This could be the last meal she’d have for many hours. Anupa decided to eat at the Eastern Horse Café again. The girl at the counter tried to strike up a conversation, her Farsi wasn’t good, but she did have some. The girl realised she was heading west from the port and told her a delivery driver would be passing that way, she soon had a lift organised.
She ate more bread and fruit and drank coffee.
From what she’d seen Iran was a decent place. A better country than she’d expected, and she’d found the Iranian’s to be a friendly and fine people.
She’d expected the women to be covered from head to foot in baggy dark robes. They had to cover their heads but did so only just. They wore, as far as possible jeans, figure hugging trousers and tops. Jewellery and tinted designer glasses. They exuded confidence and some defiance.
But, their regime couldn’t be trusted with nuclear weapons. She’d done her job and put pressure on a man who could bring influence to bear. The next stage was out of her hands.
The delivery driver turned up and they headed out of the port. She indicated the spot she wanted to leave the truck, he stopped and let her out. After a short walk, she found an area of bushes by the side of the Gulf, she sat down among the bushes concealed from traffic and waited. Her contact at the Norwegian embassy had passed on her details to the CIA via a contact in Norway. She was told to wait where she entered Iran, she’d be picked up there. Her torch signal would start at ten pm and repeat every two hours. Anupa settled in for the wait, the exfil would probably be that night.
USS STONEWALL JACKSON slowed and made her way to the west of Bandar. Stealth was her only option, she moved carefully through the dark waters towards the Gulf coast.
“How is Innes doing, getting ready for his dive?” Nathan asked the COB. “We don’t have long to travel now.”
“He’s nearly done now he…”
“Sir.” Shouted Benson. “Fish in the water. It’s running in from the south, less than three miles I’d say.”
Nathan knew there wasn’t much depth here, any evasion would have to be east or west.
“All ahead.” The prop spun up to maximum revs.
“Give me a range count Benson.”
“One point eight miles.” Nathan waited as long as he dare.
“Range?”
“Nine hundred yards, he’s behind just to our starboard.” Nathan counted down.
“Deploy countermeasures starboard side. Come to port. He counted down.
“Fish closing Sir, it’s going terminal.”
“Hard to port, come to south, turn into him.” Aft of the boat was a loud thump and the boat was pushed to port. The crew was thrown violently forwards as the boat was forced to a bow down position. The cabin lights turned off, the boat was in blackness for several seconds until the red emergency lights came on. The boat rolled and bucked like Nathan had never seen, alarms sounded.
“Damage control report,” shouted the COB.
“All head full.”
“Power’s gone Sir,” said the Planesman, “the prop is slowing.”
He heard a grinding noise from the rear.
The boat was out of action. There was one choice.
“Open all vents, full purge. Do it now.” All vent’s gushed air out into the sea, the noise filled the boat with the sound of death. The boat started to sink deeper into the depths. She fell gushing air at a fearsome rate. Then it happend. The hull struck the seabed, with a dull grinding thud. The boat slid downslope across a rocky field, the hull scraped and juddered, then came to a stop.
The USS Stonewall Jackson lay alone in the blackness at the bottom of the straits of Hormuz.
ABOARD INS MARMAHI; the Eel; the sonar operator reported excitedly.
“Escaping gas, lots of it. I’ve got it Sir. Impact with the seabed, sounds like the hull is fracturing. She’s down Sir, she’s had it.”
Captain Lakarani, grinned and slapped his console. He picked up the intercom and broadcast to the boat.
“All hands, we’ve got him. We’ve sunk the enemy boat. He thought he could come into the Gulf and we’d just lie down and take it. Let them learn the lesson. We proved him wrong, you don’t play with the Iranian navy and you don’t play with the Eel.”
The crew cheered, they’d taken on the great Satan, a powerful enemy and they’d won.
NATHAN KNEW THEY WERE in a world of shit. There was one last chance.
“Close all vents. Silence the boat.” He knew it was their last hope. Play dead.
He held his hands up to his temples. It had been an Iranian submarine of course and it must have been a Ghadir class. The skipper would be local and know these waters, he’d used his knowledge to get close. At that range, the Yu-6 was hard to fool, and the shallow littoral environment didn’t provide much depth for an escape. His submarine was greatly inferior to the Soryu class, but he’d used the environment and his local knowledge well. The Iranian Captain had played to his strengths.
Nathan balanced the pros and cons. They were still alive and probably had some time to attempt to salvage the situation.
The Iranian was still out there, and USS Stonewall Jackson was incapacitated.
“COB, let’s go aft.” The two of them entered the engineering spaces, the Engineering Officer was with two of his technicians. He turned and saw the Captain.
“Sir, it’s bad as you know. I’m still getting the picture, but the good news is that we have life support for several hours. The electrics and a number of devices, pumps and buoyancy control valves are on backup. The worst thing is, the drive is down.”
“I know you need time to investigate, I’ll leave the COB with you. Whatever resource you need, you’ve got it. I’ll get out of your way,” He returned to the control room. The Chief Engineer had said life support was fine for now, but he’d play safe. Nathan picked up the intercom.
“All hands, all hands. This is the Captain. We’re looking to get the boat back in shape. The Engineering team are working hard on the issue. I need you to keep quiet and to conserve air, this will give the Engineers more time. I’ll keep you posted. Captain out.”
They weren’t too deep here, he’d have to make a report on their situation, he entered a message into his console.
“Lieutenant Commander Lemineux, stream the communications buoy and transmit this message.”
PRIORITY RED
R 2713555Z JUL 86 ZY10
STONEWALL JACKSON
CIA-OPS// ID C796TF722//
TO CIA OPS LANGLEY//N18//
NAVAL INTEL OPS/04
MSGID/STONEWALL JACKSON 479/ ACTUAL//
MSG BEGINS://
DAMAGED IN ACTION WITH IRANIAN SUBMARINE. ALL HANDS UNHURT. ON THE SEABED AT #CURRENT LOCATION# THE DRIVE IS INOPERABLE, ATTEMPTING TO REPAIR.
MSG END//
Commander Lemineux typed in the message. He turned to Nathan.
“Sir, message transmitted and acknowledged, the buoy is retracted.” Nathan nodded and found himself with little to do
The submarine escape suits were stored in an easy to access space. The suits, known as Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment Mk 10 or SEIE. They were hooded and zipped up, with a clear panel for visibility. The suits, when filled with air, would allow the crew to ascend from a doomed submarine at a depth of six hundred feet. They were only in three hundred feet here, so they’d be plenty capable of using them for escape. They were known by many as WAEFFO suits. When All Else Fails Fuck Off suits. There was no need to cause more disquiet among the crew by getting these out and circulating them.
AFTER HALF AN HOUR he walked aft to the Engineering section and found the Engineering Officer. He was covered in grease and sweat.