CARRIER 2: VIPER STRIKE By Keith Douglass

“Get out of my way!”

“Whoa, there, buddy!” Tombstone felt a flash of anger at Bayerly’s

rebuff, but he contained it. Something was bothering Made It and now

was the time to have it out. “You’ve been running ballistic for weeks

now, and today you just missed buying the farm! What the hell is with

you anyway?”

Bayerly scowled. “Forget it, Magruder. Your fancy medal doesn’t cut it

with me.” He turned and continued down the passageway.

“Shee-it,” Dixie said wonderingly. “What gives with Made It,

Tombstone?”

“I don’t know, Dixie.” Worse, he didn’t know how to find out. The

problem was something personal, but what? Bayerly’s mention of the

medal suggested jealousy, but such petty motivation seemed totally out

of keeping with the man’s solid record for professionalism. Tombstone

watched Bayerly’s stocky form retreating down the seemingly endless

succession of cross-passageway frames and wondered how he could clear

the air between them.

Probably, what Bayerly needed most was time. Tombstone decided to

approach him again, but later, after things had settled out a bit. Maybe

after the Jefferson reached Thailand …

CHAPTER 4

1900 Hours, 14 January

CVIC, U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson

“Gooooood evening, Jeffersons!” Master Chief Raymond C. Buckley, Jr.,

beamed into the camera and delivered his best Pat Sajak imitation from

the lectern set up as his number-one prop in the television broadcast he

made twice each day to the carrier’s crew. The room, called

CVIC–pronounced “civic”–for Carrier (CV) Information Center, also

served as one of Jefferson’s television studios. Banks of lights glared

at him from three directions as he launched into the familiar patter.

“This is the Chief of the Boat, coming’ at you with another edition of

What’s the Gouge …”

The master chief of a modern supercarrier was the one direct link

between the enlisted crew and the ship’s officers, known by all,

respected by all, likely to turn up almost anywhere within Jefferson’s

two-thousand-plus compartments and passageways with a friendly word or

good advice. Captain James Fitzgerald, the ship’s Commanding Officer,

and Captain Vincent C.

Glover, the ship’s Exec, depended on Buckley to know how the crew was

feeling, could count on him for an honest assessment of a man up for

captain’s mast on some minor charge … or for word about unpleasant

racial tensions in the engine room. On the other side of the tracks,

enlisted men depended on Buckley for the straight word, the “gouge” as

it was known, on what was happening in a world where individual crewmen

had very little control over their own lives and destinies.

More often than not, the sheer, overwhelming uncertainty of a deployment

at sea was the worst part of the cruise. Would there be liberty at the

next port? Would families be allowed to visit next time the ship was

in Japan?

That was one of the reasons for What’s the Gouge. The ship’s

closed-circuit television programming was one of the best ways there was

to keep the crew informed.

“There’s been a lot of wild scuttlebutt going around about our next port

of call,” Buckley said, leaning against the lectern and staring into the

camera’s eye. “And there have been even wilder stories going around

about just what it is we’re supposed to do there!”

The red light on the camera winked off as a second camera picked up the

scene. A TV monitor to one side faded from an image of Buckley’s

smiling face to a map of Southeast Asia.

“You all know where we’re bound for, of course,” Buckley said. “Some of

you old hands out there know our next port of call real well. Bangkok!”

He grinned as he heard a distant, low-voiced murmur, almost a rumble

which echoed down Jefferson’s steel passageways. A few hundred men were

cheering and whooping in the TV lounge a deck down and several frames

aft …

and that cheer was being repeated throughout the ship. Bangkok had a

certain reputation …

“The rumors have been flying though as to whether or not there’s going

to be liberty in Thailand. The insurrection in the northern part of the

country has been getting worse, and in the past few weeks there have

been student riots and uprisings in Bangkok itself.

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