Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

342 JEFF EDWARDS
She sighed. “We got lucky, sir. If that last sub had gotten past us, the
Brits would be gearing up for war right now.”
Captain Bowie nodded. “We did get lucky, Chief. But I think our little
tango in that minefield used up the last of my four-leaf clovers.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“They’re taking her away from me,” the captain said. “I got a heads-up
call from SURFPAC this morning. Vice Admiral Hicks is hand-carrying
my orders over himself.”
“I’ve never heard of SURFPAC hand-delivering orders before,” the
chief said.
“I have,” said Captain Bowie. “Sometimes that’s how they do it when
you’re being relieved of command.”
“What?” the chief said. “Relieved of command? They can’t do that!”
Captain Bowie smiled. “I’m afraid they can, Chief.”
“They’ve got no grounds to relieve you, sir.”
“Yes they do,” the captain said. “A ship under my command was sunk
in combat, and that hasn’t happened since World War II. Not to mention
that we lost every helo attached to our SAU. Apparently, the upper
command thinks I mismanaged the situation pretty badly.”
“Mismanaged? Sir, with all due respect, that’s bullshit! Nobody could
have done it any better than you did.”
Bowie shook his head and stared down into the dry dock at his
wounded ship. “I worked for this my whole life,” he said. “I never gave a
damn about making full-bird, and I never even thought about admiral. I
wanted to command a destroyer at sea.” He shrugged. “I was lucky
enough to live my dream, for a while anyway. I always knew that my time
as CO of Towers would go by too quickly. But I never expected to get
pulled out of the game early.”
He looked up the pier and pulled his walkie-talkie from its belt holster.
“Quarterdeck, this is the Captain. Sound six bells. Admiral Hicks is
approaching.”
“Quarterdeck, aye.”
A few seconds later, the ship’s bell rang six times—three groups of two
bells each, followed by the Petty Officer of the Watch’s voice over the 1-
MC. “Commander, Naval Surface Force Pacific—Arriving.”
Captain Bowie and Chief McPherson came to attention as the admiral
approached. When he was about eight paces away, they both rendered
hand salutes, the captain with his right hand and the chief with her left.
The admiral promptly returned their mismatched salutes with a snappy
one of his own. “At ease.”
They dropped into slightly more relaxed postures.