Carrier 11.Nuke Zone by Keith Douglass

Author:Keith Douglass [Keith Douglass]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mediterranean Region, Nuclear Warfare, Action & Adventure, Thrillers, Technological, Aircraft Carriers, Fiction
ISBN: 9780515122534
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Published: 1998-10-15T08:02:45+00:00

1010 Local Admiral’s Briefing Room

“Sorry I’ve kept you waiting—let’s get on with it,” Magruder said as he strode into the room. It was a relief to be back among his own kind, other sailors and officers. He felt uncomfortable in his stiff dress uniform surrounded by the other officers in their comfortable working uniforms.

Tombstone turned to the senior Intelligence Officer. “What have you got for me?”

Lab Rat looked grim. “It’s possible,” he said bluntly. “Based on the Falcon’s flight profile, I can’t rule out the possibility that it has a vastly more capable power plant than we suspect.” He held up one cautionary finger. “I have no hard data to support that, Admiral, but it’s worth briefing all the squadrons on the possibility. They might want to take another look at their tactics against it.”

Tombstone nodded. He was sure that a wealth of technical detail underlay Lab Rat’s warning, and equally certain that he didn’t need to hear it. If Lab Rat said that a warning was warranted, then so be it.

“Anything else I need to know?”

Lab Rat glanced around the room. “Not here, Admiral. If you will step into SCIE-“

Tombstone shot him a surprised look. He followed the Intelligence Officer to the back of the conference room and into the highly secure intelligence spaces located directly off the TFCC. “What gives?”

Lab Rat took a deep breath. “More speculation, Admiral. I’m short of proof on a lot of things these days. But you might want to read this.”

Tombstone stared at the message, reached out to take it, and then drew his hand back. “Give it to me short,” he ordered. He glanced at his watch. “I have to get back to the goddamned diplomats in a while.”

“Stealth technology,” Lab Rat said. “There’s a possibility that somebody besides the U.S. has it.”

“Who?” Tombstone said, unable to contain his impatience.

“The former Soviet Union had the beginnings of a program at the end of the Cold War. Most of the engineers on it were Ukrainian. National intelligence estimates say they returned to Ukraine after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, and are probably continuing their work along those same lines there.” Lab Rat paused for a moment, and his frown deepened. “Admiral, if Ukraine has stealth technology—operational or capable—it changes the whole complexion of this scenario.”

It took a moment for Tombstone to catch on. When he did, the implications stunned him. “Turkey—it wasn’t necessarily Turkey,” he said, not wanting to hear his own words. “That makes even more sense, in one way. There’s not much tactical reason for Turkey to have launched on us—none, as far as I can see.” He thought back to the initial briefings he’d attended in the conference room. “They certainly don’t seem like they’re culpable, at least in public. They even seemed-” He struggled for a moment to find exactly the right word. “Outraged,” he concluded finally.

“Angry at the United States, justifiably angry. And we know that Ukraine has fissionable materials taken from the long-range warheads that were left on her soil after the dissolution.

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