Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

160 JEFF EDWARDS
shot. The aura of power reaches out from the carrier like an umbrella and
practically blocks out the sun.
“We’ve got two carriers off the Chinese coast right now. Do you think
the Chinese would be minding their P’s and Q’s if they thought they could
hit our carriers with impunity?”
“An excellent point,” the president said. “And a vital point. I think
Admiral Casey is correct. The credibility of our conventional deterrence is
on the line here. If we screw this up, it could affect the balance of power
in countries all over the planet.”
“Okay,” said Brenthoven, “we throw everything we’ve got at those
subs.” He snapped his fingers three or four times. “I remember reading a
proposal for eradicating the Iranian Kilo Class submarines. Something
about catching them in the Straits of Hormuz and carpet-bombing the hell
out of them with thousand-pound bombs. We could do that. The German
subs will have to transit the straits to get into the Arabian Gulf. We can
wait and nail them then.”
“I’m not sure how Iran would take that,” said the secretary of state.
“The Straits of Hormuz are right off the Iranian coastline. If we were
already at war with Iran, a scenario that your carpet-bombing proposal was
apparently designed for—since it calls for attacking Iranian submarines—
it wouldn’t be an issue. But we’re not at war with Iran, and we aren’t
looking to start one. It might be a good idea to think twice before bombing
the hell out of their coastal waters.”
“It’s the wrong kind of response, anyway,” the president said. “We’ve
thrown two carrier strike groups at those subs already, and we’ve gotten
our asses kicked. If we’re going to salvage our credibility, we need to beat
them in a fair fight. They’ve got four submarines—we send four surface
combatants to take them on. No carriers, no bombers, no land-based
aircraft. Just our destroyers and frigates against their submarines.”
“Mr. President, you can’t be serious,” the CNO said. “The credibility
of our national deterrence is at stake, and you’re asking me to fight with
one hand tied behind my back?”
The president said, “I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that
our Navy is good enough to go one-on-one with the Germans and come
out on top. If you can’t say that with a straight face, we’ve got bigger
problems than credibility.”
“We snatched the Kitty Hawk out of there pretty quickly, sir,” the CNO
said. “I’m not sure if I can get four ships into a position to intercept. I
know I’ve got three Middle East Force deployers on station—two
destroyers and a frigate—but I may have to scrounge around to come up
with a fourth unit on short notice. Unless you’ll let me substitute a