Goliath Read Free Page B

shoulders. Two more hours, then dinner and a shower. Maybe Hatch’ll even let me stay in his cabin tonight.
    For a long moment she stares at her reflection in the orange monitor, thinking about what her life could have been. The thought tweaks a distant memory.
    Gunnar had never liked the carrier’s Aegis defense shield. Though virtually
impregnable to attack on the open ocean, the multilayered, multiship system possessed one basic flaw—its active radar and sonar also revealed its presence to the enemy.
    Rocky shakes her head, annoyed at herself for wasting time thinking about the man who had nearly destroyed her. Adjusting her headphones, she refocuses her attention on the sonar monitor,
    —a valuable premonition dying stillborn.
     
    Captain Hatcher finds the congressman on Vulture’s Row, an open-air balcony overlooking the flight deck, positioned high up on the carrier’s island infrastructure. The two watch intently as a Joint Strike Fighter is secured to one of the catapults. The electromechanical slingshot, the first of its kind to replace the venerable steam method, is capable of tossing a pickup truck a half mile out to sea.
    With a high-pitched roar, the JSF leaps across the suddenly small flight deck, accelerating from zero to 150 miles per hour in less than two seconds. The required 3.5 gees is ramped up in a calibrated 75 milliseconds by the sophisticated new catapult design, pushing its crew back into their seats with a force of over three-and-a-half times their own body weight.
    The skipper waits briefly for the roar to die down. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Lawson.” Hatcher is not really sorry, nor does he sound it.
    The Democrat from Florida turns to face him. “I don’t need a baby-sitter, Captain, any more than you need a civilian looking over your shoulder. Keep in mind I’m only here because the Appropriations Committee and GAO still haven’t come to any definitive conclusions regarding funding for the new Stealth carrier.”
    “The CVX’s design speaks for itself. The advances in deck management alone make the new carrier worth funding.”
    “Your opinion. Personally, I’m still not convinced it’s worth all the money.”
    Hatcher’s face turns red. “Take a good look down there, Congressman. You’re looking at the most dangerous piece of real estate in the world. Maybe you ought to climb into a jumpsuit and spend some time on our flight deck before you cast your vote.”
    “This has never been a question about safety, Captain, it’s a question of whether the ungodly costs associated with keeping these armadas at sea is still worth it. Twenty billion to build a single carrier group, another 12 billion a year just to keep all our CVBGs operational.”
    “Maintaining a forward presence isn’t cheap.”
    “Yes, but is it still our best strategy? As research into new high-tech systems accelerates, delaying purchases even a few more years may yield a full generation of advantages. Why waste money on systems that may become
obsolete before we even put them into service? There’s a growing consensus among my colleagues on Capitol Hill that the carrier groups have become antiquated. Face it, Captain, Aegis may protect your ship in open waters, but at close range, these new Chinese Silkworms and Russian supersonic missiles become too fast and too maneuverable to intercept. The evil empire’s gone, Hatcher. Our new enemies lurk in tight, coastal hot spots like the Strait of Hormuz. What good is a brand-new 6-billion-dollar aircraft carrier if we’re afraid to use it?”
    Hatcher removes his cap, wiping the sweat from his receding hairline. “Tell you what, Congressman—if you and your colleagues on Capitol Hill know a better way of kicking some third world dictator’s ass halfway across the globe, then I suggest you fund it—otherwise, give us what we need to do our goddamn jobs.”
    Atlantic Ocean: 197 nautical miles due west of the Strait of Gibraltar 850 feet below the