Perez stood. “Well, from our viewpoint, this is an easy operation so long as they don’t start flooding subs out of that place and head them our way. We have to get into the fjord’s mouth and hang around, waiting while you guys have all the fun.” Perez glanced at the page of notes he held. “The important thing is to sneak in real quietlike. Nobody is sure what the Russians still have available for close-in ASW. Estimates vary from ‘not much’ to ‘everything still working.’ We’ll have to assume the latter and be as quiet as we can. COB, that’s what you and Master Chief Zillich are here for. We need a real good self-noise monitoring and then be careful about our housekeeping as long as we are in there.”

Wallich nodded. “Don’t worry, Nav. We got a handle on it. Old Toledo’ll be so quiet the fish won’t even know we’re there. Right, Tommy?”

Zillich winked. “Right, COB. We already have the sonar search plan drawn up. There’ll be lots of biologics and surf noise in close to hide in.”

“Very well,” Glass said, ending the meeting.

As they filed from the room, Jerry Perez mumbled to himself, “Oh, if it were only as easy as it sounds!”

Catherine Goldman searched the room once again, but still she could find no way out. The windows on the old farmhouse wouldn’t budge, having been painted shut long ago. Getting one open would do her little good, as it was at least a fifteen-foot drop to the frozen ground. She was resigned to making the leap if she could get outside. A broken leg might be preferable to whatever those dark, heavy men might have in store for her.

There had to be a way out of here! She needed to find it quickly. It wasn’t just that she needed to get to safety. She also had to let someone know what was going on with the OptiMarx system before it went live. She felt queasy every time she considered what the modifications she had found might do to the market if it went online in less than two days.

She sat down on the side of the bed and tried to order her thoughts. She had no idea how all this fit together. No way of knowing who were the good guys and who were the bad in this unseemly little drama.

She fell back hard, frustrated, and rolled over onto her side, pulling her knees against her chest, just the way she had done as a little girl when things disturbed her. She pulled the pillow under her head and fought to keep the tears from coming to her eyes. She didn’t have time to cry. She had to stay calm, keep her wits about her, find a way out of this place.