“Let them talk to their peers and the individual sensor operators. You should be talking to the TAOs on each ship. Tell them what you want them to do, and ask them questions when your own watch standers can’t answer them for you. But remember, those ship TAOs are in charge of a lot of people and are fighting fires on their ships — figuratively speaking. So if they don’t answer immediately, just be patient. They’ll get to you. And don’t piss them off. Because you can’t do your job unless they answer.”
Plug turned as he heard a squelch and hiss of static on the large black radio next to them. Then one of the enlisted watch standers, a chief, began speaking what sounded like a foreign language. Letters and numbers. He was reading from a large laminated binder. When he finished the carefully worded transmission, he said, “Execute.”
“What was he just doing?” Plug asked Herndon.
“Placing the ships in screen. Not sure why the guys before us didn’t do it. I swear, half the watch is just spent cleaning up the mess of the previous duty section.” He turned to the chief. “Thanks, Chief.”
“No problem, sir.”
Herndon stood and walked up to the whiteboard on the wall. There was a big compass circle drawn in black erasable marker, with the carrier in the middle.
“We give each ship a designated section to hang out in — that’s what we mean when we say that we’re putting the ships in screen around the carrier. We make each ship’s slice of the water big enough that it isn’t too challenging for them to stay inside, but restrictive enough that it keeps them where we want them to be.” Herndon began erasing and updating the different three-letter identifiers around the carrier. There were distances and compass radials that showed where each ship was located.
On the radio, each of the ships began responding. Plug recognized some of what they were saying, but not all.
“And the reason that we place them in screen?”
Herndon smiled. “You pilots really don’t know anything, do you?”
“Be nice.”
“It’s like placing Secret Service agents in a circle around the president. It’s the optimal way to protect the high-value unit — the carrier. We have rings of defense around us. Anti-air, anti-submarine, and airborne early warning, if you have enough assets.”
“Huh. I mean, that makes total sense. I knew that the ships were protecting us in that way, but I guess I just never thought about someone actually placing them there. I just assumed that the ships knew where to go on their own.”
“There are some things that the ships will do automatically. Like if someone fires at them, they’ll automatically fire back. But it’s our job to make sure we’re allocating our resources in the most efficient way possible. The more you learn about this, the easier your job will get, too. You’ll be able to influence which ships are in what part of the screen — that can make your flight schedule easier to execute. Or so I was told by the last guy that had your job.”
“Nice.”
“I gotta say, though, I’ve never seen it like this before.” He thumbed over to the whiteboard.
“What do you mean?”
“Normally we have three or four ships to put in screen, tops. Today we have ten. I’ve never seen us place this many around a single carrier.”
Victoria stood at attention on the flight deck of the Farragut. She faced aft, towards the ship’s crew. The crew stood in formation opposite her, their backs to the ship’s trailing white wake.
Hundreds swayed in silence as Captain Boyle pinned her Navy Cross medal on her uniform. Then he shook her hand, looking into her eyes and congratulating her. Proud smiles among the crew, and a few claps, which were immediately silenced by disciplined chiefs.
Juan stood next to her. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross with combat V. AWR1 got an air medal. And the entire ship received a Presidential Unit Citation.
The ship’s galley had a celebratory meal of hot dogs and hamburgers — cooked out on the flight deck — and cold sodas in Rubbermaid trash bins filled with ice. The cooks had set up a few tables with napkins and sides. Sailors grabbed tiny bags of potato chips, and cookies, and scooped brown beans and potato salad onto their plates. Speakers blared rap music until the master chief came over and changed it to Jimmy Buffett.
Victoria stood sipping a canned Coke, watching some of her men eat and joke with each other.
Juan walked up next to her. “You alright, Boss?”
“Yeah, fine. You?”
“Just trying to wrap my mind around all this, you know?”
“You did a great job. You should wear that with pride.” She pointed at the medal pinned to his service dress blues. The new captain had insisted that they wear their more formal uniforms for the ceremony today. Flight suits wouldn’t do for a medal of this prominence.
“You’ve got to admit it’s a little funny.”
“What is?”
“Plug got one of these too. He intentionally crashed his helicopter into the water, and they give him a Distinguished Flying Cross.”
She smiled. “I don’t think that was the way we wrote it up…”
“Still. It’s a better story if you tell it that way.”
Victoria smiled. “You ready to fly tonight?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We need to find these Chinese merchant ships. They’ll want to board them when we find them. Could be military personnel on board that might resist that. I’m not sure what will happen.”
Juan chewed on his hot dog and checked his watch. “How much longer should we give these guys before we start clearing off the flight deck for tonight?”
She took a deep breath. “Just a little bit longer. Everyone needs to chill out a bit before things get crazy again.”
25
David sat in the director’s conference room on the seventh floor of the CIA headquarters.
“When did we get this information?” the director asked.
Susan said, “It came from the team’s burst transmission over the past twenty-four hours.”
“And you think that GIANT is our only option?”
“We think he’s our best option,” Susan said.
David and the SILVERSMITH team had just gotten a report from Chase and the Delta Force operatives who were embedded near the Chinese camp at Liaoning. Chase and the Deltas had been observing the Chinese special forces teams conduct mortar and small-arms training. Then, in the past two days, the Chinese teams had begun leaving the base via military air transport. Other CIA intelligence sources were reporting that those teams were being sent overseas. Possibly towards the United States. But no one knew how they were getting into the country, or where they would be going.
The director said, “So as it stands, we don’t have confirmation that they are headed towards the US. But that’s your best guess.”
“Based on signals intel, yes. But we want to be sure.”
“Is it worth sacrificing GIANT?”
Susan was silent. But she nodded.
“Okay. Let’s contact Tetsuo and have him put this in motion with GIANT.”
It took ten minutes to get Tetsuo on the secure line from Japan. He had been prepped by Susan and was waiting for the call.
Susan greeted Tetsuo over the speakerphone. Then she said, “Tetsuo, as you and I discussed, we’ve gotten some new information from Chase and his team. GIANT had previously offered to go to the camp at Liaoning. We have decided to take him up on that offer and make arrangements for him to inspect the camp after all.”
The line was silent. David felt bad. Tetsuo was no doubt less than thrilled at the change of plans. Susan and Director Buckingham glanced at each other.