SSN - Tom Clancy [64]
"Captain," the combat systems officer said, "the BSY-1 computer shows the convoy is turning to the north as well. Ranges to the contacts indicate the escorts are settling in behind the limping convoy."
Cheers swept through Cheyenne as crew members congratulated one another. They had done it! The convoy was turning and heading for home.
But when the executive officer suggested standing down from battle stations, Mack shook his head. They would remain at their stations while Cheyenne was repositioning to finish that tanker. Mack thought that it might try to get back under way and slip into the Spratlys during the night, if it had not spilled all its tanks' contents.
As Cheyenne closed on the wounded tanker, Master 60, Mack's hunch proved correct. The ship was back under way and headed for the Spratly Islands. An Mk 48 from tube one finished the job, however, and soon Cheyenne was headed back towards McKee. It was time to rearm and resupply, and to take a deep breath before it all over again.
* * *
8. Patrol
It was still dark when Cheyenne completed reloading her torpedo tubes and vertical launchers from McKee. The submarine tender was still anchored off the coast of Brunei under the protection of the Independence carrier air cover.
As in their previous refit, on the final day Captain Mackey, his combat systems and operations officers, navigator and communicator, and sonar officer, proceeded to McKee's war room for their pre-underway briefing, but this time the other officers from Cheyenne also would attend the meeting.
Now that Cheyenne and McKee had established a smooth mini-refit routine. Mack wanted all his officers present. Besides, CTF 74 had requested the remaining officers' presence at this briefing. Partly because of that, Mack expected this upcoming Patrol 3 to be of more significance, if that were possible, than the previous two.
Mack and his group rendezvoused with the executive officer, engineer officer, and the remaining junior officers outside the war room. He knew the younger officers were all excited and beaming with curiosity, but he also knew he could count on them to maintain a professional decorum during the briefing itself. Nodding at them, he led the way into the war room.
CTF 74, the briefing officer, and McKee's captain were already seated. When Mack and his group entered, and after they had all exchanged the normal greetings and taken their seats, the briefing began.
Normally, these brielings were a mix of old information and new orders, but this time there was an added element; intel that could not be passed to Cheyenne via flash traffic. This intel-and this briefing-was based on information that involved the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Operatives in Vladivostok and Beijing had determined that the commander-in-chief of the Chinese navy was personally concerned about losses inflicted by Cheyenne on his forces. But that wasn't the only tidbit the Agency had turned up. They had also learned that, somehow, the Chinese had determined that Cheyenne was the sole SSN responsible. Their best guess was that the Chinese had probably gotten this information through the loose lips of other SSN sailors in port at Yokosuka, but NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) was still working on that.
That changed the situation for Cheyenne, but it didn't change her orders. Cheyenne had another war patrol to undertake before any other U.S. SSNs would be assigned to the same arena as Cheyenne.
Mack didn't react to the news, but it didn't really bother him. On the one hand, he was just as happy not to have other U.S. SSNs in the area. It certainly made things simpler, without the need for measures to prevent mutual interference with his fellow commanding officers. Besides, the Chinese had already been gunning for Cheyenne. The only thing that had really changed was that until now the Chinese had believed that there were three SSNs operating nearby.