America

America.

He had thought about stealing the technology from the sub too. Then he realized that hot as the satellite was, the submarine was even hotter. Once it was stolen it could never surface again. Ever. Reluctantly, he accepted that reality.

Now the satellite was in the water, the sub was hunting for it, the wheel was spinning…

Zelda Hudson was the weak link, of course. She was dealing with everyone! It was merely a matter of time before the Americans laid heavy hands on her, then she would tell everything she knew to save her pretty skin.

Schlegel was drinking coffee when a man came into the suite. 'Well?'

'I have talked to Maurice aboard the fishing boat on the scrambled circuit. The submarine is still looking.'

'What does Kerr say?'

'He cannot understand why they haven't found it. He says he did the trajectory calculations himself. The satellite is there. America should have seen it.'

Jake and Flap met on the very bow of the ship. Their wives sat in lounge chairs in the sun nearby. The two men faced into the wind, away from the ship, when they talked. Jake had a backpack hanging from a strap over one shoulder.

'Carmellini has found Zelda,' Jake reported. 'She's in the coronary unit in sick bay.'

'Okay.'

'Schlegel is in the owner's suite. Tommy didn't get in there but says one of the stewards confirms that. The stewards are carrying in food, and the doors are guarded.'

'Have they found the satellite?'

'I don't know, sir.'

'Do we have someone watching that loading sponson?'

'Not yet. That minisub can't rendezvous until this ship slows down, probably at one of our anchorages.'

'I bow to the nautical expertise of the navy.'

'Right. One of the marines is always in the stateroom where we piled the weapons and ammo. We'll be in a heap of hurt if a maid finds those weapons or someone steals them.'

'Very well,' Flap Le Beau said. He put his hands on the rail and swept his eyes around the horizon.

'Wanta play shuffleboard?'

Flap eyed Jake with amusement. 'It's been a lot of years since we were on a ship together.'

'Columbia. We were younger then.'

Flap nodded once, remembering. 'Too many years.' He slapped his leg, then sat in a lounge chair beside his wife and closed his eyes.

'It isn't on this seamount,' Kolnikov said. Heydrich was standing beside him staring at the Revelation screens. Turchak was at his usual station, the helm. Eck and Boldt were on the sonar.

Cold fury played across Heydrich's features. 'You're sure?' 'We've covered every inch. True, there were some fissures we couldn't see into, but you've sat there looking at this thing, just as we have. What do you think?'

'I think someone has lied to us. And I think I know who.' 'That won't do us much good,' Kolnikov pointed out. 'Unless you know where the satellite might be.'

'Let me use the underwater telephone. We'll rendezvous with Sea

Wind. Tonight if possible. Can you do that?'

Kolnikov worked at the plotting board for a moment. 'If she holds her planned course and speed, we should be able to rendezvous in six hours, about oh two hundred. Have them drop their speed to two knots at that time.' He gave the course and speed he wanted to Turchak, who turned the boat to the new course and advanced the power lever for more turns. Eck handed the underwater telephone to Heydrich.

At dinner the service was superlative, almost too good. Jake Grafton swept his eyes around the room. Several people looked away, almost as if they had been watching him.

For dinner I'll have the roast with a side order of paranoia, please.

He stirred the food around on his plate. The truth was that he was too nervous to eat.

'Are you okay?' Callie asked under her breath.

'Not hungry.'

'Are you seasick?'

He gave her a withering look, then thought better of it. 'No,

dear.'

'I never saw such food,' Callie said with wonder in her voice. 'I had no idea anyone on Earth ate like this four times a day. After two weeks of this I'll need a new wardrobe to cover my new width.' 'This is nothing,' the woman sitting on the other side of her declared. 'We were on a cruise last year — an Italian ship and chef.' She kissed her fingertips.

'I'm going to walk around on deck,' Jake whispered and scooted back his chair. 'Meet you in the room after a while.'

The backpack was by his feet; he snagged it and took it along. As he was going toward the door, he recognized a man sitting in the far corner. Jake gaped. Yes, it was Janos Ilin.

Sitting talking to someone whose face Jake couldn't see. He walked toward the dessert table, groaning with two dozen kinds of sweets. Jake snagged a chocolate chip cookie and took another look. He remembered the man all right. Peter Kerr.

Cookie in hand, Jake walked for the door. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Ilin, who never looked at him.

In the control room of USS America, the hull of Sea Wind projected down into the sea on the port side. Vladimir Kolnikov gestured toward it. 'There she is. We've matched speeds and courses. She's about a hundred meters or so to port. That sponson is on her starboard side. Do you want someone to come along, help with the minisub?'

'No,' said Heydrich, who probably refused help when he was born.

'I'll walk back there with you,' Kolnikov said.

On the way aft, he said, 'There will be a lot of dynamic pressure pushing you away from the liner's hull. If you have difficulty getting alongside, the ship's officer will probably order the engines stopped.'

'Okay.'

'Take your time, think through every task. The bottom is a long way down.' They were well away from the seamount, in water a mile and a half deep.

'I have no intention of going there,' Heydrich snapped.

'Good. I repeat, take your time, think through every task.'

Heydrich climbed the ladder into the lock and dropped the hatch with a bang.

Kolnikov rotated a padded, spring-loaded seat down from the bulkhead and sat. He smoked a cigarette as he listened to the sounds of the minisub powering up. When he finally heard the hydraulic locks release he continued to sit, examining his shoes and thinking of Russia in the summer and this and that.

He was remembering scenes from his boyhood a lot lately. That was probably not a good sign. Paris… he should be thinking of Paris. Of that woman who sold hand-painted postcards by the Seine and smiled at him. They never spoke, but she always smiled.

He should have stayed in Paris. He knew that now. Life is like that — you always learn the important lessons too late.

The change in the feel of the ship woke Jake Grafton. He had been dozing, unable to really sleep, but when the ship's speed dropped off he came fully awake. He checked the luminous hands of his watch— almost two o'clock in the morning.

He got out of bed, pulled on slacks and a shirt, sat down to put on socks and shoes.

'What's wrong?' Callie asked from the bed.

'Ship's stopping.' He didn't want to say too much because there might be bugs. 'I'm going up on deck.' He put on the shoulder holster, then a windbreaker.

'Be careful,' she said.

He bent and kissed her. Then he grabbed the backpack and stepped through the door onto the promenade