Maybe I have this all wrong! What if they jettisoned the submersible to throw us off but really escaped in the RIB?
That revelation dumbfounded Zhou but it was soon dismissed.
No. We covered that possibility.
The swarm of China Coast Guard patrol boats, helicopters and planes assigned to the northwest and southwest search quadrants checked every ship, fishing boat, skiff and runabout within the range of the Lian’s rigid-hull inflatable boat. One CCG vessel even stopped a Da Nang based boat a mile inside Vietnam’s twelve mile territorial boundary. The RIB was loaded with tourists on a scuba diving excursion. The incident generated a harsh diplomatic rebuke by Hanoi.
Captain Zhou had no choice—the admiral’s orders were direct: “End this situation now!”
Zhou returned to the bridge. The Lian’s captain hovered over the navigation table. The PLAN officer and the rest of the crew stranded in Sanya were ferried to the ship hours earlier by a CCG patrol boat. Zhou transferred command back to the captain but he retained overall control of the search taskforce.
“We have orders from Fleet,” Zhou announced as he approached the chart table.
The Navy commander made eye contact with his superior. “Yes sir.”
“We need to prep the Serpent units for immediate deployment.”
“For the Xiu Shan?”
“Yes. We can’t delay any longer. Assemble the Serpent team and prepare for deployment.
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Zhou peered through the windscreen. It was an exquisite afternoon, the turquoise sea tranquil and the azure sky vibrant with golden hues from the sinking sun.
Zhou was immune to the setting. He dreaded what was to come.
Please forgive me, Park.
Chapter 75
“How long do we stay put?” Jeff Chang asked.
“At least a couple more hours,” Yuri said. Fearing detection by the Nanchang’s VDS sonar, Yuri had bottomed out the submersible two hours earlier as the destroyer maneuvered nearby.
It was 7:48 P.M. The Xiu Shan rested on the silty bottom in pitch black 2,945 feet below the surface. The only light inside the six-foot diameter orb radiated from the control panel of the pilot’s station. Battery life had declined to just 12 percent. Despite the depth, the temperature inside the minisub stabilized at fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit. Chilly but tolerable.
Meng Park dozed as Yuri and Jeff chatted.
“What do you think they’re doing now?” Jeff said.
“I’m sure they’re still listening.”
The sonar pings ceased forty minutes earlier, which was a huge relief to Yuri and Jeff. Without the persistent acoustic pulses probing the depths, quietude returned to the submersible. Other than the occasional refrain from a distant whale or the prattle from other local biologics, the principal background sound inside the minisub was the soft purr from the CO2 scrubber fans.
“The Colorado must be close by now, don’t you think,” Jeff said, his tone optimistic.
“Right.” But Yuri was not confident the U.S. Navy supersub was anywhere near the Xiu Shan. The scheduled rendezvous time with the Colorado was 2200—10:00 P.M. However, the aggressive sonar search by the destroyer and other PLAN assets were enough to give pause to any sub skipper about venturing into such troubled waters.
Yuri watched as Jeff switched on a flashlight and rifled through the backpack parked at the base of his seat.
“What are you looking for?” Yuri asked.
“I want to check the satphone to make sure its batteries are up to snuff.”
The submersible was equipped with a marine VHF radio for communication with the Lian while it operated on the surface. But Jeff and Yuri couldn’t risk an open-air radio link to the Colorado. Instead, the plan called for Jeff to employ the SEAL phone once they surfaced. The encrypted call to Langley would be relayed back to the submarine. It was an awkward procedure but one that ensured privacy.
As Jeff inspected the portable satellite phone, Meng Park stirred. Yuri noticed. She turned toward Chang, drawn by the flashlight’s illumination. After a few seconds, she began to squirm in the bucket seat, her wrists still anchored to the armrests. Finally, she announced, “I can’t stand this anymore. I have to pee.”
They’d had this discussion before. Several hours earlier, Yuri had informed Meng she needed to hold her water, just like he and Jeff.
Meng’s latest request was not unreasonable. She had boarded the Xiu Shan over fifteen hours beforehand. The submersible was equipped with a compact portable toilet but it was stored under the pilot’s seat. Access required rotating the seat forward between the passenger seats. That was a procedure not possible while Yuri maneuvered the minisub. But now, parked on the bottom, it was doable. All three would welcome the relief.
Yuri said, “All right. We can give it a try now.” He switched on an interior light.
Meng uttered an audible sigh. Jeff glanced at Yuri. She missed his smirk.
After returning the satphone to his backpack, Jeff used a pocketknife to cut the plastic cable ties that bound Meng’s wrists to the armrests.
Yuri shifted to the narrow space between the pilot’s seat and the port side of the sphere, arching his spine against the curvature of the hull. He rotated the pilot’s seat forward, exposing the portable toilet.
“Okay,” he said glancing Meng’s way, “climb over your seat.”
Meng complied. After she crouched beside the receptacle, she stared at Yuri, “Are you going to watch me, too?”
“Don’t touch anything.” Yuri signaled for Jeff to relocate to Meng’s seat. Yuri next stepped over the seat back and sat down in Jeff’s vacated seat.
Meng went about her business. They could hear everything. When she finished, she pulled up her jeans.
Yuri turned and peered aft. He was about to direct Meng’s return to her passenger seat when she made her move.
Meng reached for the minisub’s search sonar control panel located beside the right side of the pilot’s station. She flipped the trigger guard covering the transmit switch and pressed the button.
Yuri lunged forward, wrenching Meng’s torso away from the panel. But he was too late.
An audible metallic ping broadcast into the deep.
“What happened?” Jeff asked.
“You bitch!” Yuri bellowed.
Meng snickered.
Chapter 76
“Do you think they heard it, as far down as we are?” Jeff Chang asked.
“We’re deep and the sonar unit isn’t all that powerful,” Yuri said. “But yes, one of the platforms topside no doubt heard it.”
Five minutes had passed since Meng had pulled her stunt. Yuri reoccupied the pilot’s station. Meng was back in the starboard passenger seat, her wrists again bound to the armrests and one of Jeff’s smelly socks from his rucksack stuffed in her mouth. She had once more mocked her captors; Jeff had had enough—again.
Jeff said, “How deep are we going?”
“To at least 1,100 meters. That destroyer most likely has torpedoes. The typical depth limit for a torpedo is 800 to 1,000 meters.”
“Typical limit?”
“I don’t know what the Chinese have pitted against us. But most of their torpedoes are based on Russian design.”
“Okay, got it.” Jeff recalled another worry. “How much power have we got left?”
“Not enough.”
* * * *
The sonar detail aboard the Nanchang noticed the errant sonar ping. Passive hydrophones on the VDS towed body some three hundred meters below the surface detected the acoustic pulse from the Xiu Shan. The destroyer’s captain, however, did not order a torpedo strike. The computed depth of the target exceeded the pressure rating of the weapons aboard his warship. But even if the target were within range, he was not authorized to attack. His ship was
re-tasked to monitoring only.
Captain Zhou took command of the assault from the Lian, deploying a new weapon system unknown to the Nanchang’s CO.
* * * *
The two pairs of Viperinas hunted in a coordinated pattern, centered on the isolated sonar ping originating from the deep. Vipers 3 and 4 approached from the north. Vipers 5 and 6 swam westward. Viper 1, the mate to the dissected Viper 2, remained aboard the Lian as a reserve.
V-3 and V-4 detected the minuscule whine of the Xiu Shan’s horizontal thrusters as it scurried along the bottom.
* * * *
“What’s that?” Jeff Chang said, pointing forward.
Yuri squinted, peering through the plastic bubble. At the edge of the floodlight’s radiance he also spotted the bottom debris. Yuri cut power to the thrusters; the minisub settled onto the bottom. He checked the depth gauge: 3,022 feet.
The fragments of torn metal a dozen feet away from the submersible appeared alien in the otherwise sterile seascape. Yuri had observed similar seabed deposits before. “This looks like a debris field…there might be a wreck ahead.”
Yuri was tempted to use the onboard sonar to check the route but couldn’t risk the acoustic noise. Just before engaging the thrusters, Jeff called out, “Whoa, did you see that?” Jeff rotated his head back and stared at the peak of the dome. Meng Park did the same, her eyes ballooning. Yuri focused on her obvious terror.
“What did you see?” Yuri asked.
Searching the overhead, Jeff said, “Something big just went by. Looked like a—” He froze for an instant. “My god, it was one of those snake things.”
Astonished, Yuri prepared to engage the thrusters when Meng shook her head vigorously while mumbling through her gag. Yuri backed off the throttle. He reached forward and extracted the sock.
“Don’t use the thrusters,” she whispered. “They’ll hear it. And keep your voices down, too.”
“What is it?” Yuri asked
“What you kidnapped me for.”
“Govnó!”
* * * *
Viper 3 lost acoustic lock on the submersible when the Xiu Shan cut power and settled onto the seabed. V-3’s passive sensors relied on acoustic energy from its prey for long distance hunting. When close to its target, V-3 activated its low-powered search sonar to close in for the kill.
Viper 3 was in terminal search mode. Designed to prey on large nuclear-powered submarines, the Xiu Shan’s minuscule size appeared to be nothing more than a bump on the otherwise gently sloping bottom when V-3 passed by. But just ahead, another target materialized.
The hulk of the World War II warship jutted over ten meters above the bottom. The Shonan, a frigate in the Imperial Japanese Navy, was sent to the bottom by a U. S. Navy submarine on February 25, 1945.
The bulk of the wreckage fit within the V-3’s target profile. It beamed the finding via optical laser to its partner and closed in for the kill.
Chapter 77
The underwater shockwave careened the Xiu Shan across the seafloor at 8:17 P.M. The submersible ended up on its starboard side, tossing its occupants pell-mell. Jeff Chang found himself tangled with Meng Park. Yuri smashed his forehead against a control panel. Blood oozed from the gash.
“What the hell was that?” Jeff yelled.
“That thing must have blown up.”
Yuri pressed a palm against his brow. He frantically scanned the plastic globe, praying the foot thick acrylic pressure hull escaped damage. “Thank God,” he murmured in Russian. No cracks.
Yuri pulled himself up to check the master control panel. Ten percent power left. No choice now.
Yuri engaged a thruster and righted the minisub.
Resettled in the pilot’s station, Yuri announced, “We can’t sit down here anymore. We’re going up now.”
“About time,” Jeff said.
Still in shock from the blast, Meng said nothing.
Yuri reached under the console and disconnected the safety latch that secured a red lever. He pulled the lever back, jettisoning the emergency ballast. A muffled metallic clang rang out inside the sphere as two hundred kilos of lead shot plummeted to the bottom.
* * * *
Viper 4 swam over the wreckage, using its sonar and laser scanner to search for a secondary target. It started to turn around for a second pass when one of its hydrophones detected the metallic clang of ballast release.
* * * *
The minisub was about a hundred feet above the bottom, ascending from buoyancy only. Yuri shut down almost everything to conserve power. Jeff used a flashlight for interior illumination.
“What did it attack?” Jeff asked.
“Must have been a wreck. Thankfully, that snake thing went after it instead of us.”
“So, we should be okay now.”
Yuri started to answer when Meng interrupted. “They hunt in pairs. I only heard one detonation.”
Jeff aimed the flashlight outward. “Another one of those damn things is out there?”
“I don’t know, maybe,” Meng Park offered, dumbfounded at the turn of events.
No Serpent bottom stations were located this close to Sanya. The only Vipers were those aboard the Lian—replacements for Viper Station 6. And only Captain Zhou Jun had the authority to re-task the weapons for local use.
He knows I’m down here…damn him!
Betrayal cut deep yet she remained loyal to the cause. But that was about to change.
* * * *
Viper 4 scanned the target ahead. Its sonar detected a doppler shift, which identified movement. The target ascended at an unhurried pace of eight meters per minute.
Like Viper 3, the minuscule target profile did not match the hull configuration of a hostile submarine. Yet the target’s size was consistent with a large AUV underway. V-4 decided to investigate.
* * * *
“There’s one of ’em!” Jeff Chang said, his voice quavering. The flashlight beam illuminated the sensor laden end of Viper 4. It hovered ten feet away from the Xiu Shan.
Meng whipped her head toward Yuri. “Find my cell phone, or we’re all going to die.”
“Why?”
“I have a shutdown code recorded on it.”
“Jeff?” Yuri said.
“On it.” Jeff began rummaging through his backpack. He found the Huawei, switched the power on and held it up. “What’s the code to open your phone?” Meng’s arms were still bound to the armrests.
She recited the numerical passcode and Jeff keyed up the homepage. “Where’s the recording?”
Meng supplied the information.
“Okay, now what?” Jeff asked.
“You need to use the Xiu Shan’s underwater radio to send the message. Adjust the cell’s speakerphone to maximum volume.”
Jeff set it up and handed the cell to Yuri. “Just press the arrow to play it.”
Holding the cell phone, Yuri scanned the underwater radio control panel when Jeff sounded a new alarm. “It’s moving again.”
Viper 4 began to wrap its foot thick body around the submersible’s transparent dome. Its claws deployed, digging into the outer layers of plastic. The ensuing screech rivaled fingernails dragged across a blackboard.
“There’s no time for the radio,” Meng yelled. “Play the recording now—next to the sensors.” She peered upward, focusing on the top of the dome.
Yuri held the cell phone against the twelve-inch-thick acrylic sphere beside V-4’s coiled head. He activated the recording, releasing a seven second burst of obscure digital tones.
“Do it again,” Meng shrieked.
* * * *
Viper 4 was in terminal countdown, about to execute its mission, when its sonar receiver detected the muffled abort signal. V-4’s CPU deactivated the detonation circuit to all fifty-two charges and depowered the grapple sy
stem.
* * * *
Yuri, Jeff and Meng Park watched in silence as Viper 4 released its death grip on the Xiu Shan. Jeff trained the flashlight beam on the dead machine as it slithered toward the bottom.
Chapter 78
Captain Zhou Jun was inside the Serpent control room deep inside the bowels of the Lian. The chief Viper technician and his assistant worked at side by side consoles that fronted an array of bulkhead mounted flat panel widescreen displays. It was 8:28 P.M. A digital navigation chart of the waters offshore of Sanya filled the center screen; it displayed the real time GPS locations of all ships and aircraft searching for the hijacked submersible. Another screen displayed the video image of the Nanchang’s commanding officer who was inside the Type 055 destroyer’s combat information center.
Standing behind the assistant tech, Captain Zhou watched the video doppelgänger of the warship commander. Both Zhou and the destroyer’s CO wore headsets with voice activated microphones. Zhou had just requested confirmation of the kill.
“That’s affirmative, Captain. We also have positive confirmation regarding the target coordinates. Our sensors detected a significant explosion near the bottom.” He and Zhou spoke over a secure ship to ship radio link.
“Very well. I will assume the threat has been neutralized.”
“Ah, Captain, I’m really curious about the system you deployed. We detected nothing at all from here. Can you provide me with some background?”
“Soon, Commander but not just yet.” Zhou shifted gears. “You may return to Shendao now. We’re wrapping up here. Thanks for your assistance.”
“Very good, sir. I’m pleased we were able to help.”
Zhou terminated the video link. He next addressed the senior technician. “Any response to the recall signal?”
“No, sir. We’ve heard nothing from our sonar sensors.”
The Vigilant Spy Page 35
