocated sufficient funds for the ship purchase, what appeared at the Port of Miami were five rusted, World War II-era "Liberty Ships," war surplus materials sold by the Pentagon: the Atlantico, the Cabir, the Houston, the Escondido, and the Rio Escondito.

　The engines are all old-fashioned coal-fired boilers that produce billowing black smoke when running, and each ship is almost twenty years old!

　You have to know that the Liberty Ships of the World War II era were originally cheap, quick-made consumables, and their design lifespan during production was only five years.

　According to the original idea, all these Liberty Ships would be scrapped once World War II was over.

　But how many years has it been since the end of World War II? Are they still using Liberty ships to transport troops? Is that reliable?

　In addition to being extremely old, these merchant ships were also poorly maintained - the hulls of all five ships were unpainted.

　There was rust above the waterline and barnacles below it, the engine broke down frequently, and the cabin, which hadn't been cleaned in who knows how long, was filled with a foul stench.

　The cranes and winches on the ship creaked when in use, and the rusted loading and unloading machines made even greater noises when in operation.

　So, as soon as Fili and a few others stepped onto the deck, they were disappointed by what they saw - could these ships have been sunk and then salvaged?

　In addition, the two landing craft assigned to the 2506th Brigade were also vintage landing craft that had served in World War II. Although they were in good condition, they were already quite old. However, sailors borrowed from the Military Sealift Service by the CIA erected antennas on the landing craft to serve as communication stations.

　The "flagship" of the entire fleet is the "Rio Escondito", or Rio for short.

　This was a meritorious troop transport ship active in the North Atlantic battlefield during World War II. It had a record of escaping from German submarines many times (I wonder if it had ever encountered the U-boat of Marita Lorenz's father) and was considered a "lucky ship."

　But the problem was that the Rio was in the worst condition of all the ships. In addition to being rusty, dirty, and having old machinery, it had also encountered an accident while sailing down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. One of its propellers hit a piece of driftwood and was completely bent.

　So, all the way from New Orleans to Miami, the poor flagship was bumping and spinning like a drunk.

　Not only did the ship's speed fail to increase, but the deck kept shaking as if it were an earthquake, and the glass in the portholes was shaken off.

　Fortunately, the sailors who operated it were quite experienced. They endured dizziness and vomiting and insisted on working, so the ship did not break down on the road.

　In short, looking at this pile of junk that should have been sent to the shipbreaking yard long ago, Fili felt really depressed.

　But no matter how shabby the fleet looks, the task assigned by Deputy Director Bissell must be carried out.

　Firi originally wanted to pick the best-looking ship from among the seven ships and sail to the Bay of Pigs in Cuba to help the Chicago mafia boss Cosa Nostra retreat from behind enemy lines.

　But when he asked, he found out that among the entire "Garcia" fleet anchored in the Port of Miami, the only one that could set sail immediately was the flagship "Rio Escondito", which was in the worst condition and had its propeller knocked crooked!

　Why? Because after the voyage ended and they arrived at the Port of Miami, the sailors from the other ships all took a break and went out to the city for some fun!

　Right now, they are either drunk in the bar or happily lying in the arms of a prostitute!

　And if there is no one to drive the boat, no boat can move.

　What? Recall the sailors on leave in the city immediately and bring them back for emergency duty?

　Are you crazy? How is it possible that this could happen?

　At that time, let alone mobile phones, even pagers had not been invented yet. Where could you expect Phili to find sailors in just a few hours?

　This time the CIA arranged a secret mission, and he couldn't ask the police or the city government for help, mobilize the police, or broadcast radio to look for people everywhere!

　As for waiting for the sailors to come back after having enough fun, the earliest would be evening, and the latest might be tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow.

　It would take at least three days to sail from Miami on a slow-moving Liberty ship, making a large circle across the sea to the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba.

　By then, Cosa Nostra, the Chicago mafia boss who was waiting for a pick-up on the Bay of Pigs beach, would probably be scared to death.

　If another speedboat is to be built, firstly, the bureau has not approved the additional funds, and secondly, Firi does not want to take the responsibility.

　——The bureau’s order was for him to get a ship from the “Garcia Fleet” to go to Cuba to pick up people. Why did he inexplicably disobey orders?

　By comparison, only the Rio had an accident. Due to its bumps and bumps along the way, its frequent stops and starts, it was the slowest moving ship and was left at the end. When Fili arrived at the port of Miami, the unfortunate ship had just docked, and the sailors on board had not had time to disembark to visit the taverns and brothels.

　In addition, the remaining coal on the Rio was enough for it to sail to Cuba and back.

　Therefore, although it is certainly inhumane and hateful to not allow sailors who have just experienced a difficult voyage to go ashore to relax and rest after docking, but to immediately go out to sea to perform a new mission.

　But Firi still issued an order, requiring the Rio to set sail again quickly and go to Cuba to carry out a secret operation.

　After promising a special bonus, the complaining sailors were finally appeased and allowed to return to work.

　However, in addition to the Cuban sailors on the Rio Escondito, the Cuban special task force also had to provide personal escort.

　Fili shook his head when he saw the pile of broken ships and naturally refused to go into battle himself; needless to say, the pregnant woman Marita was handcuffed to the bed with her naked buttocks.

　Mr. Bai Siwen is seventy years old. Although he is still in good health, it would be inconsiderate to ask him to travel long distances.

　Although diabetic agent Daniel is a good fighter, he has to inject insulin frequently and cannot travel long distances.

　The one-legged proprietress Armas still has to run the "Wave" brothel. In order to prevent trouble from happening behind the scenes as soon as she leaves, Fili doesn't dare to send her there.

　Finally, the fat, frail Texas fat man, Wall

　Mrs. Lee stood out from the "old, weak, sick, disabled and pregnant" group under Fili.

　Although this Texas radio code operator was so fat that he had to gasp for breath even when climbing stairs, and his 1,200-degree myopia made it impossible to see anything without his glasses, he still looked quite intimidating with his 1.80-meter height and 250-pound physique.

　More importantly, he is the only one in the Cuban special task force who has the code book and can receive radio messages from Cuba, keeping in touch with the Chicago gang leader Cosa Nostra hiding in the Bay of Pigs, and the "Windtalkers" code operatives who follow this gang leader.

　Well, as for how the famous Navajo "Windtalker" code keeper in the Pacific battlefield during World War II escaped from the American West to Chicago and became the henchman of the local gangster... Let's not go into details about this - could he be an FBI agent?

　In this way, the fat Texas man Wolfe Lee, with a sad face, carrying his radio equipment and code book, reluctantly stepped onto the rusty and smelly "Rio Escondito".

　Immediately afterwards, the Cuban sailors on the ship, after hastily replenishing some fresh water and fruits and vegetables, lit the fire and set sail with curses.

　Watching the nearly twenty-year-old Liberty Ship heating up its boiler, blowing its whistle, and bouncing out of the dock with billowing black smoke, Fili quietly wondered how long it would take for Wolf Lee, the fat guy from Texas, to return from Cuba.

　Or, can he come back?

　Then, less than a day later, the answer was revealed.

　The next morning, when Phili was having breakfast in bed with Marita, he learned that Wolf Lee, the fat Texas man with a haggard face and ragged clothes, smelling of sea water, had come back to him in a very embarrassed manner to report on his work.

　Well, what about the Rio Escondito?

　It just left the harbor yesterday, and it sank as soon as it was out of Fili's sight!

　This broken ship is sinking so fast!

　Author's words: PS: After reviewing the Battle of the Bay of Pigs several times, I found that it was not easy for those mercenaries to fight. They were outnumbered, and had a bunch of stupid teammates who made things worse. However, they managed to fight for three days and surrendered only after they ran out of ammunition and food. No matter how you look at it, it was an above-average performance.

　Going to war on a coal-fired steamship in 1961 doesn't look like the style of the American imperial army at all.

　All we can say is that the CIA is too greedy, or Congress allocated too little money.

　Chapter 53: Life Will Always Find a Way Out

　It turned out that the Rio Escondito's propeller was crooked and its rudder was malfunctioning, sometimes intermittently. Entering the Port of Miami had been fraught with danger, and finally being able to dock safely was a stroke of luck, like winning the lottery.

　However, due to the urgency of the mission, the captain and sailors had no time to repair the "Rio Escondito". They just asked the diver to go down and take a look at the crooked propeller. They felt that the problem did not seem to be serious, so they set sail again in a crooked manner.

　However, when it came time to leave the Port of Miami, the ship did not have the same good luck as when it entered the port.

　In short, not long after the "Rio Escondito" left the port, the steering gear lost control and the hull became completely out of control.

　Then, amid the screams of the sailors, the entire Liberty Ship swayed sideways and hit a fishing boat that was about to return to the port.

　Originally, when a Liberty ship weighing over 7,000 tons collided with a fishing boat weighing at most 200 to 300 tons, the latter should have been doomed no matter how you looked at it.

　But as an antique ship left over from the Second World War, the "Rio Escondito" is shockingly fragile. Perhaps even the hull has been corroded to the point where only rust remains - after colliding with the fishing boat, a five-meter-long hole appeared in its belly!

　Then, as the seawater rushed into the cabin, the deck boards began to shatter with terrible creaking sounds. Huge cracks spread rapidly in all directions from the breach, causing this ancient Liberty Ship to quickly break in two like the Titanic!

　In the chaos, the captain was the first to jump onto the lifeboat and escape for his own life. The rest of the crew also ran away, each seeking their own way to survive.

　Because he did not hear the abandon ship alarm and was weak, Wolfe Lee ran a little slower when he left the cabin to escape.

　So, by the time he jumped over the side of the ship, the Cuban sailors had already rowed away in the lifeboat, and the fat man was so angry that he almost couldn't breathe.

　Fortunately, the location where the "Rio Escondito" had an accident was in a shallow sea very close to the Florida Peninsula, with a water depth of less than ten meters.

　So, as soon as the sea water flooded the deck of the "Rio Escondito", the broken ship sank on the mud and sand and stopped sinking.

　In other words, even if those Cuban sailors stayed at their posts and did not abandon the ship, there would actually be no problem in the short term.

　But the fact was that all the others had run away, and there was not even a lifeboat left for Wolfe Lee. He stood on the crooked, broken, stranded ship and hesitated for a long time, thinking that it was no use staying in this ghost place. Finally, he found a lifebuoy and mustered up the courage to jump into the sea.

　Fortunately, unlike the North Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic sank, which was a freezing cold sea that could freeze people to death, the Caribbean Sea in March was already quite warm. Wolf Lee, a 250-pound Texas fat man, was covered in thick fat, so his buoyancy was very good.

　It was so full that it couldn't sink at all.

　The place where the "Rio Escondito" sank, or rather ran aground, was not far from the shore, and one could even see the skyscrapers and lights of Miami. Wolf Lee drifted on the sea for several hours and was lucky enough to swim ashore and come to a deserted seaside farm.

　Next, Wolf Lee spent the night shivering in the shabby house on the farm. After dawn, he put on his glasses, got up, staggered to the side of a street, reached into his pocket to feel for his wallet, and found it was still there. He hailed a taxi on the side of the road and then came back to report the situation to Ferry.

　Thus, the "Garcia Fleet" had already lost a ship before even leaving US territorial waters. Team Leader Esteline, who had been transferred to the Dominican Special Task Force, called and berated Firi because the entire fleet was supposed to be allocated to him.

　Fortunately, the five Liberty Ships of the Garcia Fleet were all insured, so the insurance company would cover most of the losses.

　However, during this period, Cosa Nostra, the Chicago gang leader who was trapped in Cuba, continued to send telegrams for help.

　Since the CIA's outsourced assassination service personnel have not yet been arrested by Castro's military and police, Firi can only organize a rescue again.

　Three days later, after recalling the sailors on shore leave, Fili did not choose one of the other four Liberty ships - not only were the ships old and dilapidated, but the Cuban sailors were also unreliable. Instead, he sent an infantry landing craft, the Barbara, to the Bay of Pigs in Cuba to pick up the people.

　Compared with the Cubans who operated the Liberty Ship, the crews of the two landing craft were American sailors borrowed from the Military Sealift Service and were relatively more reliable.

　Then, adhering to the Anglo-Saxon principle of "use it to the utmost", Wolf Lee, a fat Texan who had just survived a shipwreck, was assigned to the ship again by acting team leader Ferry King with a sad face to continue the mission that he had failed to complete due to the shipwreck.

　——Even though he cried like a 250-pound child, a mission was a mission, and it was impossible to escape the business trip.

　Ten days later, Wolf Lee came back. He had lost a lot of weight, his skin was tanned, and the smell of sea water on his body was stronger.

　Along with him came some very unfortunate bad news - the Barbara landing craft failed to return!

　"Huh? The landing craft sank again? Little Leo, is your fate to have a bad relationship with the sea? Two shipwrecks in one month!"

　Upon learning that the Barbara landing craft sent to the Bay of Pigs in Cuba had sunk again, Captain Ferry King couldn't help but gasp.

　——Twice out to sea, each time the shipwreck! Is this guy an expert on shipwrecks?

　"Well, my home is in the desert, but I did go yachting in the Caribbean when I was in school..."

　Wolf Lee scratched his hair and grinned innocently, "But the Barbara landing craft running aground is not my fault! I didn't drive the boat, nor did I decide the route and landing location. The old map was also issued by the bureau! That's why the boat crashed into the reef."

　"Wait, what did you say? Old map?" Fili was a little confused.

　An old map? What kind of excuse was that? Had he traveled to an embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1999?

　Then he learned that this "old map" was not an excuse, but an indisputable fact.

　"Yes, the Bureau only issued a military map of Cuba before World War II, and no other intelligence."

　Wolf Lee complained, "No spies were sent there to conduct an on-site survey, nor were U-2 reconnaissance planes sent to fly over to take a look. The map showed that there was an uninhabited swamp and coconut grove, but instead there was a beach with billboards erected.

　We saw the lights in the bay from a long distance away, and everyone on the landing craft was shocked!"

　Well, I knew that landing at the Bay of Pigs would be bad luck.

　Ferry sighed and asked the Texas fat man for specific details, and Wolf Lee was also very angry, so he told him everything immediately.

　——According to Wolfe Lee's description, when planning the counter-offensive against Cuba, in addition to the landing plan at Trinidad Harbor, the CIA also made a landing plan at an alternative location as usual, and that alternative landing site was the Bay of Pigs.

　However, since the Bay of Pigs was significantly inferior to Trinidad, aside from the longer runway, the CIA's Bay of Pigs landing plan was a completely routine, hastily executed one. Team Leader Estelline simply instructed two retired Army staff officers to scribble a few lines on a map of Cuba, add a few explanations like writing a game guide, and call it a day.

　It's about the same level as when Secretary of State Rusk drew the 38th parallel on the Korean Peninsula in just 30 minutes.

　They had neither conducted any field investigations nor properly collected local intelligence, nor had they even discussed this tactical plan with more professional people.