Ward nodded and switched his attention to the outboard flat panel. It was showing the underwater game of cat and mouse they were playing. The Russian sub had slowed to a speed of two or three knots. After charging at high speed all the way from the Kattegat, this guy was slowing to patrol speed even though he was only a few kilometers from Russian soil. It didn’t make much sense for him to dally around out here unless he was up to no good.

Twenty thousand yards up ahead, the SH-60 helicopter, Foxtrot Three Two, eased down out of the cloud cover that had been hiding him so well. He was coming down so he could drop sonobuoys ahead of the Russian sub. The sub was too far ahead for Jeff Stroud and his sonar team on Anzio to hear him, but the SH-60 and its sonobuoys gave Ward a good set of ears out in the distance. As long as he could keep the helicopter up in the air, the sub would be hard pressed to escape, if he even knew he was being tracked.

The low cloud cover had been a godsend. Three Two could stay hidden up in the clouds while he followed the sub. He could hear the Russian fine from up there, but the sub skipper couldn’t see the chopper if he popped up the periscope for some reason. Now Foxtrot Three Two had to drop down beneath the clouds to deploy his sonobuoys. Ward couldn’t help holding his breath until he could get confirmation that the SH-60 was back in the overcast again.

“Skipper, loud transient on the bearing of the Akula!” Chief Stroud’s voice boomed over Anzio’s intercom. “Second loud transient. Sounds like he’s shooting missiles!”

At the same instant, the pilot on Foxtrot Three Two screamed into his microphone: “Bird in the air! Contact is shooting! Second bird. I say again, contact is shooting!”

Two red blips appeared on the screen as the Aegis radar picked up the two missiles.

Ward swallowed hard. Things were happening fast. Way too fast.

Captain Anatol Vivilav returned his eye to the periscope just after the second Alpha missile roared off into the night sky. He was shocked at what he saw. An American SH-60 helicopter dropped out of the clouds and filled his field of vision. That meant there had to be an American ship close by. The SH-60 was unmistakable. It was a deadly development. It had to be destroyed before it could drop one of its torpedoes!

“Launch the Strellas!” Vivilav shouted. “American helicopter directly overhead!”