01:32:00, one hour and thirty-two minutes.
“What the hell?” Smith muttered as he watched the digital numbers tick lower. Grabbing the marine radio transmitter, he called to Odyssey.
“Sea Launch platform, this is Coast Guard cutter Narwhal. Over.” After a pause, he tried again. But he was met only with silence.
“Sea Launch director of information, how may I help you?” a soft, feminine voice answered over the phone line.
“This is the Eleventh District U.S. Coast Guard, Marine Safety Group, Los Angeles, central dispatch. We're requesting mission and location status of Sea Launch vessels Odyssey and Sea Launch Commander, please.”
“One moment,” the information director hesitated, shuffling through some papers on her desk.
“Here we are,” she continued. “The launch platform Odyssey is en route to her designated launch site in the western Pacific, near the equator. Her last reported position, as of eight a.m. this morning, was at approximately 18 degrees North Latitude, 132 degrees West Longitude, or roughly seventeen hundred miles east-southeast of Honolulu Hawaii. The assembly and command ship Sea Launch Commander is presently at port in Long Beach undergoing minor repairs. She is expected to depart port tomorrow morning to rendezvous with the Odyssey at the equator, where the Koreasat 2 launch is scheduled in eight days.”
“Neither vessel is currently located at sea off the coast of Southern California?”
“Why no, of course not.”
“Thank you for the information, ma'am.”
“You're welcome,” the director replied before hanging up, wondering why the Coast Guard would think the platform was anywhere near the coast of California.
Smith was too anxious to dally for a response from the Los Angeles Coast Guard Group and brought his vessel closer to the platform. The Coast Guard lieutenant was annoyed at the lack of response from the Odyssey, which had ignored his repetitive radio calls. He finally turned his attention toward the support ship, which had now crept a quarter mile away from the platform. Repeated radio calls to the ship went unanswered as well.
“Sir, she's flying a Japanese flag,” the helmsman noted as the Narwhal moved toward the vessel.
“No excuse for ignoring a marine radio call. Let's move alongside the vessel and I'll try to talk to them over the PA system,” Smith ordered.
As Narwhal moved out of the shadow of the platform, pandemonium struck at once. Coast Guard dispatch broke over the Narwhal's radio with word that the Odyssey was reported a thousand miles away from California and that her support ship was sitting docked in Long Beach. Aboard the Koguryo, a handful of crewmen pushed aside a lower deck siding, revealing a row of large cylindrical tubes pointing seaward. Though in disbelief, Smith's instincts took over, correctly assessing the situation and barking orders before he even realized the words were flowing from his lips.
“Hard to port! Apply full power! Prepare for evasive maneuvers!” But it was too late. The helmsman was just able to swing the Narwhal broadside to the Koguryo when a plume of white smoke suddenly billowed from the larger ship's lower deck. The smoke seemed to build at its source before a bright flash burst forth. Then, out of the smoke, a Chinese CSS-N-4 Sardine surface-to-surface missile erupted from its launch tube, bursting horizontally away from the ship. Watching mesmerized from the bridge, Smith had the distinct sensation of being shot between the eyes with an arrow as he observed the missile charge directly toward him across the water. The nose tip of the missile seemed to smile at him in the fractional second before it smashed into the bridge just a few feet away.
Carrying 365 pounds of high explosives, the Chinese missile had enough demolition power to sink a cruiser. Striking at short range, the cutter had no chance. The nineteen-foot missile ripped-into the Narwhal and exploded in a massive fireball, blasting the Coast Guard ship and its crew into fiery bits that scattered across the water. A small black mushroom cloud rose like a macabre tombstone above the devastation as the flames died quietly on the water's surface. The incinerated white hull, the only material remains of the ship left intact, clung to the sea's surface in a futile battle to stay afloat. Around her, flaming chunks of debris blazed in the water before slowly sinking to the seabed. The smoldering hull clung to the surface for nearly fifteen minutes before the fight left her and the last remains of the Narwhal slipped under the surface with a gasping sizzle and a wisp of steam.
My God, they've fired a missile at the Narwhall' Captain Burch cried out as he watched the Coast Guard ship disappear in a cloud of smoke and fire two miles ahead of the Deep Endeavor. Del-gado immediately attempted to raise the Narwhalon the marine radio as the others peered out the bridge window. Summer grabbed a pair of high- power binoculars but there was little to be seen of the Narwhal, its shattered remains obscured by a thick veil of smoke. Looking past the smoke, she scanned the platform and the adjacent support ship, which she studied for a long while.
“There's no response,” Delgado said quietly after repeated attempts to contact the Coast Guard vessel were met with silence.
“There may be survivors in the water,” Aimes stuttered, stunned at the sudden demise of a boat and crew he knew well.
“I can't dare move any closer,” Captain Burch replied with angst. “We're completely unarmed, and they may well be aiming their next missile at us as we speak.” Burch then turned and ordered his helmsman to stop engines and hold their present position.
Delgado spoke to Aimes. “The captain is right. We'll call for help but we can't endanger our crew. We don't even know who or what we are up against.”
“It's Kang's men,” Summer said, handing the binoculars to her brother.
“You're sure?” Aimes asked.
She nodded silently with a shiver as Dirk surveyed the vessels. : “She's right,” he said slowly. “The support ship. It's the same vessel that sank the Sea Rover. She's even flying a Japanese flag. They've painted and reconfigured her, but I'll bet my next paycheck it's the same ship.”
“But why are they standing off here with the platform?” Aimes added, a mask of confusion crossing his face.
“There can only be one reason. They are preparing to launch a strike with the Sea Launch rocket.”
A subdued silence fell across the bridge as the gravity of the situation sunk in. A disbelieving Aimes finally broke the hushed confines.
“But the Narwhal. We've got to see if anyone's alive.”
“Aimes, you need to get some help out here, and now,” Dirk replied brusquely. “I'll go see if there are any survivors.”
Delgado looked at Dirk with a furrowed brow. “But we don't dare bring the Deep Endeavor any closer,” he cautioned.
“I don't intend to,” Dirk replied without explanation as he quickly exited the bridge.
Tongju gazed down from the Odyssey's bridge at the smoldering debris of the Narwhal and stared quietly. There was no choice but for the Koguryo to act against the Coast Guard vessel. It was what he had ordered Kim to do. But they were positioned far enough off shore that they should never have been detected in the first place. He knew now that it was the encounter with the blimp that had raised suspicions. Silently, he cursed the Ukrainian engineers for moving the launch site closer to shore, neglecting to consider that the final decision had been his.
Pacing the Odyssey's bridge anxiously, he noted the launch countdown clock read 01:10:00, one hour and ten minutes to go. A radio call from the Koguryo crackled through the air, breaking his thoughts.
“This is Lee. We destroyed the enemy vessel, as you directed. There is another vessel standing off two thousand meters. Do you wish us to destroy her also?”
“Is she another military vessel? Over,” Tongju asked, peering out the bridge toward the distant ship.
“Negative. Believed to be a research vessel.”
“No. Save your armament, we may need it later.”
“As you wish. Ling reports that his launch team is securely aboard the Koguryo. Are you ready to evacuate the platform?”
“Yes. Send the tender back to the platform, my remaining team will be ready to evacuate shortly. Out.”
Tongju hung up the radio transmitter, then turned to a commando standing at the rear of the bridge.
“Transfer the Sea Launch prisoners in small groups to the launch vehicle hangar and lock them in the storage bay located inside. Then assemble the assault team for transport back to the Koguryo!”
