"Chief," said the admiral, taking from his pocket a set of electrical diagrams and handing them to Wong, "are you familiar with this setup?"
The engineer bent over the diagrams and clicked his tongue. "Yes, sir. We tested it in transit from Norfolk."
"I know," said Netts. "Well, you had better get busy."
"Aye aye. Admiral."
Netts examined the engineering log, noting that nothing extraordinary had happened to the propulsion plant since Norfolk. He paused a moment to stare at the turbines. "Pretty nice steamboat you have here, Chief," he said, and headed forward for his briefing with Springfield. Damn, he loved these steamboats.
Sorensen and Fogarty were sitting in the mess with forty other sailors when the loudspeaker piped attention. Sorensen stared unseeing into his coffeecup and gritted his teeth, wishing he were on watch so he wouldn't have to listen to a speech.
"Attention all hands, attention all hands. The captain is going to address the crew."
Springfield's voice resounded throughout the ship. "As I am sure all of you are aware, we have a distinguished visitor aboard. Admiral Netts has come from the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations to give Barracuda a special assignment, and he is going to tell you about it now."
"Gentlemen," said Netts, "today on all the oceans of the world we face a far more powerful and dangerous adversary than even the Fascist powers of Germany, Italy and Japan that we defeated in the Second World War.
"In the last decade, under the leadership of Admiral Gorshkov, the Soviet Navy has been built up from a coastal defense force into the second most powerful navy in the world. If the Russians were to attack us today I'm here to tell you we would have a hell of a time stopping them.
"If I were Admiral Gorshkov and I were planning an attack on the U.S. Navy, the first thing I would do would be to sink as many American missile submarines as I could find. In all likelihood, I wouldn't find many, if any at all. Therefore, I would attack what I could find. And that, gentlemen, means aircraft carriers. You just can't hide one of those damned things. An aircraft carrier may be a dandy platform for launching airstrikes against peasants in Viet Nam, but Viet Nam does not have attack submarines like Barracuda capable of shooting back.
"I'm letting my hair down with you people because I think of us as a family. So please indulge me.
"Our navy has spent and spent building aircraft carriers and carrier groups, and intends to spend more. In my opinion, an opinion which I do not share with many people in Washington, this is wrong. Terribly wrong. If war comes with the Russians, those carriers will be sitting ducks. They will be blown out of the water in the first fifteen minutes of the war, and then it will be up to the submarine forces to carry on the fight.
"The Russians will attack with strength and cunning. Their submarines have their problems, no question, but in those first fifteen minutes they will be able to inflict terrible damage. No question about that either. They will destroy the fixed arrays that enable us to track their subs through the oceans. They will render our communications system useless. They will attack our ports, our naval stations, our fuel and supply depots. All that is to be expected. What my superiors do not wish to believe is that at the end of the first phase of the war at sea our carrier groups will be clouds of radioactive dust.
"Why am I telling you all this? Because in the next five days your mission will be to prove the truth of it."
"Now, I'm sure Admiral Gorshkov would be proud to have a ship like Barracuda in his fleet. I know I am, but for the next five days you will be playing the role of a Soviet crew, and Barracuda will act as though it were part of the Black Sea Fleet.
"This ship is going to demonstrate that one attack submarine can penetrate the defenses of an entire carrier group and sink the queen bee. You can't put a live charge into Kitty Hawk, but you can sure as hell smash a pair of dummies into her hull and give everybody on her flight deck a good soaking.
"In my opinion the future of the Navy is at stake here. For the first time ever there will be no restrictions on the operations of the attacking submarine in an exercise of this sort. Captain Springfield will have absolute discretion to go where he wants, as deep as he wants and as fast as he wants. You men will do whatever it takes to sink the Hawk.
"That is all. God bless you."
When the speech ended a cheer erupted in the control room and swept like a wave through the ship. By the time it reached the mess, the crew was chanting, "Nuke the Hawk, nuke the Hawk…"
Fogarty felt that Netts had confirmed his private feelings about a nuclear war at sea. He raised his voice with the others. It felt good to have something to cheer about.
Only Sorensen kept silent, the muscles in his jaw tightening. He slammed his coffeecup onto the table and stood up. The mess instantly quieted.
"You people are crazy," he said. "This isn't going to be a joyride. The fleet will have six subs looking for us." He looked over the young faces in the mess. "And while half the fucking U.S. Navy is chasing us around in circles, there's still a Russian sub loose out there. Keep it in mind."
He sat down and shook his head. The mess started to clear out.
"What gets me," Sorensen said to Willie Joe, "is that this bullshit could get us killed just so the admiral can boost his career—"
"Cool off, Ace," said Willie Joe. "This is gonna be fun. The fleet doesn't stand a chance."
"I've known about this for two weeks, but I couldn't say anything. It's going to get crowded down there. Seven subs in one tiny piece of ocean, six of them and us." Sorensen sighed. "Okay, Willie Joe, you and Fogarty go up to sonar and start running signature programs for the fleet's subs. Give Davie the word."
"Aye aye. You take it easy there. Ace."
Sorensen rustled up a sandwich from Stanley. By now the mess was deserted. He took a bite of BLT, chewed without tasting, gave up and lit a cigarette.
"That was real cute, Sorensen."
He turned around and saw Pisaro leaning against the bulkhead, arms folded across his chest.
"Evening, Commander."
"You trying to put the fear of God into those boys, or what?"
"We're supposed to be pros down here, sir, not a bunch of jerkoffs."
"What about esprit de corps? Isn't that worth something?"
Sorensen smiled. "Tell it to the Marines, sir. No disrespect intended. My only concern is the safety of this ship."
"I know that. And we both know that on this exercise the safety of the ship will be in your hands. If you're a little edgy, I need to know."
"I'm all right."
"You lay off the amphetamines."
Sorensen raised his eyebrows and stared at the XO.
In the sonar room Fogarty said, "Willie Joe, what's with Sorensen?"
"He figures anything but chasing Russians is a waste of time."
"Do you?"
"I just put in my time, man. It don't make any difference to me."
Hoek stuck his face into the room. "Willie Joe. run a signature program for Swordfish, Shark, Seawolf, Mako, Dragonfish and Stingray."
"Aye aye, sir."
"What's in the log?"
"Just local traffic. Lieutenant. A small ship is approaching the channel."
"Okay, sign it and that's it."
"Aye aye."
Sorensen came in, muttering something unintelligible. "All right," he said. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. Willie Joe, beat it. Take your white suit. Fogarty, check your bottom scanners. We ain't gonna nuke the Hawk if we can't make it out of the bay."