Understrike

by James Barrington

  As a result, Mason and Barber were becoming temporary members of the DEVGRU Team 2 and Jackson of Team 3. Richter had been forced to grasp the shitty end of the stick, a concept that he had become used to whilst working for Richard Simpson. He would be getting on board along with Team 1, for two reasons. First, the whole thing was his idea and, second, having somebody in Team 1 who spoke fluent Russian seemed to everyone to be a particularly good idea, and Richter was the only person there who met that specific criterion.

  With the operational briefing complete, Reilly briefed the Portuguese crew of the Merlin search and rescue helicopter parked on the hardstanding about 50 yards from the briefing room to explain what was going to happen, if the two other factors could be made to work. If they couldn’t, nobody there had much idea what they were going to do. The British submarine and the laser-guided bombs carried by the Reaper were the two definite last resorts, but Richter would have no qualms about using either if they had to. The one thing that definitely wasn’t going to happen if he had anything to do with it was the Russians being able to launch the weapon.

  The two-man team flying the Reaper was doing an excellent job, providing clear information about the position, course and speed of Tango One, the Russian MV Semyon Timoshenko, and also of the other ships in the area. Richter spent most of his time carrying out speed and distance calculations, looking for the combination – any combination – that could work, while the DEVGRU men sat around the briefing room, weapons to hand and ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

  On the tarmac outside, the Merlin was also ready to go, fully fuelled and with the side door open for the troops to climb in. In the cabin of the helicopter was one extra item, a smallish inflatable dinghy rated for four people – although on this occasion it was going to have to carry six – and powered by a small but powerful electric outboard motor encased in anechoic material designed to absorb, rather than reflect, radar waves. Beside the helicopter were the two items it would be carrying as external underslung cargo, a pair of MilPro Zodiac Mark 4 HDs, one stacked on top of the other, and which the Merlin would pick up once it was airborne and in a low hover. Each Zodiac weighed little over 4,000 pounds, including their two 40-horsepower engines, so the total load weight was under 9,000 pounds, well within the Merlin’s total lift capacity of over 12,000 pounds for external stores.

  But nobody was going anywhere right then.

  By lunchtime, everybody in the room was thoroughly pissed off, waiting around in full combat gear for something to happen being both tiring and tiresome in the extreme. By two in the afternoon, the mood was bitter and fractious, and Richter was seriously contemplating calling Simpson to ensure that the hunter-killer HMS Artful was in position or getting there, because sinking Tango One was increasingly looking like their only viable option.

  But at 15.24, three twenty-four exactly, Richter finally saw what he had been hoping for. A merchant ship – he thought it was flying a Greek flag, but its nationality actually didn’t matter in the slightest – was heading north north-west, away from the Canary Islands and on a track that would take it within about five miles of the southbound Tango One if neither vessel altered course.

  ‘I think that’s our best bet,’ Richter said to Reilly. ‘That’s the closest ship we’ve tracked so far, and time is passing. If we don’t go for this, we might have no option but to use the sub or the Reaper.’

  ‘Good enough for me,’ Reilly said, then turned around to face his men. ‘Listen up, ladies. We have a go, so get yourselves out to that chopper sharpish, and make sure you don’t leave anything behind because we won’t be coming back to pick it up.’

  A little under seven minutes later, the Merlin, with the stacked Zodiacs swinging slightly underneath the fuselage, accelerated over the active runway at the airport, climbed to about 1,000 feet and opened up on a northerly heading, travelling well below its normal cruising speed of 150 knots because of the underslung load.

  They had a long way to go. The northbound vessel Richter had identified was, according to the data calculated by the team flying the Reaper, just over 90 miles ahead of them and travelling at 10 knots, while Tango One was 40 miles further north than that and heading south at 12 knots.

  It was essential that they reached the northbound ship before it was within 25 miles of the Russian vessel. Otherwise the whole plan would simply fall to pieces, and they all knew it.

  Chapter 43

  Monday

  MV Semyon Timoshenko, Eastern Atlantic Ocean

  ‘Anything on radar?’ the captain asked.

  ‘Nothing, sir, but now we are getting closer to the islands we must expect to see merchant and other shipping on a regular basis.’

  ‘I am aware of that. I have spent the bulk of my working life sailing the oceans of this world, including this part of the Atlantic.’

  ‘I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean—’

  The navigating officer fell silent as the captain waved his hand in an irritated fashion.

  ‘This could be a long afternoon. I’m going to my cabin to take a short nap. Call me if you detect any aircraft approaching at low level, or when any other vessel comes within fifteen miles of us.’

  Chapter 44

  Monday

  Portuguese Merlin helicopter Papa Zero Two, Eastern Atlantic Ocean

  It was noisy in the back of the Merlin, though nothing like the deafening racket Richter had experienced flying in the cargo hold of various Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft during his military service and afterwards, where it was so loud that it genuinely was difficult to even hear yourself think. In the Merlin, two people could communicate by shouting, and that was the only option they had, because there weren’t enough headsets to go round. In fact there were only four, and Reilly and Richter clearly needed to have one each, and the other two went to Jackson as the senior CIA agent, and to Rogers as the second-in-command of the DEVGRU team. Everyone else wore earplugs and tried to make the best of it.

  Richter’s biggest concern at that stage was the speed the Portuguese crew was able to maintain with the Zodiacs slung underneath the helicopter, and the answer he received from the flight deck didn’t do much to reassure him.

  ‘At the moment we are maintaining ninety knots,’ the pilot said on the intercom. ‘If we increase the speed any further, the load starts to swing.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Richter said, and looked again at the sheet of paper on which he’d been doing his rough calculations. He’d been hoping the chopper would have been able to fly at about 110 knots, and now he just hoped that the lower speed would still provide them with enough of a buffer. And that the radar horizon from the Russian ship, based upon the height of its radar aerial above sea, was no more than about 15 nautical miles.

  But the crew were doing their best and all he could do, apart from checking and rechecking his figures, was hope that the timing worked.

  Chapter 45

  Monday

  HMS Artful, Eastern Atlantic Ocean

  ‘Captain, sir. You asked to be called when we reached the specified position.’

  ‘Thank you. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.’

  On the Astute-class hunter-killer submarines, the commanding officer’s cabin is just aft of the control room and directly below the forward part of the sail, so when Commander Neil Forrest said ‘two minutes’ that was exactly what he meant. In fact, he walked in less than 90 seconds after the watch-keeping officer had called him.

  The first thing he looked at was the boat’s position. Not because he had any doubt that the submarine was in the right place in the sea, but because submariners check everything at least twice, every time. Their lives can depend on that kind of care, and so they check, recheck and then they check again.

  The Artful was where she was supposed to be, and she’d made it with a little over an hour to spare, which pleased Forrest. Now all he and the crew could do was lurk in the depths – something all submariners are well used to doing – and wait for a p
re-determined time. Then she would ascend to the correct level below the surface of the ocean and stream the communications buoy ready to receive either a tasking or an execution message.

  And what he hoped, more than anything else, was that it was the former. The idea of torpedoing a helpless civilian ship, irrespective of the nationality of its crew and what they were doing, was repugnant to him, and was not the kind of operation for which the Astute-class submarines had been designed. And sinking a submarine, even a Russian submarine, in a time of peace would be equally, or perhaps even more, disturbing.

  Neil Forrest would stay in the control room until that message, whatever its contents, had been received.

  Chapter 46

  Monday

  Portuguese Merlin helicopter Papa Zero Two, Eastern Atlantic Ocean

  ‘We have the ship,’ the Portuguese pilot reported on the intercom. ‘Range is zero eight miles on the radar.’

  ‘Roger,’ Richter said. ‘Any other ship contacts ahead of us? Don’t climb, obviously, just tell us if anything’s painting on your radar.’

  ‘Apart from the Greek freighter in front of us, there’s one south-bound container ship zero five miles to the east of our current position. Nothing apart from that.’

  ‘Thanks. Wait.’

  Richter tapped Reilly on the shoulder. ‘Eight miles to go,’ he said. ‘Final check. What’s the range of Tango One now?’

  Reilly was in contact with the men at the Reaper control suite back at Lajes on a military-spec satellite telephone unit, and immediately asked the question.

  ‘Twenty-nine miles from our location – they’ve got the chopper identified as well – and now twenty miles from the Greek-flagged ship in front of us. You reckon it’s a go?’

  ‘We’ve got to, Zack. Right now there’s no other option.’

  ‘OK. Go for it.’

  Richter nodded, and used the intercom to talk to the pilot again.

  ‘Proceed as briefed,’ he said. ‘Execute on my mark.’

  Chapter 47

  Monday

  Eastern Atlantic Ocean

  The Merlin descended smoothly towards the surface of the ocean about two miles behind and slightly to port of the Greek freighter and came to a hover at a height that meant the hull of the lower Zodiac was about four or five feet above the waves. Once established, the flight deck crew released the cargo hook that secured the lower boat, which fell the short distance to the sea. One of the DEVGRU SEALs, not carrying weapons and wearing a one-time immersion suit, immediately stepped out of the side door of the Merlin, landing in the water about 20 feet from the Zodiac, which was already being driven away by the rotor downwash.

  The pilot jumped about 50 yards ahead and repeated the operation with the second Zodiac. They were far enough behind the Greek ship that the bridge crew on that vessel would not do something Richter didn’t want them to do, like slow down or try to help.

  With each Zodiac under the control of a helmsman, the pilot gained a little height and the Portuguese aircrewman lowered a rope from a hardpoint above the side door of the Merlin. Reilly led the first team of DEVGRU soldiers to swiftly rappel down it into the Zodiac below, followed by Mason and Barber, clad in the same combat clothing as the others. Then the Portuguese pilot came to a hover above the second Zodiac and most of the rest of the soldiers, including Rogers and Jackson, deplaned in the same manner. That just left five soldiers and Richter in the back of the Merlin, but they had a different destination planned.

  Richter checked the two Zodiacs. Both appeared full of men, and both had their twin outboard engines running, and as he watched they began heading towards the port side of the Greek ship, throttles barely open, gaining very slowly on the larger vessel.

  That was the first part of the plan he’d formulated. The only way the DEVGRU SEALs were going to be able to avoid being blown out of the water when they approached Tango One would be if the Russians didn’t know they were there. And the only plan he’d thought of that made sense was to hide in the radar return of another and much larger vessel – in this case the Greek ship.

  So that part, at least, had worked. So far. But the next bit was much more problematic and was going to be far more difficult.

  Without the encumbrance of the two Zodiacs hanging underneath the fuselage, the Merlin was able to travel at its normal cruising speed, but in fact it didn’t need to go that fast because now the first part of the plan was underway there was no need for haste. Luck, yes, but haste, no. And the longer that Team 1 stayed in the back of the helicopter, the more comfortable they would be.

  Sitting on one of the canvas seats in the rear compartment of the aircraft, Richter checked and double checked the Merlin’s position, and used the satellite phone that Reilly had left to get a constant stream of updates on the location of Tango One and the Greek vessel that was heading in its general direction, with the two Zodiacs tagging along beside and slightly astern of it. In fact, he had no interest at all in the actual geographic locations of either the two ships or the helicopter, but knowledge of the relative distances between them was absolutely crucial.

  Both ships appeared to be maintaining course and speed, which was good news, the distance between them shrinking at the rate of almost exactly 22 nautical miles per hour, based upon their speeds. Richter worked out to the best of his ability where the ships would meet, or to be more accurate where they would pass each other heading in opposite directions, converted that location into a range and bearing and told the Portuguese pilot to make for that, and then to come to a low hover. He refined the instruction by giving the pilot a time to arrive there, a time that he had calculated would mean the Russian ship would be 15 nautical miles almost due north of that location, and unable to see the Merlin hovering just above the waves on its radar due to the curvature of the Earth.

  The pilot swung the helicopter around to the north and maintained a speed of just over 70 knots, and arrived at the location Richter had chosen almost exactly on time. As he transitioned the aircraft into a low hover, the five DEVGRU SEALs in the back of the helicopter made their own preparations. As with the crews of the two Zodiacs, one of them pulled on a one-time immersion suit over his combat clothing and prepared to get wet. The difference was that the other five men, including Richter, then did exactly the same. In this part of the assault, they were all going to get wet, sooner or later.

  Another man released the safety line on the inflatable dinghy, which was still packed in its travel case, and then pulled the toggle. There was a sound like a pistol shot as the compressed air cylinder was triggered and the dinghy began inflating. In less than two minutes, it had reached full size, and another soldier set about securing the electric trolling motor to the stern board.

  Then it was just a matter of manoeuvring it out of the wide side door of the hovering helicopter and dropping it the short distance to the waves below, but before they did that, the man wearing the immersion suit jumped into the water, ready to take control of the small inflatable boat. Once he was ready, the other men manhandled the boat through the door and dropped it, the pilot immediately moving the aircraft about 50 yards away to allow the SEAL to get into it without also fighting the rotor downwash. Once he had it under control, the pilot hovered over the dinghy at a higher level, and two of the DEVGRU SEALs rappelled down into it, followed by Richter, who hadn’t done that kind of thing in quite a while. But he made it; it wasn’t particularly fast or elegant, but it was the result that mattered, not how it was achieved. He was followed by the final two soldiers, and then the Merlin lifted away, climbing to about 500 feet.

  That quite probably moved the aircraft into the lowest lobe of the Russian ship’s surveillance radar, but that, too, was also a part of Richter’s plan. He had few resources to play with, and he was determined to make the best use of them. And what he wanted the Merlin to do was to give the Russians something else to look at other than the open ocean directly in front of their ship.

  Chapter 48

 
Monday

  Eastern Atlantic Ocean

  It was, they all knew, the quiet before the storm. Undeniably a cliché, it was also undeniably true. Before going to any kind of hostile situation, the soldiers of DEVGRU, the finest special forces troops America had ever produced, all spent a little quiet time mentally rehearsing the actions that they would soon be taking, all of them supremely aware that they were going into a situation where there would be no second chances. Everything had to work first time, every time.

  As a matter of routine, the men in the Zodiacs checked their weapons, not once, or even twice, but three or four times to make absolutely sure that they were ready for whatever would come when they approached the Russian ship.

  But that, for the moment, was all that they could do. Reilly knew, because of the timing he had discussed and reviewed with Richter, that it would take a considerable time for the two fairly slow-moving ships to pass, and there was absolutely nothing that they could do until that happened. In the meantime, the two Zodiacs just had to match speed with the Greek freighter and ensure that they kept the steel sides of the ship between themselves and the still invisible and steadily approaching target vessel.

  The leading Zodiac had taken up a position slightly ahead of the second boat, in a position from which the men on board could see the ocean to the north beyond the bow of the Greek ship. Two of men were sitting in the bow watching the horizon carefully, alert for the first sign of the approach of Tango One.