was happening out here.
He dumped the man’s body with the others in the dispensary, then stepped back to the open door of the officers’ wardroom where the other three bodies into which they had implanted the Labun canisters had been left.
One at a time he dragged them across the narrow corridor and into the dispensary. When he was finished he was sweating lightly. He checked his watch. It was coming up on three in the morning. It had been less than ten minutes since he had given Captain Makayev the signal that everything was ready here. The auxiliary was capable of making twenty knots in these light seas, which put them another fifteen or twenty minutes out. Over the past weeks while he had been on the mend in a Rome hotel, he had studied in great detail the information Rand had provided them, information which had also been sent to Moscow for Captain Makayev and the others. Included on the disk was the boat’s complete physical layout, as well as information on her mechanical, electronics, and weapons systems, and her patrol station, called ROUNDHOUSE. In the Soviet Navy no mere lieutenant colonel, no matter his family connections, would have been privy to such devastating information. In that respect, at least, Soviet military operations were much more secure. The annapolis was very large as submarines go, over three hundred fifty feet long and displacing nearly seven thousand tons when she was submerged. Driven by a water- cooled nuclear reactor, she was capable of speeds of around forty knots. In addition to her complement of 533- millimeter SUBROC antisubmarine missiles, antiship missiles, and Mark-48 torpedoes, she carried two varieties of the TLAM Tomahawk cruise missile, one of which was loaded with 200-kiloton nuclear warheads for deployment against landbased targets. She was a powerful, expensive, and important weapons system. One the Americans would certainly fight for. “But we will give her back to them, Arkasha” Baranov had said.
“Because there is simply no way for us to get her out of the Mediterranean without detection. We’re bottled But the Mediterranean was a very big body of water. And deep, where secrets could be hidden for a very long time.
Forward, in the radio room, Kurshin pulled the bodies of the two radio operators out into the corridor, Velikanov was just dragging a body out of the control room. He looked up and their eyes met. He seemed on the verge of collapse” When you’re finished, take these forward” Kurshin said. “I’ve taken care of the officers’ wardroom” Velikanov nodded, disappearing through the attack center hatch toward the crew accommodations forward of the sail. If anyone fell apart, he would be the first to go, Kurshin decided. The man would have to be closely watched. The radio room was a tiny equipment-filled space. A bank of three teleprinters was built into the forward bulkhead. One of them was connected to the satellite transceiver on which the Indianapolis had been communicating with Sixth Fleet Headquarters. Kurshin cranked the message off its roller.
280354ZJUL TOP SECRET FM: COMSUBMED TO: USS INDIANAPOLIS
A. CONTINUATION RESCUE OPERATION AUTHORIZED ONLY IF IMMEDIATE LOSS OF LIFE IS PROBABLE.
B. IMPORTANT NO CIVILIAN PERSONNEL BE ALLOWED ABOARD.
C. IMPORTANT YOU IMMEDIATELY REPORT YOUR PRESENT SITUATION.
D. ITALIAN COAST GUARD REPORTS LIBERIAN-REGISTERED MV. LORRELL-E HAS DETECTED SOS AND IS ENROUTE YOUR POSITION. ETA 0430z. RESCUE OPERATIONS WILL BE TURNED OVER TO THEM ASAP. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE, JD.?
KENNY SENDS. xx EOM 280355ZJUL BREAKBREAD
“Fuck your mother” Kurshin swore half under his breath Four-thirty Z-Greenwich mean time-was three-thirty by his watch. They had less than a half hour before the Liberian ship would arrive. Stuffing the message flimsy in his pocket, he stepped out into the corridor. “Speed it up, Doctor, we’ve got company coming” he shouted as he rushed into the attack center and took his portable radio from his equipment bag. The doctor was just coming back from the crew quarters forward. “What? What is it you were shouting”
“There’s a civilian ship on its way to us Should be here in less than a half hour. We’re going to have to be out Of here by then, so hurry up with those bodies”
“I don’t know if — “
“Do it” Kurshin said, the force of his expression taking the doctor back a pace. “Of course”
Kurshin turned and hurried aft through the control room, past the radio and sonar rooms, the dispensary, and finally through the equipment spaces, and missile storage area where he pulled up short for just a moment. The Indianapolis carried eight Tomahawk missiles, four of which were nuclear-armed. Even nestled in their storage racks, their flight fins retracted into the casings, the missiles looked deadly. The raw power here was awesome even to Kurshin. The bodies of three crewmen on the deck heightened the effect. But there was no time. Continuing aft he passed the nuclear reactor itself, only one body crumpled in front of a control panel. Most of the power plant was contained in sealed units or behind hatches labeled with the danger-radiation symbol. He came to the access chamber for the after loading hatch. Two seamen were crunpled on the deck. Ignoring them, Kurshin climbed up to the hatch, undogged it, spun the locking wheel, and popped it open.
Immediately he could smell the sea and the still smoldering Zenzero, and hear the waves washing up against the hull. Pulling himself up on deck, he switched on the portable radio. “Code three” he spoke into the microphone. “Understand” Makayev’s voice came over the speaker. It was their prearranged code that they were on the verge of detection and time was of critical importance. Makayev would be driving the auxiliary as hard as humanly possible through the choppy seas. Kurshin turned and scanned the horizon, almost immediately picking out the white steaming light of the approaching Liberian freighter low on the horizon to the southeast, nearly the same direction Makayev and the others were coming from. He debated warning them, but by now they had almost certainly spotted the lights themselves. Makayev, he’d been assured, was a highly competent submarine driver. He knew what was at stake here. And he knew what it would take to dive the boat and get away. There was nothing left for him to do on deck. Makayev and the others would either arrive in time, or they wouldn’t. At this point the question was academic.
Climbing back down into the boat, Kurshin left the after hatch open and hurried forward, where he began removing bodies from the crucial control and reactor room spaces. Five submariners, a drunken doctor, and an assassin. Even now he didn’t think it was possible.
Captain Kenneth Reid stood just within the doorway to the communications center, sipping a cup of coffee. “Nothing yet” he asked. Chief Petty Officer Sally Powell looked up from her console and shook her head. “But we’ve still got the downlink” She glanced at her board. “Yes, sir. Unless they’ve got a malfunction aboard, they should be receiving us ” Reid was a worrier, had been all of his life. Barely in his forties, his expressive face already showed stress lines, especially around his eyes and mouth. His blood pressure was on the high side of normal for a man his age, and his cholesterol level had gone through the roof with his assignment to Italy. Just now the base doctor was on his ass.
“I’ll be in my office for a minute, buzz me if anything comes in” he said, putting his cup down on top of one of the consoles. “Aye, Sir”
the chief radio operator said. She looked up. “Do you think anything is wrong”
“I don’t know” Reid said, but he was developing a very bad feeling about this one. He walked down the corridor to his office and telephoned the CINCMED, Admiral Ronald Delugio, at his home north of Gaeta.
“Admiral, we still haven’t gotten any reply from the Indianapolis. We’ve got our downlink, but there’s been nothing since their last nearly an hour ago”
“What about that Liberian freighter, Ken? How close is she”
“Should be on the scene within the next few minutes. I’ve held off communicating directly with her”
“No, I don’t want you doing that yet. JD. is a good man, could be he’s just got his hands full. What else have we got in the area” Reid glanced up at his status board. “Not a thing within a few hours. I’ve got an Orion standing by on the apron. Could be out there in under twenty minutes counting roll time”
“All right, listen up, Ken. We’re going to stop screwing around on this one. I’m on my way in. In the meantime, query JD. one more time. Tell him it’s imperative that he report his status. You can put the Orion up, but just for an overflight unless she detects trouble, then she’s authorized to stay on station”
“Will do, Admiral”
“One more thing, Reid” Admiral Delugio said. “Yes, Sir”
