Act of Defiance by Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson

Author:Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson [Andrews, Brian & Wilson, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

32

The Belgorod (K-329)

Transiting southwest between Iceland and Greenland

Denmark Strait

1322 local time

A knock on his stateroom door caused Konstantin to look up from his desk.

“Come,” he said, hoping the knock would be the messenger returning with his tea service.

It was not.

“Captain, we just received a confidential sitrep that impacts our tasking,” his communications officer, Captain Lieutenant Blok, said, standing in the doorway.

Konstantin looked at the monitor mounted on the wall beside his rack, which live-streamed the view from the periscope’s camera. A steel-blue roller washed over the lens momentarily, then cleared.

“Why are we still at PD? I told the conning officer to quickly get the broadcast and go deep.”

“We’re downloading a data package. It appears to be quite large and related to this message,” Blok said and waved the brown folder in his hand for emphasis.

“Come in and shut the door.”

Blok did as instructed, then handed Konstantin the decrypted message from the folder.

“Who else has read this?” he asked after he’d finished reading it.

“Only you and me, sir.”

“Are you positive the radioman who downloaded the traffic and printed the message did not review this?”

“It is my policy that I am present in the radio room for all excursions to the surface. I alone handle the confidential traffic.”

“Good,” Konstantin said. “Find Stepanov and tell him to report to my stateroom.”

“Aye, Captain,” Blok said.

“And Lieutenant . . .”

“Sir?”

“Do not discuss this with the other officers.”

“Never, sir,” Blok said with a stoic nod and shut the door.

Konstantin reread the message, then took a long, deep breath to calm his mind and look for an opportunity in this wrinkle. According to the sitrep, the Finitor had been seized by the American Navy while conducting high-resolution bottom mapping of the mid-Atlantic DASH network’s primary data node. This latest development did not bode well for the Belgorod and his plans.

When his first officer, Captain Second Rank Yuri Stepanov, arrived moments later, he handed the man the printout.

“What is this?” Stepanov said.

“Just read it.”

The first officer did, and when he was finished, he looked up and met Konstantin’s eyes. “This came in on the most recent broadcast, I assume?”

Konstantin nodded.

“Can we trust this information?”

“I don’t see any embedded code words that would lead me to believe otherwise. Do you?”

“No, sir. It looks authentic,” Stepanov said. “If the Americans truly boarded the Finitor, we must assume it was a military operation and the intervention was intended to prevent the Finitor from completing its mission.”

“Northern Command is transmitting a large data package as we speak. They would not do this unless the Finitor was able to obtain the critical data we need to complete our tasking. The Americans certainly did their best to intercede, but it appears they intervened too late,” Konstantin said.

“Sir, even if the Finitor completed the bottom mapping, the gambit is up. We have to assume the Americans know our plans to sabotage the node.”

“Not necessarily, Yuri,” Konstantin said with a smile. “All they know is that the Finitor was mapping the seafloor bottom.”

Stepanov looked at him with open-mouthed incredulity.

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