Submarine Warriors: The Enemy Beneath Read Online Free PDF Page A

bathroom, where the male cafeteria monitor couldn’t follow her. She closed herself in a stall to collect her thoughts.
    “This has to be a prank,” she said under her breath, settling down from the excitement. “How could anyone be so insensitive, sending me a text about my dad?”
    Caroline sobbed quietly as she tapped the People tile on her phone and flicked her finger upward until she found “Granddad” under the G’s. She tapped the phone number under his profile picture.
    “Admiral Connery speaking.”
    “Granddad, it’s Caroline.”
    “How are you doing?” he asked.
    “Not too good. I’m a little freaked out right now. I just received a text message saying that all our dads might still be alive. It gave me some GPS coordinates and told me to contact you.”
    “Do you know who it’s from?” the Admiral asked.
    “That’s what’s so weird. There’s no phone number listed, just the letters SAT.”
    “A satellite phone,” he thought to himself.
    “The end of the message kind of creeps me out,” Caroline continued. “It’s the symbols for hugs and kisses. I wonder if it’s from some kind of stalker.”
    “I’m sorry, Caroline; I’m not up on the texting lingo of your generation. What are the symbols for hugs and kisses?”
    “XOXO,” Caroline replied.
    “I remember those symbols when I received Valentine’s letters from your Grandmother. It’s a long-shot, but it’s possible that the one person in the world who truly knows if your dad is alive just contacted you through a satellite phone.”
    “Huh?”
    “I think it’s Charley Keller,” said the Admiral. “He’s the Alaska’s XO and a man with undying loyalty to your father.
    “Uncle Charley?” asked Caroline.
    “Yes. Keep this to yourself. Gather your friends together - the sons and daughters of the lost sailors. Meet me at your friend Nick’s tree house tonight at nineteen hundred hours. Remember, don’t tell anyone.”
    Caroline couldn’t stop herself from smiling. When she got home from school, she called Nick, Mike, Chrissie and Annie and told them they all had an important appointment to keep. And no, she couldn’t tell them why.

    Tree House
    At the edge of the Hood Canal in Nick’s back yard, a giant tree house was suspended twenty feet in the air connected to four Douglas Firs. Not an ordinary tree house; this place was big enough to hold a dozen friends with a high ceiling so even adults could stand upright without bumping their heads. Though constructed mostly of wood, on the inside it looked more like a miniature NORAD or NASA mission control.
    Electricity made it possible to have all kinds of things inside like lighting, laptops, flat panel TVs, Wi-Fi, a small refrigerator and lots of charging Smartphones and iPods. Most of the power came from the solar panels on the roof, combined with small panels in the tops of the trees. The rest came from small windmills along the banks of the Hood Canal. The tree house was also full of special, high-tech light bulbs that projected a variety of wallpaper designs on the walls. They could also project text, images and touchable controls on any flat surface. Most everything about the place could be controlled by voice, camera input, or Smartphone apps. Frank Lloyd Wright would be proud of the architecture.
    The kids began to arrive at 7:00 pm and made their way up the rope ladder to this special place.
    A hidden camera above the tree house door scanned Annie’s face to see if it recognized her as the daughter of Quartermaster First Class Love. Of course, recognizing her was only half the equation. She had to know something secret and convey it to the camera, if she wanted to get inside. She made special gestures with her hand that looked like the ones used to communicate with the aliens in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The door unlocked and opened. As she entered the tree house, the wallpaper changed to a full-motion scene of a tropical beach where Annie was