The Goblin Killers

(8 of 8)

A helo dropped a Bloodhound—a practice acoustic torpedo of a type that would carry a nuclear warhead in battles. The orange tube disappeared into the water, spiraled down in its hunt for the right depth, leveled out and rammed the submarine, its wooden nose smashing forward near the port torpedo tubes. The aircraft turned and headed back to the flagship. Sea Leopard was destroyed. Nothing was left. Only the sea, ominous and black and still. And 40 miles away, on the bridge of the Valley Forge, Admiral Jimmy Thach silently studied the reports of the submarine's death. The kill had come under relatively soft circumstances: Sea Leopard was nonnuclear, its "missile" countdown had required it to expose itself on the surface for 15 minutes—yet it still got off its shot. As compared to a nuclear submarine, able to fire a Polaris-type missile while still submerged, Sea Leopard was a mere seagoing perambulator. Indeed, submariners swear that to stop their boat of the future will be impossible. It is the job of Admiral Jimmy Thach, calling on all U.S. scientific and military resources, to achieve the impossible.