Fatal Thunder: A Jerry Mitchell Novel (47 page)

The Orion banked hard left and flew to the far southern corner of the sonobuoy field. Five more sonobuoys dropped from the aircraft’s underside and parachuted down to the water.

“TACCO, Sensor Three. No MAD contact.”

Figures,
thought the tactical coordinator. Russian boats were all fitted with degaussing gear and had really low magnetic signatures. They’d have to fly within a thousand meters before they’d even have a chance of picking the Akula up.

“TACCO, Sensor Two. Localization field up, no contacts.”

“TACCO, Sensor One. Narrowband line is fading. Contact is showing down Doppler, target is moving away from the buoy.”

Shit,
swore the officer,
we’re losing him!
He needed to do something fast if they were going to keep this sub.

“Sensor Two, TACCO: Stand by to drop a DICASS buoy. Set depth selection to deep.”

Once again the aircraft turned and proceeded back toward the southern corner. As it was just about to fly over sonobuoy fifty-one another silver canister was dropped from her belly. The DICASS buoy splashed into the water, and immediately released the transducer subsection from its float. Unwinding rapidly, the transducer dropped to a depth of 136 meters, well below the seasonal thermocline, or layer. Seconds later, a sharp high-frequency ping began scanning the water.

INS
Chakra

The acoustic intercept receiver chirped madly. The estimated sound level indicated the active sonar was close.

“Helmsman, slow ahead. Make your depth three hundred meters,” barked Jain. “First Officer, report!”

“Active sonobuoy bears red one seven eight. It’s almost directly behind us.”

“Set ultra quiet condition throughout the ship,” Jain ordered. “Now we have to act just like a water molecule.”

“Captain, frequency and pulse pattern indicates it’s an American SSQ-62 active, directional sonobuoy. I can’t believe that the Americans are looking for us!”

“I don’t think they are, Number One. It’s probably a Taiwanese P-3.”

“Sir, something is very wrong here. Why are our allies looking for us, and so aggressively I might add?”

“I don’t have a clue, Number One. But we’re on a good course to get out of range of the buoy, and between the anechoic coating and our narrow aspect, I think we’ll get out of this with our hides intact.”

“Captain, our speed is five knots and ultra quiet is set,” reported Rakash.

“Very well. Given the circumstances, we may want to rethink that twenty-knot speed idea.” Jain wasn’t thrilled with slowing down, but he had little choice. He pulled out the target list again and started looking real hard at his options. He’d have to get the time back somehow.

16 April 2017

1800 Local Time

USS
North Dakota

40 NM West of Taiwan

South China Sea

Samant and Petrov hovered over the digital chart of the waters around Taiwan. It had been twenty-two hours since they’d left Hong Kong, after sending the two UUVs on their way to begin searching the harbors. Mitchell had wasted little time, and turned his boat toward the northeast and ran off at high speed. After six hours, he slowed to get a good look around, and then alternated between a sprint and what Thigpen had called “a fast walk.” They hadn’t seen any signs of the Indian Akula yet, but by Samant and Petrov’s estimate they were still sixty-some-odd miles behind. Nevertheless, the lack of even the slightest contact was disheartening.

Poring over the available data, the two struggled to guess where
Chakra
would go next. That the first target would be Hong Kong was intuitively obvious. Figuring out the second one was far more difficult. The multiple commercial facilities at Ningbo-Zhoushan and Shanghai placed both in the top five busiest ports, with the Shanghai International Port on the edge of the Yangtze River being number one. And while a submerged submarine could approach all of the ports, some were considerably easier than others.

Jerry and his executive officer were in the radio room talking with their superior at Squadron Fifteen. They’d received an urgent message a quarter of an hour earlier for the submarine to come up to periscope depth and make contact. Since Petrov and Samant were barred from that part of the ship, they hung out in control and watched as the crew expertly handled their boat. Both were still in awe of the sheer processing power that a
Virginia
-class submarine possessed.

Still, Samant felt uneasy, out of sorts, there was something wrong with this picture. Then it struck him; there were too many pictures. Everywhere he looked there were multiple display screens. The two vertical flat-screen panels forward were simply enormous. The starboard display had the output from one of the BVS-1 optronics masts on it. Samant sighed and shook his head.

“I’m still not comfortable with this central post configuration, Aleks. It doesn’t feel right to not have a periscope!” he grumbled.

“I understand how you feel, Girish, but this is the future. The newest Russian submarines are going down this path for the same reasons the Americans have, to make more information available to the commanding officer.”

“Not all progress is necessarily a good thing,” Samant shot back. “There’s a feeling of control, of being in
command
, when one stares at his adversary through an eyepiece. This is like watching a video game!”

Petrov chuckled. “You’re sounding like a hopeless romantic, Girish. You have to remember that these ‘children’ grew up with video games. We just have to accept that how we did things is behind the times, old-fashioned, obsolete.”

Samant turned to Petrov, a crushed expression on his face. “Thank you for making me feel ancient, Aleks.”

“You’re welcome, my friend,” Petrov laughed. He was definitely feeling more like himself, and he enjoyed being able to poke fun at his Indian comrade. Samant just growled in frustration.

*   *   *

“Well, we finally got a break,” Jerry declared as he and Thigpen came out of the radio room. “A Taiwanese submarine got a solid contact and reported in. Please plot these positions,” he said to the quartermaster, handing him a piece of paper.

“Aye, aye, sir,” replied the petty officer.

The four officers gazed at the chart as two dots popped up. “The sub reported contact here, and about six hours later a Taiwan P-3C got a weak hit here. This puts them on a course to the southeast. Jain’s going around the east side of Taiwan,” explained Jerry.

“Any indication Jain knows he’d been picked up?” questioned Samant with excitement.

“I think that’s a given, Captain. The P-3 dropped a DICASS bouy when they tried to maintain contact. They failed, but Jain would’ve had to be completely deaf not to hear it.”

Thigpen smiled and said, “Talk about a prompt jump in the pucker factor. An active sonobuoy coming from out of nowhere, those boys probably had to change their britches!”

Samant nodded; he too was encouraged by the news. “This also means Jain had to slow down. Since he knows he’s being hunted, he’ll have to reduce speed to try and stay undetected. This will make it easier for us to catch him.” The Indian then measured the distance between the P-3’s reported position and
North Dakota
’s at the same time. The two locations were only seventy-two miles apart. “At our present speed we can make up the distance in ten hours, perhaps less.”

“Or we could get out ahead of him,” Petrov observed, pointing to the Penghu Channel on the chart.

“I was thinking the same thing, Alex,” agreed Jerry. “Since Jain has slowed down, and probably gone to ultra quiet, our detection range will also be reduced. And if we maintain our current speed, he could pick us up first and evade. But, if we go around the west side of Taiwan, we have a shorter distance to travel and we can fly through without having to worry about being heard.”

“An old-fashioned end-around, eh, Skipper?” remarked Thigpen.

Jerry nodded. “Basically.”

“So it’s your intention to set up another ambush?” asked Samant.

“Yes, Captain. But the question that still needs to be answered is, where do we go?”

“We’re still working on that problem, Jerry,” said Petrov. Then, pointing to himself, Samant, and Thigpen, he added, “Give us a few more hours and we’ll have a recommendation for you.”

“Very well. In the meantime, XO, change course for Penghu Channel.”

21

APPROACHES

17 April 2017

1300 Local Time

Squadron Fifteen Headquarters

Guam

Jacobs met him at his office with a fresh mug of coffee. It seemed to Commodore Simonis that he had taken up residence in the watch center lately, and while he was grateful for a change of scene, he didn’t know if a videoconference with Captain Jerry Mitchell would qualify as a break.

To transmit a video signal, a submarine had to come to shallow depth and raise an antenna, or surface completely. Either way, he’d have to slow down, and Mitchell wouldn’t do that now unless it was important.
And probably bad news,
thought Simonis.

Jacobs had already set up the link, and the commodore could see Mitchell waiting on the display. He didn’t waste Jerry’s time on pleasantries. “Report, Captain Mitchell.”

“Sir, it’s our firm belief that
Chakra
is going to bypass Ningbo harbor altogether,” Jerry announced. “I need a new patrol box, toward the north, covering Dachu and Dahuanglong Islands.”

That got Simonis’s attention. “Explain.”

“I know you’ve looked at the approaches to Ningbo. It’s an incredibly difficult shot even for an experienced submariner. It’s very shallow water, the torpedo has to make more than one turn around islands to get to the port facility, and there’s a ton of shipping in the area, including fishing boats and now patrols. There are very few spots where he actually has water deep enough to make an approach and still be in torpedo range.”

Simonis nodded. “Concur, that’s why we’ve got you guarding the southern approach. It’s the best of
Chakra
’s several unattractive choices.”

“I agree, sir. It’s where I’d make the shot from, and Captain Samant thinks that was Jain’s original plan. But the situation has changed. Jain knows he’s being hunted. He wouldn’t go around Taiwan otherwise,” replied Jerry as he gestured to someone offscreen.

Samant came into view and sat next to Jerry. Simonis saw the Indian and his nostrils flared. Jerry knew his commodore wouldn’t be pleased and preempted him. “Yes, sir, I know, he’s in radio, but we really don’t have time for that. You need to hear his argument from him.”

“Very well, we’ll discuss this later. Captain Samant, would you please explain.”

“Captain Simonis, Jain wouldn’t skip Ningbo if he thought the Chinese were still ignorant of his presence. But he knows the Chinese can saturate those few spots where it’s even possible for him to take a shot with ASW assets. With an alerted defender, the risk becomes too great—indeed, it’s suicidal.
I
would not make the attempt.”

Simonis had just been looking at the chart of Ningbo harbor. He agreed it was a mess, but reading Jain’s intentions was a lot harder than reading a nautical chart.

“I respect your evaluation, Captain Samant, but we’ve got
North Dakota
’s two UUVs searching Hong Kong now, and if Jain gets by us and plants one in Ningbo…”

“Add this to the equation,” Samant replied. “He’s lost at least one day, perhaps more, because of his unexpected detour around the east coast of Taiwan. He’s behind schedule, and even though we don’t know exactly what that schedule is, it’s still there because he launched the torpedo into Hong Kong. Add to that the fact that he’s being hunted, means he can’t just rush up to the firing point. He’ll have to slow way down and thread his way through heavy shipping traffic in thirty meters of water, all the while trying to stay covert with an alerted adversary out looking for him. Even if he could do it, it’s going to take him a lot of time, much more than they probably planned for originally.”

Jerry continued, “Look at Shanghai, just to the north on the other side of Hangzhou Bay. The geography’s more amenable for making an approach, and there are actually two targets fairly close to each other. There’s the Shanghai International Port, at the mouth of the Yangtze, and the Yangshan deep-water terminal that sticks out into the bay. Shanghai International is at the top of the list due to its huge capacity, but Yangshan’s is just a little below Ningbo’s. Either one is worthy of a nuke, according to that list.”

Simonis was nodding. “All right, you’ve convinced me. He trades one high-risk, time-consuming target for one that’s not only easier to attack, but doesn’t add any time to his schedule. I’ll tell the staff to shift your patrol zone. And if Jain actually does try to attack Ningbo, the Chinese units there will have a decent chance of catching him, even without
North Dakota
. There are eight Yuan- and Song-class submarines at Daxie Dao alone, they will make for a rude welcoming committee.”

Jerry looked satisfied, but Samant just looked grim. Every time he used his expertise to help the Americans, he put another nail in
Chakra
’s coffin.

“Do you have a good ambush position in mind?
North Carolina
’s already up there, so I’ll make sure that your patrol zones don’t conflict.”

“Yes, sir, we do. There’s a lovely patch of water along the fifty-meter curve where we can look out into deeper water. It’s right alongside the best approach route to Yangshan. And
Chakra
will have to come in with her towed array stowed, which gives us a significant acoustic advantage.”

“When do you expect to be on station?” demanded Simonis.

“In about four hours, Commodore. Oh, and sir, can you please make sure the Chinese have all their submarines out of there? I don’t think you could call it a ‘blue-on-blue’ attack, but whether we shoot or they do, it wouldn’t be good.”

Simonis smiled. “Concur. I’ll make sure they’re clear.” He leaned a little closer to the screen. “And I’m giving you the hot spot, Captain.”