“That’s it, sir,” Baird shouted over the turmoil. “Give us some more. Just a bit more and she’s ready. Almost there.”
Suddenly Eskimo filled their vision, racing with a roar in the opposite direction, her hull just feet from Firedancer’s, trailing a cloud of smoke. Baird cried out in surprise and lost his footing. The two destroyers roared past each other with a thin river of water separating their hulls, weaving a thick curtain of smoke behind them.
“You bloody assassins,” Baird screamed, regaining his hold. “I didn’t come all this way to be killed by the likes of you. Bloody cheese-eating bastards.” The mount locked in place and Baird hopped into the cockpit. Cole knelt behind him.
Baird quickly flipped a set of four switches up and down, three alternating between red lights and green lights. The fourth refused to change color. There were four piston levers in the confined deck area between his knees and the spray shield. He released the triggers of the three tubes that worked.
“Now it’s instinct and eyesight, sir,” Baird said. “When she’s where I want her to be and we’re where we’re supposed to be, I pull up those handles — if they all work as they should, from outside to inside. Use both hands and pull one-four, two-three. Off they go, hungry little hounds.” He grimaced at Cole. “If they work.”
Firedancer cleared the smoke and there was Sea Lion, running a bit to starboard, maybe ten thousand yards away. Baird’s hands were gripping the two outside handles so tightly that it looked as if there was no blood in them. The man’s focus was on Sea Lion and the course that the huge ship was making through the water.
“God help us,” he shouted and pulled the levers. “One-four” — his hands moved to the inside levers — “two-three!” The first two torpedoes shot gracefully out of the tubes with a sudden rush of compressed air. Three joined them, but two remained motionless in her tube. “All right, sir. Time to take her around for loading. We’re out of position anyway, so Number Two’s of no use to us now. We’ll get this one turned and get to Two. Right? Take hold, sir.”
An Oberleutnant zur See took the call in the crowded conning tower. Despite the ventilation ducts the tiny space was hot and often filled with smoke from Sea Lion’s own guns.
“Foremast reports, sir,” the Oberleutnant said excitedly. “Destroyer to starboard has fired torpedoes.”
Another telephone rang and Kadow answered it. “Forward fire-control tower reports, sir. Destroyer to port has fired torpedoes.”
“Where is Frey?” Mahlberg exploded. “Can’t he destroy those gnats? Did starboard fire first? Well? Answer me, for Christ’s sake.”
“Yes, sir,” Kadow said calmly, hanging up the telephone.
“Hard turn to port,” Mahlberg ordered. “Emergency. Take the wheel over as far as she’ll go. We’ll get ahead of those torpedoes and let the others pass up. Kadow. You are to order Frey to sink those vessels immediately. I will not change course, I will not give up my pursuit.”
The telephone rang again and as Kadow picked it up he heard a Kapitanleutnant report that the two enemy destroyers had fallen back to enter the thick bank of smoke that hung close to the surface of the water. Cat and mouse, he thought. Dart out and fire torpedoes and then run for safety. It was a risky business — for the mice. Sea Lion’s guns would eventually find them, and when they did they would be crushed. It was inevitable.
“Kadow,” he said into the receiver.
“Radar Room, sir. The British cruiser is changing course to starboard.”
“One moment,” Kadow said. “Kapitan? Radar reports that the British cruiser is changing course to starboard.”
“Well, what of it?” Mahlberg said. “They don’t want to lead us to Prince of Wales, that’s all. They’re acting as a decoy, Kadow. I’m surprised that you haven’t thought of that.”
“Yes, sir,” Kadow said and was about to end the call when he thought better of it. “Radar Room? Stay on this line and let me know what course she settles on.”
“Yes, sir.”
Anton fired a full salvo of three shells to port, the tremendous blast and concussion shaking the conning tower. A wild rush of air and smoke, stinking of cordite, blew in through the slits and the conning tower crew turned away and closed their eyes. Bruno fired a full salvo to starboard and the conning tower shook even more from the thunderous voice of the huge guns. Bits of paint and insulation flecked from the bulkheads, raining down on the shoulders of the conning tower crew. When the smoke had cleared and the men shook off the effect of the tremendous explosion, Mahlberg turned to the men.
“She speaks loudly, doesn’t she?” he said cheerfully, brushing the debris from his shoulders. “Now if we can only get the British to be kind enough to sail under those shells, our job would be done.”
Kadow heard his name being called and realized that it came through the telephone.
“Kadow,” he said. “What is it?”
“Radar Room, sir. The British cruiser is coming about, sir. Making very high speed.”
“Hold,” Kadow said and covered the mouthpiece with his palm. “Kapitan? Radar reports the British cruiser is coming about.” Kadow saw a mixture of bewilderment and concern in Mahlberg’s eyes.
“What?” the Kapitan zur See said.
Chapter 31
Firedancer cut through the sea, white foam wings curling up from either side of her bow. She was a wreck topside. Both funnels had been pierced, her aft searchlight platform was a mangled mass of indefinable features, and so much debris cluttered her deck that she looked like a derelict rather than a vessel of His Majesty’s Navy. A large-caliber shell had struck A Turret so that most of the spray shield was gone and the gun cocked at a ridiculously high angle. The gun’s crew, or parts of them, lay near their station.
Hardy turned away from the sight. “No hits, Number One?”
“No, sir. I’m afraid not. She avoided our torpedoes quiet handily.”
Firedancer had ducked back into the smoke to hide from Sea Lion’s guns and to pick up Prometheus. Eskimo had joined her, just emerging from the smoke screen followed by a salvo of enemy shells.
“Prometheus green thirty, sir,” a lookout called. “She’s got a bone in her teeth all right. Thirty knots or more, sir.”
“She’s coming back?” Land said. “How can she—”
“She’s coming back, Number One, because I truly underestimated her captain. For that, I am heartily ashamed. ‘Remember the Athenians,’ Number One.”
“Sir?”
Hardy didn’t reply. “Well,” he said, “that’s that, then. Yeoman of Signals? Make to Prometheus, ‘I am honored to join your party. Eskimo will take the starboard, I will take the port. God bless you, sir.’ Sign it Firedancer. Bring us around, Number One. We are going to join Prometheus for another run at those bastards.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kadow listened and then repeated the information. “The cruiser is moving toward us at a high rate of speed three points off our starboard bow. Distance approximately twenty-five thousand kilometers. The destroyers have taken up stations on either side of her.”