Home Goes The Warrior

by Jeff Noonan

  Navy Lieutenant Lee Raines returned to the States after being badly wounded in the Viet Nam jungles. Now he just wants to finish his service, marry his fiancée, and find a quiet home in the suburbs. Instead he finds himself caught between the Mafia and the FBI as he battles thieves, murderers and a Soviet espionage ring on the mean streets of Philadelphia.

  Only Marie was still awake, and now she had a chrome-plated pistol in her hand. It was pointed at him!

  “I’ve waited years for this, you degenerate son of a bitch.” Her voice was calm and pitched so low he had to strain to hear it. “We gave you a chance to be something, but all you could think of was your dick. Now it’s payback time. This is for every time you ever touched me or any other woman without our permission.”

  With that she fired once, hitting him just above the point where his pants legs came together. He screamed and gasped simultaneously, a choking, muffled confusion of sounds. He sagged to a sitting position on the floor, holding his groin with one hand and the table with the other. He was staring wildly at the people around him, looking for help, but they all seemed to be sleeping.

  Marie laughed merrily at his confusion. “They’re all dead, you idiot.”

  Lee suddenly realized that there was only one possible explanation. They had to be spies! If so, this was huge. The shipyard electronics manager, like his father before him, had access to virtually every secret the Navy possessed!

  My God! They’ve had the design details of our shipboard weapons and electronic systems, as well as all of our radio/radar frequencies and codes, for the past thirty years! If they’ve been passing them on to Russia or China, our Navy is doomed in any kind of shooting war. This is an international game-changer!

  This book is dedicated to all of the good friends I made in Philadelphia and South Jersey during my twenty years of working there. We had some great times together and I miss every one of you.

  DISCLOSURE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Other books by Jeff Noonan

  The Long Escape (Amazon 2012)

  Rocky Mountain Justice (The Legend of Camel’s Hump)

  (Amazon 2013)

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright 2013 by John J. Noonan

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13:978-1491006948

  ISBN-10:1491006943

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE - HOMEPORT

  CHAPTER TWO - A TOP-SECRET VISIT

  CHAPTER THREE - MEMORIES AWAKENED

  CHAPTER FOUR - THE ENCOUNTER

  CHAPTER FIVE - A VERY REAL GODFATHER

  CHAPTER SIX - FBI HEADQUARTERS

  CHAPTER SEVEN - THE CABALS

  CHAPTER EIGHT - THE SHIPYARD

  CHAPTER NINE - CONUNDRUMS

  CHAPTER TEN - DRYDOCK MYSTERY

  CHAPTER ELEVEN - THE INHERITANCE

  CHAPTER TWELVE - HOUSE HUNTING

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN - PLANNING, ESTIMATING, AND SUPPLY

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN - PRODUCTION SHOPS

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN - A QUIET MORNING RUN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - TERMINATION INITIATED

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - RIFLE SHOT

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - FIRE AND DEATH

  CHAPTER NINETEEN - BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL

  CHAPTER TWENTY - PRISON INTEROGATIONS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - SCOTLAND YARD, CYANIDE, AND A MYSTERY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - THE QUIET TIME

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - GAME CHANGER!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - THE HOMECOMING

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - THE SNIPER’S FAMILY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - THE MEETING

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - JUST ORDINARY CRIMINALS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - PEACE AT LAST

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE - HOMEPORT

  he Navy cruiser was slicing through San Diego Bay, hurtling forward as it closed on the sterns of the ships moored ahead. Only the death-grip on the arms of his chair betrayed Captain Neilsen’s nervousness. He was determined to stay quiet and see what happened. The officer of the deck was, after all, his best ship handler. But the ship was moving fast and the captain was worried.

  “All back full!” The order from Lieutenant Lee Raines was crisp and direct, penetrating the quiet of the bridge. It was immediately repeated by a young seaman as he transmitted the corresponding signal to the engine room. “All back full aye, Sir.” The big ship shuddered as its twin screws bit into the water, slowing its forward momentum.

  A moment later, another order, “Left full rudder!” This time it was the helmsman that replied, as he spun the big ship’s wheel. “Left full rudder aye, Sir.”

  An older bosun’s mate was standing in the rear of the bridge, monitoring the performance of his enlisted bridge crew. But this unprecedented display of speed as they approached the berth had his full attention right now. What in hell is the lieutenant up to now? The ship was slowing, but its bow was too far out from the pier and its fantail too close to do a standard approach. It looked like the ship was going to have to back up and try again, an event that wouldn’t look good, especially in front of the senior naval officers watching from the surrounding ships. But the bosun knew Lieutenant Raines was too experienced to end up being embarrassed this way, so he was puzzled. The ship continued to shudder as it came to a stop in the water.

  Lieutenant Raines moved to the wing of the bridge, looking back toward the fantail as it neared the pier. After a short time, he gave more orders: “All stop! Rudder amidships.” The helmsman and lee helmsman responded appropriately, and the violent shaking of the ship began to ease as the screws slowed and finally stopped. The ship was now dead in the water with its fantail about fifteen feet from the pier and its bow at least thirty or forty feet out.

  Then the plan became obvious. Captain Neilsen visibly relaxed in his chair and the bosun’s mate started chuckling quietly. The strong afternoon breeze was turning the ship slowly as it caught the tall sail area of the bow and superstructure. The wind was blowing the ship toward the pier, with the low fantail moving much more slowly than the tall bow. The lieutenant had positioned the ship perfectly and now he was just watching as the breeze parked the ship in exactly the right spot on the pier!

  The hordes of visitors waiting on the pier told the world that this wasn’t an ordinary docking. The big cruiser was returning from an eight-month deployment to the Western Pacific, a deployment that had included several months in the Gulf of Tonkin supporting Viet Nam operations. It had been a long deployment, and both the crew and their families on the pier were ecstatic that it was over.

  Lieutenant Raines watched the chaos on the pier from the bridge wing, standing shoulder to shoulder with Captain Neilsen.

  The captain was the first to speak. “I see my wife out there, Lee. Is anyone here to meet you?”

  “No, I don’t think so, Captain. We bachelors don’t usually invite anyone to these shindigs. Our girlfriends get too many ideas watching the wives and kids on the pier.” He had a big grin as he spoke, and Neilsen smiled back.

  “Okay, Lee. Have it your way.”

  Even as they talked Lee was checking on the crew’s progress as they tied the ship to the pier and rigged the gangplank. Now, seeing that the ship was properly secured, he turned to the boatswain’s mate. �
��Okay, Bosun, secure the Special Sea and Anchor Detail and transfer the watch to the quarterdeck.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.” The bosun hurried to pass the appropriate message on the ship’s announcing system.

  The captain continued the conversation as if there had been no interruption. Indeed, the pause to issue necessary orders was so ingrained in the two men that it had hardly been noticed by either of them. “Lee, I’m really going to miss you. You’re the only officer on the ship with the experience and common sense to let me relax and just shoot the breeze. You’ve been around long enough to know the difference between bullshit and reality. That’s made my job a lot easier over the past year.”

  He paused, then continued, “I know that you did a lot to keep the wardroom grounded and rational when times were tough over there. I’ve got to admit that I’ve really enjoyed serving with you.”

  Lee smiled at his friend. “Thanks Captain. I’ll miss you, too. It’s been a good tour.”

  “By the way, Lee, when are you leaving? I’ll see you again before you go, won’t I?”

  “Not for a few days, Captain. We’ll have plenty of time to get together before I go. I’m staying aboard today. I took the duty tonight so the ops boss could go home to his family. After today, I have a few days left before I go. Then it’s off to another adventure.” They exchanged big smiles at that.

  “You know, Lee, I’ve never seen transfer orders like yours before. Never heard of a set of orders being classified, let alone classified at the Top Secret level. Have they told you where you’re going yet?”

  “Nope. Just hope it isn’t Iceland or the South Pole or something.”

  Captain Neilsen turned to leave. “Well, let’s hope they send you someplace warm, at least. But right now I have to get down there and meet the wife when she comes aboard. If I’m not on the quarterdeck when she gets there, it’s gonna be my ass for sure.”

  He slapped Lee jovially on the shoulder as he started toward the steep stairs that led from the bridge down toward the quarterdeck. Then he stopped and looked back at Lee, still smiling. “I almost forgot, Lieutenant, that was one hell of a risky maneuver you made docking the ship. If the wind hadn’t been just right, you would have had egg all over your face - and mine!”

  Lee grinned in reply. “Sorry, Captain, but I’ve been wanting to try that ever since I was a young seaman standing helmsman watches.” The captain went on down the stairs, shaking his head good-naturedly.

  Lee turned back to watch the crowd on the pier. He hadn’t told the captain that he’d studied the approach for months before trying it. Nor did he mention that he’d radioed ahead to make sure the wind was blowing from the right direction. Long experience had taught him that, while hard work and a lot of studying were necessary to success, a bit of mystery and an air of invincibility didn’t hurt a person’s reputation at all. No one but him would ever know that his knees had been shaking as he negotiated the tricky approach to the pier. After all, he was Lee Raines and he had a reputation to maintain.

  He waited on the bridge until all of the visitors were off the quarterdeck. He knew that they’d congregate in the enlisted mess, chief’s mess, and the wardroom for a while before they began leaving the ship to take their men home. One third of the ship’s crew would be on duty tonight, so the duty section’s unlucky dependents would probably wait with their men and eat the evening meal aboard ship before leaving.

  When the visitors were finally off the quarterdeck, Lee visited with the watch officer to make sure that all was well. A reliable senior chief was on watch and had the quarterdeck well under control, so there was nothing that needed his attention there. Leaving the quarterdeck, he made a short side trip to the wardroom galley, where he checked to make sure that the plans for dinner were on track. He was expecting a visitor this evening and had alerted the wardroom stewards so they could make a special dinner for her and any other visitors who happened to be there.

  From the galley, he peeked through the serving window. As he had expected, the wardroom was a madhouse of officers, wives, girlfriends, and children, all seeming to talk at once. Shaking his head, he decided to detour around the wardroom and go hide in his stateroom. Soon most of them would be gone, and he could relax again.

  Leaving the galley, he emerged into San Diego’s warm afternoon sunlight. He stood beside the hatch and waited for his eyes to adjust. It was quiet out on deck, so he wandered up to the foc’sle and sat on a bollard while he soaked in the sun. But after a few moments of setting in the hot sun in his dress white uniform, he decided that this just wasn’t a good idea. He moved aft to the hatch and went inside, striding unhesitatingly through the narrow passages to his stateroom.

  Entering his room, Lee tossed his hat on the little desk and began unbuttoning his shirt. The room was only about ten feet square, but it contained bunks, lockers and desks for two officers. It also had a small sink and two steel desk chairs. The walls were painted haze grey and the deck was covered with reddish tiles. The ceiling, with its maze of pipes and cables passing through on their way to the great unknown, was painted white. Spartan as it was, the little room had been Lee’s home for the past two years. When overseas, he shared the stateroom with the pilot of the combat rescue helicopter the ship had carried. But now that they were home, there was no need for a helicopter or pilot, so the second bunk was empty. That suited Lee just fine. A little privacy was rare and welcome aboard a Navy ship.

  He wasn’t particularly tired, but long experience had trained him to take advantage of any opportunity to rest, so he lay back on his bunk and was asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.

  His little alarm clock woke him at 4 p.m. He went to the nearby Officers’ head and took a quick shower. Then he returned to his stateroom where he got out his shaving equipment. Standing in front of the stateroom’s little sink, he studied himself in the mirror. He felt good about what he saw. He’d filled out nicely since he’d been hauled out of Viet Nam on a stretcher. His scars had healed as much as they ever would, and his countenance was clear, looking much younger than his thirty-four years. Only his bright blue eyes betrayed the stress of his past life. Somehow, they seemed to pierce any object they focused on. The furrows between his brows and the little lines around those blue eyes spoke volumes about his past experiences.

  Breaking away from the mirror, he put on a fresh white uniform and then he wandered aft to the wardroom. It was empty now except for young Ensign Jennings and his parents, who were visiting from Seattle. The ensign hurried to introduce Lee to his parents, Henry and Pearl Jennings. Lee exchanged small talk with them for a few minutes, taking advantage of the opportunity to get a fresh cup of coffee and complete the wake-up process. Ensign Jennings was also on duty and had to stay aboard, so Lee instructed the steward to set two additional plates so the parents could join them for dinner. He knew the dinner would be a high point of these folks’ vacation, so it was worth the effort. He excused himself while they were still thanking him, using the excuse that he had to check on the ship’s watchstanders.

  Still carrying his coffee cup, he wandered out to the quarterdeck. The watch had changed and the senior chief was gone. He’d been replaced by Lieutenant Junior Grade Morris, the ship’s electrical officer. Morris, like Lee, was unmarried so he had taken the duty for a married officer on this homecoming day. The two officers gabbed aimlessly for a few minutes before Lee left to take a quiet tour of the ship. Today he was the Command Duty Officer, which meant that he was the senior officer aboard and was responsible for the ship and its crew. Whenever he had this duty, he liked, as he put it, to “have a feel for things”. He walked the outside decks, checking the mooring lines and making sure that everything topside was properly clean and stowed. After that, he descended into the bowels of the ship, to where the controls for the ship’s massive 1200 psi steam propulsion system were located. Finding everything quiet there, he climbed back up to where he could walk through the passages on the main deck, ensuring that all was ca
lm. As he moved toward the forward part of the ship, he had to pass through the mess decks where a number of enlisted men and their wives were seated talking to one another.

  His arrival on the mess decks caused immediate chaos. Lee was the only commissioned officer aboard the ship who had once been an enlisted man. He’d worked his way up from seaman recruit through the enlisted ranks until he was selected to become an officer. He was respected and well-liked by the enlisted men aboard ship, most of whom he knew by both first and last names. As he moved through the mess decks today, he took time to talk to everyone who stopped him and that appeared to be almost every sailor still aboard. He met dozens of wives, children, and parents, chatting cheerfully and informally with all of them. It seemed that there wasn’t a sailor present that the lieutenant didn’t have a good word for. When he took his leave from each little group, they were sure that their man was special. Lee made every sailor feel pride in what he had done over the past eight months, regardless of his actual level of contribution. The lieutenant was a leader.

  Finally he was saved by the ship’s loudspeaker system. “Lieutenant Raines, you have a visitor on the quarterdeck.” Excusing himself, he almost ran as he headed up the steep stairs to the quarterdeck. Maggie was here, and he’d really been looking forward to seeing her.

  Maggie was talking to the watch officer when he arrived. He was obviously totally enchanted. She had that way with men. She was a tall, blue-eyed brunette who was wearing a black business suit with a white blouse today. The suit was classically tailored and could have been worn to the most distinguished of business conferences, but it did nothing to hide the lush curves of her body. Maggie, at about thirty years of age, was a confident, professional woman, the kind of woman desired by many but available to few.

  Lee’s appearance on the quarterdeck caused the conversation to stop. Maggie had a big smile for him as she held out her arms. He gave her a huge hug, lifting her off the deck as she kissed his cheek demurely. “Hello big guy.”