"Roger, Battlecraftthe tactical action officer responded. "Wait."
Brannigan yelled over at Watkins. "Continue to take evasion action!"
"Continue to take evasion action," Watkins replied in a businesslike tone. "Aye, sir." He abruptly steered the ACV onto another heading as Veronica kicked out more chaff and flares.
"Battlecraft" came the voice of the tactical action officer. "You are to immediately break off all contact and return to the home ship at flank speed. Over."
"This is Battlecraft," Brannigan said. 'That vessel destroyed two American fighter aircraft. We have the capability of making a deadly response to that unprovoked action."
"I say again," the tactical action officer said firmly. "You are to immediately break off all contact and return to the home ship at flank speed. Over."
"Roger, wilco," Brannigan said through clenched teeth. "Rivers, what's the course back to the Dan Daly?"
"One-eight-seven," Veronica replied.
"Watkins," Brannigan said. "Steer to course one-eight-seven at flank speed."
"Course one-eight-seven at flank speed, aye, sir."
Veronica Rivers gave Brannigan a startled look. "What the hell is going on? I have a solid lock on that damn warship!"
"We're turning tail," he replied.
Chapter 12.
USS DAN DALY
INDIAN OCEAN
VICINITY OF 5deg NORTH AND 65deg EAST
21 OCTOBER
0800 HOURS LOCAL
THE ACV Battlecraft had been pulled from the water and hauled up into the loading bay of the ship for its first scheduled overhaul. Bobby Lee Atwill, the gas-turbine system technician, was able to handle the work on the Poder-Ventaja engine without help. He was very much aware that at that time, he was the only sailor in the entire United States Navy who knew the power plant inside and out. After spreading tarpaulins around the small wardroom, he began dismantling the engine to give each separate part a thorough inspection and cleaning. Within a quarter of an hour of beginning the task, he was happily lost in the greasy work, performing his version of exploratory surgery on the machine he loved more than any of his human shipmates.
The radar, weapons, and navigational systems were a different story. Lieutenant Veronica Rivers kept ahead of that game by a continuous self-imposed program of monitoring and adjustments. However, she and Jim Cruiser were both tasked with all the paperwork regarding the overhaul procedures and results. This consisted of two booklets of forms that had to be filled out and signed by them; countersigned by Lieutenant Bill Brannigan; then counter-countersigned by the skipper of the USS Dan Daly.
They also had to use all previous maintenance and repair procedures listed in the electronic, weapon, and engine logs as references. Not even a yeoman who could type a hundred words a minute would be able to lend a hand in this ponderous administrative procedure. It was a matter of filling out lengthy forms requiring signatures on each one. Jim and Veronica loaded all the documents into a couple of boxes, then lugged the weighty load of data from the docking well, across the flight deck to the island, and up three decks to an unused small wardroom on the aft end. After dumping it all on a table, they sat down next to each other to begin.
"Okay," Jim said, pulling a pen from his shirt pocket. "The first form is for the navigational system. Box one: name and number of vessel." He filled in uss dan daly, lhx-i , then went the rest of the way through the heading as Veronica laid out the maintenance sheets for reference.
"I hope we can get this done quickly," she said. "Everyone is anxious to revenge those Hornet guys who were blown out of the sky."
"You don't have to worry about that," Jim said. "The skipper says if anything big starts going down, the Battlecraft will charge straight into the fight even if we have to bolt it back together as we fly out of the docking well."
"Great!" Veronica said. "Now. What's the first thing on this rather complicated agenda?"
"The brand-new automatic pilot," Jim said. "Let's start with the first page of the AP maintenance log."
She pulled it out, and as he read the questions on the form aloud, she carefully perused the dates and actions taken. As they went through the routine, they looked up now and then, their eyes locking. Both would avert their gazes, but at one point when Jim asked her about the replacement of a cathode-ray tube, they continued to gaze at each other without looking away. There are some things that adults of opposite genders can instinctively recognize in each other. And the most remarkable is mutual attraction. He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips, and she pressed back. They embraced and exchanged a sexier, deeper lip-lock.
"Oh, God," Jim said as they reluctantly drew apart. "What the hell are we doing?"
Veronica smiled. "That's kind of obvious, isn't it? I think we both knew something was building up between us."
"That isn't what I mean exactly," he said, gently touching her face with his hand. "I was thinking more along the lines of where this romance is going to go."
"It's completely futile, of course," she said. "Hopeless, really."
"And against regulations."
"Anything between us has the chance of that proverbial snowball in hell," Veronica commented.
"Doomed from the start," Jim said, sighing sadly.
"Not a ghost of a chance."
"But from this point on we're going to pursue these feelings straight into a full-blown romance, aren't we?" Jim asked.
"Damn right," Veronica said.
They kissed again, this time longer and with more feeling.
.
CARRIER BATTLE GROUP
1030 HOURS LOCAL
THE SH-60 Seahawk helicopter rose off the deck of the carrier a little over two miles off the starboard beam of the Dan Daly. The nose of the aircraft tipped downward with the pilot's pressure on the cyclic, making it move forward toward its destination.
Within three minutes, the chopper reached the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship and went into another hover before lowering to a gentle landing. Immediately CIA field supervisor Sam Paulsen stepped from the aircraft followed by his assistant, Mort Koenig. They hurried over to the island, where Commander Tom Carey waited for them. After brisk greetings and handshakes, he led them into the interior of the structure and up three decks to the ready room assigned to the crew of the ACV Battlecraft.
The moment they entered the ready room, Lieutenant Bill Brannigan bellowed, "Atten-HUT!" He and Lieutenants Jim Cruiser and Veronica Rivers snapped into rigid positions of attention.
"Stand at ease!" Carey said, surprised at the military formality of the officers. He went to the front of the room while his visitors took seats off to the side. "Please sit down." He indicated the CIA men with a nod of his head. "This is Mr. Paulsen and Mr. Koenig. That's all you need to know about them right now. The first thing I want to do is take the rap for the order directing the Battlecraft to break off contact at the start of the confrontation yesterday. I know you are all anxious to avenge the loss of those three aviators, and I am also fully aware that Lieutenant Brannigan was getting ready to kick ass properly and effectively. But the fact the attacking vessel was obviously a warship belonging to a sovereign nation threw me for a loop. This could have been what might be classified as a friendly fire incident and I didn't want the foreign vessel blown out of the water even if her skipper was a stupid bastard sailing the seven seas with his head up his ass." He nodded to Brannigan. "Did you get a good look at her?"