“The decisions are final,” Henri said. “We’re not challenging an army of helicopters. Less than a handful is remaining close to the ships in defense.”
“A handful, you say?” Remy asked. “Five torpedoes will kill us as quickly as would a dozen. What’s going on with the negotiations? Shouldn’t this be over now that Terry has that Kilo?”
“Julien, while Antoine whines, assign tube two to the Krivak,” Jake said.
“I’m not whining. You know me better than that. You need me listening to the water anyway. Julien can handle our weapons.”
“I meant no insult, Antoine. I’m just trying to make light of this. God willing, this will be the greatest standoff of all time.”
“Or we’ll all be punished for our collective arrogance.”
Jake looked towards the priest and shrugged.
“Are we facing karma? Justice for our bravado?”
“Priests aren’t oracles, and karma is outside my area of expertise,” Andrew said. “I can’t say what the outcome will be, other than to say that I believe you’re of sound mind and temperament.”
“You understand the magnitude of what I’m doing, right?”
“I think so. You’re putting a thousand lives at risk.”
Jake tallied the potential upcoming death toll. The Slava contained five hundred men, the Krivak had two hundred, and each missile boat contained sixty.
A dark voice within him reminded him to add the Specter’s crew of thirty.
“More or less,” he said. “You got a prayer for this?”
“I’ve been rolling through them for the last twenty minutes.”
“Keep it up.”
“Can I have a minute please?”
Jake walked around the table and crouched at the priest’s knees.
“I would like to offer the sacrament of reconciliation to anyone who wants it. Can I do it in your stateroom?”
“You mean confession?”
“Yes.”
The request struck Jake as incongruent with the situation, but he had brought the priest to let him exercise independent judgment.
“How long would it take?”
“A few minutes per person, unless they have a lot to confess.”
“You’ll have to make it fast so that my guys aren’t busy confessing instead of fighting.”
“I know ways to keep it short.”
“Three minutes per man?”
“It will be tough, but yes.”
“You don’t mind if I ask why you’re doing this now?”
“I’m offering a chance for absolution of sins. It could make the difference between entering God’s Kingdom or not.”
“This is just for my Catholic sailors?”
He knew he’d asked a good question when Andrew blushed.
“I’m wrestling with that.”
“I didn’t know you could give sacraments to non-Catholics.”
“I can’t, except in exceptional circumstances. When the circumstances are exceptional, I can expand the invitation.”
“What defines ‘exceptional’?”
The priest cleared his throat.
“In our case, it’s the danger of imminent death. Maybe you can tell me how much danger we’re in.”
The discussion bothered Jake on multiple levels, but he knew the answer the priest needed.
“I’ll expand the invitation for you.”
He turned to walk back to the tactical chart.
“Jake?” Andrew asked.
“What?”
“Do you want the sacrament?”
“I wouldn’t know what to confess, and now’s not the time to muddle through it. If your god’s really there, he’s going to have to keep me alive a little longer if he gives a damn about me.”
He returned to the table and stooped beside the sailors to verify that they entered the correct targeting data. Recognizing one as a Catholic, he shared Andrew’s offer and told him to pass it on to all shipmates of Christian faith.
“Tube five has been reloaded with a heavyweight torpedo,” Henri said. “The team is loading tube six. You’ll have heavyweight torpedoes in all tubes within five minutes.”
“Very well, Henri. Julien, assign tube three to the northern Dergach. Assign tube four to the southern Dergach.”
As the young technician obeyed, Jake stepped beside Henri at his ship’s control panel. The Specter’s hydraulic, high-pressure air, mast controls, major electric indicators, and ballast systems sprawled before him like an anatomical chart.
“Do I need to slow down?”
“You can hold eighteen knots for thirty-two minutes,” Henri said. “You’ll have nothing left for evading weapons, though.”
“I need speed now. I won’t be evading anything later.”
“You sound like a different man from the leader I’ve followed during the last decade.”
“This is a different situation. It’s the first time I’ve conceded that we can’t win. I’m playing for a stalemate.”
The swiveling toad-head in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He suspected that a helicopter’s sonar pulse had bounced off his ship’s hull, but his expert allayed his fear.
“The ships have begun anti-submarine evasion legs,” Remy said. “I’m analyzing, but it looks like all of them are turning.”
“Very well, Antoine. That complicates things, but it’s expected. Keep track of which ship is which if they cross.”
“Their sonar systems are shifting to short-range searches.”
“They’re hedging their bets that I decided to come for them. They’ve got all bases covered.”
“I recommend going below the acoustic layer,” Remy said.
“You’d have trouble tracking our targets.”
“I’m barely tracking our targets now. We’re at the limits of the data we can manage. Too many fast ships. Too much maneuvering. Too much guesswork on which torpedoes would hit which ships if launched.”
“I get it that you’re not starving for data, but you would be if we went below the layer.”
“Pierre’s data will guide us.”
“It would be slow and delayed,” Jake said.
“It beats being found above the layer and killed.”
Jake walked to the charting table and noticed his proximity to the Russian fleet. The closest ship entered the edge of his torpedoes’ reach.
“I agree. Henri, make your depth three hundred meters, smartly. Get us down there.”
“Making my depth three hundred meters.”
Jake braced against gravity.
“Tube six is loaded with a heavyweight torpedo,” Henri said. “All tubes are flooded and equalized.”
“Very well, Henri. Now prepare all remaining mines for deployment in surface mode, timers set to disarmed. I’ll deploy them when we’re steady below the layer.”
Henri tapped a sequence of images.
“All mines are ready to deploy in surface mode, timers set to disarmed,” he said. “You’re sure you want them disarmed?”
“Yes.”
“Your reach to arm them with our sonar system will be limited to six to seven miles.”
“That’s good enough. It’s the threat that counts.”
“You’re the boss. Depth is two hundred meters on the way to three hundred meters.”
“Very well. Keep us on this aggressive down angle. Level us off hard when you get us on depth.”
A red diode shone on the Frenchman’s panel.
“I’ve lost wire communications,” Henri said.
“It will come back. Our floating antenna is adjusting to our depth excursion.”
Jake summoned two young sailors from their seats at consoles back to the table.
“You’re going to have to enter data and enter it fast when we get our communications back. We just passed below the layer, and even Antoine will be lucky to hear the ships.”