Seawolf Mask of Command (45 page)

Brodie didn’t appear to be listening any more, although Graves’ words could clearly be heard by everyone in the control room. Fitzgerald glanced at Kristen, and she saw malicious fury in his eyes. He was a vain and arrogant man, and he liked to be the center of attention. He was also incredibly vindictive, and she knew this would not be the end of it. He would look for a way to retaliate against her. But she couldn’t imagine him trying anything while on board.

“As you wish, Captain,” he answered with a hint of misplaced superiority. “However, at your earliest convenience, I would like a word.”

Brodie’s response was to ignore him. Instead, he looked around at his officers and Lieutenant Cheng.

“Gentlemen,” he said to the men and then glanced at her, “Lieutenant, would you please join me in the wardroom?”

Musudan-ri, People’s Republic of Korea

D
octor Dar-Hyun Choi walked slowly down the hard-packed road with the sea a few hundred yards off to his right, and the strategic rocket facility off to his left. His two guards were with him as usual, but he didn’t converse with them. He wistfully looked toward the sea. So many nights he’d walked this road hoping that it might be the last night. More nights than he could count, but he no longer expected it. Dreams of freedom, of spending at least a brief period of life breathing free air and not having to be careful of every word he spoke were just that, dreams. He would die here, in this godforsaken country.

He let his thoughts return to more important matters than dreams of liberation. The rail car containing the device had arrived earlier that day. The nuclear weapon was enormous and, from what Choi could determine, quite crude. But, in addition to the actual nuclear bomb, there had been a second, much smaller device that looked like it might be a nuclear weapon, but was simply a cheap rendition of what a real missile warhead should look like.

Choi didn’t understand just why the powers that ran the DPRK had insisted this mockup be brought to Musudan-ri, but he was beginning to fear their intentions. The dummy warhead had been moved to one of the engineering buildings in plain view of any satellite hovering high overhead, which considering the situation, was a guarantee. This meant the western powers now believed there was an operational nuclear warhead capable of fitting onto one of the rockets at Musudan-ri.

Choi could think of nothing that might provoke the western powers to launch a preemptive strike more. In fact, instead of liberation, what the doctor truly expected now was a sudden blinding flash as the first cruise missile hit, followed by welcome oblivion.

His only question left was how long would he have to wait.

Wardroom, USS Seawolf

“I
would like to begin by apologizing to everyone for what may have appeared as a lack of trust,” Brodie began the operations briefing. “I know the merit of each one of you, but not only did the National Command Authority and the Joint Chiefs not want anyone informed of our mission until absolutely necessary, but I saw no reason to burden any of you with—what I hoped—would never actually occur.”

They were assembled in the wardroom. On the SMART Board, a map of the eastern coast of North Korea was displayed. Superimposed over the map was the
Seawolf’s
location, along with the position of every other vessel they were currently tracking in the region. Kristen could see several North Korean surface ships patrolling their coastal areas plus a pair of their submarines. In addition, there was a Russian
Akula
class submarine lurking off to the north and a Chinese submarine off to the south. Each of the foreign vessels had circles of various sizes around them representing the area the
Seawolf
sonar operators believed the contact was located in. Thus the circles were smaller depending on how accurate the position fix was on the enemy vessel.

“We have—potentially—several missions here. Some short of war, some in the event of war, and one in the event of nuclear war,” he informed them. “Our current mission is to sweep the Musudan-ri coastal area to locate a passage through the minefield. In addition, we’re to conduct electronic monitoring of all transmissions coming out of the DPRK in our patrol zone.”

Thus far it was a fairly typical assignment for an American SSN, but didn’t explain much more than what they already knew.

“Our secondary mission, to be executed on order by the NCA, is to insert Lieutenant Cheng’s SEALs to extract a North Korean national.” Brodie then nodded to Cheng, who stood as a grainy image appeared on the screen of a Korean man wearing a winter coat and hat outside an apartment building.

“This is Doctor Dar-Hyun Choi,” Cheng began. “This picture was taken by an agent in Russia ten years ago while the doctor was working at the Korolyov Rocket facility.”

The image advanced to another picture of the doctor, this time somewhere in the desert.

“This is Dar-Hyun again two years ago when he was consulting in Iran on their rocket program,” Cheng explained. “While in Iran, he made contact with a British intelligence operative and expressed a desire to defect to the West. Since then our own government has been able to confirm his desire, and it is believed the doctor is currently in Musudan-ri. Our mission, if ordered, is to go in and get him out.”

There were more than a few raised eyebrows around the wardroom table.

Kristen couldn’t resist asking, “Excuse me, Lieutenant. I don’t mean to question you or your men’s abilities. But intelligence reports estimate at least a regiment guarding the Musudan-ri facility. How will you and your men get him out? I mean the SDV can only carry six people, right?” It seemed the height of arrogance to think a six-man team could slip in and snatch the doctor undetected.

“No offense taken,” Cheng replied with a slight air of confidence. “But that’s my problem, not yours.”

Kristen hated cockiness, but the ruggedly good looking SEAL didn’t appear cocky, just certain of his team’s abilities. “Okay, sorry I asked,” she replied as the captain resumed the briefing.

“Because of the SDV’s limited range, it needs to be inserted close to shore. This mission was originally assigned to the
Jimmy Carter,
but following her accident, it was decided that the
Seawolf’s
superior stealthiness makes us the best platform to launch the SEALs from. Now, I don’t need to tell anyone that we’ll be operating in the territorial waters of North Korea, and if they catch us in it, there’ll be some reckoning. Unless war is declared, all we can do if discovered is go deep, hide, or run for daylight outside their territorial waters.”

“And if some DPRK destroyer follows us outside their territorial waters, sir?” Weps asked.

“Then we’ll teach them the error of their ways,” Brodie responded seriously. There was no hint of arrogance in his voice, just cool confidence in his people and his boat. “However, in the event of war, our mission will change in due course. In the opening hours of any conflict, we can expect to fire a swarm of TLAM-Cs at strategic targets throughout the DPRK as part of a larger strike package of cruise missiles and stealth aircraft attacks targeting their command and control facilities, as well as disrupting their integrated air defense system in preparation for follow on air strikes.” Nothing thus far was unusual for a fast-attack boat during the opening days of any land invasion.

“Once we’ve launched our conventional cruise missiles, we’ll conduct operations to interdict DPRK coastal traffic while providing an in-extremis rescue platform for downed airmen in the event any of our flyboys get shot down or experience engine failure and have to eject in our area of operation.”

Rescuing downed airmen was nothing new for American submarines, and launching cruise missiles at the opening of an air campaign was equally typical. Brodie went over the conventional target package, showing the various targets Weps would need to program into the conventional cruise missiles the
Seawolf
was carrying. After another ten minutes, he completed the briefing, having said nothing about the two nuclear-armed cruise missiles they were carrying.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Everyone knew Brodie had intentionally left this part of their mission a mystery.

“Excuse me, sir….” Martin asked as he raised a nervous hand.

“Yes, Mister Martin?” Brodie replied, seeming to have expected the young ensign to be the one to break the silence.

“But what about the two TLAM-Ns, sir?”

It was the question everyone had on their mind and wanted an answer to. The Navy had ballistic missile submarines all over the world loaded with nukes. The US Air Force could load more nukes on a single B-52 than two
Seawolf
class subs could carry, not to mention that ICBMs fired from silos in the US could hit any spot on the globe within thirty minutes. Therefore, no one understood why it was necessary to put nukes on the
Seawolf
.

Brodie motioned to the XO who was handling the computer display. The map changed to a close up of Musudan-ri. “As most of you probably know already, this is the Musudan-ri missile testing site. It’s from here that the DPRK would likely launch any nuclear attack against South Korea, Japan, or any other nation they perceived as a threat.”

The tension in the room seemed to be growing as Brodie calmly discussed the strike package for their two nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. Kristen now understood why Brodie had been unwilling to reveal their orders until now. The news would have made the last three weeks even more difficult for everyone aboard. They’d been better off not knowing.

“In the event of war, it is feared the DPRK may use their limited rocket capacity to fire their small quantity of nuclear devices at South Korea, Japan, and even at the US Pacific Fleet as it moves into the theater. So, if an NSA spy satellite detects rockets being prepared for launch at Musudan-ri, and they believe those rockets are armed with nuclear weapons, one contingency of many is for us to remove the DPRK’s missile threat with an atomic attack before they can launch.”

There was silence in the wardroom as everyone considered what it meant to unleash a nuclear strike. Unlike crews on board ballistic missile submarines, the officers of the
Seawolf
didn’t routinely have to consider the possibility of nuclear warfare. So, the officers around the table weren’t conditioned and mentally prepared for initiating it.

“Why us, sir?” Weps asked, uncomfortable with the idea of firing a nuclear weapon.

“That’s an excellent question, Andy.” Brodie replied. “Would anyone like to take a guess?”

No one was willing to speculate. They all knew the nuclear Triad of ICBMs, nuclear armed bombers, and SSBNs could do this mission. No one understood why it was necessary for the
Seawolf
to take on the unthinkable. No one that is, except Kristen, who sat perfectly still. She’d been considering the reason for having the two nuclear weapons on board ever since she first saw them at Indian Island.

“Lieutenant?” Brodie asked, eyeing her appreciatively from the head of the table. “Any thoughts?”

“To prevent World War III,” Kristen answered.

She noticed everyone now staring at her as if she’d said something incredibly stupid.

“How do you prevent a nuclear war by using nuclear weapons?” Walcott asked incredulously. It was the same question she saw on everyone’s face. Everyone that is, except for Brodie and Graves, who apparently knew the answer.

Kristen took a deep breath, not certain her reasoning was accurate. But then explained what she’d been secretly dreading for weeks. “China and Russia are not supporting us in our efforts to get the DPRK to abandon their nuclear and missile programs. They aren’t helping us in the Security Council, and, according to intelligence sources, Russia is having a fire sale of former Cold War weaponry to anyone with hard cash. Neither Russia nor China would benefit from a destabilized North Korea, and they would frown upon any conventional action taken by us to replace the DPRK leadership. But in the event of conventional war initiated by the DPRK, neither Russia nor China would have cause to escalate to nuclear war.”