Piranha: Firing Point

And there was Patton, hanging out at periscope depth like a sitting duck. An insistent nagging feeling entered him — he needed to continue the search, and quickly.

“We have him slowing from seventy-seven clicks to ten, Admiral.”

“Very good, Nav.”

Chu waited, staring at his panels and yawning.

“Well, sir? Aren’t you going to shoot him?”

Could it be that they had been detected? Chu was torn — he wanted desperately to know if they could hear his ship, and if so, at what range. That would be a priceless piece of information. Yet the mission was too important to risk his vessel during the very first encounter with the Americans. It would eviscerate his command structure — since he did not have a real replacement— and it would discourage his force.

If he sank the 688, it would be over for the American effort They would know they were defeated then, wouldn’t they? They would back away from Red China and let the Whites fell, and his plan — and it was Mai Sheng’s plan also, he admitted to himself, her idea to get the Rising Suns — would succeed. He could return home, marry Mai, perhaps have children, and rebuild the PLA Navy once its coastline was again part of the one unified China. He needed to get on the SNN World Report that he had not only sunk the American surface force but had killed their escort submarines too.

Unbidden, the dream of his father returned to him.

You must hurry, young warrior, for they are coming, and they are strong. That had to be the meaning of the dream, he thought. He had to strike hard and fast, and deter the West from coming in for a rematch.

Because one thing was certain — he could continue to win only if his tubes were full of weapons. He was down thirty weapons, only eighteen left, and he didn’t know how the other subs had fared; they could be even lower.

The far east cork force, the Volcano and the Tsunami, should be fully loaded out, he knew, but the Lightning Bolt and the Thundercloud could be out of torpedoes, for all he knew. And if the West came back with another deployment of ships and equipment, he would sink only a fraction of them, and eventually he would be defeated.

It had to be now. Detection-distance question be damned, he thought “Open the bow door to tube eight,” Chu said to Chen Zhu on the weapons panel. “Lock in target parameters to weapon eight.”

“Door coming open, sir. Target parameters set.

Weapon is ready.”

“Shoot eight in swimout mode in three, two, one, mark.”

“Eight is away,” Chen said.! “Bow camera confirms unit eight swimout,” Xhiu reported.

“Very good. Watch it, Nav.”

“Aye, Admiral,” Xhiu said crisply. Chu stared at the display showing his face, smiling to himself at the navigator’s improvement. Xhiu seemed to be getting his sea legs, Chu thought.

Now they had only to wait.

The radioman came running into the room with Patton’s Writepad computer. Patton had no sooner slipped on his reading glasses than his jaw dropped open.

041811ZNOV13

FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH PLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH

FM COMUSUBCOM

TO USS ANNAPOLIS SSN760

SUBJ URGENT MISSION RETASKING

SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET

BT//

1. (S) IMMEDIATE REPEAT IMMEDIATE EXECUTE.

2. (S) ABSOLUTE URGENT YOU CLEAR DATUM OP AREA ASAP ASAP ASAP.

3. (S) DISENGAGE ALL SEARCHES, ALL ENGAGEMENTS, NO EXCEPTIONS.

4. (S) CLEAR DATUM AT EMERGENCY FLANK REPEAT EMERGENCY FLANK, ESCAPE VECTOR SOUTHEAST IF POSSIBLE, SECONDARY ESCAPE VECTOR NORTHEAST.

5. (S) RENDEZVOUS POINT BRAVO HOLD POSITION NORTH LAT 30DEG00MIN00SECONDS EAST LONG 135DEG00MIN00SECONDS. SOUTH OF OSAKA, JAPAN. RENDEZVOUS TIME COORDINATE 071200ZNOV13 OR EARLIER.

6. (S) UPON EXIT OP AREA SEND SITREP VIA SLOT BUOY EVEN IF NO NEWS.

7. (U) ADMIRAL M. PACINO SENDS.

BT//

The words were out of his mouth even before he reached paragraph five: “Emergency deep! Emergency deep! All ahead full! Right full rudder, steady course one two zero! Dive, make your depth eight hundred feet, steep angle!”