Laura 02 The God Code (34 page)

***

One hour later, Captain Darius Jennings stands impatiently on the deck of a fishing trawler. They have been drifting for almost six hours now, waiting for the submarine to surface. The submarines must have detected the fishing trawler long ago, where are they? Impatiently he gives another glance at his wrist watch, two minutes before the planned rendezvous time.

Annoyed he raises his binoculars and scans the horizon, empty ocean fills his view. Suddenly the ocean comes alive around the trawler and bubbles surround it. No, a fisherman’s tale is all it is, there are no giant ship eating squid. Or are there? Darius reaches for his pistol holstered on his hip. Something is coming up out of the ocean, what is it? Fear floods his body as something long breaks the water right next to the port side of the boat, causing Darius to almost drop the binoculars. A round shiny eye stares at him. Darius relaxes his grip on his pistol. Stupid, he should have expected a submarine periscope. Seconds later the rest of the submarine appears, so precise that there is only two feet of space between the two vessels when the submarine is fully surfaced. Darius gives a sigh of relief as he sees the conning tower hatch open up.

“Thought you boys were never going to show!” he yells.

“Your watch must be early!” comes the reply.

Darius signals to his men to jump aboard and tie the two crafts together. Two more hatches on the deck of the submarine open up and six men climb out, helping to secure the two vessels.

Darius jumps onto the deck of the submarine and watches as the submarine captain climbs down from the conning tower.

“Welcome Captain. I am Captain Darius Jennings, how are you doing?”

“Good to meet you Captain, I am Captain Lawrence Rinehart, CO of the submarine. So, why have you brought us to the middle of nowhere? It must have taken you some time to get here.”

“Not really, we just completed a critical mission and had to change plans to avoid having sensitive information fall into enemy hands. We procured the fishing trawler and after managing to make contact, were given orders to rendezvous with a submarine here. You are to take us to the US coast.”

“Mm, interesting story. Well, get your men and their gear aboard so we can get out of here, I do not like sitting on the surface.”

“Yes Captain,” Darius replies, playing along.

Captain Rinehart looks on as twenty men dressed in Navy Seal attack gear climb into his submarine with two sets of gear each. Rinehart scratches his chin. Wonder what is in the bags? That is too much gear for a Seal’s mission, must be the information he talked about, well I am not about to ask. The faster we get these men off my sub, the happier I will be. Rinehart looks at his watch. Five minutes have elapsed since the two vessels moored up.

“Captain Jennings, what’s taking so long? Get your men and gear aboard and cut the boat loose so that we can get out of here.” Jennings does not reply.

He is waiting for a password from his men that all is ready.

Inside the ship, the twenty men are stationing themselves all over the submarine, all armed with automatic rifles and pistols, all with silencers fitted.

“I’m going to see what’s taking so long,” Captain Rinehart says as he makes his way back to the conning tower.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Captain Rinehart turns as he hears Jennings’s reply. All his muscles tense up and he freezes. Jennings is pointing his service pistol right at his head.

“We are taking your submarine Captain,” Jennings says, then presses the send button on his neck and addresses his men. “Secure the ship.”

The Pegasus’s crew suddenly find themselves staring down the barrels of twenty trained men, yelling for them to make their way to the deck of the submarine. Some of the crew tries to resist, but get rifle butts in their faces, and two get shot in the head. It takes ten minutes to get all the men on the deck, where they are made to stand in line. Jennings does not have the necessary men to totally crew the submarine. Looking at a list in his hand, he starts to pick out the men that he needs and have them one by one taken down into the submarine where they are then secured in the mess hall for when they are needed.

***

“Contact, 40 miles out. I think it’s our fishing trawler, start to get ready.” Pieter has the jet’s radar jammer on. The jammer will be able to jam the radar on the fishing trawler, but the radar on Pegasus is another story.

As long as Pegasus is still crewed by her own crew, they will recognize the jets as US airplanes and hopefully think the jets are only providing air cover.

Victor rechecks the dry bag tied to his leg, containing weapons and explosives.

“Pick us up when you’ve retaken the submarine.”

“I was wondering if you had enough fuel to return,” Victor replies.

“Nope. Pull the ejection handle behind your head, it will eject only your seat. I’ll cover you until you’re in the water.”

Victor nods then puts on an oxygen mask. The mask is attached to a small oxygen cylinder on his side to provide oxygen for him to breathe at the high altitude he is ejecting at, and will also enable him to breathe underwater as he opens the submarine’s rescue hatch. Victor takes a deep breath, then reaches back and pulls the ejection handle. Suddenly explosive bolts go off all around his part of the canopy and Victor is thrust into his seat from the force as his seat rockets out of the jet. Cold air immediately chills all exposed skin, but Victor is only focusing on the mission, ignoring the pain. Glancing around, he looks for Ernest. Ernest has also ejected and is slightly above Victor. Both men unclip themselves from their seats and freefall towards the ocean and a target far below. The submarine is slowly taken control of by the new crew as they take their positions. The old crew that may be needed is secured in the mess hall, while others that are immediately needed are at their stations under guard, forced to cooperate at gun point.

The old crew that is not needed is made to climb into rescue rafts from the submarine, where they are given provisions. Keeping them on the submarine is too risky and Captain Jennings does not want to shoot them. He may be part of a group committing treason, but he has no intention of killing innocent Navy brothers without good reason. He intends for them to be towed behind the trawler and dropped off at the nearest land where they can make their way home. The submarine is virtually undetectable, thus he has no worry of them being debriefed, for they know nothing of his plans.

“Captain, air contact, two jets!” Dan has just taken his position behind the controls of the radar station.

“Whose are they?”

“US Navy Sir, partially jamming our radar.”

“That means they know we are here, dammit, how did this happen? Shoot them down!”

Jennings looks at his first officer Leon, who nods and walks over to the weapons control panel. Leon can see from the screens that the jets are trying to jam his radar, but the submarine’s radar is too sophisticated and powerful for the jamming to be effective at the range they are from the submarine. Leon smiles as he presses a button on his console, four times.

“Missile lock, two SAMs,” Pieter alerts John over the radio.

“I show two SAMs locked onto me as well,” John replies.

“Break, evasive maneuvers,” Pieter replies as he banks his jet hard left, away from John’s.

Pieter opens the jet’s throttles to maximum while making a sharp turn to try and have the missiles aligned that they approach him from the side. John is doing a similar maneuver. Pieter waits for the missiles to get close to him, and then drops flares and chaffs, while re-aligning the jet to keep the missiles at a 90 degree angle to his left. Glancing down quickly, he affirms that the missiles have lost radar lock. Pieter watches as the two missiles pass harmlessly behind him.

Suddenly alarms again sound and Pieter looks down to his radar screen. What he sees makes him freeze. The warning system shows four missiles locked on to him, approaching fast. The system indicates that the missiles are using a different active Doppler and infrared tracking system, making it almost impossible for him to fool them with chaffs and flares. Alarmed, Pieter looks at his fuel gauges, only a few minutes of fuel left. He activates the afterburners and pushes the jet as hard as he can vertically up until his warning system informs him that the missiles are right on him.

Quickly he makes a half loop and dives straight down, just passing the missiles that cannot change course in time. He just bought himself a few seconds. Hope it is enough time before the missiles turn around and, guided by the radar from the submarine below, reacquire a lock on him. The fuel warning system is now in critical mode, but Pieter keeps the afterburners on, pushing the jet to its max, gaining as much speed as he can on the descent. Even with the maneuver, the missiles have a lock on him within three seconds and are gaining fast. Pieter grips the controls tighter. Come on baby, fly, you can do it.

Suddenly the engines cut out as the fuel runs out, and the jet’s airspeed starts to drop drastically, the missiles are almost upon him. The ocean is approaching fast, but the missiles faster. One missile is ahead of the others, and almost on top of the jet. Pieter looks back and up, straining to see. Just as the missile is about to hit his right wing, he barrel rolls, causing the missile to skim inches past the wing. Suddenly there is an explosion next to the cabin as the missile’s proximity sensor activates. Pieces of shrapnel rip through the jet and smoke pours out of the right wing. Pieter smiles as he deactivates a fire alarm. Good thing I am out of fuel, otherwise I would have been blown up. Pieter holds the Jet in a direct dive, aiming for the trawler.

Pieter looks confused as red fluid drips onto his hands and flight controls. Hydraulic fluid, where is the airplane hit for it to leak hydraulic fluid? Pieter tries the controls, all seem fine. He brings his hand to his face and looks at the fluid. It is not hydraulic fluid, it is blood, his blood. Pieter looks at the warning system showing the three missiles on his tail, then takes a deep breath, pain fills his body. Pieter closes his eyes for a moment and thinks of his family. As he opens his eyes, he looks back up at the missiles behind him. They are almost on him. It is a good day to die, time for the grand finale. Suddenly bullets start bouncing off the jet as men shoot at it from the deck of the trawler. Pieter smiles. Fools, the small arms fire does not have the penetrating power to go through the jet’s tough canopy. Just a little further, almost there. Pieter places his left hand on the ejection handle beside his seat, while keeping the airplane lined up with his right.

Suddenly he gets slammed into his chair and with a shock he looks at the three holes in the canopy. Slowly his left arm unwillingly drops away from the ejection handle, hanging lifeless by his side. More bullets hit the jet, tearing it to pieces. This is impossible, no handgun has that kind of firepower, who is shooting? Pieter searches for the shooter. His heart sinks as he finds it.

The three Gatling guns on the deck of the submarine spew a trail of death at him. Pieter tries to reach the ejection handle by his headrest with his right, but he does not have the power left. The jet hits the fishing trawler just as the three missiles slam into the back of the jet. As the nose of the jet plows into the deck, emergency sensors activate in half a millionth of a second, and Pieter’s ejection seat fires automatically. Being vertical, he gets shot out just over the submarine, and hits the water before his parachute can open. Pieter, still strapped to his flight seat, passes out as the emergency flotation on his seat activates, keeping him afloat.

Ernest and Victor maneuver their parachutes to keep them in line with the submarine, aiming for its deck. Suddenly bullets pass inches from Ernest’s face and puncture his parachute in multiple places.

“Shit, they’re firing at us, make wild S maneuvers!” Ernest calls over the mike to Victor, just as more bullets tear into his parachute, causing it to split open. Ernest falls like a rock when the parachute gives in. He quickly cuts his chute away with a pull on the emergency cord and deploys his back up chute. All three Gatling guns turn and aim directly at him, now only 500 ft above the submarine.

Just as the guns start spinning up to fire, sparks appear all over the deck and the Gatling guns as bullets ricochet off them. Two guns get destroyed in the attack, but the third gun locks onto John as he passes over the submarine after his attack run. Ernest looks on in horror as the Gatling gun spins to life, putting hundreds of rounds into the jet until it explodes. A seat ejects just moments before the jet explodes. Ernest hits the water next to the submarine just as the airplane explodes. Victor is 100 feet above the submarine. The Gatling gun is adjusting its aim to target the ejection seat. Quickly Victor cuts his parachute, freefalling the last 100 ft. Victor hits the water hard, but quickly bobs up to the surface and swims hard to the submarine, climbing onto the deck.

Ernest has already dived down, going for the hatch on the starboard side. The Gatling gun is blasting away, riddling the air with bullets. Some hit the ejection seat and its parachute. Victor hopes that it does not penetrate the seat and hit John. The gun is fed by a belt coming from a box under the gun, and Victor quickly takes his knife and rams it into the belt six inches before it is fed into the gun. The six inches are eagerly taken up into the gun, until the knife gets jammed against the belt uptake, disabling the gun. Victor then runs across the deck, aiming for the port side rescue hatch. He quickly reaches the back of the submarine and makes ready to jump. Just then a large rogue wave rolls over the submarine, washing him overboard on the starboard side, close to the propellers.

Victor briefly sees Ernest swim to the hatch in the submarine’s starboard side as Victor swims around the propellers to the other hatch in the port side.

Maybe Ernest will be okay. Following the hull, Victor easily locates the hatch and fits the end of the handle into a round slot. He has to use all his power to crank the handle, but slowly it turns, four turns later and suddenly the handle stops. Victor tries to open the hatch, but cannot. The hatch is held closed by the pressure of the water and Victor strains against the handle, pulling on the door. With effort, the hatch springs open an inch, and air rushes out as water fills the chamber.