‘Robert, please calm down. You have the latest situation reports — there is nothing more we can add.’
‘Bullshit Harris’, snarled Donahue. I have ten people dead or missing on the first count. And now no-one knows where this f***ing sub has gone!’
Although Brindle Harris was used to the occasional angry exchanges from his friend, the strength of the outburst and the fact that it was so public shook him. ‘I know how this looks, Robert’, he proceeded warily. ‘But for all we know, Cetus might be at the bottom of the ocean. For all we know, the same calamity that affected its support ships might have affected the Cetus as well.’
His long time opponent CIA Director Henry Alfred Jones turned to face him, as though lining him up in the sights of a rifle. ‘Do you expect us to believe that?’ Jones appealed to the audience around the table. ‘Do you expect us to believe that Cetus sank three ships and then just sank itself without a trace?’ He voice rose a notch. ‘I’ll tell you what’s happening. That experimental sub is off on a jaunt of its own!’
Harris stared at his hands laying flat before him on the table, looking for the slightest tremor that might betray the fear inside. At last he sighed reluctantly. ‘We don’t know for sure that the sub sank its support ships. All the evidence we have cannot confirm what happened down there. But — one of the managers was called by a member of the sub’s project team last night. Name of Stanislaswski. He says that one of the team thinks the sub has downloaded a virus.’
‘You mean, like a computer virus?’ asked an alarmed President.
‘Yes sir, just like a computer virus Robert.’ Harris held his hands up. ‘Before you say anything though, you should know that Stanislaswski himself doesn’t believe that’s what happened. He thinks the software on-board the sub got screwed up — he thinks it was corrupted. He also thinks that’s what caused the sub’s weapon to be activated and why it was fired — indiscriminately — at the other ships.’
‘Jesus, Harris’ stormed the President. ‘What the f***king hell does it mean?’
Jones tried to interrupt.
‘Hear me out Director’, Harris commanded sternly. ‘If the software wasn’t corrupted, that leaves us with just one possibility. Someone ordered the sub to unlock the cannon and line it up on its supply ships. But this project has been conducted at the highest level of security of any black project in the last five years. Every member of staff of every company engaged in this project has been checked, double checked and triple checked.’
Harris turned to Jones. ‘I believe your organisation was totally involved in the vetting process.’
Immediately Jones clammed up. Harris continued. ‘There is no way the project could have been compromised. Mr Jones will tell us that the security was watertight from beginning to end. Our best guess is that there was an internal hardware failure and as a result part of the software has been corrupted. It would have the effect of making the sub do random things, such as diving and surfacing and speeding up and slowing down.’
‘But not attacking and sinking three ships?’ the CIA Director shot back.
‘Listen.’ Harris was aware of the growing swell of disbelief around the table. ‘This submarine we created was made to do just that. Inside that submarine there is more electronics and computing power than in one whole floor of the pentagon. Every part that could fail has at least one backup. We needed to know that once it was programmed with a mission it would carry it out.’
‘If that’s right, then any faulty components should have been replaced — right?’ The President remarked.
‘True’, replied Harris. But we think that part of the mission software got screwed up. If this part is corrupted, no amount of redundant hardware will put it right.’
Donahue regarded his friend. ‘Could it have been corrupted by another country’s agents — we’re having to keep a real close eye on our Chinese counterparts these days and their technology is nearly as good as our own.’
Harris pursed his lips and looked over towards the CIA Director. ‘What do you think Henry?’
‘If they are in on this, then we’ve not caught a whisper.’
‘That won’t be the first time’ remarked Harris quietly.
‘So how do we find it and stop it?’ the President asked at last.
Harris looked over his notes. ‘We have in-built safety features which..’
‘Which didn’t work!’ interrupted Jones. ‘My information is that an abort sequence was sent during the first thirty minutes when the sea trial started to go wrong.’
The President looked shocked and turned to Harris. ‘Is this true?’
Harris looked grim. ‘Yes, it’s true. It didn’t work, obviously, but we think that this was due to the corrupted software. There is another safety system which is more reliable than that.’
‘Which is?’
‘At weekly intervals, or as soon afterwards when the sub is able to, it must surface and send a coded request to base. When we receive this signal we need to send an acknowledgement back so the sub can continue its mission. If the sub fails to receive authorisation, or if it receives a signal which is incorrect in any detail, the sub fails safe.’
‘Which means what?’ enquired the President.
‘The sub aborts its mission, shuts down its weapon systems and finds the quickest way home’ responded Harris.
There was a short break while everyone thought about that.
‘What if the signal was intercepted or a different signal was sent?’ asked Jones.
‘Then the sub would fail safe and return home.’
‘When does the sub surface next?’ enquired the President.
Harris cleared his throat. ‘It should come up before midnight tonight. We programmed in some latitude in case the sub was otherwise occupied when it needed to confirm its orders. The window is up to 6 hours long. So by this time tomorrow, Cetus will be on its way home.’
The President breathed out slowly. He noticed one or two people around the table looking as relieved as he felt. But something still troubled him and he could not let it rest.
‘How certain are you that this system will work as planned?’ he asked.
‘As certain as I can be, Robert’ affirmed Harris. ‘If this doesn’t work, you can have my resignation.’
‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come that’ said the President gently. ‘Otherwise I will lose a friend as well as a colleague.’
‘No sleep for the wicked — are we all powered up and ready to go?’ Stan enquired. He surveyed the team. There were various nods amongst the staff and some of the more experienced technicians replied to his question with less than polite humour.
‘OK team, we are recalling Cetus when it surfaces. It’s due any time from now until six this morning. Chan, are you ready to respond?’
Chan indicated he was ready. He was the technician with responsibility for initiating the communication signals. Stan took one last look around and made his way to his desk.
In the southern Atlantic Cetus scanned its environment continuously. There were no indications of ships or submarines in a 10 mile radius around the submarine. It continued to scan for a whole hour until it was clear there was no threat.
Then it started to rise slowly until it reached a depth of two fathoms. A hatch opened quietly on the top of its short conning tower and a black buoy the size of a tennis ball slid out, rising rapidly to the surface. As it rose it trailed a thin wire connected to the communications centre in the submarine.
Bobbing on the inky waves in the dark of the night, the buoy was impossible to spot. Cetus sent its first broadcast back through the aerial attached. The electronic signal was encrypted and compressed and lasted no longer than three microseconds — too short a time for any surface ships to gain a fix.