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Kelly returned from his shower in a T-shirt and shorts, dragging a little physically, but with something tough and strong in his eyes.

'How far was that swim, John?'

'Just under five miles, sir.'

'Good workout,' Maxwell observed, handing over a Coca-Cola for his host. 'You better cool down some.'

'Thank you, sir.'

'What happened to you? That mess on your shoulder is new.' Kelly told his story briefly, in the way of one warrior to another, for despite the difference in age and station they were of a kind, and for the second time Dutch Maxwell sat and listened like the surrogate father he had become.

'That's a hard hit, John,' the Admiral observed quietly.

'Yes, sir.' Kelly didn't know what else he was supposed to say, and looked down for a moment. 'I never thanked you for the card ... when Tish died. That was good of you, sir. How's your son doing?'

'Flying a 727 for Delta. I'm going to be a grandfather any day now,' the Admiral said with satisfaction, then he realized how cruel the addition might have seemed to this young, lonely man.

'Great!' Kelly managed a smile, grateful to hear something good, that something he'd done had come to a successful conclusion. 'So what brings you out here, sir?'

'I want to go over something with you.' Maxwell opened his portfolio and unfolded the first of several maps on Kelly's coffee table.

The younger man grunted. 'Oh, yeah, I remember this place.' His eyes lingered on some symbols that were hand-sketched in. 'Classified information here, sir.'

'Chief, what we're going to talk about is very sensitive.'

Kelly turned to look around. Admirals always traveled around with aides, usually a shiny young lieutenant who would carry the official briefcase, show his boss where the head was, fuss over where the car was parked, and generally do the things beneath the dignity of a hard-working chief petty officer. Suddenly he realized that although the helicopter had its flight crew, now wandering around outside, Vice Admiral Maxwell was otherwise alone, and that was most unusual.

'Why me, sir?'

'You're the only person in the country who's seen this area from ground level.'

'And if we're smart, we'll keep it that way.' Kelly's memories of the place were anything but pleasant. Looking at the two-dimensional map instantly brought bad three-dimensional recollections.

'How far did you go up the river, John?'

'About to here.' Kelly's hand wandered across the map. 'I missed your son on the first sweep so I doubled back and found him right about here.'

And that wasn't bad, Maxwell thought, tantalizingly close to the objective. 'This highway bridge is gone. Only took us sixteen missions, but it's in the river now.'

'You know what that means, don't you? They build a ford, probably, or a couple underwater bridges. You want advice on taking those out?'

'Waste of time. The objective is here.' Maxwell's finger tapped a spot marked with red pen.

'That's a long way to swim, sir. What is it?'

'Chief, when you retired you checked the box for being in the Fleet Reserve,' Maxwell said benignly.

'Hold on, sir!'

'Relax, son, I'm not recalling you.' Yet, Maxwell thought. 'You had a top-secret clearance.'

'Yeah, we all did, because of -'

'This stuff is higher than TS, John.' And Maxwell explained why, pulling additional items from his portfolio.

'Those motherfuckers ...' Kelly looked up from the recon photo. 'You want to go in and get them out, like Song Tay?'

'What do you know about that?'

'Just what was in the open,' Kelly explained. 'We talked it around the group. It sounded like a pretty slick job. Those Special Forces guys can be real clever when they work at it. But -'

'Yeah, but there was nobody home. This guy'- Maxwell tapped the photo - 'is positively ID'd as an Air force colonel. Kelly, you can never repeat this.'

'I understand that, sir. How do you plan to do it?'

'We're not sure yet. You know something about the area, and we want your information to help look at alternatives.'

Kelly thought back.