Chapter 21 - Fire in the Water
"Torpedo in the water! Sector zero-nine-zero! High-speed screw active and closing fast!"
The sonar supervisor's shout shattered any lingering disbelief inside the Combat Information Center. The red glow of battle lanterns danced against sweat-slicked faces as adrenaline surged through every sailor on watch. My mind, which had frozen for a fraction of a second over the dossier bearing the names of my father and brother, slammed back into pure military instinct. The family betrayal would have to wait. Survival was counted in seconds.
"All ahead flank! Hard right rudder!" I commanded, my voice slicing through the blaring alarms with razor-sharp authority. "Deploy surface decoys! Countermeasure launchers starboard, fire sequence Alpha!"
"All ahead flank, aye! Hard right rudder!" the helm acknowledged instantly.
Deep in the belly of the guided-missile destroyer, gas turbine engines roared to maximum output. Thousands of tons of reinforced steel surged forward, leaning heavily into a violent turn as acoustic decoys discharged into the black ocean. Bubbles, cavitation noise, and false electronic echoes erupted in our wake.
"Contact closing! Two thousand yards... fifteen hundred yards!" called the sonar technician, knuckles white against his console. "The weapon has locked onto our decoy! It took the bait, Commander! It's tracking the acoustic cloud!"
A deafening underwater concussive wave struck the hull seconds later, vibrating up through the deckplates like an earthquake. Even through five inches of armor plate, the shockwave rattled our teeth. But the hull held. We were intact.
"Damage report, all stations!" I snapped into the comms net.
"Engineering reports no hull breach. All propulsion plants green!"
"Weapons Officer," I turned to Lieutenant Vance, my eyes narrowing at the glowing green plot showing the rogue vessel attempting to flee eastward into international waters. "That unflagged ship just committed an act of war against a United States naval vessel. Target their propulsion systems with an automated five-inch round. Do not sink them. Disable them. We need prisoners, and we need their cargo manifests intact."
"Batteries released, ma'am! Five-inch gun battery tracking... Fire!"
Out on the forecastle, the massive forward gun barked twice into the midnight fog. Two high-explosive kinetic rounds streaked across twelve miles of open ocean, exploding with surgical precision right against the ghost ship's rudder and propeller housing. On our radar screen, the fleeing contact immediately ground to a halt, wallowing helplessly in the choppy waves.
"Target immobilized, Commander," Vance announced, breathing heavily. "Hostile fire has ceased. They are dead in the water."
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"Send the Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure team immediately," I ordered quietly, looking down once more at the glowing screen showing Dayton Precision Aerospace. "And tell Master-at-Arms to secure every electronic server on that ship. The truth is going to come out tonight."
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