Warshot (The Hunter Killer Series Book 6) by Don Keith (top ten ebook reader TXT) 📗

to explain this failure to Tan Yong. He was not a man who tolerated failures.

Then something occurred to him. Maybe Li Min Zhou, with all her high-level connections, would have an answer that would satisfy the general secretary. Or at least an idea of how he might shift the blame to someone else.

He quickly reached for his phone, found her number in his contact list, and hit the “Call” icon.

Ψ

Yon Hun Glo stood watching the research ship Zhang Jian back away from the pier. The time had finally come to go after the gold at the bottom of the Tonga Trench. That fool, King Tofuwanga II, had only riled up the Americans when he launched the assault on Niue. Then again when he captured their research ship and held the crew captive on Neiafu. And to top it off, his total incompetence had allowed the Americans to raid the island, freeing the prisoners and stealing their ship back, all before Yon could get the bulk of his marines there to prevent it.

Fortunately, the Americans were finally occupied elsewhere, just as the submariner and his brother had intended all along. All their ships—a truly stunning number of vessels—were steaming to Taiwan’s aid, token as it ultimately appeared to be. The Deep Ocean Explorer was probably back in Pago Pago by now. No other American ship had come out to bother him.

The sun was setting in the west and lights were blinking on in Nuku’alofa as the Zhang Jian steamed up the narrow channel and disappeared around Talafo’ou Point. Yon Hun Glo wearily walked down the pier and climbed up the brow to the main deck of the container ship Pearl Moon. This vessel would be his new home and office for the next few weeks.

At the end of that time, he fully expected him and his brother to be the wealthiest people on the planet.

Yon stepped over to one of the containers on the ship’s deck. It was painted a rusty, sun-bleached red. The Japanese lettering on its side proclaimed that the big cargo box contained several tons of construction equipment. He gave the side of the container three hard raps, paused, then two more. A marine guard swung open a door for the admiral. A door that had been carefully hidden in the big freight box’s side. He stepped into a brightly lit office space.

The containers on this level had been interconnected to form a hidden command center, complete with covert, secure data linkage back to Yon Hun Glo’s headquarters on Hainan Island, and from there directly and securely to his brother in Beijing.

Yon Hun Glo quickly reviewed the printed reports a staff member handed to him. They were from his four submarines, verifying that they were each ready to sortie out of this tropical harbor. Satisfied, he wound his way through the labyrinth of containers. Along the way, he observed at least a dozen people busily at work. He followed directional signs until he reached a doorway that opened out onto the deck, right next to the ladder that led up to the Pearl Moon’s bridge.

He took a moment to look at all the other containers lined up and stacked on the ship’s deck. Most were empty. And ready to fill with pure gold dust retrieved from the bottom of the sea.

Night had fallen and the harbor waters glistened blackly as Yon Hun Glo watched each of the submarines back away from the Pearl Moon and then head down the ship channel, around Talafo’ou Point. Finally, it was his turn. The Pearl Moon headed out toward the open sea after the boats.

The Chinese admiral smiled as he sipped from his cup of tea. Dawn’s light would reveal that piers in the little harbor were now empty. The Americans and their satellites would almost certainly be able to soon spot the Zhang Jian and the Pearl Moon, but only after some frantic searching. There was nothing he could do to hide them, but there was nothing the Americans could do either. By noon tomorrow he would have an escort of Tongan patrol boats. And the Americans would have no idea that four PLAN submarines were steaming along on their mission several hundred feet below.

Then, unbeknownst to Yon or anyone else in the convoy, as the ship transited the channel, Pearl Moon passed directly over the bottom sensors that ORCA One had planted weeks ago. Just like the five other times already this evening, the sensors uplinked the detection to an orbiting communications satellite.

By the time the Pearl Moon had come around to steady up in the Avi Piha channel, Steve Weiss, who was sitting in the Portland’s Combat Information Center, had already ordered ORCA One to catch up with and intercept the vessels.

Then he placed a very interesting call over to Commodore Joe Glass.

Ψ

Joe Glass was already busy reviewing his resources and matching them up against what the Chinese were throwing at him. The call from Steve Weiss gave new urgency to his evaluation. The PLAN had four modern AIP conventional subs and a couple of civilian ships, plus a considerable number of well-trained marines close by on Niue. And for all intents and purposes, that king over on Tonga, being an enthusiastic and willing ally of the Chinese, could provide a few assets of his own if the shooting started.

Against that, Glass had two subs, the Cheyenne, which was already out on patrol, and the George Mason, which was now heading toward them. With those PLAN subs on the loose, and with the Chinese suddenly so willing to expend ordnance for whatever reason, he simply could not risk sending either the Chesty Puller or the Portland out to sea unless all-out war flared up. Additionally, Stanton Readly had a battalion of his battle-tested Marines ready to go, but his only means to deploy them were a couple of Ospreys and MH-53Ks. The newest arrival, Canberra, rounded out his available shooters. And he had very little chance