It was his turn to study her. The brilliant green eyes, sleek dark hair — a few faint lines had crept up around the corners of her eyes since the last time they’d met. Otherwise, she could have been the same young reporter he’d first met and fallen in love with back when he was a lieutenant commander.
“I almost wish you had,” he said finally.
The buzz of his telephone saved him from having to explain. He picked it up and said, “Admiral.”
“Admiral, sorry to bother you. I thought you’d want to know that the Vincennes is setting flight quarters to launch her helo. You asked their CO to see you this afternoon, I believe.”
Tombstone was faintly grateful to the cruiser CO for giving him a graceful way to terminate his visit. “Thank you, COS. I’ll be right out.”
He replaced the receiver in its cradle and remained standing next to his desk. “Pamela, it’s been good to see you again. I won’t deny that. But knowing how things stand between us, I think you’ll understand if I don’t spend too much time with YOU.”
He saw her face go stiff and wondered if a similar trick of expressions had been what’d earned him his call sign, Tombstone. “I understand completely, Admiral. You’re not willing to settle for what I can offer. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?” She picked up her cup and walked to the door, her stiff back stilling the sway of her hips to a gentle twitch.
“I hope I can,” he said softly as he watched her go.
Captain Killington, Commanding Officer of the USS Vincennes, arrived thirty minutes later. Tombstone stayed seated at his desk as COS showed the man into his office. He motioned to a chair in front of his desk.
As the surface warfare officer settled into the sturdy Navy chair, Tombstone looked him over carefully, searching for the key to the man’s character. Their professional paths had crossed several times, but Tombstone knew little about the man personally. The Aegis CO had assumed command of Vincennes only two months before the deployment, when the prior Commanding Officer suffered a stroke at sea one night. As a result, he’d missed most of the workup and exercise schedule that would have given Tombstone a chance to assess the man.
Captain Killington was several inches shorter than Tombstone, with a solid, massive build. His hair was light brown, with no trace of gray or thinning, carefully trimmed and brushed back from his face. His eyes were an almost colorless shade of brown, one that would either be called hazel or warm spit.
According to his professional reputation, he was an aggressive operator, one who clearly envisioned stars on his collar in the not-too-distant future. Most of his shore-duty tours had been in DC rather than in the Fleet. The other surface warfare officers regarded him as a politician who believed himself to be a warrior.
Tombstone held out his hand, and Captain Killington took it firmly. For a moment, Tombstone wondered whether the man would try to apply hard pressure and make him wince. Surely he wouldn’t be that stupid around the man who signed his fitness reports, and who would make recommendations that might affect whether or not he would eventually wear stars.
“Thanks for coming over on short notice, Captain,” Tombstone said.
“My pleasure, Admiral. I was prepared for the request.” Killington smiled smugly and passed a manila folder he carried.
“Oh, really?” For a moment, Tombstone felt off-balance. “And why was that?”
“Well, it was obvious to me, Admiral, based on your last orders. Conducting these FON ops is going to take us to the edge of Vietnamese territorial waters. I knew you’d want to know what steps we were taking, what precautions we’d recommend in constrained waters. That’s why I had my staff-“
You idiot, you don’t have a staff! I have a staff — you have your normal complement of department heads and divisions officers, Tombstone thought.
“-prepare these charts. Of course, we’re prepared to address any obvious contingencies as well.”
“I see. And by contingencies, you mean …?”
The Aegis CO leaned forward in his chair, his voice dropping lower. “We’re going to be in mighty close, Admiral. We could be closer.”
“Closer than twelve miles?”
“Not officially.”
“I see,” Tombstone said for the second time.
Now I understand why I heard my uncle use that phrase so often. Back when he sat in this chair, he must have learned it was a good way to buy time when you’re trying to deal with an idiot! He could have told me that when he came to my change of command. Just a little family admiral secret, passed down from the man who is now Seventh Fleet to his favorite nephew.
“I’m glad you came prepared, Captain. That will make this entire meeting more fruitful. May I see your briefing charts?” Tombstone held out his hand.
“I can explain each one if-“
“Just the charts, if you please.”
Reluctantly, the surface warfare officer handed over the manila folder.
Tombstone leafed through the printouts and diagrams. Part of the information was indeed useful — descriptions of additional precautions the battle group should take to detect missile dangers from the coastline, pop-up aircraft, and neutral traffic. It was the last two diagrams that worried him. They contained detailed descriptions of possible shore targets along the coast, as well as a range chart showing increased early alert warning capability if the Aegis were to proceed into six miles off the coast.
“According to this, you’d be in full view of anyone on the coast,” Tombstone remarked.
“They’ll be able to see us anyway. Even twelve miles away, the carrier will be visible. The masts of the smaller ships, too.”
“And you’re recommending this as an OP-PLAN?”
“I’m recommending it as an approach to exerting our rights of innocent passage. The law lets us intrude into their territorial waters if we’re in transit between two international waters and not conducting military operations.”
“But you would be, according to this. Conducting military operations, I mean.”
“They’d never be able to prove it. I’d leave my helos airborne, with orders to bingo to the carrier for refueling.”
“Well. Captain, you’ve certainly put some thought into this,” Tombstone said, anger starting to grow. CAG had been right — the Aegis was potentially more of a problem than CAG’s aircrews. “And I appreciate your initiative in sharing it. So let me explain my intentions to you, just so we’re all in sync with this.
“The Aegis,” Tombstone continued, “is an extremely valuable battle control platform. Your capability to manage the air war, as well as the assets of the other cruisers in the battle group, is vital in conflict. What I am concerned about is whether or not you are incompetent, stupid, or absolutely fucking insane.”
Killington had started to beam at Tombstone’s words. His mouth dropped open at the last sentence, and his face froze into an incongruous mask of self-approval and shock.
“But-” he started.
“Shut up and listen if you want to stay in command for more than another three seconds. We are not at war, Captain! My message contained no secret message that you should run through your secret decoder ring. We are simply going to patrol back and forth in the box I’ve laid out for you, staying outside the twelve-mile limit! And the first time I catch your happy little ass and your boat closer than fifteen miles away from the coast, I’m going to helo over to your ship, walk up on your bridge, and publicly castrate you. And then I will relieve you of your command. Do you understand me, you idiot?”
The Aegis CO choked out a “Yes, Admiral.”
“From now on, I am going to be taking particular note of the operations involving Vincennes. Every time I look at the screen in combat, I’d better see your ship so tightly in the middle of her screen position that it’d take a crowbar to pry you loose. There had better never be a question in my mind about what you are doing, where you are going, or what you are thinking. Is that absolutely clear, Captain?”
This time, Killington could only nod.
“Get back to your ship. Don’t let this happen again.”
The Aegis CO rose and walked to the door. In the few steps that it took him to get there, he regained a
