He forced himself to breathe normally, sat at his desk, moved his mouse to awaken his sleeping computer, and went to work on the reports Smythe had demanded.

Chapter 3

The 21MC speaker broke the silence inside the American submarine’s control room.

“Conn, sonar. New contact on the towed array. Best bearing either zero-three-five or one-two-five.”

Commander Joe Glass leaned back and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. He pursed his lips as he glanced around the cramped space of the control room of the USS Toledo, SSN 769. This boat was different from the old Spadefish where Glass had most recently been the executive officer. The bright fluorescent lights of Toledo’s control room illuminated a scene that could have been lifted right out of a Hollywood science fiction movie.

The forward port corner looked more like the control station for a starship. The diving officer and two planesmen faced a wall of flashing red LED displays and liquid crystal screens that would have done Captain Kirk proud, but it gave them all the information they needed to drive the boat through the inky blackness of the North Atlantic.

To their left, the chief of the watch sat facing an imposing wall that held still more displays, gauges, and switches. A myriad of heavy steel pipes and thick wiring bundles ran from behind his desk to the farthermost ends of the boat. From here, he could operate the complex high-pressure air, hydraulic, and trim systems. Over his head were two large brass handles, the emergency-blow “chicken switches” that forced massive amounts of forty-five-hundred-psi air into the ballast tanks that would rocket them to the surface in an emergency.

The entire starboard side of the control room was dedicated to the computerized fire control system, the BYG-1. Here they analyzed and scrutinized every shred of data Toledo’s sensors could dredge up. The information was turned into “solutions,” information to use to better aim the torpedoes and missiles the submarine could shoot.

The center of the room was dominated by the periscope stand with the two shiny steel barrels protruding from the wells in the deck and extending through the overhead, up into the sail above. From this central location, Commander Joe Glass could observe and direct the complex operation of the boat.

This was the first opportunity for Glass to watch his crew in action since taking command of the boat the previous month. The Toledo was one of the newest Los Angeles–class boats in the Atlantic and she was out now, running drills, breaking in a new captain. Glass couldn’t keep the grin off his face. He felt like a teenager with a new sports car, and driving the shiny new boat was the most fun he had had since joining the Navy.