line by extending into the line itself. In some ways, it was like a computer parasite. Once it was in place, he could use his handheld in sync with his computer and tap into the sub's system. With any luck, it would be fully online within eight hours — and totally undetected.
Jason turned and began making his way back to the front end of the sub where he'd left the propulsion unit. Preoccupied with thoughts of everything he needed to accomplish, he was slow to notice the two Russian minisubs headed straight for him. He did a double take, then put on a burst of speed, barely avoiding a harpoon fired from the nearest one.
It clanked off the metal hull of the sub behind him with a sharp
Fortunately, he'd left the machine on standby mode, and it launched itself forward with barely a touch of a button. The timer on the console showed that he'd been in the water for the better part of an hour, which meant that Tina should still be waiting in the Scorpion where he'd left her. If he could somehow survive long enough to make it back, he might have a chance at escape. Out in the open water, however, he was as good as dead. Sooner or later, if nothing else, they'd simply run him over.
He pushed the unit to its top speed, then dived for the shelter of a rocky outcropping, zipping around it just as the minisubs closed the distance once more. They would expect him to try to hide, so he did the opposite, careening around the far side and heading straight for the surface.
On the map display, he could see his location and the location of the Scorpion, but he didn't want them too close when he got there. That would be almost as bad as having them catch up to him in the open water.
He risked a glance behind and saw that the minisubs had slowed and were carefully searching for him around the rocks. The light-bending technology was working and he wasn't showing up on their sonar; they had to spot him visually in order to find him.
Jason took an indirect route back toward the Scorpion, zigzagging in different directions and varying his depth, just to be on the safe side. At one point, running without lights, he nearly collided with the bottom of one of the minisubs, but fortunately, he saw it in time to swerve away. He breathed a sigh of relief that it had been the bottom side, rather than the front where the operator would have had him dead to rights.
It took the better part of his second hour, but he finally made it back to the Scorpion and came to a stop beneath it. He knew that he had a few minutes, maybe five at the most, before they'd find him again. They'd adopted a grid search pattern and were likely using their own sonar, as well as the sub's, to track anything remotely suspicious in the water. He attached the propulsion unit to the underside of the Scorpion, grabbed his pack and used the remote to open the hatch.
He stuck his hands through the opening and pulled himself inside.
Tina was watching him, her eyes filled with fear and anxiety. As soon as he had his faceplate off, she said, 'Oh, my God, are you okay? I was just about ready to push the button and give you up for dead!'
'I'm fine,' he said, peeling off the dry suit as quickly as possible. 'But we've got to get out of here in a hurry.'
'Did you find the sub?' she asked.
'Lots of them,' he said. 'Including the one I was looking for.'
He slipped back into the seat for the controls. 'I'll bring you up to speed later, but right now, time is not our friend.'
'Why not?' she asked.
'Because of the other subs I found,' he said. 'Or, rather, the ones that found me.'
'You mean those subs?' she asked, pointing through the view screen.
'That's them,' he said, punching at the controls.
The Scorpion leaped off the rock perch he'd parked it on and shot between the two oncoming minisubs like a missile. The sharp clank of another harpoon hit the side, but bounced away harmlessly. They would have to do better than that to stop him now.
'Where are we going?' she asked, watching the sonar as the subs gave chase.
'Anywhere but here,' he said, trying to focus on maneuvering the vessel around rock clusters and large chunks of floating ice. The tide must have come in, bringing the ice with it. 'For now, we just need a place to hide, but before we can do that…'
He veered sharply to the left, dodging a massive piece of ice and one of the other subs that had somehow managed to pull even with them.
'We've got to get away from these guys,' he said.
Tina had been smart enough, he noted, to buckle herself in, and she'd quickly learned how to move with the craft, rather than fight against it. 'If you can lose them, I think I know of a place we can hide,' she said.
He was about to reply when she shouted, 'Look out!'
But the warning came too late. The Scorpion clipped one of the larger pieces of floating ice, spun in the water and came nose to nose with one of the minisubs.
'Damn it!' Jason yelled. 'Hang on!'
He slammed the craft into full reverse, but it was almost impossible to maneuver. His collision with the ice had damaged something, and the other sub stayed with him. Taking a risk, he extended the arms of the Scorpion to their full length, then slammed on the brakes. 'Brace yourself!' he shouted.
The other sub smashed into the arms at nearly full speed. They pierced the main window of the craft, shattering it and allowing the sea to pour mercilessly inside. He could see the horror and surprise on the faces of the two men inside. Their mouths were open in screams of panic that he was grateful he couldn't hear. At least their deaths would be quick, Jason thought. That was more than they would have likely offered him if he'd been captured.
Engaging the engines once more, Jason began to back off, using the extended arms to shake the other sub free. One of them broke off completely, lodged in the metal frame of the craft. The other came free and he retracted it back to the body of the Scorpion.
He got them turned around, and dived lower, hoping that the other sub would be too busy trying to figure out what had happened to keep tracking them for at least a few minutes. Glancing at Tina, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears and her lips were moving silently.
'I didn't have a choice,' he said softly. 'They would have tried to sink us.'
She shook her head. 'I'm not…I'm not upset at you. All of this is just…it's so real…I don't know if that makes any sense or not.'
'I'm not sure,' he said. 'What do you mean?'
Tina wiped her eyes. 'Ever since we met, it's been like one long video game, you know? People shooting and dying and danger and thinking about those things, even playing games or watching movies, it's…it's not the same, is it?'
He shook his head. 'No, I suppose it's not. Especially when you're not used to it.'
'Trust me,' she said, 'I'm way beyond my depth here — no pun intended.' She gestured at the murky water all around them.
He chuckled. 'Fair enough,' he said. 'But I need you to hang in there for a bit longer, okay? There's at least one more sub out there looking for us, so if you know of a safe harbor where we can hide for a while, I'd sure like to know about it.'
'I do,' she said. 'Can you bring up the map again?'
He tapped the controls and checked the sonar again for the other sub. He didn't want any more surprises at this point. He could handle it, but the Scorpion wasn't in great shape and Tina surely couldn't handle much more. She wasn't cut out for the life of a supersecret spy. But then again, not many people were.
'There,' she said, pointing to a little inlet not far away.
'Why there?' he asked.
'Because there's nothing there,' she said. 'The ocean has eroded all the soil beneath the grasses, but they still float on the top of the water most of the year, except when it completely freezes. There should be plenty of hiding room beneath them.'
'Good idea,' he said, steering the craft toward the coordinates she'd pointed out.
Maybe she wasn't cut out to be a spy, but she was smart enough to think like one. He decided that no matter
