The pain was getting worse sooner or later, he’d have to take the painkillers the corpsman kept handing him. For the first time, he noticed the grease and grime covering his khakis, evidence of the damage control battle that had been fought here the day before. “Guess I should have worn coveralls.” The logistical problems of trying to get them over the splint would have baffled him.
The chief engineer followed his gaze to look at the spots, then dropped his gaze lower down to the splinted leg, the khaki pants hanging in shreds. “I could have reminded you, Captain.”
The captain shook his head. “No.” He glanced back up at the chief engineer. “I’ve already been reminded enough of the basics today.”
Tombstone hung up the receiver after taking the Arsenal CO’s report. His eyes met Batman’s across the table, and he smiled slightly.
Batman nodded. Not many of Tombstone’s staff members would have believed it, but he himself had seen the somber admiral smile on several occasions. This was one of them.
“Sounds like the man’s got his shit together, doesn’t it?”
Tombstone returned the nod, the merest inclination of his head. “He does. So what now?”
“You’re asking me? Hell, Tombstone, you’re the one with two stars.”
Tombstone shook his head gravely. “It doesn’t make me infallible.
Tell me what you think.”
Batman stood and started pacing around the compartment. Finally, he looked back at his old flying mate. “I think this is a come-as-you-are war. No fancy preparations, no amphibious force standing by hell, we’re close enough to the U.S. to get anything we need on short notice. This is the O.K. Corral, and we’re here, and the hell with how Washington wants the war to be won. I say we disable the remote controls on the Arsenal ship and shift targeting back to where it belongs the captain.
Factor him into our strike plan, get the aircraft back up in the air where they were meant to be, and let’s go for it. We can turn those missile silos into glass, or at least shredded metal, in less time than it takes for the chaplain to say the morning prayer in Congress.”
“We’re getting rudder orders from D.C. I suspect they’re going to insist that the Arsenal take the lead again in the attack.”
Tombstone’s eyes were backlit with anger. “What’s your take? You’ve spent more time in D.C. than I have.”
Batman sighed. “If we propose a classic strike, they’ll say no. By the time we could convince them, we may have missiles inbound from Cuba headed for the continental U.S.”
“Agreed. So?”
“So fuck them we don’t ask. We just take care of business and our people and deal with the consequences later. That’s why we’re wearing the stars to take the incoming fire.”
Tombstone stood as well. He stretched, let out a long groan, then shook himself like a wet dog. “Do it. See how easy having two stars is?”
The President stared out at the Rose Garden from the Oval Office, his back to the two men standing at attention in front of his desk. Let them wait it was one of the prerogatives of his office as commander in chief that he could keep the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of naval operations braced up for as long as he wanted.
He wondered what he would have said thirty years ago when he was a grunt on the ground in Vietnam if someone had told him he’d one day have this much power. He would have laughed, he suspected. Laughed and made some joke about somebody smoking too much pot. In country, where soldiers reckoned their lives by how many patrols they had left to do, a future devoid of artillery and snipers would have seemed an impossibility.
I blew it. Not only did I make the same mistake my predecessors did during Vietnam, but I have even less excuse than they did. I was there; I should have known better. At least I can fix it this time.
And maybe the next President that’s tempted to micromanage will know better.
He turned back to the two men, his face grave. “As of now we’re out of the targeting business.” He pointed his finger at the chairman. “You and me both.”
“You,” he continued, jabbing the same finger at the CNO, “call up your commander down there. You tell him that the Arsenal ship is hereby transferred to his complete command, as theater commander. Give him my objective sand give him his head. You got that?”
The CNO nodded, a grim smile starting at the corners of his mouth.
“Aye, aye, sir. we’ll get results that I can promise you.”
Even with the urgency of his information, it had taken the aide a good half hour to clear out the petitioners clogging Senator Dailey’s anteroom. Finally, when his boss motioned him in, he had his chance. He described what he’d seen in Admiral Loggins’s office, not bothering to supply his own conclusions.
They’d discussed the Williams-Loggins link too often for this falling-out to have many surprises.
Senator Dailey leaned back in his chair and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. “So it finally happened. That’s what I was counting on. The Keith Loggins I knew when I was on active duty had more balls than to let somebody like Williams suck him into something shady. Wonder what they broke up over.”
The aide shook his head. “I couldn’t hear everything, Senator. Just enough to convince me it had to do with the battle group to the south.
And we both know what side of the problem those two are on.”
Senator Dailey unfurled himself from the angle between his desk and his chair, then reached across for the telephone.
He paused, studied his aide thoughtfully. “Let this be a lesson to you. There’s an old saying” The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I think it’s about time I called Admiral Magruder and gave him the day off.” He began dialing the number from memory.
“The day off?” the aide asked, looking puzzled. “Why is that?”
The senator smiled broadly. “Because in about fifteen minutes.
Admiral Tombstone Magruder is going to think it’s Christmas. Santa Claus, played by little old me, is about to give him everything he ever wanted or asked for.”
For the second time that day.
Tombstone Magruder hung up the telephone and laughed. “Just when you’re getting ready to mutiny, the elected Powers That Be come through for you.”
Batman smirked. “I was just getting used to the idea of it myself.
What did Senator Dailey have to say?”
Tombstone smiled back. “We’ve got everything we wanted and we’re willing to do without authorization. Weapons free, aircraft free everything. Evidently there’s been a falling-out amongst thieves back in D.C and we’re back to being the good guys.”
Batman dropped his feet off the desk and stood. “Hell, Tombstone, we always were the good guys. Sometimes they just forget that back there.”
“Now that they’ve got it straightened out,” Tombstone said, “let’s see if we can make it clear to the Cubans.”
Bird Dog double-clicked his mouse, transferring the contents from his rough drawing sheet into the cell on his war-game planning sheet. This plan had everything he needed, everything he’d been taught to plan for during his year at War College. He studied it again, trying to see if he’d missed anything. No, it was all there logistics support, objectives, and finally a succinct explanation of the desired end state to this conflict. He knew that was a little bit beyond his duties as a carrier staff puke, but it didn’t hurt to show off a little anyway.