And surfacing here, just twenty miles off the mainland Chinese coast…
"Feeling a case of the jitters, XO?" Captain Lawless asked from the passageway forward.
Did it show that much? "No, sir." He grinned. "Not much, anyway."
Garrett had the watch as OOD, but Lawless had dropped in moments before to watch the surface maneuver. He hadn't taken command but silently looked on as Garrett checked the area for surface vessels, then gave the orders to surface.
He felt the slight shudder in the hull as the sail broke the surface, creating a sudden drag as the rising sub churned up a wake. The hull broke the surface a moment later, leveling off as the bow planes stopped biting water.
"We are on the surface, sir," Tollini announced. "Running smooth and normal."
"Very good," Lawless said. "I've got the deck now. Lookouts topside. XO? Care to accompany me?"
"Gladly, sir."
They climbed the ladder through the narrow confines of the sail, cracking the overhead hatch and letting a splash of cold seawater rain down on them. The lookouts went up first, climbing into their respective sail stations. Garrett was first onto the weather bridge, followed a moment later by Lawless.
Garrett blinked in the bright, afternoon sunlight glaring from a steel-blue sea. Ahead, to the north and northwest, lay Mainland China, low, rolling hills aglow in golden light, beneath cumulous clouds towering into the heavens. To left and right, huge numbers of surface craft crowded the water, though the Seawolf was being given a generously wide berth. Most of the boats were junks and fishing yawls; one ominous watcher, though, was running parallel to Seawolf,a kilometer off her starboard beam: a Luda-class destroyer, superficially like the old Soviet Kotlin class, but larger, with a flat transom aft and a bulkier superstructure. Flying astern of the destroyer was a Kaman SH-2F LAMPS I helicopter, an American design sold to the People's Republic of China in the past few years specifically for antisubmarine work.
It would be one hell of a note, Garrett thought, if the 'Wolf was to come under attack by a former American ASW helo.
Destroyer and helicopter appeared to be shadowing the Seawolf, not coming too close but staying where their presence would serve as a warning. We see you, Yankee, and we are ready for you….
They maintained their northwesterly heading through flat seas, accompanied by clouds of civilian craft, fishing boats, junks, cabin cruisers, sailboats. The hills ahead slowly resolved into sharper focus… impossibly green and strangely humped, rising from the blue mirror of the ocean. Garrett had been here before, once, when the USS Portsmouth made a show-the-flag call back in '95. Hong Kong had still been a British colony then. So far, it didn't look as though much had changed in the intervening years or with the hand-over of the territory to the PRC.
"What are you thinking, XO?" Lawless asked.
It seemed an uncharacteristic question, and it caught Garrett off guard. Still, to his surprise during the past few days, Garrett had found himself understanding Lawless better. Dougherty had been right. The captain was tough, hard, and supremely demanding. He was also fair and devoted to the 'Wolf's crew. The only fault Garrett could find with the man — aside from his occasional bigotry against people of Asian descent — was his habit of not pushing that extra hundred yards to close with a potential enemy or gather the extra bit of hard intel. And that could be explained easily enough by his desire not to put his men or his boat needlessly in harm's way.
"I'm thinking, sir," he replied, "that the conversation on the mess deck last night before the movie didn't do justice to this by half."
"What conversation was that?" Lawless had not attended the movie.
"Some of the guys were saying that our foreign policy so far as the People's Republic goes doesn't make sense. First we spent a couple of decades propping up Chiang's claim that he represented all of China. Then we tried to make up to Beijing and dumped Chiang, but gently… trying to keep him on as a trading partner without admitting that Taiwan was a country or making Beijing mad. Then we're helping Taiwan again, when Beijing starts tossing missiles and trying to intimidate us and Taipei. And now… "
"And now they pull another switch and make kissy-face to Beijing," Lawless said, completing the thought. "Suffering from whiplash yet?"
"Not quite, but it's getting there. What do you make of it, sir?"
Lawless shrugged. "That it's pretty much business as usual. Washington doesn't want a war with China. We want to do business with both the mainland and with Taiwan, which makes sense, since trading partners are more fun to play with than military enemies or radioactive deserts. But Beijing and Taipei don't want to play nice with each other, which leaves us in a hell of a position. Either we support Taiwan and get ourselves into one hell of a war… or we prove to the rest of the world that our word can't be trusted, that we don't stand by our friends."
"The rest of the world probably got that message when we stopped recognizing the Taipei regime as legitimate."
"Maybe. Of course, nobody else in the world recognizes Taiwan as a real government anymore, except twenty-odd nations that are either too small to be noticed by Beijing or are outcast states anyway. South Africa. Israel. Singapore." He chuckled. "Did you know that Lithuania tried to recognize Taiwan when they got their independence from the Soviet Union? Beijing landed on them hard, threatening all kinds of diplomatic bluster and thunder. Lithuania had to back down finally. They couldn't afford that kind of pressure."
"I hadn't known that."
"S'truth. China, the PRC, has been playing this game for a long time, and they've been playing hardball. They're patient. They haven't wanted a war, either. But they're also determined to get their way, to get their rebellious province back in line."
"So why are they pushing so hard now?" Garrett asked.
"Combination of factors. First, they know that if the PDP stays in power, there's a good chance they'll finally win recognition as an independent state, the Republic of Taiwan. Once that happens, Beijing can't claim that other countries are interfering in their internal affairs by recognizing Taipei, by selling them up-to-date arms and munitions, or by forming trade or defense alliances with them.
"And second…there's the Terrorist War. This must be a God-given chance for Beijing, with our military stretched to the limit right now in Iraq, Afghanistan, and half a dozen other places scattered all over the globe. They know we can't commit to a big war here, or a long one, or an expensive one. They're gambling that when they push hard enough, we're going to back down, that Taiwan is a small price to pay for peace."
"They know us pretty well."
"We don't exactly make it hard for them," Lawless said. "China has a culture going back a couple of millennia. They're used to taking the long view. To being patient. Like a cat at a mouse hole."
"And right now I feel like the mouse." Garrett smiled. "So why are we sailing blithely into Hong Kong harbor, with the cat waiting to pounce?"
"Damfino. At a guess, I'd say some lead-asses in the State Department see their careers tied to good relations with Beijing and are willing to do or say just about anything to keep things friendly."
"Sometimes, Captain, I think the world is drowning in stupidity."
"The two most common elements in the universe, Mr. Garrett, are hydrogen and stupidity. I forget who said that."
"Hm. You know, sir, sailing a three-billion-dollar Seawolf-class submarine into the middle of a potential enemy harbor is not exactly a friendly gesture."
"Sure it is. You think the PLA is going to start anything with us in the middle of one of their busiest harbors? Cruise missiles make wonderful equalizers. They'll be very friendly."