"You're right, of course," Everett said as he reached down, grabbed Robbins by his lab coat, pulled him from the chair, and shook him once, twice. "Jack, do you have that resignation letter?"
Collins slid a piece of paper in front of Robbins. He couldn't see it; all he could see was the hate in Everett's eyes.
"Look at it, Gene," Pete said, his own features masked with disgust.
Robbins turned and looked at the paper on the table.
"Your official resignation, signed by you, turned in to Pete here just before you disappeared from the complex. Whereabouts unknown," Collins said as he took a chair next to Robbins.
"I suspect the little bastard committed suicide after we found out about his culpability and treachery," Everett said, pulling Robbins's face back around so he could see the seriousness of his great acting skills.
Collins looked at Pete, and they both realized at the same moment that Everett could scare a rock if he had to.
"In all actuality, Dr. Robbins, you are going to disappear," Jack said.
Robbins finally forced himself to look away from the most-feared Everett and finally saw Jack.
"You're going to Saboo, and you know what else? You're going to make sure your friends show up."
"How… how am I supposed to do that?" he asked as Everett finally released his coat collar.
"Why, you're going to call them, of course," Carl said, smiling brightly.
"You receive your orders somehow. You'll just use the same method to contact your boss and tell them you're coming home."
"What is the name of that home by the way, Gene?" Everett asked, his smile never wavering.
Robbins looked from Carl to Jack to his former boss. His head slumped and they barely heard his answer.
"Leviathan."
* * *
An hour later Jack, Everett, Jason Ryan, Will Mendenhall, and Robbins were in field gear and on their way to California for a transfer to a U.S. Navy Greyhound flight to the Pacific for a rendezvous arranged by the president. Collins spoke directly to the White House via scrambled communications. Robbins looked miserable, but he had complied with his orders to send Leviathan an emergency message. He informed his master he would be waiting on Saboo for immediate pickup, that his cover had been blown, and that he had barely escaped. There had been no reply, nor even a confirmation that his message had been received.
"Okay, Colonel, I have you a ride to Saboo: USS Missouri. She's the sub that just put two torpedoes into our friend."
"Thank you, sir," Jack said as he looked into his end of the camera from the cargo hold of the C-130 air force cargo plane.
"Now, what in the hell makes you think they'll take you aboard after discovering you turned in their operative?"
"We're banking on Heirthall's arrogance. After all, how can four men be a danger to her?"
"That's one hell of a big assumption, Colonel."
"I know perfectly well what's at stake, Mr. President."
"Okay, Colonel, you have your sub and I've alerted COMSUBPAC. He's alerting the crews of three Los Angeles attack boats to prepare for sea. They will rendezvous with Missouri, so I wish you luck. You must understand, Colonel, those captains have their orders. I don't have to tell you, of all people, what those orders are."
"If Leviathan makes an aggressive move, they are to use any and all means to destroy her."
"You have the letter to Captain Jefferson?" the president asked. "Yes, sir."
"Duplicates have been delivered to the captains of the other subs. Good luck, Colonel, bring my people home if possible. I'll inform Admiral Fuqua that Operation Nemo is a go."
The screen went blank.
Jack felt as if he were on the outside of the poker game looking in, and was just hoping to get a seat at the big table. The one problem: He knew beforehand that the other player held all the cards.
The bluff was on.
LEVIATHAN
Niles, Virginia, Lee, Alice, and a very quiet Sarah sat in the ship's mess. They were sitting at a far table within the seventy-table compartment. Over a hundred of Leviathan's crew were taking a late-night meal and their voices were subdued. Every once in a while one or two would glance over at them, and this time they weren't friendly or welcoming faces they saw. Niles pushed away the soup that the mess steward had placed in front of him and looked at the others.
"My opinion is, if Jack is fit, he, Carl, and Pete will discover a way to find us. My money is on our people."
The group was silent as they waited for Niles to finish what they knew he was going to say.
"I also don't want anyone here at this table to have any false illusions about us escaping. It's not likely." Compton looked at McIntire, who was dipping her spoon in and out of her soup. "Sarah, I'm going to say something you may not like. We owe Colonel Farbeaux nothing — not for saving you at the complex, or for what he did earlier today. He's dangerous, and we have to consider… eliminating him."
"Sarah, you told us about Jack. Your explanation of Farbeaux's reaction to the news that the Colonel was alive has confirmed your suspicion about his stability."
Sarah was silent as she turned toward Niles. Her look said she was lost as to how to answer both him and Virginia.
Garrison Lee broke the uncomfortable silence.
"How do we do that, Virginia — have the captain dump him at sea, or allow this Sergeant Tyler to place a bullet in his brain?"
The table became silent at Lee's question.
"Obviously not — we decided a long time ago that we play by our rules and not everyone else's, regardless of cost, or what the opposition dictates," Lee said, looking from person to person.
"I'm sorry, but Farbeaux could become a very large liability when the time comes for us to act," Virginia said as she rubbed her temples.
Yeoman Felicia Alvera walked up to their table. She looked at other crew members watching her approach the table, and she eyed them until they turned away.
"Can we help you, Yeoman?" Alice asked her, noticing that the girl was, for the first time, unsmiling.
"Your opposition to our captain. I would like to know" — she half-turned and gestured to the table of twenty or so midshipmen in the middle of the compartment—"just as many of us would — why you do not see she has no other choice but to act as she has?"
"Young lady, no matter the kindness Captain Heirthall has shown you and these others, she is killing people, and making very little discrimination as to who they are," Niles said, seeing a different girl before them than the one they first met on the hangar deck.
"Yeoman, you may return to your meal, or your quarters," Sergeant Tyler said, having stepped up without anyone hearing or seeing his approach.
Alvera looked at Tyler and narrowed her eyes. Then she suddenly turned and left, not going back to her own meal; she left the mess area altogether. Niles and the others saw that the other midshipmen, after a brief glance toward them, all followed the girl out.
The sergeant was starting to walk away, and then stopped and turned. He looked down at the five Group members. They saw there was still a spot of blood on the bandage wrapped around his head.
"From this moment forward, you are not to converse with the crew, especially the middies. If you disobey this command you will be locked in the brig and gagged. For the present time, we are putting the problem of you people on hold, but you may have company soon. We are making a detour."
"What about the reason you brought us aboard in the first place, Sergeant?" Niles asked.
"What you know or what your Group knows no longer concerns us. For the moment just consider yourselves…" He paused and smiled."… ballast."
Tyler turned and followed the midshipmen out, ignoring the way the adult crew looked at him.
"What a dick," Sarah said.
"My word exactly," Alice agreed.
"Yeoman Alvera and the other midshipmen — have you noticed the paleness of skin? It's almost see-through," Virginia stated.
"Now that yo
u bring it up, they are pale — even for submariners," Niles said.
"Here's something else for everyone to chew on. Have you noticed the way the older crewmen look at them is almost resentful?"
None of them had an answer or an opinion as Leviathan started her thermal-dynamic drive for the first time in twelve hours. They were all silent and more than one of them stared at the table, knowing the great submarine was once more under way and was continuing whatever hellish work she still had to do.
14
USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)
ONE MILE OFF SABOO ISLAND,
FIFTEEN HOURS LATER
The captain of USS Missouri stared at Jack Collins, thinking the man had gone mad. He tossed the grease pencil on the charting table and looked over at his XO.
"You're just going to walk right onto the island and say, 'Hey, we would like a ride'?"
"It's either that or waste the lives of a lot of young boys by trying to take Leviathan by force, all alone, when and if she surfaces," Jack said, not turning away from the captain. "Personally, I've had enough of people dying lately. We want one chance to get our hostages back…. Just one, then she's yours, Captain."
Jefferson lowered his head. "Okay, Colonel, we may be able to track Leviathan, I'll give you and the president that much, but we lost a bunch of subs and men learning that fact. Also absorb this little tidbit: We hit her with two Mark forty-eight torpedoes, and they didn't even slow her down, as far as we know. Now explain to me how we can get any advantage on this thing whatsoever, if we even find her again after this little detour of yours."
"Once aboard, my men and I will have to play things by ear. Captain Everett here is trained on how to get an edge against enemy subs, so you'll have to wait and take advantage of what it is we come up with. Twenty-four hours. After that, hit her anyway you can with what you can. Captain, I want our people off that damn thing."
Jack looked at Carl, then nodded his head. Everett handed the captain a yellow envelope with a red border.
"I think you'll recognize the name and letterhead, Captain," Carl said. "I think this will explain our sincerity about that one chance if we fail."
Jefferson looked at the plain yellow envelope and then, without removing his eyes from Collins, broke the plastic seal. He pulled the single set of orders out and looked at them. When he was finished reading, he closed his eyes.
"Jesus Christ," he mumbled, and handed the letter over to First Officer Izzeringhausen. The lieutenant commander read what the order called for, and his face went slack.
"You'll have to excuse us, Colonel, we're just not that experienced with sending men out on a suicide mission. If you ask me, you guys are out of your fucking minds," Izzeringhausen said after reading the letter and the code that was attached to it.
"Take it easy, Izzy, I think they know what they're asking."
The first officer gave the letter from the president of the United States back to the captain and went back to speak with the chief of the boat.
"You know, it's not only suicide for you fellas, but for the Missouri and any other American boat in the area. A nuclear war shot in a confined area will smash us to atoms, and we have to be within range of the target to guarantee a hit," he said, tossing the letter onto the navigation console.
"Let's hope we can do something other than that, Captain. We can be pretty sneaky at times," Jack said.
The presidential order authorizing the use of Missouri's nuclear capability was having a profound effect on Jefferson, and Jack could see that. The order would be the first in naval history to be carried out, if it came to that, and the responsibility was etched on the captain's face.
"What if you're shot to pieces when you motor up to their dock?"
"Track Leviathan the best you can and blow her to pieces, Captain."
"Just who in the hell are you people?"
"Believe me, Captain, we're no one special. We want our people back and we want Leviathan stopped."
The captain accepted Carl's answer and then looked at his chart.
"Izzy," he said aloud, "it will be dark in twenty minutes. Get the colonel and his men suited up and tell the SEALs to get ready to escort them to Saboo." Captain Jefferson looked up and held his hand out to Collins. "Colonel, I'll just say I hope you get your people out." He shook hands with Jack and then held his hand out to Everett. "But I really hope you talk some sense into the magnificent bastard that built that boat. I would hate to have to sink it and you, too."
"Believe me, Captain, we hope the same thing," Collins said as he followed the first officer aft.
SABOO ATOLL, THE MARIANAS
In the darkness just before moonrise, USS Missouri, the stealthiest submarine in the history of the U.S. Navy, surfaced without a sound a thousand yards offshore of the volcanic atoll called Saboo. With only the topmost section of her tower out of the water, her silhouette was almost nonexistent in the darkness of the night. Even her sail numbers were a darker shade of black against the hull. Captain Jefferson popped free of the hatch, quickly brought binoculars to his face, and scanned the sea.
"Sonar, conn, what have we got?" he asked quietly, knowing how well sound carried at sea.
"Nothing on sonar. We are no longer picking up Leviathan. She must be too far distant or at a stop, and air search radar is clear, Captain."
"Okay, give me fifteen feet of air and clear the diving trunk, Izzy," Jefferson said as he scanned the sea again with his binoculars, nervous about his sonar's inability to find Leviathan.
"Aye, Captain, fifteen feet."
As Jefferson scanned the faraway beach of Saboo and the few lights there, the black sub silently rose in the water, clearing the lower escape trunk on the Missouri's sail. The hatch quickly opened and two large bundles were tossed free of the boat. The two Zodiacs quickly inflated. Ten U.S. Navy SEALs exited and took up station on the hull of the sub as they assisted the five men of the shore mission. Collins looked up at the sail before he stepped foot in the first boat and saw Jefferson looking down at him. Both men nodded, and Jefferson saluted.
"Good luck, Colonel."
Collins returned the salute and stepped into the boat with Dr. Gene Robbins in tow.
* * *
Three miles away in the darkest depths of the Pacific, Missouri was being watched. The eyes that scanned her were merely curious.
"Bring up maximum magnification on the scope, please, Mr. Samuels," Alexandria ordered from her high station in main control.
The view on the free-floating hologram changed and flashed off for a split second. Then a three-dimensional view of the sail of Missouri appeared, but of far more interest to Heirthall were the two Zodiacs bobbing in the sea beside the sub.
"Someday you'll have to tell me how you can be so right all the time, Captain," Samuels said, as the darkened face of Colonel Jack Collins became crisp and clear.
Alexandria didn't respond at first; she just looked from the hologram to her crew as they monitored their stations. Her eyes were again dilated and she was calm, in control.
"Never underestimate a man's tenacity, James." She smiled and looked at the first officer. "Or his love for another, for that matter. Those two things make events predictable to a certain degree. Besides, with this Group Ginny surrounded herself with, I knew it would only be a matter of time before they broke our good Dr. Robbins. It was inevitable that Saboo would be compromised."
"What to you think their plan is?" Samuels asked as he left the sonar station and walked up to the high pedestal.
"I don't believe they have one, and I surely don't believe they plan on taking Saboo with fifteen men. We'll watch and see."
"The Missouri?" he asked.
"No threat there. Just monitor her. If she lingers around Saboo, we'll chase her off. As long as we don't move until she clears the area or allow our damaged surfaces to compromise us, we'll be fine. Then we'll just dive so deep that their limited technology can't detect us."
"Aye, Captain."
"Wou
ld you have Mr. Tyler escort Lieutenant McIntire to my sail observation suite and seat her outside until we bring our new guests aboard, then report to me for instructions?"
Samuels hesitated momentarily, as the captain never allowed anyone inside her private suite at the bottom of the sail tower. "Aye, Captain."
Alexandria watched as the two Zodiacs shoved off from the Missouri and silently started for the shores of her island of Saboo.
"Soon I will have everyone aboard that I need," she whispered to no one but herself.
"Captain?" Samuels asked, thinking he heard her speak.
"James, I think it time we sit down and have dinner, before I start having headaches again. Twenty-three hundred hours, my cabin?"
Samuels looked around and saw Sergeant Tyler watching them from his security station.
"We need not inform anyone. On your off-watch report, say you're inspecting the engineering damage," Alexandria said, with a quick look at Sergeant Tyler. "One other thing, James. You'll know my mood. If you discover I'm out of sorts when you arrive, mention nothing about dinner, just return to your cabin until I speak with you."
Samuels tried desperately not to be taken aback by the captain's invitation and warning. As he saw that she was done, he nodded. "Yes, Captain."
"Until twenty-three hundred, then."
Sergeant Tyler stepped away from the security station after observing the conversation between the captain and Samuels. He watched as Samuels stopped in front of him and relayed the captain's orders regarding Sarah. Then he watched Samuels move away. Tyler then approached the captain.
"Captain, as head of security, I must say this is unacceptable, bringing this man back onboard Leviathan. You yourself warned us about this Group's ability to get information, and with what he already knows about us, to allow him access—"
"Sergeant, I have been commanding this vessel long before I took you onboard her. I think I can make clear decisions without consulting you. Now, escort Lieutenant McIntire to the sail and await my orders."
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