Larry Bond - Shattered Trident

After a brief exchange of greetings, both Thomas and Harris excused themselves and marched over to the cargo ramp to supervise the unloading. Patterson, her two guards, and Simonis headed toward a row of parked cars.

“The entire route from here to the submarines has been cordoned off, and there are Marines stationed in armed HUMVEEs every half mile. The air force security forces squadron has set up patrols all around the base perimeter. To quote the base commander, ‘a seagull would need a pass to get in here,’” Simonis reported.

“Excellent, Captain. Did the governor give you any grief?”

Simonis chuckled. “There was some friction at first. He wasn’t happy with us shutting down several of the main streets for a couple of hours, but the call from the secretary of state solved that problem.”

“Good! The sooner we get these weapons on the boats, the happier I’ll be,” Patterson exclaimed.

For the rest of the brief walk to the cars, Simonis and Patterson were silent. But as Simonis opened one of the car’s rear doors for Joanna he finally said, “Dr. Patterson, I must admit I’m not a particular fan of Mitchell’s proposal. It would make my job a lot easier if I knew this plan had been thoroughly discussed with the president before he made his decision.”

Joanna initially looked puzzled, then a grin slowly lit on her face. “Ohh, yes, Captain, there was a long, and at times very heated discussion. The president basically convened an impromptu meeting of the NSC right after the VTC and he heard everyone’s views. I can assure you the topic was discussed in detail, and his decision was not made lightly.”

“I see,” said Simonis, somewhat satisfied. “If you’re allowed to say, I’d like to know what some of the objections were.”

“I’m sorry, Captain, but I’m not at liberty to go into details of the discussion with the president,” replied Joanna. She saw the disappointment on his face, but she was also sympathetic to the issue he was wrestling with. Joanna took a deep breath and spoke softly. “What I can tell you is that there were two strongly held opinions. But by the end of the meeting, only one member objected to implementing Jerry’s idea. The rest, including myself, felt it was the best option available to us.”

Simonis nodded his understanding. “Sounds very much like the same conversation I had with Commander Mitchell this morning. He doesn’t back down much, does he?”

Joanna laughed, clearly amused. “No, Commodore, Jerry has a stubborn streak in him. He’s also not the greatest at being tactful, a trait I fear he learned from my husband.”

“Your husband?” asked Simonis, confused. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“You know my husband was Jerry’s first CO, on USS Memphis, don’t you?” she asked tentatively.

“Yes, I’m aware of Mitchell’s record,” Simonis responded, still uncertain as to what she meant.

Patterson nodded and continued with her explanation. “Lowell ran a very tight ship, and even he admits he could be a difficult man to work for. He and Jerry went at it, hammer and tongs, on more than one occasion. Both men can be stubborn as mules, God knows. But Jerry was able to hold his own, largely by being brutally honest and straightforward, and Lowell begrudgingly respected him for it. They are now very close friends. No, sir, if Jerry Mitchell has a strongly held position on a topic, he won’t back down, regardless of the personal cost. Which is why the president finds him so refreshing.”

Joanna slowly scooted into the backseat, and after she’d been flanked on either side by her marine escort, Simonis closed the door and walked quickly to the passenger side. As the convoy left Andersen Air Force Base, Simonis was mentally chewing on the new information Patterson had provided. There was more to Jerry Mitchell than he’d originally thought, much more. And if the vast majority of the president’s advisers felt Mitchell’s idea was their best option, after fighting about it amongst themselves, then perhaps it really was the right thing to do.

14 September 2016

2230 Local Time

Squadron Fifteen Headquarters

Guam

“Attention on deck!” shouted Captain Jacobs. The assembled group quickly came to attention as Simonis and Patterson walked into the conference room.

“As you were,” Simonis boomed. The commodore marched straight up to the podium; he wasted no time in getting the predeployment briefing started.

“My apologies for the late hour of this briefing, but it was unavoidable. As you know, Dr. Patterson has been jumping from boat to boat getting the special weapons prepared and loaded into the torpedo tubes. As her presence was absolutely necessary, we had to wait until she had finished inserting all the PAL codes and had witnessed all the torpedoes being locked in their tubes before we could drag her away for some dinner. I may be able to flog you guys like rented mules, but I have to be a little more lenient with senior administration officials.”

The audience’s laugh was genuine, and Joanna just shrugged her shoulders. Simonis then punched a few buttons and brought up the first briefing slide on the large-screen display. In big, bold letters, the slide was titled OPERATION MINERVA. A low murmur grew from the crowd, along with some snickering.

“All right, pay attention. ‘Operation Minerva’ is the code name for the deployment of eight modified Mark 48 torpedoes with nuclear warheads in the deep-ocean areas adjacent to the South and East China Seas. And I don’t want to hear any guff about the name. I don’t write this crap, so we’ll just have to suffer together. Some faceless bureaucrat named the operation after the Roman goddess of useful knowledge and wisdom—which would be apropos given the goal of this mission. Now, moving on…”

Jerry was following along with the copy of Simonis’s presentation in his briefing binder, but as he turned to the page, he found a single sheet of paper sitting on top of the second slide. It was a hard copy of an e-mail from ONI concerning the commanding officer of INS Chakra . Jerry eagerly began reading its contents. Simonis’s voice faded into the background.

Samant, Girish, CAPT, Indian Navy

• Graduated from Indian Naval Academy in 1995

• Extensive junior officer tours on Project 877E KILO-class submarines, as weapons officer and navigator

• Member of Indian Navy Klub missile acceptance team

• First Officer INS Sindhuvir, S 58

• Graduated from Kings College, Department of War Studies, United Kingdom in 2010

• Commanding Officer, INS Sindhukirti, S 61

• Completed Royal Navy Submarine Command Course “Perisher” in 2014

• First Indian submariner to complete the course

• Promoted to Captain in 2015

• Assigned as INS Chakra Commanding Officer in June 2015

• Strengths: Brilliant tactician, competitive, rated highly by “Perisher” instructor

• Weaknesses: Short-tempered, slightly egotistical

Jerry’s eyebrows rose when he read the line about completing the Perisher course. When he got to the part where it said the Indian was highly rated, he whistled softly and whispered, “Whoa!”

Thigpen heard his skipper and looked over with curiosity. Jerry gave him a stern look and waved a finger at him, signaling that he should be paying attention to the commodore. One of them had to, but at the moment Jerry was busy getting to know Mr. Samant.

After finishing the e-mail, Jerry immediately ran through the three encounters he’d had with the Indian captain. Everything in the ONI e-mail matched his impressions. Samant was as good as Jerry suspected. No, scratch that. If a Royal Navy Perisher Teacher thought he was good, then the Indian was damn good! It suddenly became obvious that Jerry had seriously underestimated the man during the last two meetings. Which is why I lost , he thought to himself.