Hell Ship

EPILOGUE — Hell to Pay

The door opened and Dane stood up stiffly. His body was still black and blue from the pummeling he’d taken during the escape from the Templar vault, but scrapes and bruises were the extent of his injuries, and those would heal and fade in time. The damage to his career, on the other hand, remained to be seen, but he didn’t have a good feeling about it.

Bones had caught up to Dane and Alex as they hobbled back up the sloping track toward the summit. The tumult had not gone unnoticed at the lodge and it seemed likely that the authorities had already been contacted. The good news was that an emergency response would take time; it might be days before anyone began to grasp the scope of what had happened, more than enough time for them to limp their way off the mountain and make their way back home.

Home, however, had its own perils. When Dane again made contact with Maxie, the conversation was brief and pointed: Proceed immediately to the nearest U.S. military facility and await transport. Maxie did not ask for a report, and made it clear that they were not to talk with anyone.

A military plane returned them to Washington where Alex left them. Maxie was waiting there, stonily silent. He’d brought along their dress whites and told them only that they had an appointment at the Pentagon the following day, a meeting with the Secretary of the Navy.

And now that meeting was about to begin.

“BOHICA time,” muttered Bones. Bend over, here it comes again.

Maxie shot him a venomous look, but said nothing. Dane followed his CO through the door, with Bones bringing up the rear. The female officer who had opened the door stepped aside as they passed, but Dane didn’t look at her. Instead, he marched — as formally as his aches would allow — to stand in front of a table beside Maxie. They were in a conference room, not the Secretary’s office, and that struck Dane as odd, but it was a minor concern.

Maxie snapped to attention and saluted. “Commander Maxwell, reporting as ordered, sir.”

The man in civilian attire seated behind the large table — Dane recognized from the framed photo that hung in every office of the United States Navy — looked up with a slightly irritated expression and returned the salute with a half-hearted wave. Maxie dropped his hand but remained at attention. Dane and Bones just stared forward, waiting for the axe to fall.

“I’ve got a nine-thirty, so let’s keep this short and informal.” The SECNAV rose and picked up a thick manila envelope, then strode around the table to stand in front of Dane. He took a sheet of paper with the distinctive letterhead of the Department of the Navy from the envelope and held it up as if to read.

“Lieutenant Dane Maddock, United States Navy. For exceptionally meritorious service in the discovery of the Japanese Imperial Navy prisoner transport ship Nagata Maru, and assisting the repatriation of the remains of our honored dead…”

He took a slim blue case from the envelope and opened it. Inside was a red and blue ribbon from which hung a small gold colored pendant. He removed it and clipped it to Dane’s breast pocket, right below his SEAL trident.

“…is hereby awarded the Bronze Star Medal.” He passed the paper and the case to Dane and offered a stiff handshake.

What the hell?

Dane was only peripherally aware of the presentation of Bones’ medal. His task complete, the Secretary turned to leave, but paused at the door. “I believe this concludes the affair. Lieutenant Commander Vaccaro will finish your debriefing, after which this matter will remain classified. You are not to discuss it among yourselves or with anyone else. Good day, gentlemen.”

Because he was still trying to process what had just happened, Dane barely heard the parting shot, and didn’t make sense of it until he turned to face the female officer who was closing the door behind the departing official.

“Alex?” Dane stopped himself immediately and reverted to his position of attention. Even looking her in the eye, he barely recognized her. Her face was the only familiar thing, completely out of context in the crisp white uniform, with a gold oak leaf on the collar. “Ah, I mean…Commander—”

Alex strode forward and addressed Maxie. “Sir, could you give us the room?”

The SEAL CO didn’t look happy about it, but nodded. “They’re all yours.”

When he was gone, she motioned to the table. “I guess I owe you guys an explanation.”

“Permission to speak freely,” said Bones, and not waiting for it, continued, “but hell yes, you do…ma’am.”

Alex did not seem the least bit offended by the breach of decorum. “I’m with Naval Intelligence. I was working incognito to monitor Don Riddell’s research. That’s how I got involved in this whole mess.”

“So you’re not a historian after all?”

“Oh, I am going for my Masters. That’s why I was perfect for the job.”

“The SECNAV had you watching Riddell,” Dane said, “just in case he turned up something on the Nagata Maru?”

“No.” She paused as if considering this for the first time. “At least, I don’t think so. My job was simply to give the Navy a head’s up on anything potentially embarrassing in the history. The hell ships are a tragic part of the war narrative and we wanted to be ready for damage control.

“Knowing what we now do, I suppose it’s entirely possible that there was an ulterior motive at work.” She shrugged. “When Don was killed, I wasn’t sure who was behind it. There had to be a leak somewhere and it seemed the best way to fix that leak and flush out the enemy was to stay undercover and pursue the leads on my own. That’s what led me to you.”

“You might have mentioned that somewhere along the way.”

“I wasn’t altogether certain that you weren’t part of the problem. Especially not when I found out you were SEALs. I didn’t know what your mission really was.” She smiled to lessen the sting. “A good thing, too. If I had broken cover, I wouldn’t have been able to cover for you guys here. We probably all would have gotten deep-sixed.”

“No freaking way!” said Bones with a grin. “You blackmailed the SECNAV?”

“Blackmail is a crime. I’m a trained intelligence officer. I use information… strategically.”

“What about the treasure vault? Somebody’s going to wonder why there’s a great big maze underneath that mountain.”

“The Swiss government likes to keep its secrets. They’re reporting that geological instability caused minor damage to the Niesenbahn funicular. They plan to shore up the area by pouring concrete into some recently discovered seismic faults. A lot of concrete.”

“So all of this…” Dane waved the Bronze Star citation. “Give us a medal, sweep it under the rug…that’s how it ends?”

Alex’s smile slipped a little. “Maddock, this is big. We barely scratched the surface, and I don’t even know how far down it goes or who all the players are. I do know that Edward Hancock was acting on his own. The Navy didn’t sell you out or set us up. I don’t know if the Secretary is part of some Templar conspiracy, and frankly, I don’t care.”

Dane knew she was right. Exposing the conspiracy wouldn’t change anything. The people at the top — politicians and the wealthy — would go on playing their power games. The world would keep turning. His sworn duty to his country meant that he had an obligation to follow orders. The mission to find the Awa Maru—the deniable “training exercise”—had been a deception, but was neither illegal nor immoral in nature. The same was true of the implicit order to let it all go.

As a BUD/S instructor had once told him, “You don’t have to like it; you just have to do it.”

Okay. But I may have to rethink my career choices. He was, in that moment, sure of one thing. At the first available opportunity he would draft a response to Admiral Long’s offer of a billet aboard the Valley Forge and a promotion. Thanks, but no thanks.

Alex watched him struggle with the bitter pill for a moment then stood in preparation to leave. Before she did however, she placed a business card in front of him. “Call me.”

He doubted he would, but he pocketed the card anyway.

Bones stared at him for a long while then chuckled. “Well, that went better than I expected.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Dane straightened and sighed. “Let’s get out of here. Come on, I’ll buy you a drink and we can drown our sorrows.”

“A drink.” Bones shifted nervously. “You know, I think I’ll take a rain check on that.”

That was almost as surprising to Dane as any of the day’s other revelations. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah. Just decided to maybe lay off the booze for a while.” Then he faced Dane again, his expression uncharacteristically earnest. “Hey, listen. This whole business got me thinking about what I’ll do…” He tapped the SEAL badge on his uniform blouse. “After. I actually thought ‘after’ was going to be this afternoon, but no such luck. I know a lot of guys end up working for these private security outfits.”

“Guys like Ray?”

“Yeah. I don’t think I want to end up like that. But I’ve been thinking…”

Dane nodded. “Go on.”

“It was kind of fun looking for that ship, looking for buried treasure.”

“You want to be a treasure hunter?”

“Well…why not? Gotta do something to pay the bills. Unless of course you buy me that lucky lotto ticket.”

Dane realized that Bones wasn’t joking.

“We could go into business together,” Bones went on. “You’ve got the knack for finding these lost things, and I’ve got the good looks and personality. You know that treasure ship we were supposedly looking for? The one with all that gold and platinum and the bones of the Peking Duck—”

“Peking Man.”

“Whatever. It’s still out there, right? We could find it. You could find it. What do you say?”

“What I say is that you and I are both currently otherwise employed, for at least the next few years, and that job is probably going to keep us very busy for a while.” And then Dane smiled. “But I’ll think about it.”