The Hammer of God

“The Nimitz Class carrier, Theodore Roosevelt, CVN 71, went to Force Protection level at 0600 zulu and hailed two zodiac-type craft from nearing. After a warning shot was fired and the boats failed to alter course, the main batteries opened up. Both boats were immediately sunk. At that instant, the nuclear alarms tripped and the boat went into nuclear-safe lockdown.”

“Are the men all right?” the President asked.

“All who were on the deck are going through standard de-con, right now. Time will tell.”

“Mr. Secretary, was there a secondary explosion?” Hiccock asked.

“I don’t have that detail yet.”

“Bill, what are you thinking?”

“Sir, our intercept said, Roosevelt. I certainly never thought of the aircraft carrier, Teddy Roosevelt.”

“Intercept?” the SECNAV asked.

“NSA found two words in a message. One was the name of the safe house where the suitcase nukes were stored and the other was Roosevelt. I am sorry I didn’t think of the ship, Mr. Secretary.”

“Doesn’t matter, Mr. Hiccock. The ‘Big Stick’ was already on war watch. They couldn’t have been more prepared if you had a telegram with the exact date and time. But I see now why you asked about the secondary detonation.” The Secretary turned to the President as he gestured to the phone. “May I?”

“Of course.”

As the SECNAV got the commander of the TR on the phone, Hiccock thought about the fact that everything could be over. The loose suitcase nuke could now be at the bottom of the sea. It had to be or the commander of the ship wouldn’t answer the phone because he, his 97,000-ton warship, and its whole Carrier Strike Group, would be vaporized.

“Go ahead, Commander Halbrook, I have you on speaker with the President, the COS and Sci Ad.”

“As far as we can tell there was no nuclear detonation. There was, however, a nuclear event.”

“This is Hiccock. The boats went down to direct hits, commander?”

“Yes. In all, 10 shells were fired along with two ‘sea whiz’ systems on manual.”

“This is the President. Any idea who attacked you?”

“No sir. They disappeared in a blue-white flash, sir.”

“Good shooting, commander.” The president actually pumped his fist as the ex-combat fighter pilot in him responded to the neutralized threat.

“Sir, we train hard for this type of thing. I’ve got a cool, effective crew here, sir.”

“Commander, it’s Hiccock again. You did say CWIS, didn’t you?”

“Yes, two of our Phalanx systems open up in addition to the five-inchers.”

“Is that important, Bill?”

“Could be, sir. Those systems fire depleted uranium bullets. Commander, could the sea whiz have accounted for tripping the nuclear alarms?”

“Highly doubtful, Mr. Hiccock. One, they are truly depleted and two, our sensors are calibrated to take our own reactor and weapons like that out of the equation.”

“Commander, do you think you sunk a boat with a suitcase nuke on board?” Ray asked, summing up the whole reason for this call.

“Indeterminate, sir. Something set off the sensors and I guess a breached or destroyed suitcase nuke would let out a spike like that. I can tell you that the area remains hot and we are tracking a line of radiation down to the ocean floor.”

“How deep is the water there, Commander?”

“Pretty deep, sir. At least three miles.”

“So we couldn’t recover it even if we could get close enough to the radiation,” the President guessed.

“Yes sir. I am afraid whatever it is, is going to be down there for good.”

The President looked around the room. “Anything else?” When no one answered, he said, “Again, job well done, commander. My commendation and gratitude to you and your crew.”

“Thank you, sir. I know the crew will be honored.”

The SECNAV ended the call and said, “Wes is a rock-steady commander, sir. It’s no surprise the TR has numerous battle E’s for….

Then the intercom interrupted. “Mr. President, the National Security Advisor would like to join you.”

“Send him in, Doris.”

The NSA walked in and grabbed the remote to one of the five TVs in the Oval Office. He was getting numbers from his cell phone. “564. Got it!”

He punched 5-6-4 into the remote and on channel 564 was a feed from Al Jazeera. A ski-masked man sat reading a statement. Just then, another man from the State Department entered the office as interpreter and started translating immediately, “… praise unto him. The good and righteous forces of the brotherhood have on this day cut off the head of the great serpent in our holy waters. We have, in one act of justice, vaporized the mighty fleet of the Infidels. We have melted their ships and sent their sailors to an agonizing death. This is the power of the true, the righteous, the believers. And this is the fate of the Infidel. Allah be praised.”