“But not too deep. I want to stay in the same acoustic layer as him so that we can communicate. Make your depth one hundred and fifty meters.”
“Can I have speed, please?”
“Sure, make turns for three knots. Come left to course two-eight-one.”
“Coming left to course two-eight-one,” Henri said. “Descending to one hundred and fifty meters.”
The deck dipped and tilted as Julien entered the compartment through the door behind Jake.
“I heard you were looking for me?”
“I was going to have you start moving the drones again, but now I’m thinking it’s better to have you train our other newbie.”
Jake looked to the sonar apprentice seated beside Remy. The apprentice who had experienced combat had departed, yielding his seat to his rested counterpart.
“I don’t remember his name,” Jake said.
“Leroux,” Julien said. “Noah Leroux.”
“Thanks. Get with Noah and drive the drones on course two-eight-one at three knots. Here’s the kicker. I want you to put the drones on a continuous two hundred and seventy-degree active back and forth sweeping search, fifteen-degree swaths, full power.”
“Full power? You might be announcing our arrival.”
“The one thing I realized after the last exchange is that there are probably thirty pissed off little submarines swarming in our direction. Not to mention, three times that many surface ships.”
“You think that the Gwansun’s distraction is no longer working?”
“The Gwansun’s distraction fell apart once I started leaving a trail of broken hulls pointing in a different direction. I think they know we’re here, and they’ll have a pretty good idea of where we’re going soon, if they don’t already.”
“I see what you mean.”
Jake nodded towards Leroux.
“Let him control one of the drones until he’s got the hang of it. It should take him no more than fifteen minutes. Then Remy can watch over him and handle the other drone.”
“Steady on course two-eight-one,” Henri said. “Steady on depth one hundred fifty meters.”
“Very well, Henri. Join me at the navigation table.”
Jake approached the chart and leaned into it beside the French mechanic.
“I just explained this to Julien, but I need to explain it to you. You can clue Antoine in later, since I don’t want to bother him now.”
“I can hear everything you say all the time no matter where you are,” Remy said. “I hear you breathe when you sleep across the ocean from me, and you should be thankful that I do. You bet your life on my hearing, and it’s quite a safe bet.”
“Fine. I’ll explain it to Henri, to you, and to anyone else with superhuman hearing who cares to listen. I’m taking us and the Goliath to ten knots. The Goliath will be in our hip pocket for protection and so that we can talk to Terry at low power.”
“Aggressive,” Henri said.
“Yeah, we lost an hour round trip with that torpedo evasion. I need to make up time. Plus, I assume that we’ve invited the North Korean armada to hunt for us after sinking two of its submarines.”
“So be it,” Henri said. “We will assume an aggressive posture. What’s your plan?”
“We’ll keep the triangle formation with the drones, but I want them on continuous active search on a two hundred and seventy-degree back and forth sweep and at full power.”
“Aggressive, indeed.”
“But necessary, due to time constraints and the Goliath’s noise. Antoine, how loud is Terry?”
The toad-head swiveled on its tree trunk neck.
“Worse than I had hoped. The average sonar operator could hear him out to eleven thousand yards at this speed.”
“And I suppose you could hear him at twice that range because you’re superhuman?”
“No, because his worst vulnerability is the broadband noise. All those jagged edges. It’s just babbling, high-frequency, flow noise. Anyone can hear it if they’re listening. You either need to slow him down or be ready to deal with him being heard out to almost six miles.”
“That’s still suicidal range for North Korean submarines, even if they’re waiting in silent ambush,” Jake said. “Their launch transients are loud enough for me to shoot at them, and they’re too slow to evade our counter-strikes.”
Henri’s deep sigh and glance towards the deck reminded him that his enemy considered suicide an acceptable tactic.
“Right,” Jake said. “They don’t appear to care about dying. So we need to find them first, which is business as usual, except that we’re escorting a noise farm behind us, our enemy welcomes death, and we’re in a hurry to save a helpless ship. Did I summarize this mess correctly?”
“You did,” Henri said.
“So keeping the drones on constant full-power active and our bow sonar on constant secure active is the best course of action.”
“Agreed, for lack of anything more insightful.”
“I think we cleared out a good chunk of ocean with our last attacks, but nature abhors a vacuum. More bad guys will come. I figure we’ve got about an hour and a half before we could run into any unwanted company.”
“This is your time to rest.”
“And Antoine’s,” Jake said. “And yours. The entire A-team needs to sleep.”
“My understudy is competent in handling the ship’s control station. However, I don’t trust him to drive the ship as you trust me. Is there a man you trust to drive this ship in your absence and mine?”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Him.”
He pointed at Julien.
“A sonar technician with drone training and no ship navigation experience whatsoever?”
“If he can drive two drones, he can drive one submarine for three hours. The kid is sharp.”
“Why not have Claude drive? He’s capable.”
“He’s also exhausted. When I leave here, I’m going to drag him from the engineering spaces myself and toss him in his rack before I go to sleep in mine.”
“Then you’d have Remy’s understudy with one apprentice listening on sonar, my understudy on the ship’s control panel, and a sharp kid driving while you, Antoine, Claude, and I sleep?”
“Yep. If we run into company, our watch team will be attentive enough to wake up the right people.”
“Decisions like this are why you’re in command.”
Jake turned to Julien.
“Come here.”
“I heard what you’re saying. I think I can handle it.”
As the young sailor stood over the chart, Jake spread open mechanical dividers from the icon that marked the Specter.
“When the Goliath reaches this point behind us, take the ship and our drones to ten knots. There’s nothing else you need to do unless you find a hostile contact, or unless Terry calls for help. If you detect a hostile contact, slow us and the drones to five knots, tell Terry to do the same, and secure all active transmissions.”
“Okay, I got it. Ten knots once the Goliath reaches here. If I hear a hostile contact, slow everyone to five knots, and secure all active transmissions.”
“Right. And if Terry calls for help, wake me.”
“May I, Jake?” Henri asked.
“Have I ever stopped you?”
“Perhaps Julien should wake me instead if Terry calls. You’re the one who needs the sharpest mind once we enter combat. Your rest is paramount to our survival.”
“But I… Shit. Okay. Wake Henri if Terry needs help.”
As Jake reclined into the coffin-sized rack in his stateroom, sleep overcame him.
In his dream, he soared over the ocean, and North Korean submarines fidgeted like helpless insects trapped on flypaper below him. He dropped bombs, each one finding a target from an infinite inventory of his munitions. Invulnerability pulsed through him, until he noticed that his enemy’s swarm grew faster than he could kill it.