Sea of Shadows

at full speed, and frankly, Captain, that screw is going to howl like a dog whenever we run it.”

“How much difference will it make in our speed if we run the damaged screw?” Captain Bowie asked.

The Chief Engineer shrugged. “We won’t have exact figures until we put some power to it, but I’m guessing about five or six knots. We can do eighteen and a half on the starboard screw. With both screws going, I’d expect to see between twenty-three and twenty-five knots.”

“But we’ll be noisy as hell …”

“I’m afraid so, sir.”

“Stealth or speed,” the XO said. “That’s a hell of a choice to have to make when you’re chasing a submarine.”

“It’s not really much of a choice, sir,” Chief McPherson said. “If we don’t beat that sub to the Siraji coast, we’re out of the ball game. Stealth or no stealth, I think we’re going to have to sprint like hell to get ahead of the sub.”

“What’s that kind of noise going to do to our sonar ranges?” the captain asked.

“We’ll be blind as a bat, sir,” Chief McPherson said. “At least while we’re sprinting. Sonar will be back to normal as soon as we slow down and drop the port screw off line again.”

“Noisy and blind,” Ensign Cooper said. “What a great way to chase a submarine.”

“I agree, sir,” Chief McPherson said. “It’s certainly not my first choice, but if we try it quiet and slow, that sub is going to be tied to a pier in Zubayr before we even get up to the north end of the gulf.”

The XO whistled through his teeth. “It looks to me like we are damned if we do, and double-dog-damned if we don’t.”

“Anybody got any brilliant suggestions?” the captain asked.

No one had any.

The captain stood up. “Okay,” he said. “Bring the port screw on line and head for Zubayr with the best speed we can manage. No matter how noisy the coach is, Cinderella cannot be late for the ball.”

* * *

An hour later, Chief McPherson knocked on the door to the captain’s stateroom.

“Enter.”

The chief opened the door. “Captain? May I have a word with you?”

“Come on in,” the captain said. “What’s on your mind?”

“Sir, I just came from Sonar Control. We are making a lot of noise. The sub is going to see us a hundred miles away.”

The captain said, “No choice, Chief. We’ve got to have the speed.”

The chief nodded. “I realize that, sir. The problem is we sound like a destroyer with a bad screw.”

“I’ve talked to the Chief Engineer, and he tells me there’s nothing we can do to quiet that screw.”

The chief nodded. “I understand, sir. So I think we should take it in the opposite direction. If we can’t make Towers quiet, we should try to make her as noisy as possible.”

The captain frowned. “And then the sub will be able to detect us even farther away.”

“Yes, sir,” Chief McPherson said. “But will it be able to classify us?”

“What do you mean?”

“When I went through Acoustic Analysis, they taught us a simple rule for spotting U.S. subs on a sonar gram: ‘If you look at the gram, and there’s nothing on it, you’re probably looking at a U.S. nuke.’”

“I’m not following you, Chief.”

“When a Sonar Operator looks at a contact that’s generating big fat broadband and lots of narrowband tonals, he’s not thinking U.S. nuke. He’s thinking merchant ship. He’s thinking beat-up old tanker with worn-out engines. He’s thinking anything but U.S. nuke. Ordinarily, he would be correct. If we play it right, I think we can take advantage of that kind of thinking.”

“We make ourselves so noisy that no Sonar Operator in his right mind would even think about classifying us as a stealth destroyer?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Chief, have you ever read Poe?”

“Sir?”

“Edgar Allen Poe. He was one of the early horror writers. Some say that he’s still never been equaled.”

“I read The Telltale Heart in high school. And what was that poem?

The Raven, I think …”

“I had in mind a different story,” the captain said. “Your idea smacks of Poe’s Purloined Letter. You should read it, when this is over. It’s a story about how to hide things in plain sight.”

“I’ll do that, sir.”

The captain nodded. “Good. Now, let’s see how obnoxiously noisy we can make ourselves.”

CHAPTER 49

U.S. NAVY CENTRAL COMMAND (USNAVCENT)

BAHRAIN

TUESDAY; 22 MAY

0147 hours (1:47 AM)

TIME ZONE +3 ‘CHARLIE’

“Zubayr is a ghost town,” the off-going Duty Intelligence Officer said.

“No surface traffic in or out of the harbor in the past twenty-four hours.”

Caught in mid-yawn, Lieutenant Commander Fisk drew back. “What?

That can’t be right. Half of Siraj’s surface traffic goes through Zubayr.

It’s always crawling with activity.”

The off-going DIO was a heavyset lieutenant with a bad comb-over. “I know. Weird, isn’t it? Maybe it’s some obscure Islamic holy day.”

“I don’t think so,” Fisk said. “State would have given us a heads-up.

Has Siraji air activity slacked off?”

The lieutenant shook his head. “Business as usual, air-wise.”

“Has surface traffic been affected in any other Siraji ports?”

The off-going Duty Intelligence Officer shook his head again. “No.

Normal shipping density everywhere except Zubayr.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Fisk said.

“I’m just giving you the skinny. There hasn’t been so much as a kayak in or out of Zubayr harbor all day.” The lieutenant looked at the master tactical plot. “The last movement we show was yesterday morning. Three fishing trawlers pulled in, and then everything got quiet.”

“Three fishing trawlers?” Lieutenant Commander Fisk stared at the master tactical plot. “Oh shit.” He looked up. “Plot Supervisor, get me SPECWAR on the line. Do it now!”

The off-going DIO held his hands up. “Whoa, cowboy! Why are we calling in the Special Warfare Unit?”

“They need to see this plot,” Fisk said.

“Why? What in the hell is going on?”

“I hope like hell I’m wrong,” Fisk said. “But I think the Sirajis have just laid a minefield across the approach to Zubayr.”

CHAPTER 50

USS TOWERS (DDG-103)