He yelled at the remaining four men and ran for the sail and bolted up the ladder. The bridge was clear, all hatches battened down.
“Two of you up on the lookout. The rest, get around the sides, out of sight.” Larkin backed away rapidly. He knew that when the charges went off somebody was going to come out of that hatch, and they would probably come out shooting. He waved the two men now on the catwalk to watch the forward hatch.
“Anybody comes out, open up.”
He glanced around quickly and swung back down over the side to see how the demolition parties were coming. Both were running for the bridge, the ignition wires trailing out behind them to the charges taped against the hatch and ballast tank. Larkin hopped back onto the bridge and shouted-down to fire the charges. Already the after portion of the deck was under water and forward, waves were curling up around the forepeak.
The explosives went off with a resounding clang. The submarine shuddered along its length and the engines changed beat as he heard the high-pitched whoosh of compressed air blowing ballast from the tanks.
Larkin yanked the VERY pistol from his belt and fired the flare straight up into the rapidly darkening sky. The flare arced up to three hundred feet and burst with a beautiful display of red flame. In less than two minutes the RFK should burst around the headland. He broke open the pistol, ejected the second flare, and rammed a new one home. Larkin had estimated that it would take the RFK six minutes or so to reach the submarine. He had managed to stop the submarine; now could he capture it before the RFK smashed it to the bottom under her forefoot?
He leaned over the coaming once more and shouted down. “Peterson, you and Johnson get back to the boat and be ready to take us off. Orlowski, you and Brone cover that aft hatch, just in case.”
He swung around in time to hear the squeal of the hatch being opened, and drew his pistol with his right hand. He waved the others back around the curve of the bridge. The hatch cracked open, held a moment, then pushed farther up. Larkin knelt down, almost in back of the hatch, and waited. From where he knelt, he was out of sight. A head appeared, looked around, and, seeing no one, pushed the hatch back until the lift engaged and it clicked back. Larkin leaned forward and pressed the pistol muzzle into the temple of the emerging sailor.
Larkin had never seen anyone turn white so fast, and in spite of the tension he grinned.
“Strasvechi, tovarish — Americanski.” Then in English, “Do you speak English?” Very carefully the head wobbled back and forth in what Larkin took for a negative answer. The sailor, with the .445 Navy Colt pressed against his temple, looked ready to faint.
“Nyet,” he managed to force out.
Above his head, Larkin heard two carbines firing.
“What’s going on?” he demanded sharply.
“Trying to get out the forward hatch, sir. We fired a couple of bursts across the deck and they changed their minds.” “Good, keep ’em scared.” Larkin risked a quick look at his watch. Pour minutes to go. “Any sign of the ship?” he yelled.
“No, sir… wait, aye, sir, just rounding the headland now.” “Anybody down there speak English?” Larkin called through the hatch.
After a moment, a voice answered, “Yes.”
Larkin tapped the sailor on the head with the pistol butt “Down, buddy…. All right, get up here fast.”
A minor commotion was created in the narrow hatchway as the reprieved sailor scrambled down past the other climbing up. Another minute was wasted while he did so. Larkin waved his pistol and an officer climbed out to stare around in shock. The Russian was dressed only in shipboard uniform and gasped as he felt the cold. He immediately huddled against the canvas windbreak that had been rigged on the bridge.
“My name is Larkin, commanding officer of the battle cruiser Robert F. Kennedy, United States Navy. You are now a prisoner of war and your ship a prize of war.” Larkin knew that this was not true since no state of war had been declared, but he was depending on the shock value of the statement to unbalance the Russian even more. The Russian glanced around and saw the others with leveled carbines, gulped once, and swung back to stare at Larkin, who was casually slinging his carbine over his shoulder.
“I… I… I am Ptior Shafesky Rasnikov, Lieutenant Commander…” He broke down and finished up lamely, “Executive Officer… what are you—”
“Cut it,” Larkin grated harshly. “You have just two minutes left to surrender this ship. Look out there.”
The Russian officer followed Larkin’s pointing finger and saw the RFK running at full speed for the submarine, less than 1500 yards off. His eyes, as they turned back to Larkin, were round with surprise. Larkin waved the flare gun in his left hand. “Two minutes. If I don’t fire a flare before then, she’ll run you under.”
It took a full half minute for Rasnikov to digest what Larkin had just said, and then he swung around and grabbed the bridge microphone and shouted a stream of incomprehensible Russian. The sounds that emerged from the speaker were just as incomprehensible, but seconds later Larkin heard feet scrabbling on the ladder. He jumped to the hatch and pulled it loose, but Rasnikov screamed at him to stop.
“The Captain…” he explained weakly.
A slim figure jumped from the hatch, brushed past Larkin, and leaned across the railing to peer at the approaching RFK.
The RFK had come to within two hundred yards and every detail behind the ports of the lighted bridge was plainly visible. The curling bow wave served to accentuate the sharpness of the prow, aimed directly for The submarine’s bridge. The Russian captain stiffened, and turned slowly to face Larkin. As they stood there examining each other, Larkin sensed the shock that he knew must come with the knowledge of a ship lost. He’ thought that perhaps he must have come close to this same feeling the day he had run in under the North Vietnamese coastal guns and taken that hit in the fantail.
Slowly the Russian nodded and turned his palms outward. He said something in Russian and the executive officer translated.
“We surrender,” he said quietly. Larkin looked sharply at the Russian officer. He was certain that the captain had said I. The we surrender was indicative to Larkin of both discipline and ability. He nodded with approval and raised the VERY pistol and fired the second flare.
Twenty minutes later Larkin was climbing the netting thrown over the side of the RFK. Behind him, on the deck and bridge of the submarine, RFK crew members were herding the Russian crew up on deck and filing down into the submarine. As he regained the deck he looked down the fjord, then back at the Russian captain clambering up after him. Suddenly he jerked his eyes back to the fjord. There against the sky a red flare was climbing. Seconds later it was followed by a third and then a fourth. Forgetting about the Russians, he ran for the bridge.
As he came through the hatch Bridges swung around on him. “Captain, flares at 8563 yards down the fjord. Our recognition signal — one long, two short. We had part of a radio transmission a minute ago. They need fire support.” Larkin did not hesitate. “Answer fast. Plot the range and get me an open channel to Virginia.” Seconds later he was explaining quickly the capture of the Russian ship and advising official contact with the Norwegians before he had to contact them.
CHAPTER 21
A sick feeling of despair settled over Folsom as Gadsen struggled with the radio to raise the ship. Each time he flicked the switch over to receive, a steady stream of hissing poured from the speaker.
“Damn it all, it’s no use,” Gadsen said bitterly. “The aurora is blanking everything out.” The problem that had been nagging at Folsom throughout the night and into the early morning hours now burst upon him. It had been the intensity of the northern lights, the aurora borealis. The stream of electrons pouring into the magnetic field of the earth from the sun was probably causing a world-wide disruption of radio transmission — at least for all communications depending upon ionospiheric bounce. For all practical purposes, under the onslaught of the solar storm, there was no ionosphere right now.