The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy [214]
"Can you localize with one ping?"
The sonar chief considered this for a second. "Not enough for a shooting solution, but it'll give us something."
"One ping, do it."
"Aye." Laval worked on his board briefly, triggering the active elements.
The V. K. Konovalov
Tupolev winced. He had acted too soon. He should have waited until they were past—but then if he had waited that long, he would have had to move, and now he had all three of them hovering nearby, almost still.
The four submarines were moving only fast enough for depth control. The Russian Alfa was pointed southeast, and all four were arrayed in a roughly trapezoidal fashion, open end seaward. The Pogy and the Dallas were to the north of the Konovalov, the Red October was southeast of her.
The Red October
"Somebody just pinged her," Jones said quietly. "Bearing is roughly northwest, but she isn't making enough noise for us to read her. Sir, if I had to make a bet, I'd say she was pretty close."
"How do you know that?" Mancuso asked.
"I heard the pulse direct—just one ping to get a range, I think. It was from a BQQ-5. Then we heard the echo off the target. The math works out a couple of different ways, but smart money is he's between us and our guys, and a little west. I know it's shaky, sir, but it's the best we got."
"Range ten kilometers, perhaps less," Bugayev commented.
"That's kinda shaky, too, but it's as good a starting place as any. Not a whole lot of data. Sorry, Skipper. Best we can do," Jones said.
Mancuso nodded and returned to control.
"What gives?" Ryan asked. The plane controls were pushed all the way forward to maintain depth. He had not grasped the significance of what was going on.
"There's a hostile submarine out there."
"What information do we have?" Ramius asked.
"Not much. There's a contact northwest, range unknown, but probably not very far. I know for sure it's not one of ours. Norfolk said this area was cleared. That leaves one possibility. We drift?"
"We drift," Ramius echoed, lifting the phone. He spoke a few orders.
The October's engines were providing the power to move the submarine at a fraction over two knots, barely enough to maintain steerage way and not enough to maintain depth. With her slight positive buoyancy, the October was drifting upward a few feet per minute despite the plane setting.
The Dallas
"Let's move back south. I don't like the idea of having that Alfa closer to our friend than we are. Come right to one-eight-five, two-thirds," Chambers said finally.
"Aye aye," Goodman said. "Helm, right fifteen degrees rudder, come to new course one-eight-five. All ahead two thirds."
"Right fifteen degrees rudder, aye." The helmsman turned the wheel. "Sir, my rudder is right fifteen degrees, coming to new course one-eight-five."
The Dallas' four torpedo tubes were loaded with three Mark 48s and a decoy, an expensive MOSS (mobile submarine simulator). One of her torpedoes was targeted on the Alfa, but the firing solution was vague. The "fish" would have to do some of the tracking by itself. The Pogy's two torpedoes were almost perfectly dialed in.
The problem was that neither boat had authority to shoot. Both attack submarines were operating under the normal rules of engagement. They could fire in self-defense only and defend the Red October only by bluff and guile. The question was whether the Alfa knew what the Red October was.
The V. K. Konovalov
"Steer for the Ohio," Tupolev ordered. "Bring speed to three knots. We must be patient, comrades. Now that the Americans know where we are they will not ping us again. We will move from our place quietly."
The Konovalov's bronze propeller turned more