“Are you under new management?” he asked.
“Yeah. The company was purchased by a new owner just this week.”
“I’d like to talk to the manager.”
The young man stood up. “Can I tell him what it’s about?”
“I think we’re old friends.”
The young man scoffed skeptically. “What’s your name, mate?”
“Uh… Brad. Brad Land.”
The young man left the room to fetch the manager.
George turned to MacKenzie. “There can’t be more than one person in the world that still tracks schedules like that. It’s so oldfashioned and low tech…”
Just then behind him, George heard a familiar voice ask, “So where the heck have you been, Brad?”
He whirled around and there was Dwight, with a huge smile on his face and his arms spread wide ready to give George the hug of his life!
“Well, glad to see you, too!” George exclaimed as the cousins shared a long bear hug.
MacKenzie stood patiently by, and then was surprised when Dwight turned and hugged him, too! “Good to see you, too, young man. Glad you could make it.”
“Thanks!” MacKenzie stammered.
“Both of you come on back to my office where we can have a little privacy,” said Dwight. “I want to hear all about how you got here. And by the way, Brad, the DVD has already been sent by your old… assistant. We didn’t know whether you were coming or not.”
They walked down a narrow hallway with offices on each side to Dwight’s office in the back of the building. As they approached the office, Dwight turned to George and gave him a wink. “You probably remember my secretary,” he said, letting George go ahead. Dwight stopped MacKenzie in the hallway and said, “Let’s wait here for a few minutes. We can talk about getting you back on a team.”
George entered the room, and there was Leona with her arms full of files standing next to Dwight’s desk. Her eyes were red from crying, but they still sparkled like no one else’s. She was as devastatingly beautiful as ever. She saw George and immediately dropped everything she was carrying, screamed, and rushed into his arms! As they hugged and kissed, Leona sobbed, “Oh George, I thought you were dead! It’s been so awful. I didn’t know how I was going to go on. I’ve just been dying inside.”
“I’m sorry, Leona. I got here as fast as I could. I missed you terribly, too, and it was killing me knowing that you didn’t know whether I was dead or alive. I knew it was hard for you.”
“I’m just so glad you’re here,” said Leona as she continued to cling to George, not letting him out of her grasp.
“Well, from now on, we will always be together. I’m never going to leave you again.”
Chapter 48
“Mister President,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs explained, “the Louisiana went down in the Kermandec Trench, in over twenty-eight thousand feet of water. There’s absolutely no way to raise her.”
“Jeezum Crow, General Daramus! The international community demands proof the Louisiana actually went down. Muslim nations, in particular, are concerned. From their perspective, we had an American ballistic missile submarine run amok, with a crazy man at the helm! The only witness to the sub’s alleged destruction is another American sub commander — a friend—who cannot say for certain it went down, only that they heard noises from a distance of over ten miles that indicated the Louisiana had probably imploded. Now when we’re faced with the fact that we had a madman in control of twenty-four long-range ballistic missiles, with a total of one hundred and twenty nuclear warheads, we need better proof than that. We need absolute proof the threat has been eliminated!”
“I agree, Mister President. That’s why we are preparing an automated robotic camera platform, which can be lowered to the bottom of the trench. Photographic evidence of the wreckage will be the best we can provide at that depth.”
“Well, let’s get it done as quickly as possible. The entire Muslim world is still sitting on pins and needles, not sure whether to breathe a sigh of relief or run for cover.”
“Understood, Mister President. If the weather cooperates, and our expected location of the wreckage is accurate, we should have your photographic evidence within a week to ten days.”
“Good. Now what’s this item on the agenda about the battle action report from the Texas?
“Well, Mister President, there are some peculiarities in the report that I think you should be aware of.”
“What kind of peculiarities?”
“First of all, the navigator reports that when they departed Cape Horn and began pursuing the Louisiana, they were at least two days behind her. She was well out of sonar range. Nevertheless, Captain Sewell gave the navigator a heading, from which they deviated only slightly over the next four days.”
“So?”
“That heading took them directly to the Louisiana. Captain Sewell did not provide any explanation of how he apparently knew where the Louisiana would be located four days later.”
“Hmm. What else?” asked the president.
“The XO and the operations officer of the Texas report that when it came time to fire on the Louisiana, Captain Sewell’s choice of torpedoes was questionable at best. He elected to fire a high-speed torpedo first, knowing that the Louisiana was out of range. He then waited a full twenty minutes before firing a longer range slow-speed torpedo.”
“And…”
“Well, sir, the first torpedo could have been fired to alert the Louisiana to the presence of the Texas while still not putting the Louisiana in any danger because the torpedo didn’t have the necessary range. The second, slow-speed torpedo had the range, but Captain Sewell may have waited for twenty minutes to give the Louisiana time to take evasive action.
“So, Admiral, are you suggesting that Captain Sewell was in on this plot somehow?”
“It’s possible, Mister President. It requires further investigation. But after all, they were good friends—“
The president interrupted. “What does Captain Sewell’s report say about the torpedoes?”
“Captain Sewell points out that when the two versions of the torpedo are running in the water, they have distinctively different sounds. In high-speed mode, the sound is an ominous high-pitched whine, which is very frightening to submariners. Since the Texas had apparently not been detected by the Louisiana, Captain Sewell surmised the crew of the Louisiana would not know the range to the high-speed torpedo, and they would panic when they heard it. They would dive in an attempt to hide beneath a thermal layer. Then upon hearing the second, low-speed torpedo, they would realize they were doomed even at that depth. They would likely go deeper, even to crush depth, hoping their hull integrity would hold out.”
“Well, it appears Captain Sewell was correct, doesn’t it?” “Yes, sir, but I still think an investigation is warranted.” “Well, you will do no such thing, General. The last thing this country needs right now is an investigation suggesting a broader conspiracy to steal this submarine! The international community demands closure on this issue, and we need to lay the blame squarely at the feet of a single madman. Besides that, our own citizens need a hero right now. And that hero is Captain Robert Sewell, commanding officer of the USS Texas—the man who defeated George Adams and brought the world back from the brink of disaster! There will be no investigation. Instead, I want awards of valor for the entire Texas crew and the highest possible award for Captain Sewell. Is that understood?”