They had taken command of the King’s Transom from its usual crew after it had stopped in Diego Garcia Air and Naval Base for ‘maintenance.’ From there they had motored north in strictly civilian dress, as per their orders, to rendezvous with their soon-to-be captain and further orders in southern India.

Four days later they had made it to Kodikkarai where Captain Hawkson had joined them along with the civilian who had also been mentioned in the lieutenant’s classified orders. Both the captain and his civilian cohort had been travelling with partners, and the captain had informed the lieutenant that these were part of their cover, and asked him not to note them in his report.

Ironically, it was precisely because he did not believe that they were part of the cover story that the lieutenant decided not to include them. These were clearly more than just cover stories (though what the attractive older lady saw in the shaggy, younger man she had brought with her was beyond him), but the lieutenant understood how hard it was for people in their line of work to maintain relationships and he had decided he would let this go unmentioned.

However, that indiscretion would be the only thing he would not note. Part of his instructions from the Admiralty had included specific orders to keep Admiral Hamilton abreast of the results of the probe’s analysis. So each day Richard had supplied his daily report at 6pm, uneventful though it was.

A couple of hours after he had already sent today’s report, he had noticed the captain and Dr. West talking animatedly before retiring to the captain’s cabin.

Several hours later still, they finally went to their separate cabins, and Richard decided it would be a good idea to see if he could see what had gotten them so agitated. While the two of them were safely in their cabins he checked the probe’s results from the past few hours. He was not sure what the significance was of what he was seeing, though it was clear his two auspicious guests were extremely interested in it, and it did look rather unusual.

As he studied the imagery, it looked to him like they had found the remains of some kind of missile. This certainly fell under the auspices of information the admiral would wish to be informed of.

Logging into the secure VPN account, Richard opened a new message from the in-box of the Admiralty e-mail account he had been assigned for the mission and began typing. He would attach the latest photos of the object, describe the way the captain had reacted, and send the addendum to Admiral Hamilton tonight.

Chapter 16: The Wrath of God