had.”
“That may be so. But right now, he’s a goddamned time bomb. The only thing in his mind is his son Linus: He actually wanted to go to Hawaii and meet the kid, complete with the omnipotent Washington press corps. All two hundred of them, all asking every sailor in Pearl Harbor precisely what happened in the South China Sea.”
Admiral Mulligan sucked in his breath. “Jesus Christ, Arnie, are you kidding?”
“Kidding! Yeah, right. Just a little joke to give us both heart attacks. Joe, if the full length and breadth of this whole scenario ever got out, that we actually started a shooting war with China to save the ass of the President’s son, there’d be a change in administration, and we’d all be out of here in disgrace. And that includes the President.”
“Does he understand that?”
“Barely. I’ve tried to tell him that his only chance is secrecy. But he doesn’t care. He only wants to see his son as soon as possible.”
“And do you think secrecy is possible?”
“Not total secrecy. But we don’t want total secrecy. We have to come clean about the loss of the submarine, and how it happened, and who, if anyone, was to blame. That’s gotta be hard, regular U.S. Navy routine. But we do not want anything released about its mission, nor the actual…er…demise of the ship.”
“How about the SEALs and the release of the prisoners?”
“Nothing. We cannot admit there ever were any prisoners, certainly not that we effectively went to war over them without telling anybody.”
“Think we’d have done it if Linus hadn’t been there?”
“Nah. Not a chance. We’d have tried to negotiate them out, failed, and then had to threaten massive economic retribution. Which may have worked, over time, maybe, six months.”
“You really think we could keep this whole thing secret?”
“For one reason only…the Chinese also want it kept secret.”
“You know that?”
“Absolutely. I had Who Flung Dung on the phone an hour ago…for once we’re in step.”
“WHO FLUNG WHAT?”
“Oh, that’s just my nickname for Ambassador Ling Guofeng…slippery little prick, like all the rest of ’em. But smart. He knows what a disaster this would be if it got out. His government is more worried than we are. There’s a press clampdown in Beijing and Canton.”
“What worries them so much?”
“Well, not that they kidnapped the submarine and its crew in international waters. They’d just lie and lie about that. Much more, that they were unable to hold on to the hundred-man crew, that their jail was stormed and breached, that they lost a patrol ship and two hugely expensive helicopters, not to mention a destroyer plus some three hundred naval personnel. The Navy C-in-C, according to the ambassador, may not survive it. To the Chinese it all represents the most awful loss of face. In fact, it represents total incompetence. Let’s face it, old pal, they think they’re tough and militarily proficient. We made ’em look like fucking children.”
“Guess so, Arnie…but what you’re telling me is that both the governments of the USA and China wish nothing more to be learned about this confrontation beyond the loss of the submarine, in an accident, and the safe return home of the crew with maximum goodwill on both sides.”
“You gottit, CNO. And that’s fine with me, just so long as the little pricks understand that NO ONE fucks around with our navy. NO ONE. And should anyone try anything on, they will live to regret it.”
“Guess our old friend Admiral Zhang Yushu is feeling kinda sorry for himself right now?”
“Hope so. Cheeky fucker.”
“Which I guess brings us to the next real problem. How, Arnie, does the Navy deal with the total loss of the top submarine in the fleet?”
“In the regular way. There was an accident in the South China Sea. Something in the reactor room, and this loss of power caused some kind of collision with a close-by destroyer. That much is already known. The Chinese answered a call for help, towed
“Arnie, can this be kept quiet indefinitely?”
“Probably. Since the two involved governments have no wish to say anything whatsoever.”
“And what about the guys? Someone may eventually talk.”
“If he does, it will be dismissed out of hand as the rantings of a lunatic.”
“And how about the President? Does he go along with this?”
“The President’s out of it for the moment. All he wants is to cruise through the last couple of years of his second term…and to see his beloved son again as soon as possible.”
“Which leaves us to organize a Navy Board of Inquiry, right?”
“That’s it, Joe. It’ll happen in San Diego, under the auspices of CINCPAC. Makes sense. CINCPAC is Captain Crocker’s Commander-in-Chief. He’s the guy who decides what happens downstream of the inquiry.”
“I just hope it doesn’t get messy…but I know it’s unavoidable.”
“You can say that again. The U.S. Navy simply cannot lose a billion-dollar SSN and not have an official and formal explanation to both the government and the taxpayer.”
“Jesus. You mean the Board of Inquiry hearings have to be public?”
“Hell, no. They’ll be held
“And that’s where life could get a little tough…if they start recommending the severest reprimands, or even censures, of the senior officers of the ship.”
“Might not even stop there, either,” replied Admiral Morgan.
“Huh?”
“In a case such as this, they could actually recommend the court-martial of the CO or his XO, or even both.”
“A court-martial? Hell, Arnie, I wouldn’t think so. We don’t court-martial for carelessness. Only the Brits do that, and even then they usually find the captain not guilty. It’s been years since the Navy court-martialed anyone for anything that was not actually criminal.”
“Maybe, Joe. Maybe. But there is nothing ordinary about this case, and I’m interested to hear whether anyone decides to draw a firm line separating a genuine but inexcusable mistake from gross negligence. This is a very, very big loss…it’s beyond imagination that a captain with firm orders not to get detected proceeded to do so, two or perhaps even three times, and then crashed into a Chinese destroyer…I mean, Jesus…it sounds like the boat was being driven by some kind of nut.…Joe, I would not be surprised to see a recommendation for a special court- martial. Unless they got some real classy alibi.”
“Well, I hope they don’t feel the need to go that far…because that’s likely to muddy up the waters real bad. As it is, that Board of Inquiry is going to be told their brief, and indeed their powers, are restricted to those actions that led up to the submarine’s loss of propulsion in the South China Sea. They are not empowered to ask any questions beyond the moment when the Chinese moved in to assist them. Otherwise we’ll end up with a public report, which details the whole gruesome saga. Which no one needs.”
“Hell, no. We gotta avoid that, Joe. In fact, I think for the purpose of this inquiry we’ll have a Navy lawyer from the Pentagon sitting in at all times, to make sure our guidelines are strictly followed.”
“I don’t think we can avoid that, Arnie. But this might mean that the senior officers of the submarine may feel they have to be legally represented. Some of them might. I wonder whether the captain himself might be advised to do so.”
“Well, I think he would, Joe. And this will almost certainly mean the President will insist Linus has some hotshot attorney in his corner. I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I think it’s better we advise the President that’s what ought to happen. In Linus’s interests.”
“Of course, we don’t even know whether Linus was personally involved in this debacle.”
“No. We don’t. But I somehow doubt Judd Crocker achieved it all on his own.”
