“What's the matter?”
“If there are survivors, hell, we might squash one this way. I just told him to take it easier. God damn, you're right. And I thought you were crazy.”
“What do you mean?” Callaghan shouted again, waving his firefighters to put their spray on the tank also.
“There may be survivors in there. This bomb was a hell of a lot smaller than they told me on the phone.”
“ Maine, this is Sea Devil One-Three,” the P-3C Orion called. “We're about forty minutes out from your position. What seems to be the problem?”
“We have screw and shaft damage, and we have an Akula in the neighborhood, last fix five-zero thousand yards southwest,” Ricks answered.
“Roger that. We'll see if we can drive him off for you. We'll report when we get on station. Out.”
“Captain, we can do three knots, let's do that, north, open as much as we can,” Claggett said.
Ricks shook his head. “No, we'll stay quiet.”
“Sir, our friend out there must have copied the collision transient. He will be coming this way. We've lost our best sonar. Smart move is to evade as best we can.”
“No, the smart move is to stay covert.”
“Then at least launch a MOSS.”
“That makes sense, sir,” the weapons officer thought.
“Okay, program it to sound like we are now, and give it a southerly course.”
“Right.” Maine 's number-three torpedo tube was loaded with a MOSS, a Mobile Submarine Simulator. Essentially a modified torpedo itself, the MOSS contained a sonar transducer connected to a noise generator, instead of a warhead. It would radiate the sound of an Ohio-class submarine, and was designed to simulate a damaged one. Since shaft damage was one of the few reasons that an Ohio might make noise, that option was already programmed in. The weapons officer selected the proper noise track, and launched the weapon a few minutes later. The MOSS sped off to the south, and two thousand yards away, it began radiating.
The skies had cleared over Charleston, South Carolina. What had fallen as snow in Virginia and Maryland had been mainly sleet here. The afternoon sun had removed most of that, returning the antebellum city to its normally pristine state. As the Admiral commanding Submarine Group Six watched from the tender, two of his ballistic-missile submarines started down the Cooper River for the sea and safety. He wasn't the only one to watch. One hundred ninety miles over his head, a Soviet reconnaissance satellite made its pass, continuing up the coast to Norfolk, where the sky was also clearing. The satellite downlinked its pictures to the Russian intelligence center on Cuba 's western tip. From there it was immediately relayed by communications satellite. Most of the Russian satellites used high-polar orbits, and had not been affected by the BMP. The imagery was in Moscow in a matter of seconds.
“Yes?” the Defense Minister asked.
“We have imagery of three American naval bases. Missile submarines at Charleston and King's Bay are putting to sea.”
“Thank you.” The Defense Minister replaced the phone. Another threat. He relayed it at once to President Narmonov.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the military action taken by the Americans is not merely defensive. Some of the submarines in question carry the Trident D-5 missile, which has first-strike capability. You'll recall how interested the Americans were in forcing us to eliminate our SS-18s?”
“Yes, and they are removing a large number of their Minutemen,” Narmonov said. “So?”
“So, they don't need land-based missiles to make a first-strike. They can do it from submarines. We cannot. We depend on our land-based ICBMs for that.”
“And what of our SS-18s?”
“We're removing the warheads from some of them even as we speak, and if they ever get that damned deactivation facility working, we'll be in full compliance with the treaty — we are now, in fact, just the damned Americans don't admit it.” The Defense Minister paused. Narmonov wasn't getting it. “In other words, while we have eliminated some of our most accurate missiles, the Americans still have theirs. We are at a strategic disadvantage.”
“I have not had much sleep, and my thinking is not at its best,” Narmonov said testily. “You agreed to this treaty document only a year ago, and now you're telling me that we are threatened by it?”
They're all the same, the Defense Minister thought. They never listen, they never really pay attention. Tell them something a hundred times and they just don't hear you!
“The elimination of so many missiles and warheads changes the correlation of forces—”
“Rubbish! We're still equal in every way!” President Narmonov objected.
“That is not the question. The important factor is the relationship between the number of launchers — and their relative vulnerability — and the number of warheads available to both sides. We can still strike first and eliminate the American land-based missile force with our land-based missiles. That is why they were so willing to remove half of theirs. But the majority of their warheads are at sea, and now, for the first time, such sea-based missiles are totally adequate for a disarming first strike.”
“Kuropatkin,” Narmonov said. “Are you hearing this?”
“Yes, I am. The Defense Minister is correct. The additional dimension, if I may say it, is that the reduction in the number of launchers has changed the overall ratio of launchers-to-warheads. For the first time in a generation, a truly disarming first-strike is possible, especially if the Americans are able to decapitate our government with their first strike.”
“And they could do that with the Stealth fighters they put in Germany,” Defense concluded the statement.
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me that Fowler blew up his own city as an excuse to attack us? What madness is this?” Now the Soviet president began to understand fear.
The Defense Minister spoke slowly and clearly. “Whoever detonated that weapon is beside the point. If Fowler begins to think that it was our doing, he has the ability to act against us. Comrade President, you must understand this: technically speaking, our country is on the edge of annihilation. Less than thirty minutes separate their land-based missiles from us. Twenty minutes for their sea-based ones, and as little as two hours from those goddamned invisible tactical bombers, which would be the most advantageous opening move. All that separates us from destruction is the mental state of President Fowler.”
“I understand.” The Soviet president was quiet for half a minute. He stared off at the status board on the far wall. When he spoke, his voice showed the anger that comes from fright. “What do you propose we should do — attack the Americans? I will not do such a thing.”
“Of course not, but we would be well-advised to place our strategic forces on full alert. The Americans will take note of this, and realize that a disarming attack is not possible, and we can settle this affair down long enough for reason to take hold.”
“Golovko?”
The First Deputy Chairman of the KGB shrank from the inquiry. “We know that they are at full alert status. It is possible that our doing the same will provoke them.”
“If we do not, we present ourselves as a much more inviting target.” The Defense Minister was inhumanly calm, perhaps the only man in the room who was fully in control of himself. “We know that the American president is under great stress, that he has lost many thousands of his citizens. He might lash out without thinking. He is much less likely to do so if he knows that we are in a position to respond in kind. We do not dare to show weakness at a time like this. Weakness always invites attack.”
Narmonov looked around the room for a dissenting opinion. There was none. “Make it so,” he told Defense.