by Greig Beck
“Jesus Christ, the Sea Shadow.” Carmack grinned through his whispered words. “Put it on hailing frequency.” He lifted his field glasses again, training them on the hatch. “Come on.” He knew what the stakes were now. If the first voice that came from the speakers was Chinese, then they would know they had lost control of the submarine.
“Alan, get the admiralty on the line, ASAP.” Carmack blew air through puffed cheeks. The stakes had just gone up. In seconds they would know which way the chips had fallen. And as his missiles, heavy guns, torpedoes, and circling planes all had their targeting systems locked in on Chinese strategic targets, everything would hinge on the call from HQ, and the one from inside that damned vessel. He looked at his floating opponents; he had no doubt the Chinese had their weapons primed and pointed right down his throat as well.
Carmack could feel the heart beating in his chest. He was once again handed a life jacket, which this time, he donned over his uniform, and then put on a helmet. He knew that the waters in this part of the world were down around zero degrees. Five minutes in the drink, and you didn’t need to worry about going home anymore.
He lifted the glasses again, watching, waiting, and praying.
*
Jack Hammerson sat in the darkened office of James Carter, the secretary of defense. Spread around Carter’s desk were five-star General Marcus Chilton, Jim Harker, his staff sergeant, and various assembled generals and other senior military brass. They all stared hard at a huge screen and watched the events unfold real-time from one of their Southern Hemisphere satellites.
On Carter’s desk there were two speakers arranged; one was a direct line through to the Commander in Chief, President Paul Banning. On the other was Fleet Commander Eric Carmack.
Chilton’s eyes went from Carter back to the screen, where circling planes, multiple boats, and submarines formed a one mile halo of clear water. At its center was a single vessel – the Sea Shadow.
“Damned crowded down there, Eric.” Chilton looked relaxed, but Hammerson bet inside the big man was as on edge as the rest of them.
“That it is, Marcus. Like a goldfish bowl. Problem is, we’re all in the same bowl.” Carmack still sounded good humored.
Chilton half smiled, but then sat forward. “Eric, could you share with us your assessment of first round, send and receive?”
Hammerson knew what Chilton was asking. If the firing started in the first few seconds, how many would he sink and how many would he lose.
“Marcus, we’re all too close. At this proximity, it will not be a tactical fight; more a metal storm. We estimate a one hundred percent sinkage on their side, and perhaps seventy-five percent on ours. Of the twenty-five percent still afloat, there will be significant structural damage to all. Remaining aerial assets would have to land at McMurdo … if that base somehow avoided being caught up in the firefight. Personnel losses and injuries in the high hundreds – lot of sick people in the water.”
Chilton’s lips momentarily compressed, but then he slowly nodded. “Expected.” He glanced at Carter. “Acceptable.”
Carter swiveled in his chair, turning side-on to the room. He steepled his fingers. “Other option progress, gentlemen?”
Chilton’s eyes slid to Hammerson. His brows went up, but Hammerson knew he had nothing concrete to give his superior. He shook his head. Chilton tilted his head back slightly, and then faced the secretary of defense.
“No known progress, sir.” He turned back to the screen and the lonely looking submarine ringed by the wall of aggressive steel. He then leaned in towards the president’s comm. link. “Mr. President, if that hatch opens, and our people do not emerge, then we need to be ready for what that means.”
John Carter turned back to face the room and the president’s speaker. “Further instructions, sir?”
The president’s voice sounded tired. “Nothing has changed. Bottom line is, that vessel cannot fall into foreign power hands. Are we in agreement?”
Chilton nodded. “I agree, sir.” The room all voiced their agreement.
The president softly grunted his acknowledgment. “Then do what you have to, General Chilton.”
Chilton drew in a deep breath, his jaw set. “Commander Carmack, that vessel is the sovereign property of the United States of America. We take it home, or we blow it to atoms. Anyone or anything that interferes with your order, or fires upon an American vessel or individual, will be taken to be committing a hostile act against our country. Full use of force is therefore authorized.” He sat back, but his gaze was now hawk-like.
“Yes sir, understood, sir. God bless America.” Carmack’s voice was clipped.
“Good luck. And God’s strength to you and your forces, Eric.”
Hammerson gritted his teeth. This was what was called the sharp edge. Everyone in the room knew just what they had committed their country to; in fact, what they had just committed the entire world to. For some reason, the only thing Hammerson could think of was how he was going to tell Joshua his mother wasn’t coming home.
He straightened his jacket. Maybe that wouldn’t matter, maybe nothing would matter, in the next few minutes.
CHAPTER 64
Whoops and high-fives filled the bridge room. Alex grinned and turned in time to be grabbed by Cate who hugged him hard. A pair of hands levered them apart and Aimee pulled Cate out of the way to hug Alex and then kiss him even harder.
He smiled down at her. “Mission accomplished. Sunlight, and guess what? The world still seems to be here.” He kept one arm around her and leaned into the console, hitting the comm. button. “Rinofsky, get up here before the champagne gets warm.”
“I heard that,” came the response.
Alex turned to Blake. “Open a line. See if we can raise Commander Carmack on the USS Texas. He’s an old buddy.”
Behind him, Casey and Rhino were doing a waltz in the small space. Casey put a hand up into the big HAWC’s face and pushed when he tried to kiss her.
“When you two lovebirds are finished, perhaps someone could pop the lid.”
“Aye aye, skipper.” Casey saluted and ran down the steel corridor.
“Let’s go up, I’m dying to breathe in cold, clean air.” Aimee grabbed Alex’s hand. “And see some sunshine.” She led him away.
Casey climbed the railing ladder and spun the wheel, pushing the lid up. Fresh, freezing air burst inside, and nothing felt or smelled sweeter. Alex helped Aimee up behind Casey.
Alex and the small crew were now all jammed on the conning tower. They turned their faces to the sun, luxuriating in the fresh air.
“Smells like heaven.” Rhino opened his huge arms wide, turning his face to the sky.
“Smells like someone needs a bath,” Casey said.
Rhino looked mock-hurt, but Casey waved him away. “Forget it, you smelled like that when we went down.” She squinted in the glare after so many days in near twilight. “Holy shit, we got half the world’s navy down here.”
“And I’m betting they’re not all here on holiday. Looks like things escalated after all. We need to fix that. Get the USS Texas on the …” Alex paused and turned. “Belay that last order. Shenjung, you need to speak to your people first, pronto.”
Shenjung took the comm. device. “5727 kilohertz, please.”
Blake adjusted the signal frequency, and then nodded to the Chinese engineer. Shenjung spoke rapidly in Chinese, listened for a moment, grunted an acknowledgment and then waited. He lifted the receiver from his ear. “They are routing me through to the commander of the fleet, Admiral Zang Do.”
Alex watched and waited. He saw the man suddenly snap to attention as a deeper voice came on the line. Once again Shenjung spoke fast, but this time deferentially. There was a smile on his face, but the more the Chinese scientist listened, it rapidly changed to one of concern, and then of frustration.
Shenjung looked to Soong, and slowly shook his head. He licked his lips and his focus turned inwards as he spoke softly once again. Alex could s
ee now that he wasn’t being allowed to finish his sentences. In the end he lowered his head and handed the earphone back to Blake. He turned to Alex.
“The admiral refused to countenance that an entire squad of PLA soldiers were wiped out by anything other than … you. He thinks that the concept of there being a world beneath the dark ice is fanciful and the product of dehydration or my delusion.” He smiled sadly. “Also, my suggestion of a creature being responsible for Yang’s death was seen as more brainwashing.” His smile fell away. “He called me an American spy.”
Soong sighed. “We cannot go home.”
“I’m sorry.” Alex took the comm. from Shenjung. “My turn, after all.” Alex changed frequencies, and called the USS Texas. “Code name, Arcadian, urgent communication for Commander Eric Carmack aboard the USS Texas.”
Alex didn’t have to wait long before a booming voice blared out from his earphone.
“Thank the lord, and are we ever glad to hear you.” Alan Hensen sounded like he had a grin from ear to ear. “Here’s the commander, the line is secure. Go ahead, Arcadian.”
“Hallelujah, son,” Carmack almost shouted. “You just saved me having to deploy a lot of expensive armaments, and I and the US Navy thank you for that.” He laughed heartily, and then breathed a sigh of relief. “Please tell me you have control of the Sea Shadow.”
“That we do, sir. We’re all looking forward to a hot meal and then going home.” Alex turned and nodded to Aimee.
“You can tell us all about your adventure when you bring that submarine alongside. As you can see, things are still a little tense here.” Carmack lowered his voice. “Best we take our toys and head home, before someone does something they regret.”
“Works for me, sir.” Alex could feel warm sun on his neck, and for the first time in days, felt at ease. He turned to grin at Rhino and Casey, just as a blaring alarm screamed out from Carmack’s line that jolted him upright.
Aimee grabbed at his arm. “What the hell is going on?”
“Commander …” Alex began.
“Sonar warning. Were you the only guys down there?” Carmack asked quickly.
“Yes.” Alex overheard Alan Hensen talking rapidly to his sonar and communication officers before relaying information. “Another reading, sir. This one coming up from the deep, fast, and big, really big.”
“Attack sub?” Carmack asked.
Hensen listened some more. “Too big for that. Non-metallic signature … and silent as a ghost; it’s weird. Going to come up at the Sea Shadow in a few minutes – collision course.”
“Jesus Christ, Hunter, what in God’s name did you just drag with you? We got something coming up underneath us and traveling at about eighty knots. Signature is all wrong. Non-metallic and silent as death. Looks like it’s coming from where you just came from. What the hell is it?”
Alex shook his head, confused, but then tilted his head back and closed his eyes. “That sir, is the Kraken rising, and our worst nightmare. It’ll sink us, if it gets to us.”
Alex heard shouted orders before Carmack came back.
“Not on my watch, son. Get below decks, we’ll take it from here.”
*
General Banguuo rose to his feet, listening carefully as Admiral Zang Do gave his urgent report.
“General, deep sonar contact. Single heavy-mass signature rising from over 300 fathoms. Breach zone is estimated to be directly below the fleet, sir. Unknown object has accelerated to 80 knots.”
Banguuo’s eyebrows rose. Eighty knots? “Seems the game of bluff has ended. A new stealth submarine perhaps, Admiral?”
“Or the Americans have initiated their first strike protocol,” Admiral Zang responded quickly.
Banguuo heard the frantic orders being yelled aboard the admiral’s ship – battle stations, tracking target, ready all batteries – it was the familiar language of war. His free hand curled into a fist.
“The Americans are foolish to think the Chinese navy would be caught off guard so easily.” Banguuo decided: first, they would destroy the submarine coming up at them, and then they would engage.
“Authorization to launch, Admiral. Fire at will.”
“Jue-zhan-jing-wai.” The admiral roared.
Banguuo grunted. It was an armed forces battle cry, and meant decisive battle. He gripped the phone so tight his knuckles went white. He closed his eyes, and in his mind he saw the bubble trails as the heavy Yu-4 homing torpedoes were launched and would already be speeding down to meet their doomed target.
Perhaps Minister Wanlin was right, he thought. It was inevitable – the age of the dragon was here whether he liked it or not.
*
Commander Carmack stared hard through the dielectric reflective coated binoculars. Before him, the iron-gray ocean was being whipped by a freezing wind, sending horsetails of stinging spray along its surface. There was one oasis of calm, and that lay at the center of the flotilla. The few square miles of ocean were ringed by two of the most powerful naval fleets in the world, and nothing else mattered but that large circle of freezing water, with the small, sleek submarine at its center.
Carmack, and every other captain and commander on the water, and back at their home bases, watched the Sea Shadow. Everyone else watched consoles, stood by weaponry, or waited impatiently for orders to either fight or stand down. Until then it was up to someone else to make a first move. Fingers were on hundreds of multi-ballistic triggers.
The closest vessel was a Chinese Jiangkai I Type 054 Ma’anshan class destroyer. It was a big warship, at 450 feet, and displacing 4,300 tons. The floating death dealer was armed with an octuple rocket launcher, anti-ship missiles, AK630 CIWS turrets, ASW torpedoes, and a variety of mines. Carmack’s communication officers had detected the launch of several of these moments before, undoubtedly convinced there was an attack coming from below – they were only partially right.
The explosions that occurred deep below the Ma’anshan class destroyer were too deep to register on the surface, and Carmack and Hensen were just lowering their glasses when there came a flurry of activity onboard the ship. Whooping alarms rolled across the water, and more mines were flung over the sides, these rigged for shallow detonation, and their plumes of spray showered the deck.
Men started running wildly about, and there came the pop of automatic rifle fire as the sailors leaned over the rails to shoot down into the water. There was something there only they could see, but as yet, Carmack and his fleet could not.
“What the hell is going on?” Hensen said, frowning and moving between using his field glasses, and trusting his own eyes.
“I think we now have a new player,” Carmack said slowly.
A mottled green and black tree grew from the water beside the destroyer, higher and higher, lifting above the ship’s bridge, to then topple across the metal superstructure, bending the steel like it was made of matchsticks and paper. More of the giant things rose up, and then the cold mountain began to follow its limbs.
“Oh my god.” Hensen backed up a step.
The Kraken was revealed in all its monstrous glory, clinging to the side of the battleship, tilting it as its bulk came out of the water. It bloomed open, a gigantic flower whose petals coiled and thrashed.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Hensen whispered.
Carmack lowered his glasses, his face drained of color. “The thing that all sailors dread – the sinker of ships, the monster from the abyss – the Kraken.”
The thing rose once more, and then seemed to swell, flowing like liquid up and over the Ma’anshan’s superstructure. Tentacles wrapped the ship from stern to bow, their tips thin as a wrist, but where they joined the bulbous body they were as thick as redwood trees.
From across the water, Carmack heard the sound of metal complaining, and the 450-foot ship tilted even more, its nearest deck now close to the icy ocean’s water line. The muscular strength of the tentacles radiated inevitability, and the coils started to compress.
“Orders, sir.” Hensen waited.
Carmack exhaled. “Hold fire. We can’t do anything. We might hit the destroyer.”
Shenyang J-15 fighter craft swarmed and fired GSh-30–1 cannons and armor piercing rockets. Mottled flesh was blasted away, but they were pinpricks to the monster. An acrid smell wafted across the expanse of iron-gray water, and Carmack watched as men were encircled in tentacles, and then crushed like flies. The Kraken seemed to be acting in a furious desire to do nothing but kill the ship and everything on it.
Admiral Zang Do, aboard the aircraft carrier Liaoning, maneuvered the huge ship closer. It was the only thing larger than the monster, but with hundreds of tons of slimy flesh almost fully engulfing his destroyer, he obviously hesitated to fire, knowing a missile passing through the rubbery hide would strike the vessel.
“Fire at it, goddamn you, just, fucking, fire,” Carmack hissed.
The hesitation lasted another few seconds, and then there came the sound of an enormous cracking, as the huge destroyer bent in the center. Both the bow and stern rose up sharply, as the combined weight of the creature and its crushing tentacles had weakened the hull structure to a point of collapse.
Only then, was Zang Do shocked into action.
Hundreds of missiles, cannon rounds, and heavy machine gun fire lanced out at the huge creature. They were fiery harpoons, striking the flesh and embedding deep. Some blew car-sized chunks of flesh into the air, and dark blood stained the sea around the stricken destroyer.
“Send it back to hell,” Carmack whispered. He half turned to Hensen. “Back the fleet up.”
The creature slid back to the sea. But it didn’t relinquish its grip, as it dragged the broken ship down with it, ensuring its kill was complete. On the surface, there was a spinning whirlpool of debris and dead bodies where the monster had once been.
“Dead,” Hensen said.
“Dead? They hit it, sure. Did they kill it? I have no idea.” Carmack stepped back. He nodded towards the Chinese boats trying to pull surviving sailors from the water. “See if they want any help.” He sighed. “But I doubt they’d take it even if they needed it.”
