Glass stood, cleared his throat to quiet the chatter in the room, and started the briefing. “Gentlemen, we received a change in plans with the last message download. It seems that Lieutenant Gonzales is going to take himself a little sightseeing trip into the heart of the Polyarnyy sub base.”

He ignored the dropped jaws in the room as he reached up and pulled down the sheet to show a small-scale chart of the Murmansk Fjord and several satellite images of the sub base. The chart had a green line extending from the open sea to a location well inside the fjord’s mouth. There was a blue line traveling farther down from there until it took a left turn into the Polyarnyy Basin. It ended there.

Everyone in the room leaned forward to stare at the blue line, knowing instantly what it meant. They also knew approval for such an operation in such a screwy world situation had to come from the highest level, one that resided in the White House.

Doug O’Malley put his coffee cup down and whistled long and low. “Wow! I for one am damn glad I’m not riding that little bucket of bolts in there. Talk about stepping right into the bear’s mouth.”

Glass nodded and allowed a slight smile to play at his lips. “Eng, that’s putting it pretty succinctly.” He picked up a laser pointer and aimed its red dot at the spot where the green and blue lines met. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. We don’t know what these so-and-sos are up to and we have to find out for certain. We’ll deploy the ASDV right here. Our job on Toledo is to get it to that point and then wait around to pick it up again when it gets back.” He traced the blue line with the pointer. “Lieutenant Gonzales will drive the ASDV down into the Polyarnyy Basin and then into the entrance of the covered submarine docks. There he will take periscope pictures of any boats he finds inside. He’ll then detour over here to the extraction point and pick up the SEAL team. After that, it’s just a matter of turning around and scooting back here.”

Every man in the room was thinking the same thing: “Damn sight easier said than done.”

Glass turned to Gonzales, the Special Boat Unit lieutenant, handed him the laser pointer, and sat down.

Hector Gonzales rose and stepped to the head of the table. “Thank you, Captain.” He stood, half facing the chart, and continued. “Gentlemen, as the skipper said, we will deploy from just inside the mouth of the Murmansk Fjord. We expect a two-knot ebbing current as we head up the fjord. That will limit us to six knots over the ground.”