Crush Depth

will do for us.”

Jeffrey shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. What about you, sir? What if you’d been picked up by the Russians or Germans and tortured? You’re most senior, they’d single you out.”

“If I deemed the situation warranted it, I was to make sure I wasn’t taken alive, because of all the things I know, not just about Miss Reebeck… Unlike you, Captain, I have a wife and three young children. So how do you think I felt about that part of my orders?”

Jeffrey took a deep breath, and let it out very slowly. “I feel pretty dumb, Commodore.”

“You should. And that’s the other reason I didn’t tell you Ilse was okay. You needed to learn the hard way that you simply must get a better handle on your emotions. Just because an enemy like Jan ter Horst can’t see your face underwater doesn’t mean he cannot read your mind. He’s met you in combat before, and I’ll guarantee you he’s read a full report on your action against the Germans.”

“But how—”

“A few men got off in their minisub.”

“I didn’t realize that, Commodore.”

“You didn’t need to know, and now you do. In your very aggressiveness your battle tactics are becoming predictable. You’re so predictable I knew before we left New London you’d storm in here the minute you found out Ilse Reebeck was alive.”

Jeffrey felt himself blushing.

“Get predictable in battle and you’re going to get yourself and me and this ship and your whole crew killed. Worse, such continued impulsiveness will keep you from being a proper team player. My flagship captain had better be a team player!”

Jeffrey stared at the overhead. After I made the connection between my relationships with Wilson and my father, I swore I’d take the chip off my shoulder and stop second-guessing authority figures. I swore I’d be a good subordinate and show them proper deference.

Now I’ve gone and made a total mess of it.

“I take it you have nothing further to say?”

“No, sir, except to apologize.”

“Good. And if there is the slightest feeling in you that this is some kind of macho contest between you and ter Horst over Ilse Reebeck, push that far down in the back of your mind and put a huge mental boulder over it and leave it there forever, because otherwise such thoughts will cloud your judgment fatally.”

“Understood, Commodore.” If Wilson only knew.

Wilson looked Jeffrey right in the eyes. “I’m not sure you really do understand…. How do you think the Allies are going to win this war?”

Jeffrey was taken aback. “Sir, that’s much too open-ended a question to respond to meaningfully.”

“Commanders who think that way don’t make full captain. How are we going to strike at the seat of German power, in the heart of Europe?”

“We need to send in ground troops. I suppose another landing eventually, like D-Day.”

“With nuclear-powered U-boats exercising sea denial against us in the North Atlantic? With enemy tactical nukes poised to wipe out any amphibious force that tries to cross the English Channel?”

“It’s a very difficult question to answer, sir.”

“The answer, Captain, is that we do not go across the Atlantic, and do not attempt a force buildup in the U.K. that would be a sitting duck. Our only prayer of bringing the Germans to their knees without risking mutual nuclear annihilation is to come at Berlin from the opposite direction.”

“Another eastern front? But Russia’s pro-Axis, Commodore. They’d never come in on our side. We’ll be lucky if they stick to the phony neutrality they’re practicing so far.”

“Did I say Russia?… Think about coming in under Russia, well south of Russia. The old Spice Trade route. Stage troops first to Australia, then send land armies through Malaysia, India, Pakistan, the Middle East, then Turkey. Advance with well-dispersed divisions, along a very broad front, with Allied navies protecting the flank on the Indian Ocean coast. Use tanks and personnel carriers equipped with bulldozer blades, so they can dig themselves giant foxholes quickly and escape the heat and blast of battlefield atom bombs…. Drive up into Imperial Germany that way.”

“But most of those countries are neutral, or hate us, or are at each other’s throats.”

“Now you see what’s really at stake here. Now you see what Voortrekker’s push really means. If she cuts America’s shipping lines of communication to Asia, then the Hindu and Moslem nations along the Spice Trade route will not be very inclined to help us, and may well be tempted to join the Axis to share in the spoils of our defeat… and we’ll have no way to ship our troops and vehicles over there anyway.”

“But won’t Voortrekker just run out of ammo? Ter Horst will be declawed.”

“Once again Commander Fuller does not use his head. How did we cross the canal?”

“Okay…. If we can do it in Prima Latina, the Axis may have clandestine tenders too.”

“If we had forever to work with, Voortrekker’s thrust wouldn’t be such a decisive threat. But time, the initiative, the psychological edge, are all on the enemy side here. Building on their recent string of military successes, Axis attaches and sympathizers will press Asian countries to get off the fence very soon, before we can recover any strategic equilibrium. If they penetrate the SOSUS net in the ANZA Gap somehow, and then outflank my undersea battle group, all may be lost at the outset. Just one more grand gesture by ter Horst, say an attack on Pearl Harbor, might be all it takes…. Now do you see what I mean, Captain, that you need to do a better job of grasping the big picture and keeping your cool?”

“Yes, Commodore.”

Wilson rubbed his eyes, then looked at Jeffrey very sternly. “Remember, I too have a boss, and he has a boss, and he has a boss, all the way up the ladder. You need to have more faith in the system. You ought to know by now that things always happen for reasons, as obscure as the reasons may seem.” Wilson paused, then got nasty. “Have I gotten through to you this time?”

Jeffrey nodded.

“Good. Then kindly leave my office.”

Jeffrey turned and opened the door.

“Oh, and Captain.” Wilson’s tone was suddenly perfectly normal, as if the whole conversation had never taken place.

I wish I had his self-control…. Aha. Again he’s trying to teach me — by example — provided I’m willing to learn.

“Sir?” Jeffrey said in as even and polite a tone of voice as he could muster.

Wilson actually smiled, fleetingly, as if a grin from him were precious coin and he tightly held the purse strings.

“Captain, there are other things I know that now you also need to know. Arrange a mission briefing in your wardroom in one hour, please. Invite the SEAL team leaders Clayton and Montgomery, and your key officers, including Lieutenant Reebeck.”

TWENTY-FOUR

Several days later, south of New Zealand, aboard Voortrekker’s minisub

Van Gelder watched and listened, amazed that all this was happening and that he was here to see.

“I repeat,” the Kampfschwimmer chief ordered into the mike with some impatience. “Confirm you are on the bottom.”

The German chief, squashed in standing up, looked past Van Gelder’s shoulder as Van Gelder sat in the minisub’s copilot seat. Commander Bauer was the pilot, elbow to elbow on Van Gelder’s left.