'Fifteen-degree rise on the planes!'
'Set-solution set, sir.'
'Stand by.' The captain watched the depth-gauge needle turn counterclockwise.'
'One hundred feet, sir.'
'Fire-control?'
'Set!'
'Match generated bearings and shoot!'
'Two fired, sir.'
The Alfa might hear the air blast or he might not, McCafferty knew. The torpedo moved off at forty knots on a heading of three-five-zero, well off the bearing to the target. Three thousand yards out, a command sent down the control wires told the torpedo to turn and go deep. McCafferty was being very cagey with this shot, more than he would have preferred. When the Alfa detected the incoming fish, it would be from a bearing that Chicago wasn't at- if he fired a return shot, it would not come toward them. The disadvantage of this was the increased chance of losing the control wires and getting a clean miss. The torpedo was running deep to take advantage of the water pressure that reduced cavitation noise, hence reducing the range at which the Alfa could detect it. They had to play some extra angles on this because the Soviet sub had a top speed of more than forty knots and was almost as fast as the torpedo itself. Chicago continued to move southwest, putting as much distance as possible between herself and the torpedo.
'Torpedo continues to run normal, sir,' sonar reported.
'Range to target?' McCafferty asked.
'About six thousand yards, sir. Recommend that we bring her up at four thousand and go to high-speed,' the weapons officer suggested.
'Very well.'
The tracking party plotted the course of the torpedo and its target. 'Conn, sonar, the Alfa just increased engine power.'
'He hears it. Bring the fish up now, full speed, switch on the sonar.'
'Hull-popping noises, sir. The Alfa is changing depth,' the sonar chief called, excitement in his voice. 'I have the torpedo sonar on my scope. Our unit is pinging. The target seems to be pinging also.'
'Sir, we lost the wires, the fish has lost the wires.'
'Shouldn't matter now. Sonar, give me a blade count on the Alfa.'
'Doing turns for forty-two knots, sir, lots of cavitation noise. Seems to be turning. He may have just deployed a noisemaker.'
'Anybody ever shoot at an Alfa before?' the executive officer asked.
'Not that I know about.'
'Miss! Conn, sonar, the fish has passed aft of the target. Target appears to be heading east. The fish is still- no, it's turning now. The torpedo is still pinging, sir. Torpedo also heading east-turning again, I have a bearing change on the fish. Skipper, I think it's chasing after the noisemaker. I show an opening bearing between the fish and target.'
'Damn, I thought we had that one locked in,' the weapons officer growled.
'How far are we from launch point?'
'About seven thousand yards, sir.'
'Bearing to the Alfa?'
'Three-four-eight, target bearing is moving east, machinery noises are down, blade count shows about twenty knots.'
'He'll keep putting distance between himself and the torpedo,' McCafferty said. As long as it was running and pinging, nobody wanted to get near it. The fish would circle until it ran out of fuel, but anything that came within its four-thousand-yard sonar radius risked detection. 'What about the other two contacts?'
'No change, sir,' the plotting officer said. 'They seem to be pretty much holding their positions.'
'That means they're Russians.' McCafferty looked down at the plot. If they were Brits, they would have maneuvered and fired their own fish as soon as they'd heard the Alfa, and probably everyone in twenty miles had heard the Alfa.
Three to one, and they're alerted now. McCafferty shrugged. At least I know what I'm up against. Sonar reported another contact to the south. It should be Boston, Danny thought. If it wasn't, Providence would have done something. He ordered Chicago south. If he had to blast a hole through three submarines, he wanted help. He rendezvoused with Boston an hour later.
'I heard an Alfa.'
'We missed. What did you get?'
'It had twin screws, and it's dead,' Simms answered. Their gertrude phones were on a very low power setting.
'Three boats ahead about fourteen miles. One's the Alfa. I don't know about the others.' McCafferty outlined his plan quickly. The submarines would proceed north, ten miles apart, and would try to engage the targets from their flanks. Even if they missed, Providence should be able to go straight through when the Russians split to pursue. Simms agreed, and the boats split up yet again.
McCafferty noted that he was still about sixteen hours from the ice. There were probably still Soviet patrol aircraft overhead. He'd wasted a torpedo-no, he told himself, that was a well-planned attack It just hadn't worked, as sometimes happened.
A line of sonobuoys appeared-active ones this time-to his northeast. He wished angrily that the Russians would select one set of tactics and stick to it. Hell, all he wanted to do was leave! Of course he had launched missiles at the Soviet homeland and they were probably still angry about that. Nobody had ever told him whether the mission was successful or not. McCafferty commanded himself to stop this random thinking. He had trouble enough right here.
Chicago moved northwest. As she did so, the bearing to all of her sonar contacts changed to the right. The Alfa was still there, her machinery noise fading in and out. Technically speaking, he could shoot at her, but he'd just seen that her speed and maneuverability were enough to beat a Mark-48 torpedo. He wondered what the Alfa's skipper had done. Surprisingly, he hadn't fired a torpedo of his own down the bearing of the incoming fish. What did that mean? It was an American tactic, and was supposed to be a Soviet tactic also. Was it because he knew that 'friendly' boats were in the area? McCafferty filed it away, yet another case where the Russians were not acting the way they were expected to act.
The northwest course closed the distance markedly to one of the contacts. The Alfa and the other unknown maneuvered east themselves, maintaining the ten-plus mile range-unknowingly, the captain thought. He stood over the plot. A fire-control solution was already set on the nearest contact. Range was down to eight miles. McCafferty went to the sonar room again.
'What can you tell me about this one?'
'Starting to look like a Type-2 reactor plant, the new version. He may be a Victor-III. Give me five more minutes and I'll know for sure, sir. The closer we get, the clearer he looks.'
'Power output?'
'Pretty low, sir. I thought I might have a blade count a few minutes ago, but it didn't work out. He's probably just making steerage.'
McCafferty leaned back against the bulkhead separating the room from the monstrous computer used to process signals. The line on the waterfall display that would show the unique frequency pattern of the machinery on the Victor-III was fuzzy but narrowing. Three minutes later it was a fairly sharp vertical stroke of light.
'Captain, I can now call target Sierra-2 a Victor-III-class Russian sub.'
McCafferty went aft to control. 'Range to target Sierra-2?'
'Fourteen thousand five hundred yards, sir.'
'Solution is set, sir,' the weapons officer reported. 'Ready for tube one. Tube one is flooded, outer door is closed.'
'Right ten degrees rudder,' McCafferty said. Chicago turned to unmask her ready torpedo. He checked depth: two hundred feet. On firing, he'd run east rapidly and dive to a thousand feet. The submarine turned slowly at six knots; bearing to the target was three-five-one, and Chicago's midship torpedo tubes were angled slightly outward
