“Damn! Police,” Walker said. “You summoned them with your rifle. They’re investigating the noise.”
Jake’s heart sank.
“They may not come to us,” he said.
“That’s wishful thinking. Look, they’ve already progressed forward a ship.”
“Sound echoes violently on the water. They have no way of pinpointing the shot to us.”
“That doesn’t matter if they’re thorough, and they’re looking like a pretty damned thorough set of water cops.”
Jake stepped to the laptop mounted beside the Specter’s conning tower.
“Terry!” he said.
“I’m here, mate. How do we look? Did lowering our freeboard hide the damage?”
“No, not enough. And there’s a high-speed police boat working its way to us to investigate my rifle shot.”
“Shit,” Cahill said. “Can you attract them to the port side? Maybe they wouldn’t see the damage that way?”
“I don’t know how to do that other than shooting the rifle from that side and hoping the sound pulls them that way. But that would just make things worse.”
“How could they get any worse?”
“No need for such extreme measures,” Renard said.
The authoritative interrupting voice soothed Jake’s nerves.
“I hope that means you have a plan?” he asked.
“Call it my final gift before you enter the Black Sea. Look down a bearing of roughly two-three-zero.”
“I’d need to walk away from the laptop.”
“Then have your lookout look for you. It may take a minute or two.”
“I don’t have a minute or two, Pierre. What’s your point?”
“Not to worry,” Renard said. “Whether or not the act has yet begun, it’s already been reported to the authorities.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “Julien!”
A young Frenchman stuck his head in the window.
“Let me know if you see anything interesting on bearing two-three-zero, plus or minus ten degrees, over the next minute or two.”
The youngster acknowledged and stepped away.
“You’re not even going to tell us?” Jake asked.
“Let me enjoy my dramatic moment, will you? Just trust me and don’t do anything rash.”
Walker entered the bridge and approached Jake.
“The police craft ran off. I can’t believe it. We got lucky.”
“Maybe not lucky, unless you count Pierre’s planning as luck. He’s got a surprise for us on bearing two-three-zero.”
“I can’t wait.”
Walker stepped away to join the young Frenchman. Seconds later, he returned to Jake’s view, animated.
“You won’t believe it,” he said. “A fire broke out on a ferry.”
“Pierre, you didn’t risk a ferry full of people! Not innocent people. Not for this.”
“I wouldn’t have unless I’d first commissioned Paris’ finest firefighters to handle it. They’ll make it look dangerous, but they’ll have it under control the whole time.”
“The flames are already dying!” Walker said. “And now they’re gone. That was fast. There must be an amazing automated suppression system or something miraculous on that ship.”
“No,” Jake said. “The only miracle is the seeming infiniteness of Pierre’s foresight — and his balls to act on it.”
A day later, Jake saw his target on the horizon. He had slowed his trek across the Black Sea to launch his attack at night, and he approached his target during darkness. The pulsating warning lights on the horizon matched the tops of the Kerch Strait Bridge on his chart.
“We made it,” he said.
“The Ukrainian helicopter coverage has been spotty,” Cahill said. “It’s a wonder we didn’t run into anything.”
“Don’t you trust our Furuno? I’ve kept it on to prevent Chinese warships from getting curious.”
“Chinese, Indian, Greek, Turkish, Russian, whatever. It still doesn’t reach beyond our horizon.”
“Be thankful we had periodic helicopter air views for that. We owe them for not allowing anyone close enough to see the hole in our shell. For barely having a standing navy, the Ukrainians did a pretty good job alerting us to cross traffic.”
“I hope they’re as friendly once we’ve done the dirty work to help their cause. Shall I warm up the weapons?”
“Yes. Liam and I will be down, and we’ll be ready to submerge and flee if needed.”
“If needed? You don’t expect to escape otherwise, do you?”
“We believe a deployed Kilo is around here, but we can’t be sure. If there’s no sign of trouble, we’ll stay on course until the explosion, and then we’ll behave like a freighter would and turn tail.”
“Shall I slow us, now? We’re within weapons range of both the bridge and the undersea pipeline.”
“Come to all stop. Send Doctor Tan to my ship so that I have a Russian translator in case this attack separates us.”
“He was already standing by, and now he’s on his way.”
“Now warn Pierre so that he can warn the authorities. We’ll be right down to finish this and head home.”
CHAPTER 8
Captain Second Rank Dmitry Volkov raised his head and pressed his palms into the navigation table. He felt that nothing could chase away his mind’s haziness.
“I should have already been promoted,” he said.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the sonar operator said. “I couldn’t hear you.”
“It’s I who should be sorry. I’m lamenting my fate out loud.”
“You’re not alone, sir. Everyone’s getting tired of protecting the bridge and pipeline. We already foiled the Ukrainians, and we were all looking forward to something new when we got back to Novorossiysk. But they just sent us back out to do the same thing.”
“I wish I could change our tasking, but we have our duty. We must respect it as part of the frustrations of military service.”
“I know, sir. But these waters once held so much excitement, and now that we’ve scared our enemy back to shore, boredom is our punishment for success. Even the dolphins are bored.”
Volkov snorted.
“How could you possibly know that?”
“The trainer has said as much.”
“Damn it, then. I cannot refute that man and his sixth sense about his babies.”
“It’s spooky, isn’t it, sir?”
“Sometimes it is. I cannot alleviate the fate of the dolphins, but I can share with you a secret that I was going to withhold for another few days. But you’ve forced my hand by playing to my pity.”
“I’ll take any good news you have.”
“We’re nine days from our estimated midway point of this patrol. I’ve arranged for rations of beer and vodka for the crew on that night, three drinks per man. Go ahead and spread the news as you wish.”
The young sailor’s eyes sparkled.
“Thank you, sir! I’ll be hailed as the saving messenger!”
“I know.”
A shadow crept over the sonar operator’s face, and he pressed his earpieces to his head. Volkov read the man’s reaction and recognized potential danger. He also knew to exercise patience and wait for the sailor to complete his assessment.
“Torpedo in the water.”
“Are you sure? You don’t seem alarmed.”
“Yes, sir. It’s very far away.”
“Is it coming at us?”
“Doubtful. It has a bearing rate and should pass well ahead. But it should get closer before it gets farther away again. Wait! Now I hear another.”
“On the same bearing?”
“Yes. Probably from the same launch platform.”
“You’re sure they’re not heading for us?”
“Positive now, sir.”
“Then update the system with your best solutions.”
As the torpedo icons and the image of their possible launching ship materialized on the chart, Volkov ordered battle stations, and he took the Krasnodar to periscope depth. The deck rocked in the shallow sea’s swells.