“How much longer until they’re ready?”
“Seven minutes from my recommended drop point,” Renard said. “But I have communications with the Turks and can have the helicopter drop them wherever you want.”
“No, just drop them where you planned. I’m still wondering how you got them to Izmir so fast.”
“Dmitry and the Wraith are safely in Karachi. Admiral Khan may be retired, but he can still get me my choice of Pakistani military aircraft when needed and in all reasonable haste — for a modest price.”
“I won’t even guess what you consider modest.”
“To put it in perspective, transport for our two dolphins cost me less than a day’s docking fee for the Wraith in Karachi. Stop trying to vilify this gift. Start embracing their tactical value and get your wits about the concept of using them.”
Jake ran his head through his hair and raised his chin toward the overhead microphone.
“Shit, Pierre, you should expect me to challenge you at least once per mission on something, just to keep you honest.”
The Frenchman’s response was friendly.
“Indeed! Otherwise I should question your mental state.”
“I’ll give Flipper and his friend a chance.”
“Thank you, my friend,” Renard said. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Their trainer spent seven years teaching them how to communicate and maneuver before they swam their first real mission, and he’s been teaching them ever since. The trainer is excellent and devoted.”
“We’ll see.”
“Careful not to be so cavalier about them, either,” Renard said. “They’re your assets to borrow, but you’re obliged to bring them back unharmed.”
Questioning his selfishness, Jake admitted to himself that he’d ignored the value of the dolphins beyond his immediate needs.
“How would I do that?” he asked.
“They’ll follow you back to whatever port you achieve, provided you guide them properly.”
“Okay, I’ll deal with that when it’s time,” Jake said. “There’s a lot of work between now and then.”
“Agreed. But do remember that they are someone else’s — dare I say — children. Dmitry said their trainer almost cried when he agreed to let you use them.”
Jake suppressed his cynicism and tried to absorb the significance of such a loving bond. If the trainer cared that much, then he could bank on the quality of the formation the dolphins had received.
But he considered their tactical value a separate concern.
“Okay, Pierre. I got it. I’ll be careful with them.”
“Thank you. I regret, however, that we shall now have to shift to low-bandwidth communications. With all the Greek submarines in the water, it’s only a matter of time before they suspect that you’re a mechanical dolphin. Best that you get into a habit of keeping your masts and antennas below the surface while you communicate with them.”
“I’m as ready as I can be.”
“You do recall Dmitry’s detailed advice on how to make use of your new assets?”
“Yeah, yeah. Between all of us, I’m sure we’ve got it. Worst case, we’ll read the operator’s manual.”
“As usual, I’d wish you luck, except I believe that you are charmed. I wish you only continued proof of my faith in you.”
Jake nudged Henri’s arm.
“Take us to fifty meters,” he said.
As his French mechanic nodded and walked to his ship’s control station, Jake shot his voice into the room.
“Back to your stations, everyone. We’ve talked through the details enough. I’m taking us deep to meet our new dolphin friends.”
Jake returned his eyes on the chart, wondering where the line of Greek submarines awaited him. Accepting his guess was baseless, he sought his dubious mammalian tactical advantage.
As the deck dipped, he walked upward to his seat on the elevated conning station.
“Let me know when you hear them,” he said.
The toad-head turned and offered a slight nod, and the side of Remy’s face revealed his disdain in Jake’s reminder of the obvious.
Leaving his sonar ace unperturbed, Jake studied the display by his chair and verified the Specter’s position. Twenty miles separated him from the nearest location where he expected a Greek submarine. Safe — for now — but useless to help the Goliath, which was at least fifty miles away, pinned to the north behind a screen of Hellenic warships.
Time ticked away as Jake awaited his first connection with the Russian mammals. Pessimism for their usefulness grew as he watched Remy sit in stillness. Exercising patience, he stifled the urge to prod his sonar expert for a status.
“Got them,” Remy said.
A glimmer of hope rose in Jake’s heart.
“Seriously?”
“I’m listening on their bearing, and they’re clearly calling out for a mothership, so to speak.”
On Jake’s display, the cetacean equivalent of a speech recognition algorithm generated a message number. He grabbed a printed sheet of paper that listed the possible messages the duo could transmit and receive.
“At least the software add-ons seem to work,” he said. “If I believe it, that’s message one, which is a request for a communication check with the host ship.”
“Yes,” Remy said. “Do you want it on the loudspeakers?”
“Yeah, pipe them through.”
Aquatic sounds from a dolphin Jake assumed was Andrei chirped and whistled in the compartment
“They’ll repeat the sequence until we answer,” Remy said.
“Can’t stress out the children,” Jake said. “If I remember right, we’re supposed to send out an acknowledgment message?”
“That’s right,” Henri said.
Jake glanced at his mechanic.
“You’ve committed this all to memory already?” he asked.
“Yes, Jake. Communications will govern our fate.”
The chirps and whistles repeated.
“True enough,” Jake said. “Antoine, are you ready to send the acknowledgement?”
“I have a menu open in front of me to send any message you want. You say it in English, and I’ll send it out in ‘dolphin’.”
“Very well,” Jake said. “Send the acknowledgement.”
The Specter’s sonar system played a recording of cetacean sounds, filling the compartment through the submarine’s hydrophones. Seconds later, Jake recognized a different batch of chirps and whistles.
“They acknowledged our acknowledgement,” Remy said.
Jake considered the animals’ perspectives in his tactics to break through the hidden Hellenic wall of submarines. He accepted their view of the undersea world as a sonic painting, knowing their mental pictures eluded his grasp. He sought the limited, discrete information he could extract from them.
“Very well. Now let’s figure out where the Turks dropped off our new pals. We already know the bearing of their incoming responses. So next is to determine their range. Pierre suggested that we do it three times to get an average. You ready to send out three range checks, Antoine?”
“I am ready to send out three range checks.”
“Send out three range checks.”
Three series of outgoing recordings followed by mammalian responses filled the control room.
“Based upon round-trip timing and the sound-velocity profile, the distance to Andrei is nine miles,” Remy said.
“Very well,” Jake said. “Send it to the chart.”
On his commanding officer’s display, an icon appeared that reminded him of a seafood menu.
“That’s a shrimp bed,” he said.
“It’s the closest thing to a dolphin we’ve got, Jake.”
“I don’t like it. Change it to a friendly submarine. Let’s give them credit for being warriors, at least while they keep doing their jobs.”