The Trident Deception Read online

JEFF QUIMBY (LIEUTENANT), Supply Officer

  TOM WILSON (LIEUTENANT), Assistant Weapons Officer

  HERB CARVAHLO (LIEUTENANT [JG]), Electrical Division Officer

  HECTOR LOPEZ (ENSIGN), Torpedo Division Officer

  OCTAVE COSTA (LIEUTENANT), Sonar Division Officer

  CHRIS VECCHIO (LIEUTENANT), Reactor Controls Division Officer (referenced only)

  RADIO DIVISION

  ALAN DAVIDSON, Chief Petty Officer

  ROB MUSHEN, First Class Petty Officer

  PETE GREENE, Third Class Petty Officer

  SONAR DIVISION

  TONY DELGRECO, First Class Petty Officer

  BOB CIBELLI, Second Class Petty Officer

  JOHN MARTIN, Second Class Petty Officer

  ALEX RAMBIKUR, Second Class Petty Officer

  MISSILE DIVISION

  ROGER TRYON, First Class Petty Officer

  JODI KREUGER, First Class Petty Officer

  SCOTT SANTOS, First Class Petty Officer

  DAVE REYNOLDS, Second Class Petty Officer

  SCOTT WALWORTH, Second Class Petty Officer

  OTHERS

  STEVE PRASHAW, Chief of the Boat

  JOHN BARBER, Torpedo Division Third Class Petty Officer

  BOB MURPHY, Machinery Division Third Class Petty Officer

  TED LUTHER, Night Baker

  USS LAKE ERIE

  MARY CORDEIRO (CAPTAIN), Commanding Officer

  BRIAN MCKEON (SEAMAN), Helmsman

  USS NORTH CAROLINA

  DENNIS GALLAGHER (COMMANDER), Commanding Officer

  JOSEPH RADEK, Reactor Controls Division Chief

  MIKE TELL, Reactor Controls First Class Petty Officer

  USS SAN FRANCISCO

  KEN TYLER (COMMANDER), Commanding Officer

  TOM BRADNER, Sonar Division Petty Officer

  11TH AIR DEFENSE ARTILLERY BRIGADE

  AL KENT (SERGEANT), 11th Air Defense Staff

  BRUCE CHERRY (CORPORAL), 11th Air Defense Staff

  JON DEWIRE (MAJOR), Commanding Officer, Alpha Battery, 4th Regiment (THAAD)

  EAGLE-FIVE-ZERO (P-3C AIR CREW)

  SCOTT GRAEF (LIEUTENANT COMMANDER), Tactical Coordinator

  PETE BURWELL (LIEUTENANT), Communicator

  WHIDBEY ISLAND NOPF

  AL CULVER, Watchstander

  FRED HARMON, Maintenance Technician

  OTHER CHARACTERS—NAVAL OFFICERS

  ADMIRAL TIM HALE, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (referenced only)

  ADMIRAL DENIS HERRELL, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (Referenced Only)

  COMMODORE RICK LOWE, Australian Submarine Fleet Element Group Commander

  COMMANDER JOE CASEY, PCO aboard USS HOUSTON

  COMMANDER DOUG BATES, PCO aboard USS HOUSTON

  OTHER CHARACTERS—CIVILIANS

  DANA COOKE, Landover Engineering Systems employee

  CLAIRE WILSON, Murray Wilson’s wife

  NANCY WILSON, Tom Wilson’s wife (referenced only)

  THERESA PATTON, Mike Patton’s wife (referenced only)

  SARAH ROSENFELD, Levi Rosenfeld’s daughter

  RACHEL ROSENFELD, Levi Rosenfeld’s daughter

  KATHERINE JANKOWSKI, mother with infant at Sandrino’s Café

  KHALID ABDULLA, suicide bomber

  CINDY COREY, pleasure craft sunbather

  RANDY COREY, pleasure craft fisherman

  MICHIYA AOCHI, fisherman on Daisan Shinsho-Maru

  DOREEN CORNELLIER, Channel 9 News reporter

  RICK LARSON, FBI Director (referenced only)

  KEN RONAN, CIA Director (referenced only)

  JOHN KENNEY, CIA Agent

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I hope you enjoyed reading The Trident Deception.

  I tried to make it as realistic as possible considering the constraints. In particular, no classified information could be revealed, which required me to alter some capabilities of ships and weapons employed in the novel (speed and range, for example), which I’m sure some of you have detected and have no doubt exclaimed, “That’s not right!” You are correct. If they were accurate, this novel would be classified, so I had to “tweak” a few things.

  Also, some of the tactics employed by the submarine crews were generic and also not accurate. For example, torpedo employment and torpedo evasion tactics are classified and could not be accurately represented in this novel. Finally, some of the submarine terminology and dialog isn’t right either. If they were completely correct, some it would be unintelligible due to the acronyms, and I’d have to stop frequently to explain, and the story would lurch along. So I compromised on some of the dialogue and on some of the “accuracy” of the scenes, in order to keep the story flowing smoothly along.

  For all of the above, I apologize. I did my best to keep everything as close to real life without making it classified or bogging it down with acronyms or terminology too difficult or time-consuming to explain. Hopefully it all worked out and it came together into a suspenseful, page-turning novel.

  Thanks for your time and I hope we get a chance to meet some day. And of course—I hope you liked The Trident Deception enough to buy the sequel, Empire Rising. Thanks again!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  RICK CAMPBELL, a retired Navy Commander, spent more than twenty years on multiple submarine tours, finishing his career with the Naval Operations staff in the Pentagon and in the Washington Navy Yard. On his last tour, he was one of the two men whose permission was required to launch the submarine’s nuclear warhead–tipped missiles. Rick lives with his wife and three children in the greater Washington, D.C., area. The Trident Deception is his first novel and he is currently working on the sequel.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THE TRIDENT DECEPTION. Copyright © 2014 by Rick Campbell. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Cover design by Young Jin Lim

  Cover photo-illustration by Steve Gardner/Pixelworks Studios, Inc.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Campbell, Rick.

  The trident deception / Rick Campbell. — First Edition.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-250-03901-9 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-250-03900-2 (e-book)

  1. Kentucky (Ship) — Fiction. 2. Submarines (Ships) — Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3603.A48223T75 2014

  813'.6—dc23

  2013031934

  e-ISBN 9781250039002

  First Edition: March 2014