Strike Force Read Free Page A

told him when she'd broken the golden rule of radio silence until mission complete. Something that made him certain that whatever part of his soul wasn't already blackened was now as dark as the rest.
       He'd spent hours trying to figure out how to correct her mistake, how to distance himself and his enterprise from what had happened. After all, he had not known what was going to happen. He'd been hired to do a job--a simple termination of a rogue asset.
       According to Alexis everything had gone sideways quickly and things had been done that couldn't be undone. Knowing what had happened and how it had happened, he felt used. It was a terrible mistake, an oversight, but there was nothing he could do to change choices already made.
       His only remaining tack was a clean and burn. He needed to clean up the loose ends, to make it so it was if he and his organization never had any connection to what had happened. He needed to disappear his operative once she was no longer of use. After all, what was done was done and there was no way to undo it.
     

 
     
     
    Chapter 5
    Mediterranean Sea Afternoon, Tuesday, 19 June
     
     
     
     
    A master chief pushed his way into the briefing room. From the wide berth given and insignia, Scott assumed the man was the ship's Command Master Chief. "One more," the chief announced. "SAR inbound now. That makes six."
       The statement was short and simple but it was met with reserved cheers that quickly spread throughout the operations room. To Scott, inbound search and rescue and "one more" meant hope. Search and rescue teams were still finding survivors and pulling them from the dark waters of the Mediterranean. But how many more would they find? How far off was sunset? Or had the sun already set? And why were there so few survivors?
       "Thank you, Command Master Chief," Captain Howard said. "Any status update on the others?"
       "Cooper's still in surgery. He was tore up pretty bad, but I hear the field medic did a damn fine job. Damn fine job. Saved Cooper's life for sure."
       Being the unnamed field medic, Scott stood a little taller and some of the day's weariness fell away. His thoughts went to the USS Harry Truman, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier that was the heart of the strike group. Truman was a floating city: 1092 feet in length and 252 feet abeam, with about 6,000 crewmembers aboard. In addition to 90 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters aboard, Truman had three radar-guided 20 mm Gatling guns; two short-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system; and two infrared homing surface-to-air systems.
       No doubt, USS Harry Truman could take care of herself, but the job of USS Bulkeley, USS Mason, USS Gettysburg, and USS San Jacinto was to ensure nothing and no one got close enough to cause any actual damage to the floating city. All four warships carried a standard complement of about 350 crewmembers.
       While the destroyers were 509 feet long and 66 feet abeam, the cruisers were 567 feet long and 55 feet abeam. Like the aircraft carrier, all four warships had top speeds of 30 knots or more--the equivalent of 35 miles-per-hour--which was pretty impressive considering the warships had displacements of around 9200 long tons and even more impressive when the 103,900 long-ton displacement of the USS Harry Truman was considered.
       USS Bulkeley and USS Mason were Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyers that carried big guns and batteries of missile systems. USS Gettysburg and USS San Jacinto were Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers that carried so many big guns and missile systems of so many different classes that they were essentially floating armories.
       Scott came back from his reverie when someone near the front of the room shouted, "And Lieutenant Ansely? What about Lieutenant Ansely?"
       The Command Master Chief turned to face someone who was standing behind him in the hallway and he ushered the young ensign in so that