Sins of the Fatherland (Scott Jarvis Investigations Book 6) by Scott Cook

Author:Scott Cook [Cook, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scott W Cook
Published: 2020-04-04T22:00:00+00:00

“Got him sir!” Dutch shouted and dropped down from the conning tower, “The bastard tried to hide on the bottom. We damned near lost him, too. Then we just picked up a hot transient in the water! He’s about two hundred yards astern.”

“Okay,” Williams replied, “He’s on the bottom then. Probably got shoved by a current or something. Set depth for the fish in tube ten for one hundred and eighty feet. Set tube nine to neutral depth, zero gyro. I want that one to go straight aft. Phone talker, tell after torpedo to start loading both tubes. Activate the two minute pencil fuse on the fish for tube nine, slap that cone on and get that fish loaded, flooded and launched, ASAP!”

“Aye, aye, sir,” the control room phone talker said excitedly and then passed on the message.

“Should we fire?” Dutch asked.

“Not yet,” Williams said, “I want him to shoot. I want to make sure we get him, XO.”

There were a couple of tense minutes and then the sonarman shouted, “Hot noise in the water! Torpedoes in the water!”

“Helm, increase speed to ten knots!” Williams said excitedly.

“Maneuvering answers ten knots!” Post said excitedly.

“Phone talker,” Williams said with far more calm than he felt, “Send the word to after torpedo. Tube nine is a go.”

“Tube nine fired electrically!” Dutch reported from the fire control board.

Williams counted to six, “Fire ten!”

The ship shuddered as the last after fish was expelled from the ship with a fist of compressed air. If he’d guessed right, their defensive shot would explode, taking out or disabling the two incoming fish. Then the last torpedo would go right for where the German had bottomed out.

“Tube ten fired electrically!” Dutch almost shouted so keyed up had he become, “Both fish running hot, straight and normal!”

The seconds seemed to tick by with agonizing slowness. Now that combat had finally come after so much waiting, things couldn’t happen fast enough. Dutch began counting down the range to the German torpedoes as Cob ran into the control room, his face slick with sweat.

“It’s on, Chief,” Williams said, “Let’s hope that the work you, your team and Nichols did pays off.”

“Well, if it don’t,” Sparky said with a death’s head grin, “We ain’t gonna be around long to bitch about it, sir.”

“Are we gonna make it, Dutch?” Williams asked.

“I think so, skipper,” Dutch said, “Our fish should have about twenty seconds left and those jerry torpedoes are about two hundred yards off!”

“Sound collision!” Williams exclaimed.

The collision horn blared in three pairs of two short blasts. Everyone grabbed onto something.

The explosion came and it seemed like the world was ending. The ship was slammed forward and down by a concussion wave carried through seawater. Lights rattled in their housings, several of which burst and anything slung from the overhead looked like it might come raining down on the crew.

“Full rise on the planes!” Williams shouted, “Standby on the chicken switches, Cob!”

“Depth one four zero…” Jacobs and Post hollered simultaneously as the helmsman fought to keep the bucking and yawing ship on a steady course.

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