“Torpedo away!”
The mini-torpedo unlatched from the side of the SDV and shot forward, playing out a hair-thin wire behind it.
“Impact in twenty seconds. They’re both doing more than fifty knots, so this is going to be like hitting a bullet with a bullet.”
Juan peered over at Bradley’s sonar screen and saw the two dots racing toward each other.
Juan counted down the last ten seconds in his head. When the dots fused as one, he steeled himself for the explosion. But nothing happened.
The dots raced away from each other.
“It missed!” Bradley yelled, pounding the bulkhead in frustration.
“Fire Two!” Juan called out.
“Two away! Ten seconds to impact.”
“Does the torpedo have a self-destruct?” Juan asked.
“Yes.”
“We can’t afford to miss again. On my mark, activate self-destruct.”
“Understood.” Bradley placed his finger over a red button. “Ready.”
Juan was hoping to overload the enemy torpedo’s sonar array or disrupt the guidance system with a nearby blast.
He looked at the screen and counted down in his head again. Three . . . two . . .
“Now!”
Bradley jammed his finger on the button.
The CRAW detonated, the flash visible in the distance. It was immediately followed by a far bigger explosion.
A second later, the SDV was buffeted by a huge shock wave. It tossed the submersible sideways, and Juan struggled to stay in his seat as it slewed around.
When the shock wave had passed, he looked at Bradley and said, “Are you all right?”
Bradley gave him the OK.
“Juan, come in,” Max’s worried voice said over the comm system. “Are you still with us?”
“The Lollipop Guild is alive and well,” Juan said through his helium-soaked voice box. “Heading back to the Emerald City now.”
He could see the Nomad hovering below an outcropping. As soon as the SDV was alongside, Juan and Bradley would abandon it and enter the Nomad’s air lock for the decompression cycle while Max took them back to safety below the thermocline.
As they passed the stern of the Kansas City, the hatch of the rear escape trunk opened, and two men in yellow immersion suits swam out. One began the ascent to the surface. The second man pushed the hatch closed behind him before joining his crewmate.
At the same time, a second ping emanated from the Barosso. They were trying to confirm that they’d destroyed their target.
* * *
—
Using a pair of binoculars, Captain Vega watched the geyser of water finish erupting and waited for his sonar operator to give the all clear.
He lowered them and turned to the seaman. “Did we get it?”