Choosers of the Slain

by James H. Cobb

  BUENOS AIRES

  0817 HOURS: MARCH 31, 2006

  "I suppose we won," Dr. Towers said, glancing at the glowing television screen across the embassy dining room from the table she shared with Harrison Van Lynden.

  "Apparently," the Secretary of State replied, buttering his last piece of toast. "There's been no official word from the Ministry of State yet beyond Sparza's press release, but I think it's only a matter of time."

  Dr. Towers shook her head. "We've still lost, though. Antarctica was special in that the only lives that had ever been lost there had been lost in the quest for knowledge. It was the one place on Earth where man had never slain man. Now it's just another piece of ground to fight over. It will never be the same."

  "All the more reason to ensure that the fighting never starts again. That brings up the topic I've been meaning to speak to you about, Doctor. Would you be interested in taking a sabbatical from the National Science Foundation?"

  "A sabbatical? To do what?"

  "As a result of this incident, the President has instructed the State Department to form a special task force to resolve the remaining questions concerning Antarctic territoriality and to oversee United States participation in the international park project. We'd like for you to head that task force."

  "Me?"

  "Most definitely. Some might say that this is locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen, but I think you'll agree that there's still a lot of work to be done."

  "I do agree, Mr. Secretary, but I'm a scientist, not a diplomat."

  "You've done good work with us here and you know the area and its problems inside and out. That's more than a number of our ambassadorial cadre can claim. Believe me, Doctor, I think you're the right person for this job. I wouldn't have asked you otherwise."

  "First Ambassador to Antarctica?" she mused with a frown. "Well, there are definitely some things I'd like to see get done. Some of us in the scientific community have had a tendency to sit up in our ivory towers and sneer at the politico-diplomatic process. Maybe that's been part of the problem."

  "So?"

  "How much time do I have to decide?"

  "We'll be heading back to Washington in the next day or two. I'll need to know by then."

  "You will, Mr. Secretary."

  Steven Rosario entered the dining room and paused at their table. "We've just received a call from the Argentine Ministry of State, sir. President Sparza is requesting a meeting with you at your convenience."

  Van Lynden tossed his napkin across his plate. "Very good, Steve. Return my compliments to President Sparza and inform him that I will be available to meet with him at ten this morning."

  Rising from his chair, Van Lynden inquired, "Would you care to join us, Doctor?"

  "Yes, I would. Very much so." She glanced again at the television screen. "Do you think he's going to be able to survive this?"

  "I don't know. They won't pull him down easily. He's an able politician and a fighter. I think that he's also basically a good man. It's just that his dreams didn't quite match up with the rest of the world's."

  Across the room, the CNN newscaster droned on. "... In the release issued by his Ministry of State, Argentina President Antonio Sparza is quoted as saying, 'We have brought our justifiable concerns over the fate of the San Martin Peninsula to the attention of the world community. Accordingly, we will now withdraw our forces and seek to resolve these questions via diplomatic means.'

  "This statement comes, however, amid growing rumors of a clash or series of clashes between the naval and air forces of the United States and Argentina in the icy, mist-shrouded waters beyond the Antarctic Circle...."

  NORFOLK, VIRGINIA

  0831 HOURS: MARCH 31, 2006

  Captain Margaret Callendar deftly manipulated the small trackball controller on the balcony railing. Across the operations room, a designator circle danced across the Large Screen Display in response.

  "The USS Sea Serpent has entered the eastern approaches to Drake Passage with another attack boat, the Royal Navy's HMS Victorix running about four hours behind her.... The British Ark Royal carrier group is also just arriving on station southeast of the Falkland Islands.... On the Falklands themselves, patrol squadron VP-4 has completed deployment and is currently running Orion sweeps south to the ice line beyond South Georgia Island, and west to the South Shetlands. Air Combat Command also reports that they have four B-lCs operational out of Mount Pleasant. They're configured for antishipping strike duties and are on call to launch as needed."

  Elliot Mclntyre took the first sip of his first on-watch mug of coffee. "What about the Roosevelt group?" he inquired, leaning back in the observation chair.

  "They've successfully transited the Straits of Malvinas and are proceeding on course south. There have been no contacts with Argentine forces."

  "And the Cunningham?"

  "Running northeast to rendezvous with the Roosevelt. She's had a combat air patrol over her since first light, and she should be joining up with the Teddy at about noon our time."

  "Very good. As soon as she's finished replenishing, relieve her on station. Instruct Captain Garrett to proceed independently to Norfolk at best possible speed."

  "Aye, aye, sir. As soon as they had air cover, the Cunningham came out of EMCON. They've executed a post-engagement data dump to our computers, and it's undergoing analysis and processing at this time. By mid-watch we should have a pretty good idea of just what all went on down there."

  "That's likely to be some interesting reading."

  "Yes, sir. Another interesting piece of reading came in as well. Captain Garrett's transmitted a commendations and decorations list."

  "Let's have a look at it."

  Captain Callendar retrieved a sheaf of hard copy from her desk. Balancing his coffee mug on the chair arm, Maclntyre accepted it and flipped through the first few pages:

  Lieutenant Commander Kenneth A. Hiro ... Silver Star and Purple Heart; Lieutenant Christine M. Rendino ... Silver Star; Lieutenant Frank R. McKelsie ... Silver Star; Lieutenant Dixon L. Beltrain ... Silver Star; Lieutenant Commander Carl M. Thomson... Silver Star; Lieutenant Vincent M. Arkady & AC 1st Gregory Grestovitch ... Distinguished Flying Cross; Seaman Lucas S. Erikson... Bronze Star for Valor ...

  "Rubber-stamp everything that I can authorize and pass on everything that I can't with my strongest possible endorsement. You can also tack a couple more on to the end of the list. I'm requesting that the Cunningham be considered for the Presidential Unit Citation and I'm putting Amanda Garrett up for the Navy Cross."

  Margaret Callendar smiled. "Yes, sir. My pleasure."

  "They deserve it, Maggie. We've just fought, and won, the most intense fleet action since the Second World War, and our 'fleet' consisted of a single ship. Damn, I'm proud of those people."

  "You won't be the only one, sir. May I relay the word to Captain Garrett's father?"

  "Be my guest, Maggie," MacIntyre replied, reclaiming his mug. "That's one medal I wouldn't have minded presenting myself, but I guess Wils really deserves first call on that job. Now, what are the Argentines up to?"

  "They seem to be standing down. No aggressive moves anywhere across the board for the last twenty-four hours. Hardly any activity at all except for on the Antarctic Peninsula itself."

  "What's happening there?"

  "They appear to be abandoning the British stations. They're pulling their garrison units back into San Martin Base. Sigint and satellite imaging indicate that they've started airlifting personnel and equipment out to the Argentine mainland."

  "Has this been verified?"

  She nodded. "It looks solid, sir. They're going home."

  The CINCLANT nodded to himself and took another sip of coffee. It was over. He could feel it. The figurative hairs that had been standing up on the back of his neck ever since he had sent his people into this campaign were lying down again. For one last time he studied the great graphic representation of the near-juncture of the South Americ
an and South Polar continents and the passage of ocean between them.

  Well done, thou good and faithful servants.

  "That's it, then," he said. "I guess we can put this one to bed."

  "So it appears, Admiral, and it's a good thing too."

  "Now what?"

  "We've just caught a Flash Red from the State Department. The situation in Mauritania has just gone critical. Rioting between Arabic and Black African factions is going into its third day, and there are reports of mutiny within some elements of the military. State is sniffing coup fever in the air, if not an outright civil war.

  "The airports and borders have been closed, and they'd like fleet units standing by in case it becomes necessary to evacuate both our citizens and the other foreign nationals who are currently in-country."

  MacIntyre smiled wryly and drained his mug. "Two international crises within the space of one cup of coffee. Okay, Maggie, let's see who we have in the neighborhood."

  SOUTH ORKNEY ISLANDS

  1045 HOURS: APRIL 7, 2006

  The British are a people who frequently prize sentiment above cold logic. It is one of the secret strengths of that race. Thus, the final act was played out on a snow-shrouded hill overlooking the last moorage of the motor ketch Skua. The Royal Navy had responded to the pleas of a small group of college students and one grieving woman. They had brought Evan York home.

  The grave had been blasted out of the frozen shale with abandoned Argentine explosives, and a marker had been made from a piece of the Skua's mahogany decking that had been found washed ashore along the edge of the bay. That bay was frozen solid now. Out beyond the entrance, the ice-patrol ship Polar Circle stood by in the last lead of open water. She had executed the dash in to restock Signy Island Base and to return the wintering-over team. She had also carried the burial party.

  The ceremony itself was brief and small. There were only the scientists from the base, Evan York's crew, and a navy chaplain whose words were torn away by the gusting winds. Then the others moved back and allowed Roberta Eggerston to say good-bye to the man she loved.

  She knelt at the grave and carefully placed a flash of color at the base of the marker, a small handful of flowers husbanded from a Port Stanley greenhouse. She pinned the stems to the ground with a small stone, then rose to her feet and walked away. She would never again return south. There would be no more flowers for Evan York's grave.

  Nor would any really be necessary. Before they could even begin to wilt, the blossoms had been flash frozen in the searing, dry chill of the polar winter. They would remain fresh and unchanged for as long as there was an Antarctic.

  The burial party departed, the ship disappeared into the sea smoke, and the katabatic winds began to scatter snow crystals across the flowers and the bare stones of the grave, slowly sheathing them in ice and eternity.

  GLOSSARY

  AEGIS A mating of a sophisticated cybernetic battle-management system with a series of advanced planar-array radars, giving a surface warship a sea- and air-control capacity out to a 250-mile radius.

  The augmented SPY-2A variant deployed aboard the Cunningham-class DDG combines increased range and fire-control capacity with improved definition and simplicity of operation.

  AEW (AIRBORNE EARLY WARNING) The doctrine of mounting a high-powered search radar aboard an aircraft to enhance its coverage area. The Boeing AWACS is the premier example of this technology.

  In Choosers of the Slain, the Argentine Air Force utilizes the Israeli Elta Phalcon phased-array radar mounted aboard a 737-400 airframe, while the Cunningham's Sea Comanche helicopters can mount a podded version of the British-built Clear Water III radar.

  ASW (ANTISUBMARINE WARFARE) The delicate and deadly art of submarine hunting.

  ATLANTIQUE ANG A twin-turboprop maritime-patrol aircraft produced by Dessault-Breguet of France. Equipped with a wide variety of sophisticated weapons and sensorsystems, it is capable of flying both ASW and surface strike missions.

  BLACK HOLE SYSTEM A combination of anti-infrared technologies used to reduce the heat signature of a military vehicle.

  Aboard the Cunningham-class destroyer, blowers mix cooler outside air with the ship's engine-exhaust gases before they are vented outboard, reducing the thermal plume from the turbines. Likewise, seawater is circulated through cooling jackets surrounding the ship's funnels to prevent "hot spotting," which could provide a target for home-on-heat guided munitions.

  BAS British Antarctic Survey.

  COLD FIRE LAUNCHING SYSTEM A vertical-launch technology that utilizes a charge of inert gas to project a missile out of its launch cell for a midair ignition. Utilized aboard the Cunningham-class DDG to protect the RAM decking from exhaust-flame damage.

  ECM (ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURES) Jamming and decoy systems used to confuse and degrade search sensors and weapon-guidance systems.

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

  EMCON (EMISSION CONTROL) An operational state in which a naval vessel or aircraft maintains complete radio and radar silence, rendering them undetectable to signal intelligence systems.

  ESSM (ENHANCED SEA SPARROW MISSILE) Uprated follow-on to the current NATO Sea Sparrow system. A medium-range, surface-to-air system using radar guidance, it can be fired either from its own dedicated launcher or from a quad-pack fitted into a cell of a Mark 41 or 42 VLS array.

  EXOCET Produced by France, it is one of the first and most successful of the antiship missile designs. It is radar guided, and powered by a solid-fuel rocket motor; air-, surface-, and submarine-launched variants have been produced. The AM-44 model mentioned in the novel is a projected version with an extended range and a multimode seeker head.

  FENESTRON Literally, "fan in tail," an advanced helicopter technology that replaces the conventional tail rotor with a ducted fan inset into the tail fin, reducing noise, vibration, and radar cross-section.

  LORAIN Next-generation naval surface-to-air missile. A long-range, hypersonic, area defense weapon, utilizing multi-mode guidance and an exotically fueled ramjet propulsion system.

  OTO MELARA SUPER RAPID A 76mm, water-cooled auto-cannon produced by the Oto Melara corporation of Italy. A dual-mode weapons system with an exceptionally high rate of fire, it is capable of engaging both air and surface targets with a wide variety of munitions types. A popular and efficient design, it serves as the primary gun armament of the Cunningham-class destroyer.

  RAFALE A fifth-generation fighter-bomber produced by Dassault of France. A single-seat, single-engine, supersonic aircraft with delta wings and a forward canard. It is night and all-weather strike capable.

  RAM (RADAR-ABSORBENT MATERIAL) A family of composite materials used in the creation of stealth weapons systems. They work by "soaking up" incoming radar waves, converting them into thermal energy within their structure rather then reflecting them off.

  RAM (ROLLING AIRFRAME MISSILE) A missile crossbreed of the Sidewinder airframe and the Stinger guidance system. A light maritime surface-to-air defense system, it is utilized aboard the Cunningham-class destroyer as an adjunct to the ship's Phalanx antimissile cannon.

  RAVEN'S ROOST Shipboard nickname for the intelligence systems bay. Because of their stealth capacity, the Cunningham-class destroyers have been given an enhanced capability to perform "Raven" missions--i.e., to act as a Sigint (Signal Intelligence)-- and Elint (Electronic Intelligence)- gathering platform.

  RBOC (RAPID BLOOMING OVERHEAD CHAFF) PROJECTOR A shipboard antimissile defense system. Originally intended to protect vessels against radar-guided missiles by screening them with clouds of metal foil.

  In recent years, however, additional projectiles have been developed for the system, including flare and multispectral smoke rounds that can provide protection against infrared and laser-guided munitions.

  SAH-66 SEA COMANCHE LAMPS (LIGHT AI
RBORN MULTIPURPOSE SYSTEM) The original RAH-66 Comanche was intended as an Army scout/gunship helicopter utilizing low-radar-visibility technology. The SAH-66 Sea Comanche is a naval variant produced to complement the stealth capacity of the Cunningham-class guided-missile destroyer. Intended for ASW and surface search/recon operations, the Sea Comanche mounts a powerful APG-65 radar in its nose. It can also be equipped with a number of different pod-mounted sensor systems, including dunking sonars, Magnetic Abnormality Detectors, and the Shearwater AEW system.

  In addition, the SAH-66 can be armed with a broad spectrum of torpedoes, missiles, depth charges, and gun pods.

  SCM (STEALTH CRUISE MISSILE) The follow-on to the Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missile. A sophisticated, long-range strike weapon incorporating low radar visibility in its design. A multimode weapon, it can be configured for either antishipping or land attack.

  SEA SLAM A ground-attack variant of the Harpoon anti-shipping missile. Utilizing an infrared, electro-optical targeting system developed for the Maverick air-to-surface missile, it is a sea-launched weapon, primarily intended for precision strikes against land targets.

  SIGINT (SIGNAL INTELLIGENCE) The collection of battlefield intelligence via the interception and decryption of enemy radio and land-line communications.

  STANDARD HARM (HOMING ANTIRADIATION MISSILE) A derivative of the Standard surface-to-air missile. The Standard HARM is designed to seek out and destroy enemy land- and sea-based radio and radar systems by homing in on their EM emissions. The missile is equipped with a memory system that allows it to prosecute the kill even if the target transmitter is shut down.

  TORNADO A twin-engine, swing wing fighter-bomber produced by the European Panavia consortium. An extremely sophisticated, two-place aircraft with full day/night and all-weather capability, a number of specialized variants have been produced, including interceptor, intruder, recon/Wild Weasel, and maritime strike.