Lieutenant Commander Joe Larson had always considered the admiral a reasonable, if distant, commanding officer. All that had changed at 9:18 the previous evening. The admiral wanted someone’s head on a stick, and he was gunning for Joe’s.

“What kind of half-assed, goddamn asshole…”

The tirade continued, but Joe didn’t bother listening as his captain got reamed. He could figure out the highlights without hearing them. Besides, the captain would be passing them along personally to Joe soon enough.

Such was the chain of command. The admiral chewed out the captain, the captain chewed out him, and he, well, Joe hadn’t decided what he was going to do. Like they said-shit rolled downhill.

He crossed to the window of the office foyer and stared at the activity below. There was plenty of it at the Naval Amphibious Base. And just beyond the building, the Pacific Ocean sparkled in the bright summer morning. Other careers might offer better pay, but none could beat the location on Coronado Island.

Given the admiral’s temper, there was every chance Joe could soon be exploring those other careers. Or stationed on a naval base in Greenland. Screwups came in all shapes and sizes. This one had all the potential firepower of an aircraft carrier. Explaining to the captain that it hadn’t been his fault wasn’t going to change a damn thing.

Fifteen minutes later, the door to the captain’s office opened and the admiral stormed out. Joe stood at attention as the angry man stalked by, then he looked at his commanding officer.

“Come on in, Joe,” the other man said in a weary voice.

Joe entered then closed the door behind him. “Sir.”

Captain Phillips waved to the empty chair in front of his desk. “You hear all that?”

“Yes, sir.”

Phillips, a tall man in his early forties, sighed. “He loved that boat.”

Joe didn’t respond. The information wasn’t news. The admiral had been restoring his nearly eighty-year-old boat for the past five years. The engine was new, and the electronics state-of-the-art, but the rest of it was original, lovingly sanded and varnished by the admiral’s own hand.