Clear and present danger - Tom Clancy [259]
"Any more on the news about those drug bastards?" Painter asked while his aide carried his bags in.
"We're sure giving them a hard time, aren't we?" Jackson observed.
The Admiral stopped dead in his tracks. "What the hell do you mean?"
"I know that I'm not supposed to know, sir, but I mean, I was there, and I did see what was going on."
Painter waved Jackson inside. "Check the fridge. See if you can put a martini together while I pump bilges. Fix whatever you want for yourself."
Robby made the proper arrangements. Whoever set up flag quarters for them knew what Painter liked to drink. Jackson opened a Miller Lite for himself.
Painter reappeared without his uniform shirt and took a sip from his glass. Then he dismissed his aide and very close look.
"I want you to repeat what you said on the way in, Captain."
"Admiral, I know I'm not cleared for this, but I'm not blind. I watched the A-6 head for the beach on radar, and I don't figure it was a coincidence. Whoever set up security on the op could have done a better job, sir."
"Jackson, you're going to have to forgive me, but I just spent five and a half hours sitting too close to the engines on a beat-up old 727. You're telling me that those two bombs that took druggies out fell off one of my A-6s?"
"Yes, sir. You didn't know?"
"No, Robby, I didn't." Painter knocked off the rest of his drink and set the glass down. "Jesus Christ. What lunatic set up this abortion?"
"But that new bomb, it had to - I mean, the orders and everything - shit, for this sort of thing, the orders have to chop through -05."
"What new bomb?" Painter nearly shouted that out, but managed to control himself.
"Some kind of plastic, fiberglass, whatever, some kind of new bombcase. It looks like a stock, low-drag two-thousand-pounder with the usual attachment points for the smart-bomb gear, but it's not made out of steel or any other kind of metal, and it's painted blue like an exercise bomb."
"Oh, okay. There has been a little work on a low-observable bomb for the ATA" - Painter referred to the new Stealth attack plane the Navy was working on - "but, hell, we've just done a little preliminary testing, maybe a dozen drops. Whole program's experimental. They don't even use the regular bomb filler, and I'm probably going to shit-can the program, 'cause I don't think it's worth the money. They haven't even taken those things off China Lake yet."
"Sir, there were several in Ranger's bomb locker. I saw 'em, Admiral, I touched 'em. I saw one attached to an A-6. I watched on radar while I was up in the E-2 for the Fleet-Ex. Flew off to the beach and came back from a different direction. Timing might be a coincidence, but I'd be careful putting money down on that. The night I flew back, I saw another one attached to the same aircraft. Next day I hear that another druggie got his house knocked flat. It stands to reason that half a ton of HE'll do just fine for that, and a combustible bombcase won't leave shit behind for evidence."
"Nine hundred eighty-five pounds of Octol-that's what they use in those things." Painter snorted. "It'll do a house, all right. You know who flew the mission?"
"Roy Jensen, he's skipper of -"
"I know him. We were shipmates on - Robby, what the hell is going on here? I want you to start over from the beginning and tell me everything you saw."
Captain Jackson did just that. It took ten uninterrupted minutes.
"Who was the 'tech-rep' from?" Painter asked.
"I didn't ask, sir."
"How much you want to bet he isn't even aboard anymore? Son, we've been had. I've been had. Goddammit! Those orders should have come through my office. Somebody's been using my fucking airplanes and not telling me."
It wasn't about the bombings, Robby understood, it was about propriety. And it was about security. Had the Navy planned the job, it would have been done better. Painter and his senior A-6 expert would have set it up so that there would have been no awkward