Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

252 JEFF EDWARDS
“All right,” the captain said. He keyed his mike. “Bridge—Captain.
Come right thirty degrees and steady up.”
“Bridge, aye. Coming right thirty degrees.”
The ship began to turn.
“The idea,” the captain said, “is to get the torpedo to come in from your
quarter, about thirty degrees off your stern.”
The TAO watched the tactical displays. “What does that do for us,
sir?”
“Nothing, by itself,” the captain said. “But we know the torpedo is
programmed to dive under our hull and detonate. So we have to give him
as little hull as possible at the critical moment. It won’t eliminate the
damage, but—with a little luck—it might keep this fucking torpedo from
blowing us in half.”
“Captain—Bridge. We are steadied up on new course zero-six-five.”
“Captain, aye. Stand by for my orders. When I give the command
hard to starboard, I want you to throw the rudder over hard to starboard,
then go all-ahead flank on the port engine, and all-back on the starboard
engine. Got that?”
“Bridge, aye. Copy all, sir. Standing by for your order.”
“Good,” the captain said. He keyed his mike again. “USWE—
Captain. I need to know when that torpedo is going to hit us. I know you
can’t give me an exact answer, but I want Sonar’s best guess, based on
signal strength and elapsed run-time. Understand?”
“Uh … I think so, sir. That is, yes, sir. Do you want us to give you a
countdown?”
“That’s an excellent idea,” the captain said.
USS Ingraham:
“TAO—Air. I’ve got three missile pop-ups! Bearing two-seven-five!”
The Electronics Warfare Technician confirmed the report a few
seconds later. “TAO—EW, standing by on chaff. I have active H-band
seekers on all three missiles. Classification: Exocet SM-39s, ‘November
Variants.’”
“TAO, aye. Break. Weapons Control—TAO. Let me know the
second you get fire control lock on those Vipers.”
“TAO—Weapons Control. We are locked on and tracking all three
Vipers. Request batteries released.”
Captain Culkins keyed the net. “This is the Captain. You have
batteries released.”