"Uh, why don't you buzz Phillips back in, sir? I promise I'll be good." He flashed Morelli a shit-eatin' grin through perfect, white teeth.
Morelli pushed the buzzer on the intercom and shook his head. Phillips came back in and sat in the wooden chair. Grant was across from the ornate walnut desk, the folder still gripped in his hand, concern in his eyes. "From the report, I see the situation's gotten worse over the last 72 hours. Any ideas, sir?"
The gray-haired senior officer reached for the cut crystal lighter on the corner of the desk blotter. Gnawing on the cigar tip, he looked at the younger officer then at the CIA agent. He relit the Lanceros panatela, then leaned back in his swivel chair, blowing a steady stream of white smoke across the desk, pointing the cigar at Grant.
"Agent Phillips has some information indicating the Russians and Chinese have expressed considerable interest in our latest weapons’ platform."
Ignoring Phillips, Grant replied, "As long as the CIA has known one was in bed with the other, why do they need us? They have operators—"
"That's why I called you in, Grant!" the cigar-smoking officer cut in sharply. Morelli leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk, the cuffs of his white shirt rolled back, revealing smeared black residue along the edges. He stared hard at the 36 year-old Navy officer. "Look, you're the best intel officer here at NIS, and water-borne ops isn't the Agency's best hand. We need a plan, and we need it pronto!"
Grant ran the back of his hand along his chin, realizing he needed a shave, and positive Morelli noticed. "Guess I'll ask the obvious question, sir. Is the Bronson part of the task force?"
Morelli nodded. "She is now. She joined up with them two days ago."
Grant turned and looked at Phillips. "When did you get the China news?"
"About three weeks ago. We only got confirmation from the Russkie side yesterday."
Grant glanced at the folder then up at Morelli. "Any place special you want me to start, Admiral?"
"SecDef and the Joint Chiefs are meeting tomorrow at 1030 hours. I'd like you to have something ready to present to them. Can you be there, too?" he asked Phillips.
"I can be," Phillips answered. He unwrapped a stick of Wrigley's Spearmint gum, folded it into thirds, and then popped it into his mouth.
"Good. It's settled then," Morelli stated.
Grant's thoughts were traveling at warp speed, the intensity in his brown eyes making it obvious to the Admiral that a scheme was already in the works.
Morelli flicked the ash from the stub of the cigar into an ivory ashtray. He walked to the window, staring across the nearly deserted parking lot, paying little attention to the snow accumulating on the fourth story window ledge. He absent-mindedly drew a zigzag pattern with his finger across the moisture forming on the glass, and with urgency-laced words he said, "I've got all night, Commander."
Grant immediately recognized his old friend's deep concern just from the sound of the word "Commander."
Morelli turned, took a deep breath, and then stared directly at Grant. "Now, I know you've already got something on your mind. Let's hear it."
Chapter Two
Cruising at zero four five degrees, 2,500 yards off the carrier's starboard bow, the USS Bronson, DDGR-1, was making her first deployment under extraordinary circumstances. She never got a customary shakedown cruise after her maiden voyage… she was needed now. Her 4,000 tons and 325 foot length sliced through the water with a pronounced bow measuring 49 feet above the surface of the water. Her mean draft, 22 feet under the waterline, was impressive. Most ships delve deeper — she was built for speed. She had a cruising speed of 24 knots and a top speed that no one talked about, unless they belonged to the proper group. It was said, though, that she could do in excess of 45 knots. Out of 102 commissioned destroyers in service during 1975, she was the smallest and sleekest, but the most advanced destroyer in the world. The Bronson possessed capabilities beyond the imagination. This one ship had the ability to deal with and defeat any nation's arsenal of weapons, whether airborne, landlocked, or underwater, conventional or nuclear. Then, to add insult to injury, she could launch either a conventional or nuclear response within seconds of detecting a threat. All the missiles she carried on board were undetectable. She was rigged to confuse, avoid, deter, destroy, and survive. Once her power was officially published, her very existence would forever instill the fear of God into any aggressor. Everyone realized this cruise might be when she would have no choice but to let her power be known.
What also made this a remarkable display of modern technology was that the USS Bronson had no crew, except for one. Her "crew members" were thousands of miles away, in Kodiak, Alaska. The secure network that allowed the Bronson and Kodiak to communicate was a scrambled, modern system that changed codes every hour. At an exact, predetermined time, encoded cards, the size of credit cards, were inserted into a panel, one on the Bronson, the other at Kodiak. No one, no modern equipment could decode or intercept the signals. This security for the Bronson was extraordinary because she possessed a weapon that was described only as the ultimate enforcer, far too advanced for its time, the most lethal weapon the world had ever known.
The concept had been around for more than three decades, the initial idea conceived by Dr. Forrest Wentfield, one of the physicists who had been recruited for the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb. Although a brilliant individual, his love of science fiction bordered on fanatical. It was from the stories of the futuristic heroes, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, that Wentfield developed his ideas while teaching physics at Georgetown University. He learned how the basics for capturing and using nuclear energy should be designed. From this the Satellite Neutron and Gamma System (SNAGS) was born, and the driving force for the development of the Bronson.
The ship carried no special launch technology topside that would arouse curiosity. Kept below deck was a simple reflecting communication's dish. Located just forward of the bridge, the launcher rails, once used for the supersonic surface-to-air TARTAR missile, were now used to raise and point the SNAGS. As SNAGS rose up on the rails, the on board operator had the capability to aim it no more than a distance of eight miles. For longer ranges, the Alaska unit controlled the energy burst and satellite tracking vectors, sending the coordinates to the Bronson. The operator on board simply had to pull the trigger once the dish was pointed at the satellite.
The SNAGS could radiate gamma and neutron rays captured from a nuclear reactor system in a separate array of filters that could reflect and traverse the particles and rays of radiation into a narrow beam. These would be funneled through an advanced accelerator that allowed the small satellite dish to pulse a solid beam of energy loaded with neutron and gamma rays. This refined beam would be sent through the dish. Its use could be 'line of sight' or bounced off a satellite deep in space. Its gamma and neutron energy would be reflected from the satellite to a surface target and the combined radiation would penetrate anything. All living organisms would be killed, but inanimate objects would remain intact. Ships would become aimless, meandering hulks; populated buildings would instantly become silent structures. Its line of sight was so sophisticated that it could pick out a single individual up to eight miles away. It could destroy a whole harbor's inhabitants by expanding the adjustable ray nozzle to various size openings and adjust the radiation level accordingly. With its captured radiation, the advantage was that nothing outside of the beam was contaminated or rendered harmful. A living organism touched by the beam would die from a massive overdose of concentrated radiation, reducing it to a small puddle of condensed steam.