The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'What do you mean?' Callaghan shouted again, waving his firefighters to put
their spray on the tank also.
'There may be survivors in there. This bomb was a hell of a lot smaller than
they told me on the phone.'
***
'Maine, this is Sea Devil One-Three,' the P-3C Orion called. 'We're about forty
minutes out from your position. What seems to be the problem?'
'We have screw and shaft damage, and we have an Akula in the neighborhood, last
fix five-zero thousand yards southwest,' Ricks answered.
'Roger that. We'll see if we can drive him off for you. We'll report when we get
on station. Out.'
'Captain, we can do three knots, let's do that, north, open as much as we can,'
Claggett said.
Ricks shook his head. 'No, we'll stay quiet.'
'Sir, our friend out there must have copied the collision transient. He will be
coming this way. We've lost our best sonar. Smart move is to evade as best we
can.'
'No, the smart move is to stay covert.'
'Then at least launch a MOSS.'
'That makes sense, sir,' the weapons officer thought.
'Okay, program it to sound like we are now, and give it a southerly course.'
'Right.' Maine's number-three torpedo tube was loaded with a MOSS, a Mobile
Submarine Simulator. Essentially a modified torpedo itself, the MOSS contained a
sonar transducer connected to a noise generator, instead of a warhead. It would
radiate the sound of an Ohio-class submarine, and was designed to simulate a
damaged one. Since shaft damage was one of the few reasons that an Ohio might
make noise, that option was already programmed in. The weapons officer selected
the proper noise track, and launched the weapon a few minutes later. The MOSS
sped off to the south, and two thousand yards away, it began radiating.
***
The skies had cleared over Charleston, South Carolina. What had fallen as snow
in Virginia and Maryland had been mainly sleet here. The afternoon sun had
removed most of that, returning the antebellum city to its normally pristine
state. As the Admiral commanding Submarine Group Six watched from the tender,
two of his ballistic-missile submarines started down the Cooper River for the
sea and safety. He wasn't the only one to watch. One hundred ninety miles over
his head, a Soviet reconnaissance satellite made its pass, continuing up the
coast to Norfolk, where the sky was also clearing. The satellite down-linked its
pictures to the Russian intelligence center on Cuba's western tip. From there it
was immediately relayed by communications satellite. Most of the Russian
satellites used high-polar orbits, and had not been affected by the EMP. The
imagery was in Moscow in a matter of seconds.
'Yes?' the Defense Minister asked.
'We have imagery of three American naval bases. Missile submarines at Charleston
and King's Bay are putting to sea.'
'Thank you.' The Defense Minister replaced the phone. Another threat. He relayed
it at once to President Narmonov.