could feel that same gnawing, gut-wrenching emotion he’d felt the time Coyote
and his RIO had been lost off North Korea. “Anyway,” he went on, trying to
ignore the inner turmoil for a few minutes longer. “Anyway, that helo from
Gridley’s due to get here in a few more minutes. They’ll take up the search.”
Harrison still looked doubtful, but at last he nodded. “I guess you’re
the boss now,” he admitted. “Okay, crew, keep your ears open anyway. And if
you’d be so kind, CAG, I’d appreciate it if you’d update Gridley and the ASW
boys on the Jefferson.”
The Viking banked to port and picked up speed as Magruder reached for the
microphone again. He was happy to have something to do, something to keep him
from having to spend the whole flight back to the carrier thinking about his
friends.
0949 hours Zulu (0949 hours Zone)
Soviet Guided Missile Submarine Krasniy Ritsary
Northeast of the Faeroe Islands
His name meant Red Knight, and he was a submarine of the class Westerners
referred to as the “Oscar.” Captain First Rank Georgi Naumkin had commanded
him for less than four months, having been selected for the task by Admiral
Khenkin himself after the submarine’s previous captain had been pronounced too
closely connected with republican elements to be trusted with such an
important command.
Up until now the war in Norway hadn’t required the use of a sub like the
Krasnly Ritsary. He was neither one of the vital boomers, armed with
ballistic missiles, nor one of the far more glamorous attack subs designed to
harass enemy surface ships and submarines. Against Norway’s ships using him
would have been like using a sledgehammer on a mosquito. But with the
Americans coming, Krasniy Ritsary could finally come into his own.
He carried twenty-four conventionally armed antiship cruise missiles, a
formidable armament of high-tech weapons like the ones the Americans had used
with such devastating effect in the Persian Gulf a few years before. Lurking
here, near the edge of the exclusion zone, he was perfectly placed to strike
from the depths at any American ship that came within range.
Right now the SSGN was drifting just over the rugged sea floor, waiting.
Naumkin wasn’t the only man aboard whose eyes were turned upward. If he had
been a religious man, he would have been uttering a prayer that the Americans
would pass on and overlook the sub.
They had followed the savage battle between the American ASW aircraft and
the sub’s escort, Komsomolets Thilsiskiy. The passive sonars had tracked the
attack sub, and the sounds of torps in the water had been audible right
through the hull. Everyone aboard knew that the other boat had been
destroyed. There was no mistaking the death throes of a crippled submarine.
Then there had been nothing for a long time, nothing but the occasional
bursts of sonar activity from the enemy sonobuoys. Now even those had fallen
silent.
“They must have proceeded to a new leg of their search pattern, Comrade
Captain,” Captain Second Rank Vitaly Maleshenko said quietly. “We are surely
safe from detection now.”
“That will not last once we launch, Vitaly,” Naumkin told the executive
officer with a frown. “We must be sure we can break contact and escape.
Trading Krasniy Ritsary for one shot at the Americans is a useless waste.”
“But doing nothing would be an even greater waste,” the zampolit, a
rabbit-faced man named Vorontsov, countered.
“True enough,” Naumkin admitted reluctantly. He paused. “Very well.
Raise the antenna. We will update our situation report and find ourselves a
worthwhile target for our missiles. Vitaly, pass the word to missile control
to prepare all missiles for firing.”
“Sir!”
He turned away as his crew got to work. The next few minutes could cover
them all in glory … or leave them as dead as their comrades aboard the
stricken attack sub.
0949 hours Zulu (0949 hours Zone)
Tomcat 201
Northwest of the Faeroe Islands
“Hang in there, Batman!” Coyote called. “I’m on him!”
He dropped the F-14 behind a Russian MiG that was trying to keep up with
Batman’s desperate evasive maneuvers and triggered a short burst of 20-mm
cannon fire, but he didn’t see any immediate damage from his attack. Still,