The Admiral was pleased, but then folded his arms across his chest and looked severe.
“I understand that you are going to blow up the whole port here.” “What do you mean?” Yevgeni protested.
“I mean”, said the Admiral, “that late last night or early this morning, a truck entered my base with three one-ton bombs aboard. No one was kind enough to warn me in advance.”
Although the most senior naval officer spoke in a calm voice, Yevgeni did not need his sharp senses to understand that the Admiral was angry, that he was exercising his rank and responsibility, and that his words were a sharp rebuke.
“I apologize, Sir”, Yevgeni replied. “You are correct. I should have notified you, but I didn’t feel comfortable waking you up in the middle of the night.”
“These are Air Force aerial bombs. What exactly do you intend to do with them, with my people? I don’t have planes here, and our naval Kamov helicopters can’t lift anything like one of these bombs.”
“You are right”, Yevgeni replied. “We’re going to install a waterproof naval fuse in one of those bombs and then try to drop the bomb into the sea using the trawler’s crane. By the way, speaking of the trawler, I requested that this meeting be attended by its captain and also by the captain of the submarine that we are collaborating with. Where are they?”
“They will join us in a few minutes. I wanted to have a few minutes with you alone here first.”
Brigadier General Dimitri, the Rear Admiral’s old friend, now spoke.
“My friend Rear Admiral Leonov. As we are your guests on this base, it is my duty to inform you of all our plans for today and also for tomorrow.”
“Only guests?” replied the Admiral in a commanding tone, “Not once in my long life of service to the Soviet Union have I had ‘guests’”, — the Admiral pronounced the word guests emphatically to sound almost like invaders — “who arrived with a letter from the Minister of Defense that states that I have no discretion and I must provide them with anything and everything they ask for. I wanted to understand, I am not complaining. It’s obvious that the Minister would have not given you such a letter had it not been of the utmost importance, but to be honest, this is the first time I have encountered such a situation.”
No one answered, and the Admiral concluded: “Well, it doesn’t matter. Go on Dimitri, go on.”
Dimitri preferred not to discuss the issue that the Admiral had raised, justifiably, in his opinion, which actually contravened all known standing orders. The Admiral was graceful enough for someone in his position, so Dimitri continued talking technicalities.
“Today we will work in the pier area of the port. We will board the trawler, study it, and get to know its crew. General Okhramenko will make sure that the electronic warfare equipment is installed correctly and effectively on this fishing vessel. The operators of this equipment must connect the equipment and coordinate with the boat crew. Most of the work will be done in the ordnance section, and that’s why Colonel Nazarbayev is not here with us. He is already in the section with your officers, and I hope that by the end of the day they will be ready to go out to sea tomorrow.”
“And what are you planning for tomorrow?” asked the Admiral.
“Tomorrow morning we will sail aboard the trawler to the area of your firing range. I understand it is about thirty miles from the shoreline.”
“Correct”, the Admiral confirmed.
“When we arrive there, we will perform a test drop of the bomb, with the hope that it will require no further testing.”
“You also requested a submarine, and not just any ordinary submarine but one of our most advanced. What is its part in this?” the Admiral inquired.
“Colonel Yevgeni and I will be on the submarine, and it will sail to a precise location that we will specify. At that point, the submarine will collect data of the blast, and General Okhramenko’s team, on the trawler, will try to shut down the eyes and ears of the submarine. In general, that is the full outline of what we are doing.”
Someone knocked at the door of the Admiral’s office, and Lieutenant Alexey, the young submarine officer, entered. Behind him were two naval officers. The Admiral motioned to them to enter, and the Lieutenant walked several steps, came to a stop, snapped to attention and saluted. The other two officers remained at the door.
“Sir, I have with me Captain Lev Yashin and Commander Vitaly Dobrinin, Sir.”
“Come, gentlemen, join us”, Rear Admiral Leonov said, his eyes on the junior submariner officer, who remained at attention.
“You are relieved, Lieutenant”, he said.
“Sorry, Sir. I have here an envelope to deliver personally to Brigadier
General Dimitri”, said the Lieutenant. The Admiral pointed at Dimitri.
“Here he is. You can give it to him now.”
Lieutenant Alexey removed a brown paper envelope sealed with red wax from under his arm. Dimitri signed a form that Alexey gave him, returned it to him, opened the envelope, glanced at it and quickly closed it.
“Good news”, Dimitri whispered to Yevgeni who sat by his side, “We have it. This is from my conversation last tonight with our friends across the ocean.”
Yevgeni nodded in satisfaction.
Rear Admiral Leonov introduced the two naval captains, who took their seats at the table. He turned to the trawler’s new captain.
“There’s only one other team member who will be aboard the trawler tomorrow”, the Admiral told the Major. “His name is Colonel Nazar… never mind. By the way, is he Uzbek or Kazakh?”
Brigadier General Dimitri could not hide his amusement at his friend’s excessive interest in the ethnic background of his Kazakh Colonel friend.
“His name is Nazarbayev and he is a Kazakh by birth. He is a top officer, the best of the best”, Dimitri said.
“All right, Kazakh”, the Admiral responded with a smile, and turned again to the two officers who had just joined them.
“Our colleagues have come from Moscow and we are ordered to fulfill all their needs and requests. Let’s start with you, Commander. What is the status of your new vessel?”
The Admiral pointed to Commander Vitaly. “Of course, he is the fisherman”, he added in a disparaging tone.
Vitaly looked like a typical Russian. His face was round and fair and his eyes were blue. He seemed about 50 years old and his blonde hair was well cropped. He was average in stature with broad shoulders, and his navy blue uniform seemed somewhat worn and unkempt.
“We have already spent thirty-six hours on the trawler”, said Commander Vitaly. “I have twenty-three seamen and four officers on board. They took their positions quickly and are in control, as our supply ship and this fishing vessel are quite similar. In general, the trawler is in well maintained, and it is now being equipped with military communication equipment. Another crew, that I assume is related to you, is installing electronic equipment, of which I don’t know many details.”
“Better that you don’t know”, General Okhramenko said dryly. This was the first time he had spoken at the meeting.
“By the way, how far can the cranes extend beyond the deck and how much can they lift?” Colonel Yevgeni asked.
“In general”, Commander Vitaly said, leafing through some papers, “The ship has very powerful cranes, as they need to lift fishing nets with huge amounts of fish from the sea. Here is the data. We have two large cranes, one on the stern and one on the bow, with a lifting capacity of up to four and a half tons each, and there are two more, one on the portside and one on the starboard, with a lifting capacity of three tons each. Regarding the length of the arms, I…”
Dimitri interrupted the commander.
“It doesn’t matter now. There are two more things that that I need from you, Commander. Tonight, we will be loading a bomb weighing one ton onto your ship. Also, we are sending several ordnance personnel and operators of electronic equipment on board your ship. Eight men in total, who are actually the most important people in all our maneuvers. Now, the most important thing for you to do is to return quickly to your ship and personally supervise all the preparations, as tomorrow at 0800 hours we set out to sea, to the area of your naval range.”