Sea Of Fire (2003) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgements

  ONE - The Celebes Sea Tuesday, 4:19 A.M.

  TWO - Washington, D.C. Monday, 7:45 P.M.

  THREE - The Celebes Sea Tuesday, 4:34 A.M.

  FOUR - Sydney, Australia Thursday, 8:30 A.M.

  FIVE - Darwin, Australia Thursday, 8:42 A.M.

  SIX - Washington, D.C. Wednesday, 7:33 P.M.

  SEVEN - Sydney, Australia Thursday, 10:01 A.M.

  EIGHT - The Celebes Sea Thursday, 12:12 P.M.

  NINE - The Celebes Sea Thursday, 12:33 P.M.

  TEN - Darwin, Australia Thursday, 12:05 P.M.

  ELEVEN - Darwin, Australia Thursday, 12:17 P.M.

  TWELVE - The Celebes Sea Thursday, 1:08 P.M.

  THIRTEEN - Washington, D.C. Thursday, 11:09 P.M.

  FOURTEEN - Darwin, Australia Friday, 12:47 P.M.

  FIFTEEN - Darwin, Australia Friday, 12:59 P.M.

  SIXTEEN - Washington, D.C. Thursday, 11:55 P.M.

  SEVENTEEN - Cairns, Australia Friday, 7:00 P.M.

  EIGHTEEN - The Celebes Sea Friday, 7:33 P.M.

  NINETEEN - Over the Pacific Ocean Friday, 2:57 A.M.

  TWENTY - Cairns, Australia Friday, 7:58 P.M.

  TWENTY-ONE - The Celebes Sea Friday, 9:44 P.M.

  TWENTY-TWO - Cairns, Australia Friday, 9:45 P.M.

  TWENTY-THREE - Washington, D.C. Friday, 7:17 A.M.

  TWENTY-FOUR - The Celebes Sea Friday, 10:33 P.M.

  TWENTY-FIVE - Tokyo, Japan Friday, 9:34 P.M.

  TWENTY-SIX - Washington, D.C. Friday, 8:57 A.M.

  TWENTY-SEVEN - The Celebes Sea Friday, 11:09 P.M.

  TWENTY-EIGHT - Over the Pacific Ocean Saturday, 2:22 A.M.

  TWENTY-NINE - The Celebes Sea Saturday, 12:04 A.M.

  THIRTY - Washington, D.C. Friday, 10:07 A.M.

  THIRTY-ONE - The Celebes Sea Saturday, 12:36 A.M.

  THIRTY-TWO - The Celebes Sea Saturday, 1:00 A.M.

  THIRTY-THREE - The Celebes Sea Saturday, 1:01 A.M.

  THIRTY-FOUR - Washington, D.C. Friday, 12:31 P.M.

  THIRTY-FIVE - The Celebes Sea Saturday, 2:02 A.M.

  THIRTY-SIX - The South Pacific Saturday, 7:44 A.M.

  THIRTY-SEVEN - Washington, D.C. Friday, 7:44 P.M.

  THIRTY-EIGHT - Cairns, Australia Saturday, 9:45 A.M.

  THIRTY-NINE - Darwin, Australia Saturday, 12:08 P.M.

  FORTY - Darwin, Australia Saturday, 12:31 P.M.

  FORTY-ONE - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 12:23 A.M.

  FORTY-TWO - Cairns, Australia Saturday, 5:57 P.M.

  FORTY-THREE - Cairns, Australia Saturday, 6:22 P.M.

  FORTY-FOUR - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 7:31 A.M.

  FORTY-FIVE - The Great Barrier Reef Saturday, 10:03 P.M.

  FORTY-SIX - Cairns, Australia Saturday, 10:04 P.M.

  FORTY-SEVEN - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 8:47 A.M.

  FORTY-EIGHT - Cairns, Australia Saturday, 10:49 P.M.

  FORTY-NINE - Cairns, Australia Saturday, 11:12 P.M.

  FIFTY - Cairns, Australia Saturday, 11:27 P.M.

  FIFTY-ONE - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 12:00 A.M.

  FIFTY-TWO - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 11:00 A.M.

  FIFTY-THREE - The Coral Sea Sunday, 1:21 A.M.

  FIFTY-FOUR - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 1:42 A.M.

  FIFTY-FIVE - The Coral Sea Sunday, 1:55 A.M.

  FIFTY-SIX - The Great Barrier Reef Sunday, 2:09 A.M.

  FIFTY-SEVEN - The Coral Sea Sunday, 2:09 A.M.

  FIFTY-EIGHT - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 12:38 P.M.

  FIFTY-NINE - The Coral Sea Sunday, 2:39 A.M.

  SIXTY - Osprey Reef Sunday, 2:46 A.M.

  SIXTY-ONE - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 1:00 P.M.

  SIXTY-TWO - The Coral Sea Sunday, 3:01 A.M.

  SIXTY-THREE - The Coral Sea Sunday, 3:08 A.M.

  SIXTY-FOUR - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 1:24 P.M.

  SIXTY-FIVE - The Coral Sea Sunday, 3:33 A.M.

  SIXTY-SIX - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 3:56 A.M.

  SIXTY-SEVEN - The Coral Sea Sunday, 4:01 A.M.

  SIXTY-EIGHT - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 4:45 A.M.

  SIXTY-NINE - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 4:59 A.M.

  SEVENTY - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 3:06 P.M.

  SEVENTY-ONE - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 5:07 A.M.

  SEVENTY-TWO - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 5:16 A.M.

  SEVENTY-THREE - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 5:24 A.M.

  SEVENTY-FOUR - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 5:30 A.M.

  SEVENTY-FIVE - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 5:38 A.M.

  SEVENTY-SIX - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 4:00 P.M.

  SEVENTY-SEVEN - Cairns, Australia Sunday, 7:10 A.M.

  SEVENTY-EIGHT - Darwin, Australia Sunday, 7:13 A.M.

  SEVENTY-NINE - The Coral Sea Sunday, 7:45 A.M.

  EIGHTY - Darwin, Australia Sunday, 7:46 A.M.

  EIGHTY-ONE - Washington, D.C. Saturday, 6:29 P.M.

  Other titles by Steve Pieczenik

  THE BESTSELLING NOVELS OF

  Tom Clancy

  RED RABBIT

  Tom Clancy returns to Jack Ryan’s early days—in an extraordinary novel of global political drama . . .

  “AN OLD-FASHIONED COLD WAR THRILLER.”

  —Chicago Sun-Times

  THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON

  President Jack Ryan faces a world crisis unlike any he has ever known . . .

  “INTOXICATING . . . A JUGGERNAUT.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  RAINBOW SIX

  Clancy’s shocking story of international terrorism—closer to reality than any government would care to admit . . .

  “GRIPPING . . . BOLT-ACTION MAYHEM.”

  —People

  EXECUTIVE ORDERS

  Jack Ryan has always been a soldier. Now he’s giving the orders . . .

  “AN ENORMOUS, ACTION-PACKED, HEAT-SEEKING MISSILE OF A TOM CLANCY NOVEL.”

  —The Seattle Times

  DEBT OF HONOR

  It begins with the murder of an American woman in the back streets of Tokyo. It ends in war . . .

  “A SHOCKER!” —Entertainment Weekly

  THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

  The smash bestseller that launched Clancy’s career—the incredible search for a Soviet defector and the nuclear submarine he commands . . .

  “BREATHLESSLY EXCITING!” —The Washington Post

  RED STORM RISING

  The ultimate scenario for World War III—the final battle for global control . . .

  “THE ULTIMATE WAR GAME . . . BRILLIANT!”

  —Newsweek

  PATRIOT GAMES

  CIA analyst Jack Ryan stops an assassination—and incurs the wrath of Irish terrorists . . .

  “A HIGH PITCH OF EXCITEMENT!”

  —The Wall Street Journal

  THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN

  The superpowers race for the ultimate Star Wars missile defense system . . .

  “CARDINAL EXCITES, ILLUMINATES . . . A REAL PAGE-TURNER!” —Los Angeles Daily News

  CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

  The killing of three U.S. officials in Colombia ignites the American government’s explosive, and top secret, response . . .

  “A CRACKLING GOOD YARN!” —The Washington Post

  THE SUM OF ALL FEARS

  The disappearance of an Israeli nuclear weapon threatens the balance of power in the Middle East—and around the world . . .

  “CLANCY AT HIS BEST . . . NOT TO BE MISSED!”

  —The Dallas Morning News

  WITHOUT REMORSE

  His code name is Mr. Clark. And his work for the CIA is brilliant, cold-blooded, and efficient . . . but who is he rea
lly?

  “HIGHLY ENTERTAINING!”—The Wall Street Journal

  NOVELS BY TOM CLANCY

  The Hunt for Red October

  Red Storm Rising

  Patriot Games

  The Cardinal of the Kremlin

  Clear and Present Danger

  The Sum of All Fears

  Without Remorse

  Debt of Honor

  Executive Orders

  Rainbow Six

  The Bear and the Dragon

  Red Rabbit

  The Teeth of the Tiger

  SSN: Strategies of Submarine Warfare

  NONFICTION

  Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship

  Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment

  Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing

  Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit

  Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force

  Carrier: A Guided Tour of an Aircraft Carrier

  Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces

  Into the Storm: A Study in Command

  (written with General Fred Franks, Jr., Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  Every Man a Tiger

  (written with General Charles Horner, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces

  (written with General Carl Stiner, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  Battle Ready

  (written with General Tony Zinni, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  CREATED BY TOM CLANCY

  Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell

  Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda

  Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Checkmate

  Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Fallout

  CREATED BY TOM CLANCY AND STEVE PIECZENIK

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Games of State

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Acts of War

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Balance of Power

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: State of Siege

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Divide and Conquer

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Line of Control

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mission of Honor

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Sea of Fire

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Call to Treason

  Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: War of Eagles

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Hidden Agendas

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Night Moves

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Breaking Point

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Point of Impact

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: CyberNation

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: State of War

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Changing of the Guard

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Springboard

  Tom Clancy’s Net Force: The Archimedes Effect

  CREATED BY TOM CLANCY AND MARTIN GREENBERG

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Politika

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: ruthless.com

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Shadow Watch

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Bio-Strike

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Cold War

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Cutting Edge

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Zero Hour

  Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Wild Card

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either

  are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously,

  and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business

  establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: SEA OF FIRE

  A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with

  Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and S & R Literary, Inc.

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Berkley edition / July 2003

  Copyright © 2003 by Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and

  All rights reserved.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without

  permission. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via

  the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the

  publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only

  authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage

  electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s

  rights is appreciated.

  For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin (Group) USA Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-00369-5

  BERKLEY®

  Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin (Group) USA Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY and the “B” design

  are trademarks belonging to Penguin (Group) USA Inc.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Acknowledgments

  We would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Martin H. Greenberg; Larry Segriff; Denise Little; John Helfers; Brittiany Koren; Lowell Bowen, Esq.; Robert Youdelman, Esq.; Danielle Forte, Esq.; Dianne Jude; and Tom Colgan, our editor. But most important, it is for you, our readers, to determine how successful our collective endeavor has been.

  —Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik

  ONE

  The Celebes Sea Tuesday, 4:19 A.M.

  There were three things that swarthy, dark-eyed Singaporean Lee Tong knew very well.

  One of those was the sea. The lanky but muscular Lee was the son of the late Henry Tong, a hardworking mate on a timber carrier. The elder Tong’s vessel, the 100-ton capacity Lord of the Ocean, was a container ship. It took regular runs of hardwood cargo from their home port in Singapore to India. On the return trip it would carry teak logs that had been shipped from the Ivory Coast to Bombay. These were bound for Hong Kong and Tokyo. Lee’s mother had died of food poisoning when the boy was five. Rather than live with his grandparents in Keluang, on their inland farm, Lee often traveled with his father. By the time Lee was thirteen, he was working full time as a cabin boy for the first mate.

  Traveling the timber route, Lee learned the different moods of the waters. The clean smell of the Andaman Sea was different than the tart, oily smell along the coast of the South China Sea. The currents of the East China Sea caused a sharper rocking than the heavier, lofting swells in the Pacific Ocean. The storms were different, too. Some were sudden and ferocious. Others came from afar with enough warning that the pilot could steer around them. Lee also learned about men on these odysseys. What pleased them, what bothered them, what bothered them enough to kill. He learned that money, undemanding women, cigarettes, drink and the camaraderie of drink, and the loyalty of friends were the only things that really mattered to him. By the time the elder Tong died of liver failure, Lee had only managed to get a lot of smoking and drinking done. He would never get much more as long as he worked on the Lord of the Ocean or a vessel like her, which was why Lee Tong took up the next profession he did.

  When Lee was sixteen, several years into his own career on the timber ship, he met two other young sailors who did not want to end up like their own fathers. Who were unhappy working for three dollars a day, seven days a week. Eventually, in port, they sat down with other dissatisfied young men from other professions. That led Lee to the second thing he knew very well.

  Piracy.

  Lee was standing in the steep raised prow of the sampan. The vessel was not of Singaporean design. It was a squat Shanghai Harbor model, also known as a mu-chi or hen boat. The name was a result of the sampan’s resemblance to the bird. Built mostly of softwood, which aged well and was extremely light, the mu-chi was eighteen feet long with four compartmen
ts, including a galley. There was an engine for rapid travel and four yulohs—thirteen-foot-long oars—for silent travel. That was how the five sampan pirates were traveling now, with Lee’s crewmates rowing two men to a side. They had bought the sampan in China, legally, just over two years before. They had paid for it with cash, most of it borrowed from Lee’s grandparents. The loan was repaid within a year. Buying the sampan was the last lawful act the men had done.

  Early in their career the men learned how to mingle with harbor traffic to select their prey, how to track them until dark, and how to come alongside swiftly and quietly. They learned how to prowl the shipping lanes with their backs to the setting sun so that they would not be seen. Former police sergeant Koh Yu kept both a 500-channel scanner and a world band receiver on board to monitor restricted police and military communications. He had stolen them before resigning from the Special Operations Command of the Singapore Police Force. After sampling all kinds of ships, they focused on yachts and fishing charters. The take was usually good, and resistance was limited to indignant words. Since most of those words were English, Lee didn’t understand what was being said. Among them, only the unflappable Koh spoke English. And Koh did not care what was being said. None of the men felt remorse about the work they did. On land, the large took advantage of the small. The fat had their way with the lean. At sea, the sharks ate the tuna. Lee Tong had tried both lives.