Unlike his first dive on the Vampire, Tusker had managed to arrive amidships instead of at the bow. This would make his swim aft much shorter—good thing, because he needed to save breathing gas. The current was lighter tonight. Maybe his luck was changing. He’d shed his small travel bottle and was now breathing off of his helium bottom mix in his twin tanks. As he swam further he could see the big Bofors gun on the port deck, still pointing up at the surface in vain. It had been last fired 75 years ago at a swarm of Japanese fighter-bombers.

Ahead of him he caught a flash of light, then another. He instinctively switched off his torch and stopped swimming. At night a candle’s brighter than the sun, he thought, hoping they hadn’t seen him, even at a distance. It was so dark that he couldn't see his own hands, only hear his gurgling breath, which roared in his ears. Two pinpricks of bright white light dropped from an eerie overhead floodlight. The diving bell of the Depth Charge. They’d put divers in the water already. Tusker had hoped he’d get there first. So much for changed luck.

Tusker collected himself and clamped his teeth around the mouthpiece. He’d have the element of surprise at least, and be slightly more mobile as a free swimmer than the tethered divers in their helmets and bulky suits. But he was outnumbered, and they had an unlimited supply of breathing gas, a luxury he didn’t have.

Using the glow of the bell and the headlamps of the divers as a guide, he slowly finned forward, hoping the bright finish of his steel tanks didn’t catch a reflection. He saw one diver, with his back to him, dragging a massive hoist hook along the sea bottom. The second diver was nowhere to be seen, but Tusker saw a glow coming from inside the hull. Yes, he’d gone in to fetch the bomb. They were planning to raise it with the hoist.

Tusker felt for the Vampire’s hull in the dark and followed it down with his hand until he felt where it curved under, near the sea floor. He unclipped the heavy limpet mine from his harness and set it on the sand under the overhanging edge of the hull. He’d come back for it later. He needed to deal with these divers first. Fonseka had showed him how to use the mine back in Trinco and Tusker hoped he could remember.