“Great idea.”
“Nancy, I want our costume drama to be ready for a curtain call by May 11. That’s two weeks from now. Can we make that happen?”
“Taz, you got the crew, I got the plans. We can make this work.” Another high five.
Chapter 38
So we’re going to go home, maybe, Ashley thought. She couldn’t get her conversation with Lincoln out of her mind. Lincoln tied his permission for the California’s return attempt to the success of Operation Gray Ships and the Battle of Bull Run. Ashley knew, as any military leader did, that war had its surprises, setbacks, and disappointments. She remembered German Field Marshal von Moltke’s famous quote, “No battle plan ever survives the first contact with the enemy.” What if something goes wrong, she thought over and over. She remembered Operation Eagle Claw, Jimmy Carter’s daring attempt to free the Iranian hostages by a military insertion in 1980. Eight dead, four wounded, six helicopters and one transport plane destroyed.
What if something goes wrong? Ashley knew the answer to the question. If the South didn’t surrender after the California’s blockade involvement and the Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln would want to keep her in the nineteenth century, at least for a while. How long? Thought Ashley. My crew couldn’t care less about fighting an enemy from the history books. They want to go home, and so do I.
Ashley walked onto deck to look at the ocean. The scared little girl, the girl who doubted her success, the girl who wanted to curl up in a fetal position, the little girl named Splashy — that little girl wanted to come out and play. Ashley remembered the role play exercise that Father Rick had recommended. “Talk to your demons,” Father Rick advised, after she had told him about demon Splashy. “Reason with them and take away their power.”
So Ashley stared into the sea and talked to Splashy. “Listen Splashy. I’m the captain of this ship, the commanding officer. Over 600 lives depend on me making the right decisions. Now please leave me alone, and I’ll buy you something nice when this is over.” She didn’t think Splashy got the message.
Ashley continued talking, this time to herself, not Splashy. Operation Gray Ships and the Battle of Bull Run will be complete successes. I’m going to make it happen, and we’ll be on our way home. She could hear little Splashy skipping rope and laughing in the distance.
Chapter 39
Ashley called Jack Thurber to her office. Every time she met with this man she felt increasingly comfortable. Often, she would call for a short meeting just to see him and chat. After every meeting, she felt like she had an emotional massage. The tensions of leadership wafted away. Ashley had felt this way before, when she was dating Felix. She knew the feeling well.
Ashley was falling in love.
But today she was nervous. She was about to ask Jack to do something that would raise the journalistic hairs on the back of his neck. She was about to ask this Pulitzer Prize winner to become the biggest liar of the Civil War.
“Coffee, Jack?” asked Ashley.
“Love some. Please, I’ll get it.”
Ashley loved how Jack was always appropriately deferential to her position. But then he could walk in wearing a clown costume, red nose, honking horn and all, and Ashley would have found it charming.
Ashley explained Operation Gray Ships, as laid out by Navy Secretary Wells. She also told him in detail about Abraham Lincoln, his charisma, charm, and intelligence. Jack thought about how he would love to interview Lincoln for an article.
“Operation Gray Ships has two parts,” said Ashley. “The first part involves our Engineering and Deck Departments. They’re going to give the California the appearance of being 20 different ships. In 2013, we would call this PsyOps or Psychological Operations. The idea is to weaken the enemy’s resolve through deceit. The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in the early days of World War II is a perfect example. It didn’t do much damage, but it showed the Japanese government that they were dealing with a tough customer.”
“Part two involves you, Jack, on specific recommendation from the Secretary of the Navy. You must have made quite an impression on him.”
“It will be your mission, Jack, to write a series of newspaper articles describing the 20 ships of the Gray Fleet, where they were sighted, what they look like, and what they’re capable of. These stories will be fed to all of the major Union newspapers. The Administration feels that it’s not necessary to try to leak these articles to the Confederacy because Southern spies will take care of that. The whole idea is to strike fear into the hearts of the Confederate government. As one of our salty officers in Engineering puts it, our job is to ‘fuck with their heads.’ ”
Jack put down his coffee. He rubbed his face with his hands. He then picked up the coffee and took another sip.
“Ashl…Captain, you’re asking me to do something that rubs against every rule I’ve made for myself as a writer. At Columbia Journalism, if there is one thing they pounded into our heads, it’s that you simply don’t lie. If there’s a story, interview the people involved, and get two back-up sources before you go to press. I’ve done the same in my books. Nothing went in until I made sure it was accurate. Now you’re asking me to sit down and pound out lies.”
“I expected that you would have problems with this, Jack, because you’re a man of integrity.” Which is one of the things I love about you. Stop, stop. Stay focused.
“May I ask you to consider a few things?” said Ashley.
“Of course, Captain,” said Jack, the recipient of a full Ashley Patterson Eye Job.
“First, you will not write the articles over your own byline. With all due respects, my celebrity friend, nobody in the nineteenth-century has the foggiest idea who you are. You will essentially be a ghost writer. Second, you’ve written a few novels, yes?”
“Yes, I’ve written three novels.”
“Is fiction a lie, or is it just telling a story?” Ashley asked. Jack raised his coffee cup and nodded his head to Ashley as if to ask if she wanted another. Ashley shook her head, while Jack bought some time by going to the coffee pot. This woman would make a great lawyer, Jack thought. “Well, yes, Captain, fiction is storytelling, but fiction never disguises itself as truth.”
Ashley then fired the broadside.
“Jack, my job is to kill the enemy. Your job is to confuse them. The more you confuse them, the fewer I have to kill. The fewer I have to kill, the quicker we can get the hell out of here and go back to where we came from. Is that really an ethical problem?”
“When do I start, Captain?”
Chapter 40
“Captain, a moment of your time, Ma’am?” Bradley said.
“Yes, please come up to my office, Commander.”
Since the incident in the wardroom when he had confronted the captain in public, Bradley felt ostracized. His feeling was accurate. To any observer, and there were a lot of them, it was obvious that Captain Patterson had unofficially appointed the navigator, Ivan Campbell, as the executive officer. Campbell had led the first delegation to the Navy Department, conducted the tour of the ship, and accompanied the captain on her visit with Lincoln. The only thing that tempered Bradley’s seething resentment was his plan to defect to the Confederacy. Don’t get mad, get even, Bradley recalled the old saying. It’s time to calm down, suck it up and get the job done, Bradley thought.