Designated Targets

He took a seat in front of the flatscreen and began to read, and then to scroll down.

“Oh, dear,” he said after a minute.

“Major, would you like to share with the other children?” asked Halabi.

Harry turned around on the swivel chair. “If this is good,” he said. “Telemark is a no-show. It’s sitting there to distract us from a fast-fission program they’ve set up with the Japs.”

“What does that mean?” asked Poulsson.

“Nothing good,” said Captain Halabi.

A chime sounded from the monitor, and McTeale appeared in a pop-up window.

“We’ve got incoming, Captain. Jets again. About twelve of them, this time.”

“Sound to general quarters,” she ordered before turning to Harry and Poulsson. “Gentlemen, you should continue with your preparation, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to talk to London. I think everything just turned to shit.”

Alarms began to blare throughout the ship.

23

PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS

None of them could be trusted. Hidaka was as sure of that as he was of anything.

The helmsman was probably the most reliable. He seemed a brute, and had become fast friends with some of the Nazis on board. The boy, Danton, looked like he would piss himself to death at the first fall of shot in the water. And Le Roux . . .

Hidaka sighed quietly. It was a difficult thing to accept, that the fate of the empire should rest in the greasy hands of such an ill-bred cretin.

As the magnificent warship known as the Dessaix sliced through the long, rolling swell of the Pacific, Hidaka did his best to contain the resentment that was burning in his gut as the slovenly chief petty officer lounged in the commander’s chair and held forth about the glories of France.

Hidaka had come across a phrase in an English language journal that he thought better encapsulated the current position of France. Cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

“Do you find something funny, Commander?”

“I was just thinking of the look that will appear on Kolhammer’s face in about half an hour,” he lied.

“Uh-huh,” grunted Le Roux, before barking something at Sublieutenant Danton in their native tongue. The boy flinched under the lash of harsh words.

Hidaka was long past being shocked by the lack of respect this oaf showed for his superior. Even though Le Roux was older and vastly more experienced than Danton, Hidaka thought him foolish for taunting the boy in such a fashion. The young man was far and away the most proficient officer on board.

Indeed, he had wondered what had motivated Danton to throw in his lot with Le Roux and the Germans, especially after hearing about the other crewmembers who had offered false allegiances, only to attempt to scuttle the ship at the first opportunity. But Le Roux had vouched for the boy, saying that he had a personal motivation of unquestioned validity. Two American marines had raped and murdered his sister.

The ship burst through the crest of a roller that was significantly bigger than the general run of the swell. Hidaka felt the floor tilt forward as they tipped over the summit and raced down the other side. The blue trough between the waves rushed up to fill the bridge’s strip of blast windows. The Dessaix handled beautifully in these heavy conditions, steered by her Combat Intelligence, cryptically referred to as Melanie by the Frenchmen. Hidaka still remembered the embarrassment he had felt the first time he heard the ship “speak.” He had nearly jumped out of his shoes, unleashing great mirth amongst the Europeans, and even some of the Indonesian sailors.

Danton said something, and Le Roux nodded.

“It is time to get below,” he said to Hidaka.

The Sutanto had not been run by a Combat Information Center. It had been piloted by men on a bridge, like the ships Hidaka was familiar with.

But he knew the path of life had taken him somewhere very special the first time he’d set foot in the stealth destroyer’s CIC. It seemed as if you could control the whole world from in here. There were more glowing screens, of greater size, and computers of infinitely greater complexity in this one room than they’d been able to salvage from both of the Indonesian vessels put together. Even after the Germans had stripped the Dessaix to her bare bones for this mission, she remained a wonder.

Again, Hidaka could only mourn the opportunity that had been lost. If this ship had remained undamaged, fully armed, and properly crewed, they would have wielded enough power to lay waste to Hawaii, and then to Los Angeles, and all of Australia and the southern Pacific. Such a great pity.