No one spoke. Finally, Julian Farge said: ' This is the test of will we've all been waiting for. Crunch-time.'
'It won't be the first time a dictator has miscalculated,' McKown replied.' A pity it's such a profound error.'
'We're not at war yet,' Trevellion snapped. ' Back to defence stations, Number One. Tell everyone to get their heads down as much as they can. I'm going to my cabin.'
Though Trevellion was troubled when he reached his bunk, he was asleep in seconds. He never knew when it was that the Communications Yeoman shook him:
'Enemy reports, sir. One Delta 11 and two Charlies steering south-west from North Cape.'
He had barely dozed off again when a distress call was picked up from one of the Shackletons which had been pressed into service. An unidentified attacker had shot it down north of the Faeroes. Then a Nimrod reported that it was investigating a contact seventy-three miles north-north-west of Icarus' position. Trevellion picked up the mike by the side of his bunk.
'Captain — bridge.'
'Bridge — Captain.'
'My compliments to the observer and pilot. Tell them to arm Perdix with ASW Mark 46 torpedoes, markers and the 196 ASR-buoys.'
'Aye, aye, sir.'
Trevellion turned on his side, switched off the light. The night promised to be gusty. He must sleep or he'd be unable to think straight… losing consciousness, he was aware that the seas were getting up: the wind was battering against the superstructure and Icarus had begun to pitch.
24
Zragevski was bored. For five days, his submarine had been patrolling her station, 210 miles west of the benighted North Cape. Kapitan Boris Ilyich Zragevski was a tough, squat, heavily-built officer, in the forefront for promotion to Rear-Admiral — which was, he presumed, why he had been appointed to this boat, the latest of the new Victor IIs. As he tried to relax in the armchair of his cabin alongside the control room, his mind turned over those first days, three months ago, when he had started whipping SSN 329 into shape — some job, with the conscripts always on the move. He was satisfied now. SSN 329 was an efficient fighting unit, worthy of her frontline place in the Red Banner Fleet.
SSN 339 was a modified Victor 11, a considerable improvement on the first of the Victor Is which he had joined as a Third Hand in 1967. 329's dived displacement was nearly two thousand tons greater to allow for her extra torpedo tubes and the improved twin nuclear reactors. Her three shafts gave her over thirty-four knots dived, when she banked on the turns like a fighter-bomber. Since Admiralty Yard at Leningrad had perfected the new welding techniques with the new high-carbon stressed steels, her tested diving-depth was over six hundred metres, but she could probably go deeper. No doubt he'd find out one day, if the hydraulic telemotor pressure failed again, as it did last week — fortunately he had exercised drills 'in hand' only a few days previously, so they pulled her out, even with the fore-planes jammed at hard-a-dive…. His only criticism of her was that she was still noisier than the enemy's boats.
It was pointless to criticize the British, because it was their technology that had produced the foundation upon which the Red Fleet's ASW was built. Now it was as good as, and in some areas, better than the Royal Navy.
The kapitan of SSN 329 glanced at the depth-gauge on the outboard side of his cabin, the repeater upon which he instinctively kept an eye: though only a couple of hundred miles from land, even at her patrol depth of eighty metres, there was still plenty of water beneath the keel. The depth of the sea bed had been meticulously charted by the surveying ships of the Red Fleet who represented the largest surveying effort in the world. Creeping along at slow on the outer shafts, up and down her billet on a line of 320° — 140°, was a soul-destroying business, but at least the sonar people were kept occupied: the department had been keeping 'passive' watches for nine days, the only excitement being during that Sunday night when the carrier Strike Force had turned away to draw off the enemy, so that the amphibious boys could make their landings.
There was a tap on the lintel of his door and the bearded face of the officer of the watch was peering inside:
'Permission to come up to communication routine depth, sir?'
The kapitan glanced at his wrist watch: 1045 already? 11 00 was one of the four routine traffic periods direct with CINCKOL (Commander-in-Chief Kola Inlet). But 329's indicator group had not been included yet, not in nine days…
'Checked the bathy?'
'Yes, sir. CR depth is well below the layer.'
'Have you checked the ess (Combined SIRENE System)?'
'No, sir.'
'Why not?' he snapped, exasperated at the feckless youth. ' You know my orders.'
'I'll check right away, sir.' The bearded wonder disappeared. A feeble officer, typical of the short-service entry which was doing no good to the submarine branch. This Schlovsky did not realize how careful he had to be with NATO'S Asw forces — and how lucky he was to be serving in a boat fitted with ess. This anti-air system, one of the navy's best-kept secrets, had been developed with astonishing speed by the Military Science Division (Navy) in response to the request of the Flag Officer Submarines for such a weapon.
The Combined SIRENE System was a miracle of simplicity, consisting of two parts: the towed sensor (SENSOR) which could be streamed to a distance of seven kilometres; and the four missiles (ANVIL), housed in the free-flood after section of the fin, which could be fired from the control room as soon as acquisition was obtained. It contained a Combined Pulse Doppler Sensor with radio/radar wide-band receiver monitor, known as the CPDS by the scientists. Within its area the instrument could pick up most anomalies: radio/radar frequencies, audio, thermo, infra-red, air-pulse vibration and magnetic anomalies. The missile section, ANVIL, could be fired directly, on demand; or automatically, by the CPDS, if the 'fire' switch by the side of the periscope handle was made. As a precautionary measure against shooting down our Russian aircraft, this safety measure had been built in: the command had to make this switch next the periscope handle of the attack periscope to ensure that the aircraft had been identified visually or with IFF before the missiles were ejected. Once the solid-fuel rocket was clear of the surface, the missile was guided by the CPDS until within acquisition range of the target. The missile would then lock on, the final approach being automatic through its thermal-homing head. The high explosive payload did the rest.
Once again, the OOW was tapping on his doorway — a habit which irritated Boris Zragevski. Why couldn't the fellow just tell him?
'ess completed, sir, negative.'
'Right. Recover the ess and come up to CR depth and, Officer of the Watch…'
'Sir?'
'Don't knock on my bloody door — come in, tell me what you've got to say. I won't bite you.'
'Yes, sir.'
It was already 1052, too tight perhaps for the communication supervisor. Three minutes to take her up to the CR (the kapitan could feel her bow-up angle coming on) and then she would lie at depth for the radio routines… Zragevski could do with another situation report, because they had missed the last traffic routine when the carrier group passed through the area last night. The Norwegian operation should be wrapped up by now… the High Command and the Politbureau never jumped without hundred per cent certainty. The hope of a committee-ridden NATO being able to confront a determined, swift decision was fantasy.…