Or tried to. An angry buzz came from the gun ? but no rounds.
Something jammed it, whether a misfeed or a faulty round or just the brutal weather I couldn't tell. It didn't matter ? trying to keep firing it would only run the risk of blowing off our own wing.
'Tombstone, we got to get out of here. Let the sub handle it,' Gator warned. 'You've got nothing that'll hit a surface target that size if you don't have guns.'
'I've still got an aircraft.' I shoved the throttles into afterburner. The force slammed me back into my seat. The speck of the lifeboat grew larger quickly until I could make out the individual expressions on the man's faces. The sub skipper stared up at us, his face cold and angry as he shouted orders to his crew. 'Now!' Gator screamed.
I broke right so hard that my wingtip almost grazed the surface of the ocean. The water was so close it seemed to fill the cockpit. Fighting the temptation to pull up, I pulled the turn tighter until we seemed to pivot on one point. The life raft swung out of my view.
But not out of Gator's. He must have been contorted like a pretzel as he watched the action behind us. 'Yes!'
I eased out of the turn, coming full circle to face the submarine alone in the ocean. The life raft was overturned nearby. One head bobbed briefly in the water, bracketed by flailing arms, then sank out of view.
The crew in the sail of the Victor scrambled back down into the safety of their submarine. They must have been standing by to dive, because within a minute the sub slipped back down beneath the surface.
'You fellows need some help out here?' a voice drawled over tactical.
'Jet wash ain't gonna help much after they dive.'
Rabies Grill. I recognized the voice. 'Sure, come on in now that we've got them running scared for you.'
'Running's just fine. Makes them noisier than hell. Maybe these passengers I'm carrying can find them.'
I pulled the Tomcat up, relieved to be farther from the ocean. 'All yours, Rabies. What are you going to do about the U.S. boat?'
'Gonna tell him to stay surfaced. These here torpedoes are set on deep. They won't even look at anything above one hundred feet.'
I was breathing easier now that we were climbing back through five thousand feet. Off to my right, two stubby-nosed S-3s were inbound.
Behind them, a couple of helos were scampering to catch up like kids running after an older brother.
'Funny thing,' Rabies continued. 'Almost flew through a nasty patch of smoke and metal back there a ways. Looks like you got you a MiG while you were trying to horn in on our business.' 'You got a union now?' I asked.
'You betcha.'
I left the USW aircraft to finish off the Akula and the Victor. From what I heard over tactical, it didn't take them long before they had firing solutions on both boats. Seventy sailors on each submarine would be joining their lifeboat brothers in an icy grave before I reached the ship.
The ship. There'd be more music to face back onboard Jefferson.
Running on fumes only, we took a quick plug and chug from the tanker and headed back to Jefferson. I caught the three wire. I hoped it was an omen.
The moment I walked into Batman's office, I could see that it was coming. It was there in the set of his jaw, the hard, cold look in Batman's eyes. I debated pretending not to notice, then gave it up as a lost cause. You don't treat your old wingman like that, even when you're sporting two more stars on your collar than he is.
The ocean floor around us was littered with the remains of MiGs and MiG pilots. The remains of the Victor and Akula were mixed into the brew, and I hadn't even started to worry about the furor that that was going to cause back in the States.
But at least we'd won. And in the end, that's all that matters.
'It's got to stop, Tombstone.' Batman fixed me with a hard glare.
'We shouldn't even have to have this conversation, you know.' He stood up from his desk and walked around to confront me. 'But it has to stop.'
Gone were all traces of the smooth, politically astute pilot that I'd grown up with in the Navy. This was sheer, hard warrior. And a pissed-off one at that.
I turned away from him slightly, and walked across the room to sit down on his ugly couch. Not so long ago it had been mine, just as this whole carrier and air wing had been.
Short of the presidency, there was no more powerful position in the world, I thought.
'Well?' Batman's tone indicated he would not take my silence as an answer. He wanted victory, every last bloody shred of it.
I would give him part of it, as much as I could. But there were still things I couldn't tell him. 'I assume you are talking about Lab Rat?'
Batman nodded. 'You would never have tolerated this from someone else when you were in command of Jefferson. You know you wouldn't.'
I nodded in agreement. 'No, I wouldn't have. And I probably would have spoken to a senior admiral in exactly the same tones that you're using with me. Nor would I have been any more understanding than you're going to be when I tell you that there are some things I simply cannot discuss with you. So, for what it's worth, I'm sorry the plan had to be executed in this manner. You should have been in the loop ? if it had been my choice, you would have been.'
Batman got very still. His face reflected a whole range of emotions, running from anger through suspicion and down to pity. 'So that's the end of it. You're not going to tell me the rest of it.' He appeared to consider that, then shook his head. 'I don't buy it.'
'I don't care what you buy, Admiral. That's the way it will have to be.' I hated speaking to him that way, I found cold solace in the justification that not disclosing the rest of what had happened in Russia and Ukraine might keep the elite network of MIA informants in place.
Perhaps that would eventually ease the pain for other families, as it had eased it for me. There were facts that couldn't be disclosed, contacts that were put at risk if even their existence was admitted. If that were the price ? an angry friend who believed I no longer trusted him ? then it was one I would have to pay.
I stood up from the couch, now at least at peace in my own mind with what I had to do. 'I am sorry. Sorrier than you'll ever know. And, for what it's worth, I wish it could have been otherwise.' I turned and walked toward the hatch.
'Tombstone?' Batman called after me. There was an almost pleading quality to his voice as he said my name. 'This isn't the end, is it?'
I turned back to him and considered him for a moment. 'Of course not.
For some things, perhaps. But not for anything that needs to still be alive. Those things that are ended are those that need to be ended.'
'It's about your father, isn't it?'
I kept silent. As was often the case, Batman had made one of those intuitive leaps that marked his brilliant way of conducting his affairs.
'Well, then.' Compassion, sympathy, and something much, much deeper.
He was not happy, but he had found a way to live with what I'd told him must be. And for that, I was grateful.
'Where are you going?' Batman asked.
I shrugged. 'Right now, I'm going up to the flight deck. Get a little taste of Tomcat fever for a few minutes. In the long run ? well, who knows. There will always be wars, and for the foreseeable future, there will always be a need for carriers. So wherever the Navy needs me, that's where I'll be.'
Batman walked over to the hatch to stand next to me. He clamped one hand down on my shoulder and dug his fingers in. 'Want company?'
Glossary
0–3 level The third deck above the main deck located at the waterline.
