Target Lock

by James H. Cobb

  “Kaboom!” Christine Rendino vividly put the punctuation to the thought.

  “God,” Van Lynden whispered. “And Indonesians thought they were in trouble before. Half a million people were killed in the 1965 anti-Communist purges. This would trigger a bloodbath that would dwarf that. How can we stop this thing?”

  Amanda’s jaw tightened. “Find and kill Makara Harconan,” she said tonelessly. “Fast. That’s the only way. He’s the linchpin to the entire operation. Pull it, and things might decouple, at least to a controllable level.”

  “I’ll pass your recommendation on to the Indonesian government,” Van Lynden replied. “How much time do you think they have?”

  “Not long, Mr. Secretary. Not long at all. Harconan won’t wait. We’ve broken the piracy cartel he was using to finance his operation, and we’ve knocked out his legitimate business holdings. The Indonesians have been tipped about his plan, and he knows he’s not going to get any stronger. He has to go with what he has now … and he will.”

  Following her part in the conference, Amanda Garrett spent the rest of the afternoon caught up in a whirlwind of work. Rations and fuel were pouring aboard both the LPD and the Duke, along with whatever replacement parts and munitions could be matched out of Australian military stocks.

  The task force’s more exotic and specialized needs were on the way as well, being flown in from the U.S. Fleet bases in Hawaii, Singapore, and Guam. So were the living spare parts for the Table of Organization, new Navy and Marine personnel to replace those lost in the recent campaign.

  Within the task force hulls, crews labored, watch on watch, swearing at Eddie Mac and the Lady. Australia was known within the Fleet as the greatest shore leave in the world. There would be none, however, until all battle damage had been repaired, all onboard maintenance and servicing programs had been brought up to date, and the Sea Fighters were ready in all aspects for an immediate combat sortie.

  Amanda had stoically issued those orders, along with a knife-edged command for all elements to expedite their readiness preparations. She knew that their next order for sailing would be for a war cruise.

  The disintegration of Indonesia would simply be too big an event for the United States to ignore, nor could half a dozen other sea powers around the Pacific Rim. All would be involved in one way or for one reason or another.

  Repeatedly, when she was topside, Amanda found her gaze drawn northwestward across the shimmering waters of Port Darwin and the Beagle Gulf beyond, her mind’s eye extending her vision across the Timor Sea to the Indonesian archipelago. The raja samudra was there, safe among his seaborne subjects and his thousand-island strongholds, moving his plans toward fruition.

  She would find him again. Somehow she would find him. She sensed that she and Makara Harconan were locked in some strange, fated ritual like the Balinese dance they had watched together. The music had not yet ended and they each had steps left to perform.

  So be it. She was a dancer and she would dance this one “right to the ground,” as her Celtic ancestors would phrase it. And if the gods were choreographing this, let it be that the last movement would leave her eye to eye with Harconan one more time.

  Amanda crossed back and forth between the Carlson and Cunningham half a dozen times that afternoon, consulting with her officers and making it plain to all hands that there would be no stand down for her, either, until the Sea Fighters were ready to fight again. The stars glittered in an otherwise lightless sky when she crossed the pier tarmac to the LPD’s gang way for the last time, a cooling wind from the sea drying her perspiration damp shirt.

  She found herself suddenly looking forward to a shower, a long hot pier-side one. And after that, midrats and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before turning in.

  No, cancel that. Captain’s privileges: She’d have the steward run her up a steak sandwich … and french fries. She was suddenly ravenous.

  “Hey, Boss Ma’am. Hold up!”

  Clad in shoreside whites, the little intel ran breathlessly to Amanda. “Begging the Captain’s pardon, but may this lowly one, pretty please, ask a flagrant personal favor of the TACBOSS?”

  “Anything’s possible, Chris,” she said, smiling at the thought of how they were back to comparatively normal. “What is it?”

  “Relating to your no-shore-leave order, would it be possible for a little bitty exception to be made? Inspector Tran’s leaving with Secretary Van Lynden’s party, and I’d like to see him off at the airport.”

  Glancing over Christine’s shoulder, she noted the dark, hawkish policeman leaning back against the fender of a staff car parked under a pier light. He nodded in silent acknowledgment, awaiting the decision.

  “The inspector is going with Van Lynden? What’s up, Chris?”

  “It seems that Singapore has given Tran an indefinite leave of absence so he can serve as a regional adviser to State on the Indonesian and piracy problems. I gather that Tran’s been made a kind of ‘company’ temp, if you get my meaning.”

  “Hmm, interesting. I’m glad we’re going to have him on board.” Amanda’s brows suddenly knit. “But wait a minute: the Secretary of State’s party isn’t leaving until tomorrow morning.”

  Christine endeavored to look innocent and failed miserably. “Well, I was kinda going to help him buy some toothpaste and a good book for the trip … and stuff.”

  Amanda rolled her eyes and smiled. “Permission granted … for stuff.”

  “Thanks, Boss Ma’am. Much appreciated.”

  “Are you two … ?”

  The little blonde shrugged and grinned. “We’re running together for a little while. We’re the same breed of cat. You understand?”

  “I do. Very well.”

  Christine studied Amanda’s face. “How are you doing?” she asked, lowering her voice.

  “I’m fine, Chris. I can’t really explain what happened to me back there. I guess I met the same breed of cat, too. But he was on the other side of the fence.”

  “You told me once about your teenage fantasy of meeting a bold, swashbuckling buccaneer and running away to the South Seas with him. Sorry it kind of got all screwed up.”

  “It’s all right.” Amanda glanced away toward the northwest again. “Maybe, once upon a time, when all of the world’s ills could be solved with one bright, clean slash of a sword, it would have been fun to run away to play pirate but not now.”

  “Understood. ’Night, Boss Ma’am.”

  “Have fun, Chris. Say so long to the inspector for me.”

  Climbing the Carlson’s gangway, Amanda honored the flag aft, and after exchanging a few words with the OOD, she made the climb to her quarters. Maybe, when the task force was ready to sail again, she’d hit the beach for a day or two. She’d check into an ultra-plush hotel room and spend an entire afternoon soaking in a steaming bath. Then she’d just sleep for hours and hours in a huge, soft king-size bed. She was still mentally luxuriating when she nodded to the sentry outside of her cabin door and entered her office.

  Elliot MacIntyre startled her for a moment as he stood up at her entry. “Sorry about intruding like this, Amanda,” he said diffidently, “but I had to pick up some hard copy I left in your desk.” He nodded toward the briefcase leaning against the desk leg.

  MacIntyre was wearing a black Navy Windcheater over his khakis, and an officer’s cap sat upside down and ready to hand on the desktop. “I’m flying back to Hawaii tonight, and before I hauled out, I also wanted to tell you it’s been a damn interesting ride-along. It’s quite obvious you’ve accomplished everything I’ve asked you to do with the task force. Well done, Captain. Exceedingly well done.”

  “I’ll pass that along to my people, sir. Thank you.”

  There was a silence in the little room then, encompassing them both and extending for a long time. Yet, strangely, Amanda didn’t find it uncomfortable and she sensed that Elliot didn’t find it so, either. It was merely a mutual acknowledgment of many words that could not be said.

&
nbsp; “There was one other thing as well,” MacIntyre said finally, reaching for a book on the desk. “I never did get a chance to finish this. Would you mind if I borrowed it for the flight?”

  Amanda looked and saw that it was her battered old copy of Count Luckner, the Sea Devil.

  “Keep it,” she said, smiling into Maclntyre’s face. “I’m done with it.”

  Author’s Note

  Dedicated followers of the Amanda Garrett series will likely note the change in designation for the USS Cunningham, from DDG (Destroyer Guided-Missile) to CLA (Cruiser Littoral Attack)-79. There were a couple of reasons for this.

  For one, the Duke in her original destroyer incarnation had become hopelessly obsolete. Back in the early nineties, when I set out to write Choosers of the Slain, I was endeavoring to project what the U.S. Navy’s next major class of surface combatant would look and operate like. In a few ways I got fairly close. In many others I was totally off the mark, a frequent problem with prognosticators of the future.

  By all indications, the actual DD-21-class stealth destroyers the U.S. Navy will soon be building will actually be far more advanced, sophisticated, and capable vessels than I ever dreamed of. I wish I could go back and start over.

  This is a curse the technothriller author is living under currently. Possibly the greatest revolution in military affairs since the introduction of gunpowder is under way. Technologies and doctrine are changing almost on a daily basis, and the military author, like the military professional, is caught in a perpetual round of catch-up to stay on top of the game. Portions of this book had to be rewritten half a dozen times because seemingly solid assumptions were proven wrong.

  The future looks to be an interesting and challenging place.

  As for my second reason for changing the Duke’s DDG-79 designation: There is now a real DDG-79 in commission with the United States Navy, the Block II Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Oscar Austin.

  I would not wish to claim any credit for the honors this fine new ship and crew will no doubt rapidly accumulate. May she always have fair seas and good hunting.

  Glossary

  Boghammer. Generic name for a light, high-speed motor gunboat. Generally an open 30-to-40 foot fiberglass hull propelled by powerful outboard motors and armed with an assortment of machine guns and shoulder-fired rocket launchers. The name originates from the Swedish boat-building firm that manufactured a large number of the craft used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard during the Persian Gulf tanker war of the late 1980s.

  Cipher UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Another of the rapidly growing family of Remotely Piloted Vehicles proposed for use by the United States Armed Forces. A small vertical-takeoff and -landing drone aircraft, the Cipher uses a set of ducted fans for lift and flight power. Literally a “flying saucer,” the Cipher offers great potential as a very compact, very stealthy reconnaissance and special-missions platform.

  Eagle Eye UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Built by Boeing Textron, the Eagle Eye reconnaissance drone uses the same Tilt Rotor technology developed by Boeing for the V-22 Osprey Vertical Take Off and Landing transport aircraft, permitting it either to maneuver as a conventional aircraft or hover like a helicopter. With a 300-mile radius of operation, the Eagle Eye’s dual-mode flight capacity has rendered it of great interest to the Navy, permitting comparatively small surface warships to have an aerial search and surveillance capacity.

  ELINT (Electronic Intelligence). The collection of battlefield intelligence (target location, systems type, nationality, force strength, etc.) via the analysis of emissions produced by radars and other electronic systems.

  GPU (Global Positioning Unit). A mobile navigation system that utilizes radio impulses beamed down from an orbital network of satellites. Simple, compact, and extremely accurate, this technology is finding hundreds of uses in both the civil and military arena—so much so that serious consideration was once given to building a GPU into the stock of every rifle issued by the US Armed Forces.

  Hellfire. U.S.-designed heavy antitank missile. A powerful and accurate surface- and air-launched weapon, utilizing either laser or radar guidance. The Hellfire is rapidly finding a second mission with the United States Navy as an anti-small-craft missile.

  Hydra 70. A 2.75-inch folding-fin war rocket. Originally designed as an aircraft-launched air-to-surface weapon, it is also carried as a weapons option by the Queen of the West-class Sea Fighter. An unguided projectile, the Hydra is usually fired in salvos from a cluster of launching tubes. Effective and simple, it can be modified in the field to carry any one of a number of different warheads: antipersonnel, antiarmor, incendiary, and high explosive.

  LPD (Landing Platform Dock). A large amphibious-warfare vessel with a floodable “well deck” in its stern, permitting it to load, launch, and recover conventional displacement landing craft, hovercraft, and amphibious armored vehicles.

  LPDs also have a large helipad flight deck and servicing facilities, permitting them to act as seaborne bases for a large number of Marine and Navy helicopter types.

  Current U.S. amphibious-warfare doctrine calls for its amphibious forces to stand well offshore, shuttling their Marines, equipment, and supplies to the beach via landing craft and helicopter, improving the amphibious group’s survivability against modern weapons.

  LSM (Landings Ship Medium). A small, lightly-armed amphibious warfare vessel used to deliver motorized transport and armored fighting vehicles to an invasion beachhead. Carrying the bulk of its payload in a large vehicle deck within its hull, the LSM’s hull is designed to permit the ship to run its bow up onto a beach without doing damage to itself. Once beached, a pair of watertight doors open in the bow and a ramp is extended, permitting the vehicles stowed on the vehicle deck to be driven ashore.

  Still found in many Second and Third World navies, LSM- and the larger LST (Landings Ship Tank)-type vessels are now obsolete within current U.S. Navy amphibious warfare doctrine.

  M-4 Modular Weapons System. The new firearm of choice for the U.S. military special-warfare units. Essentially a short-barreled carbine version of the 5.56mm M-16A2 assault rifle, it comes equipped with a telescoping shoulder stock and the Picatinny Arsenal’s “Grab-Tight” rail mounting system.

  This latter permits the weapon to be modified to suit the mission requirements and personal preferences of the user. Various handgrips and carrying handles can be installed, and either a 12-gauge riot gun or an M-203 40mm grenade launcher can be mounted beneath the barrel in an over-and-under configuration to augment firepower. It can be equipped with a variety of targeting systems ranging from simple iron and telescopic sights to laser, nite-brite optics, and thermographic imaging.

  Marine SOC (Special Operations Capable). A U.S. Marine combat element that has undergone a rigorous enhanced-training program, giving it the capacity to function both as a commando-style Special Forces unit and as a conventional infantry assault force.

  Since the Korean conflict, the United States military has fielded a growing number of small elite units to deal with the problems of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and Special Warfare. The Army has its Green Berets, its Delta Force, and its Ranger regiment. The Navy has its SEAL (Sea-Air-Land) teams, and even the Air Force has its Air Commando squadrons. To date, the United States Marines have bucked this trend, flatly stating that, since the entire Marine Corps is an elite formation, such specialized units are redundant.

  MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carriage Equipment). New-gen combination backpack and load-bearing harness issued to U.S. ground forces.

  NAVSPECFORCE (United States Naval Special Forces). Existent in the year 2006, NAVSPECFORCE is an evolved Fleet-level follow-on to the current-day Naval Special Warfare Command (SPECWARCOM).

  A component of the U.S. Military’s Joint Special Operations Command (SOCOM), NAVSPECFORCE places all USN special operations and “silver bullet” assets and their supporting elements under a single, independent headquarters, similar in concept to the United States Arm
y’s Special Forces Command.

  Included in its table of organization are the Navy’s SEAL teams, Patrol Craft and Special Boat and Submersible Squadrons, SOC (Special Operations Capable) aviation and submarine elements, and the Sea Fighter Task Force. Selected United States Marine Corps Force Recon and SOC Raider elements are also “chopped” to NAVSPECFORCE.

  NAVSPECFORCE coordinates all U.S. Navy special operations worldwide from its headquarters complex at the Pearl Harbor Fleet Base, Hawaii.

  SINCGARS (Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System). Developed by the U.S. Army and also coming into service with the other American Armed Forces, SINCGARS is an integrated family of man- and vehicle-carried radio systems for tactical battlefield communications. SINCGARS is an “anti-Siglnt” technology, encrypting voice and data-link transmissions via digital scrambling and using “frequency hopping” to render them difficult to jam or locate via the use of radio direction finding.

  Siglnt (Signal Intelligence). The collection of battlefield intelligence via the interception and decryption of enemy radio and land-line communications.

  UH-1Y.The latest incarnation of one of the world’s truly legendary air craft, the Bell UH-1 Iroquois Assault helicopter. Introduced in the early 1960s, the “Huey” was the mainstay of American airmobile operations during the Vietnam conflict. Four decades later, it continues to operate in military and civil service around the world.

  The UH-1Y “Super Huey” will be a rebuilt variant of the twin-turbined UH-1N currently in Marine service, incorporating improved avionics, uprated engines, and a common rotor and drive system with the Marine AH-1W “Whiskey Cobra” gunship, greatly increasing its range and lift capacity.