Hume had asked if they could visit MIT, and, after walking the campus, they had headed inside the museum to check out the Robots and Beyond exhibit featuring the work done at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Despite all the fascinating displays, Hume couldn't hold his attention on anything for very long. His brother Billy had called from San Francisco to say he was upset that Hume hadn't come straight home to see their mother. It seemed that Hume's brother had become the caregiver for their elderly mom. Hume had made a rather terrible faux pas by opting to spend a few days with his buddy first. Nolan could tell his friend was upset and had even let him off the hook by saying it was fine if he had to leave.
However, Hume needed to see MIT. After high school, he'd been accepted and never been more proud of that, but his father had had a stroke, and he'd been forced to take over the family farm in Salt Lake City and had given up on his dream. But then his father had passed on and, after a few years, he'd met an old buddy from high school who'd joined the army and had presented an entirely different path for Hume to consider.
Hume raised his chin at the crowd watching a demonstration of a haptic interface that allowed robots to simulate a sense of touch. "Hey, Alex, these robots are going to take over the world. If they replace me with a robot, then you can forget about your certification and residency, forget all about being a hotshot combat doc and saving guys like me. You need to be a robot repairman."
"No, they'll invent robot medics. You know, we trained with one of those unmanned ground vehicles a few years back. They call them SUVGs. Thing was small but nasty."
"Yeah, I've seen those. I'd like to blow one up — just to say I did."
Nolan chuckled. "You were the kid who stuffed fire-crackers in the frog's mouth."
"No, actually, Dad and I put on some world-class fireworks shows. People came from all over to see them." Hume's voice grew thin. "Dad would've loved to have seen this place, too."
Nolan's phone began to vibrate, just as Hume's began to ring. They checked their screens.
Hume sighed. "My brother's really going to flip out now."
"Dude, we have to be in Subic Bay, and they're timing us," said Nolan, already breaking into a jog. "Come on!"
TWENTY
The crew of USS Montana, a Virginia-class nuclear fast-attack submarine, was bound for Sasebo, Japan, after a week's monitoring of supertanker traffic through the Malacca Strait linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Passage through the strait was the shortest sea route for India, China, and Indonesia, and the key choke point in Asia. To bypass the strait added 944 miles to any ship's transit.
"Emergency deep," ordered Captain Kenneth Gummerson.
Montana's control team immediately initiated a full-power dive toward a depth of 150 feet — deep enough to avoid collision with the bottom of any modern supertanker yet shallow enough to recover from flooding should a collision ensue.
"Worked perfectly, Captain," reported the chief petty officer copilot. "Touch screen control all the way, no need to go to minimum electronic mode and joystick control."
This fourth drill in the last twenty-four hours reassured Gummerson that a computer module swap-out had indeed tweaked the digital interface between the stern plane actuators and the sub's fly-by-wire (FBW) computer.
Gummerson, a twice-divorced forty-seven-year-old victim of long separations and short reunions, had tacked on silver eagles during this operation, but the promotion meant giving up his command. All hands knew their relief commander would be waiting on the pier in Sasebo. Change of command was a bittersweet event for all concerned.
"Incoming flash traffic, CO eyes only, Captain," reported the duty radioman.
Gummerson nodded. "Bring it back to my stateroom after it's logged in."
Minutes later, in the privacy of his quarters, Gummerson carefully studied his new orders:
100938ZAPR2012
FLASH
FM: COMSUBPAC
TO: USS MONTANA SSN-823
INFO: COMPACFLT USSOC
SUBJ: OPORDER 2012-0410-TS-001 TOP SECRET //BT//
1. Upon receipt, terminate current ops, proceed Subic Bay. Arrive NLT 1000 local, 120408
2. On arrival Subic onload dry stores, fresh provisions, thirty (30) day deployment.
3. Offload Advanced Seal Delivery System (ASDS) and embarked SEAL DET minus two (2) qualified Lock Out instructor/operators.
4. Inventory/update all nautical charts, aids to navigation, emphasis littoral east coast China, Taiwan Strait, and environs.
5. Embark US Army SPECOPS team, rig for one (1) female rider.
6. All traffic FLASH precedence action COMSUBPAC, info COMPACFLT, USSOC.
7. Advise originator ASAP any/all mission degrading equipment/personnel concerns.
8. Report ready for sea NLT 0001 local, 150408
9. Mission details to follow.
10. Acknowledge receipt this msg via SLOT
11. Admiral Hendricks sends
//BT//
Gummerson reread the message, signed for receipt, then smiled broadly. He hoped his relief had decent accommodations in Sasebo, because the man would be waiting a little longer before he could steal Gummerson's boat.
When U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay was shut down back in 1992, the area was slowly converted into a tax- and duty-free zone not unlike those in Hong Kong and Singapore. Despite the naval base's closure, American warships continued taking advantage of the deep, natural harbor in order to resupply and provide their crews much-needed shore leave.
The Freeport Zone was operated by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, and it was with this organization that USSOCOM had negotiated to borrow an old navy office building currently under renovation to become a souvenir shop.
Captain Scott Mitchell stood near the door of what was once a conference room. Beside him sat piles of lumber, table saws, and sheets of drywall. He gazed out through the dust at the eight other operators who, like him, were hot and exhausted but eager to learn more about Operation War Wraith, the Ghosts' answer to Pouncing Dragon.
Other than the jet lag, the sore muscles, the blood-shot eyes, and the pounding headache, Mitchell felt great. His people felt likewise and lied about it exactly as he had.
He and Ramirez (now a master sergeant) had already set up the computer and projector so they could begin discussing the target intelligence package they had downloaded a few hours earlier. He began with the Situation Report.
SITREP: Chinese cabal about to escalate war in the Pacific.
Task: Conduct direct action mission to infiltrate into China and terminate Spring Tiger Group at Hakka castle location.
Purpose: Disrupt Spring Tiger Group attack plan, Pouncing Dragon.
Method: Infiltrate into China via submarine, link up with CIA operatives of Chinese descent who will help recon and get into position in and around castle where the cabal members plan to meet on 22 April at 0800.