Dick Couch - Out of the Ashes

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not just our job, it’s our sworn duty to connect the dots. You can do it on your own, or I’ll do it for you and drag you along kicking and screaming, but you will do it. Syria has demonstrated extreme hostile intent.”

The president turned toward his attorney general.

“Judge, you spent your entire professional life in ‘the law.’ Do you know the difference between first-degree and second-degree murder?”

“I do, Mr. President.”

“Then that’s what we have here. Extreme hostile intent: The difference between first-degree and second-degree murder. Adam, Jack, you have your folks turn up the gain on the intel side. I want an update this afternoon.”

Prince Ali al-Wandi willed himself to be patient, but it was no use. He wanted to know what impact his actions were having and he wanted to know now. Too much hung on the outcome to just let things play out without him taking some measure of control. He would have to influence the final outcome. He needed to know the right time to put the next part of his plan in motion and he couldn’t do that in a vacuum. He had paid enough money to and done enough favors for a few key people and now he was determined to call in those markers. Nothing would be traced to him.

How easy it was with e-mail. Here he was, a member of the extended Saudi royal family, soon to regain the respect of the Saudi king and move into the inner circles of the Saudi royal court. Yet in the Internet world he was a nameless, faceless address, savvy446@aol.com. He composed his e-mail to his associate in the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. Oh, he was paid and paid well, but Ali liked calling him his associate. He was certain he would learn what he needed to know in short order.

Laurie Phillips and Sandee Barron were each hunched over laptops in their tiny stateroom going through work and personal e-mails. The two women had grown closer day by day. Although there were substantial differences in their upbringing, professional backgrounds, and current life-situations, they both looked at the world in basically the same way. Additionally, as two female professionals embarked in a male-dominated ship, there was a natural “we’re in this together” alliance they had struck.

Laurie knew her roommate was in a foul mood, so she was careful about how she initiated the conversation as both stayed hunched over their laptops.

“Still no flying, huh?”

“Shit no,” Sandee replied.

“Any idea when you’ll start again?”

“Maybe when the powers that be figure out how to do more than one thing at a time, or when hell freezes over, whichever happens first.”

“So what’s the deal? The missions you all fly are important. Why did this video put the kibosh on that?”

“Like I said, and as you can probably tell, captain’s pretty hyped up about being in the Gulf as it is. Now that we may have to be either chucking Tomahawk missiles at Syria, or knocking ballistic missiles out of the sky, or both, he just wants to just focus on one thing at one time. He says he doesn’t want to deal with any ‘distractions’ like us flying.”

“Not digging being thought of as a distraction, huh?”

“Nope. Not this aviator. I’m getting rusty just sitting on my hands.”

“Yeah, I kind of get that, too.”

“Look, maybe I’m just bitching, but hey, I’m a sailor too, it’s my right,” she replied, smiling. “But I figured we could be the eyes and ears of the ship while they’re so focused on missile defense, that’s all.”

“No, I agree with you. Maybe he’ll let up after a while,” Laurie replied as cheerfully as possible. “Hey, you got time for a pretty serious question?”

That caused Sandee to stop typing and look right at Laurie.

“Sure.”

“Well, I’m kind of new at this. I’ve got to tell you, this Navy stuff is completely different from everything I experienced in the Marine Corps,” Laurie began. “Anyway, now that you’re not flying I see you coming in and out of CDC now and then so you know all this heightened tension is due to this Global Hawk video we saw yesterday.”

“I’d say you’re right about that.”

“Yeah, well I think I told you, I’ve got a lot of experience with the optics and sensor packages on these systems from my previous work at Center for Naval Analyses and especially at the National Reconnaissance Office. I’ve got to tell you, there is something funny about this video of this missile site, something just not right…”

“Not right?”

“Yeah, Sandee, not right. I mean the shadows around the DF-21D missile site in the Syrian desert aren’t the way I anticipated they would be. Not only that, but the lat and long displayed on the screen kind of jumps right before and after looking at the site. I just don’t know what the problem is, but I’m convinced there is a problem.”

“So what’s the question? It seems like a lot is riding on that Global Hawk video. If it’s not right, well…”

“So the question is, what I should do next? I’ve sort of off-handedly mentioned it to some of the watchstanders in CDC and they’ve just shrugged and kind of given me the ‘it is what it is’ salute. I think I need some validation of what I suspect. I’m thinking of reaching out to one of my former colleagues and ask him about it.”

“You mean someone off the ship?”

“Yeah, a colleague back at the NRO.”

There was a momentary pause as Sandee struggled with her roomie’s question.

“If you’re asking me for advice, Laurie, and I think you are, you might want to try running this up the chain of command on the ship first.”

“Really? Everyone seems so busy they don’t even have time to answer pretty simple questions.”

“Yeah, but Laurie, you gotta understand. If there’s anywhere in the Navy, hell, in all the services, where the control mentality prevails, it’s on a Navy ship at sea. I know you served in the Marine Corps, which is the closest service to the Navy, but this is way different. The responsibility and authority vested in the captain of a Navy ship is like nothing in any of the other services. Like I told you when you first got here, if anything goes wrong on a Navy ship, it all comes back to the captain as far as accountability. Do I agree with the control thing all the time? Hell no. But I get it.”

“No, I sort of see that.”

“Look. It’s like this. In the aviation world we kind of live by the motto ‘It’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.’ I guess you kind of lived by that in the Marine Corps from what you’ve told me about your career, but these guys are different, way different. And you have to understand, this captain is not like a lot of other people. No one has ever handed him anything. He’s succeeded because he’s always taken charge. Maybe the control thing is just part of it. Trust me; I’ve been burned before in my career when I’ve gone around the chain of command on a Navy ship. I’ve learned the hard way.”

“I see.”

“Didn’t you tell me you had a pretty good relationship with the ops officer, Lieutenant Commander Watson? If anyone on the ship needs to know about your suspicions, it’s him, and he can take them right to the captain. Why don’t you start out with him?”

Laurie thought about it a moment and agreed. “I will, Sandee. I’ll do that.”

The phone in the blockhouse rang and Jawad Makhdoom picked it up on the first ring. He had been anticipating the call from Prince Ali and he was almost certain what the prince would tell him.