“Alfa’s changing aspect fast…”
“Wire’s snapped on number two…”
“Alfa’s like a dog chasing its tail… aspect’s changing again…” The reports from sonar were increasing in intensity. Each man was creating a mental picture of the submarine and the torpedoes. The sonarmen added further reality with verbal accounts of the sounds of the chase, which they had developed to a maximum sensitivity. It was akin to the nose of a hunting dog on a trail. Sound heightened the image of the hunt.
“Captain, number one is on to him… I’m sure… seems to be range gating… I think it’s locked on.”
A tremendous explosion echoed through Houston as a torpedo detonated.
“Captain, if this trace from the fire control system we’ve got here is close to right, he almost ran right into that fish.” The fire control coordinator tore off a sheet of paper and brought it over to show the track of the torpedo and the submarine. “What do you think, sir?”
Reed’s smile grew as broad as anyone had seen it the entire trip. “I think he swallowed it. What does sonar have to say?”
“Hard to say, sir. Got a hell of a mess… can’t find any screw beats… wait… wait one — oh Christ, we got him.”
The sonar officer removed the headphones momentarily and called out to Reed. “Must have tom her up forward. I can hear her engines now, sounds like she’s backing down at full power… must be filling up forward.”
“Can you estimate her depth?”
“Negative, sir. We could try to ping her.”
“Go ahead. She’s not going to do anything to us.” Within seconds, the Russian sub was illuminated by sonar. She was losing depth rapidly. Her forward spaces had been opened by the blast. Her engines backing full meant that the engineering spaces were still intact. But she was unable to control flooding.
“I can hear her trying to blow tanks, sir… still have her going down!”
“Still using the engines.”
“Christ, she’s tearing herself apart, sir.”
“Poor bastards must be scared to death.”
“Past two thousand and she’s a goner,” Reed said matter-of-factly.
“She must be past test depth,” the captain noted, checking the time since the blast.
“They’re dead,” Reed remarked. “Nothing’s going to back all the way up that hill they just tumbled down.” He held the captain’s eyes with his own, his expression hard as a rock. “Fine job, Ross. They would have loved doing the same thing to us.”
“Should we be looking for a polynya to get off an action report?”
“Don’t give anybody a hint about anything.” Reed was amused now by his own callousness. “I suppose the last submarine left will send out a final report.”
Abe Danilov was sipping a hot cup of tea when Imperator passed at a range of approximately six kilometers. The black tea was strong enough to compensate for the coffee he had acquired a taste for many years before — another pleasure the doctors had taken away from him. It interfered with sleep and they indicated that too much of it would damage his reactions. So he had gone back to tea again, insisting on a strong brew.
Seratov’s wardroom was no bigger than that on the American boats. Danilov relaxed at the table, thumbing through the pages of a magazine. Stevan Lozak watched him with an admiration bordering on irritability. How could the man sit there so calmly when the most magnificent target they would ever encounter was just then slipping by, mere minutes from their torpedoes?
Lozak had calmly argued the point soon after they’d ducked behind the pressure ridge. How could any submarine hear them preparing to fire, even to the point of identifying the sound of their muzzle doors, with so many tons of ice between them? It would be like sniping, Lozak asserted, if we prepare four torpedoes. With four of them in the water, how could any submarine do anything else at that range other than try to evade? The American submarine would run for her life, and that would give them time to fire again if she needed finishing off.
Very calmly, precisely. Captain Sergoff explained everything they knew about Imperator to date, and then filled in the blanks, as Danilov had done the day before with him, to encompass her fantastic capabilities. So much was still unknown. The range of her torpedoes was beyond anything known to any navy. There were laser weapons aboard, and who knew what else that could destroy them. To take on the American submarine by themselves would be the most foolish act possible. There was a plan and Admiral Danilov would attack when the time was right.
As he watched Danilov sip his tea, Lozak remembered his earlier years when his father had taken him hunting with the dogs. He remembered the feel of a leashed dog when they were just about on top of the quarry. Their straining, slobbering, howling need to attack came back to him now — he thought of himself as one of those dogs and sincerely hoped that Danilov did not have the same vision.
Lozak knew that the admiral respected him. Why not just say what was on his mind? “Have you ever been hunting, Admiral?”
“Hmmm?” Danilov looked up from his magazine. “What kind of hunting?”
“In the forest, after deer… with the dogs.”
Danilov put his magazine down on the table. “When I was a boy, yes. But that was so long ago I have forgotten just about everything. I can’t even remember how to load a rifle anymore.” He was enjoying Lozak’s anguish.
The captain looked at Danilov and took a deep breath before he made his admission. “I think you understand how anxious I was to go after this Imperator right away… just now as she passed us… and Captain Sergoff explained to me that you have other plans, as I’m sure you told him to do. Well, I was just thinking now how similar the situation is. And I was thinking how you must see me as one of those dogs straining to race after the buck. If the hunter lets them go at the wrong time, the animal would get away and there would be no hunt.”
Danilov was nodding his head slowly as Lozak blurted out his innermost thoughts, smiling slightly to show the captain that he was interested.
“Hunting is an interesting comparison, but I promise I don’t see you in that light, Captain. If you were out here all alone — or even with another submarine — I would consider you a coward if you hadn’t gone after the American with everything you had. There would have been no other choice. Here, now, we have a choice, and I think I can explain what I intend to do so that someday you might be in the same position.” He leaned forward as if he was involving Lozak in a secret. “That Imperator is so powerful that I’m sure we might be heading for the bottom of the sea now if we went after her by ourselves. Instead, I hope maybe she will be plunging down before the end of the day. You’ve seen the approximate placement of the six submarines that have joined us. There are two out on either flank, two not too far ahead of us, and the other two are well away. Imperator is going to sail into a box, which all of us will tighten from the outside. Soon she will realize that she has some targets. I don’t particularly care who fires first as long as I know what the American does after she is fired upon, and then what happens when she fires at one of our boats.”
Lozak understood only too well. He was young enough to overlook the possibility of death. “You don’t expect all of the submarines to return after today,” he stated woodenly.
“No.” In a way, it made Danilov’s job more interesting, for it would be a test of his captains. Though he knew intuitively who was more capable and who might be sent ashore during peaceful times, it was more likely that none of them would return. “In order to understand our quarry, there may be certain sacrifices necessary. No man will knowingly sacrifice himself or his ship, but it will take place,” he concluded grimly. “As far as Seratov’s concerned, I don’t think the American can fire at all of us at once.”