Men of War (2013) (22 page)

Unaccountable
losses? That was all that was to be said about this after eighty long years?
Then the mystery deepened when Admiral Yamamoto split his heavy covering force
for the counter invasion of Guadalcanal and sailed west into the Coral
Sea…aboard the battleship
Yamato
. That was most unusual. The
Yamato
was the symbol of Japan’s prestige and power at sea, named for the ancient
homeland itself. What could have possessed Yamamoto to commit it to action like
that? And more—what sent it back to Kure harbor a broken and damaged ship? That
had been kept very secret by the Japanese. In fact, it was never known that
Yamato
had been engaged and sustained heavy damage until well after the war.

Something
mean and powerful had sailed those waters. Something capable of defending
itself from an entire carrier air wing and then bludgeoning the most powerful
battleship the world had ever seen. Even now the details of that battle were
very shady. It still remained a mystery. The initial accounts were that
Yamato
struck a mine off Milne Bay, and then this was revised a few years later by an
American historian who claimed The USS
Sea Dragon
was returning to
Australia from her third war patrol in the South China Sea and came across the
Yamato
,
promptly putting two torpedoes into the mighty ship.

Kamenski
took both versions of that history with a grain of salt, particularly when he
managed to dig up hidden records of the damage sustained by
Yamato
. One
of the guns on an aft turret had been put out of action and replaced with a
barrel that had been originally machined for the
Shinano
.
She also had extensive fire damage above the water line on her superstructure,
damage that could only have been produced by large caliber weapons. There had
been snippets of reports of naval rockets used in an engagement, which in
themselves were very odd, and then he came across something that stunned him, a
photo of two Japanese engineers holding up a piece of charred metal where an
engraved serial number was quite evident.

Kamenski
kept that number in his head for many, many years, but he could never run it
down until the year 2020. He was more than a curious old man. He had spent
forty years in the service of his government, with posts in the Navy, and in
intelligence as well. He still had access to things a normal person would never
have seen, and he had been going over some weapons production information for
the new navy Moskit-II missiles when he came across the number—the exact same
number he had carried all those years, and it was assigned to a missile that
was mounted on none other than the battlecruiser
Kirov
, the very same
ship he had taken Alexi to gawk at in the harbor that afternoon.

He
knew that this was most likely mere coincidence, but made his phone call just
the same—to his old friend Inspector Gerasim Kapustin, in town that week and
aboard
Kirov
at that very moment. Was missile number 110720-12 still in
inventory he had asked? No it was expended on trials, came the answer, and yes
let us get together Sunday for dinner.

Kamenski
did not know what difference that little tidbit of knowledge would make, but he
knew he had asked the question for some reason, perhaps buried deep within his
unconscious mind where it still sifted and churned through all the data and
photos, and other puzzle pieces he had been playing with over the years. What
could hold off Admiral Hara’s fleet and Yamamoto’s on top of it? He was beginning
to think he knew. His grandson had told him all about it that very same
morning…

Then
there was the cruiser
Tone
, the odd crumpling on her hull after she
returned from that same war patrol. He stared at a faded old photo purporting
to picture a sailor from that ship in the moment just before he committed
seppuku. Oddly, out of a crew of some 800 men, there had been 346 reported
suicides!
Tone
had been called the Ghost Ship ever thereafter, and any
man who ever served aboard her had reported strange visions and restless nights
at sea, fitful sleep and night terrors. Her former Captain, Sanji Iwabuchi, had
also committed seppuku, just as the American army closed in on his final
positions in Manila.

The
cruiser
Haguro
had been reported sunk that same month, in that very same
week, but no reason was given. She was merely listed as “lost to enemy action
off
Mellvile
Island.” It was all very strange but
remained nothing more than an old man’s fancy until that Sunday evening dinner
when he sat down with Gerasim Kapustin.

* * *

“Have
a look at this photo,” said Kamenski showing his friend the book. “Yes I’m an
old fool, but doesn’t that look oddly familiar? If I didn’t know any better I
would say it was a part of a stabilizing fin on one of our Moskit-IIs.”

Kapustin
smiled, looking over the top of his reading glasses to peer at the photo, and
noting the caption. It was dated to 1946. “Yes, it’s is a very strange
coincidence, but I’m glad you are still the same curious old man you always
were, Pavel. When you called to ask about that missile I wondered what you were
up to. Well listen to this, my friend…” He looked around the restaurant, though
the two man had selected a private corner table and had little fear that anyone
might overhear them. “Speaking of serial numbers, another weapon was also fired
during the weapons trials for
Kirov
, or so we just discovered, and its
number ends with the character X.”

Kamenski
raised his heavy brows, for the letter X at the end of the number designated it
as an nuclear weapon, and Kapustin was telling him something very significant
here. “It was fired?” He said, an incredulous look on his face. “Where?”

“I
have not yet been able to determine that.”

“Have
you checked the satellite data?”

“Of
course, but there was nothing there for the Pacific, which is where I am
guessing the weapon would have been fired. I expanded my request to look over
sea lanes in the Atlantic and Arctic as well, but I won’t hear on that for a
day or so.”

“My,
my, this is most unusual. You know, Gerasim, I took my grandson down to the
harbor to have a look at that ship. My God, it looks like it’s been through
hell! That damage aft is very telling. From what I could see the ship was
struck from above and the hull blew out from the inside.”

“They
claim it was a missile misfire.”

“Missile
misfire? Nonsense. The only missiles mounted aft are SAMs, correct? Don’t tell
me any one of them could penetrate the deck and blow a hole that size in the
hull. I saw the new paint job too, but they are covering something up there,
Gerasim. Scrape it away and I think you will find smoke residue, or even flash
damage from explosives.”

“I
thought as much, Pavel, but it leads me to some very uncomfortable conclusions.
I will tell you something more…There was damage you could not see from the
quay—below the water line, right amidships. Yes! I sent my wolf hound Volkov
down to have a look, and we discovered significant hull damage. They used the
new at-sea hull replacement panels to cover it up, and then did a fairly good
repair job from the inside, but the ship will have to go to dry dock
eventually. It’s holed beneath the water line. They claim that was from the
Orel
incident, but honestly, can you imagine that Volsky would have sustained such
damage and then decided to sail from north of Jan Mayen to Vladivostok?”

“Astounding,”
said Kamenski. “More astounding that NATO wasn’t all over the ship like flies
on honey. I still cannot believe that
Kirov
slipped by them like that.
You say the ship was conducting live fire exercises? How could they fail to see
it on satellite? What route did they take?”

“Karpov
says they went north of Greenland. That, too, is interesting. He claims they
found some weak sea ice and a lot of open floes.”

“That
sea lane has been open since 2012,” said Kamenski. “Global warming has made the
trip from much easier these days. It is still much less traveled than other
routes, but I can’t imagine he sailed south round either the Cape of Good Hope
or Cape Horn. Not with a gash in his side as your just described.”

“I
quite agree, and if he did go north then it might have been possible to evade
NATO patrols for a time. They are not as vigilant up there, and I am willing to
bet that most of their assets were sent to snoop on our recovery effort for the
Orel
.”

“Most
likely,” Kamenski agreed. ‘But firing missiles at ice bergs would attract a lot
of attention too, yes? And
Kirov
left in late July. What were they doing
all that time?”

“Volsky
took the ship down into the South Pacific. I think that is probably where they
conducted most of their exercises, away from prying eyes. Only a submarine
might find them there, and it’s a very big ocean.”

“Yes,
but a special warhead? Have you asked the senior officers what happened to the
weapon?”

“Not
yet, but that is coming soon.” Kapustin shrugged. “There is one other
possibility… the explosion that killed the
Orel
was found to be a
nuclear detonation. I made that inspection myself.”

Kamenski
was shocked by the implication. “You think they fired on
Orel?”

“It
crossed my mind, though I have no evidence of this. They claim
Orel
had
an accident, but perhaps it was here—on
Kirov
—and they are trying to
cover it up. We will see what my investigation turns up, but given the situation
in the Pacific, I wonder if I’ll have time to even complete my report before
the whole place blows up.”

“Ah…You
are worried about those island disputes? All they will do is cruise about with
a few destroyers and test fire a missile or a deck cannon. Nothing more will
come of it. They’ve been haggling for those territorial waters ever since the
oil rights were disputed.”

“It’s
not the little islands I’m worried about. It’s the big island.”

“Taiwan?”

“What
else, Pavel? There’s a lot of movement, ships, planes, missiles. I think they
mean to do something about it this time, and soon.”

“You
believe the Chinese will actually attempt military occupation?”

“They’re
loading nine amphibious ships even as we speak, and if I know that, then so do
the Americans.”

“This
sounds serious, Gerasim. What does Moscow think?”

“Moscow?
They can’t even keep track of ship’s rosters these days! No, Moscow is likely
to muddle along until things get out of hand. Oh, I heard they were moving some
strategic bomber assets east at the request of China, and of course,
Kirov
was sent here for a reason, yes? It’s a pity the ship won’t do us much good if
it comes to a fight. We can re-arm her, easily enough, but that hull damage
will take weeks, even months, and those big canvas tarps aft you might have
seen were covering up the rest of the damage. Her entire aft citadel was blown
to pieces. They say one of the KA-40’s was aloft when
Orel
went up and
came right down on the ship there, weapons load and all. I went over the area,
but they cleaned it up very thoroughly. I did find a little wreckage from a
KA-40 there but it looked too staged to my discerning eye. What do I do with
this mess, Pavel? A war is coming, and we will need this ship and crew more
than ever now.”

“What
are
you going to do about it? Are you going to challenge Volsky? You
know how respected that man is. Papa Volsky won’t be moved aside easily.”

Kapustin
sighed. “Exactly. And with this business with the Chinese brewing up I’m having
second thoughts about my whole investigation. Yes, I could go back to Moscow
and raise a big stink. Suchkov would kiss me on my backside. Then when things
blow up out here where will Volsky be? He’ll be in Moscow wrestling with
Suchkov. Abramov’s health is declining and, quite frankly, we need Volsky more
than ever now. He’s called Papa Volsky because the men love him so much, but up
north they called him King of the Northern Sea, and he’s earned that title. So
now what do I do? Should I write up a
shit
list and
send it to Moscow while we watch the Chinese start a major incident? Because
you know damn well we can’t sit this one out. If China attacks the Japanese
again, or moves on Taiwan, then we’re in the
borscht
too. And mark my
words, they are going to do this. I’m almost certain of it this time.”

“Well…”
Kamenski thought for some time. “No one says you have to file your report
tomorrow, Gerasim. Take your time, dicker around, sit down with Volsky and see
what he has to say. If China is about to square off with Taiwan, yes, we’re in
it too. And you know damn well that the Japanese and the Americans and then
everyone else is in it as well. So If I were you, I would have second thoughts
about starting a ruckus with Volsky. It’s bad enough that
Kirov
is
sitting there covered up with tarps, and hull panels, and fresh paint. What
sense would it make to try and put a torpedo into Volsky now? We’ll need him
here. What you say about Abramov is very true. He had a heart attack last
month.”

Kapustin
nodded, leaning over his soup and slurping it heartily. “You know, Pavel. If
they put me on an island and I could only have one thing to eat, it would be
soup. I can’t live without it, and you are correct, the Pacific Fleet can’t
live without Volsky at the moment. Yes, I can take my time. There are still a
lot of unanswered questions about this
Kirov
business. Something tells
me we’re headed for the abyss this time, my friend. In that event, I think the
best we could do is get
Kirov
seaworthy again, any way we can. I think
we are going to need every last ship we have now, even those rusting old
Udaloys
.”