John Avery - Black Cobra

Uri directed the three hostages to sit together on the floor, and then he used the tape to tie them securely to the rack.

Ashley Quinn had heard what sounded like the terrifying, muffled sounds of fighting. Not knowing what else to do, she had stayed where she was, glued to her seat at the chart table in the Control Room, waiting nervously for her boyfriend to return.

She jumped when Jason and Pankov entered the compartment.

“Who are you?” Pankov said to her, not really expecting an answer. He stood at the helm and proceeded to go over his checklist.

Ashley had never seen Pankov before, and she was shocked by his battered and bleeding appearance.

“I-I’m Martha,” she said. “I’m with Richard Fagan.”

She looked at Jason. “Have you seen him?”

Jason glanced at Pankov, wondering how to answer that question.

“Commander Fagan is dead,” Pankov said coldly.

Ashley’s hand went to her throat. “What did you just say?” She looked at Jason in disbelief, but his expression confirmed that it was true.

“His emotions got the better of him,” Jason said.

Ashley stared at him, incredulous, and then her vision went dark and she dropped to the floor.

Pankov looked at her as if she were a piece of discarded meat. “Whose idea was it to have a party tonight anyway?” he said.

“Commander Fagan thought of it, sir,” Jason said.

“ That worked out well.”

“Yes, sir,” Jason said.

“Put her in with the others,” Pankov ordered. “And while you’re at it, see what’s taking Uri.”

Jason scooped Ashley up off the floor and draped her over his shoulder, finding her surprisingly thin and frail. Her perfume was subtle but perfectly suited to her, and he found himself slightly aroused.

He carried her to the Forward Torpedo Room and peered in through the watertight hatch. Uri was just finishing tying Aaron, Katya, and Brandy to the torpedo rack with a tangle of duct tape.

“Give me a hand here, will you, Uri?” Jason said through the hatch.

Uri was surprised to see Jason carrying Martha over his shoulder. He helped him lift her through the tight opening, and they flopped her down next to Katya.

Aaron saw who it was, and that she was unconscious. “ What did you do to her? ” he demanded. “ If she’s hurt, I swear to God I’ll — ”

“Tie her up with the others,” Jason said to Uri, ignoring Aaron. “Then report to the Control Room. Pankov’s anxious to get moving.”

“Can you at least give me a hand with Fagan? We don’t want to be tripping over him.”

“Okay, but let’s hurry it up,” Jason said.

Uri quickly tied Ashley up with the other hostages, and then he and Jason moved Fagan’s body the length of the sub to Compartment Seven, the Aft Torpedo Room, where they shoved the corpse into a corner before heading back to the Control Room to join Pankov.

Aaron looked over at his mother, but she was still unconscious. The four of them were alone in the Forward Torpedo Room, and Aaron knew he had to work fast. Brandy and Katya looked at him, hoping for a miracle.

He analyzed Uri’s tie job and concluded that the man wasn’t very good with duct tape. He easily worked a hand down to his shoe and retrieved his pocketknife.

He cut the tape on his wrists and legs and freed himself, and then he stepped out from behind the torpedo rack and walked over to torpedo tube 5 and opened the inner hatch cover.

“What about us?” Brandy said.

“We’re not leaving here just yet,” he said. “The timing’s not right.”

He used the gantry crane and pulley systems to remove the forest green, nuclear-warhead torpedo from the tube, replacing it with the red and white dummy torpedo.

Then he sat down next to the girls and taped himself to the rack in a way the made him appear to be securely tied, when he really wasn’t. He kicked the duct tape away with his foot and tucked his pocketknife into his right hand.

“What do we do now?” Brandy asked.

“Now, we wait,” Aaron said.

Back in the Control Room, Pankov went over the mission plan with Uri and Jason one more time. He was counting on Jason’s advice. With Richard Fagan dead, Jason’s local knowledge would be critical to the success of the mission.

“We must allow plenty of time to navigate the shallow water near the docks without incident,” Jason said. “Even at high tide, which we’ll have, the water here near the Maritime Museum is only about twenty feet deep, so we won’t be able to fully submerge until we reach the main channel, where the bottom drops off closer to fifty feet.”

“We’ll submerge the boat just enough to slip out from under the tarpaulin,” Uri said. “Then we’ll head for the channel.”

“Agreed,” Pankov said.

“There's a U.S. Coast Guard base just to the northwest,” Jason said. “So we’ll have to be very quiet, running silently on electric motors alone.”

“Cobra’s batteries are fully charged,” Uri said.

“There’s a shoal just west of the Coronado Ferry Landing and east of the carrier basin on the Coronado side of the bay,” Jason said. “And another between the #1 green buoy and the amphibious base southeast at the entrance to Glorietta Bay. They can be trouble for large skimmers on average tides and even to smaller vessels at low tides. For us they would spell disaster on any tide.”

“Understood,” Pankov said. He rigged out one of the periscope’s handles and rested his hand on it. “We will have no Navigator or Quartermaster, so I’ll be guiding us using the attack periscope with whatever light is available. Jason, you will be my first officer. I’ll need you by me at the helm and possibly in the Engine Room when Uri is otherwise occupied. Can you handle that?”

“Yes, sir,” Jason said confidently. He was well trained in all aspects of submarine warfare.

Uri was disappointed. He had assumed that because of his and Pankov’s long history together, he would be First Officer. But apparently his standing with Pankov had slipped down a notch after the Richard Fagan fiasco.

“Uri, you will act as Torpedo Officer and Diving Officer,” Pankov said.

Uri was well qualified at those positions and had anticipated this. “Yes, sir,” he said.

“Including myself, and with Fagan dead, we have three men with which to crew this boat,” Pankov said. “I am aware that this will be nearly impossible, but I am left with no choice. It is not necessary for me to remind you that we have no medical officer. So keep your wits about you. I need able-bodied men, not casualties of war.”

“Yes, sir,” Uri said.

Jason didn’t respond. As a ranking officer, he had always considered it a waste of time to be lectured about safety.

“Once submerged we will head southeast to the Coronado Bridge,” Pankov said, “where we will remain hidden at periscope depth while we wait for the Neau Islander . Are there any questions?”

“No, sir,” the men said.

“All right then," Pankov said. “Our time has come, Gentlemen. Let us get underway.”

Uri's first task as Diving Officer was to monitor the hull opening indicator lights. Once the green lights showed all hull openings closed, he bled compressed air into the ship. When the internal air pressure remained constant, he knew that watertight integrity was assured.

"Depth below keel?” Pankov said.

“Two-and-a-half meters, sir,” Jason said. “We’ll have to belly crawl our way out of here.”