Now, if you need anything else, we’ll be forward in the dirty shirt mess,
grabbing a couple of sliders.” Batman motioned to Tomboy, who followed him
out of the CVIC.
And that’s the difference between your job and mine, Lab Rat thought.
You didn’t see it, you don’t have to explain it. Intell officers, on the
other hand, are expected to have an answer for everything that happens, and an
accurate prediction of everything that will happen. Doesn’t matter whether or
not there’s good data, bad data, or even no data at all. This admiral’s going
to want some explanations, and he’s damned sure not going to be demanding that
the pilots come up with them.
And I wonder just how much of your protectiveness toward your RIO is
based on the fact that she’s a very attractive woman, he thought. I know
pilot-RIO teams are tight, but this goes a little bit beyond that, I believe.
This cruise had been filled with too many firsts. First cruise requiring
him to unravel the strange and his first cruise with a coed crew. After five
months on board the Jefferson, he was finally getting accustomed to seeing
women–lots of women!–in the passageways of the ship while it was underway.
From an intelligence standpoint, his previous cruises to the
Mediterranean and North Atlantic had been a piece of cake. Europe and the
Soviet Union were at least known quantities–strange, querulous, and liable to
break into myriad warring factions on the slightest pretense, but at least
semipredictable. Here in the Far East, Lab Rat was not only short on answers,
he wasn’t entirely sure he understood the questions.
He glanced at the books packed into the narrow shelf over his desk and
reached for one slim volume. He had to lift it straight up to clear the metal
strut that ran the length of the shelf, parallel to the edge of the shelf and
midspine to the books. Without the strut, or a set of bungee cords, the first
heavy roll at sea would have dumped every book onto the deck.
He sat back down, leaned back, and put his feet up on a corner of his
desk. He’d bought the book as soon as he’d heard he was going to a West Coast
carrier, hoping for some insights into the areas he’d be deploying to.
So far, it hadn’t paid off. The small book was a translation of one of
China’s most famous military strategists, Sun Tzu. His book, The Art of War,
had been studied by centuries of military leaders, both in China and in the
Western world.
Lab Rat leafed through the book, looking for inspiration and wondering
idly if whoever was responsible for the attacks had a copy of the book over
his desk, too. It gave him an eerie feeling, thinking about his adversary
reading the same book at the same time.
A sentence caught his attention. Like so much of the book, it seemed to
be either a trite adage or a profound statement. He read the sentence again
slowly, wondering how it applied to his situation.
All warfare is deception, Sun Tzu had written. Well, that certainly
applied to the current tactical scenario. To the nations rimming the South
China Sea, it appeared that the United States was committing acts of war
against their powerful northern neighbor. Unable to offer evidence to dispute
China’s claims, the United States faced an increasingly hostile United
Nations.
As Lab Rat saw it, there were two distinct problems. First, whatever
munitions were responsible for the destruction–maybe the mythical stealth
sea-skimming cruise missiles–were proving damned difficult to detect.
Second, even if the United States could detect and track the missiles, how
could they convince the other nations that the United States hadn’t fired the
missiles themselves? After all, what other nation had both the stealth
technology and the platforms to be able to conduct such attacks? Malaysia and
Brunei? Not likely.
Vietnam? A definite possibility. But was it likely that Vietnam would
openly challenge the massive giant to their north just when both countries
were engaged in reopening diplomatic ties with the United States? Again, not
likely. But not impossible.
Finally, China herself. Technologically, she had the means and ability