Remember, he's not screaming for rescue right now. He's just advising us of the situation, letting us know what he can and can't do. If he needs help, don't worry ? you'll hear about it.'
'If you were him, where would you like to be?' I asked.
Fowler pointed a stubby finger at a series of lopsided, stretched-out circles. 'There. That looks to be the nearest thing I've seen to an undersea canyon in this part of the world. Deep water, and the canyon will trap most of the sound. It's the closest thing to a hideout around.'
'Not much place to run, though. Not if that Akula gets a sniff of her.'
The Akula was the deepest-diving submarine in the Russian inventory.
It was also the fastest, capable of speeds exceeding thirty-five knots, far faster than anything we had in the water. Even our new Seawolf couldn't chase her down.
Admiral Wayne nodded. 'That's the plan, then. At least for now.' He turned to me. 'Get on your secret line to SUBLANT. Get them to tell that submarine to lay low and fix it. We're here in case they need us, and I can have that destroyer in their immediate vicinity if they need protection. But for now, we stick with the game plan.' 'What do we tell Rabies?' I asked.
'Why the hell should I tell him anything?' Admiral Wayne looked annoyed.
'Because sooner or later he will be back onboard,' I said. 'Sure, I'll tell him not to talk, but too many people have already seen what's going on. There are a lot of smart people on this aircraft carrier, Admiral, and most of them don't work for me. They'll be asking questions ? and we need some answers.' The admiral sighed. 'It's not like they're going on liberty and will be shooting their mouths off in bars, is it? Why do I have to tell them anything?'
Because it will get us in trouble if you don't. Just like now ? you knew about the American sub with us and you didn't tell me about it.
Secrets ought to be what we keep from the enemy ? not from each other.
I didn't say that, of course. There was no need to ? the admiral knew it as well as I did. Instead, I said, 'Morale, sir. Rabies is a smart officer ? he'll figure it out soon enough.'
The one thing you never want to say onboard a carrier is What else can go wrong? As soon as you do, something else will. I saw Admiral Wayne start to say the words, felt a mild pulse of fear, then looked back up at the large-screen display.
Sometimes it wasn't even necessary to say it ? just thinking it was bad enough.
Two enemy aircraft had just appeared on the far eastern quarter of the display. In these close quarters, they were well within our weapons range, as we were within theirs. Not that anybody was thinking weapons ? of course, this was a goodwill mission. Some war games, sure, that sort of thing.
'I'll be in SCIF,' I said abruptly. In two steps I was back in my own domain. The admiral followed me. I pulled the heavy steel hatch shut behind us, locked it, and went immediately to the sensor operator.
'Anything?'
'Just those MiGs that launched. So far, they're following the same patrol pattern as the earlier missions.' The technician looked at me, then returned his gaze to the screen. 'We have some reason to worry about them?'
I shook my head. 'No video downlink?'
Video downlink was a method of communication between an aircraft and a submarine or surface ship. It was one of the most critical bits of SIGINT, or signal intelligence, that we could detect. VDL was used for passing targeting information from the aircraft, who had a farther horizon, to the shooting platform. If you think there are no submarines in the area and you start detecting VDL, you know you've been mistaken. In this case, if we detected VDL, we would know that the MiGs were talking to the submarines chasing ours.
Or worse ? that the aircraft were passing targeting information on the carrier to one of the submarines. If they were carrying the new 280-mm torpedoes, we were in serious trouble. One shot right under the keel could sink an aircraft carrier.
'Might be nice to get me some help over here,' Rabies's voice said.
'I'm a little short on air-to-air missiles right now.'
I saw what Rabies was worried about. The two Russian aircraft were rapidly approaching his location. The S3 has a maximum speed of 450 knots.
The MiG could do about three times that ? not a fair contest. Furthermore, the S3 carried only torpedoes and a few antisurface weapons, nothing capable of taking on a determined fighter. There was no contest.
'Where is our CAP?' the admiral snapped. 'Damn it, get that man some help!' Before he could even finish his sentence, I heard the air traffic controller in CDC talking quietly, urgently, with our airborne fighters.
The symbols on the screen changed direction immediately and streaked north from their position south of the carrier battle group, interposing themselves between the carrier and the intruders.
Something cold in my stomach went sour. It wasn't going to start this way, was it? With nerves rubbed raw on either side, aircraft approaching each other too fast for rational thought, missiles fired before anyone truly thought out the consequences?
'Rabies, get your ass out of there,' the USW controller said urgently.
'Come on, man…'
Rabies's aircraft was now turned away from the MiGs, beating feet back toward the carrier. But the Russian aircraft were far closer to him than our own fighters were.
What had we been thinking? Leaving him out there alone? Or had the admiral reasoned that putting up fighters to escort him would escalate the tensions, that there was no real danger to an unarmed S3 Viking supposedly conducting safety of navigation operations? I was beginning to doubt that we could ever have sold anyone on that particular explanation for disobeying the prohibition on USW missions.
No matter. At this point, the situation was critical.
Admiral Wayne grabbed a microphone from the overhead, the one hard-wired into the tactical fighter net. He stared at the two friendly fighter symbols on the large-screen display as he spoke. 'This is the admiral,' he said. 'Listen up.'
'Tomcat lead, Admiral. I'm listening.' The lead pilot's voice was cool and collected. 'We're about to have us a situation here. Any guidance?'
'I'm not going to second-guess you on this,' the admiral began. 'At the first sign of any hostile activity, you nail their asses. But don't jump the gun.'
There was silence from the aircraft. I could tell what they were thinking ? Gee, thanks, that helps a lot, Admiral… For what it was worth, I agreed with them. But what else could the admiral tell them? Don't take the first shot at the Russians ? but don't let the Russians take it either.
It was deadly silent inside CVIC. No one moved, as though to do so would disturb the pilots forty miles away. Most of them were pilots themselves, and I could see that they were imagining the situation inside the cockpit. Playing out their reactions to the MiGs, figuring out how they would handle it themselves. Hands moved, almost involuntarily, reflexively fighting the battle taking place on the screen.
It was difficult to breathe. The tension inside TFCC was palpable.
The aircraft symbols on the large-screen display moved slowly, creeping millimeter by millimeter across the projection. Altitude and speed indicator numbers clicked over silently on the data display at the TAO's right hand. Rabies was hauling ass, buster ? as in 'bust your ass getting here' ? toward the boat. The MiGs were right on his tail now.
'A little too close for comfort,' I heard him grunt on the speaker.
No shit. The MiG symbol was so close to that of the S3 that the two were merging. Rabies must be able to see him, practically feel his breath down the back of his neck.
'Little bastard is all over me,' Rabies continued. 'He and playmate ? we got one directly overhead, and I think the other is right under us. They're swapping places ? the turbulence is hell. Where the hell are those Tomcats? Damned fighters ? never around except during meal hours.'
Admiral Wayne keyed the microphone in his hand. 'They should be almost to you. Have you got a visual yet? Same altitude, dead ahead.'
'No, not yet. TACCO's got them on LINK, but I don't ? wait, there they are.'
'Expand the picture,' Admiral Wayne ordered. The TAO's fingers danced over the keyboard, zooming out on the one small piece of sky crowded with fighters and one lone S3. The scale grew larger, reducing the area displayed on screen. I could see them now, the two fighters moving slightly away from the S3, the two friendly
