The Shark Mutiny Read Online Free PDF Page A

as he always did: going instantly for the obvious worst-case scenario. That is, some foreign nutcase has just bought several hundred sea mines from the bloody Russians with a view to laying the bastards somewhere they want to keep private .
    Lt. Ramshawe frowned. It seemed unlikely the Russians were using the mines themselves. They had nowhere to mine, and these days they rarely manufactured Naval hardware unless it was for export.
    So who the hell did they make ’em for ? Jimmy Ramshawe ran the checks swiftly through his mind. One of those crazy bastards in the gulf…Gadaffi? The Ayatollahs? The Iraqis? No reason really for any of them, but the Iranians had threatened a minefield more than once. But then the AN-124 would have been running south, not east. Or else the mines would have been transported by road. China? No. They’d make their own…I think. North Korea? Maybe. But they make their own .
    Lieutenant Ramshawe deemed the puzzle worthy of careful consideration. And he gathered up the two signals, muttering to himself, “I don’t think we better fuck this up, because if ships start blowing up, somewhere in the Far East or wherever, we’re likely to get the blame. ’Specially if an American ship was lost…bloody oath there’d be trouble then.”
    He stood up from his screen, pushed his floppy dark hair off his forehead and walked resolutely out of the ops area down to the Director’s office. He was still reading the signals when he arrived in the hallowed area once occupied by Arnold Morgan himself. And he walked through absentmindedly, still reading, tapped on the door, pushed it open and walked in, as he always did.
    “G’day, Admiral,” he said. “Coupla things here I think we want to take a sharp look at.”
    David Borden looked up, an expression of surprise on his face.
    “Lieutenant,” he said. “I wonder if you could bringyourself to give me the elementary courtesy of knocking before you enter my office?”
    “Sir? I thought I just did.”
    “And then perhaps waiting to be invited in?”
    “Sir? This isn’t a bloody social call. I have urgent stuff in my hand which I think you should know about right away.”
    “Lieutenant Ramshawe, there are certain matters of etiquette still observed here in the U.S. Navy, though I imagine they have long been dispensed with in your own country.”
    “Sir, this is my country.”
    “Of course. But your accent sounds like no other U.S. officer I ever met.”
    “Well, I can’t help that. But since we’re wasting time, and I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot now that you’re in the big chair, I’ll get back outside and we’ll start over, right?”
    Before Admiral Borden could answer, Jimmy Ramshawe had walked out and closed the door behind him. Then he knocked on it, and the Director, feeling slightly absurd, called, “Come in, Lieutenant.”
    “Christ, I’m glad we got that over with,” said Jimmy, turning on his Aussie-philosophical, lopsided grin. “Anyway, g’day, Admiral. Got something here I think we should take a look at.”
    He handed the two signals over, and David Borden glanced down at them.
    “I don’t see anything urgent here,” he said. “First of all, we do not even know the mines were on board the Russian aircraft. If they were, we don’t have the slightest idea where they might be going…and wherever that may be, it’s going to take a long time for anyone to unload them, transport them, and then start laying them in the ocean. At which point our satellites will pick them up. I shouldn’t waste any more time on it if I were you.”
    “Now, hold hard, sir. We got possibly several hundred brand-new sea mines almost certainly packed into thehold of the biggest freight aircraft on earth, now heading due east toward China, maybe India, maybe Pakistan, Korea, Indonesia? Brand-new mines specifically ordered and manufactured? And you don’t think we want to trace the bloody jokers who own them, right away?”
    “No,