Kiang thought briefly of the meeting in Pearsall Park where the colonel had instructed him to ingratiate himself with Sward. Two months before Sea Base was to sail, Jack Sward died in a car accident and Kiang was catapulted to where he stood now. The Institute had taken care of Mrs. Sward and their small children.
He started walking, putting his hand over the binoculars and camera to keep them from swinging, listening to the rapid beating of his heart. Running up four flights of near-straight stairs was no mean task.
Kiang glanced up again, squinting at the metal crow’s nest nestled in the center of the antennas and radars. He sighed, hoping he was not going to discover himself trapped aloft again with the sailor who never stopped talking.
Motion to his left drew his attention. Two pilots were scurrying up the ladders into their F-22A fighters. Most of the Air Force contingent was at the flight line. Others scrambled around the two aircraft much like ants swarming over a fresh piece of bread.
Kiang walked toward the tower, his eyes watching the activity along the flight line. People passed him at the run. There were thirty-two Air Force enlisted and twelve officers according to his count. At least ten of the officers were pilots. Most of the enlisted were members of the ground crew. He stared for a moment at a group of officers standing out of the way of the activity, their eyes fixed on the two aircraft being readied for launch. He counted seven. That meant one unaccounted for.
He looked at the tower ahead of him. Near the base he saw the sailor. He was talking to one of the Air Force women at the base of the tower. The ladder leading up to the crow’s nest was beside the two. A slight moan escaped Kiang. What was the man’s name? Taleb?
The idea of spending hours listening to the sailor talk about his plans and baring his soul caused Kiang’s stomach to churn. He had never enjoyed small talk nor social mingling, but to be forced onto a small metal platform with a man who constantly invaded his personal space both physically and verbally was atrocious. His attention turned to the woman. The woman was dressed in Air Force cammies and wearing white sneakers. Most of the Air Force, including the ground crew, wore flight suits. She walked away as he watched, heading inside the tower. He wondered briefly if she was part of the Combat Information Center on the second floor, one of the Air Tower personnel on the top floor, or just using the stairwell in the tower to go belowdecks.
Kiang stopped and raised his binoculars. With the activity ongoing around him, he doubted anyone would notice or care. He trained the glasses on the Raptors, watching the two cockpits close. The tall bald-headed chief master sergeant seemed to be an island within the storm of moving bodies. Every minute or so, one of the ground crew would run up to him, listen to what he said, and hasten off. Kiang trailed the glasses right, stopping the lens on a small group of Air Force flight suits. The dark splashes of color on top of each of the shoulders confirmed these seven as officers.
He dropped his glasses for a moment and looked at his watch. Two minutes remaining until the six minutes needed for GQ passed. The average time for Sea Base to set General Quarters was six minutes. He’d read it in the Plan of the Day. Captain Garcia was demanding half that time. Kiang raised the glasses again and spun them toward the tower, the glasses passing briefly over where, moments earlier, the sailor and Air Force woman had stood. The sailor was gone now. He focused upward, expecting to see Taleb climbing toward the crow’s nest, but saw no one.
He sighed. His eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed as he thought about the woman. Had he seen her elsewhere? There was something about her that seemed familiar. Wherever it had been, it had been something pleasurable, he decided from the faint feeling when he saw her. His lower lip pushed into his upper. Where was it?
“Hey, buddy! Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”
Kiang dropped the glasses.
Master Chief Jacobs stood there. Jacobs glanced at the badge hanging around Kiang’s neck. “Contractors are to be either at a specific location, in their staterooms, or in a designated space. You’re crowding my deck, sir, so please do one of the three.”
“Yes, Master Chief,” Kiang said, nodding a couple of times, noticing the right arm in the sling. His eyes went back to the master chief’s eyes. So this was the venerable Jacobs who’d saved Sea Base.
“Bad enough I got every Air Force zoomie out here crowding my deck, but now I got sightseers.” Jacobs jerked his thumb to the open hatch leading down. “Hit the lower level now.”
Kiang turned and headed back down the ladder. A feeling of relief rushed over him. He now had a reason for why he was not where Office of Naval Research wanted its consultant, and he’d avoided being trapped with the sailor. At the bottom of the four-story ladder, Kiang found himself on the main deck of the Pollux. Pollux was directly astern of the lead ship Altair, ahead of the Antares, and on the starboard side of Regulus, where his stateroom was located.
Pollux also had its main cargo hold filled with the servers that controlled the varied computer orders that kept Sea Base afloat against the ever-changing tempo of the sea. Since the explosion on the Denebola that destroyed the main server farm, armed masters-at-arms guarded the entrances to the cargo hold on board Pollux.
Kiang turned toward the passageway leading to the Regulus and his stateroom, but near the entrance stopped. What was it the master chief had said? He said all the Air Force were topside. If they were topside, then there was a good chance no one was in their offices. Their offices and berthing areas were on board the USNS Antares located astern of where he was now. He might never have a better opportunity to see what they had in the way of technical documents.
It was an assignment given to him that he never expected to have the opportunity to carry out. An assignment filled with the danger of being caught. He wasn’t in the crow’s nest where he was expected to be. That he could explain, but he would be unable to explain why he was in the Air Force spaces.
He turned, saw no one around, and headed aft toward the passageway that would take him to the Antares. He could visit the Antares cargo hold and take a better look at the Air Force portable offices. He grunted. Kiang might have an opportunity or not, but he would definitely not have one if he at least did not take a look at the spaces while he had the opportunity.
Ten minutes later, Kiang reached the end of the mobile passageway that ran from the stern of the Pollux to the bow of the Antares. The temporary nature of these passageways crisscrossing between ships allowed movement beneath the Sea Base canopy. Because they were temporary and built to break away if necessary, there were no watertight hatches at each end. The ships held aloft the metal canopy of Sea Base, but the metal canopy served as one more anchor in keeping the ships in a coordinated location. One more thing holding this seagoing island together and functioning. These passageways would fall into the ocean if Sea Base fell apart. In which case, it wouldn’t matter where you were when this scientific marvel started spiraling downward into the dark Pacific.
When Kiang stepped onto the forward deck of the Antares, he immediately looked up at the darkened bridge and glanced at his watch. No one was around. It was if he had stepped onto a deserted ship where everyone had mysteriously disappeared, but he knew everyone on Sea Base was entombed behind watertight hatches or manning positions designed to help this floating island fight and stay afloat.