"Jon, that's enough!" O'Flanagan warned. "Shut up before you say something you'll regret. It's over. You and I both have to live with it. Face facts, the way they are. Your family needs you and ranting doesn't help anyone."
Hunter sputtered some, but he had to admit that the admiral was right.
The two were silent. Admiral O’Flanagan looked out over the approaching tropical landscape for a few moments.
Up ahead, alongside the Hickam Officers Club, sat the waiting harbor tug that would escort them to the pier. Draped across the side of the tug was a huge cloth banner. Flanagan chuckled and grunted, “Jon, you really have to do something to control the wives on your boat. How is a picture of that sign going to look on national news?”
The huge banner said, in letters over three feet tall, “Caution, horny wives ahead!” The tensions of the moment were broken.
As if an afterthought, the admiral said, “Oh, by the way Jon, there is someone down in control waiting to see you. Why don’t you have her come up here? She certainly deserves to have the royal ride into port as much as anyone.”
This time, the flash of yellow that he saw really was the sundress. Having her up on the sail with him made the homecoming complete.
Epilogue
14 Jun 2000, 1830LT (1030Z)
The Super Puma helicopter flew in low and fast. It bore Indonesian Navy markings along both sides. The two passengers in the back sat silently. Not a word had been exchanged between the two since they had taken off from Surabaya over an hour ago.
The pilot brought the small helicopter to a hover only ten feet above the waves. Nusa Funata sat menacingly just a few hundred yards to the East. Dark storm clouds formed an ominous crown over Mount Guishu. A surreal blue haze surrounded the rest of the island. To the West, the sun was setting in a glorious explosion of colors.
"It's time," Admiral Mengatiz said. "Get out."
He pointed a wicked looking Beretta 9mm pistol at the other passenger. Admiral Suluvana offered no resistance. He rose, stepped out the door and dropped into the water below. As the helicopter disappeared over the horizon, he began the laborious swim to the land. He didn't know why he even bothered. He could so easily just slip beneath the waves and end it here. There was no one left on Nusa Funata and there wouldn't be for many generations. The smallpox NX had finished Aswal and all the remaining people there. Now it waited for him.
14 Jul 2000, 1500LT (15 Jul, 0200Z)
Hunter and Fagan sat back in their lounge chairs. The hot Hawaiian sun beat down on them. Drips of sweat trickled down the sides of the cold beer bottles on the small table between them.
“Seaman Martinez came by the boat this morning. He was looking for you. He had his GED and his new wife. You have never seen a guy so proud. Looks like you steered that one right," Fagan said as the two sat under the great Banyan tree in Hunter’s side yard. "What's next? Are you still planning on retiring after this?”
Megan sat just above them on the branch of her banyon tree, talking to Sally on her new cell phone. Maggie sat on her Dad's lap. They both still had nightmares and didn't stray very far from Peg. Now that Jon was home, Maggie seemed to need to constantly hold on to him. It would take a while for them to forget that awful day.
“Bill, my relief has been named and will be aboard in a couple of weeks. Not much left for an old sailor to do but retire. You saw the Captain’s List. I wasn’t on it, so I can look forward to meaningless desk bound jobs ashore if I stay in. That’s not my style, so I’ll go ahead and retire. I've found a new challenge to conquer. I think that I'll work on cleaning up Wall Street. That’s a real nest of vipers, much worse than anything we've faced,” Jon Hunter replied.
"Besides, there's this," Hunter added, reaching for an envelope on the stand beside his lawn chair. "Results from some tests that I had before we left. Seems that I have a problem with my heart. Something called mobitz type II heart block. Something to do with the way my heart is wired. That was the cause of the dizzy spells. It means that I need a pacemaker. Relatively simple operation, but it will leave me medically disqualified for submarines."
Bill Fagan sat back in the lounge chair, took a deep breath and replied, “Jon, my orders to the next PCO class were in today's mailbag. I'm thinking of turning them down and resigning my commission."
Jon Hunter stared across the water toward Ford Island for a long moment. "It's the KILO thing, isn't it? That could have happened to anyone. You have no idea how scared I was. Now you know what it's like and how to handle it. You won't freeze next time." Reaching for his beer, Hunter added, "Besides, the Navy will always need at least one CO crazy enough to do what we did."
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