by Bob Blanton
“Admiral Morris commands the Carl Vinson,” Admiral Michaels said. “I’d put my money on the president tagging him.”
“Why?” Marc asked.
“He’s a zealous patriot,” Admiral Michaels said. “The president pushed for his promotion to rear admiral based on a recommendation from one of his prominent supporters, so there’s a history and a bit of debt on the part of Admiral Morris.”
“What can you tell us about him?”
“He has a hot temper, he’s extremely arrogant, and extremely competent.”
“How confident are you that he’s the one the president will select for the mission?”
“Ninety percent. With the other two, it’s fifty-fifty they would refuse the orders since they would be risking war without proper congressional oversight.”
“Okay, let’s assume it’s Morris.”
“Will the president have fully informed him of the mission yet?” Samantha asked.
Admiral Michaels grimaced and tilted his head a bit, “I’m not sure. He might just be telling him where to go right now.”
“So, we need to listen in on the admiral’s conversations,” Samantha said. “If we can catch him issuing illegal orders, or the president instructing him to do so, we can use it.”
“I don’t see how we can hear conversations between the president and the admiral,” Blake said.
“Come on all you geniuses, how do we listen in on the admiral?” Samantha looked around the table at a bunch of blank expressions. Then she settled on Catie. “Out with it, Catie, you’ve been sitting there playing with that hockey puck and smiling like a Cheshire cat for the whole meeting.”
“Well,” Marc gave Catie a demanding look.
“We just need to put a couple of these on the carrier,” Catie said.
“Don’t you think they’ll notice a new black puck sticking on one of the bulkheads?” Blake asked.
“Not necessarily,” Catie said. She laid the surveillance puck down on the table; flicked her eyes up into her HUD and blinked. The puck took on the color of the table.
“I didn’t know they could do that!” Blake exclaimed.
“Me neither,” Catie said. “I just read all the specs last night and found out about it.”
“So maybe they won’t notice them, but how do we get them in place?”
Catie flicked her eyes up and blinked again. The puck started moving, when it got to Blake’s edge of the table, it slid around the lip of the table and disappeared underneath. It came back up in front of Samantha and continued down the center of the table toward Marc. When it reached Liz’s comm unit that was laying on the table, it grew six legs and carefully walked over the comm unit, without touching the main surface.
“Wow, and I didn’t know they could do that either,” Blake said.
Admiral Michaels was smiling and shaking his head.
“Okay, how do you plan to get them on board the carrier?” Marc asked.
“On a surveillance drone,” Catie said.
“Are you going to make me come over there and squeeze the information out of you, or are you going to tell us?” Marc said. He was both mad and laughing at the same time.
“Too much drama?”
“I think so.”
“Okay,” Catie closed her eyes momentarily as she organized how she wanted to explain things. “I guess I’ll just walk through it. First, you have two Foxes buzz the aircraft carrier at Mach five. They have to approach on the deck below radar and just pop up and buzz each side of the comm tower without their shockwave suppressors on. We’ll need to practice the maneuver on the Mea Huli, so we’re comfortable with how the planes handle without the shockwave suppressors and to make sure we get the timing down perfectly.”
“Just the highlights for now,” Marc said. “We’ll all be asking questions after!” Marc emphasized the ‘after’ so everybody understood he didn’t want them interrupting Catie.
“Okay, one of the Foxes launches the drone right as they pass the comm tower. I’ve done simulations, so I’m sure it will work. The drone lands on the tower, up behind one of those communication dishes that they have up there. If the first drone doesn’t make it, the second Fox launches its drone. Once a drone is in place, someone just walks each puck into position. I assume one on the bridge and one in the admiral’s office or his quarters.” Catie looked at Admiral Michaels for confirmation.
“All three if possible, office otherwise,” Admiral Michaels said.
“We have to make a small mod to the drone, but we can send three,” Catie said after she checked the design on her HUD.
“Okay, so now we can see and listen in,” Marc said. “How do we get them to have the conversation we want?”
Catie raised her index finger.
“Of course, you have more,” Marc laughed. “Please, continue.”
“With the drone on the comm tower, we can break into their communication system.”
“ADI says she can’t decrypt fast enough,” Marc stopped talking as he saw Catie shaking her head. “Continue.”
“Not their encrypted communication, the actual comms, the speakers, the phone itself. We can talk to them; we can hear what they can hear, and we can connect their phone or speaker to another phone or speaker anywhere.”
“Oh, low tech, I love it,” Blake said. “We grab our info after they decrypt it for us.”
“Wait,” Samantha said. “You mean we could have your father talk to the admiral over their system as though he were talking over their military-encrypted channel.”
“Yes.”
“Could we have, say, anyone talk to him, like patching someone’s cellphone into the conversation?”
“Sure.”
“Ohh, this is what we need,” Samantha cooed. “You better get to practicing those maneuvers, I want those pucks on that ship as soon as we’re sure which one it is.”
“Okay,” Catie said as she started to get up.
“Just one-minute, young lady,” Marc said. “Blake, can any of our other pilots handle those maneuvers?”
“Oh sure, they might not be able to beat Catie in a dog fight, but they all can fly a Fox as well as she can.”
Catie pouted and stuck her tongue out at Blake, “Traitor.”
“I think it’s time for you to learn what it’s like to plan a mission and then send someone else on it,” Marc said. “Besides, we might need to replan or improvise, so having you here instead of flying would be better.”
“Send me your simulation please,” Blake said. “I’ll get a few pilots training right away.”
Catie crossed her arms and continued to pout. But she flicked her eyes in her HUD, sending the simulation over to Blake’s comm. Samantha grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Girl, come with me. We have a few tricks to plan out.”
Marc’s mouth fell open as he watched Catie and Samantha head out without any explanation to him about what Samantha was thinking.
“Having trouble controlling the troops?” Admiral Michaels said. He was actually laughing.
“Sometimes.”
“That daughter of yours is something else. Did I hear right, she’s the top dogfighter in your squadron?”
“Yes,” Marc rolled his eyes. “She started training on the Foxes before anyone else, and she was relentless. She’s also very adept at learning the habits of the opposing pilots and predicting what they’re going to do. Blake hates it that she can beat him, he’s the second best.”
“Oh, that would be hard to take,” Admiral Michaels said. “Do the guys tease him about it?”
“Not if they don’t want to be embarrassed the next time they go up,” Marc said. “Catie’s the only one who’s allowed to tease her uncle. Anyone else makes a comment, and she’ll embarrass the hell out of them.”
“She’s that good.”
“That good and she plans ahead. If you’re on her list, she’ll spend days figuring out how to get even.”
“I’ll make sure to stay off her list then.”
>
“Sound advice.”
Chapter 24
They’re Coming
The next day it took four practice flights before the pilots could place the drone on the Mae Huli’s comm platform. After doing it consistently three times in a row, Blake called it good. The pilots would come in staggered. If the first missed, the second would launch his drone also. It would take two seconds from launch to the drone alighting on the tower, so the second pilot would tail by five seconds, just enough time to launch if the first one failed.
◆ ◆ ◆
It was 02:00 Thursday when Marc was awakened by ADI, “Captain, the first carrier group has turned south.”
Marc rolled over and checked his clock. “Thanks, ADI, put a ten o’clock meeting on the board’s calendar. Notify each of them when they wake up, or by eight o’clock.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Marc rolled over, hoping he could go back to sleep.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Okay people, the Carl Vinson and her carrier group have headed south,” Marc said as everyone assembled in the boardroom. “It seems clear that the admiral was right and the president has tapped Admiral Morris. The group is south of Hawaii and steaming directly at us.”
“What ships are with it?” Kal asked.
“The USS Carl Vinson; the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain; and guided-missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and the USS Michael Murphy; and the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship the USS Boxer.” ADI iterated. “They are traveling at their top speed of twenty-two knots, and are three days away,” ADI added.
“Any last-minute concerns, questions, other ideas?” Marc asked. He looked around the room at the collection of somber faces. “Okay, let’s begin this thing. Catie, you have a green light to put the drone on the Carl Vinson.”
The two Foxes launched from Delphi City at 11:00 on Thursday, August twenty-seventh. They were flown by Liz Farmer and Jaime Hernandez. The plan was to time their pass on the Carl Vinson for noon. The board was assembled in the meeting room with the display showing the Carl Vinson and the carrier group steaming toward the Cook Islands.
“How are you getting that image?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Privileged,” Marc said.
“Here they come,” Catie said, pointing to the second display showing the zoomed-out view. It showed a blip for the two Foxes, and you could just make out the Carl Vinson.
“Fox one, this is flight command. You are eight hundred kilometers out. Adjust speed to Mach five,” Blake said into the comm.
“Copy, flight command. Adjusting speed to Mach five,” Liz responded.
“Two minutes,” Catie said.
Everyone gripped the arms of their chairs as the blip approached the carrier. “One minute,” Catie announced.
The first screen started showing a split image, the second image was the view from the nose of the Fox as it approached the Carl Vinson. You could see the carrier now, barely making out the carrier’s island since the Fox was flying ten meters above the water.
“Up they go,” Catie said.
“Fox One, you are clear to engage,” Blake said.
“Copy, Fox One engaging.”
The view suddenly changed as Liz’s Fox climbed up to twenty meters and was now above the flight deck. The carrier had two fighters preparing to launch. The Fox’s camera showed the crew chief about to signal the first fighter to launch when the siren went off as the ship’s systems finally detected the Foxes coming at them. Liz turned her Fox so the wings were perpendicular to the deck and she was by it in a split second. A big green dot showed up on the Carl Vinson signaling that the drone was in place. Everybody in the room cheered.
“That’s our girl,” Blake said. “Nailed it.”
“How did Jaime do?” Fred asked.
“He buzzed the carrier’s island on the other side, five seconds behind just like we drew it up,” Catie said.
“Great. Were any missiles launched?”
“They only had an eight-second window from detecting Liz to Jamie being by them. They both went vertical just after passing the carrier, so the destroyers didn’t have a shot.”
“I’ll bet Liz is disappointed that they didn’t even try to shoot at her,” Catie said.
“I don’t know,” Blake said, “I like not getting shot at.”
“When do we move the pucks?” Samantha asked.
“Tonight,” Catie said. “We want things to settle down first.”
“Okay, call me when they’re in place.”
Chapter 25
Showdown
Midnight Friday
That night, it took Catie four hours to get the three pucks into place. The bridge was easy, it was essentially open and with predictable traffic. The admiral’s office wasn’t as bad as she had feared; she attached the puck to the bucket the cleaning crew used when they cleaned it. They just carried it into the office for her. Of course, nobody was going to be cleaning the admiral’s quarters in the middle of the night, so she had to wait until he got his morning coffee. She had the puck waiting on the bulkhead by the door. When the steward went in, she was able to have it crawl around the door jamb while he was struggling with the tray and the door. That was 04:00 since the admiral was still on San Diego time. Catie assumed that Samantha wasn’t completely serious when she’d said ‘call me when they’re in place,’ so she told ADI to inform her at 7:00 and she went back to bed to grab a few hours of sleep.
Friday 08:30
“I told you to call me,” Samantha said.
“Oh, you were serious,” Catie sat at the breakfast counter where they were meeting.
“No, I’m actually glad you decided on seven o’clock. Did you get any sleep?”
“Two naps, one before midnight and the other after four o’clock when I finished.”
“Your note said that they’re running on San Diego time.”
“At least the admiral is.”
“Good, so it’s almost eleven o’clock for them. We’ll start our call in an hour, I’d like to interrupt the admiral’s lunch.”
“Ask ADI what time it’s scheduled. She probably knows by now,” Catie suggested.
“The admiral has scheduled his lunch for one hour and twenty minutes from now,” ADI replied.
“Thanks ADI. God, what I would have done with such an efficient assistant when I was working at the firm,” Samantha said.
“She is good.”
“Thank you,” ADI said.
“But impossible to talk about without her knowing,” Samantha giggled.
“Oh, you can tell her not to listen,” Catie said.
Samantha cocked her head in surprise, “You can?”
“Sure. Though she mostly figures it out anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“She hears other people talking, so eventually she knows anyway. I ran a few tests; on average, it takes her six hours to know the secret.”
“Those were fun,” ADI said.
“She has fun?” Samantha mouthed.
“Yes, and I lip read as well,” ADI said.
Samantha blushed. “She’s just messing with you now,” Catie said.
“ADI, no listening or lip-reading on us,” Samantha said.
“Yes, Cer Sam.”
“Okay, so she has fun, and she’s messing with me. How do I get even with her?” Samantha asked.
“It’s hard,” Catie said. “I’ll think about it, and we can come up with a plan.”
“Okay, how do I tell her she can listen again?”
“Message her on your HUD.”
Samantha sent ADI a message to allow her to listen again.
“I look forward to your attempt,” ADI said.
“What, I thought she wasn’t listening.”
“She wasn’t, but she’s deduced what you wanted to talk about, and you’ve just confirmed it.”
“Oh, you just wait, ADI.” Samantha shook her fork in the air.
“Of course, Cer Sam.”
Friday 10:15
“They just served the admiral his lunch,” Liz said as Catie and Samantha entered the meeting room.
“Good. ADI, give him a few minutes to get a few bites, then make the call.”
“How many bites?” ADI asked.
Samantha gave Catie a ‘is she messing with me look.’
“No, she really is that precise,” Catie said.
“Four bites.”
Everyone had gathered in the boardroom to watch the show. The display in the boardroom was showing the bridge of the USS Carl Vinson. The communications officer looked surprised after his headset buzzed, and he turned to the captain.
Captain, “I’ve got a call coming in from a Dr. Marc McCormack for the admiral. It’s coming in over our secure channel.”
“Well then, I suggest we inform the admiral,” the captain said. He nodded to the yeoman, indicating that she should go knock on the admiral’s door and inform him.
They watched as the admiral was interrupted in the middle of his lunch. It was apparent that he was deciding whether to make Marc call back while he finished his lunch or take the call. Finally, he said he’d take the call in his stateroom. He was most displeased when the yeoman informed him that the call couldn’t be transferred since it was placed on the bridge’s secure communication system. He threw his napkin down and followed the yeoman to the bridge.
“Oh good, he’s already mad,” Samantha said.
When the admiral stepped onto the bridge, everyone came to attention, except the captain. The admiral told them ‘at ease’ and grabbed the phone from the comm officer.
“Admiral Morris,” he said into the phone, not even trying to hide his frustration.
“Good day, Admiral Morris. This is Dr. Marc McCormack, the Mayor of Manuae in the Cook Islands. I’ve just had a phone call from the White House,” Marc lied.
The admiral scoffed when Marc announced his title. “Good for you.”
“They informed me that I was to surrender the City of Delphi to you,” Marc said.
The admiral straightened up. “That would be best,” he said.
“You do realize that any attempt to seize the city would be an act of war against the nation of Cook Islands, and since we are a protectorate of New Zealand, an act of war against them as well.”
