Joe put it down with one torpedo. But there were four more ships he had to find and sink. By the time the fifth Destiny was destroyed, the United States had exploded and gone down. Joe got more survivors, though. His boat was filled with them. He’s surfaced now, he’s got a couple hundred men on the deck and a couple hundred more below. He’s trying to keep them alive and meet the rescue ship from Pearl. I think he’ll be even later to the Oparea.”
“What do you make of all this, Paully?” Pacino was thinking Paully White was the best deputy he’d ever had. Sean Murphy was good but could he brief like this? Which reminded Pacino he’d have to get some messages off to Sean. “Well, Admiral, I think the Destiny III was designed as an antisurface-ship killer. It’s not much on antisubmarine warfare. I’ll tell you why, too. Fighting in a sub-versus-sub environment must be too tough to program. They can teach this computer how to attack a surface battle group, because when you get right to it, that’s easy as bowling. You put out some weapons and the pins go down. Killing another sub, one that knows you’re there, is damned hard. Maybe they just haven’t been able to program that. Or maybe these boats were only loaded with antisurface-ship torpedoes. Maybe they just don’t have an ASW torpedo. But I think it’s the first reason. The Destiny Ills are too dumb to go up against another sub. A Destiny III is something to be afraid of if you’re standing on the deck of a surface ship. Underway submerged, no problem. Now the Destiny II class, that’s something to stay awake over. The Japanese are good, damned good, and with their Two-class ships up there in the Oparea, we’ve got our work cut out for us. The Two class, I think, has an acoustic advantage against the 688 boats.”
“How do you know?”
“We got more data from the loss of the Cheyenne. The Pasadena was nearby. She tried to get in close and target the Destiny but the Destiny just faded away, disappeared. Too damned silent.”
“At least she was quiet enough that the Destiny didn’t hear her.”
“I guess.”
“But now we’ve pretty much put the Three-class ships on the bottom, so the Oparea should be safe for a battle group if we have sufficient submarine escorts, is that right?”
“Technically, yes.
Politically, no.”
“Go on.”
“From an operational point of view, sir, you’re right. The Oparea is trouble for a battle group, but a looser exclusion zone wouldn’t be a problem as long as you have an escort submarine. But we don’t have any more carrier battle groups in the Pacific. The others are all in the Atlantic for that African flap. We’re missing about five carriers and seven amphib helo carriers. They all had gone through the canal on the way to Africa, and when they were on the way home the Japanese thing hit us. They’re on the way now but they’re about three weeks away.”
“Why so long?”
“Panama Canal problems. An oil tanker exploded in the western mouth of the entering locks. Sank in shallow water. They’ll need to pull it out of the way and that’ll take a salvage crew a few weeks.”
“How did that happen?”
“Some say a Japanese commando unit blew it up. It was positioned perfectly to block the canal. And it’s prevented all but two of our Atlantic coast subs from getting through. They’re all going around the horn now with our missing carrier forces.”
“What about the French and British. The Ark Royal and the De Gaulle? They were in Guam.”
“They told us the blockade was our decision, they weren’t consulted on it, and they won’t support it with their hardware.”
“Not the real reason, I assume.”
“Hell, no, sir. They’re scared shitless that their carriers will be blown to the bottom. A great way to lose votes at home.”
“Looks like the aircraft carrier is as obsolete now as the battleship was at the start of World War II.”
“I think the carrier has some good years ahead of it still. It just needs some help from guys wearing dolphins, guys like us.”
“Okay, so tell me about President Warner. What did I miss?”
“Well, for one thing, she wants a videolink with you as soon as she gets up. It’s three in the morning her time, so by seven tonight our time we’ll need to brief her. She’s still saying the blockade will be enforced by units of your submarine force.”
“Where are the units of my submarine force?”
“I’ve called them all up to periscope depth and asked them that question. We’ve got about eight Los Angeles-class ships in close to the Oparea, one Seawolf class, and the rest, the other twenty-one 688s, are still on their way, more than two days’ steaming out of the Oparea. Like I said, the other carrier groups and the Atlantic subs won’t be here for three weeks. Oh, and your Brucey Phillips called in from the Arctic. He had to blow a hole in the ice with a Vortex missile to get through. So he’s down one Vortex. But otherwise he’s okay. Damned lucky he came over the pole, because if he’d taken the Panama Canal we’d be waiting for him till mid-January. As it stands, he should be here in another two days.”
