Kamenski raised his heavy brows, for the letter X at the end of the number designated it as an nuclear weapon, and Kapustin was telling him something very significant here. “It was fired?” He said, an incredulous look on his face. “Where?”
“I have not yet been able to determine that.”
“Have you checked the satellite data?”
“Of course, but there was nothing there for the Pacific, which is where I am guessing the weapon would have been fired. I expanded my request to look over sea lanes in the Atlantic and Arctic as well, but I won’t hear on that for a day or so.”
“My, my, this is most unusual. You know, Gerasim, I took my grandson down to the harbor to have a look at that ship. My God, it looks like it’s been through hell! That damage aft is very telling. From what I could see the ship was struck from above and the hull blew out from the inside.”
“They claim it was a missile misfire.”
“Missile misfire? Nonsense. The only missiles mounted aft are SAMs, correct? Don’t tell me any one of them could penetrate the deck and blow a hole that size in the hull. I saw the new paint job too, but they are covering something up there, Gerasim. Scrape it away and I think you will find smoke residue, or even flash damage from explosives.”
“I thought as much, Pavel, but it leads me to some very uncomfortable conclusions. I will tell you something more…There was damage you could not see from the quay-below the water line, right amidships. Yes! I sent my wolf hound Volkov down to have a look, and we discovered significant hull damage. They used the new at-sea hull replacement panels to cover it up, and then did a fairly good repair job from the inside, but the ship will have to go to dry dock eventually. It’s holed beneath the water line. They claim that was from the Orel incident, but honestly, can you imagine that Volsky would have sustained such damage and then decided to sail from north of Jan Mayen to Vladivostok?”
“Astounding,” said Kamenski. “More astounding that NATO wasn’t all over the ship like flies on honey. I still cannot believe that Kirov slipped by them like that. You say the ship was conducting live fire exercises? How could they fail to see it on satellite? What route did they take?”
“Karpov says they went north of Greenland. That, too, is interesting. He claims they found some weak sea ice and a lot of open floes.”
“That sea lane has been open since 2012,” said Kamenski. “Global warming has made the trip from much easier these days. It is still much less traveled than other routes, but I can’t imagine he sailed south round either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. Not with a gash in his side as your just described.”
“I quite agree, and if he did go north then it might have been possible to evade NATO patrols for a time. They are not as vigilant up there, and I am willing to bet that most of their assets were sent to snoop on our recovery effort for the Orel.”
“Most likely,” Kamenski agreed. ‘But firing missiles at ice bergs would attract a lot of attention too, yes? And Kirov left in late July. What were they doing all that time?”
“Volsky took the ship down into the South Pacific. I think that is probably where they conducted most of their exercises, away from prying eyes. Only a submarine might find them there, and it’s a very big ocean.”
“Yes, but a special warhead? Have you asked the senior officers what happened to the weapon?”
“Not yet, but that is coming soon.” Kapustin shrugged. “There is one other possibility… the explosion that killed the Orel was found to be a nuclear detonation. I made that inspection myself.”
Kamenski was shocked by the implication. “You think they fired on Orel?”
“It crossed my mind, though I have no evidence of this. They claim Orel had an accident, but perhaps it was here-on Kirov — and they are trying to cover it up. We will see what my investigation turns up, but given the situation in the Pacific, I wonder if I’ll have time to even complete my report before the whole place blows up.”
“Ah…You are worried about those island disputes? All they will do is cruise about with a few destroyers and test fire a missile or a deck cannon. Nothing more will come of it. They’ve been haggling for those territorial waters ever since the oil rights were disputed.”
“It’s not the little islands I’m worried about. It’s the big island.”
“Taiwan?”
“What else, Pavel? There’s a lot of movement, ships, planes, missiles. I think they mean to do something about it this time, and soon.”
“You believe the Chinese will actually attempt military occupation?”
“They’re loading nine amphibious ships even as we speak, and if I know that, then so do the Americans.”
“This sounds serious, Gerasim. What does Moscow think?”
“Moscow? They can’t even keep track of ship’s rosters these days! No, Moscow is likely to muddle along until things get out of hand. Oh, I heard they were moving some strategic bomber assets east at the request of China, and of course, Kirov was sent here for a reason, yes? It’s a pity the ship won’t do us much good if it comes to a fight. We can re-arm her, easily enough, but that hull damage will take weeks, even months, and those big canvas tarps aft you might have seen were covering up the rest of the damage. Her entire aft citadel was blown to pieces. They say one of the KA-40’s was aloft when Orel went up and came right down on the ship there, weapons load and all. I went over the area, but they cleaned it up very thoroughly. I did find a little wreckage from a KA-40 there but it looked too staged to my discerning eye. What do I do with this mess, Pavel? A war is coming, and we will need this ship and crew more than ever now.”
“What are you going to do about it? Are you going to challenge Volsky? You know how respected that man is. Papa Volsky won’t be moved aside easily.”
Kapustin sighed. “Exactly. And with this business with the Chinese brewing up I’m having second thoughts about my whole investigation. Yes, I could go back to Moscow and raise a big stink. Suchkov would kiss me on my backside. Then when things blow up out here where will Volsky be? He’ll be in Moscow wrestling with Suchkov. Abramov’s health is declining and, quite frankly, we need Volsky more than ever now. He’s called Papa Volsky because the men love him so much, but up north they called him King of the Northern Sea, and he’s earned that title. So now what do I do? Should I write up a shit list and send it to Moscow while we watch the Chinese start a major incident? Because you know damn well we can’t sit this one out. If China attacks the Japanese again, or moves on Taiwan, then we’re in the borscht too. And mark my words, they are going to do this. I’m almost certain of it this time.”
“Well…” Kamenski thought for some time. “No one says you have to file your report tomorrow, Gerasim. Take your time, dicker around, sit down with Volsky and see what he has to say. If China is about to square off with Taiwan, yes, we’re in it too. And you know damn well that the Japanese and the Americans and then everyone else is in it as well. So If I were you, I would have second thoughts about starting a ruckus with Volsky. It’s bad enough that Kirov is sitting there covered up with tarps, and hull panels, and fresh paint. What sense would it make to try and put a torpedo into Volsky now? We’ll need him here. What you say about Abramov is very true. He had a heart attack last month.”
Kapustin nodded, leaning over his soup and slurping it heartily. “You know, Pavel. If they put me on an island and I could only have one thing to eat, it would be soup. I can’t live without it, and you are correct, the Pacific Fleet can’t live without Volsky at the moment. Yes, I can take my time. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about this Kirov business. Something tells me we’re headed for the abyss this time, my friend. In that event, I think the best we could do is get Kirov seaworthy again, any way we can. I think we are going to need every last ship we have now, even those rusting old Udaloys.”
“I think you would be wise to do this,” said Kamenski. “I have my own suspicions about that ship, but in the face of imminent war, what you say makes perfect sense. It’s a pity we never finished the refit on Admiral Lazarev.”
There was a quiet ding, and Kapustin excused himself, reaching into his pocket for a cell phone. It was Volkov reporting on his investigation of the ship’s roster. The Inspector listened carefully, his eyes darkening, and then said he would follow up on the matter tomorrow.
“Excuse me again, my friend, but that was my wolf chasing sheep again. That damage to Kirov caused casualties. Thirty-six men died.”
“That is a shame,” said Kamenski.
