even if they won’t say it that way.
0840 local (Zulu -7)
Fifty miles east of Island 203
Tactical Flag Command Center, USS Jefferson (CVN 74)
“What the hell was it? Come on, people, I need some answers!” Rear
Admiral Matthew Magruder, commander of carrier group 14, stared at the
tactical display in the tactical flag command center, usually called TFCC. No
signs of trouble there, with every aircraft and surface ship positively
identified as neutral or friendly. “And what’s that damned Aegis cruiser
doing this time?”
“Don’t know, Admiral,” the TFCC watch officer said. He pulled one of his
radio headset earphones away from his head so that he could hear the admiral
better. “An explosion of some sort. Vincennes requested permission to go
take a look. From the looks of the screen symbology, she didn’t wait for
permission to change course.”
The tall admiral gazed at the screen impassively. His slate-gray eyes
were set in the expression of permanent neutrality that had earned him the
call sign “Tombstone” at his first F-14 squadron. The shortened version of
it, “Stoney,” was an even more accurate description of his usual expression.
Aviators who’d flown with him for years swore that they’d seen him smile
before, but the TFCC watch team had their doubts.
“Tell Vincennes I said to get her Aegis ass back into screen position,”
Tombstone ordered. “Until we know what that was, I don’t want her charging
off into the unknown and leaving the carrier unprotected. I’ll be in Supp
Plot.”
Supplemental Plot was the high-security intelligence module next door to
TFCC. Tombstone ducked out of TFCC, into the common vestibule the two spaces
shared, and was inside Supp Plot in four steps. He nodded to the enlisted
Intelligence Specialist, or IS, guarding the door, and was met by the watch
officer, Commander Busby.
“You crypto guys got any information on this?” Tombstone asked.
“No hard data, Admiral, but there are several possibilities,” Commander
Busby said. “The Chinese might be using the island as a depot for material
they don’t want to risk underneath their Mischief Reef tree house. Mix
volatile compounds with bad safety practices, and you’ve got the right
conditions for spontaneous combustion. Or there might have been a fire in the
tank. Not a likely explanation. A diesel fire alone wouldn’t cause a
fireball that big.”
“Any evidence to support either theory? That rock’s been photographed
more times than Cindy Crawford. No signs of oil drums or construction of any
bunkers that I’ve seen.”
“No, Admiral. That brings me to the second possibility. A missile.”
“From where? More importantly, who shot it? There was nothing in the
area except Tomcat 205.”
“Submarine, maybe. Could be a land-launched sea-skimmer, too. That
would explain the blip the RIOs saw. Breaking those things out on the radar
picture is chancy at best. They get lost in the sea clutter. But on a nice
day like this, sea state one, there’s a possibility of detecting one,” Busby
said.
“Same problem as your first theory. We’ve had no contact on any
submarines, and no HUMINT on any deployed in this area. And you’re talking
about a hell of a long range for a sea-skimmer–couldn’t have been shot from
land,” Tombstone said.
“Not according to current intelligence, no. But the range is within the
capability of a U.S. Tomahawk.”
“Which they don’t have. That we know about.”
“That we know about,” the intelligence officer echoed. “But the theory
fits the facts that we do have.”
“Set Condition Two,” Tombstone ordered. “Until we figure out what caused
this, I want every eye peeled for hostile activity. I’ll be in TFCC if you
need me.” And all the more reason to keep the Aegis in close. That blasted
cruiser’s been more of a pain in the ass than any other ship in the battle
group. Killington would choose this particular time to do it, too!
When you got right down to it, he decided, Captain Jake Killington,
Commanding Officer of the USS Vincennes, had been a marginal pain in the ass
for the entire cruise. Vincennes was often not where she was supposed to be,
off doing something more interesting than protecting the carrier or pursuing