“Which incident was that?” asked Rubeo.
From anyone else, it would have been an innocent question — in fact, Dog himself wasn’t sure what Barclay was referring to, but Rubeo took a perverse pleasure in watching other squirm. An ever-so-subtle look of satisfaction flickered across the scientist’s face as Jed stuttered, the train of his thoughts bunching and crashing down a siding he hadn’t seen coming.
“Don’t worry about Tibet, Pakistan, Taiwan, or any of that bullshit,” said Stoner. It was the first time the CIA official had spoken since he arrived. “The action’s out in the South China Sea. India and China are fighting a war out there, sinking each other’s merchant ships. They’ve been rattling sabers and now they’re using them. everything else is just bullshit.”
“Please,” said Rubeo, in a way that implied many things other than courtesy or respect.
“I think we can get a full rundown on Tibet later, along with any other geopolitical matters anyone has an interest in,” said Dog. “Let’s move to our assignment.”
Anyone else would have interpreted this as a mild reprimand. Rubeo, however, saw it somehow as a vindication, and slipped back into his seat with a barely concealed gloat. Before Jed could continue, the door alarm buzzed; the doors slid back and Danny Freah appeared.
“Sorry I’m late,” said Freah.
“We’re just getting to the good part, Danny,” said Dog. “We’re being asked to mount a surveillance mission in the South China Sea, observing a new weapon the Indians have.”
“It’s not limited just to that,” said Jed. “Information on everything going in — that’s what Whiplash covers.”
“The new technology is a prime concern,” said Stoner.
“Um, everything’s of interest,” said Jed. “The order covers the entire situation; the Chinese as well as the Indians. This is a twenty-four/seven operation, completely covert and not coordinated with Pacific Command or any other command.”
“Why not?” asked Major Merce Alou, who had taken over command of the Megafortress development project when Major Cheshire left to head the operational wing.
“Security,” said Stoner.
“Uh, well, uh, there are several concerns,” said Jed. “We’re absolutely not attempting to provoke anything, or increase tensions, which putting ships out there would do. Pacific Fleet’s resources are already concentrated in the Indian Ocean and around Taiwan. The threat of an invasion remains viable.”
“That’s a bullshit estimate,” said Stoner.
“I agree, but it’s not my call,” said Jed. “Also, the Director, um, the National Security Director, would prefer not tipping off the Indians that we know, uh, about Kali. Moving Naval assets would, at least arguably, tip them or the Russians off. Which would be the same thing.”
“Kali?” asked Zen.
“It’s halfway between a sub-launched Harpoon and a Tomahawk missile,” said Stoner. “It’s underwater- launched, like a torpedo. We think it can travel four or five miles underwater before it surfaces, which makes the launching sub that much harder to detect. It pops up, skims along the surface of the water, and hits its target. It seems to be able to correct toward its target close in; we believe it has an active radar phase, but we still need to gather data. That’s your mission.”
“At least for now,” added Jed. “There’s a debate—”
“Let’s deal with what we’re assigned to do, not maybes,” Colonel Bastian said. Jed had told him earlier the NSC had debated asking Whiplash to protect all shipping in the area — a tall order, and one possibly beyond their abilities. NSC had held off doing so — largely, according to Jed, because doing so would have stepped on the Navy’s toes.
“Piranha,” said Rubeo. “It’s obvious choice.”
“Not ready for a mission like this,” said Dog.
“Piranha is what?” said Stoner.
“Underwater surveillance probe and weapon,” Dog told him. “I don’t think you need to know the details.”
“We can clean up the computer issues in a few days,” said Rubeo.
“The mission has to start right away,” said Jed. “We were thinking Elint Megafortresses.”
“I concur,” said Dog. “Merce?”
“We’ll use Raven and Quicksilver,” said Alou, referring to the EB-52’s optimized for electronic intelligence- gathering. “We deploy a mini-KH for optical surveillance at the same time.”
“Negative on the tactical satellites,” Dog told him. “We dong have any launch chassis.”
“We do have satellite coverage of the area,” said Jed. “It’ll be available through the Dreamland network.”
“If we’re looking for really close views of something while it’s traveling, we can take Flighthawks,” said Zen. “Straightforward.”
“What do we do if these weapons are used?” asked Alou.
“At the moment, just observe them,” said Jed.
“Wait — they’re firing at civilian targets or military targets?” asked Zen. “I think I missed something here.”
“What difference does it make?” asked Stoner.
“It makes a shitload of difference,” said Zen.
“There are military ships in the region that could be targets,” said Jed. “Until now, all of the ships that have been sunk were civilian.”
“Damn.”
“The vessel sunk by the Kali was a merchant freighter owned by the Chinese government smuggling weapons to Islamic extremists,” said Stoner. “The same ship delivered explosives used to blow up a government building in New Delhi six months ago. Still worried about civilians?”
“Yeah. I am,” said Zen.
“We’ll need a force briefing before we deploy.” Dog told Jed.
“Do we operate out of Guam?” asked Major Alou, referring to the air base on the island. “Anderson?”
“We’d prefer not to, due to the nature of the mission,” said Jed. “We’d prefer a sanitized site not connected to USPACCOM or any present operation.”
“Deniable,” added Stoner.
“I’ve already checked into possible sites for a secure forward base,” continued Jed. “We have a site in the Philippines away from, uh, away from the population centers and sea lanes. It’s actually an old airstrip, pretty long. Just needs to be, um, tidied up a little. Remembering what you did in Turkey, I thought—”
“You want us to blow up another mountain?” Danny asked with a laugh.
“That won’t be necessary this time.”
“I want to drive one of the bulldozers,” said Breanna.
Half of the room laughed.
The other half said, “Me too.”
“I want to be in one of the Megafortresses,” said Breanna as the laughterdied.
“You have a heavy schedule with the UMB,” Dog said, surprised that she had volunteered.
“There’s only one flight test planned over the next seven or eight days,” said Bree.
“This could easily last longer,” said Jed. “I’d be thinking in, uh, the time frame of two or three months, at least until tensions die down.”
“That’s the case, you really need me. You won’t have enough trained Megafortress pilots unless you rotate in and out,” said Breanna, looking at Alou.
“She’s right, Colonel. We could work around her schedule. Actually, if this lasts any length of time, we’ll have to work around a lot of schedules.”
“All right. Map out plans for a deployment,” said Dog. “I want planes over the area twenty-four hours from now, and I want them landing at that Philippines base when their shift is done.”
