“When is it due next?”
“Tomorrow, and the Brits have something set up but I don’t have the details.”
Terry grunted, whatever the Brits did was fine by him so long as they didn’t screw up.
“Do they have a contingency for a no-show?”
“Those plates have now been programmed into their ANPR system, automatic number plate readers in police cars and beside roads. Every officer has been told it is a stolen vehicle but that it must not be approached, just sighting reports called in.” Ben looked around the table. “The police commissioner in London wants those guys so bad he can almost taste them, they’ll find them alright.”
Once the meeting had broken up and only the president, Terry Jones and Admiral Gee remained in the room, the Secret Service secured the doors ensuring that there was no one to overhear the next items on the president’s agenda.
Instead of prompting the admiral to begin, the president looked at the officer closely, his gaze softening. He had seen the name of a Captain Andrew Gee’s ship on the list, and knew enough about his staff to know what it meant.
“How is Isabella taking it, Zach?”
“I would like to say as well as can be expected, but she has taken it hard, sir. She is at her sisters, so it’s not as if she is alone.”
The president was quite for a moment. “I’m letting you go Zach, General Carmine is the next senior, and he can hold the fort until Henry gets back. I want you to send for him once this meeting is over, and once you get to your sister-in-laws I want you to call me on my personal number, ok?”
Zachary Gee merely nodded.
“Is he in on our special projects?”
“No Mister President, I will brief him once he gets here from the alternate site.”
“Very well, then let us proceed.”
Admiral Gee produced a disc from an inside pocket of his jacket, placing it in a drive on the table before him and brought up the north Pacific on the plasma screen.
“You will be aware that General Shaw had misgivings over the chances of such a complex plan succeeding, too many factors reliant on each other for it all to work as desired… well happily sir, it is a case of so far so good.”
The screen showed the locations of all the units involved in the hunt for the PRC boomer, the Xia, or at least their positions as of three hours before.
“HMS Hood picked up a scent about eighteen hours ago and spent six hours firming it up before breaking contact to report. They sent us pump noises on the data link that they did not have on their database and one of the queries was whether not it was one of our boats.”
Part of the intelligence shared amongst NATO navies was the acoustic signature of their own vessels, and those gathered by their sources, usually submarines or remote hydrophone sensors, of non-members vessels. The president knew this, and he knew that the US Navy had several hours’ worth of audio of every single vessel on the PRCs inventory, so he was wondering why the Brits needed clarification. Perhaps, he thought, the intelligence was not flowing as it should do to those that needed it, but what Admiral Gee said over the next few minutes made his jaw set.
“The Peoples Republic is not much into research and development, and even less into innovation. They tend to let someone else do that and then they steal it, or at they least try to.” Zach Gee tapped a key and the north Pacific disappeared from the plasma screen, to be replaced by a visual of what the British attack submarine had heard. It resembled that which many a TV viewer has seen during tense moments during a hospital soap drama, the thin green, horizontal line that depicted the heartbeat of the subject in its peaks and troughs. What the President was seeing however, was the acoustic signature of a pump in a submarines nuclear power plant.
“Pretty quiet, huh?” Admiral Gee spoke as if addressing someone who knew the significance of what was on the screen.
“I’ll have to take your word for it Admiral.”
“We have identified the attack boat riding shotgun to the Xia by process of elimination.” The Admiral went on. “She is the Chuntian, the ‘Spring’, named after the season, and both she and the Xia were in port for several months before the war kicked off. On their previous voyage though, the USS Seawolf tracked ‘em every step of the way, and this was the signatures each gave off.” Zach pressed another key.
Below the first undulating line, two more appeared and beside each was the name of the vessel that had produced them. Even the President could see that the lines were ‘rougher’, their peaks and troughs more pronounced.
“I think Admiral that you have another example ready to show me, and it will not only be one our vessels but it will also resemble the first signature you put up?”
The admiral nodded.
“Actually it’s even quieter, but what you are seeing there is a leap forwards in pump technology of ten to twelve years by the Chinese, because that first signature is not from any friendly vessel.”
“They stole it from us.”
“More likely they stole the design, or one of ours sold them the specs.” Zach stated before going on. “If one of our pumps had gone missing then we’d know about it, we don’t exactly have store rooms full of them just waiting for one to get jacked. They are frighteningly expensive and also it takes more than a set of blue prints to replicate. The alloys and materials that go into them are exceedingly specialised and some could be classed as exotic.” The Admirals finger tapped once more and the USS Seawolf’s acoustic signature appeared and it was indeed at least two steps closer to a flat line.
“What they are using is a pirate copy.”
“Do we know which submarine Hood heard?”
“No Mister President, but whichever one it is, the other one is sure to be somewhere nearby.”
This was positive stuff for the President, and something he needed to ward off the gloom that was threatening not only his dreams, but his waking hours too.
“Okay, is the Hood back on the trail?”
“Yes sir, and the Dallas, Albuquerque and San Juan are heading in to the area from the neighbouring sectors.”
The President had a few questions before the situation was totally clear in his mind as to what their next actions would be, and then the briefing moved on to mainland China.
“Equalisers land effort is currently stalled by a storm front, but once that passes and the troops can get moving again they may have an added complication, one which was not considered at the time the plan was put together.” Zach Gee handed across a copy of Richard Dewar’s last message. After reading it the message was passed back.
“I have already been briefed on our lack of intelligence assets in that region of the country, is there any way of knowing if an army of peasants will be swarming over the mountains when Dewar arrives?”
“No, and any effort to do so could alert the PRC.”
The news from Russia more than made up for that from China, and the president left his seat to peer at the hiding place of the man who had started this war.
“If I had been asked which was least likely to work I would have said Guillotine, but Miss Vorsoff seems to be every bit as capable as Scott Tafler predicted, God rest his soul.”
“I take it that she has not yet been informed yet of events at the safe house in Scotland?”
“No, Admiral.” The president answered. “I cannot see that such knowledge would in any way assist her, on her present mission.”