“Don’t be surprised if they never hail you,” Renard said. “They’ll likely avoid communicating with you. Consider it the proverbial cold shoulder, so to speak. And I’m sure they have English translators aboard in case they decide to give you orders.”
Jake found the prediction odd, but it made sense as he digested it.
“Fine. But I still want my translator. What else are the terms of the ceasefire?”
“You must remain surfaced and head directly to the Bosporus. I recommend that you alter course now as a gesture of compliance.”
He checked his chart.
“Henri, come right to course zero-five-five.”
“Coming to course zero-five-five.”
“Very well. Prepare to snorkel.”
He heard the induction mast rise, and then he ordered the Specter’s diesel engines to propel the submarine forward and recharge its batteries.
“All ahead two-thirds,” he said.
“Coming to all ahead two-thirds,” Henri said.
“Is ten knots okay?” Jake asked.
“It’s fine,” Renard said. “Your speed wasn’t specified in the agreement, but faster is better since I’m sure they wish to be rid of you as much as you wish to leave.”
“What’s the plan once I’m at the Bosporus?”
“Terry will release the Kilo to be towed to Sevastopol. He’ll then take you into his cargo bed and escort you out behind Russian minesweepers.”
“Sounds too good to be true.”
“Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a goodwill exercise,” Renard said. “This is a hastily designed business agreement that could crumble under a false move. In fact, I hate to consider the outcome had you surfaced outside of torpedo range of the Slava. The tangible threat to the flagship was vital.”
Jake tried to picture the intricacies of give and take that his mentor had masterminded.
“I figured that my showing up with an itchy trigger finger counted for something.”
“More than you care to know. It might have been the shortest ceasefire in modern history had you failed to deliver the threat of sinking the cruiser along with its escorts.”
“I didn’t plan on failing.”
“Don’t be surprised if a task force shadows you on your way out. In fact, you may need to remain extra vigilant to avoid colliding with the Slava. Don’t let yourself be damaged by a spiteful maneuver that could be claimed as an accident.”
“I won’t.”
He wondered how close he had come to death.
“So, when was this really over? When was I safe?”
“You mean when did the Russians agree to the ceasefire?”
“Yeah.”
“Roughly about the time I saw a helicopter hovering over you while another joined it to finalize a tandem targeting solution.”
“So, I was going to be dead in about ninety seconds?”
“You’re not complaining, are you? I left you plenty of time.”
“No, but I’m left wondering how you did it.”
His mentor cleared his throat.
“This will be best discussed in private.”
“Henri,” Jake said. “Keep us on course and speed. Take periscope sweeps every five minutes. Call me if we’re hailed or if you see anything you don’t like.”
In the solitude of his stateroom, Jake found the priest.
“I assume we’re going to live?”
“Yeah. I figured the rumor had spread throughout the ship by now, but I see that you’ve been locked up in here.”
“I finished taking confessions and decided to stay here.”
“Can you do me a favor and make sure everyone knows what’s going on? Henri’s running the show in the control room so that I can talk to Pierre in private. He can give you the details.”
“Sure. I’ll make sure everyone is okay.”
“Sounds like what a naval chaplain would do.”
“We don’t just read books and preach the Gospels.”
Jake noticed his hands shaking and sat on them. He wondered if he would benefit from counseling.
“When you’re done with the rest of the crew…”
“Yes?”
“Uh, never mind.”
After Andrew departed, Jake opened his laptop and greeted his mentor.
“We’re alone,” he said.
“Good,” Renard said.
“So, how’d you bail me out of this?”
“Miss McDonald came to our aid, through unofficial channels, of course. She used a mix of threats and enticements to secure your escape from the Black Sea.”
“If I know you, you’ve had this move in your back pocket since the beginning.”
The Frenchman smirked.
“I left it as an open possibility when I last saw her.”
“She had a plan in her back pocket, then?”
“I’m sure she did.”
Jake realized that his mastery of deadly warships seemed meaningless compared to the wielding of political clout.
“What did she do?” he asked.
“She offered cash as recompense for damages, cash as recompense to the families of the deceased, assurances to keep the United States out of the Crimea issue publicly, and the pulling back of the threat to the Russian fleet that you and Terry posed.”
“Wow.”
“She has growing power that’s becoming hard to measure.”
“She called up some guy in Russia and bought our way out?”
“It wasn’t that simple. I believe she’s communicating with a governor of rising power who runs the state in the region that controls the sea. She’s positioning herself as an ally with him as a hedge in case he wins the next presidential election. But she’s also working through the United Nations.”
“Directly?”
“Doubtful. Between her growing power and her desire to exert control from a distance, she makes people work on her behalf. In this case, her agent positioned her as a neutral ombudsman to the United Nations. Her claim is that we, the unruly terrorists, approached her to broker the peace, hiding the fact that she has a longstanding relationship with us, of course.”
Jake ran dollar values in his head, counting the cost of the damage he had inflicted.
“And supposedly the Russians believe that the group that just attacked them was willing to pay for the damages? There’s no way. That had to cost more money than the value of the Specter and Goliath combined.”
“They’re not stupid,” Renard said. “The money is coming from a mix of public and underground sources that Miss McDonald had lobbied prior to asking us to undertake this attack. The Russians can surmise this, but the local governor will play along because he needs the money. Crimea is a money pit.”
“She must have really wanted this political win if she was willing to round up so much cash.”
Renard blew smoke and tightened the crow’s feet beside his steel blue eyes.
“She and I have learned to read each other over the years. I estimated three to four billion dollars total cost for this standoff scenario when I first assessed this mission.”
“So that’s it? Money, promises, threats. Are there any rules of engagement, or disengagement, to be specific? There must be more rules to this that I need to follow in the next days and weeks.”
“Indeed. You need to vanish after Terry loads you and stay vanished so that the Russians can claim victory. You’ll pass through the Bosporus and Dardanelles submerged, but you’ll have Russian minesweepers escorting you to protect you from interference.”
“That’s going to be tough, even with an escort.”
“I have faith in you, my friend. Rather, I have faith in Terry, since he’ll be driving.”
“How’s he doing?”
“Ask him yourself. I’ll establish a communications bridge.”
Renard rolled his shoulder in front of his face as he reached for an adjacent console. Ignoring Jake, he held a brief talk with the Australian and then aimed his nose at the screen.