Attack of the Seawolf

Meanwhile, Tampa begins the transit through the strait in front of us, her passage screened by the decoys.

It’ll sound like half a dozen subs coming down the channel. But before the Chinese hear them we launch torpedoes down the channel, and a few down to the south to confuse the task forces.”

“Sir, torpedoes will hit the Tampa,” Keebes put in.

“No. They’ll be in transit mode, on the run-to enable They won’t enable and go active till they’re right on the central task force in the midpoint of the Haixia channel. Then all hell breaks loose. The decoys are spotted by the Chinese, then the torpedoes go active and hit some, maybe all, of the ships in the task force. The Javelins liftoff, and two minutes later we have ten Javelin cruise missiles and eleven Mark 50 torpedoes hitting the thirteen ships of the task force.

Meanwhile, the decoys and the Tampa and Seawolf go under the trouble zone.”

Feyley asked: “Then what? They know you’re there, and the southern task forces come north to get you while the carrier launches all its ASW aircraft to put you on the bottom.”

“We increase speed to twenty knots and get the hell out. We’ll launch the remaining Mark 80s at the aircraft and we launch the standoff weapon, the Ow-sow, at the aircraft carrier.”

“Captain,” Keebes said, “it’ll take us an hour to get from the point where we dive under the sinking task force to where we get to international waters. That’s an hour since you launched a bunch of Mark 80s and an Ow-sow, an hour since the surface group got pounded by a bunch of torpedoes and cruise missiles.

In that hour the decoys will have shut down. The Chinese will scramble their aircraft and their surface ships from the south and they’ll pound us. The surface forces don’t need to get close to be lethal — they have the SS-N-14 rocket-launched depth charges and the fourteen-variant rocket-launched torpedoes. We’ll be dead meat five minutes after our Javelins impact.”

There was silence in the room while Keebes’s analysis sank in. Finally Pacino spoke:

“If we were alone we would be in big trouble. But we’re not.”

“Who else is here?” Keebes said.

“Did I miss someone?”

Pacino went to the desk and took up a paperweight, a chunk of heavy steel left over from the ship’s construction, with an etched inscription dedicated to Captain Duckett. Pacino slammed the steel chunk on the table, at the far corner to the east of the gap.

“The cavalry is here. Surface Action Group 57, with Admiral Donchez in charge aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, the biggest, hairiest aircraft carrier in the goddamned world. About the time our missiles start flying, Donchez will cover the bay with an umbrella of aircraft. It’ll be a ‘no-fly’ zone for the Chinese.”

“You know for a fact he’ll cover our ass here?”

Morris said.

“He told you this?”

“Nope. But I know Dick Donchez. When he sees the flames coming from the bay, and a bunch of angry bees buzzing over our position in the channel, he’ll know what to do.”

“You better hope you’re right, Captain,” Morris said, “or it’ll be your last mistake.”

Pacino nodded. Morris, of course, was right.

KOREA BAY, 130 MILES EAST OF LUSH UN SURFACE ACTION GROUP 57

AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS RONALD REAGAN

Admiral Richard Donchez shouted into the red handset of the UHF satellite secure-voice connection.

“What the hell do you mean, no air cover? Did anyone mention to the President that without air cover these subs will be sunk? They’re fish in a goddamned barrel! What the hell have we done all this for to come here and have no air cover?”

The speaker in the overhead blasted out the distorted voice of the Secretary of Defense, Napoleon Ferguson.

“DICK, THIS HAS ALL BEEN EXPLAINED TO PRESIDENT DAW SON HE IS EMPHATIC ON THIS POINT. THERE WILL BE NO PENETRATION OF GO HAI AIRSPACE BY YOUR JETS. IT’S TOO THREATENING, THE WORLD WILL THINK WE’RE STARTING A WAR WITH THE CHINESE. THE U.N. IS VOTING TONIGHT ON IMPOSING SANCTIONS ON THE UNITED STATES. WE’LL VETO IT, OF COURSE, BUT WE’LL GET A BLACK EYE. AND IT’S BECAUSE OF YOUR OPERATION THERE IN THE BAY. DAW SON DOESN’T WANT TO RISK IT. I’M STILL TALKING TO HIM.”

“No, Napoleon, you’ve done enough talking. Donchez out.”

The Admiral slammed the handset into its cradle and looked at Fred Rummel.

“Well, Fred, you still think the SAG won’t launch aircraft on my orders without authorization from Washington?”

Rummel shook his head: “Sir, we’re grounded.”

Donchez looked out the bulkhead windows, toward the west, out at the rain falling on the water of the bay.

Mikey Pacino was on his own. Donchez threw his cigar butt to the deck and mashed it in disgust.

CHAPTER 28 MONDAY. 13 MAY 0920 GREENWICH MEAN TIME

GO HAD BAY, LUSHUN/PENGLAI GAP ENTRANCE TO THE BOHAI HAIXIA STRAIT

USS SEAWOLF

1720 BEIJING TIME