“Invite incoming fire on purpose?”
“That could be part of it, yes.”
“Kampfschwimmer on the Rocks. The one thing I didn’t plan for. Now we’re deaf and blind at the absolutely worst imaginable time.” Hodgkiss sounded disgusted. “If von Scheer gets away from Challenger, or sinks her, we’re back to square one and the entire convoy’s at very grave risk. Especially with my altered escort dispositions. They’d make an even better group target for von Scheer than before.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Would he abandon the SEALs on the Rocks, or try to help them?”
“If his priority is the von Scheer, he’ll know that the SEALs are expendable…. I’ve seen him order people to their deaths before. He won’t like it one bit, but he’ll do it.”
Admiral Hodgkiss looked Ilse right in the eyes. “How sure are you of any of this?” He kept looking right at her without blinking.
Ilse returned the stare as bravely as she could. Admiral Hodgkiss had such a strong persona he could be frightening. “I’m as sure as I can be, sir.”
“I read all of Captain Fuller’s patrol reports. It may please you to know that I concur with your assessment of him, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.”
The admiral looked up at the main screen. He seemed to make a decision, then spoke half to himself. “I’m taking one huge gamble. I may as well take two.”
Hodgkiss turned and shouted for his aide again.
CHAPTER 22
Felix fired another short burst from his MP-5, then ducked behind the scattered man-made stones of the ruined lighthouse. He was sweating profusely inside his hot protective suit. He’d already used up the built-in drinking bottle, and he knew he was in danger of becoming dehydrated. If that or a German bullet didn’t get him, heatstroke soon would.
Then his team of reinforcements from the minisub came out of the water on Northwest Rock. Felix and the headquarters chief hand-signaled to their men along the spines of Southeast Rock; the men increased their rate of fire. The SEALs on Northwest Rock took up positions and started to shoot. The kampfschwimmer were forced to withdraw back toward the water.
Felix ordered his men to charge. While the other team made the kampfschwimmer scatter and keep their heads down, he and the surviving SEALs began to dash down the slope, using fire and movement to protect one another.
Then he and his men took enemy fire from behind. Felix realized the kampfschwimmer had sent reinforcements too. They were trying to do to him exactly what he was doing to them: catch him in enfilade — kill him using fire from two directions at once.
Felix and his men had no choice but to take cover and shoot back the way they’d just come. The kampfschwimmer who’d been withdrawing saw this and got emboldened. They waded across to Northeast Rock, shooting at the SEALs on Northwest Rock, Felix’s reinforcement team. The seesaw struggle of evenly matched Allied and Axis elites grew brutal and vicious.
Hot lead continued to fly, and ricochets continued screeching. Silenced muzzles smoked and spent brass flew. The supply of full magazines steadily dwindled. Felix sweated and panted; his mouth was terribly dry. The stale taste from his Draeger told him he was hyperventilating — breathing faster than the chemicals in the rebreather could absorb his carbon dioxide and give him fresh new air.
Felix fired in one direction and then the other. Clumps of men advanced a handful of yards, then were driven back.
Then Felix had a horrible realization. He hyperventilated harder. We had the proper tactics but we picked the wrong location.
“Chief!” he shouted to get the man’s attention.
“Sir!”
“The high ground! This spot isn’t the high ground!”
The chief shook his head, then ducked as a well-aimed bullet almost took him in the face. “I don’t follow you, LT.”
“Challenger and von Scheer. They’ll use nuclear torpedoes.” Felix pointed out at the ocean.
The chief’s eyes widened; his face grew pale.
“The waves they kick up will wash right over the Rocks!” Felix had to pause to draw a breath. “When the fireballs break the surface, the heat and shock front and gamma rays, they’ll cook us alive!”
“Retreat to the minisub?”
“We can’t! Orders! We can’t abandon the Rocks!” Felix drew another breath. “If we go in the water at all, the undersea warhead concussion power will force our livers out our assholes and make shit spray from our mouths!”
“What do we do?”
Felix looked north. It had been there the entire time, staring him in the face, and he hadn’t been thinking.
That was the whole point. This wasn’t Iwo Jima. It wasn’t anything like Iwo Jima.
“The cargo-ship hulk! That’s the real high ground, Chief! From there we control the Rocks by fire! It’s the only place we stand a chance to survive the nuclear blasts!”
The chief set his jaw with new determination.
Felix clapped him on the shoulder. “We have to occupy the cargo-ship hulk!”
Felix ducked as more bullets poured in. He was forced to shift his position. In their black suits, everyone looked the same, but Felix had too visibly been acting like an officer.
So much for the joys of command.
The incoming fire died off suddenly.
Felix suspected a trap. He peeked from around a rough, charred boulder and caught fleeting glimpses of movement on Northeast Rock, black against the black there. The kampfschwimmer were pulling away from him and heading north.
“The Germans are going for the hulk! If they get there before us we’ve had it!”
Jeffrey gripped a microphone as he stared at the gravimeter readouts. We have our quarry localized. Now we need to track and target Beck.
Using one mode, the gravimeter gave Jeffrey a perfect picture of the seafloor terrain around the Rocks, like a 3-D bird’s-eye view — as if the water weren’t there — with Challenger’s position plotted as she moved along at top quiet speed. In a different mode, the imagery was like looking out the front windshield of a car — but with eerie clairvoyance, because the gradiometers could sense through solid rock. Right now Jeffrey had both modes on his command workstation screens to help him think and visualize tactics.
“Minisub, minisub,” Jeffrey called through the mike, “any more contact with Lieutenant Estabo?”
“Negative, negative,” the submariner chief in the mini responded. “Kampfschwimmer came at them from behind. I think the Germans cut the hydrophone wire by the Rocks. We have no commo signal, sir, not even acoustic carrier tone.”
“What’s the last you heard from Estabo?”
“He asked for reinforcements.”
“Who’s left in the mini?”
“SEAL chief copilot, two enlisted SEALs aft at Orpheus consoles.”
“Do you copy anything at all on radio?” The mini had her own small floating wire antenna.
“Negative, sir. Enemy jamming keeps getting heavier.”
“Okay. Okay. Don’t raise any masts. Do nothing that might make a datum.” Give their position away. “Do you have enough cable to stay hooked into the Orpheus grid but move the mini farther from the Rocks?”