Greg nodded. It was clear this conduit was only a temporary one. “I shall pass this along. Will I see you at further negotiations?” he asked.
The man nodded. “I am a regular trade negotiator and will most likely be seeing you often enough,” he said. “We are often asked to perform special duties when the situation requires.”
“Then I thank you, sir, and hope to see you at our next meeting,” Greg said extending his hand. It was shaken warmly and the two men exited through different doors. Greg kept the packet in his briefcase until reaching the embassy where he contacted the station agent, as he was required to do with any contact between himself and other Chinese officials. Little did he know the chain of events he would unleash.
“Drop 100, fire for effect,” came the voice over the radio. In main battery plot the offset was dialed into the fire control computer and the barrels of all nine guns rose at once. The technician grabbed the triggers, squeezing them three times. On the third squeeze he also squeezed the main firing key. All nine 16-inch guns belched out their deadly cargo towards the spots designated on the beach.
“Shoot, over”
“Roger out.”
One minute later all nine rounds hit within a 100 yard radius of the target — an old school bus. Two rounds actually struck the bus itself, sending it shrieking into the air to come back to rest on the ground in a clutter of mangled steel.
“Cease fire, target destroyed, over.”
“Roger out.”
The exercises had taken all day, but in nearly every case, the Iowa’s guns proved their accuracy and the proficiency of her crew. They had, in that brief time, aced each gunfire exercise. In one case, a moving radio-controlled bus had simulated a moving ship. The Iowa’s guns flipped it high into the air on the fourth single round from a range of 11 miles. Captain Hammond had been very pleased. The older crewmen had fallen right back into the ship’s routine as if it were yesterday. The younger guys simply followed their lead. The captain was reading a copy of an older publication that the XO had reinstituted called “Battleship Standards” when a messenger came up from radio and handed over a message just received. Hammond read it carefully as the Weapons Officer debriefed the exercises.
“Ninety-eight percent on the last one Captain. I believe we are in all respects ready for anything they throw at us. I still wish we could go through some sort of refresher training, but I have a feeling this is all we’re going to get,” the Weapons Officer said.
Hammond handed over the message. “Looks like you are right on all counts Weps,” he said while reaching for the bitch box in front of him. He pressed the switch for engineering main control. “This is the Captain, is Cheng down there?”
“Chief Engineer here, Captain,” said Commander Kimberlain.
“Cheng, we are being ordered to rendezvous with a supply ship tomorrow morning. It will mean a high speed run tonight. No more than 25 knots. Are you ready for it?”
“Aye, sir. We will be able to make that without lighting off the additional boilers. Just let us have a little heads up to be ready.”
“Good. I’ll be working it out with the Gator and will let you know when,” the Captain said.
The Weapons Officer handed back the message. “No rest for the weary,” he said.
“I guess not,” the Captain said as he made his way to the Navigator’s station at the rear of the bridge. The Chief Quartermaster was there working on the plot. The Captain gave him the coordinates for the rendezvous. The Chief plotted the point and measured the distance.
“If we leave now, we can be at the rendezvous at first light. If they are there early, we can get a jump on it,” I would recommend 290 at 23 knots. If we go 25, we will arrive at about 0500,” the Chief said.
“Concur. Let’s plan on leaving station in about half an hour then.”
“Aye, sir,” said the Chief who picked up the telephone to call the Navigator.
The captain went back to his seat and hit the bitch box again. “Engineering, this is the Captain. We will be going to 25 knots in about 30 minutes.”
After receiving his reply the Captain called over the OOD. “We will need to come to 290 and increase speed to 25 knots at 1930. We will remain at that course and speed until dawn when we rendezvous with USNS Spica. Do you have the copy of my standing orders?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. I have read the standing orders. When can we expect your night orders, sir?”
“I will always try and get those out before the 8 o’clock reports. Let the others know. If you would, get Ops and XO up here,” he said going back to his seat.
The OOD made some hasty calls and both men appeared by the Captain’s side. “XO, I doubt any of this crew has had any practice on underway replenishments recently. Let’s get some briefings set up for about 2100. Ops, I want a message prepped for signal light to the Spica at first light telling her how many rounds and how much fuel. We are at radio silence until further notice.” After completing his instructions, the Captain grabbed the microphone for the 1MC.
“This is the captain speaking. It looks like we will be needed with the fleet even sooner than we realized. We are ordered to rendezvous with a replenishment ship at first light, then proceed from there to join a task force. This means tomorrow morning we will be doing an unrep. Since we haven’t done one of those recently, we will have a briefing at 2100 in the wardroom. I want all officers and chiefs there along with key first class. We have to make sure we do this right without getting someone killed in the process.”
“Tomorrow morning reveille will be at 0430. I need as many people rested and ready as we can. But more importantly we need to make sure all the equipment for this unrep is in working order. That will include bringing over ammunition to replace what we shot up today. It may come over by wire, by vertrep, or both. Just be ready.”
“Now I know we are being asked to jump right into operations without much training. You older crewmen will need to carry the ball and bring the others along. The main thing I want to do is make sure we do this all safely. If you see something wrong, stop everything and let’s fix it. I don’t care if this lasts all day, I don’t want to have anyone hurt. The supply ship will just have to be patient.”
“One more thing. We have been told to expect an admiral and his staff to come aboard tomorrow. Just remember to be good hosts and help if you can. They have their job to do and we have ours. If one of them gives any member of the crew problems, talk to your division officer and department head. We can take care of it on our end.”
“Guys, I must say that the gunnery you demonstrated today would be the envy of anyone I have ever known. Superb job and well done to all. You are all going to put new meaning to the word dreadnought. If we get any more word on our future, I’ll let you know,” he said completing his message. Looking around the bridge he could see the men exchanging smiles. They had accomplished a lot and had a great deal of pride in what they had been able to do. Hammond knew pride could make or break a ship.
The Captain sat back in his chair and sighed. He called down to the Marine sentry and had the mess specialist bring him some dinner. It was going to be a long night.
“Okay, what does this tell us?” the President asked. The note and the map had been flown directly from China to CIA headquarters and checked for levels of authenticity. But there was really no doubting the information that had been provided. The US had known of only one tunnel through the Zone, provided by Master Sergeant Hufham. The indication for the number two tunnel was exactly where Hufham had said it was. Of more important information, this was one of the smallest tunnels there. This was important. They had to find a way to plug those things for good.