Barracuda 945 (47 page)

At six o’clock on Saturday morning,
Barracuda II
came up through the shining blue waters of the South China Sea, and burst onto the surface, blowing ballast. Ali Akbar Mohtaj was fifty miles from Zhanjiang, north of the subtropical beaches of Hainan, hoping fervently to have his photograph taken.

Admiral Morris was awaiting the arrival of the Big Man, and he had already vacated his chair and desk in anticipation of the event. Dead on time the door swished open in a near cyclone of air current as Arnold Morgan made his entrance and strode across the office floor. The flag of the United States rippled in his slipstream.

“GEORGE, THESE BASTARDS ARE UP TO SOMETHING!”

“Sir?” said Admiral Morris.

“DON’T SIR ME, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. I’VE GOT ENOUGH
FUCKING TROUBLE WITHOUT MY OLDEST FRIEND GOING FUCKING OBSEQUIOUS ON ME!”

In Admiral Morris’s view, this was going to be a somewhat unpredictable meeting. “You got it, Arnie. I’m ready…. What’s new?”

“New? New? Nothing’s new. The precise same crew of homicidal maniacs is still waiting off the shores of California trying to blow the fucking country up. Nothing’s new. It’s just the same old routine bullshit. Another death blow to Uncle Sam coming up, another chance the whole fucking place will be in the pitch dark before we’re much older.”

“You want some coffee?”

“Damn right I want some coffee. I don’t know how the hell I’m supposed to continue while you sit there not giving a shit, one way or another, whether I die of thirst.”

Enough. Both men chuckled. George Morris ordered the coffee, and Arnold moved into serious business. “George, I heard back from the CIA’s man in Murmansk. That second
Barracuda,
Hull K-240, the one the Russians never put to sea, has gone. So far as we can tell it has not left the yards at Araguba for years, but one of our top Naval observers in that part of the world says it’s no longer there. But he was wary of the answers his contact was giving. Said he had a sense there was a lot more to it. But nothing he was going to be told.”

“Do we have evidence they did complete the ship? Our last report said it was in no state to become operational, may even have been used to provide spares for their other
Barracuda.
”

“In my experience, George, the only way submarines ever go anywhere is under their own steam. If the fucker was still in pieces, it would still be in Araguba, right? Well, our man Nikolai says it’s gone. And since even the Russians don’t transport 8,000-ton nuclear submarines on trucks, my guess is the bastard’s floating.

“And if it’s floating, and not in the harbor, it’s steaming somewhere. And since we can’t locate it, and neither, it seems, can anyone else, it’s being very secretive. And I want to know where it is, mainly because I’m afraid it might be bombarding U.S. oil refineries.”

“What was the latest from Rankov?”

“He promised he’d find out for me if it was still in Araguba. But he didn’t get back.”

“You think that proves it’s out there?”

“Well, it proves what I already know, that Rankov is a lying, devious, Russian prick. But I think it’s
almost
decisive.
Barracuda II,
wherever it may be, is up to something.”

Just then, two things happened. The waiter arrived with coffee, and Admiral Morris answered his internal line to hear Lieutenant Commander Ramshawe’s voice asking to see him right away.

He replaced the receiver and said, “Ramshawe’s on his way, says he has two things—one of them hot.”

When Lieutenant Commander Ramshawe arrived, he said, “Hello, sir…oh, g’day, Admiral…didn’t know you were here, but I’m glad you are. I’ve got a very interesting satellite picture right here.”

He laid out on the desk of Admiral Morris a blowup print of a shot taken that morning outside the Chinese Naval Base in Zhanjiang. There, large as life, on the surface, was the
Barracuda,
thirty-five days and 3,500 miles out of Petropavlovsk. In the South China Sea, exactly where the Russians had said it was going.

“Have the Navy guys confirmed this is definitely a
Barracuda Class
Sierra? A genuine
Type 945
?” asked Admiral Morgan.

“Yes, sir. No doubts. One hundred percent. That’s the
Barracuda.
”

“Well, we think it fired a salvo of missiles at Grays Harbor in the early morning of Friday, March seventh,” said Arnold. “That’s eight days ago, and the Pacific Ocean is damn nearly seven thousand miles across from our northwest coast to south China. So he must have made damn nearly forty knots all the way, which he can’t. And he must have set off about seventy-three SOSUS alarms at that speed, which he didn’t.

“That ship outside Zhanjiang, gentlemen, did not do the deed. That much is obvious. Which leaves our calculations in disarray.”

“Bloody oath, it does, Admiral,” said Jimmy. “Where do we go from here?” “Well, Lieutenant, as you know, the Russians did build a second
Barracuda,
which spent all of its life in dry dock in Araguba. And I came here this morning to inform Admiral Morris that it had gone…”

“Gone, sir!”

“Gone. Vamoosed. Not there.”

“Christ. That puts a different light on it, wouldn’t you say? I mean, that ship outside Zhenjiang might be the second one, right? And the first one, the
Barracuda
that hooked the sushi net, might still be where we think it is. Off California.”

“That, Jimmy, is what is causing me deep concern. And the more I think of it, the less I like it. You know why?”

“Sir?”

“Because the Chinese obviously do not wish us to know they have bought TWO
Barracudas
at $300 million each, or whatever. And in those circumstances they
should
have crept into Zhanjiang much more carefully, surfacing at the very last moment, and then crept into the jetties during the dark hours of the night, when they
know
we have no satellite pass.”

Jimmy Ramshawe was silent. He just sat there staring into space. He actually sat there for almost a minute without replying.

“Jimmy?” said Admiral Morris, concerned his Aussie assistant had gone into shock, or some kind of a trance.

But Jimmy ignored him, just shook his head, and then exclaimed, “H-O-L-E-E SHIT!”

Admiral Morgan looked quizzical.

Then James Ramshawe punched the air. “You just said $300 million apiece, sir? The submarines China has plainly bought. AND THAT’S IT, SIR. THAT’S BLOODY IT! OLD RAZORMOUTH 600 CONFIRMED…that’s the bloody message we picked up off the Chinese satellite. It was telling someone Russia had accepted $600 million for TWO
Barracudas.
If you don’t mind my saying so, sir, you’re a bloody genius.”

Arnold Morgan, genuinely smiling for the first time in more than a week, replied, “And if you don’t mind my saying so, Lieutenant, you’re not so fucking dusty yourself.”

“And another thing, sir. What about that SOSUS detection last month, off the coast of Ireland—they thought it could have been
a Russian nuke creeping down the Atlantic. Does that make sense?”

“If that was the second
Barracuda,
and it was owned by China,” said Arnold. “Almost every last piece of this jigsaw fits together. Including the possibility that Beijing is using the first one to cripple our West Coast economy. By the way, the mystery submarine off the coast of Ireland, was on February seventh at1935. The numbers are engraved on my mind. I think about it every day. Sneaky little bastard.”

“What bothers me, Arnie,” said George Morris, “is why China should want to be involved in such a lunatic adventure. They must know stuff like this will provoke a colossal response from us.”

“Of course, we don’t know that China is responsible for anything,” replied Arnold. “We only know for sure that Beijing bought one
Barracuda Type 945,
because the Russians told us. We also have Jimmy’s razormouth message suggesting they bought two
Barracuda
s . And we have seen one of them headed into Zhanjiang, and although we don’t know which one, it does suggest a decoy. Because that little bastard headed into port in a way that suggested they
wanted
us to see it.”

“OK, men, what do we do now, bomb the little pricks into oblivion?” Lt. Commander Ramshawe was only half joking.

Vice Admiral Morgan laughed nervously. “I’m afraid there’s more to this than meets the eye, Jimmy. And remember one thing. Russia is NEVER going to admit the second
Barracuda
was sold. China is NEVER going to admit anything. They may say a
Barracuda
submarine visited Zhanjiang under the flag of another country. They will also say that has absolutely nothing to do with the United States.

“As for our suspicions that someone is hitting our oil industry with cruise missiles, they will say that any suggestion that China is responsible is utterly preposterous, and would honorable President of United States like to have State visit to Beijing, and very great welcome by Chinese people.”

Admiral Morris added, “Remember, also, that satellite picture Jimmy’s just brought in. That’s the only time we’ve seen either of those boats anywhere near a Chinese port of entry.”

“You’re right,” said Arnold. “And I am being driven to just one view—the only time this mystery gets solved is if we catch and nail whoever and whatever is out there off the coast of California. And I don’t know how to do that. Yet.”

Ramshawe’s reply sounded more Australian than Saltbox Bill, King of the Overland. “Well, we’d better be right bloody sharp about it, before the shifty little mongrel bastard strikes again.”

“And one more thing, Jimmy,” said Admiral Morgan. “I was informed you had two items of interest when you arrived. What’s the second one?”

“Sir, I’ve been scrolling through the SOSUS and radar surveillance reports on our Internet for the past couple of weeks. Naturally, there’s not a whole lot happening up in the Bering Sea to interest us. But I found one thing. happened on 19 February, the Navy listening station at North Head, Akutan Island, picked up transient contact on radar, about thirty miles offshore, South Bering Sea 54.45’ N, 166.28’ W. No POSIDENT, But they got three sweeps on the radar. They thought it could be an intruder, but they never heard it again.”

“I guess it could have been anything,” replied Admiral Morgan.

“Well, yes, it could, sir. But those guys are used to tracking ships through the Unimak Pass, and whatever this was, it got their attention. Then it vanished.”

“It’s a bit late to worry about it now,” said Arnold. “But there’s only one type of ship that can just vanish, right, George?”

“Only one, Arnie. Only one.”

The
Barracuda
was making a racetrack pattern 500 feet below the surface, 270 miles southwest of Lompoc, Valley of Flowers, 340 miles due west of Tijuana, on the Mexican border. Shakira had accepted, in principle, the concept of a straight hit-and-run. The final destination of the missiles was 34.39’ N, 120.27’ W. It was 120 minutes to launch.

THE AMERICAN WEST COAST—OPS AREA
BARRACUDA 945

Inside the Kodak Theatre, the entertainment industry’s biggest night was well under way. Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were seated with dozens of hopefuls, the short-listed nominees for the little golden statues.

They had already made the award for the Best Special Effects to Bob Ferrer, Ray Ricken, and Sydney Limberg for
Terminator XII,
and all three of them had thanked everyone they had ever met, with the possible exception of the studio cat. Oscars 2008 was already running ten minutes late.

They showed film clips for the Best Cinematography—for which Hiram Rothman was a hot favorite for his spectacular filming of the battle for the Gettysburg Heights in
Hope, Not Glory.
The Civil War epic was also up for Best Director (Milt Brabazon) and Best Actor (Flint Carbury). And the entire row of Civil Warriors stood up and applauded the victory of Hiram, whose magic lenses had made them all look utterly wonderful.