Accordingly, as others had before, the Communist military leadership had come to value landline telephone as their only truly secure communications net.
Christine and Arkady were about to prove them to be in error.
Retainer Zero One went into a low hover just off the pavement, her rotor wash whipping the scrub. Arkady scanned his surroundings again through the cool, green glow of his low-light visors, seeking sign of any movement, any covert observer. His ears were attuned to the helo's threat board, ready to react to the first instant of a warning squall.
"Ready to open bay doors?" Christine inquired.
"Yep. Let's get it done, but let's make it fast." Opening the weapons bay would also open a hole in the Sea Comanche's stealth envelope, leaving them vulnerable for a few seconds to a sudden radar sweep In the aft cockpit, Christine cradled a remote-control box in her lap, a light coaxial cable linking it to the auxiliary systems jack of the dashboard display As the belly doors snapped open, the sensor unit that was revealed began to react to its environment, projecting its readout onto the oscilloscope display of the control box
"Yeah! We're hot! This is it!"
She flipped the guards up and off a row of actuator keys and hit them in sequence
A launching tube swung down from the helicopter's belly, like an insect's ovipositor, aiming vertically at the ground below A black-powder propulsive charge fired and a metallic spike the length and diameter of a man's arm punched down through the underbrush Driven into the soil for three quarters of its length, a protective cap blew off and a slender antenna deployed On Christine's control box, a green diagnostic light glowed
In the past, tapping an enemy landline would have been a laborious and risky task performed by a Special Forces team This method was swifter and placed only two people directly at risk A hypersensitive induction coil within the sensor they had just planted would read the faint electromagnetic modulations radiating from the telephone cable Recorded and electronically compressed, they would be stored for later burst transmission to an orbiting NSA satellite
Until the unit's batteries wore down, or until a human-size object entered the range of its motion sensors, triggering the thermite self destruct charge, the PLA's phone was effectively bugged "Spike's set Go!"
The launcher retracted and the bay doors slammed shut Retainer Zero One dipped her nose and regained airspeed, skimming the valley floor and angling away to the east "Well, that wasn't such a big deal, now, was it?"
"Repeat that question once we're back on the Duke, sis'
"How are we on time"7"
"Right on the edge If nothing goes Murphy on us, we can just make the rendezvous '
Arkady aimed Zero One upslope toward a shallow saddle in the far ridge The low, rolling landscape with its lack of tall trees and high-tension lines made for good helicopter country, and the night sky had been comfortingly clear of hostile traffic If they could just stretch this rollout a little longer
Flying nape of the earth, a bare twenty feet above the ground, Zero One crested the saddle
"Sheeeit!"
Arkady's right foot smashed down on its rudder pedal, nearly bending the mount Retainer Zero One flared around like a startled quail, the abrupt g-load forcing a protesting yelp out of his passenger With weed stalks sweeping her belly, Zero One raced back over the saddle and downslope again
"Jeez, Arkady! What's going on?"
"It appears, sis, that Mr. Murphy has just bitten us in the ass "
While they had been planting their bug, a solid wall of steel had rolled across their line of retreat
Arkady dropped south half a click along the ridgeline and gingerly hovered up to an observation position
"Where the hell did all of these guys come from?" he murmured
"From the PRC staging ground at Fuzhou," Christine replied grimly "Fa'
sure, that's got to be at least a full armored division down there "
Through the night-vision systems, they could see a steady stream of military vehicles flowing for miles along the valley floor tanks and armored personnel earners, interspersed with an occasional truck or fuel transport They were moving in combat mode, the AFVs running on their own tracks instead of being carried aboard lowboys, cannon out-angled, covering both sides of the roadway Cataloging the stream, Christine noted that a majority of the tanks were angular, late-model, Chinese Type 85s Here and there, however, was the flattened teakettle turret of an older Type 69 At one point, the Intel even thought she spotted the brakeless gun barrel of an ancient Soviet-built T-55
A shot-up outfit, she decided, brought back to fighting strength with whatever odds and ends could be swept up out
of the depots She panned the video system along the column, storing the images Arkady backed the helo below the crestline again "We," he said,
"are royally screwed We're going to have to swing wide and circle around these guys, and that's going to flush our time line right down the toilet"
"Any chance of just sneaking through a crack?"
"Nope The Nationalist Air Force has been giving these guys a hard time lately You can bet every antiair vehicle and deck machine gun in that column is manned Stealthed or not, we'd get burned flying over that outfit We've got to go around "
"Boy, are we gonna get yelled at when we get back, or what?"
Arkady paid Zero One off and headed back upvalley "Let's just hope that there's somebody still there to yell at
"Captain, this is Raven's Roost " It was the voice of Lieutenant Jg ) Randy Selkirk, the number-two man in Intelligence Division
"I think there may be somebody out there "
A cold, hard hand clinched inside Amanda's guts Her eyes went to the glowing rows of repeaters again Low-light Tactical display ECM Scanners Nothing "I'm not showing anything here, Mr. Selkirk "
"It's on the electromagnetic detection arrays, ma'am Very, very low gam Too low for the discriminator circuits of the Aegis system to recognize as a valid contact We can't even get a clear bearing on it, just that it's somewhere to seaward "
"Any idea what it could be?"
"Looks like systems discharge Generator static and make and-break, that kind of stuff But he's either really small or he's Faraday-screened damn near as good as we are '
A tone of frustration began to creep into Selkirk's voice "On the other hand, we could just have a very active thunderstorm over the horizon I'm sorry, ma'am, just can't tall it any closer "
The junior officer was trying, but he had yet to develop Christine Rendino's almost supernatural ability to analyze and extrapolate data
"No problem, Lieutenant Keep working the contact and keep me advised "
Amanda rechecked the time hack that glowed in the bottom left corner of each monitor They were six and a half minutes-plus on the projected recovery time Arkady, Chris, where are you!
Something had gone wrong Arkady would not miss a rendezvous like this unless something had gone seriously wrong
She crossed to the port side of the bridge and scanned the star-spattered sky above the hills that rimmed the inlet No commander should ever be stupid enough to take a friend or a lover Why the hell couldn't she learn Why couldn't she be like those other officers, who could maintain that cool, emotionally insulated distance from those they served with Because the best ones seem to be the ones who give a damn The old comment of Arkady's echoed unbidden out of her memory
Well, she was giving a damn now, for what it was worth But the only concrete action she could take was to decide how long she dare wait for them here at the recovery point All right Compute to the worst-case scenario They crashed or were knocked down early on during the insertion mission
Could they have survived the crash? Were they in PLA custody? No, dammit! Forget that! Stay focused on the scenario Say the wreck was immediately identified by someone who knew what a LAMPS-valiant Sea Comanche was and what kind of range it had That would give them their search radius for the launching platform How long would it take for the Re
d military to initiate a hunt? What kind of assets would they have available?
"Captain!" The strangled urgency in the lookout's voice made Amanda whip around
"Surface contact bearing zero five oh off the starboard bow!"
Instantly, she was at the lookout's side, gazing up into the low-light monitor On the gray-toned screen, the unmistakable, rakish silhouette of a large warship could be seen rounding the northern headland about a mile offshore A second followed in column a few moments later, and then a third, farther out to sea Angling across the entrance to the inlet, they had just cut off the Duke's only line of escape The sudden, soft howl of hydraulics broke the shock paralysis that had settled on the bridge The forward Oto Melara mount was indexing around to cover the intruders Farther out along the bow, a scattering of small octagonal hatches popped open on the upper surfaces of the Vertical Launch Systems Each open hatch revealed the dark mouth of a missile silo Down in the CIC, Dix Beltrain was baring the Duke's fangs
"All stations Stand easy " Amanda spoke deliberately into her lip mike, keeping her voice low and totally neutral, allowing no inflection that might increase tensions or trigger a premature reaction
"Helmsman, let's go for a reduction in aspect here Maintain station keeping, but bring our bow around to the mouth of the inlet"
"Aye, aye "
Under the silent impulse of the auxiliary hydrojets, the destroyer's knife-edged bow began to come around The 76mm turret remained fixed on target, a pivot around which the ship seemed to turn
"Captain," Ken Hiro's voice sounded in her headphones "We make them out to be a pair of Red Chinese Block IB Luda guided missile destroyers, with a single Jianghu-class frigate screening them to seaward "
"I concur on that, Ken " Amanda had accessed the controls of the Mast Mounted Sighting System, zooming in and panning over the Chinese warships using a track ball con trailer To the unaided human eye, there was nothing to be seen out there but black but to the powerful nite brite optics of the MMSS, night did not exist The Ludas were handsome ships Built on the hull design of the old Soviet Kotlin class, they had the lean, greyhound sleekness of the old-school steam turbine destroyer More to the point, however, both vessels still had their gun turrets trained fore and aft and the launching cells of their C-801 antiship missiles hadn't been up angled into firing position A quick call-up on another repeater verified that the Red task group was also running full EMCON, with all search and fire control radars down
Slowly, the hair that was bristling down the back of her neck began to lower Maybe these people were out hunting for trouble, but they weren't hunting for the Duke "I think we're okay, Ken," she said slowly into her headset "I think that this is just a coincidence That's a pretty good slice of the surviving Communist surface fleet out there I doubt they could have gotten it into position this fast just for us "
"Yeah " The tension in Hire's voice eased down a notch as well
"I wonder what they're up to!"
"Hard to say Maybe an antishipping sweep or a coastal bombardment run Those Ludas each pack a couple of 130- millimeter mounts They could be planning to shoot up a Nationalist supply depot or something as part of this big drive they're building Whatever it is, I think we'll just lay low and let them go on their way The Cunningham's bow was coming around now, tracking on the passing hostile vessels The tiger pattern camouflage on her hull merged her into the backdrop of the shore The earlier generation Chinese optics would be left with nothing to see except for a narrow break in the white line of the surf A short time before, Amanda had been praying for Arkady's return Now she prayed that he would stay away just for a few minutes more, just until the enemy had disappeared beyond the southern headland Maybe that was why the voice that issued from the over head speaker carried the impact of an exploding bomb
"Gray Lady, Gray Lady, this is Retainer Zero One Do you copy?"
She loved him and she had been worried about him, but just for the moment, she could kill him
"Retainer Zero One, ' she snarled after dialing into the air operations frequency ' ' have hostile surface forces in the area!"
Low Probability of Intercept radio was just that There was still a chance that they could be detected
Arkady's reply was unperturbed "More than you know, Gray Lady We've just hovered up over the ridgeline about three clicks south of your location In addition to your Reds, there are three fast-attack craft in the next cove down the coast from you Chris identifies them as Taiwanese Navy Hai Ou missile boats Looks like hot times a-coming'"
"Acknowledged Stand by, Zero One "
Amanda toggled back to the Combat Information Center "Lieutenant Selkirk, this is the Captain Could this Red task group be the source of that first EM contact you had?"
"Negative, ma'am," the Intelligence Officer replied emphatically "The emissions coming off of these guys are burying the needle That first contact was hardly there at all "
Amanda nodded and gave herself a five count to think By the time the count was finished, she had her ops plan assembled
"Lee helm Bring up your Power Rooms We're going to be moving " Keying her headset, she continued "All stations, this is the bridge Here's the situation The Reds are sailing into an ambush They've got one Nationalist missile-boat group stalking them to seaward and another waiting for them down the coast As soon as they move into the cross fire, I suspect that the Nationalists are going to hit them with everything they've got I intend to pull us out of here under the cover of the fireworks Stealth systems "Stealth, aye "
"Mr. Mckelsie, we'll try to sneak out under passive stealth alone Keep all active jammers and decoy systems armed and on standby "
"Will do"
' ' Officer "
"Here, ma'am "
"Dix, bring up a couple of Standard HARM flights If anyone gets a radar lock on us, I want you set to send a round right back up the beam "
"Is that Red and Nationalist both, ma'am?"
"Negative Red only I guess we can allow that much favoritism "
"Will do"
"Main Engine Control "
"Yo "
"Everything you've got, Chief"
"What else?" There was a faint tinge of surprise in Commander Thomson's voice
"Air One "
"Air One, aye," Lieutenant Nancy Delany, the Aviation Section's exec, replied from the air operations center at the rear of the superstructure
"We're going to be making a flying recovery on your boss Have the helipad prepped and standing by I want that helo down and belowdecks as fast as possible
"We'll be ready, ma'am "
Amanda dialed back to the air ops channel "Gray Lady to Retainer You are instructed to hold at your current position and maintain observation of the Nationalist missile boats Report when they open fire, then proceed up the ridgeline and return to the ship We will be departing the inlet at high speed and turning to the northeast I repeat, to the northeast Follow our wake out and recover immediately The helipad is standing by to receive you '
"Roger," Arkady came back crisply "Will comply "
Amanda paced behind the helm station The duty helms man already had the maneuvering chart of the inlet dialed up on his console repeater, the water depths outlined in glowing azure computer graphics His left hand played with the controls of the auxiliary hydrojets, while the fingers of his right curled around the rudder controller Beside him, the lee helm leaned in over the center pedestal, one hand on the propeller controls, the other on the master throttles The power levers had already been firewal led and the glowing bars of the generator room output displays were dancing at their peak, matched from belowdecks by the whispering howl of the great Rolls Royce gas turbines Amanda dropped a hand to the helmsman's shoulder "Okay Here's how we'll work it I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for giving orders, so I'll let you take us out We've got some shoals around here, so keep us right in the center of the channel As soon as we get the water for it, we'll be turning away to the northeast I'll give you the word whe
n Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," the young sailor replied tautly Then they waited One minute more two
To the south something like heat lightning played beyond the hills
"That's it'" Arkady's voice rang over the circuit "The Nationalists are launching!"
"Move out!" Amanda commanded "All engines ahead full!" The twin contrarotating propellers at the head of each propulsor pod spun, the water humping up and boiling along the Duke's stern quarters In seconds, a rising bow wave was building under the destroyer's stem as she surged ahead
Out to sea and to the south, a massive mushroom of orange flame sprouted and rose into the sky, the thunder of its growth arriving a few heartbeats later Raked by a missile salvo, the little Jianghu-class frigate that had been screening the Communist formation disintegrated, the explosion of her own magazines enhancing the destruction The lead ship of the Red destroyer column had taken a hit as well, sending flames licking along her aft deck and the gun barrels of her stern turret angling crookedly into the sky
However, the little Taiwanese-built Hsiung Feng (Male Bee) antiship missile had failed to pierce life-deep through the Luda's thicker skin Now the wounded warship, along with its undamaged partner, were lashing back at their attackers Main-battery rifles belched gouts of hellfire and autocannon mounts hosed tracers across the surface of the sea With their missile cells empty, the Nationalist fast attack craft would now be going defensive, hugging the shallows and scurrying away to the south They wouldn't be a problem, Amanda acknowledged, but the surviving Red ships would likely soon be They would probably reverse course and head back to the north, this way And the Duke's reduced radar cross section might just about match that of a fleeing Hai Do She glanced at the iron log and silently willed it to climb faster Twenty-one knots Twenty-two Twenty three The Cunningham cleared the mouth of the inlet, gaining speed with every rev of her screws Another stab of Amanda's finger called up a navigational readout, and she studied the fall-away of the sea floor from beneath the keel "Helm, come left to zero four five "
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