Operation Wolfe Cub: A Chilling Historical Thriller (THE TIME TO TELL Book 1) (14 page)

Hoooowwwl-screeeeeeeech! Groooaaaan! Eeeeeeeek-eeeek-eeek-eek!

Instantly, US-2 looked up and stared into nothing but blackness. “Your spotlight…is it working?”

“I don’t know.”

“Check it and shine it straight up, will you?”

US-1 dashed for the control handle then cranked it straight up and turned it on. “
Awh
! It’s right there! Hit the deck!”

“
Oh
shit, I can’t look! It’s gonna smash us!”

Uncontrollably, they jumped out of their chairs as if convulsions were to blame.

Blocking their entire view directly above was a rotting mass of monster steel, encrusted with sea urchins and skeletons of barnacles as jagged as an upside-down reef.

US-1 dared to look again. “God…a massive keel of a ship. It’s right on top of us—without touching.”

More monstrosities of massive steel revealed themselves as they gained the nerve to look in front of their bow. Two behemoth propellers, looking more like massive iron windmills, stood still, right out in front of them. They were barely visible, yet ready to turn themselves back on at any second.

US-1 quietly gulped with nothing to swallow except for a dry drink of fear. He tethered his tongue around his dry mouth, feeling the need to softly speak, “Look at…look at that. What are those?”

US-2 looked across the span beyond their ship. “Too dark to tell…they look like propellers—except the size…the size of our ship.”

US-1 kept scanning with his spotlight. “That’s what they are…if they turn, we’ll be ripped to shreds…it’s got to be the cruiser…the one that downed us.”

US-2 threw his cigarette down and lit another. “Must have been the
woof woof
sound we heard.”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care…thank God they shut them down.”

US-2 chuckled, “Son of a...could’ve been fish bait.”

“
Shhhhh
, keep your voice down, damn it…they came to look for us…maybe finish the job…she’s surveying, I bet—reading for signals…maybe they think we’re a sub. Yes—they think we’re a U-boat.”

US-2 flicked his cigarette ashes. “I don’t know about you, but we need to get out of here before they fire those two twin choppers up…put it on stealth propulsion so we can stealth our way out of here.”

“No! They’ll litter the sea with depth charges the second we give ourselves away. Any sign of us fifty meters out, and they’ll blow up everything in sight.”

US-2 paused. “
Ah
yes. They think we’re dead right now. They’ve got nothing on sonar…directly underneath them is the safest place to be…it’s cat-and-mouse for now.”

Five minutes passed before US-2 muttered, “He’s a seasoned captain. I’ll give him that.”

“He must be…they’re waiting for the slightest movement…he still might blow the ocean to smithereens for an exercise…Doc never did tell you about shock waves from depth charges, did he?”

“No way. I would’ve remembered…from the looks of this glass bubble thing we’re in, I’d say he didn’t want us to know. You think?”

“Yes. Afraid so—and then some. Ever see what underwater bombs can do?”

“That was your specialty…I was primarily special operations in everything else. So what do they do?”

US-1 huffed, “I’ll save your stomach…well maybe you should know. First you bleed out your eyes and ears, provided this glass holds up, which I doubt it would. If it doesn’t, our eyes—wait—maybe our skulls will implode—”

“Shut up—I got the picture. We survived the torpedo blast, didn’t we? We can survive depth chargers if we have to.”

Nearly five more minutes went by before US-2 relaxed a little more. After he realized his cigarette had gone out, he reached in his pocket and flipped open his lighter, sparking a dim light in front of his face. As he looked deep into the flame, his eyes slowly grew overwhelmingly clever. “You should’ve taken my advice…we could have strolled a hundred meters out without detection…our equipment worked against that pack of subs, didn’t it? They didn’t see a thing.”

He finished lighting his cigarette and continued after blowing a smoke ring. “All we have to do is surface—me on
the Strong Ray. I’d put the sons-a-bitches on the bottom of the ocean before they could blink an eye.”

US-1 glared. “
Huh
? That’s what their captain wants…he somehow knows we might still be alive…he’s got hundreds of men on post—looking in all directions, I figure…all of them have their fingers on triggers, just itching to fire on someone like you.”

US-2 twisted his cigarette between his fingers, looking amused. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Sure sounds good though, doesn’t it? After what they did to Doc, I’d like to deliver a big fat paycheck back in their face…speaking about Doc, what are we going to do now that he’s gone?” US-1 didn’t answer immediately, so US-2 looked around the cockpit. Down below him, he saw Doc’s binder, so he picked it up and curiously thumbed through it. “Well? What do we do? Let me see here—hmmm.”

“Complete our mission, that’s what.”

US-2 snapped the binder back up. “Did he ever tell you how the baby was going to end all the fighting in our big, bad world?”

US-1 smirked, “No…I suppose we’ll never know now that he’s gone…let me see that binder….thank you…hey, look… Doc’s got everything in here…he even knew about the ship above us, it looks like.”

“What did he say about it?”

“Says here it’s Royal Navy, all right…an HMS Cruiser
²⁷
… she’s supposed to be escorting a convoy of merchant supply ships across the Atlantic. They’ve been having trouble with U-boats attacking them, according to this. I told you that’s what they think we are.
Hmmm
, she’s not supposed to be in this area, though. Doc’s got their route way north of us.”

US-2 stroked his two-day-old beard. “Maybe they know about our mission?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’re so secret our own German ships know nothing about us.”

US-2 quickly put his cigarette out, then glared. “What’s the bastard doing clear down here then? The ship was alone. I saw it with my own binoculars.”

US-1 shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know. Maybe they sent them down on a reconnaissance mission—maybe seek and destroy potential, U-boats flanking from the south. That would put her right here, I suppose.”

“How big do you think she is?”

US-2 kept thumbing through the pages. “Don’t know… Doc didn’t specify in his notes. As long as ten of our ships combined would be a good assumption.”

“That’s about right…all I could see through the binoculars were those massive guns.”

US-2 relaxed up against the back of his chair before he let his mind drift. “What do you know about the baby?”

US-1 took a cockeyed double take before answering, “Baby? I know about as much as you. What do you mean?”

“Why is it
this
baby and not another? I mean, this whole thing sounds crazy to me.”

US-1 paused to study the curves in his comrade’s face. “I don’t want to get involved with you on this. Remember our training. Everyone…hell, the world depends on us. Look at this ship we’re in, for Christ sake. Have some faith.”

US-2 leaned over, rubbing a stiff part of his neck. “Yeah, I guess. We even have countermeasures—against ourselves. Did you get the same training as me?”

US-1 shook his head with dismay. “Don’t bring it up…of course I did.”

“So,
uh
—”

“Look, Blondie, we can’t turn back now. We
have
to continue.”

“Oh? Why’s that? Please enlighten me…tell me about that.”

US-1 pulled out one of Doc’s maps. “We’re in the middle of the Atlantic…more petrol’s ahead, not behind us…. besides, we’re free in America. That was the deal, or have you forgotten? By the way, I’m taking over the baby now, not you.”

“Sure thing, Midshipman. You get the baby. What I was saying is this all sounds too good to be true. I mean, how can a baby make world peace—then keep it that way? Doesn’t it sound a little funny to you? Sounds like Jesus or Mohammad or something. I mean the kid’s no prophet; I can guarantee that.”

US-1 quickly folded his map and shoved it aside. “Look, I don’t know how he can do it or how you wish to think about it. We just have to stick to our mission. That’s all I know… that’s what we have sworn with our lives to do…it’s life or death. Not that you
care
, it sounds like. Besides, Doc made me promise again before he died. He believes, or believed, in what he was doing. I could tell.”

“Oh? So what?”

“Listen…get whatever it is out of your mind. We’d
die
if we turned back now. What are you thinking? Listen to me.”

Silence crept in between their differences as US-2 chewed on his cheek. “Not thinking nothing. Slow down…what did they see in you, anyway?”

“What do you mean by that?”

US-2 nonchalantly played with his lighter, looking like he wasn’t very convinced. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll see it later…I just don’t see it in you yet.”

US-1 leaned over in his face. “Okay, big shot. Tell me what it is they saw in you?”

“That’s easy…I know that I’m right in whatever I do. It’s not my problem everyone else is wrong.”

US-1 fell back in his chair laughing, “Oh, great. Better think again on that one. I’m sure that answer never got you anywhere.”

US-2 then blew another smoke ring straight up. “You asked. I’ll keep it to myself next time and let my anger brew
like a pressure cooker. That’ll give you something else to deal with—besides getting us killed.”

“
Ah
shit, take some time off with your wise cracks. It’s just the two of us now, so why be bothered?”

“What? You want me to thank you later for getting us out of here? A big thanks in heaven maybe—or hell.”

In the midst of silence for almost a minute, US-2 turned on a dime to humble himself. Earnestly he threw out his long-held breath. “Okay, I give up…I don’t know what they saw in me…there, are you happy?”

Then, without hesitation, he reached for his pack of cigarettes and poked one in his mouth without lighting it. After he chewed on it for a while, he kept to himself, letting his built-up anger do his talking.

US-1 said, as he looked the other way, “Go ahead…add me to your list of petty problems you already have. That’s all we need right now.”

US-2 blurted, “I know why they chose you…because you’re so damn loyal. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re married—even though you’re not supposed to be.”

The baby below began to whimper. They looked at each other as if they’d forgotten about him.

US-1 dropped his hands down both sides of his chair, looking tired and fed up. “I checked the kid while you were hanging around in your seat unconscious. It’s your turn, if you don’t mind.”

US-2 groaned as he lazily got up to go down below, but before he ducked out of sight, he threw his cigarette aside, letting it burn on deck. “This is going to be a bitch without Doc…you know that, don’t you?”

US-1 waved him off. “Oh, change him too, will you? Don’t throw anything around. Be quiet about it. We don’t want any chance of our enemy picking up your angry noises.”

US-2 spoke up from below, “Anything else? I mean, I guess you’re the new Kapitan, right?”

“Yes, there is. Bring us up some food. I’m starving, aren’t you?”

About five minutes later, US-2 quietly strolled back up to the cockpit and threw his companion a bag of military rations, narrowly missing his head. “Here you go. I ate mine already. They’re not all that bad.”

“Thanks for handing them to me. Hope I can count on more of your pleasant surprises.”

US-1 was poking and picking through his rations when he stopped to listen. “Hey, did you hear that?”

“Yes, I did…that’s not what I think it is, is it?”

Sure enough, out in front of them, through the murky waters, US-1’s spotlight was the first to catch a glimpse of the grimacing fact. The mega-props from the ship began to move as US-2 shouted, “Drop us now!”

“I’m already on it…buoyancy falling, falling…faaaalling. Come on.
Damn
this thing—it’s too slow.”

“Come on! We haven’t got all day!”

Both of them watched through the ill-fated comfort of just one dim spotlight, the giant swaths of the massive propellers slowly cranking up. More agonizing yet, their race to descend the vessel may as well have been placed in underwater space, as slow as it was. But when the US
Wehrwolf
decided to descend, she did. She did, barely in the nick of time, through a massive wake of turbulence that rocked their ship until the mighty battle cruiser chopped the waters over the top of them, leaving nothing but massive swaths of a narrow miss. As they watched the blades fade away into the sea, their long-held breaths spewed with relief.

“
Whew
, that was close, eh, Blondie? We’re settled down now at thirteen fathoms. What are your readings? We healthy?”

“All resets on par… reading temperature…salinity stable…thermohaline effect still stable…she’s all working over here. How about you?”

“Like a dream…we’re just a little scuffed up, it looks like. All’s well.”

US-2 hit the lights. “Hopefully, there are no more surprises. Don’t think I can live this way all the time…you?”

“Hell no…let’s get our heads into this….so it looks like we’re behind schedule for our next petrol drop.”

“No hurry. If our engines still function, I can run over a hundred knots until we run out of gas. Then we can coast the rest of the way on stealth.”

“Come again?”

“Yeah, like Doc says, we have free energy up to twenty knots…we can go the rest of the way to the United States if we have to.”

US-1 paused as if he didn’t quite hear right. “That’s fine, but it would take us eight or nine more days at twenty knots. We don’t have enough water or rations for us and the baby on that kind of watch. Best stick to the next petrol pod.”

“So how long to get there, you figure?”

“Let me see now…about twenty-nine hours by my calculations, with our delay included.”

“Not a problem. I can do it. We’re only behind schedule by a couple hours.”

US-1 hesitated. “That’s a problem. It’s Doc’s security measure he never told you about.”