Straits of Power

“How will I know if Mohr is really pro-Axis?”

“Learn as much as you can about him and his equipment. Then, on the ground, as unit commander use your discretion.”

“What if I misinterpret something? He’s about to save the world, but I goof? If I kill him he can’t save the world.”

“Every op has its downside. Cope. Mohr is not to know about this. I don’t want him being on guard. We act as if we accept him completely. Dismissed.” Felix left; only Parker remained.

“I repeat that I must protest, Captain. The basis for your decision is sketchy, and the arrangements become more tenuous at every turn. Mohr’s latest utterances are the most ridiculous double-talk I’ve ever heard from a supposed defector’s lips. We won’t know if the patch worked until the offensive starts. He snookered you! Bought himself an out! The cyberattack succeeds and Israel goes under. Mohr says, Oops, I guess my patch didn’t get there in time, or, the repairs to the module were flawed. We’ll be long gone, too late to undo the damage he did!”

“I haven’t decided to trust Mohr. I’ve decided to implement his recommendations. Those are two quite different statements. If you don’t want to help, go to your quarters. When the XO has a spare moment, he’ll make sure your protest is recorded nice and legal. Don’t make me have to say that again! Your repeated disrespect of my authority has put you on thin ice.”

Parker waved, as if that didn’t matter in the least to him. “You’ll be court-martialed, you realize. You’re committing an act of war, invading Israel on your own.”

“The court-martial won’t be till later. If this new plan succeeds, I exonerate myself by producing results.”

“It’ll all be on your head. You’ll make powerful enemies.”

“Mr. Parker, it’s all been on my head from the minute we got under way in Norfolk.”

Chapter 40

During the trip from outside the Dardanelles Strait to the coastline of Israel, there was a frenzy of activity inside Challenger. Jeffrey made another round of visits to the racks where lay the crewmen badly injured from his steep dive to escape as Ohio came under fire and sank — glum duty, both for Jeffrey and the men he tried to cheer up. It reminded them all of something they’d rather forget, and emphasized how their broken limbs, wrenched backs, severe concussions left them feeling useless while a mood of crisis filled the ship. Then Jeffrey spent most of his time making sure the preparations for his invasion of Israel went as well as possible. The stress and sleep deprivation everyone felt were starting to lead to flaring tempers; Mohr, Felix, and Salih argued often over little things. Bell, Willey, and COB were being worn ragged.

Gerald Parker had accepted the change in plans as a fait accompli. He made himself useful by helping to devil’s-advocate Felix’s sketchy plan for the clandestine operation in Israel.

He figured out that his life depends on us succeeding. As for consequences later, at the CIA and the Pentagon, or the cabinet and the White House, I’m too busy to think about that now.

Once Challenger passed the island of Rhodes, on the way out of the Aegean, Jeffrey took the conn and stayed just beyond the edge of Turkey’s twelve-mile territorial limit. This helped him sidestep German threats as he worked south toward Israel. But Turkey’s navy, though neutral, was relatively strong, and she protected her home waters proudly and aggressively. Complicating matters was the fact that Turkey owned over a dozen diesel subs, all of them made in Germany, variants of the type 209, with eight torpedo tubes. It would be tricky to know a submerged contact’s true nationality — even if they started shooting.

They gave Cyprus a wide berth as their destination neared.

Bell provided an updated threat assessment. A handful of modern Israeli diesel subs were based in Haifa. Very quiet when cruising slowly on batteries or their air-independent propulsion, Challenger might bump into one, with dire effects.

Different Israeli diesels would also be deployed, though their captains would want to evade other submarines at all cost. These were the boats that served as boomers, with nuclear-armed cruise missiles launched through torpedo tubes. Now they most likely hid well west of Jeffrey, to bring German-controlled North Africa in range. Whether they’d serve as a deterrent or an initiator of tactical nuclear war on land remained to be seen. At least we know they won’t target the Aswan Dam if desperate enough, sacrificing their Egyptian allies to create an impassable tank trap. When Germany nuked Warsaw and Tripoli at the very start of the fighting, mid-2011, Egypt drained the gigantic artificial Lake Nasser behind the dam; experts cautioned that if the dam were smashed, a radioactive tsunami would sweep down the Nile and wash away most human life along the banks — including Cairo, population twenty million.

Bell said Israel also had oceangoing corvettes, 1,000 tons and 250 feet long, such as the Improved Sa’ar V+ class, built for Israel in Mississippi. Though smaller than Turkey’s frigates, these each had six antisubmarine torpedo tubes and an ASW helo.

The final approach would be no picnic even for Challenger.

Jeffrey was increasingly plagued by a disturbing thought. The Germans might have an entire underground of science wizards. What proof did Jeffrey have that Mohr was truly their head guy on quantum hacking? What if there was someone smarter, and — as Parker had tried to warn before — Mohr had, unawares, indeed been misled about what his gear set with the patch would do? What if he’s a Trojan horse of a different sort, an unconscious one? In that case Mohr could feel all the sincerity in the world, but it would count for nothing.

Later, taking a break for food in the wardroom before he grabbed a catnap, something else bad played on Jeffrey’s mind.

He kept thinking about the two dozen ekranoplans Russia had sold to Germany. These would have been the top-priority target for Ohio, with her egress orders — as he now knew — to linger and hurt the German offensive. Using more than a hundred Tomahawks programmed in antiship mode, four or five cruise missiles would have ambushed each hybrid sea-skimmer aircraft, with the missiles moving at twice the aircraft’s speed. But that was not to be.

Each ekranoplan could lift eight of Germany’s Leopard III main battle tanks, with tank-rider support infantry. When the time came for the Axis assault to open, the ekranoplans might head straight down from Italy to occupied Libya to unload, or they might turn east and threaten the coast of Egypt and Israel.

Both of these Allied countries knew about the ekranoplans, but couldn’t know where they’d come ashore to disgorge their cargoes. They’d land wherever Israel’s tanks weren’t, preferably in their rear — this was elementary strategy. It created multiple quandaries for Israel’s generals, since their own tanks couldn’t be in two places at once. Israel’s tank brigades had been mostly poised in the Sinai Desert — Jeffrey knew this from things he’d heard before leaving Norfolk. They formed a defensive bulwark behind the twin water barriers formed by the Nile and the Suez Canal. This was to try to halt the Afrika Korps formations thrusting east on land.

But the ekranoplans moved much faster than any tank. The exposed parts of Egypt’s and Israel’s coastlines ran 150 miles. Where would almost two hundred Leopard IIIs do the most for the Axis? Then Jeffrey saw it.

If the Israeli brigades stayed in place, or advanced via bridges and pontoon ferries to forward positions in Egypt’s western desert, the ekranoplans would just continue coming east at sea. They’d keep Israel’s generals guessing, and ultimately deploy the modern panzers in two groups north and south of Tel Aviv. The city was right on the coast, in good tank country. Even with no immediate logistical support — ammo resupply and more fuel — those tanks would surround and cut off Israel’s biggest city, a horrendous outcome and perhaps decisive combined with the worm attack if Mohr’s patch attempt failed. If Israel kept their own tanks back by Tel Aviv, they left African Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula weaker. The ekranoplans could off-load on the Sinai coast instead, concentrate to spearhead the main body of the Afrika Korps, and the Israeli homeland would become a battleground in a different way.

The ekranoplans would be heavily escorted by Luftwaffe fighters flying from Libya and Greece — also basic strategy. The Israeli Air Force would have no choice but to come out and fight, reducing their ability to support the