Seventh Death Game

  Northwest of the Amilante Islands, a storm that had lasted for several days finally subsided.

  At a depth of 350 meters below the sea surface, the "Gun Octopus" was drifting slowly to the northeast at a speed of less than two knots under the push of a deep-water current. Inside the submarine, the natural circulation pressure water stack was running at idle speed, driving the propeller shaft to rotate slowly at five revolutions per minute. The officers and men were even more careful when moving around, afraid of making any noise. For three consecutive days, the cook had nothing to do, because stir-frying and cooking would make a sound.

  In the cabin, a soldier made a slight noise when opening a can of sardines and immediately attracted the angry gaze of others. The sailor also quickly made a ghostly face and shrank to his own berth. Huajianfeng inspected the four cabins one after another before returning to the captain's room.

  Because a third of the sailors had to sleep in "hot bunks", there were no spare berths on the submarine for the three special forces soldiers who "joined the queue", so Lu Chengwen could only sleep on the floor in the captain's cabin, and the other two special forces soldiers could only share with the deputy captain and the chief engineer.

  "How is it?"

  "It's okay, everyone's emotions are stable." Hua Jianfeng sat down on the edge of the bed. Since "cohabiting" with Lu Cheng, the originally cramped cabin had become even more crowded. "Do you think the 'Houston' will give up tracking and return to port?"

  "How did I know?" Lu Chengwen looked at Hua Jianfeng and got up from the ground. "Old Hua, do you believe in intuition?"

  "Intuition?" Hua Jianfeng pulled out a cigarette, he had been smoking a lot these past few days. "Sometimes I believe it, sometimes not so much. Colonel Xiang Tonghui said that you special forces troops are particularly trusting of intuition."

  "Yes, many times we can only rely on intuition." Lu Chengwen pulled out a cigarette from the pack on the table. Since moving into the captain's quarters, he had become the second privileged person on the boat.

  "What does your intuition tell you?" After a few days of getting along, Hua Jianfeng learned a lot about the special forces from Lu Chengwen, especially their participation in secret battles, and admired these special forces even more.

  After taking two puffs of smoke, Lu Cheng rubbed his forehead and said: "My intuition tells me that the enemy is nearby, waiting for us to reveal our tracks before giving us a fatal blow. I think the submarine is like a sniper in the sea."

  "What does it mean?"

  "Lie in wait, be patient and wait for the enemy to appear, then shoot them dead with one shot. How's that, pretty good?"

  Hua Jianfeng faintly smiled and extinguished the cigarette butt that was still more than half left.

  Intuition also told Hua Jianfeng that "Houston" was nearby and waiting for "Gun Octopus" to take the initiative to show up.

  Although Lu Chengwen never said what they had snatched from the East African Rift Valley, combined with the previous order and the US military's countermeasures, Hua Jianfeng had every reason to believe that the mysterious object was related to the fate of the country and nation. The United States had long known about the existence of this mysterious object and even found it first, only to have it snatched away by Lu Chengwen and his team.

  Something so important would not be allowed to fall into other countries' hands if the US can't get it.

  "Houston" will definitely not let go, must be pursued closely, and it is very likely that after the situation deteriorates, it will take the lead in sinking "Octopus".

  The question is, where exactly is the "Houston" hiding?

  Lu Chengwen finished smoking and Huajianfeng stood up. "I'll go out and take a look first, you continue sleeping."

  "I'll go with you." Lu Chengwen also stood up, "My intuition tells me that the 'Houston' has arrived. Trust me, my intuition is always accurate."

  Hua Jianfeng smiled faintly and left the living quarters, heading directly to the command center.

  Sonar man is intently listening to the surroundings, while two sonarmen are helping him operate the three passive sonars on the submarine.

  The sonarman is the most important and irreplaceable senior officer on a submarine.

  In general, the sonar chief is the only experienced sonar operator on a submarine, with the other two sonarmen being his assistants. To become a sonar chief, one must not only have keen hearing but also at least five years of training on a submarine. Therefore, the sonar chief is not only the only seventh-grade officer on a submarine but also has equal status and treatment with other officers.

  "Is there anything found?"

  Upon hearing the boat captain's voice, the sonar operator hooked the right earphone behind his ear and shook his head. "There have been a few faint contacts, but they're too far away to determine whether it's a submarine or just a passing whale."

  "Which direction?" Hua Jianfeng crouched down, putting his right hand on the sonar operation panel.

  "Northwest direction." Sonar Long pulled out the previously recorded files from the computer, then pointed out several prominent peaks on the screen. "This was received two hours ago, and the computer analysis result is that it's a whale's call. I've listened to it dozens of times, but I still feel there's something wrong with it."

  "What does it mean?"

  "Are there any whale activities around here?"

  Hua Jianfeng immediately showed a suspicious look.

  "We have been to this side five times and have never met whales. In addition, from the global whale distribution we obtained, the Somali waters are not a breeding and foraging place for large whales. Of course, it is not ruled out that whales will pass by here during their migration, but it's unlikely to be so coincidental?"

  Hua Jianfeng stroked his chin and then nodded. "If I shorten the distance a bit, can you determine the nature of the target?"

  "It should be no problem, I will try my best."

  "It's up to you now!" After saying that, Hua Jianfeng patted the shoulder of Sheng Nachang and had the officer on duty go call Le Jia Cheng over.

  Like Hua Jianfeng, Le Jia Cheng also thought that the faint noise source in the northwest direction was very suspicious.

  "If that really was the Houston, it must be doing less than two knots or we would have heard some noise by now." Liao Cheng drew a straight line on the chart. "The bearing of the noise source is also not a problem. But why did the Houston control its speed to below two knots? If it's chasing us, it should increase its speed instead of waiting for an opportunity."

  "It must have guessed we'd come to this sea area."

  When Lu Chengwen's words were heard, Hua Jianfeng and Le Jiaceng both turned to look at him.

  "According to Old Hu, previously you and the 'Houston' mainly encountered each other at Diego Garcia Island and in the northern Arabian Sea, never having met on this side. Moreover, the main task of the 'Houston' was patrolling the Arabian Sea, dealing with those few Iranian Navy 'Kilo'-class submarines, it wouldn't come over here to wander around without a reason."

  "Are you saying that the 'Huston' also has a mission?" Hua Jianfeng immediately asked.

  Lu Chengwen nodded and said, "We encountered a mercenary army during the operation, but now it seems that there is a high possibility that they are actually US special forces. If so, then the mission of 'Houston' is the same as that of 'Gun Octopus', which is to receive goods."

  Hua Jianfeng and Le Jia were even more surprised.

  "Colonel, you... why didn't you say so earlier?"

  "I just thought of it too." Lu Cheng heard Zhou Ti's question and shrugged his shoulders, saying, "In that case, the 'Houston' must have known that the goods were on the 'Squid', and wouldn't let the 'Squid' go easily. When we turned east-southeast, the captain of the 'Houston' guessed our intention, knew we had chosen this place for a showdown, and knew we would use force in extreme circumstances, so he didn't chase us at full speed, but just followed from afar. In the situation where they can't get the goods, they won't let us have them either. For both of us, the 5,000-meter-deep seabed is a decent graveyard."

  "We can't let the 'Houston' go either." Huajianfeng stopped talking nonsense and pulled out a sea chart marked with all ocean currents. After carefully studying it for a while, he called Le Jiacai over. "There is a shallow warm current heading west to the north, following this warm current, we can move northwest for about 25 nautical miles. If the 'Houston' is waiting in ambush in the northwest direction, we can quietly reach its southwest direction. You re-plan the route, strive to arrive at the attack position quietly, and then strike."

  "It will probably take about twelve hours."

  Hua Jian nodded. "Let's get started right away, you're in command."

  The music family was established and immediately began planning new routes, and also issued a command to turn ahead of schedule.

  Hua Jianfeng and Lu Chengwen flashed to the corner of the command center, both of their moods were a bit apprehensive. Hua Jianfeng was worried that he might have fallen into the opponent's trap, while Lu Chengwen was worried whether the "Houston" had already sent out the message.

  "Lao Hua, I have a question I want to figure out."

  "What's wrong?" Hua Jianfeng's gaze shifted from Yue Jia Cheng to Lu Chengwen.

  "How much information can a communication buoy on a submarine send at one time?"

  "Are you worried that Houston will send a message out with communication buoys?"

  Lu Chengwen nodded slightly, and this was exactly what he wanted to ask.

  "Don't worry, unless the captain of the Houston is an idiot, he won't send out any messages in the next few days."

  "What does it mean?" Lu Chengwen was still a bit worried.

  "The information capacity of the communication buoy is very limited, and it can only float on the sea for about half an hour before its shell dissolves in seawater and sinks into the ocean. If the 'Houston' wants to send the digital information of the collected characteristic noise to the base, it must at least rise to the periscope depth and extend the satellite communication antenna out of the water. Didn't you say that this mission is very important? At this moment, there are definitely several electronic reconnaissance satellites monitoring this sea area. If the 'Houston' sends a communication signal, it will definitely be discovered by our reconnaissance satellites, and its location will also be exposed. We would have received relevant messages long ago, wouldn't we?"

  After hearing this explanation, Lu Chengwen finally felt at ease.

  "Don't think too much, twelve hours later, we'll know if 'Houston' wants to fight us to the death."