“With what? Deep sea divers?” said the President, snorting in derision. Martindale didn’t make many jokes, but when he did they tended to be acerbic.
“Who was involved in the Calcutta attack?” said the Secretary of State.
“Possibly a submarine,” said Freeman. “The Abner Read has been chasing one.”
“Um, Colonel Bastian has a theory that the Indian destroyer that was hit by a torpedo the other night was attacked by a small aircraft,” said Jed. “We’ve been trying to track it down. We think it may have come from Iran.”
“Iran? Why would they attack India?” said Hartman.
“Oil m-m-money, maybe,” said Jed, his tongue tripping over itself. He struggled to get past the stutter, forcing himself to complete his thought. “Th-The Indians have been setting up new deals with African nations to have enough supply. That’s what Port Somalia was all about.”
“Bastian has proof of this?” asked Hartman.
“Just a theory,” said Jed.
“It would be just like the Ayatollah and his black robes to stir the pot,” said President Martindale. “They’d love to see 148
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the Indians and Chinese go at it. They don’t particularly like the Pakistanis either, since they didn’t support their Greater Islam Alliance. But does the colonel have proof?”
Jed shook his head.
“Talk to the Indians. Find out why they fired on the tanker—and on us,” Martindale told the Secretary of State.
“What should I say about their plane?” asked Hartman.
“I’m tempted to say we’re launching a full investigation into why we only shot down one out of four,” said the President.
Aboard the Abner Read , near Somalia
11 January 1998
0600
“YOU HAVE A HELLUVA LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO THIS TIME, Captain Stockard. A helluvalot. ”
Storm looked at the pilot’s image in the video screen.
She had her helmet and crash shield on—typical Dreamland arrogance.
“I did what I thought was best under the circumstances,”
Breanna told him. “Or would you have preferred that my aircraft be shot down?”
“I would have preferred that you kept your nose clean.
You went back toward that tanker deliberately, even though you were ordered away. That’s insubordination, mister. At the very least.”
The pilot didn’t answer. Belatedly, Storm remembered he was talking to a ma’am, not a mister. But he wasn’t about to apologize or change the subject.
“Resume your normal patrol,” he told her.
“I have.”
“Good.” He killed the transmission. His headset buzzed, indicating that Lieutenant Commander “Eyes” Eisenberg wanted to talk with him.
END GAME
149
“Aircraft from the Chinese carrier Deng Xiaoping are approaching, Storm,” the tactical commander told him when he switched into the circuit. “The carrier is fifty miles north of us, just exiting the Gulf of Aden.”
Storm had hoped to get a look at the new Chinese carrier, if only to find out what all the fuss was about. But he’d never get that far north fast enough.
The Werewolf could, though. If the Chinese could fly over him, he could fly over them.
Hell, he could do better than that.
“Very well,” said Storm. “Where’s the Werewolf?”
“Routine patrol overhead, Captain,” said Eyes.
“Get Airforce on the line. I want him to go tell our Chinese friends we think of the world of them.”
THE FIRST SHIP STARSHIP SAW AS HE FLEW WEREWOLF TWO
toward the Chinese flotilla was a destroyer of the Jingwei class, whose forward deck was dominated by a twin 100mm gun. More important to Starship was the battery of HQ-7
surface-to-air missiles. The HQ-7 was a Chinese version of the French Crotale Modulaire, an excellent short-range antiair system with a range of roughly six miles. Starship had flown the Werewolf against Crotales in field exercises and done very poorly; in fact, it was the only system he’d consistently failed to get past. Though ostensibly in the same class as the Russian SA-8B Gecko, Starship had found the Crotale’s guidance system harder to fool and the missile more maneuverable and persistent.
“Ship in sight,” he told Eyes. “Hull number 525—frigate.”
“Good. Copy. Be advised, aircraft are approaching you.”
Starship could see two black streaks in the dim sky to his right. The threat identifier gave them captions: J-13s.
“Aircraft approaching—flying over,” said Starship. The J-13 was a Chinese-made two-seat fighter based on the Russian Sukhoi Su-27, but at least two generations more advanced. Capable of carrying a wide array of missiles and equipped with the latest Russian avionics and radar, the 150
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plane was considered on a par with the F-18 Super Hornet—and might even be superior in some respects.
These seagoing versions were still being studied by the West; they had not yet seen combat.
Starship frowned at them as they rolled through inverts while rocketing past. Pointy-nose zippersuits were all alike—always showing off.
Not that he wouldn’t have done the same thing if he were flying an F-15.
Another warship loomed to his right, three miles ahead.
From the distance it looked as if it were the size of a battle-ship, and in many respects it was as powerful as a World War II battlewagon. But the ship was actually a destroyer—the Fu Zhou, which carried four-packs of cruise missiles on each side. The cruise missiles were 3M-80 Moskits—SS-N-22 “Sunburns” in NATO parlance, supersonic antiship missiles with a larger warhead and greater range than the American Harpoon. With a top speed of Mach 2.5, the missile was extremely difficult to defend against, even for a state-of-the-art warship like the Abner Read.
Updated by the Chinese, the vessel had been laid down as a Russian Sovremennyy destroyer. As they often did, the Chinese had built on Russian technology, adding improvements and funding weapons purchases the cash-strapped Russians could only dream of. The result was a ship that was not quite state-of-the-art, but was nonetheless an awesome power.
A half mile beyond the destroyer was a vessel that was state-of-the-art, as advanced as anything on the water, including the Abner Read: the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s pride and joy, the aircraft carrier Deng Xiaoping.
The nickname “flattop” fit Deng Xiaoping perfectly. Unlike nearly every other aircraft carrier in the world since the CV-1 Langley, the Deng Xiaoping did not have an island.
Her surface and antiair radars were located at the sides of the craft, adjacent to but not on the flight-deck surface.
The Deng Xiaoping’s flat deck was shaped like a fat V, END GAME
151
with elevated ramps placed at each head. The arrangement allowed the carrier to launch two J-13s almost simultaneously, and still have space to land planes behind them. Besides thirty-six J-13 fighters, Deng carried four KA-27
Helix helicopters for antisubmarine warfare and six Z-8 helicopters, which were Chinese versions of the French Super Frelon, equipped with uprated engines and avionics systems. Four Z-8s had large radar units that hung off the side of the aircraft like a large water pail; when airborne, they provided radar coverage for the carrier. The other two were used for search and rescue operations.
“American helicopter, this is the People’s Liberation Army Navy Aircraft Carrier Deng Xiaoping. Identify yourself.”
“Dreamland Werewolf Two from the Littoral Warship Abner Read,” said Starship. “Captain Gale extends his compliments to the captain of the vessel, and wishes to present a token of his admiration. Requesting permission to land.”