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Eric Stone slid the Oregon into position, using her athwartship thrusters and a heavy blast fronetohydrodynamics on full reverse, to place them directly in the path of the torpedo
“Permission to fire,” Juan said
Mark tapped a few keys
Outside, along the Oregon’s flank, the ar redoubt sla of foot-long e from the mechanism in a continuous blur A plu burst from the 20mm machine cannon arrowed across the water Just ahead of the onrushing torpedo the sea came alive, shredded by hundreds of depleted uranius bored a hole in the ocean amid a cloud of steam
The Russian-made TEST-71 torpedo, packed with over four hundred pounds of explosives, roared into the path of the Gatling gun With enough water forced out of the way by the continuous stream of fire, four of the kinetic rounds hit the weapon dead center The warhead exploded, sending a series of concussion waves racing across the sea, while, at the epicenter of the blast, a coluravity overcame inertia and the entire plume crashed back into the chasm
Though located in the heart of the ship and well insulated froh it was thunder crashing directly overhead
Juan iht us about thirty seconds Convince me”
“Their torpedoes are all wire guided If we can cut theo inert Not even the Iranians would let fish run around in these waters without some sort of control”
“What do you propose?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Sink the damned Kilo”
Juan looked at the tactical display again He saw the red flashing lights indicating the two inbound As, as well as the track lines for the three re to accelerate toward the Oregon, while the pri her had altered course for interception
“You sure it’ll work?” he asked without looking back
" ’Course not,” Max told him “It’s an Iranian copy of an already-flawed Russian weapon Butthe number one tube so we can fire it, and Murph seeo for it If it works as advertised, it’ll take out the three torpedoes long before they reach their targets”
"Murph?”
“Whopper has it pegged, Chairman I can control it as best as it can be controlled, but it’s mostly an aim-and-hope kind of weapon At two hundred knots, it’s pretty da”