You stupid body. Why don’t you work right for once?
Winthrop forced up the hatch. Cool evening air gushed down and hit him in the face. He breathed the salty tang. He’d missed that these past few days.
With a few more lurches up the ladder, he stuck his head, shoulders and torso out of the hatch. The vast Pacific Ocean encircled the tiny craft. Surging water filled every horizon. He knew that straight east was Baja California, enemy territory. A bit farther south was the key port. Merrimac wasn’t going to make a direct attack against it, just the shipping.
Captain Winthrop breathed the ocean air and a giant swell lifted the carbon fiber boat. The stars shone brightly overhead and the moon slowly rose out of the ocean. It was great to be alive, and for a moment, his back felt fine.
The pain returned as he bent at the waist. It made his features twist with agony. He should’ve stayed in Seattle. He should have told someone how much his back hurt.
“No,” he said. The Chinese had killed his father at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory several years ago. Terrorists had lit a dirty nuke there. Everyone knew the Chinese had given the terrorists that nuke. This was simply another way to make the enemy pay for what they had taken from him.
With his long fingers, Winthrop opened seals and extracted a small UAV, a drone plane weighing nine pounds and eight ounces. He drew it out of its compartment and unfolded the wings, latching them into flight position. The UAV was a featherweight, but packed with high tech cameras and sensors. Its duty tonight was to go and find them a worthwhile target.
He checked the drone and finally lifted it. Taking a deep breath, raising it above his head, he waited until Merrimac climbed a swell. He turned on the UAV and the engine began to buzz, turning the propeller. With a grunt, he heaved the drone into the air. It gained speed and then buzzed even louder as it climbed sharply. From inside the sub, Stevens had it under radio control.
Winthrop grinned, watching the drone disappear into the starry darkness. He climbed down the ladder and shut the hatch. It was time to see if their little experimental gimmick was going to work. With that in mind, he climbed down the rest of the way and headed back to the command center…
Two hours and sixteen minutes later, Stevens said, “I think we have a winner, sir.”
Since launching the UAV, Merrimac had done its favorite disappearing trick. The submersible was deep underwater again. Normally, when it was at this depth, the sub would have never been able to receive radio information from the drone. A thin line attached the carbon fiber sub to a tiny buoy bobbing on the surface. The scout drone sent them signals through that.
A second, waterborne drone cruised through the Pacific like a shark. That drone had been attached to Merrimac’s side on the outer rack. Captain Winthrop had released it soon after reentering the command center. The drone was little more than a carbon fiber tube, running on battery power. It was a one-time device and it would never return to Merrimac.
“Put the image on the screen,” Winthrop said.
Stevens tapped his panel.
Despite his bad back, Captain Winthrop leaned forward, propping an elbow on the armrest. The scout had found a big transport ship. The Chinese vessel wallowed in the sea, showing it carried extra-heavy cargo.
“Maybe it’s more tanks,” Stevens said.
“Or artillery guns,” Winthrop said. “Either way, it’s a prime target.” He leaned back in his chair, shoving up against the cushion. He forced himself to relax as much as he could. The sub was small, but he was the captain. He had to keep his boys loose, and one did that through a calm demeanor.
“The Tomahawk drone is forty-seven miles away from the target,” Stevens said.
“Meaning it is well within range,” Winthrop said. He nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Once more Stevens tapped his panel.
As the scout UAV roamed the night sky, reporting with its radio what its camera and other sensors saw, the Tomahawk drone surfaced. It had been fifty feet below, with its own buoy providing a radio link to the scout. The scout radioed the Tomahawk drone the target’s coordinates. Robotically, the waterborne drone’s computer checked its components.
“We’re good, sir,” Stevens said, pointing at a green light on his panel.
Far out at sea, the Tomahawk drone went through a swift and simple transformation. It turned from a drone sub into a Tomahawk launch tube. The end sank and the front or top popped open. Seconds later, the Tomahawk’s nose appeared.
“Three, two, one…” Stevens said in the sub.
Under gas pressure, the Tomahawk missile ejected from the tube and into the air. All told the Tomahawk was eighteen feet and three inches in length. It weighed 3500 pounds. The solid-fuel booster kicked on as a ball of fire shot the Tomahawk higher.
“Ignition, sir,” Stevens said in the sub.
The booster quit several seconds later. The missile’s wings now unfolded. Their span was eight feet, nine inches. With a whirl and a click, the air-scoop appeared and the turbofan engine kicked on. The missile made an easy transition to cruise flight, heading toward the targeted Chinese vessel.
On his chair, Winthrop licked his lips. The Chinese Navy had been hunting down and destroying American submarines. There were a few left, but something had to change. This was one of those changes—if it worked.
“I see it, sir,” Stevens said. He was using the small drone as his camera eye.
Every eye aboard Merrimac watched the screen. The big Tomahawk cruise missile appeared, flying low over the water. It zoomed toward the heavily-laden Chinese cargo vessel.
Are they carrying tanks, or maybe more troops? Winthrop didn’t want to know if it was troops. He hadn’t told anyone, but he’d been having nightmares of launching the nuclear missiles at Santa Cruz. He was glad he’d done it. The Chinese hadn’t deserved any better. But all those men…he’d killed all those men by launching the Tomahawks. Had every Chinese soldier deserved to die so horribly?
Not all the dead were Chinese.
Winthrop didn’t want to think about that, either, but he did. He couldn’t help it.
“Look at it,” Stevens said.
The cruise missile sped straight toward the center of the Chinese cargo vessel. Whoever was out there didn’t have a chance. The missile bored in and struck, exploding its one thousand pound warhead.
A column of fire reached up into the sky. In slow motion, the huge cargo vessel cracked in half. It was awful. It was glorious. Men tumbled into the sea, so did big tank and huge crates. The splashes—
Winthrop turned away. They’d done it. The new system worked. If the Chinese hunted the killer—the launch tube—they would simply sink the empty Tomahawk drone. He had three more to fire before he crawled back to Seattle for another resupply.
“Wow,” Stevens said.
The other two crewmembers grinned at each other.
Winthrop forced a smile onto his face. His back hurt badly. It throbbed. “Shut down the scout,” he said.
“What if can find more—”
“Shut it down,” Winthrop said, with more force than he’d wanted. He needed to take some pills and get to sleep. His back was killing him.
“Good work, gentlemen,” he said. “Our country has found a winner in this combination. Now we want to write our reports and tell the brass hats back home we did it. They need our information as much as we need to make another…hit.”
He’d almost said kill. But he didn’t want to kill. He just wanted to destroy the Chinese capacity to wage war against America.
Private Jake Higgins of the Seventh CDMB—Colorado Detention Militia Battalion—lay on his stomach. It was night and he was cold, hungry and gaunt, and the seven of them were on the wrong side of Alamosa.