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SEA OF SHADOWS 87
bring. He climbed into his raised chair at the starboard end of the bridge
and said loudly, “First Officer of the Watch, what is the situation?”
“We have six inbound aircraft, sir, as well as three active sonar
contacts.”
“Four,” said Sub Lieutenant Kensington.
“Correction, sir,” Lieutenant Bryce said. “We have four sonar contacts.
The aircraft have disregarded our Level One challenges. Level Two
challenges are in progress. Gun and missile stations are reporting ready
for combat.”
Over the speaker, the Operations Room Officer’s voice said, “Bridge—
Operations Room. Bogies have gone radar-active. I and J band pulse-
Doppler emitters with a cascading pulse repetition rate. Looks like the
German Air Force variant of the ECR-90C radar.”
The captain exhaled audibly. “Luftwaffe. That narrows the field a
trifle. We’re either dealing with back-fitted Toranados or those damned
Eurofighter 2000s.”
“Bridge—Operations Room. Bogies are not responding to Level Two
challenges.”
“Is that right?” the captain asked quietly. “Second Officer of the
Watch, take missiles to the rails. Shift the gun to anti-air automatic.”
Sub Lieutenant Kensington stood for a few seconds without speaking.
He’d done this a thousand times under simulated conditions, but this was
no simulation. There were real planes out there, and real submarines.
“Second Officer of the Watch!” the captain said loudly.
Kensington started. “Yes, sir!”
“Take missiles to the rails, and shift the gun to anti-air automatic.”
Kensington managed to catch himself before he saluted out of reflex.
“Aye-aye, sir!” He keyed a comm box and repeated the captain’s orders to
the Operations Room Officer. Were they actually going to shoot? Surely
it wouldn’t go that far … or would it? The captain seemed to think so …
Out on the darkened forecastle, the twin arms of the British Aerospace
missile launcher rotated up to the zero position. Two small hatches
powered smoothly aside, and slender rails extended through the openings
to mate with the arms of the launcher. A fraction of a second later, a pair
of Sea Dart missiles rode up the vertically aligned rails to lock into place
on the arms of the launcher. The rails retracted themselves, and the small
hatches closed as soon as they were clear. The entire operation took less
than three seconds.