Silence and a sense of expectancy greeted his statement. Nobody rushed to contradict him, but neither did they rush to endorse the idea. Halabi chewed her pencil, obviously deep in thought. Willet seemed to nod once. Colonel Jones leaned forward and clasped his hands together.

“It’s a hell of a task, Admiral. Even for us.”

Kolhammer smiled. “I believe you were the first to raise the idea, Colonel.”

“I was, but my people will be the ones getting shot at, too. Are you talking about hitting both Singapore and Luzon? Because you have to split your forces to do that. And what about the Japanese carriers that survived Midway? They don’t impress us much, but they scare the shit out of the locals.”

“They do,” Kolhammer agreed. “And I think we do need to deal with them. We know they’ve hightailed it back to the Home Islands. Captain Willet, you can get the Havoc to Japan in, what, three and a half days?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well then, in four days, those ships are scrap metal.”

“If they’re still there,” said Jones.

“That’s right,” Kolhammer nodded. “If they’re still there. And if they’re not we will have to find them and destroy them, but nobody here doubts our ability to do that. And yes, Luzon and Singapore are a hell of a way from each other. But if we do this we have to get them all out.”

Captain Halabi stopped chewing her pencil.

“While you were away, I had a chat with one of the young officers in the working party we put together to do some historical research. We talked about this. She thinks the locals will be grateful to get their men back. But she doesn’t think it’ll make all that much difference to their attitude in the long run. She said we’re just too alien.”

Kolhammer thought about it for a moment.

“She might be right, Captain. But we’re here and have to make these choices. I guess the consequences will take care of themselves.”

THE OVAL OFFICE, WASHINGTON, 2210 HOURS, 12 JUNE 1942

Admiral King preferred good old-fashioned paper to those infernal data slates and flexi-whats-its. You could roll a bunch of papers up and bang them like a gavel. You could fold, spindle, and mutilate them. You could tear them, and crumple them, and throw them into the wastebasket.

And that’s what he felt like doing with the papers he was holding in his hands, a summary of Kolhammer’s plan to intervene in the Pacific. King had no trouble with the idea of turning those rocket ships and planes on the Japs, but this maniac was talking about wasting precious resources on some ridiculous prison breakout in Luzon and Singapore.