Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

248 JEFF EDWARDS
Driven so far into shock that rational thought was an alien concept, the
young Sailor became only dimly aware of the searing pain coming from
the area of his left hand. Perhaps it’s still on fire, he thought, but even that
idea felt detached and unimportant. He slowly raised the wounded arm so
he could inspect it with the eye that still seemed to be working. But the
hand wasn’t there. Someone had taken away his hand, and left in its place
a bleeding stump. Splinters of bone protruded from the mangled wrist, and
blood shot from the mass of torn flesh and cartilage in a pulsating jet that
was fascinating to watch. The Helmsman sank to his knees, and then lay
down on the scorched deck, surrounded by the bodies of the bridge crew.
Just for a minute, he thought. I’ll just rest here for a minute, until my head
clears. He closed his one good eye.
Out on the forecastle, Benfold’s 5-inch deck gun opened fire, hurling
six shells at the enemy motorboat in rapid succession.
The little boat zigged and zagged with insane abandon as the sky began
to rain exploding naval artillery shells. The boat was small, fast, and
incredibly agile. Through some combination of skill and luck, it slipped
unharmed through the barrage of steel and fire.
Benfold’s big gun began barking continuously, pumping out shell after
shell, pausing only long enough between firing for the gun’s auto-loading
system to raise the next shell and ram it into the barrel.
The ninth round caught the motorboat, blasting it into thousands of
burning fragments no larger than a pack of cigarettes. The tenth and
eleventh rounds were already in the air. Both landed and detonated in the
same stretch of water that the motorboat had recently occupied. But the
target was gone, and the exploding shells succeeded in killing only
saltwater.
Anvil (USS Towers) :
The nose cone of Towers’ first ASROC shattered on impact, and the
Mark54 torpedo came to life and detached itself from its parachute.
Placement of the weapon was nearly textbook perfect. It acquired its
target on the first pass and accelerated to attack speed before the
submarine could even maneuver.