The Seventh Angel

Vice President Wainright scratched the lobe of his right ear. “Why is that? If the Russians own all the land surrounding the water, doesn’t that mean they own the water too?”

The CNO shook his head. “No, sir. International law says that a country’s national waters extend twelve nautical miles from the coastline. You’ve heard of the twelve mile limit? That’s what the term refers to. If you go thirteen miles off shore, you’re in international waters. Luckily, there are several passages through the Kuril islands that are more than twenty-four nautical miles wide. Our units can transit through the straits without passing within the twelve-mile limit of any of the islands. We can get into and out of the Sea of Okhotsk without crossing into lawfully-recognized Russian waters.”

Secretary of State Whelkin held up her hand. “I understand that international law backs our right to enter this body of water, Admiral. But are the Russians going to sit still if we send a military force into what they clearly regard as their private sea?”

“They’re definitely not going to be happy about it, Madam Secretary,” the admiral said. “But we send Navy ships and aircraft into the Sea of Okhotsk periodically, despite the protests of the Russian government. They’re called freedom of navigation exercises, and the U.S. has been doing it since the beginning of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union tried to claim ownership of the Sea of Okhotsk. We do it to demonstrate our right of free passage and to remind the Russian government that the United States does not acknowledge their claim of ownership. So we know the Russians aren’t going to like it, but they’re somewhat accustomed to seeing our warships and aircraft in there.”

“Isn’t this a bad time to be provoking the Russians?” the White House chief of staff asked. “We know from the intelligence assessments that the Russian government is already about to blow its top. And they’re cranked up to maximum nuclear readiness levels, just like we are. Is it smart to poke a stick into the hornet’s nest?”

“One of their political leaders has just launched three of their nuclear missiles toward our coast line,” Secretary of Defense Kilpatrick said. Her voice was low, but as hard as steel. “As far as I’m concerned, they should be worried about provoking us.”

“Unless we’re prepared to stay at DEFCON 1 until the spring thaw, we don’t really have a choice,” Gregory Brenthoven said. “That’s a nuclear-powered submarine. A Delta III can remain submerged for months at a time, and the ice pack in the Sea of Okhotsk gives it excellent concealment and protection. The commander of the K-506 has maneuvered his boat into a superb tactical position. He’d have to be stupid to come out of there, and he is not stupid. If we want to kill that submarine, we’re going to have to go in there after it.

“How do we do that?” the president asked. “What are our options?”

“We can’t send ships in there at this time of year,” Admiral Casey said. “The ice will cut them to ribbons.”

The admiral’s eyes went back to the large display screen. “Where the hell is global warming when we need it?”

No one laughed.

“What about aircraft?” the Vice President asked.

“We can over-fly with aircraft,” the admiral said. “But they can’t really do much. Airborne sensors can’t see through the ice pack, and air-launched torpedoes and depth charges will just hit the ice face and break up. They’re not designed to punch through ice.”

“That submarine has figured out how to shoot through the ice,” General Gilmore said. “How are they doing it?”

“That’s the big question, General,” the CNO said. “Our engineers are certain that the Delta III does not have ice penetration capability. The differences in design and construction are so major that it would take a couple of years in a shipyard dry dock to modify a Delta III for ice penetration. We track the maintenance and deployment of foreign missile submarines very carefully. If K-506 had been in the yards for a major hull rebuild, we’d know about it.”

“Could the missiles just punch through?” the Secretary of Homeland Security asked. “Like a bullet?”

The Secretary of Defense shook her head. “I don’t think so. Those missiles are fast, but they’re also delicate machines. It would be like a Lear jet slamming into a brick wall at several hundred miles an hour. It would knock a hole in the wall, but the Lear would be hamburger afterward.” She shook her head again. “Any missile that hits the ice is not going to fly afterwards.”

The national security advisor sighed. “Which brings us back around to the original question,” he said. “How is Zhukov’s submarine shooting through the ice?”

“We don’t know yet,” the Chief of Naval Operations said. “All we can do is speculate.”

“Fair enough,” the president said. “Speculate.”

The admiral nodded. “Sir, our best guess is that they’ve got explosive charges pre-positioned at various locations around the ice pack. When they need to launch, they sail to a spot at a safe distance from the nearest prepared position, and trigger the explosives. As soon as the spray and debris settle, they’ve got a nice big hole in the ice. They pop off a missile through the hole, and get out of the area before anybody comes looking for them.”

He shrugged. “It’s only a guess, Mr. President. But if the charges are the right size and they’re properly placed, we think there’s a good chance that it would work. We don’t know if that’s what they’re actually doing, but it’s one way they might be doing it.”

“Could they be torpedoing the ice?” Vice President Wainright asked. “Then they wouldn’t have to limit themselves to a few pre-positioned locations. They could make a hole anywhere they wanted.”

“I don’t think so, sir,” said the CNO. “A torpedo explosion is fairly concentrated. It does a lot of damage in a relatively small area. It would take a lot of torpedoes to make a big enough hole to shoot through. If our guess is correct, they’re using multiple explosives packages spread out over a comparatively large area. The demolitions experts over at Spec Warfare think it would take about five or six shaped charges, drilled into the ice in a big circle, and all wired to a central detonator. The detonator would be connected to some type of external receiver that the submarine can trigger from remote.”

“How many of these prepared spots do you think they’ve got?” the president asked.

“We have no idea, sir,” the admiral said. “But everything that’s happened so far indicates that Mr. Zhukov has been planning this for a long time. He’s had months to line up his assets, while nobody was watching. He might have three or four shooting spots prepared. Or a dozen. If we knew how many, and where they were, it would make catching that sub a lot easier. But we don’t know. At the moment, we’re not even sure if our theory is correct. They may be using an entirely different method to shoot through the ice. Something we haven’t thought of.”

“We’re not going to solve the mystery right now,” the president said. “But we still need a plan for getting to that submarine.”

“Sir,” the admiral said. “We really only have one option. For the reasons we’ve already discussed, we can’t send ships or aircraft. We’re going to have to go after K-506 with another submarine. That would have been my first choice anyway. The best way to kill a submarine is with another submarine.”

He checked his briefing notes. “USS Tucson is operating near Japan. I can have her through the Kuril Islands and into the Sea of Okhotsk in about six hours. I can get the Seawolf up there in about 12 hours, and the Bremerton about three or four hours after that. I’d like to have one of the other Seawolf class boats, but the Connecticut and the Jimmy Carter are both too far out of position. So we have to make do with one Seawolf class and two Los Angeles class boats. I don’t see that as a problem, though. The Los Angeles class are top-notch boats. Born hunters. They’ll get the job done.”

“Are three submarines going to be enough?” the president asked. “The Sea of Okhotsk looks like a big piece of water.”

“It is, sir,” the admiral said. “It’s over 600,000 square miles. Roughly two and a half times the size of Texas. But we’re fairly confident that the K-506 will keep to the eastern half of the sea. Governor Zhukov isn’t going to want his ace in the hole to get too close to Mother Russia. He doesn’t want to risk losing it. Also, the farther west that submarine moves, the more U.S. targets he puts out of missile range. If he wants to keep his strike options open, he can’t stray too far west. I think three attack subs are about right to search the eastern end of the sea. Any