Overview

USS CONYNGHAM CONSPIRACY January 1968. The world is on fire, and the U.S. Navy is tasting its own blood. The humiliating capture of the USS Pueblo has paralyzed the White House, sending a shockwave of paranoia and anger through the entire fleet. But as the world's superpowers stare down in Korea, a far more sinister game is unfolding in the shadows. In the deep, dark waters of the Mediterranean, the ""Year of Lost Submarines"" has begun. The Israeli submarine INS Dakar and the French Minerve vanish within 48 hours of each other, taking over 120 men to a silent, watery grave. The official story is a tragic coincidence. Admiral Fletcher, spymaster of the Atlantic Fleet, knows better. He believes a ghost from the past is at work: the shadowy ""Mr. Gray"", a brilliant, ruthless civilian contractor who sells the Navy's most advanced secrets to the highest bidder. Fletcher's theory is audacious: Gray is using the massive, multinational search for the lost subs as a ""perfect cover"". While the world's navies hunt for survivors, Gray is conducting his own deep-sea salvage operation-he is ""robbing the graves"" for priceless technology. To hunt this phantom, Fletcher bypasses the system. He unleashes his singular, unorthodox weapon: Lieutenant Commander Joe Pluss, the relentless JAG lawyer who sees the flaw in the system, and Mr. Earl Kinn, the civilian ""Earl of Mischief"" who sees the ""inch that's out of place"" in the man. Their mission: board the guided-missile destroyer USS Conyngham (DDG-17) under a false cover and hunt the hunter. But the Conyngham is no safe haven. She's a 437-foot steel box of simmering resentment, haunted by the Pueblo failure. Pluss and Kinn are ""spooks"", pariahs on their own ship. The ""Gus Boat"" is commanded by the brilliant, cigar-chomping Commander Harry D. Train II-a ""submariner"" who prizes technical competence above all and despises ""anomalies"". And to him, Pluss and Kinn are the most dangerous anomalies of all, a ""security risk"" he is determined to neutralize. Trapped by their own hostile command, Pluss and Kinn's hunt for a ghost ship quickly becomes a desperate fight for survival. Their only potential witness is ""Turtle Eye"" Wholeshoe, an Ops Officer with a notorious reputation for crying ""turtle"". But when ""Turtle Eye"" spots a real body in the water, the conspiracy unravels. The recovery of a dead Soviet frogman killed by a salvage charge and clutching a fragment of the Dakar proves Fletcher's theory. But it also reveals a more terrifying truth: the Conyngham's search grid is a lie. They are not the hunters. They are the unwitting guard dogs, and the Soviet destroyer on their tail is Gray's ""shield"". There is a mole. The ship is compromised. From the storm-tossed decks of the Conyngham to a near-disaster in Barcelona harbor, Pluss and Kinn must race against time. They must unmask the traitor and turn the tables on Gray by planting a ""ghost"" message of their own-a fake trail leading to a deadly rendezvous. But in this high-stakes game of Cold War chess, Mr. Gray is one step ahead. The final ambush is set. The Conyngham is tethered for refueling, her helm sabotaged, and a torpedo is in the water. As his ship lurches toward a fiery collision, Commander Train is faced with an impossible choice, and Pluss and Kinn discover the horrifying truth: the Dakar was just a test. The Conyngham was just a loose end. The real prize, the one Mr. Gray has been hunting all along, is a U.S. nuclear attack submarine. And they are about to be too late.

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