“Guess.”
“Shit.”
“Don’t worry,” Renard said. “They’re a conservative people. They won’t risk putting you or the Goliath into harm’s way.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Jake said. “Too conservative on the part they control, giving me and Terry more ground to cover underwater.”
The translator raised his palm to another X.
“The Liman Current is carrying the Kim southward,” he said. “If unaided, it would then be carried northeast by the Tsushima Current. Based upon estimated arrival times, the Goliath will intercept the Kim here, at the loading point. The Specter will join the Goliath to provide protection.”
A sea of red squares representing hostile ships dotted the water between the drop off point and the loading point. Wondering how to navigate through them unnoticed, Jake raised his finger.
“Do you have expectations on how the Goliath and Specter will reach the Kim or how we will get it out of the area?”
“Admiral Cho understands that when your vessels are submerged, they must operate with minimal dependence upon fleet commands. Mister Renard has convinced him of your capabilities and your respect for the situation. You are free to extract the Kim as you see fit, and you are free to engage hostile vessels as you see fit. There are no rules of engagement for you — only mission goals.”
“What about the Gwansun?”
“It will remain at a distance, continuing to provide a distraction. In fact, it has been ordered to attack hostile vessels during the hours we expect the Goliath to load the Kim.”
“That’s courageous,” Jake said. “A distraction should help us escape. Do we have a prescribed evacuation route?”
“You may evacuate on any route you see fit, and we will broadcast the locations of any threat we can identify. That will obviously be primarily surface ships and aircraft. You will have to evade submarines using your organic sensors.”
“Understood,” Jake said.
The interpreter stared at Jake until the admiral murmured an instruction to him.
“I think you asked the right questions,” Renard said. “You might have taken a bit of the wind out of his sails.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Do you have any further questions, Mister Renard or Mister Johnson?” the translator asked.
Jake shook his head, and then the admiral snapped an order. The audience stood, and the translator led a small group in escorting Jake and Renard from the room.
A van took them to a tarmac where they boarded a helicopter. A second aircraft behind his warmed up its engine. Stepping into the cabin and donning a headset, he noticed a muffling of the blades’ chopping thump.
He yelled into his microphone.
“Pierre?”
The Frenchman’s electrified voice filled his earpieces.
“Yes. I hear you.”
“Who’s in the other helo?”
“Replenishments for your crew.”
“Any key players? I don’t suppose I’m training a new executive officer?”
“Negative. Henri will be your right-hand man again. So you’re on your own tactically.”
“This is a smash and grab, Pierre. We’re in and out. I don’t need an exec. I was just wondering.”
“Agreed. The men in the other helo are technicians, a mix of MESMA and propulsion plant experts. The two with us are sonar operators to be trained under Antoine.”
Jake reached out and shook hands with two young men wearing similar clothes to his — the beige pants with white cotton dress shirts that served as uniforms in Renard’s fleet.
“Where’d you find them?” he asked.
“I had to go back to the well, so to speak. The French Navy. Terry took all the Australian recruits to the Goliath.”
The helicopter climbed and banked, and Jake enjoyed the clear view of the stars. Moonlight shimmered in the waters, and the electric lights of the naval base became an ovular aura.
“There!” Renard said.
Jake followed the Frenchman’s finger towards lights on the water. Moored to an anchored tanker, the Goliath revealed itself. Bathed under the fueling ship’s deck lights, the Specter’s transport ship appeared ominous.
“Goliath, for sure,” Jake said. “Well named. That thing’s almost as long as the tanker.”
“Long enough to carry both the Specter and the Wraith, if ever needed.”
“No shit?”
“It’s a balancing act with parts of each submarine hanging over either edge of the cradle. The loading process is the key, getting each ship into precise position, noses practically touching each other and all the internal weight moved forward. It’s tricky, but it’s possible.”
“You didn’t think about bringing the Wraith?”
“Impractical. It would be a complex matter to divide the water around the Kim between the Wraith and the Specter. Plus, the time it would have taken to load the Wraith would have created an unacceptable delay. And worst of all, I can’t recruit men fast enough to man all three ships. I’m afraid that the Wraith is orphaned, awaiting a loving commander and crew.”
“Heck, we may have some South Korean defectors to your navy after we’re done here,” Jake said.
“Guard your arrogance,” Renard said. “You’ve accomplished nothing yet in their eyes.”
The words stung. A glance at his newest crewmen suggested that their own thoughts consumed them. He assumed his conversation took place on a private circuit and sharpened his tone.
“You’ve always appreciated my confidence. What’s wrong with knowing that I’m good at what I do?”
“Overconfidence. Our clients failed to mention it at the briefing, but the Gwansun barely escaped the torpedo of a patrol craft. I know this because I am a participant in their operations center.”
“It would have been nice to know this,” Jake said. “I could use a study of my enemy’s tactics.”
“Our clients would never admit a near sinking of their front-line submarine by a North Korean gunboat to you publicly. They instead trusted that I would give you the details in private. The reconstruction of that exchange is loaded into the Specter’s tactical system for your review.”
“Face-saving jackasses. What if I needed to ask clarifying questions about South Korean evasion tactics and what the North Koreans know about them? That could have driven the way the gunboat attacked. That could drive how they attack me, if it comes down to it.”
Renard shook his head.
“Don’t be so quick to condemn our clients,” he said. “They detest speaking of their weakness in public, but they are honest to a fault in private. They have provided me such information about their tactical doctrine and their intelligence on the North Korean understanding of said tactics. It’s all loaded in the Specter’s Subtics system. Henri will show you.”
Jake leaned back in his seat and felt its shakiness.
“Fair enough,” he said.
“The point I want you to remember is that the North Koreans may be armed with relics, but they have sent an armada staffed by capable, committed men. And they are willing to sink their own ships to achieve victory.”
Jake glared at him.
“The Gwansun escaped by vectoring a threatening torpedo into a Sango class submarine,” Renard said. “Granted, the shooting captain may not have known about a friendly submarine being nearby, but it’s more likely that he was instructed not to care.”