Home Goes The Warrior (4 page)

But he was in for a surprise. When he arrived at the quarterdeck, the officer-of-the-deck was waiting for him. “Lee, you have visitors in the captain’s in-port cabin. They’re with the captain, waiting for you. There’s a commander and a civilian in a three-piece suit. I don’t know who they are ‘cause Captain Neilsen didn’t have them sign the visitor’s log.”

Lee stopped short, staring at the younger officer. “Holy shit. What am I in for now?”

“I dunno, but it must be something important.”

Lee slowly turned away, mumbling, “Yeah. Thanks.” Entering the same light locker where he’d kissed Maggie a few weeks ago, he stopped and gathered himself. He found that his hands were shaking. Commanders and civilians in suits never came aboard ship to visit lieutenants. This must have something to do with his impending transfer. Nothing else made any sense.
What in hell am I getting into now?

Taking a deep breath he left the light locker and walked forward and up a ladder to the captain’s cabin. He stopped in front of the door and checked himself over carefully, then knocked. “Come in.” It was Captain Nielsen’s voice and it relaxed him a bit. At least he had one friend in the room. Turning the knob, he entered the room. It was one of the most luxurious rooms on the ship, a smaller version of the wardroom, with a long table, couches and a serving counter.

As soon as he walked through the door, he felt the eyes on him. The two individuals with the captain were studying his every move and they weren’t bashful about it. Lee looked inquisitively at the head of the table where the captain was sitting. Captain Neilsen gestured to a chair. “Take a seat, Lee. Let me introduce you. Commander Johnson is from the Bureau of Naval Personnel and this is Mr. Tom Wright. Mr. Wright is an FBI agent.”

Lee had instinctively reached out his hand to the commander when he heard the words “FBI agent”. He stopped cold and simply stared at the man. Then he broke into a smile, saying, “I hope I’m not in any trouble.” He continued the ritual of shaking the men’s hands and took a seat as the agent chuckled and assured him that he was trouble-free.

When he was seated, Commander Johnson started the conversation. “I want to apologize for all the cloak-and-dagger business concerning your orders. I know it’s probably been a bit tough for you. But we had to wait until certain checks were done and everyone was sure that we were doing the right thing. It took more time than we anticipated for us to get our act together.” He looked at Lee as if he were expecting an answer.

Lee stared back at him thoughtfully. “Commander, I don’t understand why you’re here, talking about a simple personnel transfer matter.
Surely you have more to do than worry about some obscure lieutenant’s transfer. Why’s this so important? Am I missing something here?”

Looking like a little boy with his hands caught in a cookie jar, the commander smiled sheepishly, “I think you’ll understand when we get through briefing you today. As for the delays, your transfer isn’t routine this time and making all the arrangements took some time. That’s the main reason for the delay in getting out here to see you. Is okay?”

Lee had recovered his composure now and he wasn’t particularly happy to find out that paper-pushers back in Washington DC had caused him those delays and all that lost sleep. So he answered firmly, looking the commander straight in the eye and speaking in a steely, carefully controlled tone. “Commander, I’d like to tell you that none of this is a problem and everything is hunky-dory. But it isn’t. You’ve strung this out far too long, and I still don’t have any idea what in the devil is going on with my life. That might not be a big deal to you, but it certainly is to me. Now, let’s have it. What in hell is going on?”

Captain Neilsen started laughing. “I told you he wouldn’t be a pushover, didn’t I?” The commander grinned a bit ruefully while the FBI agent just kept his gaze locked onto Lee’s face.

The commander stretched his legs and cupped his hands behind his head, as if he was lost in thought. “Okay Lieutenant, you’re going to get the whole story now. When we’re done, you’ll understand what it is that the Navy wants you to do. We’re going to offer you a job, a job that you don’t have to accept. This whole thing is strictly on a voluntary basis.” He paused, then went on. “But I do want to caution both of you that what we’re going to talk about here is classified Top Secret. Nothing we talk about is to be repeated by either of you, whether you take the job or not. Is that understood?” The captain and Lee said “Yes” in unison, so the commander continued, “To start this off, I’m going to give you some background info. Then I’ll turn the floor over to Tom Wright.”

The commander stood up and moved over to the little chalkboard affixed to the captain’s wall. He turned around and spoke directly to Lee. “Lieutenant, you recently completed a tour of duty in Bath Maine where
you were involved in the DLG
³
Modernization Program, the program that produced the ship we’re on now. So you’re familiar with ship overhauls and modernizations as well as the paperwork and management nightmares that go with this kind of big industrial program. You’re also very experienced with overhauling and maintaining the Terrier missile systems on these ships. Additionally, your record clearly shows that you don’t shy away from a fight. Your background is exactly what we need for this job. So here’s the story.”

“As you know, the DLG modernization program is massive. It completely overhauls and upgrades our major guided missile ships at an estimated cost, for just the shipyards’ end of the work, of about $35,000,000 per ship. The primary shipyards involved are Bath Iron Works, a privately owned shipyard that won the contract for some of the ships, and Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, which is doing the work on the rest of them.”

Commander Johnson paused to take a sip from his coffee cup, then continued, “To make a long story short, a serious problem started surfacing a couple of years ago. The ships in Bath are doing all right, staying on schedule and within the estimated cost envelope. But the costs of ships going through the program in Philly started going out of sight, and no one could explain the reason for the escalations. Mr. Wright will give you more details, but for now just understand that we are talking millions and millions of dollars that no one can explain.”

He paused to let this sink in and then went on, “To make matters worse, we think the problem has now spread to the routine overhauls of other guided missile ships in Philly. The Navy tried internally to resolve the problem, but failed. So they called in the Navy Criminal Investigative Service to investigate. NCIS was shorthanded and not used to investigations of this complexity, so they gave up and turned it
over to the FBI. But even the FBI has been pretty ineffective so far. They just don’t have people with the kind of expertise it takes to go into a shipyard and do detective work. The yardbirds just steer them in circles and laugh while they’re doing it.” He looked at Lee inquisitively. “Are you with me so far?”

Lee nodded slowly, his face showing concern. “Are you planning to enlist me in the FBI or something?”

Commander Johnson actually laughed aloud at that. “Close, Mr. Raines. But no cigar. We want you to go into the shipyard as a naval officer. You would be, from all outward appearances, just be another officer sent in to work on ship overhauls. But your real job will be to investigate and try to figure out where all the Navy’s money is going. With your background, the yardbirds won’t be able to play games with you and we might finally figure out what’s going on.”

At that, Lee exploded, his face reddening as he interrupted the commander. “Dammit, Commander, I’m not a cop!” He paused and gathered his thoughts, holding a hand up to prevent anyone from commenting. “I wouldn’t have any idea how to even start an investigation, and if I did get lucky and find something, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I know something about Philadelphia. There’s some tough hombres there. I might just end up dead if I start bumbling around in their personal little shipyard. Plus, I’ve never been in that particular shipyard. I’d be lost there.” At a loss for further words, Lee threw his hands in the air and sat back in his chair.

Tom Wright, the FBI agent, finally broke his silence. “Mr. Raines, please don’t get ahead of us. We have no intention of putting you in this position without training you first and then backing you up with all the assets at our disposal. This is a matter that has the attention of people at the highest levels in both the FBI and the Navy.”

Lee had a retort ready, but he decided to restrain himself. He nodded. “Okay. Let’s hear your plan.”

Agent Wright took over then. “If you don’t mind, Commander, I’d like to explain what we have in mind.” Commander Johnson agreed and Wright stood up, moving to the blackboard. “Okay Lee, the commander’s given you a look at the problem. The Navy is losing millions
of dollars on guided missile ship overhauls, and nobody has figured out where the money is going. The FBI has gone as far as we can go. We do have a few ideas, but we have no one available who can find their way through the shipyard bureaucracy and its paperwork well enough to get any results. We need someone who knows: (A) his way around guided missile systems and the ships they’re installed on and, (B) how to interpret and analyze shipyard paperwork. That’s where you come in. If your record is any indicator, you have these requirements down cold. Right?”

Lee agreed reluctantly, “Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay then, if we assume that is true, the thing that you do lack is a knowledge of investigative techniques. So we’ve set up a crash course at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The course has been tailored to fit these requirements and we think it will take you about two months to complete it. When you’re done, you’ll have all the tools you should need to do the job.”

The agent stopped to take a drink of his coffee, looking at Lee as if he were expecting a reaction. But Lee just sat there, his chin cupped by his hand as he leaned on the table and stared at the agent.

Wright continued, “Right now we’re trying to get some people hired and placed on site in the shipyard. They’re backup people who’ll be in laborer and clerical positions. This effort will continue during the time you’re in school, so we have some assets on site if you need them. We have absolutely no intention of leaving you in there all alone.” He stopped again, looking expectantly at Lee.

Lee directed his remarks, when they did finally come, to Commander Johnson. “Commander, I haven’t been in the Philadelphia shipyard, so I know nothing about it. But I was raised in a Philadelphia suburb. So I do know a bit about what happens in that area. If Philly crooks are getting millions out of the shipyard, the whole deal smells like the mob. The Mafia. So I’m putting my life on the line if I take this job. Not only that, but I didn’t ever plan to live there again. Can you promise me, in writing, that you’ll transfer me out of there when I’m done?”

His remark caused immediate consternation. Johnson and Wright reacted almost as one, with both trying to talk at once. Finally the agent
deferred to the commander who asked, “When were you in Pennsylvania? Your record shows your home to be somewhere in Montana.”

Lee smiled. “I was an only child, born in Philly and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. I lived there until shortly after I graduated from high school. Then, during my first semester at Villanova, my parents were killed in a car wreck. I just wanted to get away, so I arranged to sell off everything we could get rid of in a hurry. Then I rented out our home, got in a car, and started driving.”

“When I got to Montana, my car broke down in a little logging town called St. Dubois. I had to wait for car parts to be delivered. While I waited for the parts, I met people and found that I really liked the place. So I stopped running and got a job in the local sawmill. I worked there for about six months, until the snow got deep and the sawmill closed for the winter. I kicked around for a while, and then a friend and I decided to join the Navy. Been here since then. Actually, I was in Montana for less than a year, back when I was a teenager, but I’ve been back to visit friends several times since then.”

He went silent, still looking at the commander. Then, as an afterthought, “I still own the home in Pennsylvania. My uncle manages its rental for me.”

Commander Johnson looked thoughtful. “Going back to the job. Lee, you’re right. This will be a tough, possibly dangerous, assignment. I can probably get you the duty station of your choice after this job is done, if that will help?”

Lee nodded. “I’d like to come back to San Diego when this is over.”

“I can arrange that.”

At that, Captain Neilsen spoke up. “Well, I do have a suggestion that Lee may or may not agree with. We’ve never talked about it. But here it is. Lee, as a former enlisted person, is classified as a limited duty officer. As an LDO, he can only compete for promotion against other LDO’s for a very limited number of available promotion opportunities. In other words, even though he is a phenomenal shiphandler, a certified fleet officer of the deck, a certified engineering officer of the watch, and a war hero, his promotional prospects are lousy. I would be willing to write a recommendation that Lee be re-designated from LDO to
unrestricted line officer
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. When I was stationed in BUPERS, there was authority to do this for certain individuals if their records warranted it. That would certainly apply here. I think that it would also give Lee more flexibility in this assignment. A line officer would probably have more freedom to snoop around than an LDO would have. I’d very heartily recommend this. Lee what would you think about that - assuming it can still be done?”

There was a long silence as Lee thought about this. He had never considered such a change, but it did make sense. “Yeah, I’d appreciate that if it can happen.”

Commander Johnson was not sure about this. “I really like the idea, but I don’t know if it’s possible. I’ll call back to BUPERS and see if we can do it. If we can, and Captain Neilsen writes a good recommendation, I don’t see that it would hurt anything.” With that, he excused himself and left the room to make phone calls to his superiors. The captain went along in case he was needed. Lee and Tom Wright took advantage of the time to talk at length about the situation in Philadelphia and the school the FBI had planned for Lee.