The Lotus Eaters

SdL Orca, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova

'Lost 'em, captain,' Yermo told Quijana. 'I think maybe they went under the layer.'

Quijana nodded while thinking, Man, ever since Pedraz booted me off the Trinidad I've felt like a fugitive from the law of averages. And my instructions didn't cover this. What's that frog sub doing? What would I be doing in his shoes?

'I've got a better signature on that surface disturbance, sir,' Yermo said. 'It's definitely at least one helicopter . . . and I've got a plonk from a sonar buoy. Active sonar pinging now.'

'Don't sweat the buoy,' Quijana said. 'I doubt they need it for us, with the clicker going. If I had to make a guess, I'd say they're looking for that sub we lost track of.' Of course, that assumes the frog sub is still playing a game with her own battle group. I'm really getting uncomfortable with all this.

Then again, my mission is to provide cover for the Meg to get under the fleet. Have I already done that? I could use the underwater phone to find out but if I do the frogs will know there's another sub out here. One they hadn't a clue to. That might panic them. Hell, it would panic me. This is . . .

Yermo interrupted Quijana's train of thought. 'Captain, I've got another plonk. High frequency noise but not sonar. One of the helicopters, if there is more than one up there, is talking to the frog sub. And . . . there goes another plonk. Skipper, I'm sure there's more than one helicopter up there.'

S806 Diamant, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova

'What the fuck do you mean, 'there's only one sub down there'?' Diamant's captain demanded on the helicopter that had dropped the sonobuoy. 'I can hear the bastard . . . Oh, you see us doing a three-sixty under the layer, but you can't see them cruising straight above the layer. Oh, you can hear the clicking from the defective water jet? But no active return signal? That's bizarre.'

'Could be the material,' the deck officer ventured. 'The plastic we know makes up the hull might give a poor return signal.'

'But that poor?' the captain questioned.

'Maybe the sonobuoy's defective,' the deck officer offered, reasonably.

'No . . . no, they see us well enough.' The captain went back to tapping his lips. He ceased his tapping and put the underwater telephone transceiver back to his head. 'Relay to Charlemagne,' he said. 'I want a line of passive sonobuoys dropped in front of that sub. If he doesn't turn back from those it will establish a pretty good case that he intends to intercept the battle group with hostile intent. I also need permission from the admiral to fire if they do pass that line. Tell the admiral I am loading tubes.'

SdL Megalodon, Shimmering Sea

Now that I heard, thought Auletti. 'Captain Chu, the Amethyst Class is flooding tubes. Location on screen now.'

Chu hadn't taken his eyes from the screen lately. He saw the Gallic submarine reappear as his target 'Five' (because Meg, being under the layer, didn't have as clear a picture of the surface as Orca did.

'This shit has just gotten way too serious,' was Chu's pronouncement. 'Quijana,' he whispered, 'I think we've already proved our point. You can turn around and go home any time now.'

Auletti said, 'Sir, the Orca's stopped . . . or maybe just turned off its clicker. I think they must have heard the tubes being flooded.'

Chu shook his head. 'No, they didn't turn off their clicker. Quijana's the literal sort. His orders were to use his clicker continuously while moving under power. He'll do that right up to the point where it means self destruction . . . and maybe past that point. Maybe he'll be clever and stop for a bit.

'Continue on course for the Gallic battle group.'

SdL Orca, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova

'All stop,' Quijana ordered, as soon as he was informed that the Gallic submarine was arming itself. The clicker was electronically, although not mechanically, tied in to the drive system, to the extent that it would stop clicking if the jet pumps stopped, or increase or slow its rate of clicking if the sub's speed went up or down.

And now what? They're nuclear, with maybe two or three months rations aboard. I'm not; I can't replenish my air anything like that long; and we'd all starve long before he does. Fuck.

Garcia walked over to stand next to Quijana's command chair. 'If it comes to it, skipper,' the Exec whispered, 'The bitch is already in line with our rear tubes. At this range'—the main screen indicated the Gallic sub was less than a kilometer astern—'she'd hardly know what hit her if we use the supercavitating torpedo we've got back there.'

'Ten seconds is long enough to press a firing button,' Quijana answered.

'Yes, sir,' Garcia agreed. 'Yes, sir, it is. But if the sub's destroyed, and there's no one to provide guidance to the torpedo, we've got a much better chance.'

'You want to start a war, XO?'

'No, sir. But I don't want to die right now, either.'