“If he finds you, Captain Jefferson, Tate could come at you with small boats or a helicopter. You’ve seen too much for him to just let you go. He’ll either take you hostage or wipe out your whole crew and scuttle the Deepwater. Do you have any defensive armaments to repel boarders?”
“Does a flare gun count?” she asked sarcastically.
“Won’t hold a candle to the kind of firepower he’ll be bringing. I’m going to send you some help.”
“That would be much appreciated,” Jefferson said. “But how will they get here?”
“We’ve got a helicopter, too.” He told her the tail number so she wouldn’t be afraid to see it approach.
“Our landing pad is clear.”
“They’ll be in the air in ten minutes.” Juan knew it was risky. The helicopter might be seen by the Portland, but he felt that it was better than leaving the Deepwater defenseless.
“Thanks for sending them.”
“It’s the least I could do for warning us about the sub. I look forward to meeting you when this is done.”
“Same here,” Jefferson said and then signed off.
Juan turned to Linda. “Get Gomez to fire up the helicopter. Take MacD and Raven with you. Bring some extra weapons along to share. And tell Gomez to stay as low as possible. I don’t want the Portland to spot you and shoot you out of the sky.”
“Neither do I,” Linda said and hurried out of the op center.
Juan would use drones to keep a watch out for the Portland, but they’d used them all up during the battle in Rio and hadn’t had time to replenish them.
He went over to Max and asked, “What’s the latest casualty report?”
“Three injuries. Doc Huxley is treating them and said none of them requires surgery.”
“That’s good to hear. And the damage report?”
“Not much better than the last one,” Max said with a shake of his head. “Both port venturi tubes are out of commission.”
“Any way to fix them?”
“Not without a dry dock. Which means we’re down to half speed at best. Plus we have major damage to our maneuvering thrusters. I know you were thinking we might be able to head through the eye of that needle where the glacier used to be, but there’s almost no chance we’d get through unscathed. The radar is gone, and the sonar is nonfunctional because we’re using it for protection against Tate’s sonic disruptor.”
Juan mulled over all that information, then said, “Weapons?”
“Port torpedoes are empty. Starboard torpedo launchers are off-line because of the flooding. Exocet missiles are down. We’re lucky they didn’t cook off after that Harpoon hit. We might be able to get missiles to operational status with a day of repair work.”
“Which leaves us with what?”
Max sighed. “The 120mm cannon and the Gatling guns are still functional.”
“Neither of which are powerful enough to sink the Portland without a sustained barrage. Any good news?”
“The flooding is under control. We’re not in imminent danger of sinking.”
“I suppose it could always be worse,” Juan said.
“Sorry I don’t have a more optimistic report.”
“We don’t have time to slip out of here before the sub arrives. Looks like we’re going to have to fight them. No way a Chinese sub is in these waters unless it’s working with Tate.”
“How can we fight them?” Max asked. “Our torpedoes are out, and we have no sonar. We won’t even know if the sub is in the fjord.”
“We still have some sonobuoys, right?”