Kirov Saga: Armageddon (Kirov Series) (38 page)

It was this massed fire that Tovey had seen around the ship, and a
typical reaction from the Captain, particularly when he was heavily stressed.
He applied maximum force, thought Rodenko, the precise weapon required to do
the job, an instinct to bludgeon the face of any unseen enemy. He knew what was
coming next.

“Captain you
must
comply with the Admiral’s order or I am
forced to take command!”

Rodenko took three steps forward as he spoke and then stopped
short, amazed at what he now saw. Karpov was holding a service revolver!

“
You stupid bastard!” said Karpov. “You? Relieve me? Don’t be a
fool. You would not last ten minutes at the helm in this situation.”

“Captain!” Rodenko persisted in spite of the obvious threat.
“Listen to reason! You cannot do this!”

 “I can and I will. Now get below or I will put a bullet into you
for insubordination. Radar! Feed bearing and range on that missile fire to the
CIC at once.” Karpov’s eyes were fixed on Rodenko’s, watching every move he
made. “Samsonov! Ready on the
Vodopad
system and prepare to fire.”

Now I am the enemy, thought Rodenko, and Karpov has a pistol
pointed right at my gut. Would he hesitate to use it if I press him further? He
had his answer in short order.

“Get off the bridge, Rodenko! I can’t
think
with you
standing there staring at me like the stupid fool that you are. Get below or I
swear I will kill you where you stand.” The Captain extended the pistol with an
unsteady hand and Rodenko held up his palm, warding off the weapon.

“As you wish, sir. Stand easy.” He started for the citadel hatch.

“And don’t get any stupid ideas about returning with Marines! I’m
going to lock this bridge down tight as a fortress until this is over, and then
I will come see about you and anyone else involved in this goddamned mutinous
behavior. You are relieved!”

Rodenko thought how ironic that remark was, for it was in this
very place that Karpov tried to seize control of the ship after locking the
Admiral away in the Sick Bay. There were a hundred things he could have said at
that moment, but he did not get the chance. Another voice spoke from the shadow
of the open citadel hatch.

“No Captain,
you
are relieved.”

Every head turned, including Rodenko, for they all knew the voice
that had spoken those words. It was Doctor Zolkin.

“Not now, Doctor. The last thing I need is your nonsense or another
lecture. The ship is in danger! We have just struck a mine and there may be
more out there.”

“Yes, it certainly is in danger, and from a Captain who has lost
every vestige of self-control and all power of reason! I saw that missile coming
at us off the port bow and knew it could only have been fired by one of our own
ships. Then Mister Nikolin was kind enough to inform me as to what was
happening up here.”

“Nikolin? That little shit was confined to quarters!”

“Yes? Well he came to see me first, and with a recording of
everything Admiral Volsky said to you when he contacted the ship earlier.” The
Doctor held up Nikolin’s memory key, and Karpov’s pallor reddened with anger.

“You have been given a direct order to break off this engagement
and return to Vladivostok,” Zolkin said quickly. “That order cascades from you
to Rodenko, to Samsonov, to Tasarov, and then to Nikolin himself if not obeyed.
Yes, don’t look so surprised, Mister Samsonov, and don’t sit there like a
wind-up toy or a puppet dangling from the Captain’s strings. You are next in
line if the Captain sends Rodenko off in Nikolin’s footsteps. The Admiral’s
order falls on you.”

Karpov gave him an evil grin. “Don’t listen to a word of this,
Samsonov. He’s making it all up! Mind your station. We have a battle to fight
here.”

“Of course, don’t listen,” said Zolkin. “Don’t think, just react,
and the next thing you know the Captain here will be ordering up another
nuclear tipped missile to get himself out of the stew. Well, don’t worry
gentlemen. If Samsonov is not man enough to stand up here then I think I will
spare the rest of you the trouble. The Admiral clearly stated that command of
the ship would fall to
me
should his order be disobeyed. I have observed
you for some time, Captain, and here you are holding a service pistol on Mister
Rodenko, obviously quite disturbed. I hereby deem you unfit for duty and
relieve you of command on medical grounds and for your obstinate failure to
comply with the Admiral’s direct order. Now, put that weapon down and stand
aside. I did not come alone. Those Marines you were worried about are right
behind me.”

Karpov’s eyes widened when he heard the echo of heavy footfalls on
the ladder leading up to the landing in the hatchway behind Rodenko. He did not
think. There was no plan, no carefully thought out strategy. It was nothing more
than the mindless reflex of fight or flight, a broken horn, burning acid, and a
spark of hideous ignition. There was just one more enemy before him, and he had
a weapon to deal with him in hand. In a moment of sheer rage he cursed at the Doctor
and fired.

Chapter 32

Kazan
crept forward after its breakneck high speed
run to the south, converging on the heading being taken by a noisome line of
contacts arriving on the scene from the northeast. They did not know it at the
time, but these were the venerable battleships of Teddy Roosevelt’s fleet, sent
hurriedly west in a massive show of force. Their commanders had been monitoring
the telegraph wireless traffic and they knew there was a battle ahead. So as
the Great White Fleet hastened forward, the crews were rigging out the guns and
prepping for action, thinking there might be a major battle underway between
the Russians and Japanese.

Kazan
was moving like a grey shadow in the sea, silent and swift at a depth
of just under 50 meters in these shallow waters. Gromyko was counting on the
noise coming from that surface fleet to drown out any whisper of sound his
stealthy boat might be making at this high speed, but soon he outpaced the
ships above and was well out in front. He had surged south at over 40 knots, a
speed
Kazan
was capable of, yet one never published on any spec sheet.
In thirty minutes he had closed rapidly on the southern tip of Iki Island.

Now the depth was very shallow, and he had to slow to 10 knots and
alter depth to navigate around shoals in the Kanasiro Channel. There were
numerous rocky outcrops and shallows but the channel soon deepened out to 50
meters again once he had slipped through, elated to think he had made the run
south undetected.

Yet that was not the case. While the situation on the bridge of
Kirov
and the sudden collision with that horned mine had made it all but impossible
for Tasarov to hear the sub, the KA-40 was still up on the ASW watch where he
had posted it, and Karpov had instinctively fingered the exact spot where
Kazan
was approaching, tasking the helo to watch that channel when he had last
visited Tasarov’s station. Just after they reduced speed to a gliding 10 knots,
sonar man Chernov thought he heard some odd transients in the sound field.

The rumbling approach of the surface fleet was behind them now,
and he had been able to filter out much of that noise, concentrating on the
forward arc and the subtle sounds he was hearing there.

“Con. Sonar,” he reported. “I think I’m hearing sonobuoy drops off
our port bow, and something more in the water.”

“Torpedo?” Gromyko fingered the worst possible option.

“No sir, it sounds like…mines! I think there’s a minefield ahead.”
He could hear the heavy sea kettles sloshing about on the surface, lightly
moored to the shallower waters ahead by thin tethers tied to anchors. They
jostled in the rising swell, their reins rattling against the underside of the
sphere of the mine.

“All stop,” said Gromyko.

“All stop, sir aye.”

“Make your depth forty meters.” Gromyko was leaning heavily over
the horizontal navigation screen, noting the depth indicators for the waters
ahead. He did not have much sea room here for depth or maneuvering.

Admiral Volsky gave him a worried look. “What now, Gromyko?”

“Your Mister Karpov is more clever than I thought,” said Gromyko.
“It seems he’s deployed a defensive minefield ahead of us, and we’ve come upon
it like a spider’s web. If these are moored mines we could easily snag a cable.
Kirov
is out their waiting for us and those helicopters you mentioned
are going to beat the sea with sonar pings any moment and flush us out.”

“Do you think they have located us yet?”

“Perhaps not, but this was a perfect place to post a KA-40. I was
afraid this might happen.”

“I doubt that Karpov deployed those mines,” said Fedorov. “They
are probably Japanese mines, meant to restrict this channel south of Iki Island
and protect the bay.” He was pointing to the digital map on the screen now.
That’s what Karpov is really up to. He wants to get the ship into that little
bay where he’ll be covered on three sides by land. He’ll sit there like a Moray
Eel in his rock cave and devour anything that approaches him. Meanwhile he’ll
use the helicopters to find us.”

“How deep is it in there?”

“29 meters average depth.”

“That a fairly shallow tub. We’ll barely have water over the sail
if we try to enter. Our sensor masts will start to break water at 18 meters.”

“It’s deeper here,” Fedorov pointed to the navigation chart.
“There is 49 to 51 meter depth off this cape on our approach vector. It could
possibly put us within the shift radius as he makes his approach here.”

“And what if they get up into that bay?” Gromyko scratched his
head. “You can time this shift perfectly?”

“They’ll have to come from this direction,” said Fedorov. “They’ll
swing around those islets and then approach from the south. If we can get here
and hover, they’ll come right to us. Dobrynin is already working on the
reactors. The procedure is already underway.”

“Yes? Well this is a very big risk we’re taking here. We could be discovered
at any time, and your shift may not happen in a timely manner. If we suddenly
vanish into the ether what then? On top of that, now we have mines to worry
about.” He folded his arms, clearly unhappy.

“The mines will be riding the surface. Unless we snag a tether we
should be fine.”

“This is a big boat, Mister Fedorov. We could snag two or three if
they are closely spaced, and we cannot detect their positions accurately
without going to active sonar. One ping, however, and
Kirov
will know
exactly where we are and spear us with a
Shkval
.”

They heard a distant roll of thunder, clearly large explosions,
and Gromyko raised his eyes to the ceiling. “That’s some battle underway up
there.”

“Sir,” said Chernov, “Those were RBU-1000 rockets! I recognize
that sound anywhere. It has a very distinctive signature on my screen.”

“So he’s after us already? He may have a possible read on us.”

“No,” said Fedorov. “They must have detected the mines! Karpov
used that same tactic to clear minefields when we were in narrow channels in
the Med. If they heard us they would have fired much closer to our present
position.”

Gromyko nodded, realizing that was probably true. “Then perhaps he
will be doing us a favor…unless he turns those 300mm rockets on
us
any
time soon. Admiral…” Gromyko looked over his shoulder for Volsky. “I can put
four torpedoes in the water in a heartbeat. At this range we would be certain
to sink that ship. They would have no chance. We could then ease off and send
in a
Veter
torpedo with a 20 kiloton warhead to finish the job.” He
waited, the seconds drawn out as Volsky considered all that had been said
between the two men.

Gromyko was correct. Their situation was precarious here, and
unless the shift was timed before
Kirov
slipped into that bay they would
disappear and lose any chance of further intervention here. It was a desperate
plan, a crazy plan, but he realized his alternatives were even worse. He would
have to fire now, sink the ship, and put every man aboard in the water. Then he
would have to slink away and send in a nuclear tipped missile before the ships
and men of this era got too close, and what a sight that would be for all of
them as they watched an atomic explosion erupt from the sea before them. It was
insane. It was all utter madness.

He leaned in, his face grave. “Yes, we could sink
Kirov
here and now, but it won’t go far, will it? Twenty nine meters? The Fregat
radar would still be poking out of the water! We would have to drop a nice fat
nuclear warhead here as you say to obliterate the wreckage, and there is
probably quite an audience out there. I think we have no option but to hope we
can pull Fedorov’s plan off.”

“Very well, Admiral. We’re gliding now, about as quiet as a
passing fish. I’m going to hover in about five minutes and let them come to us.
I think we will end up somewhere here…” He pointed at the map to a position
just south of the bay, the very same waters Karpov hoped to occupy to hide from
the submarine.
Kazan
had beaten the battlecruiser to the scene, but was still
in grave peril. “We’re already inside
Shkval
range,” he added quietly, “and
just seconds away from destruction if they detect us.”