“Damn bastards.”
“Signalman make to Siyah Bambak… He passed his message on to the submarine.
“The signal was acknowledged, Sir.”
“Very good. Pass my message along with the message we got from the Siyah Bambak across to the Sahand.”
“Sir.”
Sahand’s Captain read the message and cursed, “Ingliis hardmzddah.” Questioning whether any of the Holy Ghost’s crew knew their Fathers. The Siyah Bambak downed her scope, flooded two forward buoyancy chambers and sank into the depths. She turned to the north-west, and now the hunted became the silent hunter.
RATTY SOUTHWORTH LOOKED up. “Conn Sonar, I have two surface contacts heading this way, the library identifies them as Iranian navy Arvand class frigates. Range eighteen kilometres, bearing one fifteen degrees,” Ratty turned to his Captain, “depth one hundred meters too shallow.” Luke smiled. It was one hundred meters from the sea surface to the seabed here.
“I hear you Ratty. Exec, what do you think?”
“It can’t be a coincidence that they’re out here, so far from the Gulf. They must be bound for rendezvous with the Kilos.”
“I agree.” Luke lowered his voice and looked into the middle distance. “What will the Siyah Bambak do? He knows we sunk the Nahang.” He had to think the way the enemy did, my priority would be to get the Siyah Bambak to safe harbour in Bandar Abbas, but. They’d be royally hacked off at losing Nahang, they’d know that the culprit was in the vicinity and they outnumbered it three to one. It maybe just too tempting for them.
“Weps, get me information on the Arvand class.”
“Sir.” She had the files stored on tape, within a few minutes she had the data on screen, Luke walked over and looked over Savita’s shoulder at her monitor. Arvand class, fifteen hundred tons, thirty nine knots. Armament, C-802 anti-ship missiles, a 4.5 inch main gun, twin 35mm Anti-aircraft guns. None of that was an issue for us he thought, he looked at her ASW equipment. Their anti-submarine warfare tools were a Limbo ASW mortar and two 325mm torpedo tubes. A type 170 sonar she carried would be her ears. The Limbo was a forward pointing, three-barrel mortar with a maximum range of nine hundred meters. Limbo was basically, an update of the devices used in the Second World War, an old design but effective when used by skilled operators in the right conditions. It wouldn’t do to underestimate it.
“I think they’re coming for us Exec.” Luke smiled, “Let’s make them welcome.”
“What do the ROE say about this?” asked Commander Davis.
“Just sink the Kilos. But we can defend ourselves if attacked,” Luke gave his Exec a grin, “we’ll just have to make sure we are.”
“Come to one eight zero degrees, fifteen knots.”
“One eight zero, fifteen aye, Sir.”
“Ratty, I’m going to be doing some aspect change maneuverers for you. Make it count, we need to know where that bloody Kilo is.” The Ghost headed south, Luke knew the Siyah Bambak would be expecting Ghost to be following them. They’d head back to face the Ghost head on. Or would they? The Frigates would almost certainly know what had happened and they’d proceed on the surface to Ghost’s expected position. Luke was going to trail south towing the Lure and then turn east to get a ninety degree aspect change. This can help with the detection of ships and submarines. After ten minutes running south, Luke said, “Come to four five degrees.”
“Four five aye Sir.” The deck tilted down on the left causing the crew to lean to the right to compensate. The streaming Lure wouldn’t be quite so sensitive on the turn so they’d wait for it to straighten out again. After a couple of minutes. Ratty raised his arms and shook his fists.
“Conn Sonar. Sub surface contact, it’s faint but it’s him, it’s the Kilo. We got the Bastard. Sorry, Sir.”
“It’s OK Ratty, well done what’s he up to?”
“Heading north-west Sir, I can’t be more exact than that. Bearing three three five degrees, range fourteen kilometres. The two skimmers are following behind.” Ratty used submarine service slang for a surface ship. There was some disdain for the surface Navy. A common known fact amongst the submarine service is that there are two types of naval vessel, submarines and targets. Luke wanted to take out the Kilo as a priority, those were his orders. He had to come to a decision, after running through the possibilities, he made his mind up.
“Come to zero degrees.”
“Zero aye Sir,” said the Planesman. The Ghost made her way to the north.
“What’s the heading to the nearest Frigate?”
“Three four three, range twelve kilometres, Sir.”
“Come to three two zero, speed twenty knots.”
“Three two zero, twenty aye Sir.” Over twenty minutes Holy Ghost took up a position well astern of the Sahand.
“Blow one, make your depth fifty, come to three hundred. Rewind the Lure.”
“Depth fifty, three hundred aye Sir.”
“Count me the range Ratty.”
“Three kilometres Sir.” HMS Holy Ghost closed on the Iranian Frigate.
“One point five kilometres.” Luke was tempted to come up and take a quick look through the periscope but he resisted the urge.
“Five hundred meters.”
“Increase revs,” there was a wait, “range?”
“Eighty metres,”
“Ease off on the revs. Range?” said Luke.
“Twenty metres,”
“Make your depth thirty.” Luke raised the periscope and looked into it. It was where he wanted it, still below the surface.
“We’re too close Sir,” said Ratty.
Luke held his hand up but remained looking through the periscope. Holy Ghost moved up close behind the Frigate’s stern. Long seconds later he said.
“There she is. Ease off on the revs.” There was a pause. “Not so much, increase speed slightly”, he waited for several seconds, “ease off slightly, slowly now. There, that’s it.” He selected the camera function and took a shot. Then pressed print.
“Ease off the revs a tiny wee bit. Take a look at the picture Ratty”
Ratty Southworth picked up the picture and stared in shock.
“Fuck me.” The spinning prop of the Frigate was just five metres away. HMS Holy Ghost had under hulled Sahand.
The Ghost could ride undetected, shielded by the noise from the Frigate’s prop. The crew above would be totally unaware that the very thing they hunted, five thousand tons of nuclear submarine was just a few meters below them.
Chapter 6
“INCREASE REVS.” THE prop loomed slightly larger and could be clearly seen, spinning in the gloom green sea. It was a high work rate under hulling a ship, speed up, slow down, you couldn’t take your eyes off it for a moment. The trick would be knowing when to break off and find the Kilo. Although they were shielded by the Frigate’s noise they were also deaf themselves.
“Mr Cartwright, how far are we from last contact with Tango two when we were outbound from the Red Sea?” The navigation officer checked his chart.
“Nine kilometres Sir.”
“Ease off on the revs a little.” Luke made his judgment based on his calculations and an instinct for his quarry’s tactics, he waited ten minutes and decided to take a look down there. Ease off on the revs, more, more.” Holy Ghost fell back behind the Frigate. “That’s it, flood one and two, down angle fifteen, make your depth one twenty, speed six knots, stream the Lure.” The Holy Ghost plunged into the deeps.
“Keep a good ear out Ratty.” As they fell away from the surface it became quiet. HMS Holy Ghost was at home in the dark, quiet and peaceful depths. After several minutes searching, it happened.