Warshot (The Hunter Killer Series Book 6) by Don Keith (top ten ebook reader TXT) 📗

Niue once they are commanded to do so. They can take off from Guadalcanal tomorrow afternoon. Then they will land on Niue in darkness.” Bing Dou paused to gauge his boss’s reaction so far. He appeared to be listening with great interest. The minion pressed on. “And Master Sun Tzu also told us, ‘Conflict is darkness and light, danger and opportunity, stability and change, strength and weakness, the drive to move forward, the force that restrains it. All conflicts contain the seeds of creation and destruction.’”

Yon Ba Deng smiled ever so slightly. The man rarely smiled. And often when he did, it foretold dire actions.

“So now the servant quotes to the master? But there is insight in what you are telling me. Perhaps a better quote would be, ‘If, in the midst of difficulties, we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune.’”

Yon Ba Deng stood so suddenly it startled Bing Dou. He retreated another step. But his master maintained his half smile. “Arrange for the Marines to attack tomorrow at sunset.” The vice deputy strode over to the office window, still contemplating something. “However, the primary weakness in the plan is now our submarines. The most recent report had my brother just entering the Celebes Sea. At that rate, he will not arrive on time, considering these changes. Contact him and order his force to make best possible speed.”

Bing Dou bowed slightly and replied, “The orders are already drafted, elder brother.”

15

Vice Admiral Yon Hun Glo read the message a second time. Again, he could only shake his head. It still did not make a lot of sense to the submariner. The admiral, according to orders, had been leading his lang qun—his wolf pack of four submarines—in a stealthy transit, first through the Sulu Sea and now across the Celebes Sea. The only way that his AIP-powered boats could make the long voyage to Tonga without the risk of being detected by every sub-hunting nation in the Western Pacific—including, of course, the USA—was to do it with the near silent air-independent propulsion systems. At a maximum speed of ten kilometers per hour, they would require a month for the transit. Clearly, his older brother did not realize how large the Pacific Ocean was and how long it took to cross without alerting the entire world of what was occurring.

Yon Hun Glo turned to Captain Liu Zhang, the commander of the submarine Wushiwu, the boat in whose control room they now stood.

“Captain, you will now signal the others to come to a speed of ahead flank. Steer course zero-nine-zero and head straight for the Philippine Sea. Once we are again in international waters, we will make a surface transit at flank until we are east of Fiji.”

The diminutive commanding officer frowned as he considered the charts. He carefully measured off the distance and consulted with his report of fuel status.

“Admiral, with all respect, this is a distance of seventy-five hundred kilometers. We will be critically low on fuel when we reach Tonga. It would be much better to use our most fuel-efficient transit speed.” The captain did some quick calculations. “We would arrive a day later, but not nearly so seriously low on fuel. We would have practically no tactical usefulness since we...”

Liu looked up and saw Yon Hun Glo shaking his head with a wry smile. Maybe Liu Zhang was not a complete idiot, even if he was a Party sycophant. But in this case, common sense did not matter. The admiral’s orders were to arrive as soon as physically possible. And that was precisely what they would do.

“Captain Liu, I have my orders. Now you have yours. You will carry them out.”

Yon Hun Glo turned on a heel and headed toward his stateroom. He had only just sat down with a cup of tea when he felt the pronounced nudge as the submarine surged forward.

Ψ

The Chinese admiral was not the only one who noticed the dramatic increase in transit speed of each boat in the wolf pack.

“Possible contact zig, Master One,” Ensign Sam Walters called out. “Bearing rate increased to right-two-point-three.”

Bill Wilson, George Mason’s on-watch officer of the deck, was just flipping to the fire control solution when Sonar called out an update.

“Increase in received frequency, all four contacts of interest. Unless they turned straight toward us, they gotta be making twenty knots!”

Wilson watched the fire control solution. With an increasing right-bearing rate, they certainly were not coming straight at the George Mason. The only possible answer was that the Chinese wolf pack had kicked in the afterburners and were now hightailing it out of Dodge for some unknown reason. And the Chinese apparently did not care who might hear their sudden skedaddle.

“Mister Wilson,” Chief Schmidt, the pilot, spoke up. “I think you should tell the XO. He is the command duty officer right now.”

“Tell the XO what?” LCDR Jackson Biddle asked as he strolled into the control room, still licking the sticky-bun syrup from his fingers. “Something going on I need to know about?”

“XO, the wolf pack just zigged. Looks like they are steadying up on course zero-nine-zero, speed twenty.”

Biddle whistled softly.

“Either they want to drag race, or they are suddenly in one hell of a real hurry to get somewhere.”

Ψ

Joe Glass heard the knock at his stateroom door. At his grunted acknowledgement, a tall, fit Marine lieutenant colonel opened the door and stepped inside. He stood at attention as he announced, “Lieutenant Colonel Stanton Readly reporting, sir.”

Glass stood and stepped around his desk toward the door, extending his hand.

“Colonel Readly, glad to have you and your Marines aboard.” He waved toward the sideboard that held a coffee pot. “Grab yourself a cup of coffee and have a seat. I’m assuming the rest of them are right behind you.”

As Lt. Col. Readly poured himself a cup, stirred cream into his coffee, and pulled out a chair at the conference table, he reported, “Yes, sir. I believe Captain Jones and Commander