Maden Mike - Tom Clancy Firing Point

Heads shook.

“I think this makes it even harder to find whoever’s behind this.” Ryan’s eyes scanned the room. “But I don’t give a damn about the odds, because I’m putting all my chips down on this table, on each of you, right now.” He stabbed the polished mahogany with his finger for emphasis. “And I figure that puts the odds back in my favor.”

He leaned back in his chair, daring them to argue with him.

Arnie gave him a wink. Good job, boss .

“We’re still tracking the Glazov, Admiral?” SecState said, breaking the silence.

“Yes, sir. Given the events in the IO, it’s a safe bet he wasn’t the culprit to begin with—but just in case, we’re following him all the way back home.”

“Can we take the Russians off the board altogether?” the SecDef asked.

“Not if the Russians are using more than just one diesel-electric boat,” Talbot said. “But given the fact the Russians called off the Glazov, I’d say they aren’t our prime suspect at the moment.”

“How do we know that?” Arnie asked.

“We intercepted a Russian satellite comm to the boat. It wasn’t secure.”

“Meaning they wanted us to know they’d called their dog off?” Arnie said.

“Exactly.”

“Should we dispatch a carrier group to the Indian Ocean? If nothing else, it sends a message,” SecDef said. “Carrier strike group three is on station in the Arabian Sea. We could redirect.”

“Maybe that’s the point of all of this. Keep us chasing our tails all over the planet,” Talbot said, “and disrupt our current operations. I’d advise against it.”

“Agreed,” Ryan said. “But where does that leave us?”

“Sunzabitches,” Arnie growled.

“Mary Pat, we ruled out the Chinese before. Any new information to change our minds on that?”

The DNI shook her head. “No. None of our sources, inside or out, have found any mention at all of an operation like this.”

“Good. We’ve ruled out the NORKs, the Indians, and just about every other naval power with the capacity. Sounds to me like this isn’t an officially sanctioned government operation.” Ryan rubbed his chin, thinking out loud. “We already ruled out the possibility of a criminal syndicate or a terrorist organization. Do we need to revisit?”

“Would they have the ability to run submarine operations on a scale like this?” Adler asked.

“First thing they’d need is a submarine—more than one, as it turns out,” the SecDef said.

Talbot turned on a different video monitor and flipped through several screens until he pulled up what he was looking for—the Web page for Triton Submarines, a civilian manufacturer. They looked like round glass fishbowls on top of fat sleds. Some had exterior operating arms and claws.

“This is just one example from one company—Triton makes good rigs. They’ve got one that’s rated to thirty-six thousand feet—it dives the Marianas Trench, the deepest place on the planet.”

“They look like spacecraft from a fifties sci-fi movie,” Arnie said. “Not like weapons systems.”

“They’re meant for exploration, maintenance—even eco-tourism. I’m not saying these subs are the prime culprits, only that there are significant civilian platforms that could accomplish the mission profile. But if you ask me, I’d say we’re looking for a military sub design, not one of these.”

“Any possibility that a civilian could get ahold of a surplus military sub?” Arnie asked.

“For the right price, sure. Osama bin Laden was in the market for one before the FBI nixed the deal. The problem is, you need more than a boat. You need trained crews, supply vessels, maintenance facilities. It’s not like driving a paddleboat at a city park.”

“The drug cartels have operated at least nine hundred narco-boats over the years. They’re not subs, exactly, but they sit low enough in the water that they evade detection,” Foley said. “Mainland Chinese car-smuggling gangs use something similar.”

“Those kinds of vessels don’t have the range we’ve been talking about.”

Arnie laughed. “Okay, I just have to admit it. I was messing around on the Internet last night thinking about this stuff and came across this crazy story about the Russian Navy using a beluga whale for underwater cameras or something.”

“We still have the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program. Hell, back in the day, we trained dolphins to do all kinds of combat operations,” Talbot said.

“What are we saying?” SecState Adler said. “We’re looking for a fish?”

“No, but, Arnie, I think you’re onto something,” Ryan said.

“I am?”

“We’re all loyal to our prejudices. We have the best technology in the world, but somehow, these assholes are beating us at every turn. Our prejudice is our high technology. What if these shitbirds are going low tech?”

“Low tech? How does low tech beat high tech?” Arnie asked.

“Ask the Afghanis how they beat the British and Soviet empires, not to mention the fact we’re going on nineteen years fighting them. It’s called asymmetric warfare,” the SecDef said.

“Asymmetric is more about tactics and strategy,” Ryan said. “I want to focus on tech for a moment.”

Ryan pointed at the admiral. “John, how can a ship or submarine avoid radar and sonar?”

The CNO shrugged. “Radar is easy to avoid. Get outside of its range or, easier still, go underwater. Radar waves don’t propagate under the surface.”

“And sonar?”

“Sonar operates like radar but uses sound waves. Active sonar sends a signal out, hits a target, and the sound waves are reflected back to the source. Passive sonar simply listens for any sound waves generated by the target itself. You defeat active sonar by absorbing or deflecting the active ping, and you defeat passive sonar by remaining silent.”

“And how do you absorb or deflect sonar waves?”

“Diving deep never hurts, especially if the sonar source remains above the thermocline. But an easier way is what the Germans started doing in World War Two, which was using rubber coating on their sub hulls. We use more high-tech materials, but essentially, it’s the same idea. Electric boats are quiet because of the electric engines but even nuke boats are getting damn quiet. Everything on a sub is designed for silence. Hell, submariners even wear rubber-soled shoes to keep from making noise when they walk. These boats are so quiet now that back in 2009 a British and a French boomer actually collided with each other even though they both had passive sonar up and running.”

“Anything else? I mean, low tech?” Ryan said.

“Low tech? How about no tech? The fact of the matter is, the bigger you are, the easier you are to find with either sonar or radar. It’s a damn sight easier to see a basketball than a BB at two hundred yards. Smaller is always better.”

Ryan stood. “So here’s what I’m thinking. Something small. Something quiet—electric powered. Something that runs underwater to avoid radar. Something with sound-absorbing materials to avoid active sonar.”

“You’re talking about a damned underwater drone,” Arnie said.

Ryan grinned. “Not me, pal. That was you.”

“It was?”

“Yeah, you were thinking out of the box. You just didn’t realize it.”

“But you said low tech. Drones aren’t low tech.”

“Drones are old tech. Nikola Tesla had the first patent on one back in 1898—a radio-controlled boat he called the ‘teleautomaton.’ Drones aren’t new, they’re just improved.”

“Come to think of it, the Germans had a remote-controlled explosive boat in World War One,” Talbot said.

“The damn Houthis have one now, running ’em in the Persian Gulf,” Burgess added. “They take speedboats powered with Yamaha outboards and pack ’em with explosives.”