She entered and saw the captain and XO standing next to the man they’d rescued, who sat on the blue examination table. He had a bruised left eye and a bandage on his neck. A thick gray mustache and an exhausted look on his face. Someone had given him a set of Navy coveralls to wear, with the crows of an O-6 collar device pinned on.
“This is Colonel Wojcik. He’s just flown in,” the captain said as if it was nothing remarkable.
Victoria held out her hand. “How are you feeling, sir?”
“You’ll excuse me if I don’t get up. I’m still a bit sore.” They shook hands. “I understand that you were the one who rescued me?”
“One of my rescue swimmers did, sir. I was flying the aircraft, though.”
“Well, my most sincere gratitude to you and your men. Please know that if we’re ever in the same bar, none of you will ever pay for another drink as far as I’m concerned.”
“You might think differently about that if you knew my aircrewmen, sir.”
The colonel laughed, then winced, holding his ribs.
“Sir, may I ask what happened? Were you shot down?”
“Actually, as far as I can remember, it was just an accident. Mechanical failure of the engine cooling system. We would have to retrieve the computers to know for sure. The aircraft is a prototype… was a prototype, I should say. They threw this mission together knowing that something like this might happen.”
“It was a reconnaissance mission, sir?”
“It was.”
Commander Boyle said, “Victoria, I’m afraid the colonel has some urgent news. I wanted you and the XO both to hear it. I’ll brief the other department heads myself.”
Victoria looked back and forth between them.
The colonel said, “Before my aircraft went down, I saw that the ISR pod was capturing data on the Chinese fleet movements. I only saw a few of the images up close, and it was hard to tell what I was looking at.”
Commander Boyle said, “The data from the ISR pods was uploaded to a storage drive in the colonel’s helmet. We have it in a safe.”
“You won’t be able to access the information on the ship,” the colonel said. “But if we can get to Guam, they might have the equipment there. If not, they’ll be able to get us back to the States.”
Victoria said, “Of course. When do we launch?”
“Seventh Fleet is going to send one of their helicopters to pick up the colonel and his helmet,”
the captain said. “I’ve asked your maintenance officer to bring the bird into the barn to clear the flight deck.”
“Yes sir.” Victoria frowned. “Then… do you need anything from me?”
The colonel said, “I think your captain wanted you to hear the description of what I observed when I passed over the Chinese Southern Fleet.”
20
Admiral Song stood next to the PLA Marine Corps general. They stood on the admiral’s bridge, enjoying the outdoor time in between briefings. The general was visiting for the afternoon, touring the aircraft carrier Liaoning and dining with the admiral.
“Your men are well taken care of, General?” asked Admiral Song.
“They are. Thank you.” Waves crashed along the bow of the large ship positioned off their port beam. The general was examining the ship with interest. “So, this is the mighty Jiaolong-class?”
“Yes. A marvelous ship. More than a ship. An entire system of weapons.”
“The ship looks like an oil tanker. Or a merchant. Except for those flight decks and towers, of course.”
“The Jiaolong-class ships were not made for looks, General. But I assure you, they are quite lethal. I inspected this one myself when she was still under construction. You are correct in your observation, however. The Jiaolong class of ship uses the hull of a cargo tanker. They are much cheaper and more quickly produced than a warship. We can make many of them in the time it would take to complete a Type 055 destroyer hull. Even now, we are converting other tankers into this class of ship. The military modifications are all modular. Some of the modules are installed via premade shipping container. Again, very economical. But the technology is unmatched.”
“How were you able to keep it a secret with those giant contraptions floating atop them?”
The admiral smiled. “They were kept in nearby hangars until the war began. They were moved at night, just before the Jiaolongs set sail.”
“Incredible.”
The Jiaolong-class ship heaved and rolled in the blue sea. Four elevated flight decks jutted out from amidships: two platforms on either side, one forward and one aft. But no one noticed the flight decks when they looked at these ships.
It was what was hovering just above the flight decks that was so jaw-dropping.
The general said, “They don’t look like I thought they would.”
Admiral Song nodded. “Everyone says that.”
“Well, I don’t care what they look like as long as they are able to provide safe passage for my marines.”
“I am confident they shall, General. They have already proven effective against two American submarines.”
A phone rang on the far side of the admiral’s bridge. One of the staff officers picked it up, speaking rapidly. He looked up. “Admiral, they have detected another American submarine.”
No sooner had the officer spoken than the sun was blocked out by a giant silent aircraft, slowly lifting from the Jiaolong-class ship and moving forward into the distance.
Admiral Song turned to face the messenger. “Very well. I will be down soon.” He turned to the general. “Come join me in the combat operations center. You will see just how formidable the Jiaolong weapons system can be.”
Commander Wallace, captain of the USS Columbia, walked into the bridge as the initial contact reports were called out.
“Conn, Sonar, new contact, designate Sierra-Two-Four bearing three-three-five, classification warship.”
“Sonar, Conn, aye.”
The conning officer quickly briefed the captain.
“How many?”
“At least fifty contacts now, sir.”
“Warships?”
“Forty of them are warships, sir, various types.”
“What are the others?”
“Classified as Group Three merchants or transports. But they’re all part of the same convoy, sir. Never seen anything this big. This has got to be the Southern Fleet.” He pointed at the display. “I think these contacts here are troop transports or supply ships for the convoy.”
Commander Wallace looked at the display screen. Tiny electronic symbols were popping up at the far range of their sonar coverage, autopopulated by their submarine’s sonar and computers. The surface tracks formed a column over twenty miles long, moving east.
“What’s the speed?”
“Averaging fifteen knots, Captain.”
“Anything more on Sierra-Two-Four?”
Sierra-Two-Four was a suspected Chinese submarine. Favorable acoustic conditions had allowed them to detect it from very far away the previous day.
“Nothing since last night, sir.”
“Very well.” The submarine captain let out a long breath, eyes moving back and forth over the different screens, taking in all of the information.
With the closing speed of the approaching Chinese convoy, they would have to be careful not to draw any attention to themselves, lest they become the hunted. If the approaching convoy’s warships were farther away, Commander Wallace might take a risk and increase their speed while conducting a search for the Chinese submarine. In a perfect world, he would eliminate the Chinese submarine threat before making an attack on the enemy convoy. But it was not a perfect world, and his orders would not allow such an attack.