“Dances to your tune? Listen, mister, not only do I outrank you, I wear the pants in this family.” She pulled a tissue from her purse and wiped her face. “Until you take the pants off me, that is.”
Anthony Pacino smiled at Rachel Romanov, touched her face, brought her in to kiss her, then just hugged her hard as they stood silently in the crypt. He looked over at John Paul Jones’ sarcophagus and mouthed the words, “Thank you, Captain Jones.”
ALSO BY MICHAEL DIMERCURIO
Commander Michael Pacino is ordered on a mission of revenge to sink his father’s killer, Admiral Alexi Novskoyy, who is aboard the Russian supersub Omega under the polar icecap about to deliver a surgical strike on the United States. The Russian Magnum nuclear torpedo dooms Pacino’s USS Devilfish, which is trapped under thick polar ice and sinking fast.
Captain Michael Pacino is called out of retirement to command the USS Seawolf on a desperate secret rescue mission during the Chinese Civil War when the Red Chinese capture the spying submarine Tampa in the Bo Hai Bay outside Beijing. While the SEAL commandos prepare to board the Tampa, the Red Chinese Northern Fleet closes in, leaving Pacino no option but surrender.
World War III breaks out between the United Islamic Front of God and the Western Coalition, and the Sword of Islam calls on the Japanese-technology super sub Hegira to deliver a new weapon to turn the course of a losing war. With the USS Augusta down and the Phoenix missing, Captain Michael Pacino is given the suicide mission of taking the USS Seawolf to sea and stop the Islamic submarine before it can unleash death on Washington.
When Japan attacks the new state of Greater Manchuria with a nuclear weapon, the U.S. responds with Operation Enlightened Curtain, a blockade around the Home Islands that the Japanese easily break with the highest technology submarine force ever built. The President gives Rear Admiral Michael Pacino the impossible mission of using his underdog submarine fleet to turn the tide of the war, and Pacino leads the force into the war zone aboard the Barracuda.
Red China’s ambush of breakaway White China could only be accomplished using a fleet of hijacked Japanese Rising Sun-class nuclear submarines, the best in the world. The sinking of the U.S. Rapid Deployment Force kicks off the War of the East China Sea, and the President turns to Vice Admiral Michael Pacino to win the counterattack. Pacino has no choice but to take the untested SSNX submarine to sea on a mission certain to fail.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Pacino plans a stand-down retreat for the senior officers of the U.S. Navy. Eighty miles out of Port Norfolk, their cruise ship Princess Dragon is torpedoed by an unknown military terrorist. The SSNX submarine, the winner of the War of the East China Sea, sets out to find the submarine intruder, only to be put on the bottom. It is up to Commander Kelly McKee and the newest Virginia-class submarine in the fleet to find the attacking submarine and destroy it, but the terrorists’ submarine Vepr, under the control of war criminal Alexi Novskoyy, has other plans.
One ship could revolutionize submarine warfare as we know it: the USS Snarc. A robotic combat sub carrying no crew, the Snarc has proven unbeatable in sea trials. And now it has fallen into the hands of an unseen enemy. The Snarc’s first casualty: the USS Piranha, the nuclear sub carrying Midshipman Anthony Pacino, the son of retired Admiral Michael Pacino. The only man who can match wits with the Snarc, Pacino returns to sea in a high-tech underwater battle unlike any that’s been fought before, one that could engulf the world in war — and bring him face to face with his most hated nemesis.
U.S. Navy submarine commander Peter Vornado is at the top of his game in underwater warfare when a devastating illness takes him out of the service — and almost to the grave. Without duty, honor, or something to fight for, his life is as good as over. But the CIA needs a man like Vornado. A terrorist cabal has acquired a scrapped Soviet sub from the Cold War — a technologically advanced failure still able to outrun any torpedo or enemy vessel and strike at will. With a nuclear payload, it will enable them to strike directly at Israel — and throw the world into chaos. All that remains is to modernize the sub with the latest technology. Only one man can infiltrate the group, take the helm, and stop a holocaust — a man who has already stared down death, and is ready to do battle once more.
As hurricane Helen barrels in toward the Virginia coastline, the U.S. Navy’s Commander-in-Chief Atlantic Fleet orders all vessels to scramble to sea, including Burke Dillinger’s Hampton and Peter Vornado’s Texas. But this is no mere storm evacuation. There is something sinister going on in the eastern Atlantic. The Navy’s eyes are on the ballistic missile submarine force, the “boomer” submarines loaded to the gills with intercontinental nuclear warheads. The French boomer submarine Le Vigilant has “gone bad,” hijacked by an Algerian terrorist who dreams of completing the circle of revenge and using French nuclear weapons on the French who imprisoned his father. As terrorist Issam Zauabri’s forces learn how to employ the nuclear missiles, Vornado’s Texas and Dillinger’s Hampton close in on the threat, but Issam knows how to use torpedoes as well as he does the missiles, and Le Vigilant is one of the quietest submarines ever built. Once the American subs are on the bottom, his attack can proceed on Paris, but since it was Americans who interfered, Issam will save one missile for New York.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Anthony Pacino reports aboard the “project boat” USS Vermont two years after having survived the catastrophic sinking of the Piranha. Vermont’s mission: to intercept and steal the Iranian Navy Kilo-class diesel-electric sub Panther, which is outfitted with a Russian fast reactor, the Russians using the Iranians for a dangerous test of the revolutionary reactor, a unit so potentially unstable that it could go prompt critical and explode. Anthony Pacino is chosen to be the second-in-command of the mission to hijack the Panther. The Russian Republic, expecting to monitor the nuclear reactor test, has sent two frontline Yasen-M-class nuclear fast attack submarines to escort the Panther during her test, but realizing the Americans are guilty of piracy on the high seas, the Russians have orders to seek and destroy both the Panther and the Vermont. The crew of Vermont soon realize that escaping with Panther has become a near impossibility. At the point that weapons fly, which submarines will survive and which sink is anyone’s guess.
For those hungry to understand the technology of the nuclear submarine, this nonfiction guide describes the machinery, operations and personnel of a modern nuke. You’ll learn how to make a periscope approach on a “skimmer,” sneak up on a submerged target, program and launch a torpedo, scram and recover the reactor, and even flush the toilet at test depth. You’ll see why a submarine can submerge without sinking, how nuclear power works, and how the steam plant makes the screw turn. You’ll learn the main characters, from the COW to the Eng to the XO. Written in a humorous and engaging fashion, this book is an easy and fun read, yet packs all the information of an official U.S. Navy Submarine School tech manual.