SSN

    Minutes later, Cheyenne was brought from two hundred feet to periscope depth. Once the safety sweep revealed no surface contacts, the radio communications mast was quickly raised, and the message sent and receipted for. Several minutes later, after an extremely rapid response from CTF 74, the mast was lowered and the captain entered the radio room, one of the most highly classified places on the submarine.

    The radio room dealt with encrypting devices and top-secret messages, and the message Cheyenne had just received was no exception. As Mack entered, the communicator handed him a computer printout.

    Mack glanced at the message, paused, and then read it again.

USS INDEPENDENCE UNDER HEAVY CHINESE AIR ATTACK. AIRCRAFT WILL BE UNABLE TO ASSIST CHEYENNE IN DESTRUCTION OF OIL PLATFORM/SUBMARINE DEPOT. PERMISSION GRANTED TO DESTROY SWALLOW REEF SUBMARINE DEPOT.

    The executive officer came in just as Mack was finishing reading the message for the second time. The executive officer had completed a tour of the engineering spaces with the engineer officer. "The combat systems officer told me what's going on," he said. "Anything I can help with?"

    Mack showed him the message, and then the two of them headed for the wardroom to work out the plan for attacking the Chinese submarine depot. When they had reached an agreement on the best plan of attack, Mack instructed the executive officer to provide the appropriate details to all the areas of the ship that would play a part in the execution of the operation.

    The plan they had come up with was for Cheyenne to head north at a speed of eight knots. Once they were past Royal Charlotte Reef, and as soon as they came within 35,000 yards west of the depot, they would slow to five knots and approach the depot quietly at a depth of one hundred feet. That depth would allow the top of Cheyenne's sail to clear any of the shallow draft vessels that might be loitering overhead. They would listen for any signs of submarine or surface ship activity and then they would close in for the kill.

    Once they were within 30,000 yards of the transformed oil rig they would launch eight Mk 48s at the vessels being refitted under the platform. They would then head southeast until they had exited the waters of the Spratly Islands. Once clear, they would proceed northeast along the one hundred fathom curve until they were ready to re-enter the islands chain and investigate their fourth search area-Carnatic Reef.

    That was the plan. Now it was up to Mack, his officers, and the crew to execute it.

    With battle stations once again manned, Cheyenne slowed to five knots as they approached weapons range.

    "Conn, sonar, we just detected two Huangfen missile patrol boats," the sonar supervisor said. 'They sailed underneath the depot platform and pulled in next to the Romeos. I'll bet they're refueling, sir."

    "Sonar, conn, anything else? Any other surface ships in the area?" asked the captain.

    "Conn, sonar, it's hard to tell. This shallow water has turned our passive sonar inside out. Sometimes it gives us what we want. Other times it's anyone's guess,"

    "Sonar, conn, aye," Mack said. He thought for a moment, then said, "Okay, how long until we are in firing position?"

    The fire-control coordinator answered him. "It should be three more minutes, Captain."

    Tubes one and two were readied for firing. Because they had the exact location of the noisy Romeos, and because the Romeos were directly below the platform, they also had the exact location of the platform. They would launch all eight Mk 48s in succession as rapidly as possible, cutting the wires immediately after they had left the tubes. This left the torpedoes to hit their targets without guidance from Cheyenne.

    Mack had the torpedoes fired two at a time, tubes one and two first, then tubes three and four. He did this twice, and the procedure didn't take long. Cheyenne had recently had lots of experience loading and firing torpedoes, and that experience paid off.

    "Conn, sonar, we just got another sonar contact," the sonar supervisor said as the last two Mk 48s were launched. "A single Huchuan torpedo boat is heading our way. The noise level indicates it's running at full speed."

    Mack had been briefed on the Huchuan hydrofoils and knew that the Chinese had more than seventy of them in service. He also knew that these small ships could reach speeds of more than fifty knots. The Huchuan was designated Master 53.

    "What's the range to the Huchuan, Master 53?" asked Mack.

    "We can't tell, Captain," the fire-control coordinator answered. 'The water's too shallow and we can't do an accurate TMA on the boat. Bearings are coming in over a twenty-degree spread."

    "Well, then," Mack said, "we have no choice. We have to go active."