From the damage, it appeared that Toledo’s buoy had never reached the surface, instead striking the underside of an ice floe. Even in June, the ice cap never disappeared completely at that latitude, instead turning into a mush of broken ice. Pieces ranged in size from a breadbox to a small town, and constantly crashed into each other, creating smaller pieces and enough noise to seriously interfere with sonar detection.
“Our UUV Walter successfully recovered the buoy, and our techs were able to download the information from the magnetic media.”
Jackpot! Jerry felt excitement displace the sadness. That fact had not been in the earlier reports. In fact, Weiss’s message hadn’t even mentioned the buoy. It had probably taken Carter’s information techs several days of careful work to download the buoy’s information.
A nautical chart of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans appeared on the screen. “This shows Toledo’s track from Groton into the Arctic Ocean.” The scene shifted to a close up of the northern part. “Here’s her last twenty-four hours of movement.” Toledo’s course arrowed directly toward Bolshevik Island and the Prima Polar Station. Initially, she closed to within twenty miles off the Russian border. Toledo then settled into a back-and-forth racetrack, paralleling the border. Each leg brought the sub slightly closer to the twelve-mile line that marked Russia’s territorial waters.
The final leg almost merged with the Russian border. “It was shortly after turning onto a southbound leg, at one four zero degrees, that Toledo triggered the PMK-2 mine. At that time, the boat was inside a thousand yards of the border, and even at creep speed, and with the high background noise from the ice, was within the detection range of the mine’s passive sonar.”
Weiss answered one question before it was asked. “We saw nothing in Toledo’s logs about her using her own mine avoidance sonar.” Mounted in the sail, the high-frequency active sonar was useless for general search, but could see small objects, like floating mines or underwater obstacles, at very short ranges. Nodding toward Admiral Gold, he said, “The investigating board will have to make the final determination, but Captain Berg had no reason to expect a mine or any type of barrier at the very edge of Russian territorial waters. Using active sonar, even the high-frequency set, would have increased the risk of detection, which he was trying very hard to avoid.
“Our analysis of Toledo’s sonar logs was limited by time, and the equipment aboard Carter, which while quite good, is not as extensive as that available ashore.”
The commander pressed a key and a series of yellow lines appeared, all starting from some point on Toledo’s track and pointing toward to a single area, marked with a bright yellow circle. “After starting her back-and-forth approach, she would periodically go shallow enough to use her electronic surveillance mast. The logs note several aborted attempts because of the ice, but she detected several surface search, navigation radars that all seemed to be concentrated off the northwest coast of the island.
“As she got closer, her sonar started making passive detections at just under eighteen nautical miles from the coast. The noises were mostly transients, but definitely man-made. As she closed, they became steadier, more mechanical, but still showed no pattern. It wasn’t until she’d approached within a few thousand yards of the CTML that they could be classified at all. To Carter’s very experienced and skilled sonarmen, they sound like metal clanging on metal, random but definite. They heard other more regular sounds. The frequencies they produced are consistent with electric motors and pumps. There were also occasional bursts of more common diesel propulsion, typical of diesel ships.”
Weiss paused dramatically, and smiled. “In one case, we were able to correlate the engine noises to a specific vessel, a new Project 22220 Arktika-class icebreaker.” He tapped the keyboard again and a photograph of the ship appeared, taken through a periscope.
Jerry could only smile, although it still hurt. Lenny had gotten close enough to use the periscope! He heard a murmur, and someone actually clapped. The vessel had a black hull with a high bow, typical of an icebreaker, and a bright red superstructure. A large crane mounted amidships was lowering an equally large cylinder into the water. Another barge tied alongside held similar cylinders.
“There were six images in the buoy’s memory. This is the clearest of them. Two were taken at an earlier time, and then four in this sequence show this vessel supporting some sort of underwater construction.”
And getting in close to take those photos is probably what triggered the mine. Jerry tried to guess at the cylinder’s size and purpose. Fuel tanks? Pipes? Or launch tubes? They could confirm it with measurements from the photos, but he was willing to bet his dress uniform that a Status-6 torpedo could be fitted inside.
Weiss finished his brief with a burst of organizational and procedural information, and while the audience did not clap, Jerry could hear a murmur of approval as the chief of naval operations rose, shook CDR Weiss’s hand, and took his place at the podium.
“Captain, well done! Thanks to your efforts, Toledo’s mission was not in vain. You brought home vital information that the crew of Toledo gave their lives to collect. Information that we now have to put to good use.” Admiral Hughes had started out smiling broadly, but his expression became grimmer as he spoke. “However, as with most important tasks, processing the data is just the first step.”
Nodding toward the national security advisor, Hughes ordered, “Our most urgent priority will be to make recommendations to NSA Hyland about Russia’s responsibility for the loss of Toledo. We need to determine if this minefield is inside Russian territorial waters, or outside, in international waters. If it’s the latter, then this is a violation of international law, of course. But is it a new policy? Are there other such minefields we should be concerned about near Russian military facilities?
“Our response to the Russians ties in with my responsibility to inform the families of Toledo’s crew. We are obligated to give them as much information as possible, consistent with security needs. Reconciling those two requirements will not be simple.
“And thirdly, we have to continue to investigate Russian activities at the Prima Ice Base. I won’t be able to relax until we have a much clearer idea of what they’re up to.”
Jerry thought, Which means we won’t get to relax, either.
6
GROWING CONCERNS
Captain Lavrov was not a happy man when his mobile phone buzzed. He had barely managed to slip away from his office when he received the urgent call to hurry back. Despite the inconvenience, the call was justified. It took him only a few minutes to review the latest satellite imagery, and with renewed energy he got back to work. An hour later, Lavrov phoned Captain First Rank Drugov.
“I certainly hope this is important, Captain Lavrov.” Drugov’s voice was sharp as he threw his cover on the couch, clearly displeased with being called in on a Saturday evening.
Lavrov’s smile had a touch of irony to it. “I understand how you feel, Pavel Antonovich, I didn’t even make it to Nevsky Prospect before my mobile phone rang.” Then laying down a large photograph on the desk, he continued, “However, in this case the unfortunate inconvenience was entirely warranted.”