CHAPTER 14
SEPTEMBER 7TH –DAY 158; BRIGHT MOON DAY 47; 12 DAYS FUEL LEFT
“Johnson here.”
“You’d better get down here, sir. Someone has hacked into the computer network.”
Leila Brandt walked into her husband’s office.
“Look at this, Tim.” She brandished several sheets of papers in his face.
“What is it?”
“These papers were lying on my desk this morning when I came in. They look like copies of data files.”
He took the papers from her and began to scan them. “Tong?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. It looks like Johnson did take notes after all. I figured him for the real suspicious type –always afraid of somebody breathing down his neck.”
“He probably is.” Tim studied the papers. “They’re computer files all right. I’d have thought he would have learned something from the Contra affair.”
“He put a lot of his stuff in some sort of code. It’ll take a while to figure it out.”
“Time we don’t have.”
Admiral Williams was incredulous. “How could anyone get into your computer network?”
“I don’t know, sir. Security has no idea how they did it. The security programs flagged an intruder, but they were in and out before anyone could trace them.”
“What did they get?”
“Security is checking that now; maybe nothing. They may have left a footprint. It won’t tell us who it was, but it could tell us what they saw. We won’t know until later today.”
“Report back as soon as you know.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Look at this, Tim.” Leila pointed at the page. “These are references to UW, S, BM and UM. Look at the numbers: ‘one point ten UW’; ‘nine point five S’; ‘eighteen point five S UW BM’ and this ‘twenty-two point five.’ My guess is that the letters stand for the USS Washington, the USS Maryland, the Bright Moon, and the Seaview. But I can’t figure out what the numbers are for.”
Timothy Brandt studied the figures for a while. “When did the USS Washington sink?”
She consulted her notes. “May twenty-second.”
“When did she sail from port?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“When I was a war correspondent.” He gave her a mischievous look. “You know –back when I was lonely and boring?”
“You’re learning.”
He chuckled. “I am. Anyway, I took a couple of trips to Europe. They follow a different date system. It was confusing, totally backwards from our standpoint. The date starts with the day, then the month, and then the year, separated by a dot or a slash, or sometimes a dash.”
He repeated the last number as he wrote it down. “Twenty-two point five. That would be twenty-second of May, the day the USS Washington sank. These numbers are probably dates. Your brilliant husband will bet you a dinner out on the town that eighteen point five is the eighteenth of May, the date that all three ships left port. We can’t find out about the Bright Moon, but we can find out when the USS Washington and the Seaview left port.”
“Some of my personal files were accessed,” Johnson informed Admiral Williams later that day. “I can’t understand how they got my password.”
“That’s a moot point at this time, Mr. Johnson. What did you have in those files.”
“Not a lot sir. The abbreviations of the ships in the files, references to the times that the work would be completed. The dates weren’t standard dates, but it won’t be impossible to decode them. Other files were coded and it will be difficult to decipher them.”
“My sources have informed me that Mrs. Brandt has been asking questions about the USS Washington and the Seaview. She wanted to know the dates they left port.”
“Then they’ve figured the date codes.”
“Brilliant. What else can they find?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Can you take the chance that they won’t find anything?”
No, Johnson couldn’t take the chance.
“I really want to get him this time,” Tim said as he parked the car. “I know he was involved in the Contra affair.”
“I just hope we can get him before he gets Matthew,” said Leila. “If they sink the Bright Moon, they sink us too.”
“Right. And he gets away with it –again.”
“What about Chin Lee Tong? Don’t you think he can stop him?”
“Like he said: his daughter and son-in-law are on the ship. He’s taking this personally. I saw his face in the car when he told me and Roebuck that he wouldn’t allow Admiral Williams to get away with it. He scared the daylights out of me. Tong’s a pretty honest fellow, but I wouldn’t give two cents for Admiral Williams’ life if that submarine sinks that ship.”
They got out of the car and started across the street to their apartment. Half way across the street, they heard the screeching of wheels on the pavement. A car hurtled toward them.
“Look out.” Tim pushed Leila toward the curb. They fell to the pavement. Another screech assailed their ears and a second car lurched into the street in front of the oncoming car. Metal crashing against metal told them the cars had collided.
The driver of the second car jumped out and began to shout at the other driver. The first car backed away from the second and sped away while Brandt and his wife looked on in a daze. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. He tried to strike the man who put it there, but his arm was caught in a viselike grip.
“It’s okay!” shouted the man who held him. “I work for Chin Lee Tong. Come with me! Come!” He and another man helped them to their feet.
“Go into your apartment and stay there all evening,” said one of the men. “We will stand watch.”
SEPTEMBER 8TH –DAY 159; BRIGHT MOON DAY 48; 11 DAYS FUEL LEFT
“I think you’ve been watching too many spy stories, Mr. Johnson,” the admiral said. “Your men botched the job. They collided with another vehicle and then ran away from the scene of an accident. Now I have to take care of your mess for you.”
“No, sir,” Johnson said emphatically, “someone helped them.
“Who?”
“I don’t know. But if you could sink the Bright Moon, that problem would be solved once and for all, wouldn’t it?”
“Captain Carlsen is proving to be a difficult thorn to remove. He has eluded the Sarasota several times. The last time they fired a torpedo at him, he re-diverted it back to the Sarasota. They had to detonate it to keep from getting hit..”
Johnson looked at him in shock. “The Bright Moon almost took out a naval submarine?” The situation was getting worse by the minute.
“Oh, we’ll get him.” The admiral’s obvious contempt made Johnson bristle. “But I think you have a greater problem here. Wouldn’t you agree?” Johnson left.
Admiral Williams brooded. Who could be helping Brandt? Johnson’s men were incompetent. No one else knew about this except Brandt and his wife, and they were too arrogant to give this story to anyone else.
Johnson was another problem entirely. He had bumbled through this whole project, first almost sinking the Bright Moon, and then by practically giving it away to a group of civilians who were led by a man that was making the United States Navy look like a bunch of amateurs. Johnson knew too much. If they caught him–
His thoughts were interrupted by his secretary’s announcement that his aide had a message for him.
“Yes, Lieutenant? I’m very busy.” He had enough problems without the lieutenant adding new ones that he could just as well handle himself. The lieutenant saluted.
“Message from the USS Sarasota, Admiral. They made contact with the Bright Moon again, sir. Unfortunately, she saw them and got away.”
Admiral Williams sighed and leaned forward. As his chair creaked, he looked down at his desk. The as yet, unrepaired mark on the desk stared back at him. He touched it and looked up at his aide in anger.
“Am I surrounded by incompetence? Do I have to go out t
here and show them how to sink a ship?”
Wisely, the lieutenant didn’t answer.
“Get out.”
The lieutenant saluted and bolted for the door.
SEPTEMBER 9TH –DAY 160; BRIGHT MOON DAY 49; 10 DAYS FUEL LEFT
Matthew didn’t call Tong for three days. He also stopped contacting other ships. Nevertheless, they had encountered the sub again. Fortunately, it was going in the opposite direction and they were able to avoid it. Things were peaceful. The next meeting was another brainstorming meeting.
“I wonder if it wouldn’t be wise to try to phone others,” said Roberta. “Maybe if we all got in touch with our families, they could storm the government with protests and force the authorities to do something. Then we’d be able to go home.” Her suggestion met with a few nods.
“I don’t know,” answered Matthew. “The sub catches us every time we contact anyone, even when we contact Mr. Tong. If everybody makes calls out of here, they’ll get us for sure.”
“Why don’t you ask Mr. Tong the next time you call him?” she suggested.
“All right,” agreed Matthew, “I’ll do that.”