Iowa or "Irene" enters the story here. She's a foul mouthed, hard drinking sailor but never means any harm with her language.
...
US Pacific Reserve Fleet HQ, Bremerton WA
"Has the Missouri made any contact?" Admiral Bates asked.
"Negative. The F-15 reported the helo was still on her deck before it was shot down." Trenton replied.
"Damn..."
The room went silent as Tom Breaker entered the room. He'd been the director of the CIA for 10 years and if he was present, the situation was a lot darker than previously thought.
"Strannix is a madman." He told Bates. "He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants."
"Which is?"
"I don't know but it can't be anything good."
Just then a call came through. Everyone quieted down in an instant and both Bates and Breaker turned their attention to the speaker phone. Strannix's voice came through loud and clear and Breaker as well as a few others had to work to suppress their shudders at hearing the madman.
"Here this Gentleman, if any ships or aircraft approaches within 100 miles we will kill the crew and retaliate with everything in the ship's arsenal."
Breaker gathered his courage. "Bill this is Tom."
"Hello Tom." Strannix replied.
"What's going on?"
"You know what's going on. I have 32 tomohawks under my bum and the only thing you can do about it is alert the media." Strannix replied as he sat in the captain's chair.
"You don't have the launch codes."
"Let me take a guess. Uh, 506-479-9080."
A quick check by the Admirals confirmed it.
"This is insane." Breaker muttered.
"Insane? Be careful how you use that word Tom." Strannix replied.
"Strannix, this is Admiral Bates speaking. Can you please tell me why you're doing this?" The Admiral leaned forward over the table.
"Hi Admiral." Came the almost too cheerful, one could almost say smug, reply. "Six months ago, your boy Tom Breaker cancelled Operation Cleopatra. Shortly thereafter two men from Langley showed up and tried to cancel me along with it. Now you received the finger in the mail didn't you Tom?"
"I did."
"Did you expect us to wait in Miami for you to try again."
Breaker looked very uncomfortable now with the way the Admiral's were staring at him but he kept his cool. "Look Bill, I know things are a little chaotic for you right now..."
"Chaotic?! You know chaos is consuming the world! We haven't even scratched the surface with you guys!" Another long rant before the communication was terminated.
"He's flipped." Breaker said with a sigh. "He's completely flipped."
"Yeah and no thanks to you fucker."
Everyone turned around to see a tall young woman in a khaki uniform, blond hair tied loosely in a bun. She wore the rank of Commander.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you standing there miss and you would be...?" asked Breaker.
"Name's Commander Irene Ann Franklin, or USS Iowa to you fuckers." She replied, stepping into the center of the room. "Now where the fuck is my sister?!"