6. PITTSBURGH WILL ENTER THE SAKHALINSKIY ZALIV UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS ON THE EVENING OF 19 JULY, 1987, AND APPROACH AO COSSACK, AT 53°40′15″ NORTH LATITUDE, 141°10′12″ EAST LONGITUDE, APPROXIMATELY TWENTY MILES NORTH OF BOLSOJE VLASJEVO. USING NAVIGATIONAL AND VISUAL SIGNALS AS OUTLINED IN APPENDIX 4, YOU WILL ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH A RESISTANCE GROUP ABOARD A CIVILIAN FISHING BOAT OPERATING IN THE SAKHALINSKIY ZALIV. THE SEAL ELEMENT WILL AFFECT THE TRANSFER OF SPECIAL OPS PERSONNEL TO THE CONTACT BOAT AND IN MAKING CONTACT WITH THE RESISTANCE GROUP.
7. PITTSBURGH WILL REMAIN IN THE VICINITY OF AO COSSACK FOR 48 HOURS WHILE AWAITING THE COMPLETION OF THE OPERATION ASHORE. DURING THIS TIME, SEAL TEAM 3 PERSONNEL WILL ENGAGE IN UNDERWATER OPERATIONS OFF THE COAST NEAR THE COASTAL TOWN OF PUIR, DESIGNATED OBJECTIVE MONGOL. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ASSIST THE SEAL TEAM, THROUGH MANEUVERING AND TRAVEL, IN ANY WAY THAT THEY MAY REQUIRE TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR MISSION.
8. AT THE END OF THE 48 HOUR PERIOD, TWO OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS PERSONNEL WILL RETURN TO PITTSBURGH ABOARD A CIVILIAN FISHING BOAT. YOU WILL TAKE THEM AND ALL SEAL PERSONNEL ON BOARD AND RETURN TO U.S. NAVAL STATION, MARE ISLAND TO OFF-LOAD RETURNING SPECIAL PERSONNEL AND FOR FORMAL DEBRIEFING.
9. BE ADVISED THAT INTELLIGENCE REPORTS INDICATE THAT A NEW SOVIET ATTACK SUBMARINE OF UNKNOWN BUT HIGH CAPABILITY, DESIGNATED "MIKE 2," IS OPERATING IN THIS AREA, PROBABLY OUT OF THE PORT OF MAGADAN. THE PITTSBURGH SHOULD AVOID ANY CONFRONTATION WITH MIKE 2 THAT WOULD JEOPARDIZE ANY PART OF HER PRIMARY MISSION. HOWEVER, INTELLIGENCE PLACES A HIGH VALUE ON RETURNING ANY INFORMATION POSSIBLE ON THE MIKE CLASS, INCLUDING SONAR READINGS, MAGNETIC ANOMALY SCANS, AND VISUAL INSPECTION OF THE HULL. PITTSBURGH SHOULD ENDEAVOR TO PROVIDE THIS INTELLIGENCE IF PRACTICABLE DURING THE PURSUIT OF THE PRIMARY MISSION. 10. ALL RADIO COMMUNICATIONS ARE RESTRICTED TO THOSE CONTACT PROTOCOLS SPECIFICALLY DESCRIBED IN THE APPENDICES OF THIS DOCUMENT. PITTSBURGH IS NOT TO ATTEMPT OTHER COMMUNICATIONS WITH SHIP OR SHORE FACILITIES AT ANY TIME DURING THE MISSION, UNTIL AFTER EXIT FROM THE SEA OF OKHOTSK AND CLEAR OF ALL SOVIET STATIONS AND VESSELS. THIS RESTRICTION INCLUDES FAMILYGRAMS AND ALL OTHER ROUTINE RADIO TRAFFIC.
(SIGNED) BENJAMIN GOLDMAN, RADM
OFFICE OF NAVAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND
"What the hell is NURO?" Lieutenant Walberg wanted to know.
"Naval Underwater Reconnaissance Office," Latham said. "It's a scam."
"What makes you say that?" Gordon asked.
"It's theoretically a fifty-fifty operation between Naval Intelligence and the CIA, only the Agency's always able to buy the pot."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's supposed to be a joint venture, Naval Intelligence and CIA, right? Headed by the CNI, with the CIA's
DDO as his number two, and roughly equal numbers of personnel, CIA and Navy. But it's actually almost all CIA, using Navy assets and money."
"Cute," Walberg said.
"Sure. The CIA pulled the same trick back in the sixties when they set up the NRO, the National Reconnaissance Office. It was supposed to allow the sharing of intel from Air
Force spy satellites. But where the Air Force couldn't afford to put that many people into the new program, the CIA could send all it wanted. Before long, the NRO was turning out good intel, but it was all Central Intelligence Agency stuff … and the Air Force was paying for a lot of it."
"You're saying the CIA is doing the same thing here?" Warren asked.
"Of course. NURO is run by the Chief of Naval Intelligence, but he can't afford that many people to operate the place. But the Agency's always happy to help out. Isn't that right, 'Mr. Johnson'?"
Johnson didn't meet Latham's gaze. He appeared to be intensely interested in the piping of the overhead in the far corner. "I wouldn't know about any of that," he said. "But I submit that this subject is not one for public discussion."
"Come on, Mr. Johnson," Ostler said, grinning. "No secrets here."
"The organization and purview of NURO is a matter of national security," Johnson said, "and not a matter for public debate."
"Is it national security?" Latham asked with a bitter quirk to his mouth, "or is it that the Agency just doesn't want any more oversight?"
"Come on, people," Gordon said. "We're supposed to be on the same side. Sean? You have the charts?"
"Yes, sir," Pittsburgh's Navigation Officer said. Alerted ahead of time by Gordon, he'd brought along an aluminum carry tube containing several charts. Pulling them out and unrolling them on the table, he pointed to the first one, which showed the pearl-string line of the Kuril Islands, from Cape Lopatka at the tip of Kamchatka all the way to Hokkaido.
All of the charts were marked SECRET. Normally, they would be kept covered by a blotter, and revealed only to select members of the boat's crew. Gordon glanced at Johnson, suppressing as he did so a momentary twinge of distrust. The man's security clearance was astronomically higher than Gordon's. Still, a submariner's ingrained worship of security, his unwillingness to share anything with outsiders, was tough to overcome.
"Okay," Garrison said. "The Chetvertyy Kuril'skiy Proliv is this gap in the Kurils, between Paramusir and Onekotan. Deep-water channel… averaging five hundred feet. It's one of the main entrances into the Sea of Okhotsk… which worries me a bit. I'm wondering why our orders are so specific about where we go through."
"It's the northernmost deep-water channel through the Kurils," Gordon said, arms folded, "and the closest to a direct-line course for us coming down the great circle route along the Aleutians. However, I'm not going to worry too much about that line in the orders, gentlemen. Captain's discretion. If there's too much traffic at that entrance, if I so much as get a bad feeling about what's there, then we go south… to this passage north of Raykoke, or even all the way to the Proliv Bussol'. You might have those charts ready, Sean, just in case."
"Aye, sir. Already have 'em pulled."
"Good man."
"Once into the Sea of Okhotsk, things aren't so bad," Garrison continued, opening another, larger chart. "We've been there before. No surprises. We have this nice, deep arm of the sea running northwest toward Ostrov Iony — that's 'Saint Jona's Island,' though the Soviets don't recognize saints. Brings us up to the northern tip of Sakhalin.
"Here's where it'll get hairy, though. Sakhalin Island is this long, skinny one right running north-south right off the Siberian coast. At its closest, here at Lazarev, the Tatarskiy Strait is only a few miles wide. There are rumors — unconfirmed — that Stalin had slave labor digging a tunnel between the mainland and Sakhalin during World War II. It's narrow.
"North of there, we have this big, circular bay between northern Sakhalin and the northern tip of the Maritime Provinces. Sakhalinskiy Zaliv — Sakhalin Bay — is about eighty miles across, wide-open to the north… but it narrows sharply to the northern opening of Tatarskiy Strait.
There's an underwater oil pipeline here, at Puir, connecting Nikolayevsk and the North Sakhalin oilfields at Okha. Water depth is estimated at forty to fifty feet, depending on the local tides.
"Puir is here, right on the opening to the Tatarskiy Strait. Nothing much there. Pipeline and communications facilities. Probably some small naval facilities. Lord knows what the SEALs are supposed to do there."
Johnson was still studying the overhead piping, Gordon noticed.
"Now, right around the Puir headland is the mouth of the Amur River," Garrison continued. "And ten miles up the Amurskiy Liman — the Amur Estuary — is the city of Nikolayevsk-na-Amure. Major port. Major naval facility. Major shipbuilding complex. Very heavily guarded. They obviously chose the placement of their sensitive naval facilities to make it damned difficult for us to slip in and photograph it from a periscope. We have some fair satellite photographs of the area, of course, but almost no data on the underwater topology, depths, presence of ASW nets or minefields, that sort of thing."