Tidal Rip

Just then a messenger knocked. Hodgkiss’s aide, a full captain, let the man in. He handed Hodgkiss a communique. Hodgkiss read it and frowned. He turned to the room at large.

“This is as good a time as any to take a short break…. Everybody be back here in ten minutes. We need to discuss fleet dispositions to protect the convoy en route and sink or scatter the wolf packs. We need to go over the plans for landing and off-loading on the Central African coast, depending on whether we still have control of the beaches and surrounding waterspace and airspace, or not, when the convoy and escorts get there…. And Captain Fuller, I want to seeyou in private.”

Jeffrey followed Hodgkiss nervously down the hall, to a smaller meeting room that was unoccupied. The admiral sat, gesturing for Jeffrey to sit facing him across the table.

Hodgkiss stared at Jeffrey very hard, without saying anything, as if to take Jeffrey’s measure, to weigh him in Hodgkiss’s unforgivingly objective hand.

Hodgkiss was short and skinny, and incredibly intelligent. As a former submariner who now bore immensely broad responsibilities, he tended at times to distance himself from the submariner community. He controlled huge numbers of naval assets, going far beyond fast-attack subs. His empire included such surface combatants as Aegis cruisers, and naval aviation — both the planes and their carriers — plus powerful marine amphibious warfare groups. Hodgkiss could be rough on his subordinates and had the reputation of being a man you did not want to displease. In both his wiry build and his overbearing manner, he reminded Jeffrey a lot of the late Hyman Rickover, self-proclaimed father of America’s nuclear navy, the maker and destroyer of careers.

Hodgkiss had been the admiral Jeffrey could barely get himself to talk with in the reception back at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Hodgkiss put the message slip on the table, looked Jeffrey right in the eyes, and without preliminaries, began to speak. “The Russians just made a formal announcement to us through their ambassador. I quote, Any first use of thermonuclear weapons by the United States anywhere in the eastern hemisphere will be taken as a first use against the Russian Federation itself. Retaliation in kind will be massive and swift. Unquote.” He waited inscrutably for Jeffrey to react to this bombshell.

“Does the statement say Allies, sir, like the UK or the Free French, or just the United States specifically?”

“Smart question, son. The United States, specifically and only… They’re telling us we better not be first to escalate past tactical fission bombs. And this” — the admiral tapped the message slip — “puts the Axis Powers explicitly under Russia’s hydrogen-bomb umbrella.” Neither Germany nor South Africa possessed any H-bombs. France’s had either been evacuated before her capitulation or destroyed by French Special Forces.

“Why now?” Jeffrey asked.

“You tell me. Answer the question yourself.”

“They know about the von Scheer. They know about the relief convoy and the African land offensive. They’re protecting themselves in case things get out of hand and we’re tempted to escalate. They’re also throwing more weight behind the Axis.”

“Concur. I’m sure they’re also reacting to something else.”

“Admiral?”

“Their certain knowledge that last month you almost started World War Three.”

Jeffrey wasn’t sure how to respond.

I acted under orders that originated with the commander in chief, delivered to me through the proper chain of command.

And I didn’t start World War III.

Hodgkiss shot Jeffrey an amused look, as if he’d read his mind; part of the admiral’s scary reputation was that he was very good at reading minds.

The admiral chuckled. “If you can’t take the heat in here, how are you going to manage out in the deep blue sea? No one’s blaming you for anything, at least no one in the Allied High Command, including me. You just got a big fancy medal for what you achieved last month. I wanted this little chat, one-on-one, because your role in what’s coming next will also be very important.”

Jeffrey hesitated. “Yes, sir.” Everybody keeps telling me that today.

“Commodore Wilson is quite aware of this tete-a-tete outside his formal chain of command. He approved, naturally enough. I didn’t ask him about it, I told him.” Hodgkiss chuckled again. “I promised you’d fill him in on the highlights as soon as you two get the chance.”

“Yes, sir, Admiral. Of course.” Jeffrey felt less uncomfortable.

Hodgkiss became more intense. “HMS Dreadnought is already on station on barrier patrol in the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap. Now that we know the von Scheer is leaving from Norway, Dreadnought is our first line of defense. Her and our best steel-hulled submarines like Seawolf are also deployed in the gap.” The Seawolf class was very deep diving and fast, optimized for open ocean sub-on-sub combat in a late Cold War scenario. Dreadnought was the UK’s ceramic-hulled equivalent to Challenger. “Since the von Scheer can pick her place to infiltrate the gap, and Dreadnought and Seawolf can’t be everywhere, it is my informed view that von Scheer will break into the Atlantic. That’s where you and your ship become indispensable to me.”

Jeffrey thought it best to hold his tongue.

Hodgkiss picked up the message slip. “This Russian ultimatum should trigger another question.”

Jeffrey began to sweat mentally, thinking hard.

This guy knows how to put me through my paces without wasting time.

“Admiral, does the announcement make any specific reference to them retaliating against first use of tactical nuclear weapons in open land warfare well outside Russia?”

“Good, you got it in one. To answer you: No; it does not. The attached assessment by our analysts says the Russians wish to sidestep that rather loaded topic.”

“To keep both us and the Germans and Boers guessing.”

“And to keep the Germans and Boers feeling dependent on Russian help… It also indirectly raises the wild card of atomic fighting spreading ashore in Central Africa, which would be our worst nightmare.”

Jeffrey found the thought appalling — but this was exactly the sort of stress that always made him feel emboldened. “The best way to discourage that, sir, is for our landing to be fast and powerful and well dispersed. Get our tanks and vehicles and helos well in past the beaches quickly. Then stay mobile, don’t bunch up. Don’t tempt the Axis with concentrated targets for fission weapons.”

“You’re up on your theory…. Your job is to help turntheory into fact. This is your prime motivation, Captain. Stop the von Scheer. Make sure the convoy gets there with minimal losses so our marines and army troops can do all the things you just said they should do. Helos and eighty-knot air-cushioned landing craft and fast amphibious armor are useless if their parent ships can’t get in range intact.”

“I understand.”

Hodgkiss changed subjects abruptly again — another of his trademarks. “Challenger has gotten under way, using a twofold subterfuge. Step one is that the Axis has almost certainly been tracking her captain since his helo flight from Washington, and her captain is here in Norfolk, not in New London. That’s you, Commander Fuller, CO of our navy’s most capable undersea warship.” The admiral smiled disarmingly. “Step two is that Challenger has gotten under way using a new form of concealment for which special code-name project clearance is required.”

Jeffrey was confused. “I’m supposed to stay put, as a deception, so the Germans and Boers think my ship is still in dry dock?”

“Negative,” Hodgkiss snapped. “You join your ship covertly, by mini-sub, when she reaches the Norfolk area. Challenger has your executive officer in temporary command.” He raised his bushy eyebrows at Jeffrey. “I presume, Captain, that your XO has your confidence to safely make the transit here through