“You know what,” said Holly, “I’ll bet a dollar to a cent, it’s some political bullshit.”
Le-Saux nodded. “You’re right, has to be. It’ll be some limp dick at The Department of State, trying to undermine some opposition grouping. Or some lobbying wonk has scored a hit. Assholes.”
“I think all we can do is maintain contact until we get fuel low,” said Holly.
“We could always give the gooks down there the ass twitches by dropping a few well wide of the target. Better not. We might get chewed out by the Commander.”
“Yeah, well we should be good for another hour and a half on station. Gooks got lucky today.”
“SIGNALS OFFICER, RAISE the communications buoy,” Captain Kwon Hwan of the Korean People’s Navy ordered.
“Sir.” The buoy streamed up to the surface held on its cable.
“What’s our position, Lieutenant Rhee?” The Communications Officer read off the latitude and longitude to the Navigation Officer, who plotted it on the chart.
“Sir, the northern point of Rebun Island is bearing one hundred five degrees, twelve kilometres.”
“Planesman, come to two three zero. Maintain speed.”
Seopung was west of Japan’s northernmost Island of Hokkaido and would commence her run down the Northern Sea of Japan towards Sinpo.
“Notify East Fleet Command, we are running into the rendezvous point. ETA twenty six hours.”
“Sonar Sir, multiple contacts heading our way from the Southwest. Range twenty one kilometres. The leading vessel’s screw count indicates that it’s a Dogsuli class frigate.”
This would be the escort group. Kwon waited until they were five hundred meters away, then raised the periscope and flashed a signal.
“Seopung. Seopung. ID U46X879E. Returning to Sinpo. Over.” The reply was flashed from the Dogsuli.
“Welcome back. Hero boat Seopung. Maintain contact every two hours. Over.”
Kwon flashed an acknowledgement.
CAPTAIN PETER ‘PEDRO’ Gomez slid the periscope down. He sighed and looked at Lieutenant Commander Muntz, his Executive Officer. The SSN USS Key West had been shadowing the escort group since it left Korea.
“That’s it, she’s joined the escort now for her return in triumph. Bastards. And what am I doing here, in command of a boat that could send half the North Korean Navy to the bottom? I’m sitting here with my dick in my hand.” He shook his head. “Fucking politicians, my daughter’s Barbie doll has more balls.” Pedro slapped the Conn’s rails. “Flood forward one and two. Open and trim vents fore and aft. Make for depth. Down bubble twenty, make your depth seventy. Shadow the task group, XO. But stay a couple of miles back, we can’t upset them.” He unclipped the microphone. “All hands, All hands. We’ve shadowed the North Korean boat into the Sea of Japan where she’s met her escort. I could sink her if allowed, but I’m not. It’s a farce. The good news is that we’ll be tying up at the quayside in Kansas City later. The drinks will be on the COB. Captain out.” Captain Gomez shook his head again and threw his hands in the air as he walked aft to his cabin.
FIFTEEN HOURS LATER, Seopung surfaced off Sinpo and made her way to her pier at the base on Mayang-Do Island.
Less than two hours later, a helicopter touched down close to the harbour front. Four commandoes got out and secured the area, he then emerged, the Chairman of the Worker’s Party of Korea. Kim Jong-un himself had arrived, to hand out medals to the crew.
PYONGYANG’S KCTV NEWS broadcast began. Ri Chun-hee wore her distinctive bright pink Choson-ots.
“Today, in this year of glory, we have cast down our foe in terror. Our Hero submarine Seopung has launched a ballistic missile from just off the enemy coast. It came down on target in the central Pacific. With this weapon, we can deal out our vengeance to the foe.
Never will we kneel to the evil dogs. As long as we have our very capable Korean People's Army and the leadership of Marshall Kim Jong-Un, we don't have any enemy we cannot conquer.”
THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S Republic of Korea had the upper hand, and that didn’t go down well at all in Washington. They’d played their card and now that card was under the Sea of Japan, approaching the North Korean coast.
Chapter 3
“RIG TRIM TO ASCEND fore and aft. Planesman come to periscope depth. All stop, Chief Engineer rig for snorkel charging.”
“Aye, Sir. Now at periscope depth.”
“Sir, the engine is running, charging underway,” said the Engineering Officer.
“XO, Kaminski, war committee,” said Nathan, “Weaps, you have the conn.” The three of them walked aft to the wardroom.
Nathan sat, leaned forward and looked into their eyes.
“OK. We’re about to scout out the submarine’s lair. I’m going to top off the batteries here first. Let’s have a tactical discussion. First, what do we know about Sinpo?” Nikki sat up and patted her Tablet.
“The Republic of Korea Navy has done some very detailed underwater surveys of the area, of course, they’ve shared those with us. We’ve got them in the Dummies guide.”
“Right, how do we get in?”
The dummies guide to PACRIMFLT was the nickname for the guide to Pacific Rim Fleets. Its real name was more numeric than text.
“I took a look, either east or west channels look possible, but they could have rigged up more extensive submarine nets.”
“I looked at it too. It seems the normal channel in there is from the west, not sure about the east,” said Larry.
“Ok,” said Nathan, “let’s say we get in. They can have nets strung up, shielding the Seopung. So torpedoes may do some damage, depending on where the nets are. We can’t launch a harpoon, not enough room. But they may be so confident that it’s wide open, allowing us to get a Mk 48 CBASS up her ass.”
“Then we have to get out.” Larry scowled.
“What do we think the chances are of getting a fish into her if we get in there?” asked Nikki.
Larry stroked his moustache as he thought. “I’d say a one third chance.”
Nathan nodded. “I’d say that’s about right.”
“Then we have to get her out,” said Nikki, “our best bet is the way that I suggested before.”
“Jeez Nikki, I’m the CO. Why don’t you just get a knife from the galley and cut my nuts off?”
“Well, come up with a better way Nathan. Because that’s what we’ll have to do.”
HE KNEW SHE MAY ULTIMATELY be right, it was a tough one, but they had a 30 percent chance.
“First, let’s try the east channel, we migh…”
The intercom sounded. “Commander to the control room, we have a contact.” All three rushed back to the control room.
“We’re detecting a submarine contact, range about four miles. Depth, one to one fifty feet.”
“Engineering, rig for snorkel down.”
Within a minute Engineering replied. “Snorkel retracting engine shutdown.”
“Flood one. Open and trim vents fore and aft. Make for depth. Down bubble twenty five, make your depth one sixty. Speed six knots. Bearing two sixty degrees.”
“Fifty at six knots aye Sir.”
USS Stonewall Jackson slipped deeper down into the dark cold North Pacific, and the few surface eddies, the only trace that she’d been there, soon disappeared.
“Sonar. ID?”
“Sir, it’s a Sang-O. I can’t tell whether it’s a I or a II.”
“Weaps, armament?”