Weir held his hand up as a sign of peace. "I know, I know. I've thought about the whole ugly mess, and came to the same conclusion.
After years of talking conventional deterrence, we finally are going to find out if it really works. And what if it doesn't? What if the Russians can't be stopped with conventional ground, sea and air power alone?"
Neither man answered that. Both simply sat back and sipped their drinks.
They already knew the answer to Weir's question.
Patiedce, planning and a good measure of luck were about to reward Captain
Gudkov and the crew of the Iskra again. Late the previous evening their sensors had detected the sounds of numerous ships traveling at a little under twenty knots. Gudkov, going on the assumption that these noises were coming from a convoy headed for the Persian Gulf, plotted an intercept course that would place him near the front of the convoy.
With no sign of escorting vessels in its immediate area, the Iskra sprinted until it was close enough to pick up strong, discrete signals and was within torpedo range. From that point, as the Iskra closed the distance between it and its target, Gudkov'slowed the boat, reducing the noise and the turbulence it created. There was no need to go charging in, letting the convoy's escorts know that he was there.
Still relying on its passive sensors, the Iskra continued to track the convoy and began to ease into attack position. Now the sonar man was able to differentiate the signals and provide Gudkov with a better picture of what the Iskra faced.
Four escorts and seventeen cargo ships of various sizes were now within range. The weapons officer on duty, who had previously been the engineer officer, was already selecting targets and computing engagement data. The former weapons officer was confined to sick bay.
Immediately after the incident with the American carrier, he had become emotionally unbalanced and withdrawn. His being relieved of his assigned duties pushed him over the edge. Depression lapsed into a catatonic state. Only an occasional stream of gibberish, followed by fits of crying, reminded the crew that he was alive.
To ensure that he did not create unnecessary noise, he was heavily sedated as the Iskra went about pursuing a war he had precipitated.
Gudkov reviewed the flow of information and monitored the actions of the weapons officer. Four cargo ships were targeted for engagement.
The Iskra could make the shot at any time, but Gudkov waited. He studied the movements of the escorts and watched for a break when they would be the farthest from the Iskra or moving away. While sinking cargo ships was important, it was equally important that he save his boat so that it could sink more in the future. Gudkov knew that one serves one's country best by killing the enemy, not dying for it.
As he watched, the sonar man announced that a line of sonar buoys had been activated on the far side of the convoy. An anti-submarine-warfare helicopter was obviously working in that area.
After a few minutes, the sonar man announced that two of the escorts appeared to turn away from the Iskra and head toward that area, where a second line of sonar buoys had been dropped and activated near the first line. Gudkov guessed that the Americans were pursuing a possible submarine on the far side. Now that the convoy was open to attack from his side, without hesitation he ordered the firing of four torpedoes. When all were away, the Iskra made a sharp turn, dove for deeper waters and began to take evasive actions as the escorts realized the danger and turned away from the phantom submarine they had been after.
The torpedoes' sensors began to track their targets. The range and direction in which they had been launched made this easy. One after the other, they located a noise source, automatically activated their active sonar homing device and began to run for their targets at full speed. The convoy's escorts, blaring a warning, turned to find and attack the Soviet submarine and keep the incoming torpedoes from hitting their marks. But the initial surprise, the close range and the confusion handicapped their efforts to stop the torpedoes, and the speed of the attack and the skill of the submarine captain kept them from finding the attacker.
The outcome had already been decided when the Iskra fired its torpedoes.
Only the results needed to be harvested. Two torpedoes ripped into the hull of a cargo ship built to haul material, not survive torpedoes. The detonations sent geysers of water straight up into the air high above the ship's superstructure. Below decks, the force of the explosion smashed in the side of the ship and buckled bulkheads. Crewmen who had been in compartments where the torpedoes hit were crushed or shredded by the explosion and by chunks of metal. As the explosion dissipated, water that had been pushed away from the hull of the ship when the torpedoes' warheads detonated rushed back toward the ship and into the gaping holes.
On the bridge, the ship's captain felt his vessel heel over away from the explosion, poise precariously on a steep angle, then swing back toward the side that had been hit. Below decks, tons of equipment and numerous armored combat vehicles ripped free of the tie-downs that held them in place.
Crewmen who were off duty were tossed about their confined cabins as if thrown by a giant invisible hand. Those who were lucky were knocked unconscious or killed instantly. The others suffered numerous injuries when they were impaled upon pointed objects or slashed by sharp edges or had bones snapped or crushed as they were slammed against bulkheads, cabinets, bunks and tables. Efforts to regain their footing and get out onto the deck were frustrated by injuries, darkness, a clutter of obstacles and the failure of their ship to steady herself.
As the ship tilted again, the cargo, no longer restrained, slid across the deck and crashed against the vessel's damaged side. The sudden shift in cargo, coupled with tons of water rushing into the gaping holes, pulled the ship over onto its side. Within minutes it capsized and began to go down.
Of a crew of forty-two, only three men survived the sinking of the Cape Fear.
Chapter 9
Go, sir, gallop, and don't forget that the world was made in six days.
You can ask me for anything you like except time.
In the distance a huge C-5A Galaxy transport could be heard rumbling down the runway. The whine of its engines cut through the clear night air as they strained to lift the cavernous body of the plane aloft.
Like an approaching locomotive, the noise grew in intensity, increasing to an ear-splitting sharpness until the aircraft lifted clumsily into the air and turned toward the far horizon. The engines' pitch changed to a low roar that trailed off behind the aircraft like an invisible tail.
Ed Martain sat on a gray metal folding chair outside his tent and peered into the darkness in the direction of the departing C-5A, trying hard to see it. He knew it was impossible to do so; its marker lights were already cut off and would remain off until the aircraft was one hundred miles out over the Gulf. There was no need to make it easy for the Soviets and their friends who tracked the comings and goings from Bandar Abbas. Unable to sleep and restless, Martain listened to the nonstop activity out on the runway. Each time a transport lifted off, he would wonder about its pilots and crew, where they would sleep that night and whether they would see their families. While he had always wanted to be a fighter pilot and derived endless pleasure from pushing himself and his aircraft to the limit, he envied the trash haulers who flew the long-range transports from their home station at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to Bandar Abbas and back.