Protocol 15

Chapter 12

12

BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE TAKES A SHOT AT US

Submarine USS Colorado. The Persian Gulf. October 16, 1:24 a.m. local time (Oct. 15, 4:24 p.m. EST).

A clean-cut man dressed in civilian clothes rubbed his eyes, ducked his head as he passed through an open hatch into the control room, then said, “You asked to see me, sir?”

“You’re the geologist, right?”

“Yes, sir. Carl Branson.”

“Yes, thank you for reporting, Mr. Branson. Look, we’ve got a situation here and I need your help.”

“Yeah, when the boat went to battle stations, I kind of figured something was up. Some kind of a drill?”

“Tell me more about the ultrasound equipment you’ve got on board. I know the admiral has us mapping the ocean floor throughout the Persian Gulf region, but what I need to know is, how accurate are the images the equipment can produce? What kind of resolution can you get?”

“The equipment is state of the art, Captain. Its topside equivalent would be a camera that could capture a thousand megapixels of detail. If you can get me close enough, I can see a shrimp on the ocean floor and tell you what it had for dinner.”

“Lovely. How quickly can you have the equipment ready?”

“Ready for what, sir? It’s ready now.”

“We’ve just picked up some disturbing sounds on sonar,” the captain said.

“I imagine that’s what the battle-stations drill is all about?”

“This isn’t Hollywood, Mr. Branson. It’s no drill. There could be lives on the line here. I want your full attention. We think a Russian submarine might have just cracked up in front of us. She’s about a thousand yards off our bow at the moment, sitting on the bottom. I’m going to work up close to her and I need you to use your ultrasound equipment to take a look at the bottom. We’ve got to see if we can tell what happened to her, and if they need assistance.”

“Holy s**t. It’s not exactly what a geologist is used to doing, is it? The equipment can be ready whenever you are.”

“Get to your duty station. And get on the comm. The executive officer here will go with you. I want as much detail as you can give me about that downed sub, and any damage it might have sustained.”