“Four and a half miles.”
Jake did a mental calculation but wanted a second check. “Terry, if I make twenty knots for half an hour, how far ahead of the Goliath would I be?”
The Australian, his toweled hair damp from a shower, worked a stylus over the central table. “About a mile and a quarter. You can get a full mile ahead by making twenty knots for twenty-eight minutes.”
“Very well. I’m going deep and sprinting at twenty knots for twenty-eight minutes. Once I’m ahead, I’ll deploy a drone and drift behind the Goliath. You good with that, Pierre?”
His boss’ voice crackled from overhead speakers. “Yes. The patrol vessels will keep the Goliath submerged. Now’s the time to catch up again, but do it one at a time so you and Dmitry can cover each other.”
“Got it. I’ll go first, and I’ll deploy a drone straight ahead at first but then steer it right after Dmitry catches me. I suggest that Dmitry deploys a drone to the left when he catches up so that we can broaden our coverage.”
Renard sounded approving. “You would then use the drones instead of your bow sonars for active searches?”
“Sort of. We can use secure active from the bow sonars. Between that and the drones, we’ll have good active search coverage without giving away free information on our locations.”
“I agree. Dmitry will need to direct traffic while you sprint. I want the patrol craft to keep station next to the Goliath, assuming it may surface at any moment.”
Jake looked to the screen with the Russian commander and his translator, who rattled off their boss’ concerns. “You got that covered, Dmitry?”
After the translator interpreted Jake’s question, Volkov answered for himself. “Da. Yes.”
“Also, can we use your dolphins? We’ll be moving slow enough, and now’s a good time.”
“Yes. Dolphins. No problem.”
On the screen, Renard nodded. “I agree again. Now’s the time to use the dolphins, given your proximity to Iranian waters.”
“Shit. We are getting close to Iran, aren’t we?” Jake looked to the chart but feared the answer. With the Persian tripwire approaching, he sensed the inevitability of the violence he’d advocated but secretly hoped to avoid.
The slow and melancholy movement of the Australian suggested the Goliath’s commander drew the same conclusion.
“Terry?”
“Yeah?”
“How close will we be to Iranian waters?”
“When we get ahead of the Goliath, we’ll be thirty miles away. When Dmitry catches up, we’ll be only twenty miles away.”
“That’s cutting it close.”
“We’ll still have time to send in divers again. We can do it this time.”
The Goliath’s commander oozed a contagious courage, but Jake remained the voice of reason. “How? You almost died last time.”
“We won’t cut the long cable. We’ll use the bottom team as an anchor, and the top team will make it to the engine room.”
“Against more than eight knots of current?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Because of physics. Leverage. A hundred-meter-long cable keeps you anchored, alright. It keeps you anchored dead center in the current. You can’t make any lateral movement, and the best you’d do is get wrapped around the tunnel again.”
“Come on, mate. I can do this.”
A confirming voice of reason issued from Renard, trumping Cahill’s hopes. “It’s too dangerous. Regain your positions relative to the Goliath, and assure your safety with the active sonar and the dolphins. I’ll determine our next attack from there.”
Jake wanted to call out the next attack as the finale, but he trusted his boss to realize it, and he wanted to avoid a French tirade. He turned to the screens to face Renard and Volkov. “Okay. I’m going deep and fast. You know how to contact me if you need me.”
After ordering the Specter to begin its dive to three hundred meters, he watched the world tilt downward, and the screens went dark and silent. “Henri, make turns for twenty knots.”
The French conveyed the order to the engine room, and the ship shuddered.
As gravity hastened the submarine’s acceleration, a cold fear gripped Jake, and he needed to share it. “Terry.”
The Australian walked to Jake. “Yeah.”
He wanted to blame Cahill for the vulnerability of sprinting into danger, but in ignorance of a defined enemy, the accusation would be vapid. Instead of bitching, he sought a sanity check. “We’re sprinting blind, you know.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“Am I forgetting anything?”
“No, mate. It’s a bad position, but it’s only as bad as whatever’s out there waiting for us.”
“And we’re still far enough from Iranian waters.”
“Far enough? Sure. I guess. We have no idea if the Iranians even know or care about what’s happening, but we’re going to resolve this in international waters, one way or the other.”
“I can’t wait to hear how Pierre thinks we’re going to end this.”
“That’s why he’s the big boss.”
Jake wanted to continue bridging the divide between himself and the Australian, but he decided the Goliath’s commander could benefit from unperturbed silence, and he let him go. “Thanks, Terry.”
“No problem.” Cahill returned to the chart.
Jake aimed his voice at his sonar ace. “Can you still hear the limpets?”
“Of course. It’s the only thing I can hear at this speed, but they’re still loud.”
“Very well.” As the Specter settled into its rhythmic run, Jake sank into his foldout chair and waited for his French mechanic to make eye contact. When he did, he waved to him.
Henri slid behind the Australian and found his way to Jake. Stooping, he spoke softly in his native tongue. “What can I do for you?”
Jake responded in the same language. “Why are you asking in French?”
“I sensed you wanted privacy.”
“Yes, I do, but speaking French gives us privacy from only Terry. Don’t you think he’d pick up on that?”
“Yes, but isn’t he the one you’re most concerned about?”
“Okay, fine. I can’t hide anything from you. The point I wanted to make was, no matter what Pierre says, I’m not letting the Goliath reach Iranian waters.”
The Frenchman nodded. “I understand your position.”
“But do you respect it?”
“Respect it? Yes. Agree? Thankfully, that’s not a decision I need to make. But I will give you this. Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s a logical position.”
“Thanks, my friend. That’s all I wanted to know.”
“Shall I load a drone now, while we’re making noise?”
“Yeah. Of course. Use tube five. Flood it and open the outer door. I’m going to launch it as soon as we’re shallow.”
For the next fifteen minutes of presenting an easy target to any nearby adversary, Jake silently prayed the Goliath’s hijackers were working alone. He exhaled in relief when he passed under the transport ship and left it in his baffles. “Henri, it’s time to let the Goliath catch up to us again. Slow us to three knots and take us to periscope depth.”
Friction and gravity slowed the ascending submarine. The sprinting vibrations gave way to a smooth and rapid rise, which then became a leveled but rocking deck.
“Antoine, begin an automatically repeated secure active search, minimum duration bursts, twenty-degree increments, full sweep.”
The guru tapped icons and energized the sonar system. “I’ve commenced the automatically repeated secure active search, minimum duration bursts, twenty-degree increments, full sweep.”