“Jack, you’re a fellow officer and a confidant. I also think of you as a friend.” Not to mention, I think I’m in love with you, she thought. STOP!
“Tell me about Bradley, including everything you noticed or heard about him.”
“I always look for a person’s incentives, something journalists share with micro-economists. What drives people in certain directions has as much to do with objective incentives as it has to do with subconscious thoughts. Although I haven’t seen his personnel file, I’ve spoken to a lot of people who know him. Bradley is a man at the end of his career. He’s had a drinking problem and has been passed over for promotion twice. If his career wasn’t dying under its own weight, his confrontation with you in the wardroom probably nailed it. And the most significant part of that scenario is that he must have realized it as well. He’s 10 years older than you and below you in rank. You have the job he thinks he deserved. He knows that you’re on the track for admiral while he’ll muster out on the pension of a three striper. I believe that he not only resents you, he hates you. Here is a guy, divorced with no immediate family, at the end of his chosen career. Here is a guy who believed that the twenty-first century wasn’t treating him right. He’s a man with no future. Except for the Confederacy that is. Looking at incentives, what could be more appealing to him: washing out of the US Navy or becoming a big shot in the Confederate Navy? Now let’s pile on some more incentives, the incentives of the Confederate Navy. The Gray Ships have become a fixation in the South, judging from all of the newspaper reports.”
“And thanks to your excellent articles that have been plagiarized all over Dixie.”
“Well, thanks Captain, but they wouldn’t print those articles if they didn’t believe them.”
“Let me ask you Captain, what are you worried about with Bradley?”
“The two obvious worries, or at least they’re obvious to me, is that first, he blows the cover on the Gray Ships deception, and second, he convinces the South to avoid the Battle of Bull Run.”
“I have a different view,” said Jack. “Bradley is a man looking to trade things to get to his incentives. He wants to be a Confederate Admiral, something that’s beyond his grasp in the United States Navy, in 1861 or 2013. He wants to be the guy who can show them how to handle the Gray Ships Fleet, not just one Gray Ship. The South is very big on honor and chivalry, although somehow owning human slaves never worked its way into that thinking. They’re probably looking at this guy as a simple turncoat, a traitor. Yes he can be useful, but he needs to have a lot to trade to convince them he’s one of them. Also, Bradley wants Bull Run to happen because it will enable him to tell the Confederacy ‘I told you those weapons were bad.’ I would place bets on Bradley lying to the South as he’s lied to you.”
“Do you think we should try to capture him, Jack?”
“The man’s a traitor and a murderer, Captain. The consequences of that are beyond my pay grade. But, yes, I would try, just in case I’m wrong, and he spills all of his knowledge.”
“Let’s change subjects, Jack. What about the possibility of conspirators who may have remained on this ship?”
“As I’ve been thinking about Bradley, I kept my reporter’s antennae up. I’ve been looking at a few sailors who I think may be with Bradley. I base these observations on snippets of conversation and questions I’ve asked other people.” He handed Ashley a list of 11 people he had doubts about.
Ashley perused the list. “Oh, my God,” she yelled. “All eight of the sailors who went ashore with Bradley are on this list. So far, Jack, you’re pitching a perfect game.” She looked at the three who were still on the ship.
One name jumped off the page. “Holy shit. Chief Albert Ray. He’s the ship’s Chief Gunnery Mate, just below Andrea Rubin, the Weapons Officer. He knows every weapons system on this ship.”
“We’ll continue our talk in a minute, Jack.”
“Colonel Bingham please pick up a phone,” Ashley almost screamed over the PA system.
“Yes, Captain,” said Bingham.
“Matt, I have some strong evidence that Chief Gunner’s Mate Ray may be a conspirator. He knows our weapons better than anyone on the ship.”
“I’ll track him down immediately, Ma’am, and take him into custody for questioning.” Each of the Marines wore ear buds for instant communication. Bingham said to all of them, “If you see Chief Gunners Mate Albert Ray, arrest him immediately and call me.”
Bingham then went to the gun deck to visit with each of his Marines. As he walked around the wooden structure on the stern that had been erected for a costume change, he noticed a pool of blood spilling out across the deck coming from Battery 3, the Tomahawk missile battery. His training took over. He stepped behind the structure and cocked his Colt 45. Chief Ray jumped from behind the structure and fired a silencer equipped handgun directly at the Colonel. Bingham died immediately.
Petty Officer Simon Planck was walking along a weather deck two levels above when he saw Colonel Bingham fall. Planck had completed 20 classes in Pete Campo’s Martial Arts training. Now feeling physically fit, he raced down the ladder to give assistance. As he stepped around a turret he startled Chief Ray, who was looking in the other direction. He saw that Ray had a gun in one hand and a printed circuit board in the other. As Ray raised the gun, Planck delivered a swirling karate kick to his face, knocking Ray to the deck. He then grabbed Bingham’s gun from the deck and pointed it at Ray. He hoped that the safety wasn’t on because he hadn’t fired a weapon since boot camp. He trained the gun on Ray, making sure that he wasn’t moving. He kicked Ray’s gun from his hand and it went skidding across the deck. Planck had no idea what to do so he just screamed, “Marine down!” Four Marine guards came running. Planck raised the gun over his head and said, “That’s the one” pointing to Chief Ray.” As the Marines approached him, Ray suddenly spun and took another gun from a holster. He pointed it at Planck and fired, landing the shot in Planck’s left shoulder. The Marines shot and killed Ray.
“Good work, Sailor,” Sergeant Charlie Sorese said to Planck as he collapsed to the deck. “Corpsman!” shouted Sorese into his mouthpiece. “Corpsman to main deck stern. Man down, man down.”
Ray had killed Marine Sergeant John Newfield as well as Colonel Bingham before the Marines shot him.
Sergeant Sorese called the Officer of the Deck on the bridge, who immediately dispatched Warrant Officer Ciano. The OOD then called Captain Patterson to report the event. Ashley called Sergeant Sorese to her office, telling Jack to stay there.
“What’s going on?” asked Jack.
“Your perfect game is still running hot, Jack. Chief Ray just killed two marines and wounded a sailor. Ray is dead. That leaves two from your list.”
Ashley announced over the PA. “Master at Arms, pick up a phone.” She told Ciano the names of the two remaining suspects, and told him to turn the ship upside down and shake it if he had to.
Both sailors from Jack’s list were located within minutes and were taken to the brig for interrogation.
“Congratulations, Jack, you pitched a perfect game.”
“Perfect?” said Jack. “Two good guys dead, one wounded.”
Ashley turned to Sorese. “Who is the sailor who was shot?”
“Petty Officer Simon Planck, Ma’am. That kid deserves the Navy Cross. If it wasn’t for him, Ray would have gone on killing.”
Ashley swallowed hard. “What’s his condition Sergeant, do you know?”