He fought down the urge to hurl the remote through the screen, where the ghost of the American president’s face was still faintly visible. Instead, he forced himself to set the plastic device down on the top of his desk.
Damaging the television would accomplish nothing. America would still be there, looming like a poisonous cloud less than 150 kilometers to the north.
Unpunished. Undestroyed. Barely affected by what should have been their apocalyptic demise.
Where was the fiery death that had been promised? Where were the heaped piles of smoldering corpses? What had happened to the glorious radioactive pyres that were supposed to level and devour the cities of Cuba’s greatest enemy?
He thought about reaching for the satellite phone and trying the call yet again. But he had already called eight times, and the Korean had stopped answering the phone. Perhaps he was no longer capable of answering.
Assuming that the American president’s speech was more than empty braggadocio, Garriga’s Asian contact could be lying dead under a pile of burning rubble right now.
There was no point in calling the man anyway. The North Korean plan, for all of its original promise, had failed. If there was going to be revenge, it would have to come from somewhere else.
Garriga leaned back and closed his eyes, rocking slowly in his fine oak swivel chair. There would be vengeance. There had to be.
His eyes snapped open. What if…
It was only the beginnings of an idea. He could already think of ten or twelve obvious problems, and he’d barely begun to consider it.
But problems could be solved. It would take time to put his new plan into action.
Time was something he had in abundance. He’d been waiting for revenge since before his seventh birthday.
He could stand to wait a little longer.
I hope you enjoyed reading Steel Wind as much as I enjoyed writing it. Whether you loved the book or hated it, I’d sincerely appreciate your feedback. Please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon.com.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank the following people for their assistance in bringing this book to life:
ENG4 Michael Allen (USGC) for helping me get at least some of the Coast Guard details right; John R. Monteith for tracking down unclassified information about nuclear submarine reactor shielding; STSCM(SS) Ernie Pooler (USN, Retired) for entertaining and helpful sea stories about his experiences as Chief of the Boat aboard USS Dallas; Kyung Hyun and James Minchul Kim for help with Korean language translations; Svein Johannesen for providing insight into the Hague Conventions, Thomas A. Mays for guidance in keeping the notional engineering stats of the Kang Chul Poong within shouting distance of the laws of physics; FORCM (AW/SW) C.J. Mitchell for relieving some of my ignorance on the mechanics of the U.S. Navy Reserve; and Barry Campbell for help with the geography of compartments on Los Angeles class SSNs.
I also owe enormous thanks to the people at www.timeanddate.com, who probably have no idea that I exist. Without their online tools, date calculators, and event timers, it would have been difficult — if not impossible — to keep track of events occurring across multiple time zones.
As always, any errors that have crept into this work were purely of my own making.
I’d also like to thank the merry (and motley) band of advance readers, proofreaders, kibitzers, and literary meddlers who have once again conspired to make me seem more competent than I actually am.
And most of all, my wife, Brenda, for firing frequent, relevant, and fascinating research leads in my direction until I had enough cool ideas to write this book.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
If you’ve every served in a Harbor Patrol Unit, you’ll know I’ve taken some liberties with the port security procedures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. The methods described are straight out of my imagination, with no attempt to reflect any of the current techniques in use. I have only the vaguest idea of the force protection measures used to defend Navy ports against intrusion by small craft. That was never my area of expertise.
My original plan was to fill this gap in my knowledge with research, but even casual study reminded me that human lives are at stake. Telling a good story is important to me, but maintaining operational security is important to the safety of real people, both in and out of uniform. That made it a no-brainer. Instead of trying to describe actual force protection methods, I just made stuff up. (That’s kind of what I get paid for anyway.)
I’ve also used some artistic license with Executive Order #12968. The order itself is real. It was signed by President Clinton in 1995 and it’s still in effect. As alluded to in the story, Section 3.3 includes provisions for granting temporary access to classified information under “exceptional circumstances,” but the language of the order probably couldn’t be stretched far enough to cover people in Jon and Cassy Clark’s situation. Readers with a penchant for strict interpretations of legalese are invited to send me disparaging comments. Extra points will be awarded for nastygrams written in iambic pentameter.
Any misstatements about the terrain of Cuba were not artistic license. I studied forest overlays, vegetation density maps, and satellite images in selecting hiding spots for the North Korean missile sites. I also Googled my fingers to the bone, but the available info about Cuba’s undeveloped areas is spotty at best. My mistakes here are of the I-honestly-can’t-find-out variety.
If (or when) you encounter errors not described in this note, it’s a safe bet that they resulted from some similar decision or oversight on my part. As always, I throw myself on the mercy of the court.
A TAIL OF TWO PUPPIES
As some of my readers know, I occasionally name characters after real people — partly as a sort of inside joke, and partly as a way of recognizing and celebrating people whom I like and respect. There’s a bit of that in Steel Wind, if you know where to look. In this book, I’ve also expanded the idea to include a few members of the animal kingdom.
The Secretary of Defense’s Golden Retriever, Knut, is based on the beloved companion of the real-world Mary O’Neil-Broerman. Knut was a champion surfer, a tireless tennis ball chaser, and the friend of every person and dog lucky enough to meet him. He passed away in 2016, after a long battle with cancer, but he kept his good spirits and sense of playfulness right up until the last. He lives on in the hearts of all who knew him.
The American Staffordshire Terrier, Roxy, is the fur child of the real-life Jon and Cassy Clark. (Sorry to disappoint anyone who thought Jon might be a nod to Tom Clancy’s character of similar name.) Roxy is ten years old now and still bounces around like a puppy. As far as she’s concerned, any morning that doesn’t include playing Frisbee with Jon is a complete waste of time. Her favorite things are scratches behind the ears and unguarded bacon. Let’s hope she continues her career as a canine blanket far into the future, bestowing snuggly-drooly protection on her humans for many years to come.