“So, we dick around here for a while,” Murdock said. “At ten knots it should take that Chinese destroyer thirty to forty minutes to come to us. Each boat needs a lookout.”
They waited. There were almost no waves, just a gentle swell that lifted them about four feet and then lowered them again. Mahanani called in.
“Hey, Skipper. I figure we have a current running here of about four knots almost at right angles to that destroyer’s course. Shove us a lot farther than it will that big junk pile.”
“Roger that, Mahanani. He’s coming SSW at us, so we need to do about two miles at a right angle to that. Let’s try it now and wait. We should be able to see his lights at three or four miles. We’ve been waiting for ten minutes now.”
Lampedusa called to his CO. “Skipper, we have a problem back here. Somewhere we have a ripped panel. I can hear air hissing out, then it bubbles, and then hisses. The boat must have snagged on something when they launched it off the cruiser.”
15
Murdock moved to the side of the IBS where Lampedusa sat.
“A leak? No lie, Lam? Where?”
“Not sure, Skipper. Listen, you can hear it.” The men in the boat stopped whispering and listened.
“Yeah, I heard a hiss and then bubbles,” said Murdock, “so it’s somewhere on the side or bottom, and we can’t get to it for repairs.”
“We going down?” Van Dyke asked.
“Hell, no. These little boats are built in something like fifteen to twenty compartments, airtight compartments. They simply won’t sink. Remember how they never really collapse all the way? That’s so one lucky rifle shot into an IBS won’t sink it. She has a lot of other watertights to hold her up. So, no sweat. We continue on as usual. Anybody see any lights yet?”
No one responded. Murdock checked his watch. They had motored at a right angle to the path of the destroyer. That should take care of the current drift. Almost no wind to deal with.
Ten minutes later they spotted lights moving toward them.
“She’s still two miles off and I can see some of her side lights, so we’re not on her line of travel,” Lam said.
“We’ll wait until we’re closer to move up,” Murdock said.
“I’d say we’re a quarter of a mile off her course,” DeWitt said on the Motorola.
“Should be. Ed, you ready?”
“All set soon as she comes up to us. No way they can have radar that can find us. Important point is, they won’t be looking for something this small.”
They waited.
“Holt, crank up the SATCOM,” Murdock said. Holt had to hold the antenna. The small dish might not be stable enough in the tiny boat, which bobbed around in the light sea. It could have trouble holding onto the satellites.
Murdock took the handset and used voice.
“Sardine, this is Floater, come in.”
No response.
He had to make the transmission four times before he had a return call.
“Breaking up, Floater. Try again.”
“Sardine, the can approaches. We’ll make contact in ten. Call you when we’re done and give you our coordinates. Over.”
“Read you. Soon as you’re done you contact Sardine. We’ll figure out what to do then. Roger.”
“Button it up, Holt. Keep the spray out of it. We can’t afford a breakdown on our commo gear.”
“We better choggie in on her,” DeWitt said. “Near a half mile off her course and a mile upstream. Pick up our speed to ten?”
“That’s a Roger, DeWitt. We’re right behind you.”
The little rubber boats moved quicker through the silent sea then as they angled toward the destroyer, which they could see now with navigation lights all on and glowing.
A short time later the radio came on again. “Cutting throttle,” DeWitt said on the radio. “Estimate we’re about fifty yards off their course and we’re still a quarter of a mile ahead of her. Be here shortly. We latch on sixty feet from the bow, you hit the stern. Right?”
“Right,” Murdock said. “Tell us when you power forward to meet your buddy.”
Murdock checked. The six lines and cables were laid out across the back of the IBS. Ready for throwing. The more he thought of it, the worse his job sounded. He had no idea how far the screws were from the stern of the ship. He had no idea how far underwater they were, two feet or fifteen feet.
“Now, we’re powering up,” DeWitt said. The tether cord tightened; then the second IBS moved ahead. The big ship lunged at them through the sea. It looked huge from this viewpoint. They were fifty feet off the course line and the ship was coming toward them. DeWitt moved his boat faster, then worked through the slight bow wave and contacted the big ship. He bounced off, then came back again, matching speed with the freighter/destroyer.
Then Khai planted one magnet against the massive hull, and it held. He tightened up the cinch line, and the boat was latched to the Chinese craft. At once Mahanani moved to the side with the extra-large limpet mine, and let the strong magnet pull it against the side of the ship.
Ostercamp placed the second one two feet away, and Jefferson attached the third one. Immediately the men moved the fusing system to On, and waited for DeWitt to call the time to program the detonator to set off the high explosive.
The big limpets were set two feet above the waterline. With any luck they would blow a hole big enough to let water pour into the hull.
On the other boat, Murdock saw DeWitt attach his boat. Murdock cut power and let the tether line swing him around until he touched the big ship gently. Will Dobler attached a magnet to the boat, and latched it to the line that ran around the top of the IBS.
“Now,” Murdock said.
Bradford had the first line and cable in hand with the charge set on the end of it. He threw it down into the water at the side of the big ship with the hope that it would swing under the boat and be sucked into the powerful pull of the screws.
Bradford threw three of them, and then Van Dyke threw the last three. They heard nothing.
“Done here,” DeWitt said softly into the mike.
“Done here,” Murdock said. “Cast off.” Both boats snapped loose the lines that held them to the big boat, and it jumped away from them as it slanted past at ten knots. The SEALS all crouched low in their boats as the big ship plowed ahead. Any watch on the stern would have an impossible job to try to spot the SEALs or their boats in the dark water and the blackness of the moonless night.
Murdock waited until the sound of the big ship faded. Then he called DeWitt.
“I could use some Mugger coordinates, Mr. DeWitt.”
“Roger that, Captain. Be a shake. Yes. Now I have them.”
“Hold until I get that cruiser.”
The second call produced an answer, and Murdock gave the cruiser the coordinates where they bobbed along in the Mediterranean Sea on a three-knot current.
“How long?” Murdock asked on the SATCOM.
“How long did you set those fuses for?”
“Fuses set for fifteen minutes. That’s another six minutes to the blasts,” DeWitt told Murdock, who repeated it into the SATCOM.
“Let us know when they go off and we’ll start moving your way. His radar can nail us as soon as we come over the horizon.”
“Roger. We’re not going anywhere. We have a three-knot drift to the SSE.”
“We hear you.”
They waited.
“Two minutes,” DeWitt said.
Almost at the same time a brilliant flash erupted in the darkness in the direction the Chinese ship had sailed. Then another one and a third one on top of it. A glow showed in the night sky for ten or fifteen seconds. Then it died.
“Three big bangs,” Murdock said on the SATCOM mike.
“He’s not much more than three miles from you,” the man on the cruiser said. “Suggest you rev up your engines and motor away from him at your top speed. We need at least seven miles to be on the safe side.”