Li reported, “Fifth circle.” What if the torpedo was covered by mud? A thin layer would not even show up on the UUV’s sonar, but would make the weapon invisible to a visual search, and might block the handheld sonar. And even if they found it, then they’d have to dig the thingie out of the bottom so they could attach the collar.
“Sixth circle.” Simonis knew he was a worrywart, but it came with the job. If this went on too much longer, he could offer to use the UUV somehow to mark the torpedo’s position. Bismarck knew its location within inches, but had lousy verbal skills.
He could ask the divers to go shallow, then send the UUV back in. When it was directly over the torpedo, they could turn the sonar off and set the speed to zero. But then they’d have to find the vehicle first.
They all saw it in the control room before Li translated the excited shouts. The diver with the headset yelled something, and suddenly everyone on the stern was moving purposefully. Li reported, “They found it, and the midsection is clear of the bottom! They are attaching the collar.”
Li called to someone offscreen, and then told the Americans, “The helicopter will be airborne in moments.” He repeated the same thing to Captain Min in Mandarin.
Sailors on the stern were taking the line that was attached to the torpedo collar and passing it through the block on a boom. As soon as they were finished, the boom swung out to starboard and up, ready to take a strain.
Simonis half expected to see the line jerk or straighten like a fish on a hook, but they were leaving in a lot of slack, so the divers were free to work. How long would it take to attach the collar to the torpedo? He didn’t know exactly how the Chinese model worked, but if it was anything like the U.S. version, it was pretty simple. After all, it was designed to be used on a weapon that was floating in the water. Clamping it on one that was stationary should be even easier.
The diver with the headset called out and they watched the boom swing out a little farther. The line became taut.
Simonis started praying. This was the moment of greatest danger. There had been extensive discussions about the chance that the warhead had been fitted with anti-tamper devices, such as a sensor to detect movement. Such a device would activate once the torpedo had reached its destination. After that, any attempt to remove it would trigger the warhead.
It was impossible to defuse or disable the torpedo in place. Trying to do it on the deck of the minesweeper would take a long time, and then there was still the concern that the access panels had all been wired somehow. Both the Chinese and American planners had studied the photos from the torpedo shop that showed the weapon’s mechanism, looking for clues as to whether anti-movement devices had been fitted, but finding nothing.
In the end, they’d had to fall back on logic and hope. The installation had been improvised, and while anything involving nuclear weapons could not be described as “crude,” it was simple. And while booby-trapping the access panels was within the technician’s ability, a motion sensor seemed a bit much. In the end, all they could do was hope for the best.
If the warhead was fitted with any kind of anti-movement device, pulling it out of the mud would be more than enough to set it off. Of course, Simonis and Oke City’s crew were safe in Guam, but the crew of the minesweeper, and Li, and the population of Hong Kong were about to find out if their logic had been correct.
The boom operator was working the controls, but everyone else on the stern had paused. There was little to do now, which probably gave them more time than they wanted to think about what was happening on the bottom of the harbor. Li was staring at the screen intently.
The line to the torpedo collar was still taut, and vibrated a little with tension, but only for a moment, then moved a little back and forth. Li hardly had to translate the diver’s report that the weapon was free of the bottom. Sailors clapped and patted each other’s backs. Simonis could see money changing hands, and wondered what that bet had been about.
The boom operator was bringing it up steadily, and other crewmen on the stern were getting ready to receive it. It finally broke water, followed by the two divers. The other members of the dive team helped them back aboard, while a sailor played a fire hose on the weapon, rinsing off the mud and giving them a clear look at the nose.
The front was badly crumpled, one side almost caved in, but that section held the torpedo’s acoustic seeker, not the warhead. Most of the dark green cylinder was undamaged.
They swung the torpedo over the stern gently, while everyone stayed well clear. This was not because the warhead was sensitive to movement, but because the torpedo weighed well over a ton, even with its fuel expended. Getting caught by either end as it swung past would be good for a broken bone.
A photographer to one side was taking pictures of everything, and a petty officer passed what looked like a radiation sensor down one side of the torpedo and back up the other before signaling all clear.
Everyone was moving quickly, and it was clear they had drilled ahead of time. Within a minute, the torpedo was poised over a cradle that had been waiting on the stern. They slipped a lifting harness over each end and then lowered it into the cradle. Simonis noticed that unless a Chinese sailor was actually working on the torpedo in some way, they tended to congregate at the far end of the stern, as far away from the weapon as they could get.
Simonis couldn’t see the helicopter’s arrival, but he could tell it was overhead by the noise and the sudden swirling wind, as well as most of the crewmen looking up and waving. A hook appeared in the top of the frame and came down until one of the Chinese sailors grabbed it and put it through a loop on the lifting harness. He signaled it was ready, and the line became taut, and lifted the torpedo up and out of the frame.
Simonis could hear the helicopter’s engines become louder as the pilot opened the throttle. Nobody was sure whether the warhead was set to detonate in minutes, hours, or even days, but the pilot was doing his best to not be part of the fireball.
Smiling, Captain Min said something into the camera; then the image tumbled and steadied, and centered on the gray-painted helicopter, rapidly vanishing to the east and south.
Captain Dodson said, “It’s just over twenty miles to Dangan Island, and another ten miles to get everyone outside the blast. A Kamov Helix can do about a hundred forty knots flat-out — and you can bet they’re redlining those engines, so everyone except the helo crew will be in the clear in fifteen minutes for sure.”
“And a little over an hour after that, they’ll be over the drop point,” Simonis added. “But we’ve got work to do. Get Bismarck headed over to Shenzhen Harbor and have it help out Napoleon. The sooner we’re done looking that harbor over, the better.”
They’d lost more time than even the new schedule allowed. Jain cursed himself for watching the clock so closely. Tactics shouldn’t be tied to a schedule, but he kept remembering Dhankhar’s briefing. Chakra’s strike was going to signal the start of a surprise and hopefully final offensive against Pakistan. Chakra’s captain thought of thousands of troops and mountains of supplies being moved through horrible weather, staying hidden until they could launch an unexpected early spring offensive.
Was it any wonder that he looked at the clock, and cursed the physics of sound that made him choose either speed or stealth?