The torpedo sent the detonation signal to its warhead.
Renard tensed and leapt towards Antoine Remy.
“Well, what do you hear?” he asked.
“The explosion is subsiding. I hear the Kilo’s flow noise. It is still tracking at twenty-eight knots.”
“Damn,” Renard said. “We missed and are now in an equal battle.”
“Wait,” Remy said. “The Kilo’s screw is slowing. The screw has stopped.”
Renard had his hand on the nape of Remy’s neck and noticed he was squeezing too hard. He let go.
“High-pressure air!” Remy said. “It’s surfacing!”
Tension flowed from Renard. He inhaled the cool tobacco taste and relaxed.
“The only thing better than sinking a Kilo,” he said, “is forcing one to surface.”
CHAPTER 25
Renard had taken the Hai Lang shallow but short of periscope depth. The ship’s acoustic sensors heard helicopters encircling the crippled and surfaced Kilo, but they could have been Chinese, he decided.
It wasn’t until he heard the sounds of the Tai Ping racing into audible range that he risked extending a mast.
At periscope depth, Renard raised the periscope and took an automated three-hundred and sixty-degree sweep. As he studied the panoramic printout of the world above, he heard a voice hailing him over his elevated radio mast.
The words were in Mandarin, and he nodded towards Ye.
“Take that, please,” he said.
Ye stood and reached for the microphone above Renard. He flipped a dial, lowered the microphone, and spoke in Mandarin. An energetic conversation ensued.
“I just told them we are alright and awaiting orders,” Ye said. “They were happy to hear that.”
“What news, then?” Renard asked.
“The convoy was attacked by a Chinese destroyer, but aside from one missile that escaped the Kang Ding’s defenses and damaged a cargo hold, the convoy is unscathed and in safe waters heading towards Japan to pick up fuel.”
“This is great news,” Renard said. “Perhaps they offered you something more local, though?”
More Mandarin banter.
“Yes,” Ye said. “The crew of the Kilo has abandoned ship and is being receptive to our rescue efforts.”
Renard looked at his periscope’s photograph.
“Mon Dieu,” he said. “The superstructure is lined with Chinese sailors. Some look unconscious or dead. There is a foul-looking vapor rising from both escape hatches.”
Renard lowered his periscope.
“We are rescuing them?” he asked.
“We sent two Chinook helicopters with infantry squadrons to storm the submarine, but we also sent a medical helicopter,” Ye said. “Given the condition of the men on that submarine, there was no need for combat. It appears that you damaged one of their battery compartments and filled the ship with chlorine gas.”
“We’re in international waters,” Renard said. “Four miles from Taiwanese waters.”
Ye smiled.
“Our combat air patrol has been extended to cover the area,” he said. “It is our battle space, and we’ve sent a tug to tow the Kilo back to Keelung. Our orders are to verify that this space remains ours until the tug has taken the Kilo into local waters.”
Half an hour later, Renard watched through the periscope as a tug dragged the injured Kilo toward Keelung.
Ye monitored radio chatter and mentioned that most of the officers and senior enlisted Chinese sailors had been evacuated via helicopter before the rest of the crew. The purpose had been to remove the leadership and minimize the chance that a would-be hero would try to scuttle the Kilo.
No matter, Renard thought. Taiwanese commandoes are aboard that ship with medical personal. It is ours.
When the Kilo crossed into Taiwanese waters, Renard lit a fresh Marlboro.
“Shall I give you back your submarine?” he asked.
“I will take us home from here,” Ye said.
Jake slapped Renard on the shoulder and found himself dragged into a rare hug with the Frenchman.
“That was amazing, mon ami!” Renard said. “Today we erased the failures of our past!”
Jake broke loose from Renard and found himself swarmed with slaps, handshakes, and smiles from the Taiwanese sailors. If they had considered him an intruder, they now considered him a champion.
Wu slapped his hand so hard into a handshake that it hurt. The Taiwanese officer pulled him into a loose hug and released him.
“You’re a rock star!” Wu said. “That was sweet!”
Jake ducked out of the operations room and followed a passageway aft. He knocked on the door of the commanding officer’s stateroom.
No response.
He twisted the handle and pushed the door open. Looking ghastly in the laptop computer light and backlit by a small lamp, Olivia gazed at her screen. She had made herself comfortable in the ship’s only private quarters.
Jake cleared his throat, and she stirred.
“What?” she asked.
“I thought you were going to help out,” he said. “Maybe steer the ship or something.”
“Not yet,” she said. “I don’t think Pierre wants me in the operations room. I need to study Hayat’s dossier anyway. You can’t believe what I’ve learned about him. He’s amazing. He’s a dichotomy of—”
Jake ran his hand through his hair and pulled back moist fingers. He noticed that his body tingled and his knees felt weak from stress.
“Do you have any idea that we were just in a battle? Two, technically, I think.”
She slid her legs from under her buttocks and onto the floor, wiggling in an effort to make blood flow through her extremities and yawning.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “We were just where?”
Jake knelt in front of her.
“Never mind,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine, I guess. A little unsure if I should be out here with you and Pierre, but I’m getting into this Hayat character. He practically turned his back on Islam.”
Jake didn’t care. He kissed her and refused to pull back until she accepted him. He caught her as she fell off the chair.
“Wow!” she said. “What was that for?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe just my way of saying I’m glad you’re here.”
Renard expected the black limousine awaiting him on the concrete pier. As he climbed the Hai Lang’s brow and passed beside a damaged frigate, he saw acting Defense Minister Li step out of it.
He waved his palm at Slate and Ye.
“Let me handle ‘his majesty’,” he said. “I suggest you two stay on the ship for a while.”
Renard swaggered towards Li. The cocky young bureaucrat smiled and extended a hand.
“The most decisive victory in years,” Li said. “Quite possibly the most decisive of our naval history.”
“Will you not agree then that my debt to your nation is paid in full?” Renard asked.
Li’s young face became somber.
“In full?” he asked. “If you had accomplished what we had paid you to accomplish with the Colorado, this day would never have been necessary.”
“My debts were grand. But so are my deeds of this day. My planning, my action in combat — you have much to claim for it.”