“TORPEDO…TORPEDO…TORPEDO…RED ONE SEVEN FIVE…ACTIVE TRANSMISSIONS…INTERVAL 500 YARDS…BEARING STEADY…”
Too close and too late. The pressure hull of the Kilo split as the big American torpedo blasted its way into her port quarter. The Kilo was known to be able to absorb a pretty good hit, but not one from a weapon like this. Boomer Dunning’s perfectly aimed Mk 48 blew a gaping six-foot hole in K-10 at exactly 1921 on the evening of November 18. Captain Kan died, still grinning at his own malevolence; there were no survivors and no witnesses. No one lived longer than thirty seconds after impact.
The entire crew was either drowned or slammed to pieces against machinery by the onrushing water, which roared through the compartments, crushing bulkheads one by one as she went down. The submarine, upon which the far-distant Admiral Zhang Yushu had staked so much, sank slowly to the floor of the Southern Indian Ocean in two thousand feet of freezing water. No one would ever quite know where she rested. Or indeed what had happened to her. Though there would be those in Moscow and Beijing who might make educated guesses.
A half hour later, Commander Dunning sat down to write his signal yet again. He kept it short: “Russian-built Kilo arrived Kerguelen 172224NOV. Hai Lung arrived 182148NOV. Believe Kilo destroyed Taiwan factory we located 49.65N 69.20E one mile from dead-end Baie du Repos. In accordance with my original orders, issued 011200AUG03, I sank K-10 at 2221 on 19 NOV, off northern KERGUELEN — Commander Cale Dunning, USS Columbia.”
It was 1350 in SUBLANT when Boomer’s signal arrived. Admirals Mulligan and Dixon were in a meeting awaiting news from Kerguelen, and they contacted Arnold Morgan immediately, requesting assistance in drafting the response.
Columbia’s commanding officer read the reply at 2315 local: “Not a bad shot…for a D-A SOB…Morgan.”
The message was addressed to him, direct from the office of the President’s National Security Adviser in the White House. And it started with the one phrase Boomer thought was lost to him forever: “Personal for Captain Cale Dunning, Commanding Officer, USS Columbia.”
EPILOGUE
Cape Cod Times, November 25, 2004
Port-Aux-Français, Kerguelen. November 24. The mystery of the vanished Woods Hole research ship, Cuttyhunk, was finally solved last night when six of the missing scientists were rescued by meteorologists at this remote French weather station.
The group, attempting to walk across the ninety-mile-long Antarctic island, were picked up by helicopter on the shore of the Baie de la Marne after their radio transmissions were received by one of the station’s fourteen electronic masts.
They had been missing for twenty-three months and are believed to be the only survivors of the twenty-nine-strong expedition, which is thought to have come under attack on December 17, 2002, at the entrance to one of the island’s northwestern fjords.
Last night none of the group was prepared to give an interview, save to confirm that Cuttyhunk is still floating, damaged by gunfire but moored in deep water in a sheltered cove at the end of the Baie du Repos on the northern end of the island. One of them stated the research ship had been their prison.
Staff at the weather station last night confirmed the names of the six scientists: Professor Henry Townsend, Dr. Roger Deakins, Arnold Barry, William Coburg, Anne Dempster, and Dr. Kate Goodwin.
Tonight, the Times’s syndicated columnist Frederick J. Goodwin, a cousin of one of the rescued scientists, is flying to the US Base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, to join a Navy frigate going south to evacuate the group from the almost inaccessible island. Mr. Goodwin, who has campaigned for many months to instigate a search on Kerguelen, has been granted exclusive rights to talk to the scientists.
Their amazing story will be transmitted from the frigate to the Cape Cod Times and will begin in these pages next week.
AFTERWORD
By Admiral Sir John Woodward
Kilo Class is Patrick Robinson’s second novel, and once more I acted as his technical adviser on Navy matters. As with Nimitz Class I was operating on the inner edges of an imaginative plot, which contained a core of valid reality.
The events that unfold in this book may at first seem difficult to understand. By that, I mean why should the United States have taken such extreme action against the Russians and the Chinese merely to prevent the delivery of seven submarines?
At first sight, it might seem reckless overreaction. But upon close examination, it becomes less violent and more logical. China has ordered this small fleet of Kilo Class submarines, brand-new, directly from the Russians. It is plain enough what they want them for — primarily to block the Taiwan Strait, to deny the customary rights of passage through an international strait. The issue is simple: China believes the strait is not international, that Taiwan is nothing but an offshore part of China. Therefore the waters that separate them are purely Chinese.
The Pentagon is well aware that ten Kilo Class submarines would permit the Chinese to keep at least four on patrol continuously. And the United States, which has occasionally passed Carrier Battle Groups through the strait, particularly when China has been seen to make threatening moves in the area, would be extremely wary of this. In my view, no US CVBG would venture into the strait in the clear face of a submarine threat, merely to make a political point. Just in case a big carrier should meet a similar fate to that of the Thomas Jefferson.
There is a xenophobia about China and its rulers. They have a large but ill-equipped Navy, essentially a coastal Navy, which operates almost exclusively in the waters off the extensive eastern shoreline, from the Mongolian border to the South China Sea. But China’s ambitions are no secret. They seek wealth and status, power and equality with the West. And they seek to end Taiwan’s present independence and return it to Greater China.
It ought not to be forgotten that when Chiang Kaishek left the mainland for Taiwan, he dispatched fourteen trainloads of magnificent artifacts and historic documents containing almost the entire dynastic heritage of China. Which is, broadly, why the great museum in Taipei is reputed to be the finest in the world.
Chinese determination to bring Taiwan back into the fold ought not to be underestimated. The order for the Kilos was, in my view, one of the first significant moves toward one of their ultimate goals.
First, they would close the strait to international passage. Then, as the submarine force built up in size, experience, confidence, and reputation, they would extend their patrol areas farther offshore, at once threatening the approaches to the island of Taiwan.
These patrol areas would ultimately extend up to five hundred miles offshore, wherever shallower waters favored the Kilos. Such a presence would greatly restrict US Naval protection for the Taiwanese, for whom an unavoidable sense of isolation would set in. Remember, submarines are best at sinking surface ships; the lesson of the Thomas Jefferson ought not to be ignored. The Kilo that nailed her did not stalk the carrier. It was just lying in wait, hardly moving, virtually silent, an explosive hole in the water.
With just four of these little Russian diesels on continuous patrol, China could swiftly show the Taiwan Strait no longer offered safe passage in international waters. The strait would actually become a no-go area. And clearing them out would be a long and very costly military operation, even if political considerations allowed. With a few more Kilos in place, Taiwan’s days as an independent nation could be numbered.
The United States has enormous financial interests in the island, which has in the last thirty years turned itself into one of the world’s major trading centers. I believe the United States would take very strong measures against any threat to that trade. In Kilo Class, the United States is prepared to do just that. And I doubt Patrick Robinson and I are all that wide of the mark.
Once on patrol, the Kilo is the devil’s own job to find and kill, even with the amazing air, surface, and subsurface assets of the US Navy. Simple logic will dictate that the Kilos are better caught and destroyed when they are far from home, before the
y are operationally ready, before they can be delivered.
Russia is presently refusing even to discuss putting a ban on the sale of major warships to China, or anywhere else for that matter. In the winter of 1997, they delivered a third Kilo to Iran, under a Russian flag, escorted by a Russian warship, as accurately forecast in Nimitz Class.
I also noticed that on page 94 of the 1997-98 edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships, the bible of the world’s Navies, the Russians are actually running a two-page color spread advertising their top export warship — beneath the headline: “KILO CLASS SUBMARINE—the only soundless creature in the sea.”
They then provide the St. Petersburg address, phone, fax, and E-mail for RUBIN, their central design bureau for marine engineering.
The West must give serious thought to this new aggressive marketing of the updated version of the old Soviet diesel-electric boat. And also to the new relationship between China and Russia. Because the men from Beijing are already Moscow’s biggest customers for newly built submarines.
I believe that Kilo Class is uncomfortably close to reality in its assessment of the intentions of all three of the big players. China wants Taiwan. Russia is desperate for cash and will sell a Kilo Class boat to anyone with $300 million. The United States cannot tolerate a serious threat to the continued independence of Taiwan. Speculation as to who will do what is the theme of this book.
Patrick has turned that theme into another page-turning thriller. The book is wracked with tension and punctuated by spectacular adventures, as Admiral Arnold Morgan’s men go to work in a variety of deep lonely waters. Far up in the North Atlantic, under the polar ice cap, off the frozen coastline of Siberia, even in the great lakes of central Russia north of the Volga. And, finally, around the frozen, barren island of Kerguelen, a place so remote, so rarely visited, it might not be inaccurate to describe it as the end of the world.
If you enjoyed Nimitz Class I believe you will love this book. Patrick Robinson, who helped me turn my own biography into a best-seller, has again written of complex matters in an easy, compelling style which can be understood by anyone…and should be read by everyone.
— Sandy Woodward
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR
KILO CLASS
“Spectacular…. U.S. subs are sinking seven ultraquiet Russian ones that have been sold to the Chinese to aid in their takeover of the sea lanes around Taiwan. Now, China’s xenophobic military find their beautiful new subs with their nuclear-tipped torpedoes disappearing into abyssal darkness and utter silence. Sound good? You’re right, and it deserves wide sales to the technothriller crowd.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Robinson delivers a wild ride all the way.”
— Booklist
“A superb read.”
— Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA
“A techno-thriller of the highest quality.”
— North County News, Phoenix, MD
“An absolutely marvelous thriller…A white-knuckle of action and suspense that could become reality tomorrow.”
— Royal Navy Sailing Association Journal
“A fascinating and gripping read.”
— Warships Internation Fleet Review
“This exciting thriller has a chilling tinge of reality…A highly feasible and prescient tale.”
— Focus
NIMITZ CLASS
“Action follows action with menace piled on mystery on top of intrigue. Nimitz Class is a stunner that irresistibly hurtles the reader through explosions and deceptions from the first page to the exciting climax on the last.”
— Clive Cussler
“An absolutely marvelous thriller, one of the best things of its kind I have read in years. I don’t need to urge people to read it, because they will do so by the millions.”
— Jack Higgins
“The best military thriller since The Hunt for Red October…. Robinson has crafted a fast-paced, chilling, yet believable tale, peppered with unforgettable characters.”
— San Francisco Examiner
“A perfect nautical thriller: suspenseful, exciting, technically accurate, and plausible enough to be unnerving. For sailors and non-sailors alike, it is the can’t-put-down geomilitary yarn for this summer’s reading.”
— Dallas Morning News
“Clever…. Rivals The Hunt for Red October in thrills.”
— Sunday Denver Post
“Thriller fiction at its best — a tale based on a premise too horrible to contemplate but too plausible to ignore…. Riveting.”
— New London Day
“The rich detail here is impeccable, every bit the equal of Clancy’s…. Readers will be engaged…by [this] cautionary tale.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Nimitz Class is that rare combination of military thriller and tactical treatise. While capturing the excitement of naval operations, it also raises critical issues about the future of naval forces, terrorism, and the implications of the spread of weapons of mass destruction. I strongly suggest that all military professionals read this book, not only for the issues it confronts, but for the sheer enjoyment of a great book.”
— William J. Crowe, Jr., Former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain
“The reader is almost a part of the adventure, sitting at the right hand of those masterminding operation. Nimitz Class brought back some real life experiences for me.”
— J. Daniel Howard, Former Under Secretary of the Navy
“A thundering good naval yarn…An enjoyable read, Nimitz Class has a more serious purpose, to draw attention to the worldwide peacekeeping role being carried out by the U.S. Navy. We must hope that a ‘Nimitz-Class’ type of incident, which every professional sailor will recognize as extreme but plausible, would not shake American resolve.”
— Captain Richard Sharpe, editor, Jane’s Fighting Ships
About the Author
Patrick Robinson lives in Dublin, Ireland, and on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He is the bestselling author of three novels: Nimitz Class, Kilo Class, and H.M.S Unseen.
Books by Patrick Robinson
True Blue
Nimitz Class
Kilo Class
H.M.S. Unseen
U.S.S. Seawolf
The Shark Mutiny
Barracuda 945
Credits
Cover design by Gene Mydlowski
Cover illustration © 1998 by Danilo Ducek
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