“Here are the priorities. Number one. Get the USS Piranha to sea.”
“She’s ready now, sir,” Murphy said, puzzled.
“No. We just put her into the Electric Boat manufacturing barn to be fitted out with Vortex missiles.”
“Has someone figured out a way to keep them from blowing up their own tubes?” McDonne asked.
“Yes, but EB has a month of work to do and I gave them a week. You have to get that down to five days, six max. I want Bruce Phillips at sea yesterday.”
“Where’s he going?”
“Get him to the Japan surrounding waters. Which reminds me, we’re going to start calling that chunk of ocean the Japan Oparea. And for the submarine force, we need an operation name for this… blockade.”
McDonne pinched the flesh around his throat, his habit when thinking hard. “How about Operation Steel Trap or Operation Stranglehold or Operation Airtight?”
“No,” Pacino said. “I want something that sounds almost Japanese. Let’s call it Operation Enlightened Curtain. This blockade is a curtain around Japan that will give her leaders something to think about, a curtain of enlightenment.”
He didn’t wait for their approval. “Okay, next priority. Get the rest of the sub force to sea. Send a flash message, sub force to Defcon three. CB, what’s that mean to you?”
“All repair availabilities are canceled. Tenders and shipyards stop all work. Crews button up any systems they’re repairing. All leaves are canceled. All personnel to be within an hour of their ships. All ships are to be ready to get underway within two hours. Every submarine loaded with torpedoes and cruise missiles. The ready-status ships are already fully loaded out.”
“Send the order. Defcon three, all submarines in the Unified Submarine Command.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
McDonne scribbled on his Writepad. He stroked a software button and the scribbled handwritten notes became block letters, machine typed. Pacino scanned the message.
“Start an authenticator system.”
“That normally doesn’t happen until Defcon two—”
“Start it anyway.”
McDonne wrote on the message, Pacino read it.
131912ZDEC
FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH
FM COMUSUBCOM
TO ALL FAST ATTACK SUBMARINE UNITS USUBCOM
SUBJ READINESS CONDITION/OPERATION ENLIGHTENED CURTAIN SECRET
AUTHENTICATOR BRAVO FIVE ECHO
BT//
1. (S) SET DEFENSE READINESS CONDITION (DEFCON) THREE.
2. (S) AUTHENTICATION:
3. ADMIRAL M. PACINO SENDS.
//BT//
Pacino looked at the message and nodded.
“All we need is the authenticator,” he said. “Break it out.”
The two men in front of him suddenly became serious and formal, standing up at attention.
“Break out the authenticator, aye, sir. Commander?”
“Aye, sir.”
They left the room briskly, shutting the door behind them. While they went to the safe-within-a-safe, locked inside a vault that held top-secret material, compartmentalized material and codeword material, Pacino waited.
War, he thought, hadn’t happened yet, but the ball was rolling and picking up speed.
CHAPTER 12
President Jaisal Warner frowned at Admiral Wadsworth on the videolink screen.
“Tony, what about Admiral Pacino’s statement?”
“Madam President,” Wadsworth said slowly, quietly, his accent flat and Midwestern now that he addressed the president, although he had a tendency to slip into a dialect of Mississippi African-American when addressing subordinates. “I think Pacino is out of line. I want a USUBCOM commander I can work with. Pacino, frankly, is too parochial. All he sees are submarines. I’m coming back right now to begin the selection process for Pacino’s replacement.”
“Tony, about Pacino being too focused on enemy subs… he did mention the Firestar fighter squadrons.”
“Yes, but he has overlooked the power of our surface fleet. I have major antisubmarine equipment at sea right now, all at the command of the Reagan battle-force commander. Just because Pacino’s power base is a bunch of sewer pipes doesn’t mean the rest of the world’s navies have lethal submarines that should make us tremble.”
“Admiral, Pacino pointed out the specifics of what he’s worried about. The Destiny III robotic submarines, the Destiny II-class—”
“Ma’am, the Destiny classes are more often than not at their piers. We don’t believe they’re threats to us.”
Warner sighed, the weight of her office falling on her all at once. There were times that she seemed surrounded by men who didn’t want to listen. During times like these she asked herself, “what would a man do?” and the answer was usually the same. A man would take charge and give orders. Even Iron Jaisal Warner would rather build a consensus, which was why she asked her subordinates for their honest opinions, and all she received was conflict and resistance. Especially in this case.
There was something about Pacino she liked. It was a presence, a certainty he had. He focused on the issues, not the politics, not the possible political gains he could make. Other than Dick Donchez, he alone in her administration was like that. It added up to something she hadn’t sensed in a long time, and it was almost hard to admit it, but when Pacino was in the room offering a blunt opinion, Warner felt safe. Yes, safe, that was exactly the word she had been searching for. There was something about the young looking but white-haired admiral that reminded her of her own father, a New York City policeman, a street cop. It was elemental, naked, a certain fearlessness her father had had. In his career he had been forced to shoot two criminals, both times exonerated by the boards of review. She had known he had felt terrible about it, but it made her love him all the more, because when he was around, no one could hurt her. Her father shot criminals, he made the streets safe.
And there was that quality in Pacino. He was something of a world cop, making the hostile seas safe, making her job safe. He would not fall to Tony Wadsworth’sax. She took a deep breath.
“Admiral Wadsworth, about Admiral Pacino… I want you to make damned sure you don’t lose Admiral Pacino. He has a good head. I like his style. This administration has plans to promote him, whether it means demoting or retiring certain other naval officers. Am I clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I don’t want to hear that you’ve put him in charge of paper clips in Guam.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And I want a position paper from you addressing Admiral Pacino’s memo in detail, saying exactly why you believe he is incorrect. If you still do.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And I want you to send Pacino a message, and I want you to copy me on it. This message will go out within the hour.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“It will read that Pacino has full authority with respect to his submarines to pursue the best possible resolution of this crisis. He is to work with the commanders of your surface battle groups, but he will also be independent and of equal operational rank.”
“Ma’am, you’d have to promote him to vice-admiral to do that, and that can’t be done without congressional confirmation.”
“Then put a recommendation on my desk for his promotion. I’ll take care of the rest. And another thing, Tony. Stay out there for the duration of your planned trip. I don’t want the world to see us running around looking panicked, especially with this upcoming action off of Japan.”