Ward propped his feet up on the coffee table. “I don’t know, buddy. Latest from Joe Glass on Toledo is that the skipper he saved is talking up a storm. He’s telling all about a squadron of Akulas sitting there, ready to deploy, and we don’t show any intelligence to confirm such a buildup. And Admiral Durov…you saw him on the film clip at the Russian news conference, blaming us for everything but the heartbreak of psoriasis. He’s the one that apparently commands the new squadron. Captain Andropoyov…that’s the sub captain Glass rescued up there…he says that Durov is some kind of Russian superpatriot, a real zealot, and you know how dangerous they can be. Andropoyov is certain that Durov has hatched some plot to try to take power.”

“You mean, like a coup? Surely the rest of the world wouldn’t stand by for shit like that!”

“What if the rest of the world was distracted by the good old U.S. of A. sinking a couple of innocent Russian submarines for no apparent reason?”

Beaman blinked hard. He stared into the fire. “Man! A coup!” He thought for another moment, then turned back to Ward. “There’s still something I don’t understand. Those Akulas are good boats, from all I know about them. But what good are they to him? They can’t have more than ten of those babies up there, and that’s not much of a threat to us. If they were Typhoons or Delta IIIs, I’d be worried. These boats aren’t missile shooters.”

“We know quite a bit about Comrade Durov, Bill. One thing we know is that he’s a real student of Russian history. Remember the Bolshevik Revolution? Did you ever hear of the Kronstadt?”

Beaman squinted for a moment, then shook his head. “Nope. I must have been sleeping through class when we talked about that.”

“Well, the Kronstadt was a battleship in the czar’s navy. It was tied up at the naval base in St. Petersburg. The crew took over the ship during the revolution and trained its guns on the palace there. The city surrendered. They had no choice. It was one of the key turning points of the revolution. I think Durov means to do exactly the same thing. I believe he will use those new Akulas and their fancy cruise missiles as his Kronstadt.”

Ellen Ward stuck her head in from the kitchen. “You two warriors finished matching battle scars and ready to eat? These crabs are done and I’m hungry.”

The two stood, but neither man was quite as hungry as he had been a few minutes before.

Chapter 16