Up From the Depths by J. R. Jackson Read Free Book Online Page A

treatment. This time, they were going to the extreme limit of their operational endurance and attempt to identify what kind of vessel it was. More than likely, they’d launch on it again once it was closer and maybe this time, they would actually land on something. He knew that they had enough fuel stored on the supply ships and definitely enough supplies between what was at Winthrop and onboard that same replenishment ship. Until they actually performed a real VBSS mission instead of an airborne MIO, all they were doing now was drilling holes in the sky.
     
    ***

BB-63, Missouri, Off the Pacific Coast
     
    “Bridge, Radar, I have some intermittent contacts,” Brown said. O’Reilly spun his command chair and grabbed the handset.
    “What do you have, Chief?” he asked, thinking that maybe the radar was picking up debris or an abandoned ship.
    “Don’t know, Cap. Can’t tell if it’s a boat or a plane,” Brown said. “Whatever it is, it’s right at the extreme edge of detection,” Brown said wishing there was someone onboard who had more experience with radar and how to decipher the readings.
    “It’s gone now, Cap,” Brown said.
    “Keep on it, Chief,” O’Reilly said before he replaced the handset.
     
    ***

***
     
    “Paladin, Dragon Lead,” the senior pilot of the three aircraft formation said.
    “Go ahead, Dragon Lead.”
    “I have a visual on some kind of large vessel. It’s definitely not a freighter or a tanker. I’d say it’s some kind of warship.”
    “Say again, Dragon Lead.”
    “Waterborne contact is definitely not a civilian vessel, Paladin.”
    “Can you get closer, Dragon Lead?”
    “That’s a negative, Paladin. We’re two mikes from Bingo,” Dragon Lead said as he watched the large gray ship disappear into the fog that was a precursor to the storm that was forming further out to sea.
    “I’ve lost visual. The weather is turning on us,” he said as fat rain drops began to sprinkle his canopy. “We’re RTB at this time.”
    “Copy that Dragon Lead. Paladin out.”
    The senior pilot of Dragon Flight took one longer look in the direction the ship went. He wasn’t sure, but it was possible that the flag flying from the stern was the stars and stripes.
     
    ***

Chapter 7
    Museum of Natural History, New York City
     
    “Work this out,” Pruitt said. “The world as we know it has pretty much ended. Somehow, with all that happening, our illustrious team leader manages to piss off command and we get relegated to a total shit detail.”
    “Hey, it could be worse,” Jiminez said as he swept his tactical light around the utility tunnel that Sierra-3 was currently patrolling.
    “How much worse could it get?” Graham asked.
    Sierra-3 looked at their team medic and collectively shook their heads.
    “There you go, you had to say it,” Ski said.
    “What?” Graham asked looking around. “What did I do?”
    “If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you,” Pruitt said.
    “I can’t believe you said that,” Jiminez stage whispered. Sound travelled far in these tunnels but they weren’t too concerned about Zulu’s in the immediate area. There had been regular patrols down here and they hadn’t encountered any. Yet.
    “Someone had to say it,” Graham insisted.
    “Knock it off and get your head back in the game,” Ski said as he turned around to check their back trail. Since his meeting with Colonel Wiener and his meeting with Doyle and later the Russian diplomat, he had been quiet. More quiet then he usually was as the topics of discussions between Doyle and Anatoli coupled with what he now knew of the situation inside the museum, had caused him to take a mental step back. Command was command. It was a crap shoot when it came to someone capable being in command but that was how it was in the military. However, to have someone so far down the chain that in all likelihood, in the real world, would have been passed over as non-promotable was a sick twist of fate.
    “I