Red Shark

While Scott waited for Radford’s return, the chopper skirted Tokyo at low altitude, then turned southeast toward Tokyo Bay and Yokosuka. The Seahawk flew darkened inside and out, radar and infrared jammers activated, and Scott imagined the uproar it had to be causing at both civilian and military air-control facilities monitoring Japanese airspace.

“Scott,” said Radford, back on the patch, “I’ve talked to Ellsworth, and he agrees with your assessment. I’ve also talked to the Reno. Her reactor is critical, and they’ve stationed the maneuvering watch. She’s all yours. How soon can you get underway?”

“Soon as we touch down.”

“Very well. You can also tell Ms. Kida and Colonel Jefferson that I want them to help our people coordinate our hunt for the Red Shark. They know the details as well as anyone, and Miss Kida’s insights may turn the trick for us. Colonel Jefferson can backstop on the Davao operation.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll tell them. Ah, there’s one other thing: We left a hell of a mess behind in Tokyo and Noda.”

“We’ll clean it up. You just find and destroy the Red Shark and those nuclear weapons.”

Commander Deng Zemin shook his head. “Impossible!”

NO CONTACT flashed red at the bottom of the monitor.

The sonar tech kept his eyes down and said, “Captain, Target Zone Six was the last dead zone along the arc we examined. If the North Korean submarine had caused it or was anywhere near it, we would have made contact.”

“So where is this Korean boat?” Zemin said. “We had contact with it and now it is gone. But where to?”

NO CONTACT, NO CONTACT, NO CONTACT flashed, as if mocking Zemin.

The sonar tech waited a beat, then said, “Sir, if the target has maintained its southerly heading while in an ultra-quiet configuration, it will not travel very far. Perhaps we might pick it up again…”

“Yes, perhaps so.” Zemin dropped his hands to his side. “First Officer.”

“Sir?”

“Give me a course that will first take us due east.”

“East, sir?”

“If he hears us haul out east, he may think we’ve given up looking for him and continue south. Meanwhile we’ll end around from east to south and intercept him as he comes down the coast.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“You will also prepare a message draft to Admiral Chou at North Sea Fleet Headquarters apprising him of the situation. After I have approved it, and as soon as we are on our new course, you will send the message via Fleet Priority. One more thing. Assemble everything we have archived on non-nuclear submarines in service with foreign navies. Especially the air-independent-propulsion types. I want to see it.”

The officer understood. “If the North Korean regime bought this type of a boat, perhaps that would explain why we can’t locate it.”

Zemin laughed. “Bought? The North Koreans never pay for something they can steal.”

Tongsun Park put his back against the wet periscope barrel and waited. There had been a sudden burst of acceleration from the Chinese Kilo, then only fading screw noise.

“He is sprinting due east, Captain. Turns for fifteen knots. Bearing zero-nine-zero.”

Park pushed away from the periscope, entered the sonar room, and donned headphones. The steady beat of a screw and the fading thrum of motors confirmed what had been reported. Park listened for a time, then put down the earphones and ordered, “Motors ahead one-half. Come to new course one-

five-zero.”

The first officer gave Park a questioning look. “We will take advantage of his sudden departure,” Park explained, “and move to deeper water. Here.” He crooked a finger and beckoned the officer to the chart table.

“We are in an area of shallows and bottom uplifts. These cause fluctuating thermals and heavy turbidity, which result in very poor sonar propagation. Even so, if the PLAN dispatches surface units to search for us, I don’t want to be trapped in this bight.” He pointed to a coastal indentation at Ganyu.

The first officer read the datum on the chart. “Captain, Ganyu has less than ten fathoms at mean low tide.”

“When we reach deeper water, we will turn south; we must always keep moving south.”

Park took up a steel ruler and clear plastic protractor and penciled a rhumb line on the chart. Next he pulled a bottom contour chart out from under the navigation chart and flattened it with a sweep of his hand. Curved lines and color shading represented the shifting and varying depths of water found along the south China coast from Dingdao to Shanghai.