The three spirits faced Ken and saluted.
Ken returned the salute and took one last look at the target. A device was emerging from the central core of the facility. He picked up the intercom mic and ordered, “One single salvo broadside, all guns … Fire!”
The time was 8:06 a.m.
EPILOGUE
NBC Affiliate WWIL, Channel 9, Shipyard Boulevard, March 7, 12:25 p.m.
Editorial “I Say/You Say,” Grey McNeil, Vice President and General Manager
“Well, it has been an interesting three months here in the Port City. Unknown to anyone, the battleship North Carolina was outfitted to become a weapon, sixty years after it officially retired. An international terrorist planned and built a weapon of mass destruction disguised as a battery factory. It would appear that our city and county officials welcomed this terrorist with open arms and keys to the city! Maybe that is unfair, but we cannot find records of any serious vetting that took place—only a rush to take credit for the promised jobs that would accompany the project.
“We also find that the battleship memorial was able to order live explosive shells from Sunny Point based on the signature of a deceased admiral from World War II. We wonder how that is possible, although we are happy that it occurred. After the battleship fired on the battery facility, two assault teams from Camp Lejeune landed at the site, led by the local FBI special agent, but found nothing of interest to attack or remove. In fact, the broadside fired by the battleship was so devastating, even the facility’s blast-proof doors were reduced to ash and rubble. Then we find that the jet of the vice president of the United States was forced to land at ILM before the battleship fired its guns. Sources also report that an unknown jet made an unauthorized takeoff, heading for international waters, with two F-18 Super Hornets scrambled out of Cherry Point hot on its tail. Within minutes of the departure and adding to the mystery, there was the unexplained explosion of a luxury rental house on Figure Eight Island at approximately the same time that an armored rental limo was reduced to ashes at a civil aviation hangar at ILM!
“A collateral detail comes to us from the Oahu Ledger, indicating that local paranormal investigators report that high levels of paranormal activity observed for decades on and around the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor abruptly ceased on December 6 of last year. The management and staff of WWIL simply do not know how to respond to the article!
“No government agency—local, state, or federal—has come forward to explain these occurrences, notwithstanding the federal grant money awarded to repair all of the broken window and auto glass resulting from the battleship’s broadside. We find the governmental doublespeak and avoidance of any comment to be patronizing and annoying!
“What I do not find annoying is that Master Chief Ken Hager, superintendent of the battleship memorial, and his colleague, Paul Hodge, a decorated World War II veteran, were reactivated to active duty in the United States Navy and are now on their way to meet with the president of the United States, to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
“As a citizen of Wilmington for the last fourteen years and an employee of WWIL, I have noticed the battleship memorial every day that I come to work but have never really seen it. All that changed on Sunday, December 7 of last year. These days, I see it, and I applaud it every day! It just seems fitting.
“That’s what I say. Now tell me what you say. E-mail me at [email protected].”
A Final Broadside Page 24