Bodil smiled. She was in her element, talking about her specialist subject to someone interested in listening. Indeed, all four sailors and Jake were watching her intently, hanging on her every word. “There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive. Active sonar works like radar, but uses sound waves instead of radio waves.”
“Like a dolphin?” one of the men asked.
“Yes, exactly. We send out a noise, and when it bounces off something, we hear the echo. Using the time it takes for the echo to come back, we can work out the distance to the object—”
“And by sending out a lot of noise, you can basically map the size of the object.” The sailor looked pleased with himself. The Lance hit a wave, and bounced and juddered, wiping the smile from his face.
“Right. Now I’m no expert on military systems, but I know the active sonar on this boat can pick up objects as small as a single fish. Now, you see perhaps the problem the submarines have?”
Daniel offered up an explanation. “If they use active sonar, the other submarine will detect the sounds they’re sending out. They’ll give away their position.”
“Precisely. So while they are hiding out, they must rely on passive sonar. They can only listen for noises already out there.”
“Like the sound of our propeller.”
“That’s one source, yes. The Spirit of Arcadia will also be making a lot of noise.”
“Really?” Jake looked around. “But she’s not moving. Her main engines aren’t even running, only the electric generator.”
“That generator will cause vibrations. Even the people moving around on the ship will cause vibrations. The passive sonar will pick up all of this noise. Both submarines will know exactly where she, and we, are located.”
“Well I guess that means they’re not planning on sinking her. They could already have done so,” Daniel said, the relief evident in his voice. “So the two submarines are both hiding out, each one waiting for the other to make a noise and give away its position?”
“Most likely.”
“We don’t know that for sure, though,” Jake added. “The unfriendly sub could have gone, left the area. Unlikely, but possible.”
They sailed on for a while, the drone of the powerful diesel engine below and the occasional wave breaking over the bow the only sounds. Each of them was lost in their thoughts.
Sailing on the smaller ship, Jake was reminded of the boat trips his father had taken him on as a child. He’d never really wanted to go, but he hated to see the disappointment on the old man’s face, so when his mother had insisted, he had always obliged. They’d hitch rides on friends’ fishing boats, or hire or borrow sailing boats for a weekend. It didn’t matter to his dad as long as they were out on the water. It was as if his father thought that if Jake was exposed to the sea for long enough, he would develop a love of the ocean as deep as his own. It never happened, but Jake did develop a habit of going along with his father’s wishes, putting up less and less resistance as time went by, ultimately leading him to take a job as an engineer on a small cruise liner. By then it was too late; his career path was set, and although he escaped the engine room and got into the ranks of the bridge officers, he had never escaped the sea.
“This is probably far enough out,” Jake said, coming out of his trance. “Bodil, you’ll have to tell these boys how to deploy your sonar kit.”
She nodded, and began directing them. One of them wheeled her out of the bridge so she could better show them how to get the equipment into the water.
While they waited, Daniel had more questions for Jake. “Do we know where they come from? I mean, are they Russians? Americans? Another Royal Navy sub? Who would attack us?”
Jake hesitated, but only briefly. He reminded himself that transparency in the community was paramount. There was nothing to be gained by holding back information. “We think they’re North Korean, or possibly Chinese. The men who captured this ship were North Korean. They’re the only other survivors we’ve seen. The submarine was probably tracking the Lance.”
“They’re a long way from home. I didn’t think they had that sort of technology.”
“No…neither did Vardy. In fact, he insisted it was impossible. Subsequent events have changed that point of view. Vardy said that the Chinese had a secret submarine development project. It’s possible, although unlikely, they involved the Koreans in that. It’s also possible the Koreans stole the technology.”
One of the other sailors poked his head through the door. “We’re almost ready. The sonar’s being lowered into the water. Bodil is in the control room. I assume you want to join her?”
Jake nodded. “Thank you. Daniel, you have the bridge. Keep us put for now. This is Bodil’s show. She’ll be giving the orders when it’s time to move.”
“Aye…Jake,” he said, and grinned once more.
• • •
“What is it? What happened?” Dan rubbed his eyes, trying to focus. Despite his best efforts to maintain a vigil, he had dozed off when Vicky had gone to sleep.
“I said I think my waters just broke.”
“What? But the contractions had stopped!”
She let out a long, long, rumbling moan.
Dan leapt up, fully awake now. “Okay, they started. I’m going to fetch help.” He moved towards the door, then turned back to her. “Will you be okay on your own for a bit? Perhaps I shouldn’t leave you here?”
“You could try the phone, you big idiot.” She smiled at him. The same smile that had captured his heart.
“Yes, telephone. Of course. Why didn’t I think of that? I’ll ring medical.” He circled the bed, cut the corner too tight and tripped over the end of the duvet, landing with a heavy thump.
“Dan! Calm down. We’ve got plenty of timeeeeaaahhh!” The last word turned into a pained yowl.
Dan checked his watch. “Didn’t time it, bugger.” He pushed himself up and found the telephone. He searched his memory for the number for medical, then realised it was printed on the phone itself. He dialled, and waited, all the time staring anxiously at his wife. She had jettisoned the bed covers, hence his finding them with his feet. She was sweating profusely. Her hair, normally so straight and perfect, was stuck to her face in a matted, wet heap, like seaweed washed up on a beach. She caught him watching her, and pulled a face.
“You wouldn’t look so good yourself if you were about to give birth, Mr Mitchell,” she said, still managing to smile through the obvious pain.
“Actually, I was thinking how amazing you look. Shit, nobody’s answering the phone down there.” He hung on regardless.
“Perhaps you should go. They might be too busy. I’ll be okay. It won’t take you long to get down there and come back. Honestly, Dan. I’ll be fine.”
He hung up, looking at the phone as if it was personally to blame for the lack of a response. “This is an emergency! They should answer.”
“There might be other emergencies. Don’t forget, we didn’t give them much notice about this — about me — did we? They’d be quite within their rights to say ‘not our problem, deal with it yourselves’. We should count ourselves lucky.”
Dan thought about that. It was true, they had been expecting the worst. Any help was a bonus.
“Go! Before I have a baby.”
“Okay. You’re sure?”
She gave him one of her looks.
“Okay! I’m gone.” He got as far as the door, even put his hand on the handle, before turning back one more time.
“What now?”
He leaned over the bed and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. “I love you,” he said quietly. “I’ll be as fast as I can.”
“Nutter!”
They kissed again, and then he was gone.
Twenty-Eight
IT WAS WHEN she reached the incline that took the ventilation pipe up to deck two that Lucya had a brainwave. It came, as all the best ideas seemed to, quite accidentally. Her arms were going numb. Pulling herself forwards inches at a time was tiring beyond belief. Keeping them stretched out in front of her was limiting the blood circulation. She’d already gone through pins and needles and was starting to lose the feeling in her hands altogether. In an effort to get them down by her side, at least for a few minutes, she tried rolling onto her back. In the confined round space, the only way to do so was to twist her legs and try and pull herself round. The manoeuvre itself wasn’t tricky, but doing it quietly took some effort.