“And prior to that?”
“They’re good divers.” Did he sound apologetic?
“So they’re rookies at submarine work.” Nathan raised his voice. “Admiral, if they’re out there they need to know boat work. There could be nets, mines, underwater trips and all manner of things a boat’s diver knows about.” The XO looked across at Nathan, he thought, Boss he’s an Admiral. Nathan lowered his voice. “These people don’t know shit about any of that sir. Innes could be the difference between this working out and it turning into a giant clusterfuck.” Nathan paused. “I’ll take one of em. Innes can’t nursemaid two.”
“Commander Blake…” Oh shit, the XO thought, here it comes.
He cut the Admiral off. “That’s final, sir.”
The Admiral knew it was time to give ground. “Ok, one then. I’ll bring Hugo Alves and the bugs around later. You’re getting four, three to deploy and one spare.”
As the Admiral got up to leave, he took a RAM stick out of his pocket and handed it over to Nathan. “Here are pictures and documents of what we know about the Islands. You’ll know they’re top secret.”
“I understand Sir.”
“I’ll be back later on, Commander.”
Larry waited for Sutton to leave and then smiled. “You were pretty hard on the Admiral there.”
“I know, but it’s right, you never know what it is you’re going to find out there. I’m not a boats diver but I’ve tried it when I was on USS NYC. The dark, the bad visibility, the confusion. You’re working partly on instinct.”
The XO nodded. “Yeah, I’ll feel better having Innes out there with him.”
“I’ll give him the good news when we’ve sailed.”
“Let me know when you’re going to do it.” Larry grinned.
“Why are you going to give him a hard time and laugh at him?” asked Nikki.
“No. I’m going to the other end of the godamned boat.”
Nathan laughed. “Nikki, can you get your tablet, let’s take a look at these files?” They spent over an hour going through them.
“I knew this was going on, but not to this extent,” said Nathan.
“Yeah,” added Nikki, “they mean business. They must have cost a big pot of money.”
She got up and paced the room. “He said we’d be getting three of these bugs and one spare. I’d say Fiery Cross Reef is probably number one on our list. Then either Johnson South or Mischief Reefs.”
The XO nodded. “I agree, Skipper.”
“We deploy three. Yeah, let’s start with Fiery Cross. We do need to know more about these bugs, before we can put too much detail down. Come on Nikki, you named the last operation and that went well. So you get to name these.”
She looked through the files.
“Ok, Fiery Cross Reef is named after a British Tea Clipper who ran aground there. So that’ll be Operation Tea Leaves. Johnson Reef was the site of a skirmish between China and Vietnam, so that’ll be operation Skirmish. Mischief Reef may be named after the Tea Clipper Mischief, who sailed around these seas. So that’s Operation Clipper.”
Nathan smiled. “You got it. Open a file Nikki, Operation Tea Leaves. Let’s get to it.”
SOME HOURS LATER, A voice called down the sail.
“Hey, down there.”
The COB looked up to see a face staring down at him.
“Can we have a lift up here? We’ve got stuff to carry.”
“And who do you think you are? Get your ass off my fucking submarine.”
“I’m Admiral Sutton, get Commander Blake up here now.” The COB was mortified, he looked up with an open mouth.
“Right sir.” Within a few minutes the COB, Nathan and four ratings where on the quayside.
A truck with open rear doors was backed up to the boat’s access way; inside were four wooden boxes. They were around twenty inches square and five feet in length.
Admiral Sutton led over a short man, powerfully built, with swarthy skin and brown eyes.
“Commander Blake, this is Chief Petty Officer Hugo Alves.” They saluted each other.
Nathan saw the silver badge of a First Class Diver, a diver’s hard hat with fish curling around the neck.
“Welcome to Stonewall Jackson, CPO Alves.”
“Thank you sir. I’ve got slings in the van, could we get the bugs into the boat?”
“Yes, COB?”
Seamus ‘Dick’ Cox organised the ratings to help with the boxes. Men carefully lowered them down into the boat.
“Where do you want them, Dick?” asked a seaman.
“Stow them in the torpedo room.”
The boat was now fully replenished, but would meet a replenishment vessel in the Sulu Sea southwest of the Philippines, as they’d have voyaged 1,200 miles by then.
Nathan and the XO stood on the sail. “Take her out, Sayers.”
“Cast off.” He spoke into the microphone to the control room, down below. “Twenty degrees right rudder. Astern three knots.” The boat came about. “Centre rudder, ten knots.” They crossed Apra Harbour and left south of the breakwater. The sun had gone down and they headed west into an orange sky.
“It’s going to be a tough one, Larry. The PLAN is a lot more formidable than the North Korean People’s Navy.”
“I know, and they want those rocks so bad.”
“The boat’s going to need to be at her best out there. Nothing else will do.”
The two men climbed down the ladder and sealed the outer and inner hatches. Nathan went into the control room. “Set a course for the Sulu Sea.”
“Two two five degrees, sir,” said Kaminski.
“Make for that course, Planesman. Flood one and two, down bubble twenty. Open and trim vents fore and aft. Dive, dive, dive. Make your depth 70. Speed 17 knots.”
“Two two five degrees, 70 at 17, aye sir.” The deck sloped to forward and men leaned backwards to remain upright. On the surface, the huge bow wave climbed its way up the sail, until it was covered.
The USS Stonewall Jackson embarked on the most dangerous patrol for decades.
Chapter 3
NATHAN KNOCKED ON THE door to the Goat Locker; the Petty Officers’ quarters and rec room. “CPO Innes?”
“Sir he’s reading. I’ll get him.” Nathan heard the CPO in the bunkroom.
“You in there? Coz all I see is that jack off curtain. Come on Innes, quit beating your dick, the skipper’s here to see you.”
Innes came out looking like he’d been asleep.
“Could I have a word outside, CPO?”
They walked out into the companionway.
“Innes, we’re going to need divers where we're going. It’s a job for two. They wanted to place two divers aboard, but I said that we had a perfectly good one already.”
“Thank you sir.”
“You won’t say that when you find out what you’ll have to do. I did allow one on board, Hugo Alves, a Navy first class diver. You’ll be working with him.”
“I can do that. I’ve worked with Pork Chops before, sir.”
“Pork Chops?”
“A Portuguese, sir, Alves is a Portuguese name.”
“Ok, I’ll introduce him later. Get back to your bunk, Innes.”
NATHAN RETURNED TO the control room and removed the microphone from its holder.
“All hands, all hands.
We’re off on a new mission. It’s going to be difficult and dangerous, the Joint Chiefs wanted a big stick for this one. So they came to us. We’ll need every swinging dick on top form for this one. We’re going into the South China Sea, where we’ll likely encounter the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN. I want you to know what we’re up to, because we’ll need to be at the top of our game. The South China Sea’s been disputed for centuries, but tension has risen recently. China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei all have competing claims. China has been creating artificial islands in the South China Sea, growing small islands and former reefs forming the outcrops into permanent outposts by reclaiming land with millions of tons of imported rubble and concrete. Uncle Sam is pissed at this. They now include runways and ports. They’re frequented by ships and aircraft of the PLA and have their own surface to air missiles systems.