“Yes, sir.”
“Three confirmed sinkings of warships, including Yosai. Another carrier damaged. Captain Hunter spoke quite highly of your performance.”
“Thank you, Admiral.”
Lockwood lit a cigarette. “But this incident of you modifying the torpedoes is troubling. You didn’t just break regulations, son. You risked destroying your boat and killing everyone aboard, including civilians.”
Charlie said nothing while Lockwood took another drag. He suddenly felt free. Whatever happened, whether they’d toss him back into the war, yank him out of combat, or even court-martial him, he could live with it.
War or home. Finding himself in combat or in peace. Evie or Jane.
He’d find happiness regardless of where his destiny took him. He sensed that’s how destiny worked. You could aim for it, but it took you where it wanted regardless of all your fervent desires and carefully laid plans.
Lockwood said, “But then you went on to achieve substantial results. Hell, sinking Yosai and putting Pachinko back to dry dock for repairs may have changed the war. It also proves to me what I keep hearing, which is the torpedoes are rotten. It’s been an uphill battle getting BuOrd to recognize the problem.”
The Admiral gave him a hard stare. “I saw something in you after you came home with the S-55, Harrison. It’s why I promoted you and put you on a new boat to sink or swim. The results exceeded my expectations. You’ve still got a lot to learn, however. Going ashore at Mindanao was reckless, and it endangered the mission. You had a golden opportunity to sink Pachinko, and you went after Hanma instead. Still, you’ve got the qualities we look for in a commander, namely the ability to manage a crisis, think clearly, and act decisively and aggressively.”
The Admiral ground his cigarette out in the overflowing ashtray on his desk, and stood. Charlie did the same, unsure where this was going.
“Harrison, I’m recommending you for the Navy Cross for your actions in the Pacific. Taking over the boat when needed, taking her into combat when a golden opportunity presented, managing an outbreak of serious illness, and aiding in the defense of the boat when she was helpless, were all in the finest tradition of the Navy. I’m going to put my neck on the line for you on this torpedo business; I’ve already told ComSubPac. I’ll need to stow you somewhere while I get it sorted, so I’m sending you to PXO School. Your next posting will be as exec.”
Charlie couldn’t believe his ears. He stammered, “Thank you, Admiral.”
“You can thank me by sinking Jap ships. I’m acting on instinct the way I did the last time you stood in front of me—against my nature, but it paid off. I’m curious what kind of results you’ll achieve as a Number Two. I’m taking a considerable risk by investing in you and will expect results. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I won’t, Admiral,” Charlie said, his body tingling with shock. Lockwood extended his hand. He shook it. “Thank you again, sir.”
He left SubPac in a daze and ended up on the beach in front of the Royal Hawaiian with little memory of how he’d gotten there.
He replayed the conversation in his mind several times to be sure he’d heard the Admiral correctly. Exec, he’d heard. PXO School. It was true. He was going to be executive officer on his third war patrol, second only to the captain. He couldn’t believe it.
As he’d thought, the war was creating big opportunities. America and Japan were locked in a life-or-death struggle, and the Admiral again rolled the dice that Charlie would reward his confidence by sinking Japanese ships.
Charlie couldn’t help but be elated. Elated but also a little disappointed he wasn’t being sent home. He was tired, very tired. A part of him would have welcomed cashing it in.
He sat on the sand and watched the harbor’s waters lap the beach. Around him, sailors and Hawaiian girls played in the surf and sunned themselves on blankets. He had a lot to do. His destiny now awaited him in New London, but it could wait a little longer.
Right now, he just wanted to rest. Stare at the water. Do nothing but just breathe in, breathe out, and know he was alive.
A shadow passed over him. He looked up and squinted at the silhouette of a woman framed by the Pacific sun’s glare.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Jane said.
She’d cleaned up and now wore makeup and a uniform. She looked like a different woman, but it was still Jane. Beautiful as ever.
He smiled. “I can’t believe you found me.”
“Finding you was easy. You have no idea how hard it was to get here from Brisbane, though. That took some doing.”
“I’ll bet it did.”
“Are you happy to see me, or what?”
“You have no idea.”
She extended her hand. He took it and stood, still smiling.
“So,” she said, “buy me a drink, sailor?”
WANT MORE?
If you enjoyed Silent Running, get ready for the next book in the series, Battle Stations, scheduled for publication in late 2016. In this book, Charlie’s bound for the Sea of Japan…
Sign up for Craig’s mailing list here to stay up to date on new releases.
Learn more about Craig’s writing at www.CraigDiLouie.com.
Turn the page to read the first chapter of Battle Stations. After that, you’ll find a special note about this book from the author.
Chapter 1 of Battle Stations, the third book in the Crash Dive series.
CHAPTER ONE
ATTACK TRAINER
“Start the attack!” Charlie cried. “Up periscope!”
He swept the horizon for Japanese ships, spotted them. The enemy advanced under his crosshairs.
What he saw didn’t add up. “Down scope.”
The officers watched him. Lt. Grayson, assistant approach officer. Lt. Boyd at the plotting table. Lt. Rohm standing at the torpedo data computer, or TDC.
Shooting a mobile target from a moving submarine involved complex geometry. The crew fed variables such as speed, bearing, and angle on the bow into the TDC. The TDC then produced a torpedo-firing angle. Each time, the problem offered a small margin of error.
This particular problem would give him almost no margin at all.
“Well?” Grayson asked him.
“Ship, two-five-zero True, zero-two-five Relative, about 12,000 yards. Give him twelve knots. Three escorts screening him. Asashio-class destroyers.”
The assistant approach officer whistled. “All that protection for one ship? What’s the target, Hirohito’s yacht?”
Boyd plopped the thick Reference Book of Japanese Merchant Ships on the table. Its pages provided valuable information such as tonnage, height above the waterline, and distance from the waterline to the keel, or draft.
Charlie flipped the pages and pointed. “I think that’s the ship.”
A fishing trawler.
Boyd and Rohm exchanged an amused glance. Grayson’s lips curled into a smirk. “You caught a real high-value target, Harrison.”
The officers cracked grins. Charlie turned and threw “Quiet Bill” Hutchison, who stood in a corner, a questioning look.
As usual, the old commander’s placid expression told him nothing.
“Wait a minute.” Charlie pulled out the reference on Imperial Japanese Navy warships and flipped through it. “Yeah. That’s it there.”
Kinesaki class, 900 tons. Assigned to resupply operations with the China Area Fleet, it hauled eighty tons of frozen food and sixty tons of fresh water. The freezer mounted on the hull carried fish, which explained why it looked like a trawler.
Today, it carried something important to the Japanese Empire. Cargo worth three tough destroyers to guard it.
The supply ship lay 200 feet in length, about half as long as the Asashios and two-thirds as long as Sabertooth, Charlie’s last command. Infiltrating the fast-moving escorts to hit such a small target was going to be a hell of a thing.
Rohm read the stats. “Bad luck, Harrison. A real doozy.”
No kidding. Their t
eacher had thrown him a curveball for his last time in the attack trainer, which simulated submarine combat.
The men fought in a dummy conning tower with a fixed periscope that piped into a room upstairs. There, operators worked a system of circular discs connected by control cables. Model ships rode these traveling turntables along a course Quiet Bill had set up.
The goal was to approach the target while avoiding detection, fire a straight bow shot, and escape. While a simulation, it felt realistic. As for the stakes, they were very much real.
Tomorrow, Charlie graduated from Prospective Executive Officer School. With more candidates than boats, some got detailed, some didn’t.
He shot another glance at Quiet Bill. The commander’s eyes seemed to smile at him.
Grayson: “What do you want to do, Harrison?”
“Battle stations, torpedo. We’re going to sink the bastard.”
Coming Fall 2016!
Now turn the page for a special note about this book from the author…
AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading Silent Running, the second episode in the Crash Dive series depicting Charlie Harrison’s war in the boats. Welcome aboard!
Like its predecessor, Silent Running was inspired by reading C.S. Forester’s beloved Hornblower series and War in the Boats by Captain William J. Ruhe, which documented his experiences during the Pacific War.
The submarines played a critical role in the American war effort. By the end of the war, 180 submarines were in service, which sank more than 1,100 merchant ships representing 4.8 million tons. They also sank about 200 warships, including eight aircraft carriers, a battleship, and eleven cruisers. As Japan relied on shipping to maintain its wartime economy, the result proved pivotal to achieving victory.
The Crash Dive series presents the amazing story of the submarines fighting in the Pacific during the greatest of all wars.
If you enjoyed this fictional submarine adventure, you might like the real thing even better. Check out War in the Boats by Captain William J. Ruhe, The War Below by James Scott, The Silent Service in World War II edited by Edward Monroe-Jones and Michael Green, Clear the Bridge! by Rear Admiral Richard H. O’Kane, Crash Dive edited by Larry Bond, Unrestricted Warfare by James F. DeRose, The Rescue by Steven Trent Smith (depicting a real rescue of refugees in the Philippines), Thunder Below! by Eugene B. Fluckey, and Submarine! by Edward L. Beach (who also wrote what is probably the best fictional submarine story of all time, Run Silent, Run Deep).
These books, most of them firsthand accounts, went a long way in informing the writing of Silent Running, along with a great deal of other research such as Navy manuals related to submarine theory, operation, and phraseology. Any errors and omissions, of courses, are solely mine, and some of them are intentional. While I made every effort to create an experience aboard Sabertooth that was as authentic as possible, I took artistic license to balance realism with drama and to appeal to civilian readers. That being said, if you spot any glaring errors, let me know, and I’ll correct future editions and works.
Thank you again for reading Silent Running. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. If you did, please review this novel on Amazon (and/or GoodReads.com, etc.) and tell your friends about it. Crash Dive proved so popular I’ve decided to go ahead and make it a series. Charlie has many more challenges, triumphs, and setbacks ahead of him during his war in the boats.
Stay tuned for new episodes in the series at www.CraigDiLouie.com (be sure to sign up for my mailing list here). I also welcome any correspondence about my fiction at [email protected].
—Craig DiLouie, February 2016
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Craig DiLouie is an author of popular thriller, apocalyptic/horror, and sci-fi/fantasy fiction.
In hundreds of reviews, Craig’s novels have been praised for their strong characters, action, and gritty realism. Each book promises an exciting experience with people you’ll care about in a world that feels real.
These works have been nominated for major literary awards such as the Bram Stoker Award and Audie Award, translated into multiple languages, and optioned for film. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association, International Thriller Writers, and Imaginative Fiction Writers Association.
Learn more about Craig’s writing at www.CraigDiLouie.com. Sign up for Craig’s mailing list to be the first to learn about his new releases here.
Other books by Craig:
Suffer the Children
The Retreat, Episode #1: Pandemic
The Retreat, Episode #2: Slaughterhouse
The Retreat, Episode #3: Die Laughing
The Retreat, Episode #4: Alamo
The Alchemists
The Infection
The Killing Floor
Children of God
Tooth and Nail
The Great Planet Robbery
Paranoia
Silent Running: a novel of the Pacific War (Crash Dive Book 2) Page 16
