Debt of Honor - Tom Clancy [167]
"We decided jointly with the leadership that the matter deserved to have—what?" The President looked up at the ceiling. "It deserved to have a clear field…"
"Sufficiently serious—no, it is sufficiently important to deserve a Congress undistracted by other considerations?" Ryan offered. Not bad, he thought.
"I'll make a politician out of you yet," Durling said with a grudging smile.
"You're not going to say anything directly about the case," van Damm went on, giving the President advice in the form of an order.
"I know, I know. I can't say anything on the facts of the matter because I can't allow myself to interfere with the proceedings or Kealty's defense, except to say that any citizen is innocent until the facts demonstrate otherwise; America is founded on…and all that stuff. Tish, write it up. I'll deliver it on the airplane before we land, and then maybe we can do what we're supposed to be doing. Anything else?" Durling asked.
"Secretary Hanson reports that everything is set up. No surprises," Ryan said, finally getting to his own briefing. "Secretary Fiedler has the monetary-support agreement ready for initialing, too. On that end, sir, it's going to be a nice, smooth visit,"
"How reassuring that is," the President observed dryly. "Okay, let me get cleaned up." Air Force One or not, traveling in such close proximity to others was rarely comfortable. Presidential privacy was a tenuous commodity under the best of circumstances, but at least in the White House you had real walls between yourself and others. Not here. An Air Force sergeant strained at his leash to lay out Durling's clothing and shaving things. The man had already spent two hours turning the Presidential shoes from black leather into chrome, and it would have been ungracious to push the guy off. People were so damned eager to show their loyalty. Except for the ones you needed to, Durling thought as he entered the small washroom.
"We got more of 'em."
Sanchez emerged from the head adjacent to CIC to see people gathered around the central plotting table. There were now three groups of the diamond shapes that denoted enemy surface ships. Charlotte, moreover, had position on a "V" shape that meant an enemy submarine, and Asheville supposedly had a good sniff also. Best of all, the joint patrol line of 8-3 Viking ASW aircraft two hundred miles in advance of the battle group had identified what appeared to be a patrol line of other submarines. Two had been caught snorting, one on SOSUS and one by sonobuoys, and, using a line defined by those two positions, two others had been found. Now they even had a predictable interval between boats for the aircraft to concentrate on.
"Sunset tomorrow?" the CAG asked.
"They like the rising sun, don't they? Let's catch 'em at dinner, then."
"Fine with me." Sanchez lifted the phone at his place to alert his wing operations officer.
"Takes long enough," Jones murmured.
"I seem to remember when you were able to stand watches for a real long time," Wally Chambers told the civilian.
"I was young and dumb then." I smoked, too, he remembered. Such good things for concentration and alertness. But most submarines didn't allow people to smoke at all. Amazing that some crews hadn't mutinied. What was the Navy coming to. "See what I told you about my software?"
"You telling us that even you can be replaced by a computer?"
The contractor's head turned. "You know, Mr. Chambers, as you get older you have to watch the coffee intake."
"You two going at it again?" Admiral Mancuso rejoined them after shaving in the nearby head.
"I think Jonesy was planning to hit Banzai Beach this afternoon." Captain Chambers chuckled, sipping at his decaf. "He's getting bored with the exercise."
"They do take a while," SubPac confirmed.
"Hey, guys, we're validating my product, aren't we?"
"If you want some insider information, yeah, I'm going to recommend you get the contract." Not the least reason for which was that Jones had underbid IBM by a good 20 percent.
"Next step, I just hired two guys from Woods Hole.