Piranha by Jim DeFelice, Dale Brown Page A

“Why
not?” asked Major Merce Alou, who had taken over command
of the Megafortress development project when Major Cheshire left to head the
operational wing.
                 “Security,”
said Stoner.
                 “Uh,
well, uh, there are several concerns,” said Jed. “We’re absolutely not
attempting to provoke anything, or increase tensions, which putting ships out
there would do. Pacific Fleet’s resources are already concentrated in the
Indian Ocean and around Taiwan. The threat of an invasion remains viable.”
                 “That’s
a bullshit estimate,” said Stoner.
                 “I
agree, but it’s not my call,” said Jed. “Also, the Director, um, the National
Security Director, would prefer not tipping off the Indians that we know, uh,
about Kali. Moving Naval assets would, at least arguably, tip them or the
Russians off. Which would be the same thing.”
                 “Kali?”
asked Zen.
                 “It’s
halfway between a sub-launched Harpoon and a Tomahawk missile,” said Stoner.
“It’s underwater-launched, like a torpedo. We think it can travel four or five
miles underwater before it surfaces, which makes the launching sub that much harder
to detect. It pops up, skims along the surface of the water, and hits its
target. It seems to be able to correct toward its target close in; we believe
it has an active radar phase, but we still need to gather data. That’s your
mission.”
                 “At
least for now,” added Jed. “There’s a debate—”
                 “Let’s
deal with what we’re assigned to do, not maybes,” Colonel Bastian said. Jed had
told him earlier the NSC had debated asking Whiplash to protect all shipping in
the area—a tall order, and one possibly beyond their abilities. NSC had held
off doing so—largely, according to Jed, because doing so would have stepped on
the Navy’s toes.
                 “Piranha,”
said Rubeo. “It’s obvious choice.”
                 “Not
ready for a mission like this,” said Dog.
                 “Piranha
is what?” said Stoner.
                 “Underwater
surveillance probe and weapon,” Dog told him. “I don’t think you need to know
the details.”
                 “We
can clean up the computer issues in a few days,” said Rubeo.
                 “The
mission has to start right away,” said Jed. “We were thinking Elint Megafortresses.”
                 “I
concur,” said Dog. “ Merce ?”
                 “We’ll
use Raven and Quicksilver,” said Alou, referring to the EB-52’s optimized for
electronic intelligence-gathering. “We deploy a mini-KH for optical
surveillance at the same time.”
                 “Negative
on the tactical satellites,” Dog told him. “We dong have any launch chassis.”
                 “We
do have satellite coverage of the area,” said Jed. “It’ll be available through
the Dreamland network.”
                 “If
we’re looking for really close views of something while it’s traveling, we can
take Flighthawks,” said Zen. “Straightforward.”
                 “What
do we do if these weapons are used?” asked Alou.
                 “At
the moment, just observe them,” said Jed.
                 “Wait—they’re
firing at civilian targets or military targets?” asked Zen. “I think I missed
something here.”
                 “What
difference does it make?” asked Stoner.
                 “It
makes a shitload of difference,” said Zen.
                 “There
are military ships in the region that could be targets,” said Jed. “Until now,
all of the ships that have been sunk were civilian.”
                 “Damn.”
                 “The
vessel sunk by the Kali was a