"Exactly, Captain. The fact we did plant mines suggests we weren't trying to hide completely, we weren't responsible for Umhlanga Rocks."
"You're not afraid that we'll make noise and draw too much attention just a little too soon?" Wilson said.
"Sir, the LMRSs haven't found a single SOSUS hydrophone this close inshore, and ones looking back at us from deeper water will be impaired by lots of reverb off the bottom's upslope. It'd take them hours of computer time to eke out and confirm our signature."
"That's true," Morse said. "It makes us tactically invisible."
"Yes, sir," Jeffrey said, glancing at his displays again. "If Master 7 and Master 23 here don't change course, in a couple of minutes we'll have a good window to launch from outside their detection envelopes."
"Very well, Fire Control," Wilson said. "Prepare to launch two ISLMMs. Make the runs be short, place the warheads at your discretion."
"Prepare to launch two ISLMMs, aye," Jeffrey said.
"Before we do I want to check our baffles," Wilson said. "Master 26 still holding course?" Jeffrey eyed his screens once more, then double-checked with COB, still piloting the LMRS in the diesel's wake. Jeffrey turned back to the captain. "Affirmative, sir, the contact's dead ahead, steering two zero five on batteries, range from us eleven thousand yards, no towed array. Sir, we're getting two side-by-side opposing swirls in the turbulence. I think Master 26 has twin screws."
"That would make her a Daphne class," Morse said. "They're forty years old … Or maybe one of the Russian Tangos they bought used. Foxtrots have three shafts."
"Very well," Wilson said. "Our side's forced to use some reconditioned obsolescent hardware too … Helm, on my mark all stop, then right full rudder and turn sixty degrees to starboard, then use auxiliary propulsors to cancel our remaining way. We'll drift with the current and listen with the wide-aperture arrays, while Fire Control prepares to launch the mines."
"Understood," Meltzer said.
"Mark," Wilson said.
"All stop, right full rudder, aye," Meltzer said. "Maneuvering acknowledges all stop … Steering two six five, Captain … We're holding inside the corridor, sir."
"Very well, Helm," Wilson said.
Jeffrey went to work. Deciding exactly where to put the total of four conventional bottom influence warheads was a nontrivial exercise, especially on short notice. Of course part of his mind had been planning for it all along. He'd lay a line across the current, not parallel to it, so one sinking vessel wouldn't drift downstream and set them all off each in turn. He decided a spacing of two hundred yards would be tight but not too close, spread across the safety lane. If no good targets used this particular lane today, eventually they would.
"Captain," Jeffrey said, "I'm setting the mine software to wait twelve hours before arming, to give us a good chance to escape."
"Concur," Wilson said.
"I'll program them to detonate for submerged nuclear-powered contacts only. At our present depth, four hundred ninety feet, we're too far down for surface targets anyway. I'm giving them the acoustic signature of the Rubis-class SSNs the Axis captured from France. I'm also downloading Russian machine noise characteristics, since we know the Axis bought some compact mobile reactor plants and other main components. I'm entering our best guess at the German modifications."
"Concur," Wilson said.
Jeffrey finished entering the presets on his console. He relayed the information to the weapons officer, Lieutenant Bell, Lieutenant Jackson Jefferson Bellthird-generation navy, first-generation commissioned officer, two battle Es on his ribbons.
"Close the outer door, tube seven," Wilson said. "Drain tube seven and remove the Mark 88—we can't really use it at short range anyway. Load the first ISLMM into tube seven. We'll launch the second one from there as well."
Jeffrey passed the orders, then watched the changes in the weapons status window on his console. Tube seven's door icon switched closed and the tube icon changed from green to red. The indicators changed from FLOODED and EQUALIZED to NOT FLOODED. Then the inner door emblem popped open, and the nuclear torpedo icon vanished. The screen told Jeffrey what he already knew. Tube one was busy with the LMRS, tube three was loaded with the other LMRS and flooded, and tube five — also flooded — held a Mark 48 conventional ADCAP whose gyros were spun up. All the portside even-numbered tubes were unavailable from battle damage. The hydraulic autoloading gear on all tubes was unavailable; the operating mode was shown as MANUAL.
"Captain," Jeffrey said, "recommend we place a third ISLMM in tube seven once we fire the first two, as a backup in case of any failures. The units were pretty beat up by the weapons compartment flooding, even if they check out okay now."
"Concur, Fire Control," Wilson said.
"Captain, once we're through the bastion, should we engage Master 26?"
"Let's talk about that," Wilson said. "Leaving a silent calling card, the mines, to support our cover story's one thing. A flaming datum while we're here is something else. We have to get our prisoner back to base for interrogation. Since they destroyed so much of the lab notes, us putting the written records through a scanner, downloading their diskettes, and sending off a microburst once we get out to blue water like we originally planned just isn't an option. If we're prevented from reaching the Cape Verdes physically ourselves, our side loses all the intel, which was half our cause for coming here."
"And if we're sunk too near this coast," Morse said, "not only are we a treasure trove for the other people, but when they explore the wreck, they'll find Otto's body."
"Mine too, sirs, respectfully," Ilse said. To Jeffrey she looked slightly pale at the thought, even in the reddish light. "If the fish find us before they do, they'll still have dental charts."
Jeffrey shivered. "That would ruin everything."
"Cheer up, XO," Wilson said. "That's also part of the job sometimes, passing up a lesser target in favor of a greater one."
"Yes, sir," Jeffrey said.
"Commander," Sessions called, "no new sonar contacts."
"Very well," Jeffrey said. "Captain, our baffles are clear."
"Very well," Wilson said. "Helm, make your course two zero five, ahead one third, make turns for four knots."
Meltzer acknowledged.
Jeffrey fidgeted. It seemed forever before the torpedomen could get the first ISLMM cranked into the tube.
"Sir," Van Gelder said, "Sonar has detected a mechanical transient dead ahead, close to the bottom."
"Range?" ter Horst said.
"Difficult to say. The signal strength was weak."
"Educated guess?"
"It could be distant, or it could be close but with an unfavorable contact aspect angle."
"What did it sound like?"
"A clunk, sir. A torpedo being loaded, maybe."
"Probably some kind of sound short on that Daphne," ter Horst said. "Those boats are ancient, and even with the prewar modernization refit by our German friends, their crew training standards aren't up to yours and mine."
Van Gelder nodded. "We're close enough to home it doesn't matter. Still, they ought to be more careful."
"Make tube seven ready in all respects," Wilson said. "Tube seven, firing point procedures, improved sub-launched mobile mine."
"Solution ready," Jeffrey said. "Ship ready. Weapon ready."
"Very well," Wilson said. "Open the outer door tube seven, and shoot."
"Unit from tube seven fired electrically," Jeffrey said. "Unit swimming out."
"Unit is running normally," Sessions said.
"Hydrophone effects!" Van Gelder shouted.