Brodie gripped his friend’s forearm. “Go aft, help Jason get all of the divers out of the DDS,” he told him. “We’re going to have to move and move fast, and they can’t be in there as deep as we’re going to be heading.” Brodie explained quickly.
The DDS was made out of HY80 steel and could withstand a depth of no more than two hundred feet if pressurized. But, if there were no personnel in the DDS, it didn’t have to be pressurized and could be flooded and so withstand any depth the Seawolf might dive to.
“Aye, sir.”
Jason Graves stood nervously beneath the hatch leading to the escape trunk. The hatch was sealed and the trunk itself was flooded. Beside him, waiting to receive casualties, was Doc Reed with several men. Graves checked his watch. The divers were going directly from the open sea, through the transit trunk, and into the submarine escape trunk because Brodie needed them inside the sub as soon as possible. But all of the divers couldn’t enter the escape trunk at once. So the Dry Deck Storage team would have to wait in the transfer trunk until the first group of divers cleared the escape trunk.
By the book, all of the divers should take a few minutes to decompress, but there was no time for the book. None of the SEALs had been very deep, and they would just have to risk the bends. It was either that, or all of them die when the Seawolf was caught in the trap currently closing around it.
Graves kept his eye on the various gauges, waiting for the indicator light letting him know the SEALs, Kristen, and Dr. Dar-Hyun were in the trunk and the outer hatch was sealed. The Seawolf could not begin moving until all of the divers were at least inside the DDS and couldn’t go deep until they were all inside the hull of the submarine itself.
After what felt like an agonizingly long time, the SEALs in the DDS reported it was sealed. Graves immediately relayed the information to Brodie. Seconds later, he felt the Seawolf accelerate. COB arrived a few seconds later.
“Are they all inside yet?” COB asked.
“Negative,” Graves replied. “What’s happening?”
“That helicopter dropped a torpedo about three thousand yards off. It’s searching.” COB explained. “We need to get everyone inside, fast!”
“The first group is in the escape trunk, and we’re pumping the water out,” Graves explained. “How much time do we have?”
“None, the skipper just put the hammer down and is taking us out to sea.”
The squawk box outside the escape trunk then came to life. “We’re depressurizing now.” Graves didn’t recognize the SEAL’s voice.
Graves clicked the talk button. “What’s the status of the casualties, over?”
“One bullet wound in the upper chest and the other is a heart problem, plus multiple minor wounds.”
“How long before the SDV’s scuttling charges will detonate?” Graves asked.
“It’s on a thirty minute timer and started eight minutes ago.”
Graves passed this bit of information up to the control room and then waited for the decompression to end. As he waited, he was struck with the terrible feeling that he was going to see Kristen’s lifeless body come tumbling out of the hatch as soon as they opened it. How many were dead? He couldn’t know. He glanced at the gauge and saw the pressure was now virtually equal. Everyone watched the wheel locking mechanism spin, and Graves motioned for Doc Reed’s men to get moving.
Water showered down all over them as the hatch was lifted up in the escape trunk. Graves scrambled up inside, almost frantic to see what was going on, and COB was right behind him. The chamber was damp and crowded with SEALs. Most were with the mini sub crew, but he saw two wearing the camouflage drysuits the assault team had worn. They’d sent four SEALs ashore. He didn’t need to ask questions to know the missing men would not be returning.
Hoover was checking the Korean’s vital signs, and Graves saw the corpsman had deep scratches across his face, as well as a rip in the right sleeve of his wetsuit and a bloody bandage over a wound to his left arm. He then saw Kristen and nearly gasped.
There were still three inches of water on the floor of the lockout chamber and she was sitting in it with Dar-Hyun’s head in her lap. If her eyes hadn’t been open and she weren’t talking softly to the doctor in Mandarin, he would’ve thought her dead. Her cheeks were like ash, with no color at all except streaks of black grease paint. Her eyes — which were normally bright and clear — looked hollow and lifeless. There were scratches on her cheeks and one of her ears was cut and dripping blood onto her torn camouflage blouse. She had a battle dressing on her right upper arm and someone had ripped her blouse open, tearing the buttons off in the process.
Hamilton was sitting back, a pair of soaked and blood-stained battle dressings covering a wound in his upper left chest. But, he didn’t appear to be in any distress. Instead, he was in the process of pulling a piece of chewing gum out of a waterproof bag and sticking it in his mouth. “What’s up, sir?” the unflappable SEAL asked casually.
“Jesus,” he whispered upon seeing them.
Kristen looked at the XO. She couldn’t quite form a smile or make any real sign of recognition. Instead, she settled for a brief, tired nod. She then turned her attention back to Dr. Dar-Hyun. The Korean was resting his head in her lap as she talked to him and caressed his cheek, trying to keep him calm.
“Sir, we’re safe on the submarine now. We’re going to help you down out of this room and get you to the ship’s hospital, do you understand?” she said as calmly as she could, still speaking in Mandarin.
Choi gripped his chest in apparent pain, but he nodded and then said a few words.
“What’s he saying?” Hoover asked as he listened to Choi’s heart with a stethoscope while the other divers started exiting the escape trunk.
“He says he’s having difficulty breathing,” she translated. She then glanced back up at the XO who was looking at her with alarm on his face. “Sir, we need some oxygen in here for the doctor. Is Doc Reed down there?”
“That’ll have to wait. Right now we need to get everyone out of here,” Graves urged them. “We got North Korean’s climbing all over us.”
The SEALs evacuated the chamber, helping the injured down. Because of the bloody bandage over his upper chest, they offered Hamilton a backboard. He refused and climbed down, using his right arm to support him. Kristen came down and was greeted by helping hands gripping her legs and torso as she descended the ladder. Choi was already on a backboard with both corpsmen around him, and Kristen saw the Korean growing agitated.
She had a splitting headache and felt emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. Any sense of euphoria she felt for having survived in one piece had been offset by the sheer terror of the journey back through the narrow channel. The two bullets that penetrated her LAR-7 had spent themselves against her bulletproof vest. But, although the bullets hadn’t penetrated the vest, they’d cracked several ribs and her breathing was painful. They weren’t certain if a bullet or a rock fragment had torn a gash in her right arm, plus she had some deep scratches on her face. With the LAR-7 damaged, she’d been forced to leech off Hamilton’s auxiliary air supply as they swam back to the SDV.
Then the real horror began.
The North Korean patrol boats had closed in on them as they embarked on the SDV and headed back into the channel. Then grenades had rained down from above and detonated all around the mini sub as they made their escape. The SDV had been damaged almost immediately before they could descend into deep water and make their escape. Despite Hamilton’s evasive action, they’d been unable to dislodge their antagonists on the surface. Assuming the North Koreans had spotted the GPS antenna on the surface, they’d been forced to bring it in and then resumed trying to evade. But there simply hadn’t been enough deep water to hide in, and they’d finally settled onto the bottom in fifty feet of water as grenades continued to be dropped into the water above them.