Counter Poised (35 page)
Authors: John Spikenard
“Where to now, Captain?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I have a hunch. Let’s head down to the office of the shipping company that runs those freighters. That’s probably where the
Nuku
came from anyway. We may get some leads there.”
“This is certainly not the best part of town…or the best smelling…I hope.” The smell of dead and rotting fish rose from the bay and pervaded the air.
“No, the area in any seaport around the docks is usually rundown and dangerous. Watch our backs, Mac. I’d hate to have gone through all we have, just to get mugged and stabbed at the Auckland docks.”
“Likewise, Captain.”
“And stop calling me captain. Let’s use…Brad for now.”
“Okay, Brad.”
The office was in an old, dilapidated, three-story red brick building, which appeared to be part offices and part warehouse. Many years of abuse by the South Pacific weather had taken its toll. Next to the door was a small, freshly painted plaque that read, “Able Bros. Shipping, Ltd.”
George pushed open the door and walked in. A number of wooden chairs were scattered around the dimly lit room as if the room was used as a waiting area by crewmembers or passengers while waiting for the next boat to Tonga. The far wall was covered by a blackboard with schedules for each freighter drawn in with chalk. In front of the blackboard, a young man sat behind a desk facing them. He was busy writing in a ledger. Without looking up, he said, “The boat’s already left for today. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”
“We weren’t really interested in going anywhere,” said George. “We’re looking for some information.”
The young man looked up from his ledger. “What kind of information?”
“Do you ever lease your boats?”
“No.”
“Never?”
“Not that I know of.”
George was about to give up, figuring he had been wrong and this was not where Dwight had leased the
Nuku
. As he turned to leave, he suddenly saw a small detail in the room that he had not noticed before. Along the top and the bottom of the blackboard were narrow strips of cork. Their shiny frames indicated they had been recently added. Stretching across the blackboard from top to bottom, and tied to tacks stuck into the cork strips, was a
string
. The string indicated present time for the chalkboard schedules. George’s heart practically skipped a beat!
“Are you under new management?” he asked.
“Yeah. The company was purchased by a new owner just this week.”
“I’d like to talk to the manager.”
The young man stood up. “Can I tell him what it’s about?”
“I think we’re old friends.”
The young man scoffed skeptically. “What’s your name, mate?”
“Uh…Brad. Brad Land.”
The young man left the room to fetch the manager.
George turned to MacKenzie. “There can’t be more than one person in the world that still tracks schedules like that. It’s so oldfashioned and low tech…”
Just then behind him, George heard a familiar voice ask, “So where the heck have you been,
Brad
?”
He whirled around and there was Dwight, with a huge smile on his face and his arms spread wide ready to give George the hug of his life!
“Well, glad to see you, too!” George exclaimed as the cousins shared a long bear hug.
MacKenzie stood patiently by, and then was surprised when Dwight turned and hugged him, too! “Good to see you, too, young man. Glad you could make it.”
“Thanks!” MacKenzie stammered.
“Both of you come on back to my office where we can have a little privacy,” said Dwight. “I want to hear all about how you got here. And by the way, Brad, the DVD has already been sent by your old…assistant. We didn’t know whether you were coming or not.”
They walked down a narrow hallway with offices on each side to Dwight’s office in the back of the building. As they approached the office, Dwight turned to George and gave him a wink. “You probably remember my secretary,” he said, letting George go ahead. Dwight stopped MacKenzie in the hallway and said, “Let’s wait here for a few minutes. We can talk about getting you back on a team.”
George entered the room, and there was Leona with her arms full of files standing next to Dwight’s desk. Her eyes were red from crying, but they still sparkled like no one else’s. She was as devastatingly beautiful as ever. She saw George and immediately dropped everything she was carrying, screamed, and rushed into his arms! As they hugged and kissed, Leona sobbed, “Oh George, I thought you were dead! It’s been so awful. I didn’t know how I was going to go on. I’ve just been
dying
inside.”
“I’m sorry, Leona. I got here as fast as I could. I missed you terribly, too, and it was killing me knowing that you didn’t know whether I was dead or alive. I knew it was hard for you.”
“I’m just so glad you’re here,” said Leona as she continued to cling to George, not letting him out of her grasp.
“Well, from now on, we will always be together. I’m never going to leave you again.”
The President’s Office, Philadelphia, PA
“Mister President,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs explained, “the
Louisiana
went down in the Kermandec Trench, in over twenty-eight thousand feet of water. There’s absolutely no way to raise her.”
“Jeezum Crow, General Daramus! The international community demands proof the
Louisiana
actually went down. Muslim nations, in particular, are concerned. From their perspective, we had an American ballistic missile submarine run amok, with a crazy man at the helm! The only witness to the sub’s alleged destruction is another American sub commander—a
friend
—who cannot say for certain it went down, only that they heard noises from a distance of over ten miles that indicated the
Louisiana
had
probably
imploded. Now when we’re faced with the fact that we had a madman in control of twenty-four long-range ballistic missiles, with a total of one hundred and twenty nuclear warheads, we need better proof than that. We need absolute proof the threat has been eliminated!”
“I agree, Mister President. That’s why we are preparing an automated robotic camera platform, which can be lowered to the bottom of the trench. Photographic evidence of the wreckage will be the best we can provide at that depth.”
“Well, let’s get it done as quickly as possible. The entire Muslim world is still sitting on pins and needles, not sure whether to breathe a sigh of relief or run for cover.”
“Understood, Mister President. If the weather cooperates, and our expected location of the wreckage is accurate, we should have your photographic evidence within a week to ten days.”
“Good. Now what’s this item on the agenda about the battle action report from the
Texas
?
“Well, Mister President, there are some peculiarities in the report that I think you should be aware of.”
“What kind of peculiarities?”
“First of all, the navigator reports that when they departed Cape Horn and began pursuing the
Louisiana
, they were at least two days behind her. She was well out of sonar range. Nevertheless, Captain Sewell gave the navigator a heading, from which they deviated only slightly over the next four days.”
“So?”
“That heading took them directly to the
Louisiana
. Captain Sewell did not provide any explanation of how he apparently knew where the
Louisiana
would be located four days later.”
“Hmm. What else?” asked the president.
“The XO and the operations officer of the
Texas
report that when it came time to fire on the
Louisiana
, Captain Sewell’s choice of torpedoes was questionable at best. He elected to fire a high-speed torpedo first, knowing that the
Louisiana
was out of range. He then waited a full twenty minutes before firing a longer range slow-speed torpedo.”
“And…”
“Well, sir, the first torpedo could have been fired to alert the
Louisiana
to the presence of the
Texas
while still not putting the
Louisiana
in any danger because the torpedo didn’t have the necessary range. The second, slow-speed torpedo had the range, but Captain Sewell may have waited for twenty minutes to give the
Louisiana
time to take evasive action.
“So, Admiral, are you suggesting that Captain Sewell was in on this plot somehow?”
“It’s possible, Mister President. It requires further investigation. But after all, they were good friends—“
The president interrupted. “What does Captain Sewell’s report say about the torpedoes?”
“Captain Sewell points out that when the two versions of the torpedo are running in the water, they have distinctively different sounds. In high-speed mode, the sound is an ominous high-pitched whine, which is very frightening to submariners. Since the
Texas
had apparently not been detected by the
Louisiana
, Captain Sewell surmised the crew of the
Louisiana
would not know the range to the high-speed torpedo, and they would panic when they heard it. They would dive in an attempt to hide beneath a thermal layer. Then upon hearing the second, low-speed torpedo, they would realize they were doomed even at that depth. They would likely go deeper, even to crush depth, hoping their hull integrity would hold out.”
“Well, it appears Captain Sewell was correct, doesn’t it?” “Yes, sir, but I still think an investigation is warranted.” “Well, you will do no such thing, General. The last thing this country needs right now is an investigation suggesting a broader conspiracy to steal this submarine! The international community demands closure on this issue, and we need to lay the blame squarely at the feet of a single madman. Besides that, our own citizens need a hero right now. And that hero is Captain Robert Sewell, commanding officer of the USS
Texas
—the man who defeated George Adams and brought the world back from the brink of disaster! There will be no investigation. Instead, I want awards of valor for the entire
Texas
crew and the highest possible award for Captain Sewell. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Kermandec Trench, South Pacific
A recovery ship was dispatched to the Kermandec Trench with a deep submergence vehicle equipped with a robotic camera platform. An accompanying flotilla of warships, sent under the auspices of the United Nations, provided assistance using their sonar systems to locate possible targets on the floor of the trench. After a week of searching, the wreckage was finally located.
The photographic evidence clearly showed an
Ohio
-class fleet ballistic missile submarine crushed and totally destroyed on the bottom of the ocean. The hull had fractured in several places, and the topside team had controlled the robotic camera to peer into these large rifts to determine what had happened to the crew and their lethal cargo. Several ruptures in the forward compartment were inspected, but there was no sign of any bodies in the wreckage. Ruptures along the missile compartment were of particular interest, and the topside team controlled the robotic camera to carefully inspect this area. The photographs revealed the missiles were intact inside their silos. A UN team onboard the recovery ship verified the authenticity of the photographs to the world. Even so, fanatical Muslims denounced the photographs as more American trickery. Tensions ran high, as more radical Muslim nations began to align themselves against the U.S.
On the third day of photographing the wreckage, the control team moved the camera to a rupture in the missile compartment, which had not been previously inspected. This rupture was aft, near the junction with the reactor compartment. To their great surprise, the photographs revealed a large pile of conical reentry vehicles in the aft portion of the missile compartment. Experts poured over the photographs for days. There was great arguing among the UN team members about what it meant, but to the experts, the meaning was clear. Finally, the U.S. was forced to make the announcement to the world: although the
Louisiana
went down, the renegade crew apparently managed to dismantle the nuclear warheads and abandon ship before it went down.
The President’s Office, Philadelphia, PA
William Craig, the president’s chief of staff rushed into the president’s office, interrupting a meeting with Senator Lawrence McCutchin, the Senate Majority Leader.
“I know this is highly unusual, Mister President,” William said excitedly. “Please excuse my interruption, but you have to see this,” he said, turning on the television in the big corner cabinet by the window. “I think Senator McCutchin should see it, too.”
The president received news channels from around the world in his office, and William tuned it in to the English-language Al Jazzera channel.
“We have just received this video message from an anonymous source,” the commentator was saying. “And we think all Muslims should see it and heed its warning.”
“Jeezum Crow, here we go again!” said the president.
“Now what?” said Senator McCutchin, echoing the president’s sentiment.
The message began with a great deal of static and the picture was almost indiscernible. They all strained to see and hear what it had to say when it suddenly cleared up and there was the image of a cleanshaven Caucasian male, standing beside a silver, conical object about four feet high.
“That guy doesn’t look like al-Qaeda to me,” said the president.
“Me neither,” said Senator McCutchin. “And what’s that thing he’s got there?”
The man began:
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is William Boyington. I formerly served on the USS
Louisiana
, a fleet ballistic missile submarine missing since last August. Today, I am formally announcing a new policy of
assured destruction
. We mean no one any harm. However, we have one hundred twenty nuclear weapons just like this one beside me. We are counterpoised to negate Islamic terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.
Our policy is simple: If Islamic terrorists use another weapon of mass destruction in their misguided efforts to achieve world domination, our group, ‘The Adams Group,’ will retaliate with
all
our force. Muslim holy sites and cities around the world, including Mecca, Medina, Mashhad, Qom, Al Najef, and others will be destroyed. Let me reiterate—The Adams Group will not respond one-for-one. Any
single
future terrorist attack with a weapon of mass destruction will result in our
total
response and the complete razing of Islam from the face of the earth.
We are highly trained and highly motivated individuals. If the time comes, we
will
perform our duty.
We know the world’s powers will try to find us in a misguided effort to return the world to the status quo. However, reasonable minds will understand that the status quo is unstable, dangerous, and unacceptable. The future of mankind depends on changing that dynamic.
No single member of our group knows where all the warheads are. So capturing any single member of our group, or even large numbers, will not eliminate the threat.
To al-Qaeda leaders, I state the following: your strategy of militancy has done nothing except bring suffering and destruction to everyone, especially your own people. If you continue with your current policies, you will cause the total destruction of everything you hold sacred. Surely one of you has the strength and wisdom to change course when your ship is headed for the rocks.
To the leaders of Muslim nations around the world, I state the following: To date, your efforts at combating terrorism have been laughable. It is time for you to join the community of nations and put forth your utmost efforts to locate and capture terrorist suspects. If al-Qaeda leaders fail to see the wisdom in changing their ways, you must change their ways for them. Your very survival now depends on it.
To peaceful Muslims, it is time for you to get involved. If the radicals have truly hijacked your peaceful religion, then you must demand that your governments find and eliminate these criminals. Do everything you can to stop the spread of the dangerous and misguided Wahhabi/Salafi ideology. Teach your children that the future lies in God’s undying love for all, and in the nonviolent resolution of conflicts.
For Muslims everywhere, you may rest assured you are safe from attack so long as radical Muslims turn their efforts toward peaceful coexistence. However, the failure to end terrorism is
not an option
. If radical Islamists repeat the type of attack carried out in Washington DC, anywhere in the world, such attack will result in the assured complete and total destruction of Islam. May God, or Allah, be with you in your efforts.