The weekend passed without any change. Four times they accessed the American satellite, and each time there was confirmation that the Xia had not moved. At 0900 on Monday morning, June 26, however, one of Frank’s sonar operators thought he picked up something out to the west: “Hard to explain…just a slight rise in the background level…doesn’t sound much like weather.”
The CO joined Frank standing behind the operator’s chair, and several minutes went by before they picked up any further sight or sound. “There it is again, sir…right there…we got faint engine lines coming up. Relative one-twenty-five…”
“Come right to one-thirty-five to resolve ambiguity.”
Seawolf swerved around while the sonar men tried to resolve the bearing. It took more than 10 minutes because the lines continued to be faint. Kyle Frank called it at 0922: “Bearing two-eight-zero.”
By now the “waterfall” screen was showing a much more definite picture of the engine lines, and the computer was scanning and comparing at high speed, trying to pinpoint the exact ship they were locating.
“It’s a submarine, sir, no doubt about that,” said Frank as his eyes darted from one screen to another. For a few moments he was silent, and then he blurted out, “Jesus, sir, it’s Russian…right, here we got ourselves a real live Russky…look at that. It’s a Kilo-class boat, I’d guess ten thousand yards off our starboard quarter…what the hell’s that doing here?”
“Possibly the same as us — waiting for the Xia?” asked Rothstein.
“I doubt it,” replied Judd. “The damn thing’s stacked with Russian technology anyway. I’d be surprised if there was anything they don’t know about it. They’re all best friends these days. They don’t need to spy. I’d say the Kilo was Chinese — I think they have about five of them now, and one of them is out here on some kind of exercise.”
“Shall we go a little closer, sir…see if we can learn anything?”
“I think we might, Linus. But I don’t want to go too close, maybe five thousand yards off track. Steer course two-five-zero…make your speed six knots…”
Seawolf edged in closer, and as she did Kyle Frank’s man picked up a new sound, machinery noise only, bearing one-four-zero.
“This is possibly a surface ship, sir, moving left slow or stopped, with a diesel engine running…puts us right between the Kilo and him.”
“I’ll have a look down the bearing, Sonar.” Seawolf’s CO kept the periscope up for a span of about seven seconds. He instantly identified the contact as a 5,000-ton Dazhi-class support ship. The computer told the sonar room it was 40 years old and carried four electrohydraulic cranes and a large stock of torpedoes.
“Know what I think?” said the captain.
But before anyone could answer, Kyle Frank’s sonar operator had picked up another passive contact very close to the Kilo.
“Jesus Christ!” said the operator to himself. “Bastards’ve opened fire on us.” But he was all pro when he made his announcement.
“TORPEDOES…INCOMING…POSSIBLY TWO…BEARING TWO-EIGHT-THREE…BEARING STEADY…”
Lt. Commander Clarke said, “My God, sir…what if they have warheads…STAND BY FULL DECOY PATTERN…we ought to be firing back…these bastards are shooting at us…trying to sink us, sir.”
“Negative, XO,” replied Captain Crocker.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NEGATIVE!” Linus Clarke’s voice was almost out of control. “I’M LOOKING AT TWO TORPEDOES INCOMING FROM A CHINESE SUBMARINE!”
“Sure, Linus. Just shut up for a minute, willya? I’m gonna let ’em go right by. RIGHT STANDARD RUDDER…MAKE YOUR COURSE TWO-EIGHT-THREE.”
“But how the hell do you know they’re going right by, sir?”
“Well, first of all they haven’t gone active. Second, it’s gotta be about a hundred to one against the torpedoes being at the same depth as us. And five hundred to one against them being on the exact right course to hit us. That’s an acceptable risk.”
“POSITIVE TWO TORPEDOES BEARING TWO-EIGHT-THREE…BEARING STILL STEADY, SIR,” called the sonar operator.
“’Course it is,” replied the captain. “We’ve just wandered into a torpedo test-firing exercise. That old Dazhi support ship I saw is acting as a TRV, torpedo recovery vessel — and none of the Chinese on either ship has the remotest idea we’re here. We’d sure know if they did.”
Right now, not for the first time in this submarine, the CO and his XO had totally different mindsets.
Judd Crocker’s thought process had told him with great clarity, Up range from us is an obvious torpedo recovery vessel. The Kilo has loosed a couple off. Neither of them is aimed at me in this small patch of water. I assess it’s at least 5,000 to I against either of the weapons hitting us, and even if one did, it plainly does not have a warhead, and it would not be in any way terminal.
Linus Clarke’s view was diametrically opposed: We are virtually in enemy waters. These bastards are shooting. Jesus Christ! My captain has placed our submarine right in the path of the torpedoes. He refuses to put out decoys. HE ACTUALLY DOES NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING…HE MUST BE OUT OF HIS MIND. It’s a basic law of the universe…cover your ass. My God, a minute from now we could all be dead.
And even as the tortured thoughts of the XO thudded through his brain, the big TEST 96 missiles came cleaving through the water, not increasing in speed from 30 knots, not going active, but nonetheless coming nerve-wrackingly close to USS Seawolf’s position.
“Bearing’s still almost steady, sir…I now have two separate weapon tracks…but they’ll pass either side of us…the first one out to starboard, the second a little farther away to port…no danger, sir, unless they switch on active homing.”
And everyone in the control room area heard the sonar reports.
“WEAPON ONE MOVING RIGHT TWO-NINE-FIVE…LOUDER…CLOSING…NO TRANSMISSIONS ON THE BEARING.
“WEAPON TWO MOVING LEFT TWO-SIX-ZERO…LOUDER…NO TRANSMISSIONS ON THE BEARING.”
A minute later: “WEAPON ONE MOVING RIGHT FAST ZERO-ONE-FIVE…” The tension in his voice was dying. An air of calm was returning. “Weapon two moving left fast two-zero-five…”
Then, “Weapon one moving right, zero-six-five…slightly fainter…Doppler opening…weapon two moving left, one-six-three, fainter. Doppler opening.”
“Guess you called that one, sir. They just went right by as if we were just a little old hole in the water,” said Rothstein, smiling and, as he often did, contemplating the complexities of the human mind. Here we had a scenario, not four minutes long, not one minute ago, and we had two highly educated people simultaneously seeing that scenario from totally opposing perspectives. If they’d been in a courtroom giving evidence, the jury would have been in complete confusion. And rightly so. “Almost all evidence,” said Cy to no one in particular, “is colored by opinion. Therefore it should largely be ignored because it is unreliable in the extreme.”
“Well, my reasoning wasn’t that difficult,” said the CO. “The Chinese obviously did not have a warhead fitted or the Dazhi wouldn’t have been right in the path of the weapons. They were just testing tube functioning, or maybe something more complicated, maybe even some kind of a tactical trial. I don’t think anyone’s ever seen a full-functioning explosive trial. Certainly not with a TRV downrange.