“Gray Lady, Gray Lady, this is Zero One! Do you copy?”
Arkady’s urgent call caught her attention.
“Go, Retainer.”
“How long until we get a recovery bird out here?”
“Task Flag is estimating an hour and a half to two hours, Retainer.”
“Then we got problems. I don’t think we have that much time. We are getting Red reaction, and I’ve already had to put fire in on the beach. They know that we’re out here, and they’re going to be swarming all over us.”
“Can you keep them off the aircrew?”
“For as long as our ordnance holds out. Ah, shit! Zero Two, pilch out! You’ve got ground fire on you! Gray Lady, stand by, I’m going to be a little busy here for a minute!”
“Acknowledged, Zero One.”
With great deliberation, she yanked the jack of her headset out of the communications link. She needed a few seconds to think — a few seconds out of the loop, away from the urgency and the emotion.
Her fist lifted and slammed down on the chair arm. Getting to her feet, she took two fast steps to the quartermaster’s chart table. Swiftly, she began to call up the Yangtze approach block and the maps of the estuary mine barrier.
“How in the hell was this allowed to happen?” Admiral Tallman demanded.
“The CSAR Operations file called for the Cunningham’s helos to back up our aircraft in case anything went wrong,” his chief of staff replied. “Apparently, whoever set up the file didn’t realize that the Cunningham only had gunships aboard.”
“How long will it take to get that new angel in the air?”
“Another five minutes. They’re gearing her up now.”
“How about the support strike?”
“On the elevators, sir.”
“Admiral,” one of the radio operators interjected. “Report from Retainer Zero One. They are taking small-arms fire from the bank of the estuary.”
“Goddamn it all to hell! Acknowledge signal to Zero One.” Tallman paced off the length of Pri-Fly, seeking to vent some of his growing frustration in movement. Macintyre could only silently empathize with him. There is possibly no worse situation in the world than to be a military commander who senses that he is falling behind the curve. To know that events are creeping out of your control in a headlong slide into bloody chaos.
“Hang in there, Jake,” Macintyre said. “You’ve got some good people out there working the problem.”
“That’s true, sir,” Walker interjected. “And if we’re not careful, we could have some more of those good people in the water as well. It may be necessary to cut our losses.”
Tallman only grunted in reply, staring out into the darkness beyond the windscreen.
“Admiral,” the communications liaison spoke up again. “Message coming in from the Cunningham. ‘We’re on station at mouth of channel through Yangtze mine barrier. Request permission to proceed upriver to recover downed pilots.’”
“My God,” Walker exclaimed. “What in the hell is that woman thinking of!”
The radioman’s voice continued, slightly bewildered.
“There’s something else as well, sir. ‘Matthew, chapter eighteen, verse twelve.’”
“What’s that all about?” Walker said.
“I know,” Macintyre replied slowly. “How ‘think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, cloth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which has gone astray?”
Macintyre found that Jake Tallman’s attention was suddenly focused totally on him.
“What do you think, Eddie Mac?”
“Jake, this is your show. I am just an observer here.”
“Fine! Then make an observation! Could she pull it off? Could she get my people out of there?”
So much for being out of the loop.
“I don’t know if it’s feasible or not, Jake,” Macintyre replied. “But I suspect that if it can be done, Amanda Garrett is the one who can do it. If you’re asking my opinion, I’d say ride with her.”
“Admiral,” Walker interjected urgently. “If you send the Cunningham into that river estuary, you will be placing a multibillion-dollar warship and two hundred Navy personnel in extreme peril. We’ve lost one plane and two aviators. If we lose the Cunningham in trying to get them out, we will literally be compounding the disaster a hundredfold. Taking a risk like that isn’t logical, sir.”
Tallman shook his head slowly. “Nolan, you’re absolutely right. It’s not logical at all. But then, we’re not talking about logic here, son, we’re talking about the commitment we’ve made with our people.
“It’s not logical for these kids to go out there and lay their necks out on the line purely at my command, so I can’t afford to be all that logical about getting them back again.
“Make a signal to the Cunningham. ‘Proceed with rescue operations. You are authorized to enter the Yangtze.’”
“Attention, all decks,” Amanda Garrett’s voice rang out of the 1-ME. The watch in the Combat Information Center instinctively looked up at the overhead speakers, awaiting the word.
“Here is the situation. We have a Navy aircrew down in the Yangtze River estuary. The helo on recovery station has been disabled, and those pilots won’t last until another can be brought up. We are going to have to go upriver after them.
This … is not going to be easy, but we are going to take care of our own. Good luck to us all.”
“Ohhh, brother,” Dix Beltrain murmured under his breath.
“Status of the SQQ-32, Mr. Beltrain,” Ken Hiro asked flatly.
“System is up, sir. Diagnostic checks are green.”
The mine-hunter display windowed into one corner of the Alpha screen. Within it, clear water was indicated dead ahead of the ship. But on the outer perimeters of the sweep, ominous shadowy outlines could be made out guarding the flanks of the channel.
“Stealth systems.” Amanda’s voice again: cool, imperturbable.
“Stealth, aye.”
“Activate the deck sprays, Mr. Mckelsie. That may help us if the Reds have FLIRs covering the mine passages.”
“Will do.”
“Very good. We’re going into the passage now.”
“Engines now going ahead slow, Mr. Hiro,” the battle helmsman reported from his station. “Making turns for five knots.”
Slowly, the mine contacts began to drift astern, out of the scan field. They were entering the single, narrow corridor that led through the barrier.
“Quartermaster,” Hiro ordered. “Execute a series of GPU checks at thirty-second intervals and lock down a series of navigational datum points in the Navicom. I want us to be able to find our way back out of here if we lose the sonars.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” The quartermaster’s reply sounded as if he were being lightly strangled.
Christine Rendino emerged from Raven’s Roost and came to stand at Beltrain’s side, her attention fixed on the mine hunter display. “Fa’ sure, I hate it when she does stuff like this,” she whispered.
“Scared?”
The Intel nodded. “But that’s only half of it. The other half is a feeling of inferiority. I’d never have the guts to try something like this in a million years.”
“Yeah. I wonder if I ever will.”
A building and two vehicles burned on the riverbank, with the firelight more of an interference then an aid to the two hovering helos. Retainer Zero One and Zero Two sidled downstream, covering the drifting dot that was the aircrew of Moondog 505.
Vince Arkady mentally reviewed his munitions list for the hundredth time. He still had both Hellfires on board, but only five Hydra rounds were left. There were troops and Armed People’s Police out there in the straggle of boatsman’s shacks and saltgrass. The two Retainers had taught them the folly of swapping shots with a Sea Comanche. Unfortunately, they had found an easier target.