SSN

    "Captain Mackey," the President said, speaking from the Oval Office, "the State Department will soon release a report of an impending summit between me, President Jiang Zemin, and Premier Li Peng in Beijing. Premier Li Peng is expected to relinquish his claim to power at that time." He paused for a moment before going on. "However," he said, "in all fairness to Cheyenne, no mention of your involvement in this historic event is authorized, at least not until you have successfully delivered the rightful Chinese president to Zhanjiang Naval Base." He paused again to allow his words to sink in. "Captain Mackey, the First Lady and I would like to wish you Godspeed, fair winds, and a following sea. Good luck to you, and to the heroic men of USS Cheyenne,"

    The briefing officer ordered the monitor turned off and the room lights brightened, but few people noticed. Everyone was talking, with an excitement that was rare even in wartime mission briefings.

    The President hadn't really said anything that they didn't know about, but the simple fact of the President talking directly to them added to the importance of Cheyenne's mission.

    It took several minutes for the room to quiet down. When it did, the briefing officer continued with his presentation. And it didn't take him long to drop another bombshell.

    The decommissioning of USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) had been canceled, the briefing officer said, and Los Angeles was nearly on station south of the Formosa Strait. There had been no traffic addressed to Cheyenne concerning Los Angeles, but the CTF 74 admiral confirmed her presence. Her mission, pending routing instructions that would prevent mutual interference between Los Angeles and Cheyenne, was to assist in escorting Cheyenne and President Jiang.

    That was a serious mistake, Mack thought, but he kept his mouth shut. Los Angeles was the first of the 688s. He'd heard that her decommissioning had been postponed due to a lack of funds, but he didn't know that she still had enough crew left to even get under way, much less to fight the Chinese.

    On top of that, she had the "old" fire-control and sonar systems and no TB-23 thin line array, which meant that Los Angeles had little chance to detect the new Chinese submarine. Mack was afraid she would be sunk before Cheyenne even got under way.

    This briefing was turning out even worse than the last one, Mack thought.

    The briefing officer informed him that a Chinese North Sea Fleet Alfa class SSN, the Chung, would also escort Cheyenne and President Jiang. Chung's orders were to stay to me west and eventually to tne north ot a specially constructed track from the Formosa Strait to Zhanjiang Naval Base, and to proceed at an SOA (speed of advance) of six knots.

    Outwardly, Mack didn't react at all, but he couldn't help thinking how quickly that Alfa would disappear at the hands of the hostile submarine. That didn't really matter, of course, he realized, not as long as Chung stayed out of Cheyenne's sector as ordered. In fact, it might help to flush out the new foe, whatever it was.

    Mack would trade the Alfa for the new enemy submarine with pleasure. But Los Angeles, that was a different story. The two 688s could talk to and protect each other, but that would also be difficult at best.

    When the room once again quieted, the briefing officer finally got to the subject that Mack and his officers were most interested in: the new threat, and what it might be.

    The briefing officer said that, according to the CIA, the unknown submarine was believed to be the culmination of recent Sino-Soviet research and development into a next generation nuclear attack submarine. Deployment of the Mao, as they believed it to be called, had not been expected anytime soon. But now, with the damage inflicted upon Portsmouth and Pasadena and the evidence of the sonar tapes, it was obvious even to the CIA and nava! intelligence that the Mao was out there waiting for Cheyenne.

    When it looked like the briefing officer had no more to say on the subject, Mack asked the other question he desperately needed answered. "What about the non-acoustic ASW?"

    "Sorry, Captain," the briefing officer said, obviously prepared for the question. "CIA still does not believe that an aircraft can use lasers to detect submerged objects and to communicate with their submarines."

    Mack hated that answer. He hated it because the answer wasn't, "The CIA checked this out and found no evidence." Instead, the answer was simply, 'The CIA cannot believe this, and so they won't check it out."

    Changing the subject, Mack asked if either the Hainan class mine layer or the mine-laying Romeo that Cheyenne sank last patrol could have laid mines near Zhanjiang Naval Base before they proceeded up the coast from Mandarin Bay. The briefing officer answered that Chinese minesweepers had scoured the area and found none.