“The U.S. Navy Undersea Rescue Unit has a Pressurized Rescue Module known as PRM-1 Falcon.” Commander Woods glanced at them, and, seeing recognition in their eyes, continued. “The PRM-1 Falcon can be loaded onto a waiting Boeing C17 Globemaster III and flown to any location on Earth in under 24-hours. From there, it can be installed onto a vessel of opportunity — known as a VOO — and delivered to the location of the distressed submarine.”
“All right,” Sam said. “What are your prime theories about what happened to the Omega Deep?”
The commander answered immediately from a previously determined list. “We’ve narrowed it down to one of two possibilities.”
“Go on.”
“One: the submarine ran aground on an unmapped submerged valley, ripping a hole in her hull, and flooding her.” Commander Woods pointed out a number of known submerged valleys in the region where the Omega Deep was last sighted. “This would explain why no communication buoys were ever received identifying her location.”
“And the second possibility?” Sam asked.
“She’s been stolen. Either by her CO or any other member of her crew. In which case, she’s probably already been sold to the highest bidder, and we’ve lost $30 billion dollars’ worth of research and development and the greatest naval advantage over the world’s oceans we’ve ever had.”
Sam thought about that for a moment, staring at an enlarged world map nearly five feet tall and stretched out against the wall. He studied the areas already searched, and the known submerged reefs, valleys, and mountains. He pointed to the Atlantic. “What about over here, off the Continental Shelf?”
“Too deep,” the commander dismissed the suggestion. “No chance the submarine would have collided with anything down there.”
“What about a malfunction causing her to dive uncontrollably?”
“Impossible,” Woods was emphatic.
“Why?”
“An implosion anywhere in the Atlantic would have been picked up by more than a dozen seismic listening posts on either side of the ocean. Heck, even Wisconsin’s hydrophones would have picked it up.” Commander Woods sighted. “In fact, none of our seismic listening posts have detected any acoustic anomaly throughout the submarine’s last known coordinates, or anywhere around the world, which means it’s unlikely the submarine has reached its crush depth and imploded. If that had happened, almost anywhere in the world, we’d have heard it.”
“All right,” Sam said, accepting the point. “You said that the Omega Deep was last sighted on the surface of the Norwegian Sea. At the time, satellite imaging showed my own ship, the Maria Helena in the same vicinity, searching for the downed British Boeing 747 Dreamlifter, and also the Vostok, a Russian fishing trawler, suspected of being an intelligence gathering vessel.”
“That’s right. Do you know where the Vostok went afterward?”
“It didn’t follow the Omega Deep, that’s for sure. It would have been impossible.”
“All the same, do you know where it went?”
“It remained in the Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea, and the North Sea for another month — under the pretense of deep sea fishing, and then headed south, toward the Atlantic Ocean. I can have one of my aides find its current location for you.”
“Thanks. Now, you said the commander of the Omega Deep confirmed that he would cancel the original mission, and focus on assisting with the search of the wrecked aircraft?”
“That’s right.”
“How did Admiral Bower do that?”
“Through a secure, coded transmission.”
“Is it possible anyone else might have made the transmission.”
Woods considered that possibility for a moment. “It’s unlikely, but I suppose, it could be possible if they were able to gain access to Admiral Bower’s secret codes.”
“So, as you say, it might not have been Admiral Bower who’s betrayed the U.S. Navy?”
“It’s definitely a possibility,” Commander Woods said, happy to deflect from the more likely possibility that Tom’s dad was guilty of treason.
Sam said, “What was the original mission?”
Woods said, “It was a series of tests, to see how undetectable the submarine could be.”
“Have you checked those locations?”
“No. It’s highly unlikely the submarine would continue on with the original mission, isn’t it?”
“You didn’t search the original route?” Sam asked, incredulously.
“Of course not. Why would we? The Omega Deep was given the express order to surface and engage in all efforts to search and rescue the crashed Boeing 747 Dreamlifter.”
“And it never occurred to you that he refused the order only to continue on with the primary mission objective?”
“No.” Woods smiled in that almost condescending way, which said, that’s a stupid waste of time even thinking about that. “That’s daft. Think about it. You don’t refuse a direct order from the president of the United States only to pursue your original mission objective, testing and displaying the formidable power of…” he paused, turned his gaze from Tom’s hardened gaze, and said, “I’m sorry Mr. Bower. I knew your father well. He was a legend in these parts, and I don’t believe he has betrayed his country. But the fact is, the USS Omega Deep received express orders to help with the search and recovery of the crashed Boeing 747 Dreamlifter, but instead, activated its Omega Cloak, and disappeared. So we have to assume someone on board is no longer following the president’s orders.”
“Do you have a copy of the original route the Omega Deep would have taken had they been ordered to continue with their primary mission objective?”
Woods thought about it for a second. “Yeah, sure. Why?”
“Because right now that seems like the only lead we have. It’s a massive longshot, but it is the only lead we have.”
Woods opened his mouth as though he was about to argue the point, and then meeting Sam’s eye, thought best of it, and brought the image of the original route up on a 100-inch LCD screen mounted to the wall. The digital image encompassed North and South America across to the coastal regions of Mediterranean and Russian ports… “You’re not going to be able to see anything from here.”
“Why not?”
“Because if the Omega Deep continued to utilize her cloaking technology, there’s no way you’re going to identify her from satellite images.”
“What about DRAPES?”
Commander Woods thought about that for a moment and then grinned. “Not a chance in hell.”
During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy laid a fixed network of underwater hydrophones on the ocean floor called the Sound Surveillance System, known as SOSUS, to detect Soviet submarines transiting from their bases to patrol areas in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Listening arrays placed in strategic chokepoints that those submarines would necessarily have to transit, like the waters between Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland — the so-called GIUK Gap — notionally let the United States know every time a Soviet submarine entered the North Atlantic, allowing the U.S. Navy to direct its own ships or submarines to track them. In 2016, that system was updated, and extended throughout more of the world, in a program named the Deep Reliable Acoustic Path Exploitation System.
Sam was incredulous. “The Omega Cloak is that good?”
“No.” Woods smiled proudly. “She was better. Part of what made the Omega Deep special was her sound absorbing hull. Whatever sound she produces, is completely absorbed. No way our hydrophones could pick her up, even if we knew exactly where she was to focus our listening arrays.”