The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Best estimate is one-one-five-K yards, course northeasterly, speed five knots,
maybe one or two more, sir. if his speed's much higher than that, the range is
awfully far.'
'Okay, I want us to come around very gently, come right to zero-eight-zero.'
'Aye aye, sir. Helm, right five degrees rudder, come to new course
zero-eight-zero.'
'Right five degrees rudder, aye. Sir, my rudder is right five degrees, coming to
new course zero-eight-zero.'
'Very well.'
Slowly, so as not to make too great a bend in the towed array, USS Maine
reversed course. It took three minutes before she settled down on the new
course, doing something no US fleet ballistic-missile submarine had ever done
before. Lieutenant Commander Claggett appeared in the control room soon
thereafter.
'How long you figure he's going to hold this course?' he asked Ricks.
'What would you do?'
'I think I'd troll along in a ladder pattern,' Dutch answered, 'and my drift
would be south instead of north, reverse of how we do it in the Barents Sea,
right? Interval between sweeps will be determined by the performance of his
tail. That's one hard piece of intel we can develop, but depending on how that
number looks, we'll have to be real careful how we trail him, won't we?'
'Well, I can't approach to less than thirty thousand yards under any
circumstances. So . . . we'll close to fifty-K until we have a better feel for
him, then ease it in as circumstances permit. One of us should be in here at all
times as long as he's in the neighborhood.'
'Agreed.' Claggett nodded. He paused for a beat before going on. 'How the hell,'
the XO asked very quietly indeed, 'did OP-02 ever agree to this?'
'Safer world now, isn't it?'
'I s'pose, sir.'
'You're jealous that boomers can do a fast-attack job?'
'Sir, I think that OP-02 slipped a gear, either that or they're trying to
impress some folks with our flexibility or something.'
'You don't like this?'
'No, Captain, I don't. I know we can do it, but I don't think we should.'
'Is that what you talked to Mancuso about?'
'What?' Claggett shook his head. 'No, sir. Well, he did ask me that, and I said
we could do it. Not my place to enter into that yet.'
Then what did you talk to him about? Ricks wanted to ask. He couldn't, of
course.
***
The Americans were a great disappointment to Oleg Kirilovich Kadishev. The whole
reason they'd recruited him was to get good inside information on the Soviet
government, and he'd delivered precisely that for years. He'd seen the sweeping
political changes coming for his country, seen them early because he'd known
Andrey Il'ych Narmonov for what he was. And for what he was not. The President
of his country was a man of stunning political gifts. He had the courage of a
lion and the tactical agility of a mongoose. It was a plan that he lacked.