John Birmingham: Final impact

ALLIED COMMANDERS

Arnold, General Henry H. (Hap). US Army Commander of the Army Air Force.

Churchill, Winston. Prime Minister, Great Britain.

Curtin, John. Prime Minister, Commonwealth of Australia.

Eisenhower, Brigadier General Dwight D., US Army. Head of War Plans Division. Appointed Commander of US Forces, European Theatre of Operations, June 1942.

King, Admiral Ernest J., USN. Commander-in-Chief of the US Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations.

Kolhammer, Admiral Phillip, USN. Task Force Commander, Commandant Special Administrative Zone (California).

MacArthur, General Douglas, US Army. Commander, Allied Forces, South-West Pacific Area. Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.

Marshall, General George C., US Army. Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Nimitz, Admiral Chester, USN. Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Fleet.

Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Thirty-second president of the United States of America.

Spruance, Rear Admiral Raymond A., USN. Commander, Combined Pacific Task Force.

Stimson, Henry. US Secretary of War.

ALLIED PERSONNEL

Black, Commander Daniel, USN. On Secondment as Chiefs of Staff Liaison to Special Administrative Zone.

Danton, Sub-Lieutenant Philippe. Ranking officer on Robert Dessaix.

Denny, Sergeant Adam, USMC Force Recon.

Flemming, Chief Petty Officer Roy, RAN. CPO HMAS Havoc.

Francois, Major Margie, USMC. Combat surgeon and Chief Medical Officer, Multinational Force.

Grey, Lieutenant Commander Conrad, RAN. Executive Officer, HMAS Havoc.

Groves, General Leslie. Director of the Manhattan Project.

Halabi, Captain Karen, RN. Commander, British contingent; Deputy Commander, Multinational Force; Commander, HMS Trident.

Harrison, Sergeant Major Aubrey. 82nd MEU.

Howard, Lieutenant Commander Marc. Intelligence Officer, HMS Trident.

Ivanov, Major Pavel, Russian Federation Spetsnaz. On secondment to US Navy SEALs.

Jones, Colonel JL, USMC. Commander, 82nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Judge, Captain Mike, USN. Commander, USS Hillary Clinton.

Kennedy, Lieutenant John F., USN. Commander PT 101.

Kicji. Guide to Pavel Ivanov.

Liao, Lieutenant Willy, USN. PA to Admiral Kolhammer.

Lohrey, Lieutenant Amanda, RAN. Intelligence Officer, HMAS Havoc.

McTeale, Lieutenant Commander James. Executive Officer, HMS Trident.

Mohr, Chief Petty Officer Eddie. Transferred to Auxiliary Forces, Special Administrative Zone.

Muller, Captain Jurgen, Deutsche Marine. On Secondment to Special Operations Executive.

Nguyen, Lieutenant Commander Rachel, RAN. Multinational Force Intelligence Liaison to South-West Pacific Area HQ.

Rogas, Chief Petty Officer Vincente, US Navy SEALs.

Snider, Sergeant Arthur, USMC. 1st Marine Division. (Contemporary.)

St. Clair, Sergeant Major Vivian Richards, British SAS force.

Steele, Captain Colin, USN. Commander JDS Siranui.

Viviani, Lieutenant Colonel Nancy. Production Chief for Admiral Kolhammer.

Willet, Captain Jane, RAN. Commander, HMAS Havoc.

Windsor, His Royal Highness Major Harry. Commander, British MNF SAS contingent. Commander Training Squadron.

GERMAN COMMANDERS

Gering, Reichsmarschall Hermann. Chief of the Luftwaffe.

Himmler, Reichsfuhrer Heinrich. SS Chief.

Hitler, Reichschancellor Adolf.

Oberg, General Karl. SS Commander in Paris.

Speer, Albert. Minister of Armaments.

Zeitzler, General Kurt, Wehrmacht Chief of Staff

GERMAN PERSONNEL

Brasch, Colonel Paul. Engineer. Reich Special Projects.

Skorzeny, Colonel Otto. Personal bodyguard to Adolf Hitler.

JAPANESE COMMANDERS

Hidaka, Commander Jisaku, IJN. Interim Military Governor of Hawaii.

Homma, General Masaharu. Commander of Imperial Japanese land forces in Australia.

Oshima, General Hiroshi. Japanese ambassador to Germany.

Uemura, Lieutenant Masahisa, Squadron leader, “Thunder Gods,” Special Attack Squadron, Sapporo.

Yamamoto, Grand Admiral Isoroku, IJN. Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet.

Yukio, Lieutenant Seki, Commander Special Attack Squadron, Caroline Islands.

USSR COMMANDERS

Beria, Lavrenty Pavlovich. Head of NKVD.

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich. Prisoner.

Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich. Foreign Minister.

Stalin, Josef Vissarionovich. General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

CIVILIANS

Davidson, James “Slim Jim.” Formerly Able Seaman, USS Astoria. Chief Executive Officer and principal shareholder Slim Jim Enterprises.

Donovan, William. Chief of the Office of Strategic Services.

Duffy, Julia, New York Times feature writer. Embedded 82nd MEU.

Halifax, Lord. British Ambassador to USA.

Hoover, J. Edgar. Director, FBI.

Natoli, Rosanna, CNN researcher/producer. Embedded 82nd MEU.

O’Brien, Ms. Maria. Lawyer, former USMC captain, 82nd MEU. (Retd.)

Stephenson, William. Churchill’s personal representative in the USA.

CHRISTMAS DAY 1942

HMAS HAVOC, 210 NAUTICAL MILES

SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS

Captain Jane Willet came awake in an instant-even before the chime rang at her cabin door. At least that’s how it seemed.

It’s probably just my mind getting bent of out shape.

Willet was groggy from a fortnight of broken sleep. Gone were the days of dialing up a stim surge from her implants. Indeed, most of the things she had taken for granted were long gone. Close friends and family outside this boat. Six hundred channels of bad TV. Thai food. No-fuss contraception.

The chime rang again.

“Enter,” she said, her voice cracking badly. She had to repeat herself, after a cough. “Come in, please.”

The door slid to the side, and a female sailor stuck her head into the cabin. “Begging your pardon, Captain, but the XO says we’ve picked ’em up again. He said you’d want to be on the bridge.”

“Thank you, Bec.”

Willet sat up and ran her fingers through her hair, gathering the thick, shoulder-length mass of tangles and split ends into a workable ponytail that she tied off with an elastic band. The sailor stepped into the room and over to the counter, then poured a mug of coffee-the last of the boat’s stock of premium-blend Illy. She handed it to the captain.

“Ah. Thanks again. Champion effort.” Willet took a sip, and it felt as though the caffeine went straight to her cortex. Young Sparrow brewed a very mean cup of coffee.

Jeez, I’m gonna miss this when it runs out, thought the submarine commander. Wonder how long it’ll be after the war before anyone imports a decent Italian blend.

Aloud she said, “Tell the XO to keep his finger off the trigger until I’ve got some pants on. I’ll join him in two minutes.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Her orderly disappeared, closing the door as she left. Willet took a long slug of the coffee, brewed warm rather than hot so she wouldn’t scald herself. She set the mug down in a recess on the small table beside her bunk. She grabbed a ’temp-made energy bar and peeled back the waxed paper, then started chewing joylessly on her so-called breakfast at the same time as she climbed into a pair of gray combat coveralls. She checked her watch.

Zero four thirty-one hours, local.

She’d been asleep for less than two hours.

Washing down a mouthful of the bar with the last of her coffee, Willet gathered up her flexipad and left behind the small personal space of her cabin. Some novels, a few black-and-white photographs of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, a picture of her sister, and a small watercolor of their parents’ beach house painted by her dad back up in twenty-one marked out the room as her private territory. She was never far from work, however.