To Kill the Potemkin (10 page)

"Big
shot from Washington. Netts."

The
steward did a double take. "Cap'n
Netts? Ed Netts?"

"Vice-Admiral
Netts."

"No
shit!"

"Why,
Cakes? You know him?"

The
steward's eyes seemed to shrink back into
his head as if he were trying to hold back a memory that had forced its
way
into his skull. One hand jerked up to the side of his face and began
tugging at
his right ear.

A
commotion forward signaled the approach of
officers.

"Attention!"
shouted Sorensen, and
everyone snapped to.

"At
ease, men," said Pisaro.

Netts
immediately walked over to the steward,
stuck out his hand and warmly pumped his arm.

"Hello,
Cakes."

"Howdy,
Cap'n."

"How's
the ear?"

"Mighty
fine. Ninety-five percent."

"Glad
to hear it."

What
Netts and Cakes shared happened on
August 23, 1944, when Admiral Chester Nimitz pinned the Navy Cross on
Cakes
Colby for heroism aboard
Sargo
,
Netts commanding. During a depth charge attack in the Sea of Japan,
Cakes had sealed himself into a flooding compartment and saved his ship.

With
a friendly salute to his old shipmate,
Netts descended a ladder and entered the torpedo room. He swept the
room with a
scowl, taking in the two dummy Mark 45 and twelve dummy Mark 37
torpedoes
stacked neatly in racks.

The
eight members of the torpedo gang stood
at stiff attention, sweating in the intimidating presence of the
admiral.

Netts
said to Lopez, "Chief, did you run
checks on these fish yourself?"

"Yes,
sir!"

"You
happy?"

Lopez
hesitated before answering.

"Out
with it, man!"

"Sir!
I don't like to go on patrol
without no live torpedoes, sir!"

Netts's
mood changed. "At ease,
men," he said. "I understand your point, Chief, but this is not a
patrol, it's an exercise, and it's only for a few days."

"Sir!"

"Yes,
Chief."

"What
if a war starts during the
exercise?"

Netts
swiftly crossed over to the attack
console and tapped Zapata's cage. "In that case. Chief, you'll go up to
the surface and sic this nasty little devil on the Russians."

The
admiral then turned abruptly, disappeared
up the ladder and headed aft. The Chief had a point, but he couldn't
stand
there and debate it.

The
reactor compartment was divided into two
decks. On the lower deck were the reactor vessel and heat exchangers,
heavily
shielded in a room no one entered while the reactor was operating. The
upper
deck housed the control rods and a narrow passageway, the tunnel, that
led to
the reactor control room and engineering spaces. In the reactor control
room
Netts noted that the reactor was critical and nodded with satisfaction.
In the
maneuvering room he stood for a moment watching the technicians watch
their
displays.

Without
a word he continued into the engine
room, where Chief Wong was running a computer check on the injectors
that fed
steam into the turbogenerators to provide power for the ship's
electrical
systems.

"Chief,"
said the admiral, taking
from his pocket a set of electrical diagrams and handing them to Wong,
"are you familiar with this setup?"

The
engineer bent over the diagrams and
clicked his tongue. "Yes, sir. We tested it in transit from Norfolk."

"I
know," said Netts. "Well,
you had better get busy."

"Aye
aye. Admiral."

Netts
examined the engineering log, noting
that nothing extraordinary had happened to the propulsion plant since
Norfolk.
He paused a moment to stare at the turbines. "Pretty nice steamboat you
have here, Chief," he said, and headed forward for his briefing with
Springfield. Damn, he loved these steamboats.

Sorensen
and Fogarty were sitting in the mess
with forty other sailors when the loudspeaker piped attention. Sorensen
stared
unseeing into his coffeecup and gritted his teeth, wishing he were on
watch so
he wouldn't have to listen to a speech.

"Attention
all hands, attention all
hands. The captain is going to address the crew."

Springfield's
voice resounded throughout the
ship. "As I am sure all of you are aware, we have a distinguished
visitor
aboard. Admiral Netts has come from the Office of the Chief of Naval
Operations
to give
Barracuda
a special assignment, and he is
going to tell you
about it now."

"Gentlemen,"
said Netts,
"today on all the oceans of the world we face a far more powerful and
dangerous adversary than even the Fascist powers of Germany, Italy and
Japan
that we defeated in the Second World War.

"In
the last decade, under the
leadership of Admiral Gorshkov, the Soviet Navy has been built up from
a
coastal defense force into the second most powerful navy in the world.
If the
Russians were to attack us today I'm here to tell you we would have a
hell of a
time stopping them.

"If
I were Admiral Gorshkov and I were
planning an attack on the U.S. Navy, the first thing I would do would
be to
sink as many American missile submarines as I could find. In all
likelihood, I
wouldn't find many, if any at all. Therefore, I would attack what I
could find.
And that, gentlemen, means aircraft carriers. You just can't hide one
of those
damned things. An aircraft carrier may be a dandy platform for
launching
airstrikes against peasants in Viet Nam, but Viet Nam does not have
attack
submarines like
Barracuda
capable of shooting back.

"I'm
letting my hair down with you
people because I think of us as a family. So please indulge me.

"Our
navy has spent and spent building
aircraft carriers and carrier groups, and intends to spend more. In my
opinion,
an opinion which I do not share with many people in Washington, this is
wrong.
Terribly wrong. If war comes with the Russians, those carriers will be
sitting
ducks. They will be blown out of the water in the first fifteen minutes
of the
war, and then it will be up to the submarine forces to carry on the
fight.

"The
Russians will attack with strength
and cunning. Their submarines have their problems, no question, but in
those
first fifteen minutes they will be able to inflict terrible damage. No
question
about that either. They will destroy the fixed arrays that enable us to
track
their subs through the oceans. They will render our communications
system
useless. They will attack our ports, our naval stations, our fuel and
supply
depots. All that is to be expected. What my superiors do
not wish to believe is that at the end of the first phase of the war at
sea our
carrier groups will be clouds of radioactive dust.

"Why
am I telling you all this? Because
in the next five days your mission will be to prove the truth of it."

"Now,
I'm sure Admiral Gorshkov would be
proud to have a ship like
Barracuda
in his fleet. I
know I am, but for
the next five days you will be playing the role of a Soviet crew, and
Barracuda
will act as though it were part of the Black Sea
Fleet.

"This
ship is going to demonstrate that
one attack submarine can penetrate the defenses of an entire carrier
group and
sink the queen bee. You can't put a live charge into
Kitty Hawk
,
but you
can sure as hell smash a pair of dummies into her hull and give
everybody on
her flight deck a good soaking.

"In
my opinion the future of the Navy is
at stake here. For the first time ever there will be no restrictions on
the
operations of the attacking submarine in an exercise of this sort.
Captain
Springfield will have absolute discretion to go where he wants, as deep
as he
wants and as fast as he wants. You men will do whatever it takes to
sink the
Hawk.

"That
is all. God bless you."

When
the speech ended a cheer erupted in the
control room and swept like a wave through the ship. By the time it
reached the
mess, the crew was chanting, "Nuke the
Hawk
, nuke the
Hawk
..."

Fogarty
felt that Netts had confirmed his
private feelings about a nuclear war at sea. He raised his voice with
the
others. It felt good to have something to cheer about.

Only
Sorensen kept silent, the muscles in his
jaw tightening. He slammed his coffeecup onto the table and stood up.
The mess
instantly quieted.

"You
people are crazy," he said.
"This isn't going to be a joyride. The fleet will have six subs looking
for us." He looked over the young faces in the mess. "And while half
the fucking U.S. Navy is chasing us around in circles, there's
still
a
Russian sub loose out there. Keep it in mind."

He
sat down and shook his head. The mess
started to clear out.

"What
gets me," Sorensen said to
Willie Joe, "is that this bullshit could get us killed just so the
admiral
can boost his career—"

"Cool
off, Ace," said Willie Joe.
"This is gonna be fun. The fleet doesn't stand a chance."

"I've
known about this for two weeks,
but I couldn't say anything. It's going to get crowded down there.
Seven subs
in one tiny piece of ocean, six of them and us." Sorensen sighed.
"Okay, Willie Joe, you and Fogarty go up to sonar and start running
signature programs for the fleet's subs. Give Davie the word."

"Aye
aye. You take it easy there.
Ace."

Sorensen
rustled up a sandwich from Stanley.
By now the mess was deserted. He took a bite of BLT, chewed without
tasting,
gave up and lit a cigarette.

"That
was real cute, Sorensen."

He
turned around and saw Pisaro leaning
against the bulkhead, arms folded across his chest.

"Evening,
Commander."

"You
trying to put the fear of God into
those boys, or what?"

"We're
supposed to be pros down here,
sir, not a bunch of jerkoffs."

"What
about esprit de corps? Isn't that
worth something?"

Sorensen
smiled. "Tell it to the
Marines, sir. No disrespect intended. My only concern is the safety of
this
ship."

"I
know that. And we both know that on
this exercise the safety of the ship will be in your hands. If you're a
little
edgy, I need to know."

"I'm
all right."

"You
lay off the amphetamines."

Sorensen
raised his eyebrows and stared at
the XO.

In
the sonar room Fogarty said, "Willie
Joe, what's with Sorensen?"

"He
figures anything but chasing Russians
is a waste of time."

"Do
you?"

"I
just put in my time, man. It don't
make any difference to me."

Hoek
stuck his face into the room.
"Willie Joe. run a signature program for
Swordfish
,
Shark
,
Seawolf
,
Mako
,
Dragonfish
and
Stingray
."

"Aye
aye, sir."

"What's
in the log?"

"Just
local traffic. Lieutenant. A small
ship is approaching the channel."

"Okay,
sign it and that's it."

"Aye
aye."

Sorensen
came in, muttering something
unintelligible. "All right," he said. "If we're going to do
this, we're going to do it right. Willie Joe, beat it. Take your white
suit.
Fogarty, check your bottom scanners. We ain't gonna nuke the
Hawk
if we
can't make it out of the bay."

All
over the ship, division heads were
logging in the first watch. In the control room the captain went
through the
departure checklist.

"Maneuvering
room, report."

"Steam,
twenty percent. Turbogenerators
on line."

"Very
well. Engine room, report."

"Engine
room standing by on number one
turbine."

"Very
well. Sonar, report."

"Sonar
reports screws on the surface
bearing one niner zero, range two two five zero zero yards."

"Very
well. Radar, report."

"Radar
reports a ship entering the
channel, bearing one niner zero, range two two five zero zero yards."

"Very
well. Navigation, report."

"Navigation
reports gyros set, course
plotted, standing by."

"Very
well. Helm, report."

"Helm
standing by."

"Very
well. Stern planes, report."

"Stern
planes standing by."

Springfield
turned to Pisaro. "This is
it, Leo. I'm going up to the bridge. Quartermaster, sound General
Quarters."

Throughout
the ship loudspeakers heralded the
quartermaster's voice. "General Quarters! General Quarters. Prepare for
maneuvering. All hands man battle stations."

Two
sailors were standing by on the deck near
each hatch, their eyes on the bridge. Springfield ordered them, "Deck
party, stand by to cast off lines."

He
spoke through the intercom to the control
room. "Bridge to navigation, how is the tide?"

"Navigation
to bridge, going out at
one-quarter knot."

"Very
well. Cast off the bow line."

The
crew of the
Tallahatchie County
appeared over the gunwales, smiling and waving.

"Bow
line away."

"Cast
off the stem line."

"Stern
line away."

"Steer
left three degrees."

"Left
three degrees."

"All
ahead slow."

Fogarty
began feeding the signature programs
of the six subs
into his compter. The captain and lookouts came down from the sail.

"Prepare
to dive," sad the captain. "Take her down, Mr.
Pisaro."

Pisaro
gave orders to retract radars, and the diving officer went
through his panel.