"Admiral, my recommendation—the president asked me for one—was that we keep the submarine.  For what it's worth, the Joint Chiefs are on your side, too, along with the CIA.  As it is, though, if the crewmen want to go back home, we have to send them back, and then the Soviets will know we have the boat for sure.  As a practical matter, I can see the other side's point.  The vessel is worth a pile of money, and it is their property.  And how would we hide a 30,000-ton submarine?"

"You hide a submarine by sinking it," Painter said angrily.  "They're designed to do that, you know.  'Their property!'  We're not talking about a damned passenger liner.  That's something designed to kill people—our people!"

"Admiral, I am on your side," Ryan said quietly.  "Sir, you said we've given you an impossible task, Why?"

"Ryan, finding a boomer that does not want to be found is not the easiest thing in the world.  We practice against our own.  We damned near always fail, and you say this one's already passed all the northeast SOSUS lines.  The Atlantic's a rather large ocean, and a missile sub's noise footprint is very small."

"Yes, sir."  Ryan noted to himself that he might have been overly optimistic about their chances for success.

"What sort of shape are you in, Josh?" Davenport asked.

"Pretty good, really.  The exercise we just ran, NIFTY DOLPHIN, worked out all right.  Our part of it," Painter corrected himself.  "Dallas raised some hell on the other side.  My ASW crews are functioning very well.  What sort of help are we getting?"

"When I left the Pentagon, the CNO was checking the availability of P-3s out on the Pacific, so you'll probably be seeing more of those.  Everything that'll move is putting to sea.  You're the only carrier, so you've got overall tactical command, right?  Come on, Josh, you're our best ASW operator."

Painter poured some coffee for himself.  "Okay, we have one carrier deck.  America and Nimitz are still a good week away.  Ryan, you said you're flying out to Invincible.  We get her, too, right?"

"The president was working on that.  Want her?"

"Sure.  Admiral White has a good nose for ASW, and his boys really lucked out during DOLPHIN.  They killed two of our attack boats, and Vince Gallery was some kind of pissed about that.  Luck's a big part of this game.  That would give us two decks instead of one.  I wonder if we can get some more S-3s?"  Painter referred to the Lockheed Vikings, carrier-borne antisubmarine aircraft.

"Why?" Davenport asked.