“I do?”
“You do.”
“You sure?”
“Skipper, if Lieutenant Logan could have rowed away from the Squallfish his second day on board, I think he would have.” Shipley shrugged. “He must have a thin skin. So, why will he be by later?”
“He got a similar message from Admiral Frost. I suspect we will be receiving another from Admiral Burke.” Arneau nodded at the message. “What do you think? It’s a secret message.” Shipley smiled weakly and held the message up. “Secret means we can never tell anyone.”
“But we proved the Soviets have a nuclear-powered submarine.”
Shipley took a deep drink of hot chocolate and nodded. “Yes, we did.”
“They don’t know we know.”
Shipley grunted. “Oh, they know we know. They know it was an American submarine that ran into their prototype.”
“Good message, though, Skipper. I thought you’d be happier.”
“I am, XO. I am happy that we did our mission. I am ecstatic, as you say, that we are alive and in international waters heading back to the Iceland-U.K. gap, where we will offload the evidence. And I’ll be over the moon once we are tied up pierside at Holy Loch.”
“There’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”
In unison both officers said, “There are no ‘buts’ on my boat.” Then they both laughed.
“Something bothering you, Skipper?”
“I was just thinking that nuclear power means different tactics, different men to man the boats, and different warfare in the future.”
“I guess—”
“No.” He motioned. “You and I just saw the face of the enemy we are going to face in the years to come. That face is nuclear-powered. Missions such as this will be the norm in the years to come as we try to keep abreast of each other’s technology. I would be seriously surprised if the Soviets don’t do something similar to what we have. This is a time to look ahead.”
Shipley turned the hot mug in his palms, enjoying the warmth against his skin. “What we learned will be used by such admirals as Rickover to convince Congress to build more Nautilus-type nukes.”
The two men sat silent for a few seconds; then Shipley slid out on his side. “I’m going to have coffee now. Enough of this hot chocolate bullshit. You want one, XO?”
Arneau nodded. When Shipley filled both cups, he handed the XO his and then leaned back against the metal serving table. “For Lieutenant Bleecker, Petty Officer Crocky, and me, our time has now come and gone. The death knell of the diesel boats that helped win World War II is being struck.” He gave a weak laugh. “We are going to have one almighty powerful submarine force when we finish.”
“By the way, Skipper, it’s Pearl Harbor Day.”
“I know.”