He thought about that for a moment. “We’d barely gotten out of the harbor. We didn’t do anything complicated.”
“In that case, we’re searching in the dark,” she concluded.
“You’re going to have to do better than that. I’ve got a thousand miles of wiring on Hartford. I want a plan on how you’re going to resolve this.”
“We’ll start with a check of the connections that feed out of the ESGN,” she suggested. “I’ll get a handful of guys in here and go to work. I’d say that if all goes well, we should be able to pinpoint the problem in a couple of hours. If we get really lucky, we might nail it in just a few min—”
She stopped as her pager went off. She sat back on her heels and dug the unit out of the pocket of her blue coat. He saw her frown as she looked at the display.
“The boss. Have you already been complaining about me, Commander?”
“Not me. It must have been some other pain in the ass.”
She smiled at him. She was damn pretty when she smiled, he thought.
“Just so long as it wasn’t you. Mind if I use your phone?”
“Not at all.” He pointed to the quartermaster’s telephone.
She pushed up to her feet, heading that way. McCann watched the program that she was running on the laptop, then followed the connection hook-ups she’d made. Common sense stuff. Four months ago, Hartford had been sitting in dry dock for a massive changeover to fiber optics. He wondered if that’s where the problem had originated. But they hadn’t faced any trouble on the subsequent sea trials or the trip south to load Hartford’s weapons.
Where the hell was Cav?
“Christ, it can’t be,” she snapped at the person on line. “I was there ten minutes ago. How did it happen?”
He looked up at her. She was staring straight ahead and was clearly upset.
“Did they get everyone out?” she asked.
McCann guessed there had to have been an accident. The shipyard was a dangerous place to work. Inside the sub, though, you couldn’t hear any of the sirens, if there were any.
She looked down at her watch. “No, we probably won’t need it, but we still have to get the crew lined up for six o’clock.” She nodded at something that was being said on the other end. “I’m coming over. No, that’s okay. I’ll take care of it.”
McCann stood and watched her as she hung up. “An accident?”
“A fire.” She moved briskly to the laptop and test equipment. “The same shop we were in a few minutes ago is burning right now. I work out of that shop a lot.”
“The three guys that were working inside?”
“They got out, thank God.” She started disconnecting the wires, shut down the computer and quickly rolled the cables. She was all concentration, in spite of obviously being upset. “I have what I need for now. I’ll be back at six with the crew. We’ll comb through these units and find the culprit.”
She closed one briefcase after the other with a snap, zipping up the shoulder case with the laptop in it.
“You can leave everything here until you get back,” he suggested.
She looked around the control room. “I don’t want them to be in your way.”
McCann took the two heavy briefcases and stowed them away by the navigation panels. “We’re not going anywhere. They’ll be safe here.”
“I have to take the laptop,” she told him, looping the shoulder strap over her arm. “I can send some of this data to SPAWAR and leave a copy with our own engineering department so they can take a look while we’re here going over the wiring.”
She zipped up her jacket.
“How bad is the fire?”
“I’ll find out when I get there. The main reason they called was to take a head count to make sure everyone was out.”
“That’s a shame,” he said.
She gave a brief nod, still looking extremely tense. “Can I get out on my own or do I need an escort?”
“I can’t leave the conn, and we can’t let you roam around the boat alone, either.” He was reaching for the phone to call Cavallaro back to the control room when he saw him coming down the passageway.
“Done already?” Cav asked Amy.
“With the preliminary testing, yes. I’ll be back with my crew later.”
This wasn’t the right time to tell Cav that their findings yesterday had been off. “Did you find Gibbs?” McCann asked instead.
Cav nodded. “He’s on his way up, Skipper.”
“I’ll walk Ms. Russell out. Then we need to talk,” he told the officer before following Amy down the passageway.
“You said you worked out of that shop? How is that going to affect you?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know how bad the fire is, yet, or what caused it. Depending on how the investigation goes, I might have bigger problems to worry about than losing my desk and a couple of framed pictures.”
She stopped by the ladder that led up to the hatch.
“If the need arises,” he said, “I can testify that you didn’t set a match to the place before we left.”
She almost smiled. “Thanks, Commander. I’ll let you know if I need you.” She placed one hand on the metal ladder, then hesitated before climbing.
McCann waited, but Amy continued to examine the bank of cables just outboard of the passageway. She climbed one rung, paused again, and then came back down.
“What is it?” he asked, curious now.
“I’m trying to remember. Right under the control room, under the GPS receiver and ESGN unit, is that the enlisted mess?”
“There are a number of spaces under there,” he explained. “The mess, the trash room, the officer’s wardroom, the ship’s office. They’re all below us here. Depends on where you mean exactly.”
“I’m thinking about the wiring under the unit.”
He thought for a moment. “That wiring runs along the underside of the decking. If it’s connections you’re looking for, they could be anywhere.”
She adjusted the shoulder strap of the laptop case. “On the last ESGN installation we did, on the Seawolf, there was a panel in the overhead of the space below that we could remove. With that out, we could get a clear shot at a panel of wiring connections leading to the navigation systems. Do you mind if I check it out before I go, just to see if we can do the same thing here? It shouldn’t take more than five minutes.”
He stepped back, motioning the way. “Be my guest.”
The stairs that led below were by the escape trunk. Shaking her head, she signaled for him to go ahead of her.
“After seeing your navigation officer’s reaction, I think I’d rather have you lead the way. I don’t want to startle anyone else.”
McCann decided that a sailor might have a slightly different reaction to the sight of such a good-looking woman in their living quarters. The fact that she was wearing a white hardhat and shipyard management gear wouldn’t really make a difference.
There was no one in the passageway. He led the way down to the enlisted mess. McCann poked his head in first. Surprisingly, no one was there, either.
This was the largest open area on the sub, capable of seating half of Hartford’s crew. The mess was a combination cafeteria, movie theater, game room, and training area. A place where the seamen could gather, it was rarely empty when they were on patrol.
Amy moved forward between the tables. Keeping her eyes fixed on the overhead, she turned into the adjoining galley.
“You’re sure stocked with food,” she commented, looking around.
“Before the problem with the navigation equipment yesterday, we had stores laid in for a normal patrol.”
“I’ll be really careful not to ruin anything.” She pulled a small flashlight out of her pocket and directed the light above. “Never mind the nuclear reactor. I know how precious food is to these guys.”