than what the minimum requirements of courtesy dictated, but something
about the man’s reputation and in his voice intrigued the aviator. He
would, he decided, make his own judgments about Admiral Carmichael.
“Coincidences are unlikely,” Admiral Carmichael agreed. “What else
have you got?”
“You may not have seen the reports yet,” Tombstone said carefully,
aware that Admiral Carmichael’s staff may have dropped the ball in getting
the information to him, “but Jefferson detected some spurious radio
transmissions from the island yesterday. I was willing to buy the
vessel-off-course-and-firecrackers theory until I heard that. I called the
battle group myself, and asked the staff to relay the pilot reports to me.
Regardless of what you’ve been told, sir, there’s no way that was simply
some firecrackers. First, the island is largely uninhabited, although
Intelligence indicates it’s occasionally visited by Inuits from neighboring
islands. Second, the TACCO on that P-3 was an experienced aviator, and he
damn well knows what a Stinger aimed at him looks like. No,” Tombstone
continued, shaking his head even though the admiral on the other end
couldn’t see the gesture, “there’s something going on out around that
island, Admiral. I don’t know what, but it falls within the scope of my
duties to find out.”
“And within mine to make sure that Jefferson is safe,” Admiral
Carmichael said gruffly. “Listen, Tombstone, I don’t know what you’ve
heard about me, but I’m damn well not going to endanger one of my ships if
I can help it. You and I are going to have to work together on this
matter, and the sooner we get to know each other, the better. Care to come
on board for a short skull session with my staff?”
“On board Coronado?” Tombstone asked. “Sir, I didn’t realize you were
coming this far north.”
“I hadn’t planned on it, no. We’re doing operations off the coast of
San Francisco right now in preparation for Lincoln’s deployment. However,
despite what you may think, I’m more than a little concerned about the
situation out there. I’ll ask the captain to steam north, commencing
immediately, and we should be within COD range by tomorrow. What do you
think?”
“COD?” Involuntarily, Tombstone shuddered. As bad as flying on the
C-130 out to Adak had been, he hated the workhorse personnel transports
more. Suddenly, what should have occurred to him earlier dawned. “Wait.
You can’t land a COD on the Coronado.”
“Ah. I see you haven’t gotten the word on something,” Admiral
Carmichael said pleasantly. “On the Coronado, a two-seater training
Harrier jump jet is considered a COD. The Marines own twenty-eight of the
training version, and they’re damned generous about loaning me one. I can
arrange for tanking support out of the Air Force in California, and have
that Harrier in Juneau in a matter of hours. What do you think?”
“Yes, sir!” An odd tingle of excitement ran down his back. Despite
his years of aviation, Tombstone had managed to miss the opportunity to
take a check ride in the Marine Corps’ vertical takeoff and landing jet,
the AV-8B Harrier. One of the mainstays of an amphibious assault ship air
wing, along with the tactical helicopters the Marines used, the Harrier was
built in close partnership by McDonnell-Douglas and British Aerospace.
Since its introduction into both nations’ fleets in 1986, it had seen
action in Desert Storm, flying missions both from airfields and from U.S.
amphibious ships. In one mission alone, four of the AV-8B’s were credited
with destroying twenty-five Iraqi tanks. All totaled, the Harriers had
dropped over three thousand tons of ordnance during the short conflict.
What made the Harrier seem so alluring to most aviators was its
ability to both hover like a helicopter and fly like a jet, with its single
Rolls-Royce Pegasus turbofan jet engine providing both lift and thrust.
Two large air intakes on either side of the fuselage fed into the upgraded
engine, and the swiveling exhaust nozzle replaced conventional systems.
Outboard weapons stations could carry a wide range of bombs, air-to-air and
air-to-surface missiles, as well as rockets or fuel pods.
“Okay, I’ll have my guys pick you up tomorrow. Our operations people
will talk later today to determine the exact flight schedule,” Admiral