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SEA OF SHADOWS 103
map: six ships at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and six
airplanes at the western end.
“Excuse me,” Undersecretary Mitchell said. “P-3s? Those would be
some sort of aircraft?”
“Yes, sir,” the admiral said. “Lockheed Martin P-3 Orions. Longrange,
prop-driven planes. Specially designed for Undersea Warfare, or
what we call USW.”
Mitchell nodded.
The admiral continued. “The plan is to blanket the western end of the
Med with sonobuoys. By the time the P-3s have the subs localized, the
carrier and her escorts should be on station.”
Army General Horace Gilmore, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, cleared his throat. He was a mild-looking man, with a rounded face
and black-rimmed glasses that would have been at home on the nose of a
librarian. The rack of ribbons on the left breast of his uniform jacket
hadn’t come from shelving books, though. He leaned his head forward
and stared over the tops of his glasses with eyes that were nearly predatory
in their intensity. “And then what, Admiral Casey?”
The admiral sat down and pulled his seat up next to the table. “I
believe that’s what we’re here to discuss, General.”
Secretary of Defense Rebecca Kilpatrick leaned back in her chair. “I
get the feeling that you already have a plan of action.”
“I do, Madam Secretary. I think we should hunt those bastards down
and sink every one of them.”
Secretary Kilpatrick smiled. “It has the virtue of being simple. And a
simple plan is often the best plan.” She looked around the table. “But I
think we need to consider this situation carefully before we start shooting
at people. Things may not be as cut-and-dried as we think.”
“With all due respect, Madam Secretary,” the admiral said, “it looks
pretty simple from my side of the table. One of our allies has been
attacked. If we don’t cover their backs, how can we expect them to cover
ours?”
“I don’t dispute the fact that one of our allies has been attacked,”
Secretary Kilpatrick said. “The question is which of our allies?”
“That’s pretty obvious,” the admiral said.
SecDef’s eyebrows went up. “Are you certain? Right now, we can’t
even be sure who fired the first shot. What if we investigate and discover
that one of the British ships launched first, and the Germans only returned
fire in self-defense?”
“I suppose it’s possible,” Admiral Casey said. “But I don’t think it’s
very likely.”