Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

258 JEFF EDWARDS
The copilot punched a button. “Flares away.” Two brilliant flashes of
light appeared at the edges of their peripheral vision and rapidly fell away
behind the aircraft.
In the darkness the ocean was invisible. But it was down there all right,
rushing up to meet them at breakneck speed.
“Stand by …” the pilot said, watching the numbers on his altimeter
unwind. “Launch—now, now, NOW!”
The Sensor Operator smashed his thumb down onto the firing button,
and the aircraft lurched as the torpedo dropped clear. “Weapon away, sir!”
The pilot pulled back on the stick, and the helo began to climb. “Pack a
bag, kids, ’cause we are out of here!”
The copilot punched another button. Two more flares ignited and fell
away into the darkness. “Flares away!”
“Here it comes!” the Sensor Operator shouted. “Missile-emergence,
bearing one-three-six!”
“Holy shit!” Lieutenant Brody said as he jogged his aircraft into a sharp
bank to the left, still fighting for every inch of altitude he could get. “The
welcoming committee doesn’t fuck around!”
Something caught his attention at the lower threshold of his hearing.
His copilot was mumbling something. Her words were very soft, and he
had to strain to make them out over the hammering of the rotors. “Hail
Mary, full of grace … Hail Mary, full of grace … Hail Mary, full of grace
…”
He looked over his left shoulder. “Where’s the missile?”
“I don’t know, sir!” the SENSO said. “I lost it!”
“Well find it!”
Below them, a circle of the night sky flashed yellow-white as the heatseeking
missile homed in on one of the flares and detonated.
“See that?” Lieutenant Brody said. “No big deal when you fly with the
pros.” His cocky tone of voice gave no hint of the fact that he’d just been
hit by a nearly overpowering urge to urinate.
The SENSO held his headphone closer to his ear. “We’ve got weapon
startup, sir.” A few seconds later, he added, “Looks like good placement,
sir. The weapon has already acquired.”
For the briefest of instants, a patch of ocean two thousand feet below lit
up like daylight.
“Bull’s-eye!” the Sensor Operator shouted. “Loud underwater
explosion with multiple secondaries! I think we just bagged us a
submarine!”
“Outstanding!” Lieutenant Brody said. “Now comes Miller Time …”
His copilot looked at him. “Now comes what?”