“Enough,” said Merchant. The camera and film went into a container. The film would be developed immediately and the letter and photos would go out this afternoon.
Krause helped Amanda to her feet. Tim noticed that his hand brushed her bottom and her eyes widened slightly. Krause never saw the punch coming. It hit him in the pit of the stomach and he doubled over, gasping and vomiting lunch. The second punch struck him on the side of the head and dropped him to the sand where he spit out blood and something white that might have been part of a tooth. He rolled onto his side and got up groggily.
“Once again, my hero,” said Amanda, smiling sweetly.
Merchant shook his head. “That’s going to screw up German-American relations, you know, and maybe leave a mark on this asshole.”
Krause managed to straighten up and shook his head. “No, it won’t. I deserved it, but I have no regrets.”
Amanda glared at him. “And I need a swim. Nothing personal, Herr Krause, but I feel just a little dirty and want to clean up. Tim, come with me.”
The water was a little on the cool side, but comfortable enough. “Tim, you have been very good and I want to be just a little bit bad. I did what I thought was right in having those pictures taken, and have no regrets. I just can’t stand remembering him touching me. Only you get to do that.”
Tim grinned. “Does that mean we’re going behind the raft again?”
“Indeed it does, sailor boy.”
Toki and Masao were beside themselves with joy, as was the entire crew of the Kaga. The carrier’s skipper, Rear Admiral Jisaku Okada, had just used the loudspeaker and made the formal announcement on behalf of Admiral Nagumo who was en route from meeting with Yamamoto. The Imperial Japanese Navy would strike hard at the two American carriers now in the Gulf of California. All the rumors were now confirmed as facts.
The Kaga’s crew had responded to the good news with jubilation. Cheers resounded throughout the ship and men slapped each other on the back in un-Japanese shows of exuberance. Even the most hardened of NCOs were seen to be smiling, however briefly. Bottles of sake were brought out and they all talked about the implications of the coming assault. Shouts of “banzai” were heard throughout the ship. This would be a day of celebration. Tomorrow they would sail off to war.
“This is a magnificent opportunity to end this war,” Masao said.
Toki laughed. “I thought you were a warrior who wanted it to go on forever. Don’t tell me you’ve had your fill?”
“At least for a while,” Masao admitted. “I would like to go home, see my family, walk the earth, smell the flowers, and convince my sister that you are a complete and utter fool.”
“But it won’t happen for a while,” Toki said. “Too many people have plans for us once we’ve destroyed the Americans.”
“You are very confident that they will be destroyed. How many of our carriers will be sent against the two Americans? My guess would be four or five.”
Toki grinned and then turned somber. “All of them. We have eight carriers ready to use and we will overwhelm the Americans. Sadly, it will mean that we will lose men and planes. The Americans will doubtless defend their ships with desperation.”
“Carriers at anchor and under repair cannot launch planes,” Masao said.
Toki took a long swallow from the bottle in his hand. “Which means that the Americans will have taken the planes off their ships and will launch them from ground strips. It may also mean that other planes will be at ground bases and will protect their carriers. Of course, Yamamoto will distract them and hopefully stop that from occurring.”
“How will he do that?”
Toki smiled smugly. “Kurita’s battleships and a couple of smaller carriers will first attack San Diego and Los Angeles. It will cause the Americans to hold back their planes and attack Kurita’s ships. We may lose some old battleships, but their day is over anyhow. It is now the time of the carrier. When the battle is over, we can get on with consolidating our hold in the Pacific.”
Somehow a pair of fresh bottles had appeared in their hands and they swallowed happily. “And how will we do that?” Masao asked.
“The plans for after our victory are simple but elegant. We will finally occupy the island of Oahu, which will probably surrender without a fight when they finally see how hopeless their situation has become. Then we will land more army troops to take back Alaska, and a large force will be sent against the Panama Canal. The Americans will squeal like pigs being castrated.”
“Excellent,” Masao said. He thought his voice sounded funny and concluded that he was getting a little drunk.
“And finally, we will land an army on Australia and end that nuisance. With total control of the seas, we might just decide to bypass MacArthur’s forces now fighting ours on New Guinea and force Australia to surrender without an invasion. Don’t you think it would be wonderful if MacArthur lost yet another army like he did in the Philippines? Of course, he would become our prisoner, which would further shame the Americans.”
Masao thought it all sounded wonderful. He also thought he was going to have a terrible headache in the morning. He sincerely hoped he would not be required to fly for at least a little while.
Merchant smiled. “Admiral Spruance would like to borrow your brain for a little while. He promises to return it reasonably intact.”
Tim wondered what this was all about as he walked down the hall to Spruance’s office. To his surprise, Admiral Nimitz was also present. He started to report formally, but Nimitz told him to relax and take a seat.
Spruance began. “Once upon a time, we didn’t have enough intelligence about Japan. Now we may just have too much. Everybody and his brother now has ideas as to what the Japs are going to do. The ONI is inundating us with contradictory data, which means we have no clear indication or consensus regarding Japanese intentions. So, since you are our resident expert on Japan and since you are just down the hall, what the devil do you think Yamamoto would do, and don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking of it.”
Dane managed a smile. “It’s on everyone’s mind, Admiral, and yes, I have been giving it a lot of thought. I think Yamamoto will hit us with everything he has, and that includes carriers and battleships and anything that floats. The Japanese have been hoping for what they refer to as a decisive battle to knock us out of the war, or at least win a victory for them that will make us think about negotiating. They know they cannot fight a war of attrition with us. They may have sunk more ships and knocked down more planes of ours than we have of theirs, but they cannot replace their losses while we can easily replace ours. Therefore, Yamamoto will see this as a golden opportunity to inflict a major and decisive defeat on us. Frankly, sir, I don’t think he has a choice.”
“A banzai attack?” asked Nimitz.
“Yes, sir, a full-bore hell-for-leather banzai attack, but with ships and not infantry.”
Spruance nodded while Nimitz remained impassive.
Tim continued. “Latest intelligence says they have eight or nine carriers available, although some of them are of the small, escort variety. We want to lure as many of them as possible to the Baja and we might just get all of them. They could hit our decoy fleet with as many as five or six hundred planes. Since they don’t fear a carrier attack from us, I don’t think they’ll leave very many planes behind to cover the carriers.”
“What will they do with their battleships?” Nimitz asked.
Tim took a deep breath. This line of questioning was far more than he’d expected, but he had an answer. “Apparently, and based on what they did at Midway, the Japs like fairly complex battle plans to keep us off balance and confused as to their true intentions. When we were fighting off Midway, a Jap force split off from the main force and bombed Dutch Harbor in Alaska as a distraction. I think they will do the same thing with their battleships this time. I believe they will bombard San Diego and maybe a few other places in an attempt to draw our planes off from protecting what they believe are our carriers. They may even support the bombardment force with planes from their smaller carriers.”