Panic Switch полностью

“Simple. Had it been a real fire while you were trailing the Omega, what would you have done? Surface the boat, admitting to the Russians you were illegally trespassing in their territorial waters and surrendering to capture, or scuttling the ship with the loss of all hands aboard, including yourself?”

“God, Dad, what a question. How the hell should I know? What would you have done?”

“Anthony, despite what people think, no man can truly say what he would do in any given situation until he’s actually in it. That decision, coming at that particular time, could be influenced by a thousand things. If they ask that question, I recommend you stick with that answer. But I want to share something relevant with you. It’s still codeword top secret, so this stays between us.”

Anthony looked up from the cap he was twirling and sat up straight on the wooden bench and looked at his father.

“The situation we’re discussing, getting caught deep in enemy waters, actually happened to my Academy roommate, Sean Murphy. You knew Sean.”

Anthony nodded, thinking sadly that Murphy had been the Superintendent of the Naval Academy when Pacino had attended, but who was now gone from lung cancer.

“I remember Admiral Murphy. He called me into his office when your cruise ship went down.” Anthony remembered the moment that the Supe had told him his father was missing and presumed dead in the terrorist attack on the Navy’s stand-down cruise. “But you said Murphy was in hostile waters — and caught?”

The elder Pacino nodded. “His submarine Tampa was captured by the Red Chinese spying in the Bo Hai Bay during their civil war. The crew was impounded aboard, tied up at a Chinese PLA Navy pier at Tianjin outside Beijing, with destroyers tied up on either side.”

“Wow,” Anthony said. “What happened?”

“You remember Uncle Dick Donchez?” Donchez had commanded the submarine force back in the day. “Dick pulled me out of retirement to command the rescue mission. I took over Seawolf and went in with a platoon of SEALs. My dad used to talk about projects around the house, grumbling that a particular chore took every tool in the toolbox. Well, this particular chore used every SEAL, torpedo, and cruise missile in the inventory and we still came up short.”

Anthony looked at his father, his eyes wide. “Is this where your cryptic ‘famous naval saying’ comes from, the one engraved in brass on the wall of the Naval Academy’s Memorial Hall? I still have one torpedo and two main engines. I always wondered what that was all about.”

Admiral Pacino nodded. “There were multiple Chinese frigates and destroyers attacking us. They had our position nailed down and were depth charging us to Hell. I was preparing to surface the boat and wave a white flag, and that’s when the SEAL commander put a loaded .45 to my temple and threatened to blow my brains all over the periscope if I surrendered. Gun to my head, I looked him in the eye and said, ‘I still have one torpedo and two main engines.’ I surfaced and sent a junior officer to the bridge to wave that white flag, and while the Chinese surface task force prepared to board us, I shot my last torpedo and sank one destroyer and rammed the other with the sail while half re-submerged, and I cut it cleanly in half and it sank on the spot, but the other surface forces gathered around us like angry hornets. If not for the fighter wing aboard the Ronald Reagan, which shot that surface force into splinters, Seawolf would have been lost. The fighter that blew away the destroyer that was sending down depth charges right over my head was flown by one Lieutenant Commander Paul Carlucci. I don’t know your politics, Son, but at the next election, you might want to consider voting for him.”

Anthony stared at his father, not knowing what to say or how to react. Finally he managed to croak, in his hoarse voice, “What happened to Tampa? Did she make it out?”

“Tampa made it out. They lost most of her officers and chiefs to Chinese executions or torture, but we got her out. And made it out ourselves. So I guess the moral of the story, Son, is even if you and your ship get captured in enemy waters, you will never be forgotten. America will come for you. Guns blazing.”

Anthony shook his head. He’d heard his father’s career was a storied one, but he’d never heard about any of this.

The door to the hearing room opened and a female lieutenant in tropical whites motioned to Anthony.

“They’re ready for you, Lieutenant Pacino.”

“Good luck, Son.”

Anthony stood, looked into his father’s eyes, and nodded dejectedly.