While the two Irishmen continued their emotional reunion down in the wardroom, under the watchful eyes of the sergeant at arms, Mac and his Scottish col league remained topside.
“Well, Major, it seems that we all owe you our undying gratitude. Not only does it appear that we’ll get our bomb back, but we were also able to halt a tragedy of unprecedented scope.”
Colin Stewart responded while watching a Sea King helicopter approach from the south.
“Don’t forget that without your support, this whole thing wouldn’t have been possible. You’re part of this just as much as I am. Now if that bomb casing only remains intact, and its plutonium is kept from scattering on the seafloor, we will all finally be able to rest easier.”
Also gazing up at the blue Sea King was Mac.
“We’ll all know the answer to that as soon as that chopper arrives with CURV. Captain Foard’s setting it up so that I can operate the ROV from the Bowfin’s sonar console. Its camera will show us if the bomb’s still intact. Meanwhile, we’ve also got that salvage tug and those divers on their way from Holy Loch, with the DSRV Mystic coming in for good measure.”
“I imagine that your ROV will come in handy checking out the remains of that submarine that we were forced to take out back in the channel,” observed Colin Stewart.
“It certainly will,” said Mac.
“Though for the life of me, I still can’t figure out what it was up to when it took those potshots at us. Sean Lafferty certainly didn’t seem to know anything about it, and that would appear to rule out any Soviet-IRB connection.”
“That remains to be seen,” remarked the Highlander, who scanned the wooded shoreline of the Firth. His gaze finally halted on the distinctive blue hull of a frigate-sized ship anchored off the entrance to nearby Gare Loch. It had a Union Jack fluttering from its masthead.
“I wonder when they’ll inform Her Majesty of these goings on,” said Stewart.
“If she remains on schedule, she should be leaving the royal yacht any minute now to get on with the christening.”
“I’d sure like to see her face when they do,” returned Mac.
“Though I doubt she’ll believe it when they do tell her how close she came to the end of her reign.”
Major Colin Stewart nodded thoughtfully. With his gaze still locked on the fluttering red, blue, and white Union Jack, he wondered if he’d ever be able to share this incredible story with his colleagues back at Edinburgh castle. Though even they would think that he was merely telling a tall tale as he described the events leading up to the tug’s destruction. And in a way, he couldn’t blame them, for he had trouble believing its validity himself.
Epilogue
Mikhail Borisov snapped back into waking consciousness with a start. The back of his bruised head throbbed painfully, and as his blurred vision cleared, a single sputtering candle illuminated a scene of total chaos. The Sea Devil was completely overturned.
Smashed equipment and the prone, bloodstained bodies of two of his shipmates littered the ceiling that was now the mini-sub’s floor. As he stiffly sat up, a hoarse voice broke the hushed stillness.
“Hello, Captain,” greeted Yuri Sosnovo weakly.
“Thank the fates that you too have survived.”
Mikhail got to his hands and knees and located his chief engineer propped against what was left of the sub’s gyroscope.
“My heavens, Yuri! What in the world happened to us?”
“Whatever it was, comrade, it took the lives of both Oleg and Tanya,” managed Yuri.
“They were both dead when I awoke several minutes ago.”
Mikhail stood and made his way over to his shipmate’s side.
“That’s a nasty gash you have on your forehead, Yuri. And it looks like your leg and arm are broken.”
“That’s not the half of it, Captain. I got caught up in between the sonar console and the helm when we went over, and it feels as if my guts have been ripped open.”
As the chief engineer was caught up in a coughing fit that brought blood-speckled spittle to his lips, Mikhail compassionately remarked, “Easy does it, my friend. It appears that the diving chamber is still intact.
Do you think that you could manage to crawl over there with me?”
“What for?” retorted Yuri.
“I’m finished, comrade.
You go ahead and make good your escape, and I’ll take care of activating the explosive charges to scuttle Sea Devil.”
Mikhail shook his head.
“I’ll not leave you to die alone, Yuri Andreivich. Come on. I’ll set the charges and we can take our cyanide capsules together.”
“I’ll hear of no such thing, comrade!” shot back Yuri.
“Why waste your own life on my behalf? You must survive, if only to get news of our mission’s outcome back to Admiral Starobin. Otherwise they’ll fault Sea Devil and this brilliant operation will never get a chance to be repeated.”
Knowing full well that he was right, Mikhail nodded.
“Comrade Sosnovo, as always, your valued insights are correct. I’m going to miss you, my friend.”
Yuri managed a fond grin.
“We’ve certainly been in some tight ones together. Captain. Do you remember that time off Kiel when that German corvette had us cornered…”
Yuri’s remembrances were abuptly cut short by another violent coughing fit that brought a renewed flow of bright red blood to his lips. Mikhail was also finding it hard to breathe, and realizing that the already foul air was quickly losing its oxygen content, he knew it was time to be going.
“Are you certain that you’ll be able to hit that scuttle charge, Yuri?”
The chief engineer looked up and directly met his CO’s stare.
“Of course I can, Captain. Don’t worry. 111 get to it all right, on my last dying breath, if necessary.”
Certain that he would, Mikhail began slowly picking his way back to the diving chamber that was now positioned on the ceiling. As he pulled open the hatch, he took one last fond look at his brave shipmate. Illuminated by the flickering candlelight, Yuri snapped his commanding officer a crisp salute. Fighting the tears that were forming in his eyes, Mikhail returned this salute, then pivoted and pulled himself up into the awaiting chamber.
And from the surface of the waters immediately above the overturned mini-sub. Commander Brad Mackenzie anxiously sat before the blinking monitor screen. The CURV was well on its way to the seafloor now, and it was with great anticipation that he activated the ROV’s mercury-vapor lights. As he triggered its fiberoptic camera, the monitor filled with the swirling green waters of the Firth.
Mac carefully guided the ROV into the depths and soon located the channel’s bottom. A curious salmon swam by, and as Mac began a broad sweep of the gravelly seabed, he sighted the wreck of the tug they had sunk. Remarkably, it was still in one piece, though there was a large hole in its forward hull, just below the waterline. While visualizing the two corpses that were trapped inside this vessel, Mac guided the CURV in a wide circle. It was during this maneuver that the monitor filled with a familiar cylindrical cannister that caused an excited roar to escape the lips of those who also watched the screen and were assembled behind Mac.
“We’ve got it, and it still looks intact!” shouted Captain William Foard.
“We’ve got the damn bomb back!”
Though Mac was tempted to halt his search at this point and join in on the celebration going on behind him, his curiosity made him remain at the console.
After slowly circling the nuclear device and finding it intact, he reinitiated the circular maneuver that he was in the midst of when he first came upon the bomb.