In the Company of Killers, Bryan Christy [love story books to read .txt] 📗

in sync with Aegis. To make it all work, Griffon laid four miles of cable and fiber optics through the ship, then they installed twenty-seven desktop PCs and ran the ship’s entire system on Microsoft Windows. Let me repeat that: the American Navy ran the most technologically sophisticated warship in history on the same business software used by my children’s school.

“A week after her relaunch, Yorktown was off the coast of Nicaragua in pursuit of a Colombian drug trafficker when the entire ship lost power. Every system down, Yorkie dead in the water, humiliated, towed to port. Unfortunately for the Navy, a reporter from the news program 60 Minutes was on board that day, filming a story about America’s drug war. The most advanced warship in history went dark on national television. Millions of Americans saw the American Navy fail. I’m sure you saw it, too.”

Meng nodded, though Mapes had only begun to translate. Krieger waited for her to finish.

“What caused the failure?” Krieger asked rhetorically. He held up his thumb and forefinger in the shape of an okay sign. “Zero,” he said. “Officially, the Navy said the ship went dark as part of a covert maneuver. The truth was a systems tech accidentally typed a zero into a database field calling for a denominator. You cannot divide a number by zero, but instead of issuing a warning, the ship’s entire operating system crashed. And America’s Smart Ship program sank with it.”

He looked at Meng. “The greatest threat any military can face is doubt. It took ten years for the Navy to risk automating its ships again. Smart Ship Two, they called their next attempt. Perseus Group bid on it. We proposed a fully automated, virtually unmanned naval capability using smaller, more agile platforms—a computer that happens to float and shoot. We were not successful. The Pentagon and our Congress think Big War, and our idea made things small. Instead of reconceiving battle, they green-lighted another retrofit.”

Again, Meng nodded. He knew all this, as well.

Krieger let Mapes finish her translation; then he looked at Meng and smiled. “China is not afflicted with doubt, Admiral. Your military has the full support of your leaders, whether it’s your new Type 055 Renhai destroyer, your Type 002 carrier, or your own fully automated civilian smart ship. When it comes to naval technology, China leads the world. More important, China understands the art of war. As Sun Tzu once said, ‘The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.’ Americans don’t understand that.”

Krieger gestured to the stern. The Chinese officers turned and exclaimed, clearly surprised to see an American warship coming into view. The ship’s profile indicated she was a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. The number 67 painted on her hull signaled her identity, the USS Shiloh, a $1.5 billion warship, carrying 370 sailors.

“Shiloh is armed with Aegis,” Krieger said. “It’s the most advanced defense system in the US Navy, able to track ballistic missiles in flight, coordinate the ship’s vertical launch system, and shoot down threats without human intervention.” Krieger shook his head dismissively. “Aegis is fifty years old, gentlemen.”

The Chinese were not listening. They were focused on the incoming warship. Shiloh was not supposed to be anywhere near Mischief Reef. She was part of a joint exercise taking place several hours north.

Krieger had their full attention now.

“Modern warfare will not be fought on the battlefield. It will not be fought in the sky, or on the high seas. It will be fought online, by keystroke and algorithm. America was built on ambush and surprise, but we have forgotten that. We fear another zero in our denominator.”

Krieger stepped forward and tapped one of the computer screens. “As you know, the Seventh Fleet, including the Shiloh, and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are currently engaged in joint exercises. Here you see what every geospatial indicator on earth sees: Shiloh, seventy nautical miles north of our position, holding the picket during a refueling and missile-transfer exercise, which is what commanders across the Seventh Fleet see.” Krieger’s monitors, mirroring those on warships throughout Shiloh’s carrier group, showed red, green, and black triangles representing the area’s crowded commercial sea traffic, with yellow ships indicating the joint naval exercise underway. One by one Mapes tapped the triangles and the naval vessels’ identities popped up. Every capital ship was in its place, including the operation’s designated perimeter guardian, the Shiloh, located beyond visual range of the exercise.

“And here is what the world sees at our present location,” Krieger said.

Mapes zoomed in on Raptor’s location. Nearby islands fell away until eventually only light blue filled the screens, signifying open water. The warship bearing down on them did not exist. Like Raptor, it was a ghost. “Every monitoring system in the world indicates the same profile. We have been cloaked, too.”

While the United States, Russia, and China scrambled to improve their ability to cloak their own armed forces, Krieger had done their spoofing efforts one better. He had developed a way to cloak one’s enemies. No longer could military leaders be 100 percent certain that the forces they were commanding electronically were actually where their computers said they were. The US Navy thought its Shiloh was seventy nautical miles north. But here she was.

Compared to his new enemy-spoofing technology, hacking into a computerized warship, taking control of her systems—from comms to propulsion—was easy.

Krieger turned to Meng. “You may wish to check with Zhanjiang, Admiral. They’ll find Shiloh in its scheduled position. And they’ll find no vessels indicated at ours.”

Mapes offered Meng an encrypted phone.

But Meng did not move to take it. Instead, with his hands behind his back, he studied the incoming American warship. After a minute, he issued a short grunt and his second officer stepped forward and accepted the phone from Mapes. The officer dialed the phone, spoke for a few moments, and waited. Another minute passed. The officer spoke briefly to Meng and then returned the phone to Mapes.

“Confirmed?” Krieger asked.

Meng nodded.

“We are in disputed waters, gentlemen,” Krieger said.