The circuit cleared. “Good afternoon, Amanda.”
She smiled a little, both in pleasure at the sound of MacIntyre’s voice and at herself for the way her hand instinctively came up to smooth her
damp hair. She couldn’t help it if Elliot MacIntyre was a well set up man as well as a friend and
commander. “Good afternoon, sir.”
“That remains to be seen,” MacIntyre said cryptically. “I need to speak with you about something.”
She frowned. There was an odd tone in Elliot’s voice, almost calculating. “Of course, sir. What can I help you with?”
“Something’s come up in relation to your Phantom Project.”
Phantom? Amanda frowned.
Phantom was something from out of her past, stemming from the days when she’d been attached to the naval stealth program at the David W. Taylor Naval Ship
Development and Research Center in Bethesda. She had done a paper on the Q-Ship
and Raider doctrines employed during the First and Second World Wars and on the
possible application of those doctrines to a twenty-first century conflict
situation. She had dubbed this hypothetical application “Phantom Force.”
In the years since, Phantom had intermittently bubbled to the surface. The Naval War College had asked her to do an updated and expanded version of her paper shortly after 9/11. And later, when she’d first been attached to NAVSPECFORCE, Admiral MacIntyre had asked her to chair a Special Operations symposium on the subject.
Phantom Force was her concept, but it was only a hypothetical one. For the moment she had a great deal of reality to cope with.
“What about it, sir?”
“Would you be interested in becoming involved in the project again?”
Amanda found herself becoming a little aggravated. What about Harconan and the volcano she was sitting on here in Indonesia?
“Sir, I’m very pleased that somebody finally might be getting interested in my idea, but
just now I’m a little too tactical out here to commit time to another paper.”
She heard MacIntyre chuckle grimly. “We don’t need another paper, Amanda. People are interested enough in Phantom Force as
it stands.”
Her breath caught in her throat and she sat a little straighter. “You mean they’re thinking about building her?”
“I mean she’s already been built, Amanda. Her base and support elements have been assembled
and we have her cover in place. She’s also been taken beyond what you initially envisioned. She’s bigger, more sophisticated and considerably more mission capable.”
Amanda’s chair creaked as she slumped back. To say that MacIntyre’s flat statement was stunning was an understatement. It was fully the equivalent
of going to the doctor for missing a period and being told that her baby was
waiting in the next room. She shook her head, still not believing. “You mean that Phantom is operational? But I haven’t heard a word … not even a rumor …”
MacIntyre sounded both pleased and amused with springing his surprise on her. “You set the parameters yourself in your paper. ‘Absolute operational security must be maintained at all times over all aspects
of the project to ensure its successful deployment.’”
She couldn’t restrain the explosion. “But, damn it, Phantom’s mine! I thought of it!”
MacIntyre chuckled again. “Compartmentalization does not recognize proprietary interest. Actually, the
project is not quite fully operational. Our initial deployment capability was
projected for another six months down the line, but recent developments have
made it necessary to move things up. We’re activating Phantom Force now and we’re sending it in after Harconan.”
A chill beyond bare skin and air conditioning rippled through Amanda. “That’s what I designed her for, sir.”
“Very true, Captain. Now the only remaining question is, do you want her?”
The chill became a physical shiver. “Am I being offered command of Phantom Force, sir?”
MacIntyre snorted. “Hell, you’ve been the first and only choice for the plank commander since we started
bending metal on the project. You’ve not only developed the base concept, but between the Cunningham and the Sea Fighters you’ve built a reputation for proving up new weapons systems and doctrine under
combat conditions. We want you to do it again.”
“Th – thank you, sir.”
“We were going to approach you under more controlled circumstances when you’d completed your tour with the Sea Fighters,” MacIntyre continued. “But now we’ve been denied that luxury. It’ll be another hair-on-fire transfer with no down time in between, but Phantom
Force is yours if you want it.”
He hesitated. “If you elect to not accept this particular assignment, it most certainly will
not affect your career, nor will it be held against you in any way.”
Amanda knew, or at least she strongly suspected, that Elliot MacIntyre was aware of her indiscretion with Makara Harconan. It was a point of some embarrassment to her –and now, Eddie Mac was as much as offering her a way out if she didn’t want to take on the assassination of the man who had been her lover. It was an intimacy she never expected and a consideration she didn’t deserve.
“Sir, I accept, and I thank you for this opportunity.”
She heard what might have been a sigh of relief at the other end of the circuit.
“To say I am pleased is an understatement, Amanda. I don’t have to tell you that we’ll be sending a very raw, untested and speculative outfit into an incredibly
unstable situation with a bare minimum of working up time.”
“How long will I have, sir?”
“You’re closer to the fire than I am at the moment. You tell me.”
She hesitated for only a few seconds. In that brief period, she jettisoned the load of the Sea Fighter Task Force like a satellite launch vehicle jettisoning a burned-out stage, her mind leaping ahead to encompass this new mission. She had no details to work with. No exact table of organization beyond the outline she had sketched out, but she knew where her priorities must be.
“I’m not sure myself,” she replied. “But one thing I do know. If I’m to get Phantom up to speed fast enough to make a difference, I’ve got to have the people for it. Specifically, I’ve got to have my people. Officers I know and who know me and how I work. I’m definitely not going to have the time to break in a new operations staff.”
“Understood and concurred with,” MacIntyre replied. “I’m already trying to pull in as many of your old hands as I can from other
assignments. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
“What about the Sea Devil force commander and Intelligence/recon officer? Have
those slots been filled?”
“Not yet.”
“Then get me Christine Rendino and Stone Quillain.”
MacIntyre hesitated. “Hmm, that might not be … quite so easy to swing.”
Amanda frowned. “Why not? They’re the best we’ve got.”
