The Zhukov Briefing

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Entry in the movements log of the Flag Officer Commanding New Construction, USSR Baltic Fleet, Leningrad Naval Base:

Soon after midnight Krasnov’s voice came through on the speaker: ‘Sonar bearing zero-two-seven. Range eighteen kilometres. Classified single screw diesel. Bearing moving left.’

In the dim red light of the control-room Sergei Yenev, captain of the Zhukov, transferred his attention from the systems console to the sonar screen repeater. With trained eyes he scanned the abstract patterns of light acquired by the submarine’s transducers as they probed the sea ahead. To starboard the cluster of the Vesteralen Islands showed in a glowing broken line: an isolated neon speck fine on the bow was Vrakoy, the outermost of them all. In the few minutes since he’d last viewed the screen the only changes were those of relative movement. There were still five ships to starboard, two to port, and some smaller pips which had been classified as fishing boats.

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