Out of the Ashes Read Online Free PDF Page B

test run,” the admiral said.
    â€œWhat about it?” the president asked. “That was one of our best-kept secrets. All civilian personnel on board. High-paid volunteers with no family, picked by ...” he paused. “Who did pick that crew?”
    â€œWe did,” Kelly said glumly.
    â€œSeveral members of the agency who,” Brady said, “have quietly and mysteriously left the city over the past thirty-six hours. No answer at their homes.”
    â€œThat doesn’t answer my original question,” Fayers said.
    The admiral locked eyes with Brady. “I believe Mr. Brady is about to tell us that sub didn’t sink.”
    â€œThat is correct, Admiral. It was spotted last month by one of our operatives. He couldn’t be one hundred percent certain; but certain enough to report it to me. I had had strong suspicions about it all along. The agent was killed just hours after making that report. The sub was taking on supplies, from a ship belonging to—quote/unquote—a friendly nation.”
    â€œGoddamn it!” Ringold said. “What small-class experimental sub?”
    â€œIt was top secret,” the admiral said. “Very few people knew anything about it.”
    â€œWell ... thanks just a whole hell of a lot!” Ringold blurted.
    The admiral shrugged his total indifference as to what Ringold thought. “You didn’t have a need to know.” The admiral then added, “Shit!” Then he put together a string of expletives that made the Watergate tapes sound like children’s nursery rhymes.
    â€œWhere in the hell could a sub hide for this long?” Ringold asked.
    â€œThis sub could hide anywhere it wanted to hide,” Travee said. “It’s invisible. Sonar can’t detect it. But God, it was expensive to build. Greatest weapon invented in the past fifty years. Came along much faster than its airborne counterpart. For all the good it’s going to do us.”
    â€œAll right,” Secretary Rees said. “Do we or don’t we notify the Russians and the Chinese? Do we tell them what we know—what we suspect? Take a chance?”
    â€œWhat do we know we can prove?” General Dowling of the Marine Corps asked.
    â€œWe have nothing we can prove,” Brady said. “No hard evidence to present to them. And,” he said softly, “do we have the time? The Chinese—and this is my personal opinion—would, I think, behave in a decent manner. The Russians I wouldn’t trust as far as I could spit. Their minds would work this way: the sub is American; the missiles are American; the crew is American—the fault is ours. They’d drag us right into a war. We don’t know where the sub is; we can’t stop it. No,”—he sighed—“I think we have to chance this and hope we take minimum casualties. And the American people must not learn of this. The instant we assume a public defensive posture, the sub will fire its missiles. The American people won’t have time to do anything. Besides, we don’t know how many missiles will make it through our screens.”
    â€œThat’s a damned cold-blooded attitude!” Ringold said.
    â€œBut a necessary one.” Brady defended his statements. “Better the people are surprised—if it comes to that—than have several days of pure panic. And”—he held up a finger—“the Russians have a very good civil defense system: bunkers, food, water. The U.S. has shit for CD. Let the Russians get the message the same time our people receive it. More dead Russians and less U.S. casualties.”
    â€œI’ll go along with that,” Divico said. The other members of the Joint Chiefs nodded in agreement.
    â€œLet me say this,” Fayers said. “Mr. Brady believes the launch will be made within a week. All right, we’ll stay with that hypothesis. We don’t know where the sub is, but