Roger Ellis - AK-239

Bahadur smiles then looks puzzled, “How do we arm this?”

Orlov, “You are not to concern yourself with such things. Did you bring your consideration?”

Bahadur motions to his men, one leaves the room and says,

“How can we trust you will stick to the plan?”

Orlov quickly answers, “How can we trust ‘you’ will stick to the plan?”

Both men return to their stare down until the galley door opens as twenty-two Iranians now enter with twenty-two suitcases of their own.

The Russians do not seem to realize there are now more Iranians then there are Russians. The Iranians plunk down the suitcases and open them. Solid gold bars worth over two billion U.S. dollars are revealed.

Bahadur now returns to business, “We must have a way to arm these.”

Orlov, “Just follow the plan and our mutual ends shall be accomplished.”

Bahadur, “I must insist that we have control over arming and disarming.”

Orlav, “And my orders are that this exchange is all that I can give you.” Both return to their stare down.

Orlov then says, “You must have your men take your beautiful brides to America and wait for our instructions.”

“Another ship, sir.”

Bahadur looks starboard side and sees another commercial fishing trawler approaching.

“That is ours.”

The second commercial trawler pulls alongside Bahadur who is not happy.

“My men are taking all of the risk distributing these suitcases.

Orlov, “And they have been compensated with one million U.S. dollars each.”

“That is not enough. They must drive the nukes passed border crossings all along the Canadian border and into the U.S.”

“Your men will all be crossing at unmanned checkpoints. Right now, we are less than thirty miles from Canadian waters. Our people are waiting for you in Prince Rupert. There is the Trans-Canada highway. You can go anywhere in North America. There you will be given passports, IDs and further instructions. We have chosen remote areas to cross into America. There are no border agents, no cameras, and no way of identifying anyone. Your men will all be newlyweds and blend in. Should be easy.”

“Then why don’t you send your own men?” asks Badahur.

Orlov doesn’t answer.

So after another stare down, Badahur moves on to his men,

“May the peace of God be with all of you as you go fulfill His duty. Take these beautiful brides and make Jihadi warriors all. When the time comes we shall bring peace once and for all to this earth. As is written twenty-two times on our beloved national flag:”

“Allah Akbar!”

All of his men repeat, “Allah Akbar!”

As soon as twenty-two terrorists leave with their ravishingly gorgeous “wives” Bahadur pulls a Raa’d 9mm pistol to the head of Orlav.

“Have your men drop their weapons. I don’t want any bloodshed.”

Orlav, after another long pause, gives the command to lay down their weapons.

“You’re making a big mistake,” chides Orlav.

Bahadur then marches Orlav to the bridge saying,

“This wasn’t the agreement. Take us to your commander.”

“I cannot do that,” responds Orlav.

Bahadur, “You shall do that or you and your men will pay with their blood.”

Orlav, “Then we’re all dead men as my commander might detonate those suitcases unless he hears from me.”

Bahadur seems unaffected by the threat saying, “Talk to him.”

Orlav gives a signal to one of his men who points to a cabinet drawer.

As he starts to open the drawer, one of Bahadur’s men stops him and opens the drawer himself.

Inside is a satellite phone. Bahadur’s man gives the phone to Orlav.

Bahadur nods to Orlov to proceed.

Orlov calls General Victor Zelin at the Bokan Command Center.

Bahadur puts a gun to Orlov’s head.

“The world shall see peace when the twelfth Imam reveals himself. Are you willing to die right now for him? I am.”

Orlav looks with sarcasm at this crazy man and says, “You mean the guy who already died a thousand years ago?”

Captain Vasili’s Diary

“You mean the guy who already died a thousand years ago?” I hear over TK-20 ’s speaker system.

I’m in the control room of TK-20 watching the two fishing trawlers and the Iranian sub from my periscope, just under the water’s surface.

“Do we have a solution?”

Aye, captain,” says Nikolai, my over eager 2nd in command.

TK-20 has been retrofitted to fire only four torpedoes, two of which are 650mm tubes while the other two are 533mm tubes. One ‘53’ or ‘65’ torpedo could easily sink one or more of these ships.

“You slimly, little Iranian bastards are going to get a taste of Russia,” I said.

Anything trying to escape my sub would be hit with a torpedo designed to follow a propeller in the water and explode on impact.

None of them would stand a chance.

“Four fish in their chambers locked and loaded, sir!” an enthusiastic Nikolai reports to me.

I shout, “Range to targets?”

“950 yards!” calls out the senior michman (warrant officer).

Vasili then barks, “Flood torpedo tubes one and two.”

“Aye, flooding tubes one and two, sir.”

Over the speaker system, “Conn, radio room, incoming from Moscow.”

I yell back as I keep one eye buried in my periscope,

“Radio room, conn, put Moscow on the speaker.”

“Captain Vasili, this is Admiral Perchinkov, you are to stand down. I repeat, stand down.”

I immediately answer, “Aye, stand down. We are standing down, sir.”

In the “old days” a good sonar officer aboard the Iranian sub would be listening and could likely have heard word for word what was just said over TK-20’s speaker system.

However, with our new top-secret skin developed by “friends” in St. Petersburg at Roselectronics they won’t hear a word. The acoustic absorbing and reflective coatings makes us almost invisible to radar and sonar.

These Top Secret materials are so secret I don’t even know its name. All I knew is that it had been applied to my entire hull. I was told, after testing, that sonar technicians sitting next to my boat wouldn’t be able to hear a gunshot inside the boat!

“Follow and observe only. Await further orders.”

Without hesitating I said,

“Yes, sir. Follow and observe only.”

Then I thought to myself,

“I don’t care how silent we are, the Americans will find us sooner or later, see us as a threat and kill all my men!

That is, unless I can show them otherwise.”

This got me thinking, as I kept staring into my periscope.

Nikolai, standing nearby, seems upset that he won’t get to see and hear some actual combat.

These foolish kids have no idea of what it’s like to see and hear men trapped and dying inside a sinking ship.

I have to get off this thing, get back to my wife and retire. I really liked those pictures of Nebraska. I wonder what people there are doing today?

I see the Iranians load several “suitcases” (I had no idea what they were at this point) onto the second much smaller fishing boat. This boat has several tiny rubber rafts on it.

The second boat then speeds away from King of the Crabs and the Iranian sub.

Meanwhile Bahadur looks to still have his weapon trained on Orlav.

King of the Crabs then pulls away from the Iranian sub heading toward Bokan Mountain.

I yell, “Radio room, conn, tell Moscow we now have three possible hostile fish: Two big fish and a little fish. Multiple packages offloaded. Little fish is heading away. Advise. End of Message.”

After a pause, the radio room answers over the ship’s speaker system, “Radio room, conn, Moscow says stay with the two big fish. Let the little fish go.”