the way so I can follow that.'
13
Jason and Tina sat in awe as the submarine passed in front of them. He would have given anything to snap pictures of the exterior because he had never seen anything like it. To say it was large would have been an understatement. Jason estimated that it was at least as big as the largest sub in the American fleet. The Scorpion's cloaking device kept them hidden, but they sat in silence, afraid that the submarine's sonar might pick up them up. Jason tried to memorize every detail and let his instruments record as much data as possible.
The submarine continued to move forward and far enough out of range that it was safe to talk.
'I need to go after it,' he said. 'The scoop on the front is proof that they're using some form of cavitation, but it's not what I need — I need the design.'
'Proof of what?' she asked. 'Cavi-what?'
'They've developed a nuclear sub with supercavitation capabilities.'
'Super-what?' she said. 'Would you mind speaking a language I happen to know?'
'Supercavitation,' he repeated. 'I won't bore you with the science, but the easiest way to explain it is that they have a sub that can travel twice as fast as anything we have in the water.'
'That can't be good,' she said. 'Okay, let's go.'
'There is no way to get the Scorpion close enough without being detected. I have a dry suit on under my clothes and there is dive gear on the Scorpion.'
'I'm not really keen on the idea of you just popping the hatch. I'm not the Boy Scout that you are, and I left my dry suit in my other pants,' Tina said.
'You won't be getting wet, I promise,' he said. 'This thing comes complete with an escape hatch.'
'You're not going to leave me here, are you?' she asked. 'Alone?'
'It's the only choice I've got,' he said. 'You'll be fine.'
'What if something happens?' she asked, panic filling her voice.
'Calm down,' he said, soothingly. 'Nothing is going to happen.'
At least, that's what he hoped.
Jason typed in his wish list of dive gear on his computer. Room 59 had been very thorough in giving him the equipment that he wanted. The only thing missing was a particular regulator that he liked, but the one in inventory would work fine.
He slipped into his equipment and dialed in the escape hatch. The floor beneath his feet became translucent, and he could feel the power shield surge as he placed his feet along the edges.
'I see water, but we're not sinking,' Tina said. 'That's a good sign.'
'The portal actually retracts and is covered by a thin layer of positively charged energy, kind of like static electricity. It tells the water to stay out, but isn't dense enough to cause me harm. Plus, the oxygen exchangers keep the compartment filled with fresh air — in other words, it keeps everything afloat. As soon as I'm through, I'll close the hatch. I have a remote to open it when I return.'
'So you're really going to just leave me here. What if something happens to you?' Tina asked.
He pointed to the control panel. 'See that red button on the center of the console? If you think I've gone to the great beyond, then just press that. It's preprogrammed to go to the last beacon point, which is up on the shoreline. Just be quick getting out — you'll only have a minute. A secondary protocol will go into effect, and it will return to its primary base of operations. In this particular case, that's not a place you want to visit.'
'Good to know,' she said. 'How long…'
'Should you wait?' he asked. 'I don't know, but if I'm not back in two hours, hit the button. If I'm still alive, I'll get back to shore on my own.'
She was silent for a moment, then said, 'You're the real thing, aren't you?'
'The real what?' he asked, confused.
'Superspy,' she said. 'It's not like a desk job, that's for sure.'
'You don't strike me as the kind of person who'd be very happy sitting at a desk yourself,' he said.
'I wasn't,' she replied, maneuvering herself around to face him more directly. She kissed him lightly on the lips. 'Be careful.'
'It's practically my motto,' he said.
Jason sealed his face mask and slipped through the portal into the cold ocean depths. The water enveloped him and he adjusted his gauges to the current depth, pressure and temperature. The dive suit itself was another Room 59 marvel — a flexible skin that would keep him warm in the extreme environment, but was strong enough to repel small-arms fire. His dive equipment included a suite of modified tracking sensors and a radar-distortion device that would make him look like nothing more than another sea creature to the sonar on a submarine or other seagoing vessel. He detached the personal propulsion system from the hull of the Scorpion and made some quick adjustments, then tapped a few buttons and he was off, headed after the submarine.
The propulsion system pulled him through the water. He hadn't traveled with this particular system before and was surprised at the speed he was able to travel. The submarine was holding a position about four miles offshore. Jason slowed his approach, not wanting his speed to give away his presence. Few sea creatures would swim as fast as he was moving, and being detected now would make getting to the sub impossible.
The massive vessel floated still and silent in the water. Jason was amazed at the lack of distortion in the water surrounding it. Even though it was holding position, he still expected to feel the suction of the engines as he approached it, but the water was absolutely still. Either the engines were off-line, or this was the kind of technology that the bad guys should never be allowed to have.
All around him, tracking beacons floated in the water — some were his, some were not. So far, his hadn't been able to transmit the information that the submarine was in the area, so they were either jamming or ghosting on top of the signal or it was just invisible to them. From the pack he'd attached to his back, Jason removed a different type of beacon and made several adjustments to it, spreading the signal out over a larger bandwidth and on several different frequencies, including radio and ultraviolet pulse.
Shutting down the propulsion system entirely, he swam in closer to the hull of the boat. He was careful not to bump any of his equipment on the hull of the vessel, knowing the sound would travel easily through the metal skin and might alert the crew to his presence.
He attached the sensor to the underside of the sub, marveling at the smooth metal skin that was so unlike any sub he'd ever seen before. At least with the sensor placed where it was, even if it surfaced, someone would have to go beneath it to find and remove it. He began to swim along the hull, noting the location of the torpedo tubes and which one might give him the best chance for access. Using a handheld sensor, he scanned the tubes carefully, looking for anything out of the ordinary. By all indications, they were fairly standard launch tubes.
Each one had two openings. One was on the inside of the sub, where a torpedo or — in his worst nightmare — a nuclear warhead was loaded. The second was on the outside of the sub, which opened during the launch sequence, and was controlled by a computer system. He positioned a set of locking magnets around one of the tube doors.
The easy part was done. Now all he had to do was somehow access the computer system from the outside and tell it not to go crazy when he disengaged the locking mechanism and opened the tube from the outside.
He continued moving farther down the sleek hull of the sub, taking readings as he went. Finally, he found what he was searching for — a watertight access panel that had one of the main computer lines running through it. In an emergency, a crewman could open the panel and work on the system from the outside. Still, if he opened it, alarms would go off on the bridge and his mission would be doomed to failure.
Sometimes, what was needed was a subtle touch rather than brute force. He reached into his pack again, this time taking out a small transmitter with a magnetized backing and a shield much like the one that operated around his dive suit. Visually, it looked like nothing more than a sea barnacle, but if one looked closer, tiny metal tendrils could be seen floating from its surface.
He attached it to the access panel and activated the tendrils. Much like the antenna of an ant or the tongue of a snake could read the environment, the tendrils from this device would tap into the submarine's computer system
