Freya tensed her jaw. “See, this is gonna find those bastards and kick their ass.”
“Okay, but if we have this, what do the Chinese have?” As always, Tremaine wanted to size up his enemy.
“We don’t know. But we do know they have been pouring money into their fleet in recent years. And they have some stealthy subs. Six years ago, in 2006, a Chinese sub surfaced within torpedo range of the aircraft carrier, Kitty Hawk, near the Japanese island of Okinawa—scared the crap out of us. That’s why we built this one. Gotta stay one step ahead!” The SEAL laughed and marched toward the sail and sub’s porthole entrance.
“Great.” Tremaine huffed and started after the marine. Freya followed suit.
* * *
The group climbed down the ladder into the submarine. The corridors were narrow, barely enough room to allow one crew member to pass the other. They hastened their pace, heading directly for the command and control room.
“Here we go,” the SEAL said. “As you can see, the layout on this girl is a little different than what you may be used to. No periscope, just photonics. Which means there is no periscope platform. The photonics array is there on your left with sonar and ship control. On your right is ESM, combat control, special ops and radio.”
“Great, where’s the CO?” Freya asked. “We need to brief and get moving.”
“We don’t have a CO for her yet; we are still finalizing this sub. The XO is here, and we have a skeleton crew at this time.” The SEAL was matter-of-fact, unfazed by the lack of personnel.
“Fine, then get me the XO.”
“Yes ma’am. He’s probably in his berth at the moment. I’ll find him.”
“Thank you.” Freya nodded and watched the soldier march off down the corridor.
“Do you think we can do this? Pull this off, I mean,” Tremaine asked.
“God only knows, Tremaine. God only knows.”
Freya turned away and busied herself by examining the sonar array. The harsh LCD light cast unhappy shadows across her face as she frowned, wrinkling her normally porcelain skin. Jesus, she hoped they were doing the right thing. She was sure they would all die trying this, but what the hell. Everyone was going to die, anyway.
“It’s a towed array.”
“Huh?” Startled, she looked up from the screen to see a tall, good-looking, if not a little young, officer.
“A towed array,” he repeated. “It’s to eliminate the blind spot in our sonar at the stern of the vessel. The stern and dorsal side are always problematic in submarine warfare. They’re every sub’s weak spot.”
“Oh, right. Are you the XO?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Freya studied him—smooth face, no crow’s feet, and a cheeky sparkle in his hazel eyes. Standing incredibly straight, he must have been over six feet tall and was impressively broad, but still looked so young. “Do you mind me asking how old you are?”
“Ma’am, in this division of our forces, it’s not an issue of age but of aptitude, skill, and sometimes just a hint of James Kirk.” He grinned using only the right side of his mouth.
“You trying to tell me you are into green women?”
“No, ma’am. But you can tell me if you spot a mermaid out there.”
She smiled. She liked him. “Okay, have you been briefed of the situation so far?”
“Yes ma’am. One Kelly Graham—male, mid-thirties—and one government experiment—biological entity—have been abducted by the Chinese. Most likely location is a submarine sitting somewhere in Monterey Bay. Our mission is one of extraction.”
“Well, that’s the long and the short of it, but—”
“Ma’am, I hold advanced degrees in strategic warfare and sub-marine battle tactics, not to mention, I always won at Risk as a kid.” He grinned again. “I have a plan, Ms. Nilsson. Just hear me out.”
“It’d better be good.”
“Well, it’s dangerous and has approximately a twenty-percent chance of success, but given our current situation, it’s the best we have.”
“Twenty percent doesn’t sound great. What’s the plan?”
“We have two main challenges in this situation: one is boarding a submerged submarine, which is very difficult, and the second is finding the hostages and getting them out to safety without getting ourselves killed in the process.”
“You make it sound so easy. So, I repeat, how do you suggest we do this?”
“Right.” The XO walked across to the navigation table and tapped a few keys. Within a few moments, the geographical map had been replaced with the schematic of a submarine.
“We think they will be using a variant of the Shang class submarine. Last intelligence reports indicated alterations such as retractable diving planes and a modified hull for greater acoustic stealth. So, challenge one: entering the submarine. We’re going to have to sink her. If we can manage that, we will need to gain entry through their lockout trunk.” He ran his finger across the bright screen, indicating the entry point, not far behind the main mast.
“The lockout trunk is a fairly new concept and allows subs to deploy divers while submerged. After the incident with the Russian Kursk, we acquired the Norwegian technology to open up escape hatches of sunken subs.”
“You won’t be able to pressurize the escape hatch though. Surely, it will flood the entire vessel?”
“Affirmative.”
“But Kelly might drown.” Freya took a step backward, shocked at her own outburst of emotion and concern for Kelly.
“This is a possibility, Ms. Nilsson. However, I am informed that the creature is amphibious and capable of surviving underwater. Given the briefing, it seems that survival of the creature is the primary objective. Taking out the sub and flooding it has the greatest chance of eliminating our enemies while preserving our target.”
“You’re willing to kill Kelly to do this?” She shook her head and stared at the XO.
“Ma’am, Mr. Graham can be considered expendable—collateral damage, if you will—in this situation. Strategy in warfare needs to consider acceptable losses. More importantly, the fact that we are even engaging the Chinese at this time is only because we have received direct orders from General Lloyd to support you as necessary. As soon as the President or Congress finds out about this, the operation will be shut down. Getting in and out with the creature quickly is priority one.”
Freya looked to Tremaine, searching his eyes for a sign he agreed with her and not the XO, but she found nothing.
“The XO is right, and you know it,” Tremaine said. “We cannot let personal feelings cloud our judgment here. Our primary objective is to get K’in back. Anything else is, well, a bonus.”
“I guess.” She didn’t like the fact Tremaine had latched on to personal feelings. Better not to argue further.
“Right. Ms. Nilsson, once we’ve extracted the creature, we are going to need to get it away from the area as fast as possible. We will need to get it to the surface for an aerial pick up.”
“And how will you do that?”
“You let the SEAL team worry about that. For now, we need to track the sub. We currently have the element of surprise and we don’t want to lose it. Once we exit the main tunnel into Monterey Bay, we will be able to begin tracking. This will be difficult since Monterey has much marine life and busy surface activity. For now, I suggest that you get prepared. You will accompany the SEAL team in the ASDS, which has the mechanical arm to open the hatch of the enemy sub. You will evacuate to the surface and meet the chopper, which will be dispatched from San Diego upon departure of the ASDS. In the meantime, the SEAL team will open the Chinese sub. A team will go in, retrieve the creature, and rendezvous with you at the surface.”
“And Kelly?” She pushed the point one last time.
“If Mr. Graham is able to be rescued, we will do so. But I am making no promises.” The cheeky look in his eyes was gone. He appeared much older and wiser now.
“Okay.” Freya nodded and made her way out of the
control room.
“Mr. Tremaine, I want you to consider staying aboard with us for the time being. After this is over, we will need to ensure contact with Ms. Nilsson, and you both will understand your protocols. You will be able to authenticate genuine communication and response, even in the event of capture.”
“Makes sense to me. How long will it take to find them?”
“It could be minutes, hours, or days. It’s hard to tell. But what I am guessing is they are not expecting company. Our submarine fleet is deployed around the world on various operations—Monterey Bay is not exactly high on the list of military significance. Or at least, no one else knows it is. With any luck, they are making a bit more noise down there than they should be. We will drop into a search pattern once we exit the tunnel into the bay.”
Location: Unknown
It was dark—a strange dark—like looking through fog at night. The fog can’t really be seen or touched but seems to hinder vision anyway. Kelly’s eyes stung, and there was a constant pressure on them. Where was he?
His leg twitched. He was upright but not touching the floor—not touching anything. He flailed an arm, but it dragged as if he were moving in slow motion. Was he drugged? He exhaled. Bubbles spilled through the regulator strapped to his face. A long hose protruded from the front of it and out of the water’s surface above him—a makeshift snorkel. Shit, he was underwater. Kelly’s eyes widened in terror. All senses but vision were numbed to the point of nothingness. His heart raced, and began to hyperventilate. Calm—he must stay calm. He tried to control his breathing.
Intense fluorescent light blinked rapidly into life, shining through Kelly’s dilated pupils, temporarily blinding him. Shit, that was bright. He repeatedly opened his eyes, screwed them closed, and opened them again. The light was coming from the front like an enormous torch. Still, his vision remained blurry. He could only see shapes. What were they? Men? Those were men on the other side of glass. Kelly was in a tank.
The men wandered up to the tank, stared inside, and went back to the gray desks and consoles some ten feet away. Kelly looked around his aquatic prison. He was clearly naked, his genitals floating in the warm water. Concern for his current situation overwhelmed any sense of embarrassment. He examined the walls. Clear to the front but onyx-black to his right, rear, and above. He turned his head slowly to the left and peered through a transparent wall into an adjacent tank.
There was K’in, bobbing up and down in the water, limp but clearly awake. The creature looked weak, almost melancholy—nothing like the swirling lively animal to which he had become accustomed. He moved his large head in Kelly’s direction and appeared to watch him. Kelly squinted in the dazzling light to focus. He noticed a strange, long, black wire that was attached to K’in’s head, projecting vertically out through the water into the roof of the tank. He reached through the water to his own head. A wire. He tugged on it, but it was fixed to his scalp somehow. Fuck, what was this? Where was he?
Kelly scanned the window to the outside world for a clue. Desks, consoles, men, a plain gray floor—everything looked stark, metallic, and functional. The room was definitely small. A single door behind the men looked like an elongated porthole. Pipes of various sizes ran along the ceiling. His gaze fell on a small, table-like structure in front of the aquarium, placed between his and the creature’s portion of the tank. On its surface was something that looked very much like the object Kelly had retrieved for the General. Two black wires extended upward from it toward the tank and diverged after a few feet, splicing off to the left and right. Shit! They were hooked up to the fucking thing. Dread overwhelmed him. He kicked his feet, breathing rapidly, bubbles streaming from the regulator. Shit! Shit!
He stopped abruptly, every muscle in his body relaxing. A sense of ease and contentment washed over him. Kelly closed his eyes and listened to his heart rate slow to a resting rhythm. The water sloshed around his ears, lapping gently at his face, soothing him. Opening his eyelids, he lazily dragged his head to face the creature’s tank. As his gaze swept across the glass front, he could see the men frantically taking notes. His field of vision reached K’in. K’in was looking at him—staring at him. Their eyes locked. Emotion oozed from the creature. K’in was scared, not for himself but for Kelly. He was reaching out to him—telling him to be calm. It wasn’t English or any language, just a serene feeling of being at one with something. Kelly’s eyes rolled back in his head. Dark—everything was going dark.
Location: U.S. submarine, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean
“How long ‘til we’re out of the tunnel and in the bay?”
“We’ve been in the bay for three hours, Mr. Tremaine.”
“Oh?”
“You have no real sense of time down here, no natural light to aid your perception.” The XO was sitting on his chair, hands clamped together.
“Right.” He looked at his watch. It had been more than seven hours since they had left. Made sense. “So we just feel around in the dark down here? Any fool could do that. How long ‘til we—”
“Sir, I’ve been tracking a 60 Hertz signal for a while. It has a six-line profile, light and narrow. I think we have her.”
“How fast is she moving and in which direction? Has she seen us?”
The XO leapt to his feet. “We didn’t move across a layer, and the TA has stayed in line; this is coming from the UUV. She seems to be moving slightly faster than patrol speed, course correction of less than thirty degrees fairly regularly but in a general westerly direction. She’s sixty-five feet below us—we are in her blind spot.”
“Excellent.”
The XO walked across the room to the internal communications console. “Ms. Nilsson, we have the enemy sub and are tracking. Deploy the ASDS while we are still in her blind spot.”
“Affirmative.” Freya’s voice sounded muted over the communications system. “Good luck.”
“To us all, Ms. Nilsson. Out.”
“Now what?” Tremaine’s face was a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.
“Now we charge these fuckers like a bull in a china shop. Scare the shit out of them. We have one chance at this. We have to make it count.”
There was a heavy clunk as the ASDS decoupled from the hull.
“There she goes. I hope they didn’t hear that,” quipped Tremaine.
“Sir, she’s making a course correction, sixty degrees to port. I think she’s spotted us!” the soldier at the sonar shouted.
“Fuck! All hands to deck! Move to tactical speed now! Maintain the solution, don’t let her out of your sight!”
* * *
The propeller hummed as the mini-sub cruised along. Freya sat in the transport compartment of the ASDS. It was cramped inside. Six marines were with her, one in the operations section and five in the transport compartment. She was sitting in full scuba gear on a bench-like structure, awaiting her signal to exit to the chopper, or “angel” as the marines referred to it, at the surface. She’d always liked that particular term and the idea that there was a team out there ready to rescue her, should she need it—her own private army of angels with machine guns.
Her thoughts turned to Kelly. She hoped he was okay and could be rescued, too. She knew it wasn’t likely, but she felt responsible for him—and Chris and Victoria. This was the first time she’d been in a real combat situation, and she’d already lost two, possibly three civilians. If she was really honest, she admired Kelly. Yes, he was a bit gung-ho, a bit sarcastic, and a bit moody, but he was brave. And he obviously took care of the people he loved—an admirable quality. He had to survive.
“Ms. Nilsson, we have a problem. The enemy sub has changed direction. We’ve been spotted. The XO has moved into attack mode. You need to get to the surface now.”
Freya sprang from her seat. She blinked, dazed and confused. What should she do? Scuba gear, that’s right. Get out. Get to the chopper. She sprinted into the LIO compartment, pulled on the BCD, and adjusted the straps, fastening the weight belt and t
he tank next.
“Okay, Ms. Nilsson, once you are away, we’ll wait for the signal and then maneuver into position. We’ll use the robotic arm to remove the hatch door to their lockout trunk. This will flood the sub and disable the enemy. We’ll send in a team to extract the creature.”
“By disable, you mean drown everyone on board, right?”
“Yes ma’am. Probably.”
She shook her head. “Surely, only flooding the lockout trunk won’t work. They can seal off compartments.”
“Not with—”
“Torpedo away!”
“What?” Freya yelled, her eyes wild.
“The XO had to take her down—it’s the only way.”
“One hundred feet, fifty feet, twenty feet, ten ... contact! The Chinese sub has been hit!” The marine at the comms station was yelling back into the LIO compartment.
“You have to go now. Go!” The marine yanked the hood of Freya’s wetsuit over her head.
She glared at him, clearly pissed off. She pulled the mask’s strap over her head and fixed it to her face. Freya heaved open the hatch door in the floor. It clanged against the inside of the hull as she let it go. The air pressure inside prevented water from rushing in. Placing the regulator in her mouth, she breathed deeply a few times before dropping feet first into the frigid water.
Once outside, she searched her surroundings. Three hundred feet below, she could see a blurry image of the Chinese sub as it sank to the ocean floor. A massive black hole gaped in the port side of the dull gray vessel. She watched for a few moments as the submarine slipped into the darkness. In the distance, she could see the shape of their sub. It appeared undamaged. Overhead, the ASDS moved. Freya kicked her feet and swam out from underneath it. Looking to the surface, she began her ascent. As she rose, she held a small prayer in her heart that belied her need to be strong: let Kelly be okay.
Location: Chinese submarine, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean
Children of the Fifth Sun Page 10