Crush Depth

Sessions unlocked the door, and Jeffrey went in.

Wilson glanced up at Jeffrey. Wilson’s eyes were sunken and red. He didn’t look good. Wilson waited for Jeffrey to speak. On top of the filing cabinet, a computer printer was running.

“Commodore, I have some matters we need to discuss.”

“Lieutenant,” Wilson said, “stay, but close and lock the door.”

Sessions and Jeffrey sat in the two guest chairs. Again Wilson waited for Jeffrey to speak.

“Sir, you’re aware one of the men has a serious injury.”

Wilson nodded. “His arm.”

“We need to get him to a hospital.”

“How do you propose to accomplish that?”

“Drop him off in the ASDS.”

“And just where would you drop him off in the ASDS?”

“When we pass through the Yucatan Strait, sir, we’ll have Cuba to port and Mexico to starboard.” Mexico was one of the Allies, and Cuba was rabidly anti-Axis.

“And what will you do? Leave him at somebody’s beach cottage, or a fishing village pier in the dead of night? With a note in Spanish, ‘Please get me to a hospital’?”

Jeffrey was taken aback. “Sessions and I could work out the details, but yes, something like that.”

Sessions’s face brightened, but Wilson’s did not.

“I need you to think more as my operations officer, Commander Fuller, not just as captain of your ship. You have to put the mission of my battle group above the fate of one man’s arm.”

Jeffrey, thunderstruck, shook his head. “Sir, that’s much too harsh.”

“No, it’s not…. What else? Sessions and I are busy.”

“I’ve just had a discussion with my XO. We believe that, after all, the Axis may know that we’ve sailed.”

“From circumstantial evidence, like meeting Tirpitz? From making a nuclear datum off Cape Fear that surely carried through the deep sound channel clear across to Europe?”

Wilson was obviously ahead of Jeffrey on this, and not pleased. He’d told Jeffrey to keep Challenger’s signature out of the deep sound channel.

“Exactly, sir. What also concerns me, both as ops officer and as captain, is that we can’t be sure either way. It’s a key parameter of our strategy and tactics, Commodore, knowing whether or not we’ll really catch Voortrekker by surprise.”

“One always seeks the element of surprise,” Wilson said pedantically. “But one must never assume that one retains it.”

“Yes, Commodore.” Jeffrey’s mind was racing now, about Wilson’s mood and attitude and intent.

“Have you eaten?”

The sudden change of tack surprised Jeffrey. “No, sir. Not yet.”

“Go grab some fruit or something in the wardroom, and make it snappy. My flag lieutenant and I need several hours of your time. I was about to send Sessions to get you when you came in.”

Jeffrey turned to the door.

“Wait, Captain. This is for you. Give them to your assistant navigator.” Wilson handed Jeffrey a piece of paper. They were coordinates in the Caribbean Sea.

Jeffrey glanced at Sessions.

“Southwest of Jamaica, Captain.”

“Another way point, Commodore?”

“No. Another rendezvous.”

FIFTEEN

The next day, midafternoon, in the Caribbean Sea

Challenger hovered near the bottom in four thousand feet of water. The ship was at battle stations, rigged for ultraquiet. Around Jeffrey in the control room, his people talked in hushed tones, conveying information on shipping and aircraft contacts overhead or in the distance. The general feeling was tense, with Commodore Wilson grimly leaning over crewmen’s shoulders, peering at various console screens.

Wilson stood up straight and turned to Jeffrey. “They’re late.”

“I thought we were running late,” Jeffrey said.

“We are. Hold your position, and hope they catch up. If they don’t appear we’re in a lot of trouble.”

“Sir, with respect, would you please inform me whom they are?”

“I’ll know it when they get here.”

Jeffrey was exasperated. How was his crew supposed to watch for something with which to rendezvous, when none of them knew what that something was?

“Is this secrecy really needed, Commodore?”

“We can’t afford to ruin their cover.”

“But—”

“You’ll understand when we meet them…. Challenger left dry dock too soon, and too large a part of her crew is inexperienced.”

“I—”

“That wasn’t meant as a criticism of you or your people. We’ve been lucky so far, Captain. The ship could still suffer a bad equipment casualty at any time. At any moment we might need to do an emergency blow. Bobbing like a cork to the surface, in distress, would be bad enough for us. We can’t risk them too.”

“Then—”

“We don’t know who might come to our ‘aid’ if we’re stricken. Whatever you and your crew don’t know, you can’t reveal by mistake or under torture. Russian spy trawlers work these waters, and most of Central America is riddled with German espionage operatives.”

“But Commodore…”

Wilson shook his head vehemently. “I simply can’t take the chance. Far too much is at stake here. Too much, in dollars and years, was invested getting ready for an emergency like this.”

Two hours later

“Our friend is here,” Wilson said.

“Which friend?”

Wilson tapped Jeffrey’s screen. “This one. Master Seventy-seven. The Prima Latina, out of Havana, bound for Lima, Peru.”

“Through the Panama Canal?” Jeffrey knew that according to international neutrality law, the canal would be banned to all warships of belligerents — and Panama was neutral.

“Affirmative,” Wilson said sharply. “Through the canal.”

Using it would shorten Challenger’s trip by thousands of miles. The Joint Chiefs of Staff must feel under awful pressure, to have us take this risky, illegal shortcut to save a few days…. But wait a minute.

“Sir, we can’t hide under a merchant ship through the canal. It’s much too shallow for that sort of gimmick.”

“Who said we’re going under her?”

Jeffrey read the database summary on his screen. Prima Latina was just the latest of many names she’d worn over the years. She was almost five hundred feet long, big for a coastal steamer, and had deep draft. But her engine plant was so old, and her hull so worn by metal fatigue, that the company which ran her now dared not send her on the high seas.

“Her speed is nine knots, course due south,” Bell reported. “Advise her closest point of approach will be four miles from our location.”