“Why’s everyone looking so depressed?” he asked as he sat and let an easy grin cover his face. “I hate getting counter-detected as much as the next guy, but the Hai Lang just made this easy for us. Let it take care of the Hamza. We’ll watch it happen.”
Commander Hayat swallowed tea with a bitterness he found excruciating. The codeine mixed with it was a third of the lethal dose, but despite all his strength, he needed the narcotic to keep his pain in check.
It clouded his mind, but he no longer felt alone in guiding his ship. In addition to the omnipresent will of Allah that had guided him to within striking distance of his objective, Lieutenant Commander Raja had proven himself loyal, courageous, and a quick learner.
Hayat wondered if he’d be alive long enough for his next prayer session to thank his maker. If not, he’d have eternity to do so.
“Sir,” Raja said.
The voice snapped him from his doped trance.
“Yes, Raja?” he said.
“I need your guidance,” Raja said. “I fear that we’ve been detected.”
Hayat’s consciousness returned.
“By whom?”
“Unknown,” Raja said. “We’re analyzing, but it was an active seeker. We cannot correlate to any known sonar system, even adjusting for Doppler.”
“Then we assume that it is a new American unmanned harbor protection system,” Hayat said. “What is the probability of detection?”
“Quite high, sir,” Raja said.
Hayat glanced at a monitor and noticed that the Hamza was tracking the Stennis’ acoustic data and matching it against the mighty carrier’s expected trajectory.
“It is of no import,” Hayat said. “The carrier is close. We will have accomplished our mission before any platform with a weapon could stop us.”
Raja’s mouth opened, and he stared nowhere.
“Raja!” Hayat said.
“Yes, sir.”
Hayat felt a jolt of nausea but swallowed it back.
“Are you afraid to die?”
“I…”
“Raja!”
“After seeing you embrace death with fearlessness, I can only hope to enter the afterworld with such courage.”
“Then help me fight this ship to its end. I need you. My time is near, and our fates are one. Erase doubt and fear. Bring our destiny to fruition.”
Raja’s back straightened and his expression became stolid.
“Your orders?” Raja asked.
“Use the Shkval to cripple the carrier. Time the attack so that the carrier glides helplessly into the harbor, and then launch a nuclear torpedo.”
“I understand the Shkval, sir, but the torpedo? Why just one?”
“I do not want torpedoes interfering with each other. However, exactly one minute after firing the first, fire the second. But with the second, third, and fourth — all of which I wish you to fire as long as we are capable — have them turn into the harbor, and attack any vessel of opportunity.”
“You’ve envisioned this all along, sir. It is brilliance. It is truly the work of Allah—”
“You and I know it is, but until we succeed, the crew must believe they are merely orders from Karachi.”
CHAPTER 34
Jake heard his commanding officer’s order.
“Slow to ahead one-third,” Renard said.
That’s better, Jake thought.
Jake saw nothing interesting materialize on his Subtics monitor, and he looked towards Remy. France’s best retired sonar operator clasped headphones to his ears.
“Yes,” Remy said. “I hear submerged contact two. I hear the hydraulics system. This is the Hamza.”
“How sure are you, my friend?” Renard asked. “Men will die based upon your answer.”
As Remy opened his mouth, a trace with impossible speed materialized on Jake’s screen. He depressed buttons so that the screen accepted data from both his drone and the indigenous sensors of the Hai Lang.
“Pierre!” Jake said. “High-speed torpedo coming from contact two. I’m not sure it’s a torpedo, but whatever it is, it’s heading toward the Stennis. Shit! Three hundred knots? That can’t be right, but it’s tracking on both the drone and our bow array.”
“Contact two must be the Hamza,” Renard said, “Shoot tube two!”
The Hai Lang shook, and compressed air from the torpedo room filled the air. Jake’s ears popped.
“You don’t waste any time,” Jake said. “Gutsy call.”
“We can only pray that it was the right one.”
Jake ripped headphones off his head. The Subtics display told him all he needed. The Stennis had accelerated into the harbor, but the weapon of inconceivable speed had caught it in less than three minutes.
The sea erupted. Jake heard its echoes dying within the Hai Lang, and the submarine’s Subtics system presented a myriad of data testifying that the carrier had been hit.
“Shit!” he said. “The Stennis was just hit. Heavyweight torpedo-sized warhead.”
“Keep your wits about you, man,” Renard said. “It was an underwater rocket of some sort, but let’s not assume that the Hamza is armed with unbeatable weapons. Our own weapon appears well enough placed.”
Jake glanced at his monitor. The Pakistani submarine accelerated with a plethora of flow noise.
“I recommend a forty-degree steer of our torpedo to starboard,” he said. “He’s trying to evade.”
Renard glanced at a screen over Remy’s shoulder.
“Do it, man,” he said.
Jake guided the weapon, and the Hamza seemed trapped.
“We got him,” Jake said. “That son of a bitch is ours.”
Hayat felt himself slipping into death’s cold hands.
“Sir,” Raja said, “we hit the carrier in its stern. All its screws have stopped. The shot could not have been better! It’s drifting into the harbor.”
“This is perfect,” Hayat said. “Calculate for the carrier’s drift and fire the nuclear weapon.”
Hayat heard whispers in his operations room.
“Some of the men are protesting, sir,” Raja said.
“This is not unexpected,” Hayat said. “Do not falter.”
An alarm rang in the Hamza’s operations room.
“Read it and silence it,” Hayat said.
Raja darted across the room and reached for the nearest Subtics console. The alarm died.
“American torpedo!” Raja said. “To the right of the line of sight and drawing left. Converging on us!”
“An American submarine has apparently been watching us,” Hayat said. “The shot will be accurate.”
“Suggest an evasion, captain!”
“After you launch the weapon,” Hayat said.
Protests from sailors in the operations room buzzed in Hayat’s head.
“See that it is done, Raja,” Hayat said. “Now!”
Raja pushed a sailor from his Subtics monitor and tapped keys. A whine and compressed air filled the room.
“Tube two is launched, sir,” Raja said.
Hayat reclined, and peace overcame him.
“You may navigate the ship through torpedo evasion. I wish you luck, Faisel, and I will see you in Paradise.”
His destiny fulfilled, Hamid Hayat let himself die.
Jake listened to the seas through the drone. He thought he heard a new torpedo but had to ignore it while deciding what to do with his ship’s weapon.
“Contact two has accelerated,” Remy said.
“Recommended steer?” Renard asked.