duties.
He limped back to his console. 'Weps, warm up the units in tubes three and five. Once we fire, reload both tubes with ADCAPs, secure from ultraquiet if it helps speed up the work.'
'Understood,' Bell said.
'Helm,' Jeffrey ordered, 'follow the bottom, minimum clearance, modified nap-ofseafloor mode.'
'Modified nap-of-seafloor, aye,' Meltzer said.
'COB, trail three hundred feet of the fat-line towed array. We've got to have some baffles coverage.'
'Trail three hundred feet of the TB-16, aye.'
Jeffrey read the nav plot. Challenger was topping thirty knots. They were overtaking the LMRS fast, coming up on mines there wasn't time to classify
'Sonar, stand by on the sail-and chin-mounted active HF mine-avoidance systems.'
'Acknowledged,' Sessions said. He cleared his throat.
Jeffrey launched more noisemakers and jammers, then glanced aft. 'What's taking him so long? Phone Talker, call the senior corpsman to the CACC stat.'
'Sir,' COB said, 'you need to—'
'Yes,' Jeffrey said. 'Phone Talker, pass to all compartments. Captain's down, XO's in command of Challenger.'
'A direct hit, Captain,' Van Gelder said, 'and three secondary explosions from mines in target proximity.'
'Good,' ter Horst said, 'that should break her back quite nicely.'
'Sir,' Van Gelder shouted, 'reactor check valve transients, the Seawolf's running at flank speed! She's altered course, near one zero zero true!'
'That's straight into the active minefield,' ter Horst said. 'Hah! She must be flooding, trying to plane up to the surface. Any ballast blowing sounds?'
'None detected, Captain.'
'Good. Her hydraulics may be down, no valve control or steering.'
'Sir,' Van Gelder said, 'we might have missed the EMBT blow with the explosions. They have an emergency system like ours that's independent of power.'
'What's target depth?'
'Near the bottom, Captain. Her sink rate now just equals how the floor drops off.'
'If they did a blow, it isn't working…Any return fire?'
'Negative, Captain,' Van Gelder said.
Ter Horst smiled. 'Stealth fish, Gunther, works every time. They're clueless where we are.'
'They may catch echoes off our hull with all this bubble noise and reverb, sir, more than we can cancel with our out-of-phase emissions. Or they may just take a snap shot up the corridor.'
'Too true,' ter Horst said, 'so we'll use the bubbles for concealment. Helm, starboard thirty rudder, then port thirty rudder, then steady as you go. Take us to the inshore edge of the safety lane and keep the dispersing blast area between us and the target.' The helmsman acknowledged and the boat banked steeply to starboard, then to port, then leveled off. 'My head is two zero five, sir.'
'We'll turn to port where they did, Gunther,' ter Horst said, 'and follow them in trail. That way we'll be out of line of a snap shot and we can use them as a minesweeper. Arm the antitorpedo rockets just in case.'
'Arm the antitorpedo rockets, aye,' Van Gelder said.
'Target speed?' ter Horst said.
'Tonals show her still accelerating,' Van Gelder said. 'TMA team working now.' Known range and course and bearing rate gave the unknown variable. 'Captain, she's topping thirty-five knots.'
'Let's see how long that lasts. Number One, retrieve the UUV.'
'No contact with the UUV,' Van Gelder said. 'Assess the vehicle destroyed.'
'Not surprising,' ter Horst said. 'Very well, reload tube eight with a nuclear torpedo. Helm, ahead full, do not cavitate.'
'Ahead full, do not cavitate, aye aye,' the helmsman said. 'Turbine room answers steam throttles moving to ahead full, sir.'
'Sonar confirms no cavitation,' Van Gelder said.
'We can't let the Seawolf draw too far ahead,' ter Horst said. 'If we give them any separation, they may go for a nuclear snap shot.'
'They might regardless, Captain,' Van Gelder said.
'If they know they're doomed, they've nothing to lose. They'll try to take us with them.'
'I wish you hadn't said that, Gunther. Very well, prepare to fire tube two. We'll use one of our Russian 65- series conventional heavyweights this time. The target's close, preset attack speed fifty knots. I know, that'll drag it out a bit — I want to make them shit their pants.'
Van Gelder blinked. 'Tube two, aye, preset attack speed fifty knots.' Ter Horst smirked. 'Nine hundred kilograms of good German high explosives ought to finish them off. That's three times the wallop of their puny ADCAPs.'
'Make tube five ready in all respects,' Jeffrey said, 'including valve lineup for punchout with a water slug.' The tube five door was already open. 'Firing point procedures, tube five, snap shot on own ship's course. Shoot.'
'Set,' Lieutenant Bell said over the sound-powered phone. 'Stand by. Fire…Tube five fired electrically.' 'Unit is running normally,' Sessions said.
'Weps,' Jeffrey said, one eye on the tactical display, 'what height off the floor gives us the best area effect on bottom mines?'
'You mean like with an airburst from an A-bomb, sir?'
'Yeah.'
'I'd need to run a calculation.'
'Decide right now.'
'Urn, uh, try one five zero feet, sir.'
'Pass control of the unit to me,' Jeffrey said. He worked his joy stick. He steered the ADCAP over a mine and commanded the warhead to blow. Challenger shook from the string of sympathetic blasts, then shimmied as she passed through churning water.
'Make tube three ready in all respects including a water slug,' Jeffrey said. 'Helm, thirty degrees down angle as we cross the continental shelf. When we're well below the crest, turn hard to port. We need to get away from the fiber-optic line to the LMRS or we'll lose it for sure with the next explosion.'
'Multiple detonations on target bearing!' Van Gelder said, raising his voice above the noise.
'The first one sounded different,' ter Horst said.
Van Gelder studied the sonar screens. 'Confirmed! Captain, initial blast had power spectrum of a Mark 48. Others were our CAPTORs, no arming runs.'
'Did the Americans fire at the Daphne and have a premature?'
'Sir,' Van Gelder said, 'they may be trying to blow a pathway through the mines.'
'Cheeky,' ter Horst said. 'It's a shame their CO has to die. Do we know which boat it is?'
'Propulsion tonals extremely faint,' Van Gelder said, 'cannot determine hull number.'
'We'll find out soon enough, during the salvage operation.'
'Target depression angle rate is positive, sir,' Van Gelder said. 'They're past the continental shelf, their depth increasing fast.'
'Flooding noise?'
'Impossible to tell.'
'Hull-popping sounds?'
'Nothing, Captain,' Van Gelder said.
'Interesting,' ter Horst said. 'Los Angeles — class boats and the Virginias start popping at three hundred meters. Seawolf hulls have stronger steel, thick HY 100, but they'll reach their crush depth soon if this keeps up.'
'Sir,' Van Gelder said, 'we're coming to the shelf escarpment now.'
