“If the Sharkfin has been lost to an unprovoked enemy action then all of our nuclear missile submarines might be in danger from continued unprovoked attacks.”
“You have no proof of such an unprovoked action,” Steel snapped. “You’re jumping to a conclusion, sir. You are, I believe, addicted to reading spy stories, are you not? Is that why you brought these two spies with you?”
Mike Brannon felt the anger rising in him and fought to hold it back. “Captain Steel,” he said, keeping his voice level, “we are here to do you the courtesy of keeping you informed. Admiral Benson might be able to give us some information we do not know. Mr. Wilson has spent his adult life working in the CIA and he is the Agency’s ranking expert on Soviet clandestine operations. You might learn something you don’t know. So might I.”
Captain Steel looked at the battered Timex he wore on his right wrist. “You have a few more minutes left of your time.” He lowered his head and stared at his desk. Admiral Benson nudged Wilson.
“The Soviets have a new attack submarine,” Wilson began. “Our information is that these new submarines are very fast, faster than ours.” He stopped as Captain Steel raised his head.
“I know that,” Steel said.
Wilson flushed. “We also have information that the Soviets have a new type of torpedo that has a sophisticated sound system in it to search for targets.”
“How long did you serve in submarines? How much experience have you had with torpedoes? When did you first hear about this new torpedo?” Steel’s voice was harsh.
“The answer to the first two questions is none. Four months ago is the answer to the third part of your question.”
Steel looked at Wilson and then at Brannon. “I knew about their new torpedo six months ago. I have work to do. Keep me informed, Admiral Brannon. I will see to it that the President and the chairmen of the appropriate congressional committees are informed at the proper time.”
Brannon stood up, his normally genial face suddenly hard. “I will be the judge of when and if the President or anyone else is informed, sir. Keep that in mind.” He wheeled and left the office, Olsen following him. They heard Steel’s snickering laughter as they went through the door.
Brannon’s yeoman had hot coffee and a platter of doughnuts waiting for Brannon and Olsen when they got back to Brannon’s office.
“How do we retaliate?” Olsen asked.
“I don’t know,” Brannon said. “What I do know is that we have to find the Sharkfin and find out what happened to her.” He sorted through a stack of papers on his desk.
“The Medusa is in Rota for rest and minor ship repair. She’s an oceanographic survey ship and she’s got enough bottom-charting sonar gear on her to find the Sharkfin if anything can. Get a message off to her skipper. I want her at sea as soon as possible.” He went over to a chart of the world that dominated one wall of his office, a pair of dividers in his hand.
“She’s only a few hours steaming from Sharkfin’s course line. Send her orders to chart the bottom along that line from Sharkfin’s last position report for, oh, two hundred miles. If she picks up anything that gives a return indicating metal of any size on the bottom I want to know about it at once.”
“You want to tell her skipper what he’s looking for?”
Brannon chewed his lower lip. “No, but I guess we have to. Get latitude and longitude and Sharkfin’s course from Commander Fencer.” He went through another stack of papers on his desk.
“Send a priority message, ‘Captain’s Eyes Only,’ to the Devilfish. She’s in Holy Loch. Tell her skipper to get underway at once. Give him a patrol area one hundred miles west of Gibraltar. Tell him to make all possible speed in getting to the patrol area. Put him directly under my command. I want position reports from him pre-dawn and after dark. He is to operate without being observed.” He turned and walked to the window. A burst of sleet hammered against the glass.
“If I remember an information memo a while back,” Olsen’s voice was low, “if I remember, all the submarines at Holy Loch have been given the modified SUBROC nuclear missiles, that right?”
“Yes.” Mike Brannon answered.
CHAPTER 4
The U.S.S. Devilfish moved slowly westward from the coast of Scotland. The weather was foul, as it so often is in that latitude, with low storm clouds and an icy, stinging rain. The winds were out of the northwest and were kicking up a rolling chop that could be felt by the crew of the Devilfish as the submarine moved through the water, 100 feet beneath the surface. The sonar operators on duty were watching the fathometer screens intently as the sonar beam probed the sea bottom, searching for the edge of the 100-mile-wide, 14,000-foot-deep trench that scarred the ocean bottom and led southward to the deep abyssal plain on the eastern edge of the great Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The white-line picture of the sea bottom on the display screens changed suddenly as the submarine passed over the edge of the chasm. The sonar operator picked up his telephone and notified the Officer of the Deck of the change of depth under the ship’s keel.
The OOD put down the telephone and looked at the night order book and the navigation chart. “Stand by for a change of course and depth in five minutes,” he said. He checked his watch and waited for five minutes.
“Five degrees left rudder,” he ordered. “Come left to new course two two zero. Make depth five zero zero feet. Two degree down bubble.” The helmsman, seated in a comfortable chair with a control stick, not unlike the joystick of an old-fashioned airplane sticking out of a chair arm, repeated the orders and moved the control stick gently forward and to the left, his eyes on the dials in front of his watch station. The Devilfish began a gentle turn to port and began to slide down deeper into the sea.
“Increase speed to seventy-five percent of the max reactor output,” the OOD said. The helmsman repeated the order and the submarine vibrated slightly as the nuclear power plant began to pour enormous quantities of superheated steam to the turbines that drove the propeller shafts.
“Steady on course two two zero, helm on automatic. Depth is five zero zero feet, depth on automatic. Making turns for seventy-five percent of maximum reactor output, sir,” the helmsman said quietly. The OOD acknowledged and entered the change of course, depth and speed and the time in the log book. He sent a messenger to inform the Captain and the Executive Officer of the changes.
The Devilfish was in her element now, free of the surface effect of the sea, free of the turbulence caused by bow waves and propeller slippage. As a submarine goes deeper and deeper into the sea the increasing pressure of the sea itself eliminates turbulence along and around the ship’s hull. The same pressures of the sea eliminate the cavitation, or turbulence, around and behind a ship’s propeller, reducing slippage and noise to almost zero. The sea outside the submarine’s hull, exerting a pressure of 222 pounds to the square inch at 500 feet against the subtly contoured cylindrical hull becomes an ally, enabling the submarine to go faster and more quietly than if it were cruising under equal power at a depth of 100 feet.
The Devilfish was one of the U.S. Navy’s new nuclear attack submarines. She had been designed for one purpose, to seek out and destroy enemy submarines. She was equipped with a staggering array of sophisticated sonar gear. Like the predator sharks that prowl the ocean and detect the irregular swimming vibrations of a sick or wounded fish by means of a line of sensory nerves down each side of the shark’s body, the Devilfish had a lateral line of sonar sensors down each side of its sleek black hull. Other sonar sensors were located in the submarine’s bow and stern areas, along its keel, on the decks and on the sail, or bridge structure. All of the sensors and transmitters were connected electronically to computers that analyzed the sounds received and displayed the analyses on video screens and printed the analyses out on paper. Other computers, which were part of the fire control systems of the Devilfish, were connected to the sonar computers so that a target, once detected and identified, could be analyzed, its course, speed, distance, and depth determined and then the target could be tracked and destroyed.