Phoenix Sub Zero

“What have you got on the 150-hertz bucket?” he shot at the junior watchstander, a third-class sonarman named Phills.

“Couple of spikes at 154, but they’re fuzzy. Lot of noise.”

“Wait a minute,” Holt said, turning his seat toward the narrowband displays. More transients began pouring down the narrowband display, all from the north. The audio cursor was putting out a hum now, a faint hum that reminded him of the run on the Louisville. The hum and the rattles were growing louder. “Zero the freq bucket and narrow it to 153 to 155 hertz, max processing, short time integration,” he ordered Phills.

Holt’s suspicion was confirmed ninety seconds later.

“Conn, sonar,” he said calmly into his headset mike, “new contact bearing zero zero five on hull and spherical arrays, holding a one five four hertz tonal narrowband and several traces and transients broadband, suspect contact is submerged warship, Japanese construction. Destiny class.”

“Conn, aye,” Vale’s voice replied, just as calm. “Turning east for a TMA leg now. Designate contact Target One.”

On the conn, Lt. Comdr. Henry Vale, the officer of the deck, buzzed Pacino’s stateroom and called to the chief of the watch to man battle stations.

“Captain,” Pacino answered Vale.

“Time is 0355, sir. We have the Destiny.”

Chapter 31 Saturday, 4 January

LABRADOR SEA, WEST OF GODTHAAB, GREENLAND

USS PHOENIX

“Norfolk Navcom, this is Echo Five November. Navcom, Navcom, Navcom, this is Echo Five November with a Navy Blue. Come in, over.”

Static and whistling.

“Navcom, this is Echo Five November, over.”

Nothing.

Kane looked at Binghamton, whose head was sweating furiously.

Binghamton adjusted the gain and told Kane to try again. No answer but static. Binghamton tried a new frequency, listening first to see if there were any voices, and hearing none, waved to Kane. Kane called again. Silence, no response.

“I guess there was something to the storm report I heard.”

“What report? What storm?”

“When the bigmouth dried out I cranked through a frequency and heard something about a massive blizzard over the Atlantic coast from the Carolinas to New York. Whole place socked in. It would explain the reception problem.”

“Maybe we should try for a relay. Get somebody local who can keep calling.”

“Somebody else couldn’t authenticate from the code book, plus I’m guessing this message is time-sensitive. Am I right, Skipper?”

“Yeah.” Kane clicked his microphone. “Conn, Captain, lower the bigmouth and take us deep.”

“Conn, aye,” rasped through the circuit. The deck plunged beneath them as the ship went down and accelerated to catch up with the Destiny.

“Any chance an hour will make a difference. Senior?”

“Who knows. Captain? We could try, but don’t count on anything.” “Dammit,” Kane said, already halfway to control.

“Off’sa’deck, we got Target One back?”

“Still looking, sir.”

“Find him fast. I don’t need another Nagasaki surprise.”

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY HEADQUARTERS, FORT MEADE, MARYLAND

BUILDING 427

SECURE COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

“We’re under three feet of snow already. General. How about you?”

The secure-voice line took a second to process and unscramble the incoming signal so that Barczynski’s voice came over after a short delay. To Donchez the incessant pausing always felt like he was talking to someone angry who had to count to ten before speaking, and in this case it was appropriate. Barczynski was not pleased about the situation in the Labrador Sea.

“I can’t even see as far as two feet of my back porch, but what I can see is drifting up to four feet. I barely made it home and I’m not going anywhere until this thing lifts. But, enough about the damn storm. What the hell’s going on with the Destiny and Sihoud? You’ve been promising me results for a week now.”

Donchez had briefed Barczynski earlier about the first message from the Phoenix, the first good news since Seawolf had left the dry dock. This call was to update him on the second message and that Seawolf should be intercepting the Destiny within the next six hours. When Donchez finished, the general started an interrogation.

“What chance does your Seawolf have against this Destiny?

We know the UIF sub ran over two of your 688 class boats. And didn’t they have the same weapons as Seawolf has now?”

“You’re partly correct. General. I believe Seawolf will prevail. It’s invisible compared to a 688. And with the same weapons, the Phoenix was able to damage the Destiny badly enough that they could track it clear across an ocean without being detected, even though they themselves were badly hurt. The Mark 50 torpedo is a remarkable weapon. A salvo of three or four should put the Destiny on the bottom.”

“Will Seawolf get there in time?”

“Yes, sir.” He hoped.

“What if by some circumstance that Scorpion missile gets launched? Can we shoot it down? Should we have some of Clough’s interceptors standing by?”