Chapter 349 Sinking Ship

Just as batches of Soviet soldiers fell in front of the Mannerheim Defense Line, on the other side in the German port of Hamburg, Dr. Albert, accompanied by his beautiful wife Helene, boarded the "New Jersey" liner bound for the United States.

The two entered the VIP suite, and Helene handed a US dollar bill to the steward. "Don't disturb us. We'll call you if we need anything."

After putting down their luggage and resting for a while, with the sound of a few whistles, the "New Jersey" slowly left the pier.

Dr. Albert stood by the window, looking somewhat nostalgic at the gradually receding pier, and sighed deeply.

Helene, with a concerned look, asked, "What's wrong, dear? Why the sudden sigh?"

Dr. Albert hesitated for a moment but decided to tell the truth. "My dear Helene, it's likely that we won't be coming back from this journey."

"Why?" Helene asked in surprise, widening her eyes. "Didn't you say it was just a visit to some friends?"

"Of course not," Dr. Albert's face showed a hint of unease. "His Highness Wilhelm is secretly developing a superweapon, a terrifying weapon that can destroy an entire city with just one missile."

Helene, puzzled, said, "Isn't that a good thing? Germany will be invincible at that time."

Dr. Albert shook his head. "Once it's successfully developed, it will be a 'Pandora's Box,' likely to bring disaster to the entire human race."

A flash of malevolence crossed Helene's eyes, and her voice became colder. "So, are you planning to hand over the information about this superweapon to the United States?"

Lost in thought while gazing out of the window, Dr. Albert didn't notice her change and casually replied, "For the peace of all mankind, we can't allow one country to monopolize this technology. Only by relying on the restraint of the United States can we curb Germany's misuse of this superweapon."

Helene's lips curled into a cold smile. Without saying anything more, she walked to the bed and lay down.

In this awkward atmosphere, the two spent the day.

The next day at noon, Helene spoke again, trying to persuade, "My dear, it's not too late to change your mind. Can't we go back?"

Dr. Albert, however, remained exceptionally firm. "My dear Helene, I can promise you anything, but this matter is non-negotiable. Uh!" Before he could finish his words, a sharp pain surged in his chest. He slowly lowered his head, looking bewildered at the dagger thrust into his chest.

"Indeed, you've gotten rusty. Can't even finish yourself off with one stroke?" Helene's eyes, once filled with tenderness, had now turned icy. Her voice carried no trace of emotion, sending chills down one's spine. "This is the first time I've seen someone speak of treason so self-righteously. Despite His Highness favoring you so much, you choose to join our enemies? A damned traitor!"

Swiftly tying up her disheveled hair, Helene rummaged through her luggage, taking out a set of cruise ship stewardess uniform and began to put it on...

"Do you think I would really fall for an old man like you? This was all arranged by His Highness. Ten years ago, His Highness foresaw that you would betray your homeland sooner or later and personally sent me to infiltrate by your side." Leaving the now breathless Dr. Albert behind, Helene quietly slipped out of the cabin. She still had one final task, to sabotage the liner's wireless communication.

At this moment, a few kilometers away, a German submarine lay silently in ambush, motionless.

Suddenly, the sonar operator reported loudly, "British submarine! 2 o'clock direction, approximately 10,000 meters away."

The submarine captain, who was leaning against the bulkhead with closed eyes, jolted awake. "Perfect timing. Where's our target?!"

"5 kilometers away, heading this way."

The captain picked up the nearby communicator and ordered, "Attention all crew, enter level one combat readiness, everyone to their battle stations!"

The interior of the submarine began to flash with red lights continuously. Some crew members who were resting in the living quarters rushed out quickly to take their positions.

"Report, torpedo bay ready!"

"Report, engine room ready!"

"Report, radar room ready!"

In this maritime area on routine patrol is the British submarine "Water Sprite." Several sailors on the deck were boredly looking at the approaching "New Jersey."

Suddenly, a massive orange-yellow fireball erupted from the waterline under the ship's bridge, followed by a towering column of water.

"Oh, blast!" Several British sailors were startled by the sudden explosion, and even the captain climbed up to the deck inquiringly. "What happened? Where did the explosion come from?"

Several sailors quickly pointed towards the distant "New Jersey." Watching the already tilting liner, the captain couldn't help muttering, "Damn, what's going on? Did it hit a mine? Impossible, this is an international shipping lane; even the Germans couldn't have laid mines here."

Of course, it wasn't a mine. The German intelligence secretly moved three hundred kilograms of high-explosive into the luggage compartment of the liner. It's worth noting that the warhead of the German 533mm torpedo only carried 320 kilograms of explosives. Now, this 300 kilograms of high-explosive detonated inside the liner, and the power of the explosion can be imagined.

The explosion instantly tore open a fifteen-meter-long and eight-meter-wide hole in the hull near the waterline. The tremendous shockwave blew away seven watertight doors around the luggage hold, and the surging seawater filled three compartments connected to the luggage hold within thirty seconds. The colossal liner tilted five degrees to the right in an instant.

The seawater rushed into the engine room like a bursting flood. The three steam turbines started to unload pressure. With a deafening and sharp whistle, billowing steam gushed out of the liner's chimneys like a volcanic eruption, and the steam column reached as high as twenty meters.

In just five minutes, within the third boiler compartment, a boiler with an open temperature observation port was flooded with seawater. Although it didn't cause a catastrophic boiler explosion, it generated a substantial amount of suffocating toxic steam.

This made the sailors clinging to the escape ladder more frantic in their scramble upwards. The conventional entry and exit points had turned into giant waterfalls, and countless sailors congested around the four narrow emergency escape ladders.

Less than three minutes after the explosion, seawater had already started to pour into the engine room. The three boilers were on the verge of shutting down, and, accompanied by the deafening noise of escaping steam, the liners lost all power. By this time, the ship's tilt had reached twelve degrees. After the captain inquired about the damaged compartments, he promptly issued the abandon ship order.

Watching the nearly twenty-degree tilted liner, the British submarine's captain gave the order to release life rafts for rescue. After all, the United States was their ally, and they couldn't stand by without helping.

As the British sailors on the deck busily inflated life rafts, a sailor responsible for vigilance suddenly issued a hysterical warning. "Torpedo!" Although he timely issued the warning, unfortunately, the distance between the two sides was too close. The incoming two torpedoes hit the British submarine head-on, and the massive explosion directly blew all the sailors on the deck away.

Inside the German submarine, the captain gave a satisfied clap. "Smoother than expected! Surface; hope our heroes haven't frozen. Communications officer, don't forget to send a message!"

Soon, a series of electric waves sent out from the German submarine rapidly spread in all directions.

"British submarine is attacking the 'New Jersey'!"

"SOS!"

"My ship is about to sink, location is..."