'I want to do something to get them to leave, something whalelike that no sub would do.' Ilse read the displays. In spite of the tension she smiled. She was getting good at this: raw sonar data, then TMA, and finally the big tactical picture.
'How long since we last spouted?' she said.
'Eight minutes forty seconds,' Meltzer said.
'One option's to run to deep water,' Ilse said. 'Sperm whales can do five thousand feet.'
'I wish we could,' Jeffrey said, 'but we're small enough they might lose us anyway, and with our batteries we're dead quiet too. It's ten miles to reach the twothousand-foot curve.'
'How long would it take us to get there?' Ilse said. 'Top speed,' Jeffrey said, 'half an hour or so.' 'That sounds like forever,' Ilse said.
'Our SDVs couldn't take it either,' Jeffrey said. 'Even two thousand's way past their crush depth, and that ends the mission right there.'
'No,' Ilse said, 'we have to keep heading inshore.' 'Agreed,' Jeffrey said, 'and brazen it out in their faces.'
'Helmsman,' Ilse said, 'let's keep up the cover. Weave back and forth while I think.'
'Sir?' Meltzer said.
'Do it,' Jeffrey said.
'Yes, ma'am,' Meltzer said. 'By how much?' 'Twenty degrees left and right.'
'Yes, ma'am.' Meltzer played with his joy stick. Ilse and Jeffrey swayed together, bracing themselves on each turn.
'This recording you're playing is just what we need,' Ilse said. 'It's a female calling to others, asking them where is the food.'
'Good,' Jeffrey said.
'Master 18's now off our port quarter,' the SEAL chief said. 'Master 19's converging from the north.' 'They're boxing us in,' Jeffrey said.
'What do you do when you breach?' Ilse said.
Meltzer twisted in his seat, straining his neck to make eye contact. 'Shoot up, release compressed air, go down again.'
'Do you break the surface?'
'No.',
'And what color is the hull?'
'Jet black,' Jeffrey said. 'But one three-inch shell and we're finished.'
'We have to come up again soon,' Ilse said. 'To breathe, whales uncover their blowhole. You usually see some of their back, a big glossy shape in the water. In storms they act a particular way, otherwise they could drown.,
'So we hide in plain sight,' Jeffrey said, 'call the enemy's dare, push the mimicry far as we can. Sailors who serve in these waters would have seen whale behavior before.,
'We need to do it like this,' Ilse said. 'Get under a wave, a big one. They come in sets, so we watch for the tallest. We speed up and go through its face, surging into the trough of the previous one. We blow when we're down in its lee.'
'And give them a glimpse of our top,' Jeffrey said, giving Ilse a devilish smile.
'Is there anything there to betray us?' she said. 'A periscope, antenna, a sail?'
'No,' Jeffrey said, 'we don't have a sail, and the masts fold down hydraulically on the exterior overhead. Our little side thrusters retract into the hull, and our diveplanes and rudder would look like fins, I hope.'
'Good,' Ilse said. 'And any small fittings, bumps and stuff, they'll look like barnacles or wounds.'
'What's happening?' Clayton called on the intercom. 'We've got company,' Jeffrey said.
'Sit tight back there.'
'That's easy for you,' Clayton said. 'You're a submariner these days.'
'I've taken command,' Jeffrey said. 'Just till we're out of the woods.'
'Yes, sir,' Clayton said, clicking off.
'Raise the periscope, please,' Ilse said.
'Just enough to be able to see,' Jeffrey said. Meltzer tapped a key.
'What's the wind?' Ilse said.
'Based on the strength of the wave action,' Meltzer said, 'given the tide and the current and incoming swells, it's a fresh gale from out of the west.'
'About thirty-five knots,' Jeffrey said. 'Maybe forty or so in a ship's upper works.'
'And it's pitch-dark outside?' Ilse said.
Jeffrey peered through the 'scope, then looked at the depth gauge once more, then back to the 'scope. 'Turn up the picture gain,' he said. The copilot reached for a knob. 'Yup,' Jeffrey said, 'it's pitch-dark.'
'On image intensification,' Ilse said, 'that destroyer will just see a blob. We're giving off warmth, aren't we?'
'Yes,' Jeffrey said. 'Electronics, crew comfort, titanium battery cans, and propulsion. We'll look normal enough on IR.'
'Let's hope so,' Ilse said.
She saw Jeffrey frown. 'The SDVs on the tow bridle,' he said.
'They flap around as we move?'
'On a ball joint,' Jeffrey said.
'Do they make any noise?'
'Flow noise.'
'Mechanical noise?' Ilse said. 'Banging or thumping?'
'They're pretty well damped and cushioned.'
'Then they'll seem like our tail,' Ilse said. 'Cetaceans don't always expose it. A full leaping breach takes some work.'
Again Jeffrey frowned. 'There'll be lightning up there, and what if they turn on a searchlight?'
The ping from the destroyer was deafening.
'What's our hull made of?' Ilse said.
'Nonmagnetic steel,' Jeffrey said, 'with a composite exostructure.'
'Stealth coatings?'
'Something that acts like whale blubber.'
Ilse glanced at the chart. 'We should head a bit more to the south.'
'How come?' Jeffrey said. 'Avoid the destroyer?'
'Not exactly,' Ilse said. 'There's a salinity halocline right along here, freshwater output from the rivers. It'll help distort enemy sonar.'
'Would a real whale do that?' Jeffrey said.
'Real whales don't like being pinged so hard.'
'Very well, Oceanographer,' Jeffrey said. He gave Meltzer the orders. Ilse saw the copilot tapping his keys, adjusting the ballast for less-salty water.
'I need to look through the periscope,' Ilse said. 'I have to be able to see.' She and Jeffrey struggled to trade positions, rubbing each other up close. Her hand accidentally brushed his crotch. 'Excuse me,' they both said at once. Ilse tried not to blush, glad that the lighting was red. She leaned forward, one hand on the 'scope, and with the other she gripped Meltzer's headrest. The destroyer pinged them again.
'I've been watching the gauges,' Ilse said, keeping her face to the eyepiece. 'The next big wave should come by any second.'
'We're in the leading trough of one now,' Jeffrey said. 'Bring us up to ten feet,' Ilse said.
'Sir?' Meltzer said.
'Do as she says,' Jeffrey said.
'Ten feet, aye,' Meltzer said. 'Our depth is ten feet.' 'Can you slow up a bit, to keep pace with the waves?' 'Make turns for twelve knots,' Jeffrey said.
'Make turns for twelve knots, aye.'
