Not his sub, Samant corrected himself. Not anymore. Not even part of the Indian Navy anymore. He’d spent all afternoon telling Jerry Mitchell and the other Americans secrets that under normal circumstances would have gotten him thrown in jail. Instead, he hoped it was enough to save his country and end this nightmare.
Samant had hardened his heart to the thought of what they were doing, turning the anger he felt toward Dhankhar and Kirichenko. Even if Chakra was… stopped, it would still be a tragedy — just not a catastrophe. It also helped if he didn’t think about it too deeply, instead focusing on the here and now.
Using a spare display console, Thigpen had set up a series of encounters between Chakra and North Dakota, using different approach angles, depths, and acoustic conditions. According to the sonar simulation, the American boat still held an edge in good water. She was quieter, and her sensors were a little better. Another advantage that the computer couldn’t model was that North Dakota’s crew was familiar with her systems, while Jain and his men would still be trying to understand their new sonar’s capabilities.
Samant chided himself for thinking about Chakra’s new captain. He’d always been hard on his former first officer, but that was just his way of preparing the man for command — but not like this. He simply couldn’t understand why Jain had been so easily duped by Dhankhar’s plan. Samant took some small pleasure in knowing that the admiral had removed him from command because Dhankhar knew he couldn’t count on Samant to be part of the plot.
Thigpen was looking for the best place to position North Dakota and her reconnaissance UUVs, asking Samant questions about Chakra’s standard operating procedures. What speed and depth would she transit at, depending on the water conditions? Samant, at the direction of the Indian government, answered all the questions as best he could. The information would be used to a good end.
Afterward, of course, the American navy would collect whatever he told them and share it with the rest of their fleet. Chakra was Russian-built, and there were other Improved Akula I — class submarines in the Russian fleet. He didn’t feel any regrets about his information being used for that purpose. It was the price the Russians paid for hiding the bootleg warheads in the first place.
The hardest part of their job was to estimate the likely route that Chakra would take. If she hugged the Chinese coast as she moved north and east, she could hide in the noise generated by the hundreds of ships in the area, as well as the sounds made by the many life-forms that lived in coastal waters, and even the sound of waves on shore. But that made for a much longer trip and Chakra’s own sonar search capability would also be affected. Submariners didn’t like shallow water. It limited their options.
Besides, Chakra had that new towed sonar, and she couldn’t use it at all in shallow water. Samant tapped the chart near Hong Kong. It was not only the southernmost target on that list, but one of the biggest. Everyone had agreed with the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that it was likely Chakra’s first destination. “He will stay in deep water as long as possible, and approach directly. It’s ten hours at fifteen knots from the deep water here until the water starts to shoal badly near the Wanshan Archipelago.” Samant shifted his finger to the southwest and tapped the wide-open entrance to the Lema Channel; the water was just a little over thirty meters deep.
“Or less than eight hours if he pushes it to twenty knots,” suggested Thigpen. “That reduces his time in shallow water leading up to the channel.”
“If he doesn’t think anyone’s watching for him,” replied Samant. “But I don’t believe Jain would be so reckless. His predisposition is to follow established procedures whenever possible. That’s just the way he is, and I reinforced this tendency through rigorous training. Jain will be cautious in his approach.”
The American XO nodded agreement. “Well, it’s the same waypoint regardless of his speed, or which of the two channels he takes. It’s a place to start.”
Having a location that Chakra was likely to pass through, Thigpen made some adjustments to the computer simulation to figure out what was the best search speed so their sonar would be able to detect the other sub but still cover the largest possible area. The trick was to find Chakra before she got to “Point X-ray.”
Samant studied the two submarines at their respective locations, in deep water off the Chinese coast. “As an experiment,” he asked, “can you change Chakra to her original configuration, before her towed array was upgraded?”
“Sure, no problem,” Thigpen answered. He clicked on a side menu, lowered the array’s performance, reset the simulation, and then ran the encounter again. This time, North Dakota detected the Indian submarine a full ten minutes earlier, with an increase in detection range of nearly four nautical miles.
Samant slowly dropped back into his chair; he’d expected an improvement, but the magnitude of the shift left him shocked. No, horrified. He asked Thigpen, “Is… is this what you remember? Was this what it was like when our submarines met before?”
Thigpen nodded soberly, but remained silent.
“I understood that the Virginia class were technically superior to the Akula I subs, but that much! No wonder your captain was able to beat us. With that much of an advantage, a monkey could have won.”
The American XO was silent for a moment, but then spoke carefully. “Captain Mitchell is the smartest and most imaginative officer I’ve ever served under. You should be grateful that he never intended to sink your boat…”
“I quite agree,” Samant interrupted. “It would have been a trivial exercise with this kind of superiority.”
“You’re selling my captain a little short, aren’t you sir?” Thigpen said harshly.
“No, no,” soothed Samant. “He’s a good man, and I trust him, but with this starship” — he swept his arm, encompassing the control room — “against my old boat, he’d have been a fool to lose.”
Thigpen’s expression went through several changes, and Samant realized that North Dakota’s first officer was torn between defending his captain and disagreeing with a senior officer, even if he was from a different navy. Samant said, “Please, speak freely, Commander.”
Permission to speak his mind seemed to calm the American naval officer slightly. Samant could have just as easily left him frustrated and silent. “Thank, you, sir.” Thigpen drew a short breath, and explained, “Our orders were to interfere with your attacks, which was much more difficult than just firing a torpedo to sink you. Captain Mitchell’s motives were always to prevent loss of life, and he was innovative and resourceful. Who do you think devised the operation that ended the war?”
“The nuclear blue-out was his idea?” Samant was surprised, but then vaguely recalled that Petrov had said something similar. In an attempt to stop the fighting, the Americans had taken drastic action, detonating eight nuclear weapons underwater in a pattern that had flooded the South and East China Seas with noise. The phenomenon, called “blue-out,” had lasted for days. Ship and submarine sonars were blinded, and the combatants had retreated to port. Without causing any injuries, America had imposed a cease-fire.