“I’m sure we can move if it bothers YOU.”
“Bother me? No,” Patrick said, smiling. “That thing brought me back from the brink twice. I think we’ll be linked forever. Why try to fight it?” He paused for a moment, then asked, “Where is Jon, anyway?”
“He was deployed on the Lincoln to help keep an eye on the Khomeini and the Zhanjiang as they withdraw from the area,” Wendy said. “The Navy seems very interested in his stealth drone stuff.
God, I’m glad this is over. I wish Iran never had that carrier in the first place.”
“Unfortunately, now we’ll have to contend with it over in the East China Sea,” Patrick said. “China says it’s committed to refurbishing it. They’re pretty angry we beat it up … of course, we’re denying it, and it does look like an aircraft accident all the way …”
“A Chinese aircraft carrier,” Wendy said. “Almost as ominous-sounding as an Iranian carrier. Think you might be targeting some JSOWs on that same ship in a few months’?”
“God, I hope not,” Patrick said. “I hope not.”
OVER THE GULF OF OMAN, SIXTY MILES NORTH OF MUSCAT, OMAN 2 MAY 1997, 0817 HOURS LOCAL
“Well, there she goes,” Jon Masters exclaimed happily. He was watching the damaged aircraft carrier Mao Zedong, formerly known as the Khomeini, as it cruised eastward through the middle of the Gulf of Oman. It was being towed by the Chinese destroyer Zhanjiang, like a daughter giving her crippled and aging mother assistance in walking home. “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”
Masters was watching the progress of the warships from the comfort of the Combat Information Center on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, stationed 200 miles east in the Arabian Sea. Masters had been allowed to deploy one of his new HEARSE stealth reconnaissance drones to the Lincoln to run more tests. There had been talk about deploying a number of HEARSE drones on board every American carrier and even on some smaller warships such as cruisers or destroyers.
Masters’s spy plane was running perfectly after eight full hours on station—it was not programmed to be recalled for another eight hours—and the Lincoln’s CIC was crowded with personnel wanting to get a close look at the photographic-quality real-time radar pictures coming back from the drone. Masters caught the eye of a very pretty young female fighter pilot, pointed at the screen, and said to her: “Look, Lieutenant, here are the steel barricades the ragheads—I mean, the Iranians”—a conspiratorial chuckle all around the compartment—”put up to show that they were not going to deploy any aircraft on the carrier or launch any more Shipwreck missiles.” The damaged forward part of the deck had been strewn with steel girders to show anyone who was watching that the Khomeini was out of action.
“See? There’s where the Shipwreck missile cooked off—blew a hole big enough for four Greyhound buses to fit in,” Masters went on.
“The PRC kicked all the Iranians off the carrier—they have about three hundred men on board now to take it back to China. Pretty good picture, huh? I came up with this technology before I turned thirty.” The lady pilot was suitably impressed, and she rested her right forearm on Masters’s shoulder to admire his work, as she leaned against him for a better look. Crew members drifted in and out, looking at the images; Masters and the pilot stayed.
“So, what squadron are you with, Lieutenant?” Masters asked.
“VF-103 Sluggers,” she replied. “F-14A-Plus Tomcat. I’m number two tailhooker in my squadron. I’m gunning for number one—probably get it this week, too”—she smiled mischievously—”if a certain someone would get his big toy off our deck so we can do some real flying.”
“Now, now, Lieutenant,” Masters said, “be nice. This is progress!
This is the future of reconnaissance, maybe even of aerial combat!
I’ll bet you still do TARPS reconnaissance runs in your Tomcat.”
“I’m not TARPS qualified yet, but I will be soon.”
“God, what a waste!” Masters said with mock exasperation. “With my drones and satellites, I can get you detailed real-time pictures a hundred times better than TARPS. Check this out.”
Masters pointed again to the monitor as a large cargo helicopter approached the carrier. “We can even watch this helicopter come in, watch to see what they bring aboard the carrier, even count how many crew members they load or unload. Try doing that with TARPS. I can even …”
“Looks like you can’t get anything,” the lady pilot said. Masters looked back at the monitor—it was blank. As she left the CIC, she added with a smile, “Show’s over, huh, John?”
“What’s going on?” Masters said quickly, trying unsuccessfully to get her attention once more. “Must be a satellite relay glitch—sunspots, Martians.” In his head, he was running through several dozen real possibilities why the picture had gone off the air. He reached for his intercom headset to his technical crew, adding, “Don’t worry, it’ll come back. It’s very reliable …”
But he really wasn’t that sure: on the intercom, he asked, “Engineering, this is Ops … dammit, Tasker, what’s going on? It looks like the up-link’s being jammed. Tell the carrier radar officer or whoever that their radars are jamming my microwave up-link. Yes, you tell them. We can’t see a damned thing until they turn off that interference … it’s gotta be from the Lincoln, Tasker. Who in hell else is going to be doing it?”
ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER KHOMEINI “The microwave jammers are operational,” the operations officer verified. “All communications are down.”
“Very well,” responded Vice Admiral Qu Zhenmou, commander of the East China Sea Fleet. Admiral Qu had taken personal command of the ex-Khomeini, now renamed the Mao Zedong for its two-month trip back to China. “Will the jammers shut down all transmissions from that American spy aircraft?”
“We believe so,” said General Fu Qanyou, Chief of General Logistics, the senior officer in charge of that night’s secret operation. “The Iranians gave us the data. The digital data relay between the spy aircraft and its mother ship is vulnerable to broadband microwave noise interference. If that spy plane is operating overhead tonight, it will be blind for short periods of time, until it can rechannel to another frequency. That should be long enough.”
“Very well,” Admiral Qu said. “We shall proceed with the transfer.”
With incredible speed and precision, two dozen Chinese soldiers, sailors, and technicians streamed off the rear cargo ramp of the large Zhi-8 transport helicopter. They were followed immediately by low carts carrying several missile canisters. A section of the torn-up flight deck was removed, and several dozen sailors emerged from the hole, carried the missile canisters below-decks, and the hole was closed. In less than three minutes, barely long enough for the rotor blades to stop turning, four carts carrying four missile canisters each had been unloaded and brought below.
“Excellent work,” General Fu said. “How many does that make now, Admiral?”
“We now have a half complement, about one hundred, 9M-330 Kinzhal antiaircraft missiles aboard,” Admiral Qu replied. “In ten days’ time, we will rendezvous with a supply vessel to transfer the replacement P-700 Granit missiles.” Admiral Qu smiled. “The carrier will have developed a serious ‘trim problem’ that will require the Beiyun large resupply vessel to assist us. The missiles will be brought aboard then.”
“But how will the Beiyun be able to carry the missiles past customs inspectors in Singapore and Indonesia?” Fu asked. “With all the commotion, the ship is bound to be inspected.”
“Six missiles will be carried by the submarin e Wuhan, sir,” Admiral Qu replied with another smile. “The Wtihan can bypass all unfriendly ports of call with ease—it can stay at sea for up to two months and if necessary can stay submerged for up to nine continuous days. The transfer can take place whenever the threat of a surprise inspection is over.”