“Sir, showing seventeen thousand yards, but the solution is sloppy.”
“Close enough. Weps, spin up the Ow-sow in tube one.”
Feyley acknowledged. Keebes looked up at Pacino.
“Captain, once we launch that thing, we’d better have some air cover or that’s the end,” Keebes said, and turned back to the firecontrol computer.
“We won’t launch until the last moment,” Pacino told him.
Morris looked over at Pacino from the chart table.
“This had better work, Pacino.”
Pacino just held his gaze. No way he could promise it would.
Fleet Commander Chu Hsueh-Fan ignored Leader Tien Tse-Min as he looked at the radar repeater’s hooded screen while holding the handset of the radio-telephone to his ear. Other than the contours of the land to the north and south, the screen was empty in the Bohai Haixia Channel. The northern task force no longer existed. Chu left the radar hood and stared out the port bulkhead windows at the channel to the west, the flames slowly dying out on the horizon as the last of the ships of the northern task force sank. When he put his binoculars down, the look on his face was murderous rage.
“The northern fleet is gone. Sunk by torpedoes and cruise missiles from the submarines in the Bohai Haixia. While you sent our forces south and refused air cover to the north, we lost every ship and every man, men who trusted me and our Navy.”
“I disagree. Those torpedoes and missiles could have been launched from the mouth of the Bohai Haixia before the submarines went into the south passage. If not for the blunders of your southwest task force we would have caught the subs by now—”
Chu grabbed Tien’s tunic above the pocket, the button on the pocket flap falling to the deck.
“You damn fool, I’ve had enough. I relieve you of tactical command. Maybe the Chairman will let me live if I can recapture or kill at least one submarine today. But we are both sure to die with you in command.”
Tien, not so much a fool as to challenge Chu now, said nothing. If they survived, he would take credit. And Chu, it seemed, had been right …
Chu found the microphone to the bridge and turned his back to Tien.
“Bridge, Strategy, move the ship to a position two kilometers west of the line marking international waters, max speed. Alert the Yak squadron to man their planes. As soon as we reach our new position launch the Yaks and sweep to the west for submarines.”
“FLEET COMMANDER, THE SHIP IS SPEEDING UP TO FORTY-FIVE CLICKS, HEADING NINETY-FIVE DEGREES. YAK SQUADRONS ARE MANNING PLANES.”
“Very well. Alert the Ship Commander to begin an active sonar search with all hull arrays, short range first, then medium as we come around back to the west.”
The ship’s deck began to vibrate, then to tilt as the bridge put the rudder over and the ship went into a tight turn to the east. Chu steadied himself on a sideboard while he reached for the tactical net.
“All helicopter aircraft, this is fleet flag. Turn immediately and proceed at maximum speed to the western mouth of the Bohai Haixia and begin an active sonar sweep of the channel to the east. Use leapfrog tactics. Weapons release is authorized upon any submerged contacts.”
Chen then ordered the southwest task force flag to proceed north to the western mouth of the Haixia and sweep to the east following the helicopter forces. He next directed the southeast task force flag to detach two of his fastest and closest destroyer or frigate assets and vector them to the east mouth of the Haixia at absolute maximum velocity. The ships were to standby with the Shaoguan and form a search-and-destroy task force.
The reply came: “FLEET FLAG, SOUTHEAST FLAG, DETACHING UDALOY-CLASS DESTROYER ZUNYI AND LUDA-CLASS DESTROYER KAIFING, REMAINDER TASK FORCE EN ROUTE EAST HAIXIA AND PREPARING TO COMMENCE SONAR SWEEP FROM EAST TO WEST, SOUTHEAST FLAG, OUT.”
Chu looked at Tien.
“The submarines will be captured or dead within the hour. No doubt the Chairman will be very pleased with you.”
“You have not even left a token force guarding the south.”
“The channel is mined, PT boats are patrolling both sides of the minefield. No one would make it alive out of the south.”
The intercom blared out the bridge officer’s voice:
“FLEET COMMANDER, BRIDGE, THE SHIP IS NOW POSITIONED AS YOU ORDERED, TWO KILOMETERS FROM INTERNATIONAL WATERS, TURNING NOW TO THE WEST. YAK SQUADRONS WILL BE LAUNCHING AIRCRAFT IMMEDIATELY.”
Chu walked to the port bulkhead overlooking the flood lamp-lit flight deck, hoping to see his son’s VTOL jet taking off.
Aircraft Commander Chu HuaFeng jogged through the rain to his waiting Yak-36A, strapping on his flight helmet just before he reached the ladder to the cockpit.
As the technician enabled his ejection seat, his weapons officer strapped himself into the small aft cockpit. The attack model of the Yak was a single seater, but the ASW version had a rear seat for the weapons officer, who spent more of his time detecting submarines than releasing weapons.
Chu’s weapons officer, Lo Yun, was a young, aggressive officer straight out of the Quingdao Aviation School. Lo shared many of Chu’s opinions on the rebellion, on flying, on the navy as a career. He did not seem to mind that Chu’s father was the fleet commander, as so many of the other officers in the squadron did, always being careful of what they said when Chu was present. Lo was not afraid to be irreverent about their leadership, and more often than not Chu agreed with him. Chu was beginning to think of Lo as a friend, a very good friend. As he pulled the stick toward his crotch and the plane flew away from the deck, Chu suspected in the next hours a friend like Lo might well be as important as the weapons they carried.
Pacino stood next to Keebes overlooking the firecontrol console. The Pos One display showed the geographic presentation of the channel sea. At the opening of the Haixia, the Chinese aircraft carrier was stationed as if guarding the exit. To the southwest and southeast, the ships of the task forces were heading north to the Bohai Haixia Strait, as if abandoning the southern passage and coming to help the carrier scour the Haixia. For a moment Pacino wondered if Seawolf or Tampa had been detected. Yet there were no aircraft overhead, so how could they have been detected?
“Sonar, Conn,” Pacino called, “any aircraft contacts? Close or distant?”
“Conn, Sonar, no, but we have two surface contacts coming out of the southeast task force bearing one five nine, bearing drift left. Both contacts approaching at high speed between thirty and thirty-two knots. The rest of the task force is only doing twenty-four or twenty-five.”
“XO, designate the two contacts Targets Fourteen and Fifteen. Let’s get a solution on them and let me know their ETA to the channel mouth.”
“We’ll need to maneuver to the south to get a passive leg,” Keebes replied.
“Mr. Turner” Pacino called, “take the conn and drive the ship for a TMA solution on the incoming contacts.”
“Aye, sir. Skipper, if we start doing target motion analysis here in the passage we’ll lag behind the Tampa. She’ll be out there by herself.”
“Don’t worry,” Pacino said. “We’re going to be enough of a distraction that Tampa won’t be noticed.”
“Conn, Sonar,” Chief Jeb’s voice announced on Pacino’s headset, “the Mark 38 decoys are shutting down. Seven so far. The others will be down in a few minutes. The two inbound warships from the southeast are classified destroyers, one Luda-class, the other a Udaloy … Conn, all decoys have now shut down.”
“Conn, aye,” Pacino replied, feeling Keebes’s eyes on him. Pacino concentrated on the firecontrol display and on the chart, watching as the solutions developed to the two inbound warships, noting that the Chinese carrier. Target Thirteen, was maneuvering toward the east, toward the “finish line” denoting the boundary between international and Chinese territorial waters.