Countdown km-2

by David Hagberg

  “Christ” Trotter swore. “Were you blown”

  “I don’t think so. But it was KGB. He said they knew he had taken a message” Trotter thought about it a moment, then shook his head. “It doesn’t change anything. We need you here, Kirk” There were a couple of mechanics working on an old Beechcraft, but no one paid them any attention as they went to the upstairs office, where another Naval Intelligence officer was waiting for them. McGarvey was introduced to Lieutenant Frank Newman, who would conduct the briefing. He had been hastily sent out from the Pentagon and had himself arrived only a couple of hours earlier. The same anger McGarvey had seen in Ainslie burned in Newman’s eyes.

  “Before we get started” McGarvey said. “Lorraine Abbott is in West Berlin”

  “I know” Trotter said. “The Hotel Berlin. Yablonski wasn’t expecting it”

  “Our people in Berlin are taking care of it”

  Trotter nodded. “They’re watching the hotel” There was something not quite right in Trotter’s answer, but McGarvey did not pursue it. He turned to the other two men. “What’s Kurshin done this time”

  “He’s apparently stolen one of our nuclear attack submarines and possibly killed her crew” Newman said. He was a short, very dark man with deep-set eyes and thick eyebrows. He had a six o’clock shadow.

  McGarvey whistled, long and low. Whatever Kurshin was or wasn’t, he definitely had balls. “And now the sub is missing”

  “Not quite” Ainslie said. “She passed our SOSUS line last night out of the Malta Channel, but then we lost her again. But we do know that she’s now in the eastern Mediterranean “

  “Submerged” Ainslie nodded. Newman picked it up from there, leading them from the moment the Indianapolis had surfaced in response to the apparent SOS from the Zenzero, until the Italian pleasure cruiser had been brought back to Gaeta, where Naval Intelligence had taken her apart, coming up with a second, badly damaged Labun canister and the remains of the automatic Morse code transmitter. “The Zenzero was a decoy” McGarvey said. “They would have gotten the Indianapolis’s patrol station schedule from the disk Rand handed over to Kurshin”

  “Somehow the bastards got the rest of the canisters aboard, and.”

  Newman let it trail off. “Assuming everyone aboard was killed, how many men would it take to operate the submarine” Newman and Ainslie looked at each other. “Many of her systems are automatic, Newman said. “Ten good men could do it, if they didn’t find themselves in a battle situation.

  Maybe less”

  “Have we picked up any indications that that many Russians had come over in the past few days” McGarvey asked Trotter.

  “We’re looking to Rome right now, Kirk. You’ll be flying up there this morning, because we’ve run into a brick wall”

  “The Russians have the Indianapolisainslie said angrily. “There’s no longer any doubt about it, nor is there any doubt what they’ve got planned”

  “How do we know the Russians have it” McGarvey asked. “John? Was Kurshin spotted”

  “No” Trotter said heavily. “Ainslie’s people traced the Zenzero back to a yacht-leasing service here in Naples. The leasing agent was a man named Arturo Ziadora”

  “We have him in custody now” Ainslie said. “He finally broke this morning”

  “Kirk, we had the Soviet Embassy files sent down here from Rome. Ziadora didn’t know names, only photos, but he positively identified the man who had leased the yacht as Yuri Semenovich Nikandrov”

  “Pick him up”

  McGarvey said. Trotter shook his head. “The Navy has been told hands off this time. Nikandrov is too important. He’s the number-two rezident out of their embassy, and a special assistant to the Soviet ambassador”

  “You want me to talk to him” Trotter nodded. “You have the president’s word on this one. No restraints, Kirk. Do you understand? We must know what they are planning on doing with the Indianapolis.

  It’s an act of piracy that could very well start a shooting war. I I “I know what they’re going to do with her” McGarvey said.

  “So do we” Ainslie barked. “They’ll try to take her through the Bosporus into the Black Sea. But we’ve got a nasty surprise waiting for them”

  “No, McGarvey said. “Not the Black Sea. Farther east.

  He looked at Newman. “How much of a crew would they need to set up one of her nuclear missiles and fire it at a landbased target”

  “While avoiding detection” Newman asked rhetorically. More than ten men.

  Maybe fifteen, or twenty. Navigators, attack center crew, boat drivers, engineers for the reactor, and of course the missile crew” III don’t think Kurshin would have brought that many men with him. But if he did, the answers will be in Rome with Nikandrov”

  “They’re going to try for the Black Sea” Ainslie said. “Israel” McGarvey said, stepping over to the desk on which a map of the Mediterranean had been spread out. The Indianapolis’s patrol station off the Italian coast was marked. “What speed is she capable of, submerged”

  “The book says thirty knots”

  Trotter answered. “More like forty knots” Newman corrected him. “If the Indianapolis broke out from the Malta Channel sometime last night we’re not going to have much time” McGarvey said. He stabbed a finger at the island of Crete. “Can we set up a monitoring post here” Ainslie and Newman had stepped up beside him. “We have a SOSUS station nearby”

  Newman said. “It can be done. I I “We’ll know within a few hours then”

  McGarvey said. “If she turns north, she’s headed for the Bosporus. If she continues east, her target will be En Gedi. But that’ll depend on the number of crew she’s carrying” He looked up. “Has the president spoken with Gorbachev”

  “Not yet” Trotter said. “He wants the proof first. But there’s another problem we’re facing here. The Soviet Navy’s Black Sea fleet is running maneuvers south of Crete”

  “The Nimitz and her task group are in the region as well” Newman said.

  “Then we’d better hurry McGarvey said. “Or a shooting war just might begin”

  “I’m coming up to Rome with you” Trotter said.

  FINE “Has Lev Potok been notified” Trotter shook his head. “Do it, John.

  Now Because I’d be willing to bet anything that this is a continuation of Baranov’s plan to hit the Israelis. This time we might not be able to stop them”

  USS INDIANAPOLIS

  It was just noon local time when the seven-thousand ton submarine settled gently to the silty bottom of the Bay Of Messini on the south coast of the Greek Peloponnisos. She listed a few degrees to port because of the sloping bottom here. I “We have seventy meters over our keel Fedorenko called softly from his position beside Kurshin at the wheel.

  “Nicely done” Captain Makayev said. “Secure the boat from all but essential systems” He hit the comms switch. “sonar, what does it look like on the surface”

  “I’m tracking numerous small boats, probably pleasure craft, Captain.

  They’re all over the place up there. It’s like a circus. “Good” Makayev said softly.

  Kurshin turned and looked at Makayev and Fedorenko. They were both good men, he thought. In the past day and a half, he had developed a respect and trust for their expertise. It was too bad, he thought, that in the end the reward they were expecting in Moscow would be nothing more than nine ounces. But then, as Baranov had unnecessarily explained, they could not afford to have so many witnesses. Like Dr. Velikanov, one of them sooner or later would say the wrong thing at the wrong time. It could not be allowed. “We are deep enough here” he asked Makayev. “No one will see us from the surface, even from an airplane, even if they were searching here, which I do not expect F-Y are. II “Are you sure”

  Makayev, like all of them, was tired. They’d been operating without sleep for nearly forty-eight hours since Rome. He was becoming irritable, but his control was marvelous. He shrugged. “In this business, Comrade Colonel, one
can never be sure. But even their ASW aircraft would not be able to detect our presence with their magnetic anomaly equipment, there is too much small-boat traffic on the surface for them to succeed. This is summer, the tourists will be at it all day”

  Fedorenko had been doing something at one of the overhead control panels. He turned around. “They will be concentrating their search in the Aegean by now. Kurshin looked at him sharply. “Gennadi is correct, Comrade Colonel” Makayev said. “Their SOSUS equipment certainly detected our passage through the Malta Channel. We have already discussed this”

  “They cannot know for certain that their boat has been hijacked. Again Makayev shrugged. “it is elementary, I think. They will have found that little Italian cruiser by now … above or below the surface. They will know that something is amiss. They also know that our fleet is up there.

  If I were them, I would be thinking very strongly about the Bosporus”

  It was practically the same thing Baranov had told him.

  But the beauty of the operabon was they could not be sure. Nor did Gorbachev or the Politburo know anything. If and when the president used the hodirie to call Moscow, he would learn nothing. An investigation would be immediately launched, of course. But by that time the operation would have been completed. Israel would have been ruined as a military power in the region, and Gorbachev himself would fall. Kurshin got up from his seat at the helm. “We’ll load and drop the missile now”

  Makayev glanced up at the chronometer on the bulkhead. “It is twelve hours before our rendezvous. Time now to rest”

  “No” Kurshin barked. “We’ll drop the missile first” He so@ened his tone.

  “In case something happens, Captain. In case the Americans get lucky”

  Both Makayev and Fedorenko looked at him, their stares harsh.

  Finally Makayev unbent a little. “As you wish” he said. He turned and hit the comms switch”

  Aleksei, are you ready for us”

  “Yes, Captain. I will need at least two men”

  “We’re on our way” Makayev turned again to his starpom. “The colonel and I will attend to our little chore. Make certain that Aleksandr keeps a close watch on his sonar equipment, we do not want any surprises”

  Fedorenko nodded. “When we are finished we will have something to eat, and then get some rest. We have another long night ahead of us” Kurshin followed Makayev into the attack center forward, and then through the hatch and down the ladder into the weapons control center. Aleksei Chobotov stood just aft of the starboard torpedo tubes. Behind him was the weapons storage and transfer compartment. He had managed to pull one of the Tomahawk missiles out of its storage rack and position it over one of the tube slides. It was large, much bigger than Kurshin had envisioned. At a length of twenty-one feet, in the nuclear warhead version, the missile weighed more than four thousand pounds.

  “You have finished reprogramming the TERCOM (Ten-ah Contour Matching) system” Kurshin asked. Chobotov’s eyes were shining. “if the disk you provide(me was accurate, Comrade Colonel, the missile is ready to fire”

  “What is the target” Makayev asked. Kurshin ignored the question. “All the seals are back ii place”

  “Yes, sir. As long as she doesn’t stay in the water to(long, it should be all right. Of course there is no way to be certain, but fuck your mother, the Americans build fine equipment”

  “What about the rocket motor”

  “It is actually a turbofan jet, Comrade Colonel, with solid fuel booster. They will survive. “And the nuclear warhead”

  Chobotov involuntarily glanced over at the sleek missile He shivered.

  “it is armed”

  “No danger of a radiation leak”

  “None. I I Makayev had stepped past Kurshin. He reached up an(tentatively touched the missile’s casing. A look of mild surprise crossed his features. “It’s warm”

  “I noticed that too, Captain” Chobotov replied. “Bu there is no reason for it, except that our hands are perhaps cold”

  Makayev turned back and nodded. “With good reason” he murmured. He looked at Kurshin, something in his eyes and then nodded again. “Then let’s get the bastard over, board”

  Despite the fact they were working with unfamiliar equipment, Chobotov knew his stuff. He and Kurshin hand-guided the missile down onto its loading rack while Makayev operated the hoist controls. It was automatically slid to a loading gate on the starboar(side, where Chobotov switched the loading grapples to the uppermost of the three torpedo tubes, the inner door of which was already open.

  The missile slowly slid into place, coming to rest with a soft click, and a whir of machinery as the rack was withdrawn. Chobotov closed and sealed the door and, back at the auxiliary control board, pressurized the tube. The comms speaker squawked. “Captain, I have an orange light on Starboard A tube”

  “We’re getting set to launch” Makayev radioed back. “Stand by”

  ” Roger. I I Chobotov’s right hand hovered over the button for the outer door. “No chance that the missile’s engine will fire” Kurshin asked.

  “No, sir. I switched that circuitry into the passive-locked mode. There is no chance.”

  Kurshin stood just behind the missile officer. He reached up and shoved the younger man’s hand against the button. There was a sudden whoosh of air, and the submarine shuddered very slightly. Chobotov looked over his shoulder at him. “There” Kurshin said. “She is on the bottom just like US”

  ROME

  McGarvey was a nonperson as far as the CIA’s Rome station was concerned. It was a matter of insulation, Trotter had explained on the drive up from Naples. “You were never there, Kirk, so no matter what happens there will be no retaliations against our people” Trotter had dropped him off at a small hotel in the Aventine District and had gone ahead to the embassy where he made a few phone calls, gathered up the files he needed, and returned in the early afternoon. McGarvey was tired. He had managed to get a couple hours of rest, but he kept hearing Lorraine Abbott’s pleas that he not go ahead with his assignment. She was an idealist, and worse, she did not have all the facts. Nor would she ever. “It’s a big nasty world out there” someone had told him once.

  “The fact of the matter is, no one really cares whether you live or die.

  It’s up to you to make a difference” But he cared, and he expected Lorraine did too. He didn’t know, however, if they made a difference or not. Just now he felt as if he were squandering what little time was left to them. If Kurshin had the submarine he would act quickly. By bottling up the Bosporus, the Navy had told the Russians they were suspected. The situation would not last much longer. They were all sitting on a powder keg, and the fuse was short.

  From his third-floor window, McGarvey watched Trotter come down the street. He stopped to admire something in a shop window, turned as if he was about to change his mind, then turned again and came directly across the street and entered the hotel.

  McGarvey didn’t move for a long minute. Traffic was normal below; the pedestrians passing did not seem out of the ordinary. By the time Trotter was at the door, he figured his old friend had come away clean, and he went to let him in.

  “The Indianapolis has disappeared again” Trotter said, coming into the small room. He laid his briefcase on the narrow bed as McGarvey closed and locked the door. ““They should have been within range of the Crete SOSUS by now”

  “I know. I just got off the phone with Admiral Delugio. He flew out from Gaeta to set up a field command post. He wants some answers and damned fast”

  “Can’t say as I blame him” McGarvey said. “)“at about Nikandrov? What did you bring for me”

  “Good news and bad news,’, Trotter said. “It took some doing to come up with what we needed without tipping my hand. Jesse Lipton-chief of the CIA’s Rome station’knows that something big is in the wind, so I had to sidestep him. The skipper of the Lorrel-E went public with his salvage claim. The press somehow found out that the Navy had sent
out one of its submarine rescue ships and they’ve put two and two together. Lipton asked me point-blank if I was involved in the mess.

  I had to lie to him”

  “It’s better that he doesn’t know” McGarvey said. “What’s the good news”

  “That’s not all the bad, yet, Kirk. You’re going to have to sit tight here until after dark. Perhaps as late as midnight, maybe even longer”

  “We might not have the time”

  “Nothing we can do about it. The Navy is watching the region. The Indianapolis has to be sitting on the bottom somewhere between the Malta Channel and Crete”

  “That’s a lot of water, John. And if I remember my geography the Mediterranean drops to fourteen thousand feet in some spots. The Indianapolis can’t go that deep, can she”

  “The Los Angeles-class submarines, from what I’m told, have a service depth of around fifteen hundred feet. Beyond two thousand or twenty-five hundred feet her hull would implode from the pressure”

  “So if she’s on the bottom somewhere, it’s near land”

  “There’s a lot of coastline between Malta and Crete. But the Navy is looking”

  “In the meantime what about Nikandrov”

  “That’s the rest of the bad news” Trotter said. “He’s holed up at the Soviet Embassy. His normal routine keeps him there usually until around six in the evening when he takes a car to his home in Magliana-a suburb about five miles south of the city”

  “He can’t be lured out into the open sooner” McGarvey asked. “Not without alerting Lipton that we’re up to something. And if Nikandrov is indeed involved in this mess, he’ll be keeping a close watch over his shoulder. The good news is that he’s sent his wife and two children away for a holiday to Switzerland. And once he gets to his house he usually stays there”

  “Alone”

  “He has a bodyguard” Trotter said. He opened his brief case and took out a file that contained Maps of the suburb a well as a dozen or more photographs showing a house that appeared to be located in the middle of a big park, as wel as shots of Nikandtov himself, and another much larger man with thick eyebrows and dark penetrating eyes. “Andre Nikovich Zalenin. He’s Special Service 11 muscle” McGarvey stared at Zalenin’s photograph. He looked like(a tough sonofabitch. He would be highly trained and highly motivated, not only to protect the physical safety of Nikan. drov, but to make sure his charge did not himself go astray, If need be, his orders would include killing Nikandrov rather than allowing him to fall into enemy hands. “The Nikandrovs apparently settle down very early fol Russians. Normally around ten or eleven in the evening. He’,@ up around five in the morning, and back at the embassy no later than six-thirty”