Emergency Deep by Michael DiMercurio

Author:Michael DiMercurio [DiMercurio, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: military fiction, submarine warfare
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2017-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

20

Dillinger glanced back at the ship as the topside watch announced his departure. The ship was tied up inside the high-bay weapons loading facility building at the RCA compound at Andros Island, Bahamas. The weapons building was mostly used to load, reload, or offload submarine test torpedoes—exercise weapons with the warheads removed and instrumentation packages inserted in their stead. A sub called to fire ordnance here would have a dozen of her warshots removed and replaced with exercise shots. After her launching of the exercise weapons in the Tongue of the Ocean test range, she would return here to reclaim the warshots.

Why they were here was as much a mystery as this whole mission. For three days they had driven through the deep Tongue of the Ocean bathtub, going back and forth through the test range’s sonar arrays running various requested configurations of equipment, allowing the passive sonar arrays to record their sound signature and analyze their noise emissions. The day after that, they had hovered at eight hundred feet rigged for ultraquiet while the range’s active sonar hydrophones on the bathtub beeped from various angles and elevations while embarked electronics technicians calibrated and tweaked the BQQ-5E sonar suite. This afternoon he and his XO would receive the results of the sonar tests, then meet with the National Security Council representative.

The first meeting lasted an hour longer than it should have, Dillinger fumed. The technicians handed over the sound emission study, recommending certain pump and equipment configurations for the quietest conditions. The Q-5 was pronounced to be healthy and the sonar gang on board Tucson declared fit for duty. The second meeting would be held in a SCIF, a special compartmented information facility, in the basement of the two-story brick ComSubLant AUTEC building. In the SCIF, Dillinger paced and ran his hand through his hair while he waited for the late NSC rep.

Finally the door opened and a man in a suit walked in. He was slightly shorter than Dillinger, and about twenty years older, with an air of authority to his body language. He had a thick head of long gray hair and an overgrown mustache. His eyes were small and dark, peeking out from under bushy gray eyebrows. Dillinger had the impression the man looked familiar, and then it came to him that he resembled Stalin. He looked at Dillinger with a serious expression and reached out to shake hands, then turned and smiled charmingly at D’Assault.

“I’m Phil Cogsworth,” he said. His identification card, hanging from a lanyard around his neck, showed his picture, the words AUTEC VISITOR, and below that, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. “I work for the Undersecretary of Defense. I’m coordinating Task Group 2.01, so technically once you’re back at sea, you’ll report to me.”

Dillinger glanced at D’Assault, then back at Cogsworth. “If you’re the boss, maybe you can tell us what this crazy rush to sea was all about.”

Cogsworth shrugged. “Right now I can only give you a small piece of the puzzle. Please, have a seat.

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