The Darkness Below

Part One, Chapter One - 1970

The submarine coasted gently beneath the sea surface in the channel of water that separated Wales and Ireland. The late hour meant it was totally pitch black on the surface and darkness made it impossible to detect them with the human eye, which was part of the plan. A moonless night was always chosen for these rendezvous. The sub could surface in a matter of seconds in an emergency but this would create a lot of noise so it was better to surface very slowly to minimise the risk of detection. In these older submarines this put a lot of pressure on the crewman in charge of the buoyancy tanks, increasing the air in the tanks very slowly was tricky.

The submarine slowly broke the surface and the hatch on the forward deck opened as soon as was safe. Safety for the crew was not of major concern to the commander of the submarine it was the safety of his vessel which was his priority.

Two crewmen clambered out into the darkness and briefly enjoyed the fresh, cold and damp air of January in the Northern Hemisphere which reminded them faintly of home. They stood tentatively on the wet and slippery deck, then dragged out two large rubber bags and placed them fore and aft of the conning tower, the large steel vertical section in which the periscope was stored when not in use.

They placed the bags into position and activated a fast inflating chemical inside them which filled the bags with air. As they inflated the navigation lights mounted on the bags came on and gave the impression of a small cargo freighter to anyone who might be watching.

The real art to avoiding detection and capture was providing a feasible alternative, misdirection as magicians referred to it. If the Royal Navy did spot them and started to suspect their disguise was false the ensuring confusion would give the submarine enough time to submerge, leaving the inflated bags on the surface long enough to allow the sub to escape. Then the inflated bags were programmed to sink and leave anyone watching the impression that the cargo vessel had sunk.

The submarine sailed slowly on a northerly course toward the pre-arranged coordinates. The sub commander spotted a fishing vessel in the distance and using a signal light flashed a Morse Code message and awaited the appropriate response. The vessel approaching off their starboard bow was the Welsh fishing trawler they were expecting. The Welsh vessel was manned by the three cutthroat smugglers who had been paid by a shadowy figure to smuggle contraband onto the British coast.

The sub commander issued instructions for the Welsh vessel to heave to, come to a stop, at a safe distance so that the Welsh crew would not realise that the cargo ship they thought they were meeting was actually a submarine.

A small zodiac and motor were brought up from the hold and placed into the water along with the three large waterproof boxes, which had their own floatation devices these were towed along by the zodiac out to the Welsh vessel. The Welsh crew heaved the boxes aboard as if they were items tangled in their fishing nets then got underway back to the rugged Welsh coast, but not before getting the bundle of British Pound notes as payment for their nights work.

As the Welsh fishing vessel headed off the submarine sunk silently beneath the waves and carried on north back toward its eventual destination, the Soviet homeland of Mother Russia.

On arrival back at the remote coastal town on the central Welsh coast the crew moored up as usual and began unloading the boxes of cargo, all three were heavy and assumed to contain some form of contraband, be it weapons or possibly money. The fishing crew of three men had no idea for whom they were working but assumed it was something to do with the Troubles in Ireland. They had no qualms about this as they themselves were Welsh Nationalists and were sure any trouble that might result from the goods they are smuggling would occur in England.

The instructions they had were to leave the three boxes outside a locked storage unit on the quay side and they completed their mission by 2am with the darkness of the night still in full effect.

The Soviet agent, code name Skeleton, waited for thirty minutes then once he was sure the smugglers had left he released the locking mechanisms on the box he was in and clambered out. Looking around to ensure he was not being watched he enjoyed the cool fresh air and stretched his aching limbs, after over an hour in a wooden box he was relieved to be free from its confines. Although he knew he was physically free of the box he was not truly free as he now sought to make a new life for himself undercover in a hostile nation.

He had been well trained and drilled prior to setting off for Britain. In his bag he had all the relevant documents for his cover story, his legend as it was called. The story of who he now was, where he was born, where he grew up and what he did for a living.

Before he could start out on that mission he had to deal with the other two boxes, what they contained Agent Skeleton did not know but he knew he had to bury them at pre-designated locations, as instructed by his KGB bosses.