Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

USS TOWERS (DDG-103)
STRAITS OF HORMUZ
SUNDAY; 20 MAY
0700 hours (7:00 AM)
TIME ZONE +4 ‘DELTA’
CHAPTER 36
The executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Tyler, was the last to
arrive. He nodded in the captain’s direction and took a seat at the
wardroom table. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked like he hadn’t slept
in a week.
“Just got in a message from USNS Arapaho,” he said. Arapaho was
the ocean-going tug that was rigging the battered remains of the Antietam
for towing. “The last of Antietam’s casualties have been evacuated to
Bahrain. They’re continuing search and rescue operations in the
surrounding waters, but they don’t expect to find any more survivors.
That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news: the team of rescue divers you
requested finally arrived. They’ve completed their initial survey of the
wreck, and you were right; there are survivors down there. The dive team
has located two groups of survivors. Somebody in one of the groups is
communicating with the divers by tapping out Morse code signals on the
hull. There are eleven people in that group. The other group,
unfortunately, doesn’t have anyone who knows Morse. They’re banging
on the hull too, but the divers can’t make heads or tails out of what they’re
trying to say. So they can’t tell how many people are in the second
group.” The XO smiled tiredly. “The situation looks good for getting
both groups out.” He shrugged. “And the divers may get lucky and find
more survivors down there who haven’t been able to communicate.”
Chief McPherson shuddered involuntarily at the thought of being
trapped in the hull of a sunken ship. The emergency battle lanterns would
only last a few hours, and then would come a darkness blacker than
anything she could imagine. After a while, the small volume of air trapped
in the pocket would become stale, and then foul, and finally impossible to
breathe. And the air pocket might not even hold. The unstable wreck
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