Voyage of the Devilfish

Nikels’ backseater, the radar intercept officer, was Lieutenant Brad Tollson, a Virginia native. Tollson had just returned from a tour at Pax River’s Test Pilot School, a rival to Nikels’ own most recent school. Top Gun. The products of each school seemed to think they were God’s gift to aviation. Normally the crew of an F-14 Tomcat was the best two-man team in the Navy, but so far Nikels hadn’t been able to figure out the stony Tollson. The lights of the runway were lined up in front of Nikels’ canopy in the predawn darkness, the neat twin lines inviting him up to the heavens. He pushed the keys to the stops with full afterburners and the F-14 began its takeoff roll. As the jets came up to full thrust he felt the acceleration push him back into the seat, pull the flesh of his face back, every blood cell wanting to pool in his back and buttocks. The takeoff roll seemed to take forever, but at last the airspeed needle pointed to 170 knots. Nikels pulled the stick gently back, giving the wings just enough lift to pull the jet away from the concrete, retracted the wheels and flaps with one motion of his left hand. Now streamlined, the jet surged ahead, airspeed coming up to 300 knots. He turned left in a three-g turn and headed toward his intercept point with the cruise missile. In the background he could hear Tollson talking with the EA6B radar plane, calling a vector up to him to close the missile. At an altitude of 100 feet Nikels swept back the wings of the F-14 and went supersonic, and within two minutes it seemed that half of Virginia Beach’s glass windows were broken from the sonic booms. Nikels had no time to worry about a little glass.

ARCTIC OCEAN

BENEATH THE POLAR ICECAP

FS KALININGRAD

Captain 3rd Rank Dmitri Ivanov stared at Admiral Novskoyy, wishing Captain Vlasenko were in command instead of under arrest.

“Admiral,” Ivanov said. “We must continue to the east, we must not drive this ship into the blast radius of the Magnum.” Novskoyy suddenly felt a heavy fatigue. Unless he could get back to the polynya and somehow transmit the molniya, his plan would fail. It might already be failing. If an American submarine had come for him here, what had they already done to the ships of his fleet? And here this Ivanov wanted to run away like a woman.

“Men are dying right now, our fellow submariners,” Novskoyy told him. “The entire Northern Fleet is off the American east coast. I must warn them. I am certain they are being hunted down right now. Just as the American submarine was sent here to hunt us down. We must get back to the polynya, we must turn back to the west.”

“Sir, the Magnum detonation will rip us apart, we have to continue east—”

“No,” Novskoyy said, pointing to the firecontrol panel. “Look, the Magnum is two minutes beyond the air-point. Has it turned?” Ivanov looked down at the graphic display. “No, it’s still steady on course two eight zero.”

“And it is two minutes beyond the aimpoint.”

“Yes, Admiral… Either it is in a tail chase in pursuit of the American or it has lost the target.”

“It is a tail chase, Ivanov. The American boat is faster than we thought. He must also have a polymer system.”

“But, sir, the Magnum could have just lost the target and continued down the bearing line.” ‘We, you heard the American as it fled the area after hitting us. He was loud as a train wreck. You heard his reactor recirculation pumps shifting to fast speed. And he was running at maximum speed when you launched the Magnum?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So why would he stop or slow down with a nuclear torpedo on the way?”

“But, sir, what if he went silent? Shut down?”

“Those are not American tactics.” Novskovyy was also a pedant. He had once been a naval instructor. “What would you do if you were the American commander?”

“I’d clear the area, sir. Run.”

“Correct. The Magnum is in a tail chase and the American is running. Turn the ship. If the American is running, the Magnum is pursuing, and the blast radius is further to the west than the polynya. Get me to the polynya so I can radio the fleet.”

“Yes, sir,” Ivanov said, crisply obedient once again.