‘Three seconds to detonation!’ yelled the technician in fire control.
The Captain’s voice rose in pitch. ‘Hold on men!’
They felt the force of an enormous underwater explosion.
Cetus instruments detected the sound of compressed air followed by a Tomahawk clearing its vertical launch tube. A rapid calculation showed the minimum flight duration would be 37 seconds and in that time Cetus had to be clear of the area.
It snapped off its sonic cannon, dived at full speed and turned west as it descended. Thirty seconds later it had moved half a mile from its original position. It engaged the electronic filters on its sensitive sonar array and shut down its propulsion unit in preparation for the explosion.
As the USS Cheyenne rose rapidly to the surface, the wire to the guided torpedo was severed. With no guidance in place the torpedo continued in the direction it had last been pointing. It eventually lost power when its motor used up all the fuel and it fell in a graceful arc towards the bottom of the sea.
The other torpedo did not have wire guidance and it started to hunt for its prey. At that moment the Tomahawk entered the water and drove downward through the waves.
The torpedo turned and headed for the splash.
The Tomahawk exploded slightly ahead of the torpedo. Nearly 1000 lbs of high explosive vaporised a sphere of water 100 m below the surface. The non-wire guided torpedo’s proximity detector triggered and that too ignited.
A vast double pressure wave spread out swiftly, followed by smaller secondary surges. At half a mile distance the energy in the primary shock wave was absorbed by the sea water to the extent Cetus suffered a mild buffeting.
Cetus powered up its sonar array and laid a course north.
When they reached the safe house, DD felt Lomax helping him out of the car, half carrying him to the front door. Inside a minute DD was on the bed and stripped of outer clothes. Lomax phoned the doctor who appeared fifteen minutes later. Even before the examination the doctor shook his head and started muttering to himself. He felt DD’s ribs carefully and tested for abdominal swellings, humming a monotonous tune as his eyes wondered over the bruised flesh.
At last he turned to Lomax. ‘He’ll live.’
‘Good’.
‘There’s no bones broken, but he needs to rest. A week should see a distinct improvement.’
DD saw Lomax turn his eyes up.
‘Here are some strong painkillers. Make sure he has one twice a day.’ The doctor handed the tablets to Lomax.
They helped DD to sit upright. He couldn’t believe that Lomax would deliberately ram their car into their adversary’s. They had slammed hard into the rear passenger side and both cars were propelled onto the central crash barrier. It happened so quickly the other car could not evade them. Sandwiched between the hard steel barrier and Lomax’s car, sparks flew in an arc. The screeching of metal carried on for ages. DD, eyes closed, prayed for it to stop.
He felt bile rising up through his throat. When the noise did eventually stop, Lomax backed away from the wreck on the barrier and DD opened his door to vomit forcefully onto the pavement. After that things went blank.
As Lomax saw the doctor out, he held his side which had begun to ache painfully.
The doctor halted. ‘I’d better have a look at that.’
Lomax raised his hand, but one look from the Doctor stopped him. Elderly he might be, but he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Lomax trudged back to sit on the end of DD’s bed.
‘Off with the shirt’ the doctor commanded.
With some difficulty Lomax removed his shirt. Even before he took it off, DD could see a huge bruise just above the kidneys. Most of the bruising was a deep purple colour, but there was a yellow waxy tinge to the edges.
The doctor looked at Lomax’s chest and back before bringing out his stethoscope again. He rubbed the end to warm it and listened carefully as he placed it on his chest. Next he found a small flashlight and shone it into Lomax’s eyes. He pulled down the lids, then began to tap Lomax’s chest. At last the doctor removed his glasses and looked sternly at Lomax. ‘You know you have a bruised or ruptured spleen?’
‘I guessed as much.’
‘Then you really do need to go to a hospital for a scan.’
‘Fine’ said Lomax, ‘I’ll go when I get back to England.’
The doctor shook his head. ‘By then it will be too late. It needs to be looked at right now.’
Lomax could see the doctor meant what he said. ‘Sorry doctor, I’ve a job to finish here first’ he responded. ‘I promise I will get it looked at as soon as possible. In the meantime is there anything you can give me for the pain?’
The doctor dived into his bag and handed over some more painkillers. He pulled out a needle and proceeded to fill it from a vial. ‘Take your pants down’ he commanded and gave Lomax the jab. ‘You can use those painkillers, but heed my warning — no excessive exercise. Get to a hospital as soon as possible. If you don’t, I won’t be held responsible. You will only have yourself to blame.’
With that sombre warning, the doctor strode out.
Lomax started to pull his pants up and put his shirt back on. As he got up, his foot caught on DD’s rucksack, lying on the floor where it had been discarded. He bent over to pick it up, grunting with the pain. ‘What have you got in there?’
DD reached for the rucksack and fished around inside. ‘I forgot. I picked up a couple of computer tapes from the safe, while you were busy shooting up the bad guys.’
‘Are they any use?’ enquired Lomax.
‘I don’t know’ replied DD. ‘Give me a couple of hours and I’ll let you know.’
DD folded the bed covers back, wincing with the throbbing from his side. But he was not about to complain after the earlier pep talk from Lomax.
‘Here, you look like you need this bed more than I do. While you’re getting a rest, I’ll pop these in and see what’s on them.’
For once, Lomax didn’t argue.
‘Are you OK?’
‘Better now, thank you’ she replied, flicking hair out of her eyes. They had been travelling a long time, and Natasha looked tired.
‘Are you alone?’ she asked suddenly.
Sean raised his eyebrows in mute query.
‘You told me you came here for Ben. Did you come with anyone else?’
Sean nodded. ‘There’s a couple of people helping me.’
‘My God, you brought a team! You never told me about that!’ All her earlier suspicions returned.
‘Of course — I can’t do everything myself. In fact you’re going to meet them soon, so you should know a little bit about them.’
Natasha began to reappraise her initial impressions of Sean. ‘Who are they?’
‘There’s a guy called Lomax. He’s my link with London. And we have an IT whizz-kid called DD. He was studying here in the States.’
‘What does he do?’ Natasha was intrigued.
‘We know Ben’s death was connected to something Ben discovered. I showed DD a copy of your letter. He thinks Ben discovered someone was stealing tapes in order to recreate your computer systems.’
‘I never gave you a copy.’ There was concern in her voice.
Sean coughed. ‘I know. I, er, made a photocopy.’
‘You see why I don’t trust you.’
‘I do.’ There was a long silence as they drove through the night.
‘He thinks they created a virus tailored to your project’ Sean said at last.
Natasha looked up in alarm. ‘How much do you know about the project?’
‘We think it’s related to a new type of submarine. It carries some kind of weapon which can be used many times without having to be replaced.’
‘Is that all?’