1942

Okay, Jamie thought. One malfunction. An angry Winters said he was firing the second, and sonar again picked it up. A little later, the results were the same. No hit and the torpedo continued on.

“Surfacing,” radioed an obviously shaken Winters, and, seconds later, the sub emerged from the sea and took up station to fire at the second hulk.

From the PBY, they could see the torpedoes leave the tubes and head directly for the target before they submerged to run under it. Sonar reported them running loud and true and, again, nothing. No hits and the torpedoes continued on, out into the ocean. Jamie turned toward Spruance, who looked perturbed.

“Sir,” came Fargo’s voice on the radio, “we wish to fire two impact-trigger torpedoes with the normal mechanism and two with triggers we’ve made ourselves.”

“Go ahead,” Spruance said and then muttered under his breath, “Can’t hurt.”

The first impact torpedo hit the target ship and exploded. This brought relieved cheers from everyone on the plane. The target immediately began to settle in the water. The second torpedo arrived a moment later and, to the astonishment of everyone, clearly bounced off the crippled target without exploding.

“Unbelievable,” said Spruance.

The Monkfish then shifted and quickly fired two more torpedoes at the remaining target ship. These, Fargo reminded them, had had their triggers altered by one of the sub’s mechanics. Both hit and exploded, sending the rusty hulk to the bottom in a minute.

There was nothing more to be seen, and the PBY headed back to shore.

“Well,” said Spruance. “We’ve raised questions and possibly resolved some of them. We’ll tell Admiral Lockwood that his subs are to override the hull-detecting trigger mechanism and go impact only.” Then he recalled that only one of the first two impact triggers had worked. “I will strongly suggest that our people see just what the Monk’s people did to make their triggers work better than the original ones and copy it.”

Unsaid was the fact that it would take time, maybe months, for all the changes to be made. Many American subs were at sea and wouldn’t even know about the changes until they returned to port. All present hoped they would return to port and wouldn’t be sunk by angry Japanese warships after failed attacks with the flawed Mark 14s.

Unsaid too was the fact that this was a patch, not a solution. At least, Spruance thought ruefully, they could now begin to fight back more effectively.

The admiral reached over and clasped Jamie on the shoulder. “Good job, Lieutenant. That was a well-designed test.”

Jamie flushed. “Thank you, sir. Miss Dunnigan did a lot of the work for me.”

Spruance laughed. “I’m not surprised. When the Congress gets around to permitting women to enlist, she’ll be one of the first officers. She’s a navy brat. Her father served with me back on the Mississippi. He was a chief petty officer and a fountain of knowledge. He was killed on the Arizona, you know.”

Jamie hadn’t known that. There hadn’t been enough time to find out much at all about her, except that she was pleasant, intelligent, and sometimes very intense. Now he knew why. Jamie quietly resolved to find out more about her. While far from a raving beauty, she was growing on him.

Sergeant Hawkins sighted his rifle and pretended to squeeze the trigger at the distant but clearly visible target. “Bang,” he said.

“One dead Jap,” Jake said. “Good shooting.”

“Sir, I could nail him if you’d let me.”

“Sure, and you’d get us all killed.”

The Japanese officer was about three hundred yards away. Hawkins was a crack shot and could have dropped him easily.

However, the Japanese officer was the leader of a column of infantry that looked about platoon strength. That meant the Americans hidden on the hill overlooking the Japanese were outnumbered three or four to one. However tempting it might be, they were not going to give away their position, even their existence, to a Japanese patrol who had no idea they were being watched.

“You’ll get your turn,” Jake said.

These were the first Japanese the small group of Americans had seen outside Hilo, and it looked like they were nothing more than a probe to see what lay in the interior of the island. Half an hour earlier, four trucks, a staff car, and the platoon had driven up and parked at the intersection of two dirt roads. From the casual way they moved about, it appeared that they didn’t expect to find anything exciting. Just a drive in the country.

Jake was grateful the hills in the area were so thickly covered by shrubs and low, twisting trees. His small army could hide within feet of the Japanese and wouldn’t be seen unless a Jap was lucky enough to stumble over them. Since the Japs were road bound, this was highly unlikely.

It was tempting to kill one or two Japs and then retire into the boondocks, but Jake nixed the thought. It was not yet time to let anyone know they existed.