The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Aye, all ahead one-third.'
***
'I think we scared the piss out of him,' Ricks observed, hovering over the sonar
display. Seconds after the simulated launch, the 688 on the scope had floored
his power plant, and now there was also the gurgling sound of a decoy.
'Just backed off on the power, sir, blade count is coming down.'
'Yeah, he knows there's nothing after him, now. We'll give him a call on the
Gertrude.'
***
'That dumbass! Doesn't he know that there may be an Akula around here?' the
Commanding Officer of USS Omaha growled.
'We don't show him, sir, just a bunch of fishing boats.'
'Okay. Secure from general quarters. We'll let Maine have her little laugh.' He
grimaced. 'My fault. We should have been trolling along at ten instead of
fifteen knots. Make it so.'
'Aye, sir. Where to?'
'The boomer ought to have a feel for what's north of here. Go southeast.'
'Right.'
'Nice reaction, Nav. We might have evaded the fish. Lessons?'
'You said it, sir. We were going too fast.'
'Learn from your captain's mistake, Mr Auburn.'
'Always, sir.'
The skipper punched the younger man's shoulder on the way out.
***
Thirty-six thousand yards away, the Admiral Lunin was drifting at three knots
just over the thermocline layer, her towed-array sonar drooping under it.
'Well?' her Captain asked.
'We have this burst of noise at one-three-zero,' the sonar officer said,
pointing to the display, 'and nothing else. Fifteen seconds later, we have
another burst of noise here . . . ahead of the first. The signature appears to
be an American Los Angeles class going to full power, then slowing and
disappearing off our screens.'
'An exercise, Yevgeniy . . . the first transient was an American missile
submarine . . . an Ohio-class. What do you think of that?' Captain First Rank
Valentin Borissovich Dubinin asked.
'No one has ever detected an Ohio in deep water . .
'For all things, there is a first time.'
'And now?'
'We will hover and wait. The Ohio is quieter than a sleeping whale, but at least
we know now that there is one in the area. We will not chase after it. Very
foolish of the Americans to make noise in this way. I've never seen that happen
before.'
'The game has changed, Captain,' the sonar officer observed. It had changed
quite a lot. He didn't have to say 'Comrade Captain' anymore.
'Indeed it has, Yevgeniy. Now it is a true game. Noone need get hurt, and we can
test our skills as in the Olympics.'
***