Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

318 JEFF EDWARDS
The captain nodded. “Stick with it. The shooting’s not over yet.”
“Well,” said the XO, “at least we know what those Bogies have been
waiting for.”
“Towers, this is Firewalker Two-Six. My weapons check-off list is
complete. I am prepping for my attack run, over.”
The TAO keyed Navy Red. “Towers, aye. Good hunting, Firewalker.”
The captain’s eyes traveled over the faces of the men and women of the
CIC crew. “Cross your fingers and say a prayer,” he said. “If Firewalker
pulls this off, the show’s over, and we’re out of here.”
“Amen to that,” the XO said.
Firewalker Two-Six’s buoy cross-fixes began popping up on the
CDRT. Chief McPherson rolled the trackball until her cursor was centered
over the first cross-fix symbol and began playing connect-the-dots. The
CDRT’s computer gave her a rough course of three-five-seven at an
estimated speed of sixteen knots. Gremlin Zero Four was headed north,
toward the minefield. Toward Zubayr harbor and safety.
The TAO watched on the Aegis display screens as Firewalker Two-
Six’s green friendly-aircraft symbol vectored across the screen toward the
red V-shape of Gremlin Zero Four’s hostile-submarine symbol. He
cocked an ear toward the speaker, expecting to hear Firewalker’s attack
report at any second.
But the next report came from the Weapons Control Officer. “TAO—
Weapons Control. Scratch another Silkworm launcher. Shifting to the
next target at this time.”
“Two down,” the TAO said.
“We’re not getting them fast enough,” the captain said. “At this rate,
we’re going to run out of SM-3s before they run out of Silkworms.”
The Air Supervisor’s voice came over the net. “TAO—Air. The
Bogies are moving!”
“TAO, aye. Are they closing us?”
“Negative, sir,” the Air Supervisor said. “They’ve going after the
helo!”
“TAO—EW, the Bogies just lit off their radars! French-built.
Thomson-CSF Cyrano IVM series. That makes our Bogies either Mirage
F-1s or Mirage F-50s.”