A nice and speedy update for y'all. This story is wrapping up now with only 2-3 chapters left (I'm not entirely sure on the number). I want to do some sort of series and as it stands, I already have the next two "episodes" planned. They will be shorter, however. Think of this one as a double-episode. But if anyone has any ideas for the next story or ones to follow, I would be happy to hear them.

Enjoy and please review.

Chapter Nineteen

It took the Hammersley crew twenty minutes to get off the dock. They were mostly lounging around in the mess', unaware that they were on the clock to stop the massacre of their colleagues. Kate had taken up her fitting position in the CO's chair. The XO was sitting beside her, nursing the radar. Sharkey was on the EOD and Swain was at the helm. RO and Charge were searching for a high-pitched emission of the enemy sub's sonar.

Mike, on the other hand, was standing rather uselessly by the maps and survey charts at the rear of the bridge. The scene unfolding before him was one that he was used to, just not in the position he found himself in. Ethan and McAllister were nearby, speaking to each other in hushed whispers. Mike managed to gather the general gist of their conversation. There had been a leak somewhere—he didn't know where—and they were trying to plug it with clever references to plumbing and waterworks. He didn't really need to be in the spook industry to understand what they were talking about.

"Do we know if Hussein has been able to track the Parramatta squadron?" Kate asked from her high and mighty position.

Ethan and McAllister shared an uneasy glance that didn't escape Mike. The older of the two appeared quite expressionless after the initial eye motion, but Ethan Saunders did not regain composure as well. Looking beside her, Kate noticed her XO was similarly read into whatever had happened to bring them to this point. And whatever it was, it was still keeping her and Mike out of the loop.

"Will one of you please explain what you seem to know that nobody else here does?" she snapped.

"Somebody talked," Ethan answered, repeating the same phrase he'd used earlier that day.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mike questioned antagonistically.

"He means that there was a leak at the embassy," Raffy answered with a slightly annoyed tone. He was, Kate sensed, annoyed at the civilian administration for allowing it to happen and then covering it up.

"A leak?" Mike said exasperatedly.

Kate ignored him. It wasn't the time or place for a momentary freak-out. "Did you ask whoever it was what they leaked?"

"We can't," Ethan replied simply. "She's dead."

"We found out this morning," McAllister put in with a somber tone.

"And we're not sure what information she was able to obtain for them," Ethan continued, "but since they knew we were coming to the warehouse last night, I'm not ruling out the squadron's secure route."

"Anything on the sonar, RO?" Mike asked impatiently. It seemed that Raffy Rodrigues wasn't the only naval officer utterly pissed off with the running of the Indonesian intelligence branch. It seemed to be one failed mistake after another.

"Nothing yet, sir," he adeptly answered. "If they're submerged below a depth of 250 feet, we may not pick it up until we're close."

"This ship isn't designed for anti-submarine warfare," Kate stipulated.

McAllister was moving now, for the first time since he stepped foot on the bridge, and came to rest behind Raffy. "Won't you pick them up on this?"

"Maybe," Raffy replied. "If they've surfaced enough."

Hours passed and they were no closer to finding the sunken submarine. They had long since left the Indian and entered the Timor Sea. The Parramatta squadron had been placed on high alert and was similarly searching for radar contacts but, with no port in sight and excessive fuel consumption, they could not afford to stop. They would need to push through to Darwin.

The crew had shuffled out slowly, exchanging watches and roles with the others. 2Dads had taken over on the sonar search from Charge. RO had been replaced by his assistant. Dutchy was now at the helm. The officers had not moved, however. Even Mike, who no longer had functional role on the bridge, had failed to sway from his spot by the maps. Kate was still determined as ever in the CO's chair, her binoculars squeezed in a tight grip. The only member of their party that had not succumbed to the intense reality they now found themselves in was Raffy, who was calmly humming "Underneath the Radar" over said mechanism.

Nobody moved much when RO reappeared on the bridge trailing Don McAllister. Their assumptions that the two had spent time in COMCEN together communicating with Canberra proved correct when their Radio Operator informed Kate and Mike that Legal had approved the amendments to the rules of engagement and standard operating procedure.

"And you have ministerial approval for disabling fire," McAllister added.

"Who approved that?" 2Dads said with a smirk.

Mike wasn't so amused. "The incumbent PM still has ministerial power. It raises an important issue, however—the government's in turmoil. A terrorist attack right now, while we're in political limbo, would be disastrous."

"At least it'd be a very quick way to decide an election," Raffy piped up. "Whether or not we stop this might determine its outcome."

2Dads was noticeably confused. "Even if we stop it?"

"Especially if we stop it," the XO clarified.

"Typical," RO commented. "We do all the work and politicians get all the glory."

A short spout of laughter gripped the crew. But even the smallest moments of happiness could not defeat the unbearable feeling that they were fighting a losing battle. The submarine wasn't terribly fast, but it had at least a twelve hour head-start, was silent under the water and almost untraceable.

"So what do you think the point of that first thermobaric weapon was?" Dutchy pondered aloud. "The one that wasn't really a weapon?"

His question was rather unexpected in the suddenly solemn atmosphere. They had resigned themselves to the role they had to play in the grand scheme of things and were no longer going to query it. Question time was over the moment they were denied a straight answer.

Raffy's answer was a shrug.

Kate's was more to the point. "Perhaps they wanted to gauge our response."

"It was a delivery method," Mike put in. "They were trying different things. Maybe they had multiple targets."

"What's to say that they don't?"

Raffy snorted, a little annoyed by his buffer's line of inquiry. "Because their other method of delivery did not work."

"If we pick up Hussein, you can ask him," Mike said with a smile.

"We won't be picking up Hussein," Ethan piped up. "Unless he's in pieces."

The thought sent an unintentional vibration down Kate's spine. She was spared from thinking about it further by a sudden noise from the other side of the bridge.

"I've got something, ma'am," 2Dads shouted from his position in front of the sonar graph.

Kate leapt from her chair at an inhuman speed and rushed over to him, a little surprised to see that he was actually right. He'd found the submarine.

"I've got the squadron on radar, ma'am," Raffy alerted her. "Range 12 miles on a bearing of 1-5-0."

"I'm picking up a feint signal but it's too gargled," RO put in. "Coordinates are approximately 125 degrees East, 3 minutes; 11 degrees South, 25 minutes."

"Depth?" Mike asked. He wisely chose not to crowd them when they were working so hard, even if the results of this attack could be disastrous.

"150 feet and diving," Kate replied. "They know we're here and they're going to outrun us."

"Will they?" Ethan asked pertinently.

Kate didn't answer. Mike knew the answer. Nobody else asked the question. "Dutchy, full ahead both engines bearing 1-6-0."

"Aye, ma'am," came the dutiful reply. "Full ahead both engines bearing 1-6-0."

"It's show time," Raffy muttered under his breath, watching as they approached the squadron and the feint radar contact just north of its position and south of their own, moved at a rapid pace.