Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

SEA OF SHADOWS 133
Fisher looked at his chief and then back to the captain. “Sir, it’s only
for a couple of minutes …” He waited, and when it became apparent that
no one was going to say anything, he cleared his throat and continued.
“The … um … the interference only appears for two or three minutes
every other day or so. And it’s only a sixty-degree arc. It’s not like we
lose the entire quadrant. Just sixty degrees or so, for a couple of minutes.”
He cleared his throat again. “I mean, I understand that there’s something
wrong with SPY, even if we don’t have any idea what it is. But we’ve
been killing ourselves for four days now, over a two-minute glitch that
only eats up sixty degrees of our coverage.”
The captain nodded. “I know you’ve been knocking yourselves out,
son. I’ve talked to a couple of the engineers at Lockheed Martin, and they
say your troubleshooting efforts so far have been excellent. First rate. But
we can’t afford to minimize the impact of this casualty. We’re in some of
the most hotly contested waters in the world, and every day or two, a
significant sector of our radar loses its ability to scan for ships, aircraft,
and missiles.”
No one said anything.
“Suppose it happened to you while you were on the freeway,” the
captain said. “You’re driving along, doing seventy-five or eighty, and a
slice of your vision goes pitch black. Not all of it. Say it’s just twenty
degrees. The rest of your field of vision is fine, but your eyes are totally
blind within that twenty-degree arc.” He looked around. “Are you with
me?”
Everyone nodded.
“Good,” the captain said. “So, every couple of days—while you’re
cruising down the freeway—a twenty-degree sector of your vision goes on
the fritz. It’s just twenty degrees. And it’s just a couple of minutes.” His
eyebrows went up. “How safe are you?”
“Not very, sir,” Fisher said. “Point taken.”
“Good,” Captain Bowie said. He looked at Lowery. “Chief, you guys
have been at this long enough.” He looked at his watch. “I want you and
your men to hit your racks for at least the next three hours.”
The chief looked surprised. “But sir …”
“No buts, Chief. That’s an order. Come to think of it, make it four
hours. I don’t want anybody getting electrocuted because his brain is too
tired to think properly. And, I want you to set up a sleep rotation. One
man in his rack at all times, and you can swap out every couple of hours.
That way no one has to work for more than a few hours before he gets a
chance to recharge his batteries.”
The chief nodded. “Aye-aye, sir.”