Now the fun was about to begin. The announcement on the 21MC confirmed that they had found their quarry. The TB-16 towed array, a two-hundred-foot-long line of sonar hydrophones on the end of a tow cable that stretched out far behind the Toledo, was designed to search the depths for the faintest trace of noise from another submarine. Its great sensitivity meant that the Toledo could search vast areas of the ocean and hear other submarines before they were even aware she was there. The problem was the array couldn’t tell from which side the noise was coming. The contact they had just detected could be on either one of two possible bearings, one correct, the other one the ambiguous bearing.

From his position, Glass watched Brian Edwards, his executive officer, lead the fire control party as they tried to ferret out every bit of information they could. The tall, thin XO was good, and he knew it. He made a perfect counterpoint in many ways to Glass, his new commander, who was short and stocky, quiet and thoughtful. The young XO had already shown a bit of cockiness, a tendency to make decisions quickly and move on, as opposed to Glass’s deliberate and studied manner. Edwards had two years’ experience on board Toledo and knew everything there was to know about her. It showed in the self-assured way he went about his business. And sometimes in a flash in the young officer’s eye when he disagreed with his new commander or thought Glass was taking a bit long to make a decision.

Glass smiled as he watched Edwards work. He decided that when the shit inevitably hit the fan, he would rather have someone at his side who was good and knew it than be saddled with a hesitant dolt. There would be ample opportunity to imbue the young man with some humility as time went on.

Now Glass, Edwards, and the rest of the twenty men seemed to already be working smoothly enough together, even as they were packed into a space the size of a cheap motel room. They were quietly and professionally doing their jobs. Edwards had trained them well.

The XO stepped over next to where Glass stood. “Captain, sonar reports a contact on the towed array. Designate sierra three-one, bearing zero-three-five, and sierra three-two, bearing one-two-five. Received frequency is five-zero point two. Very weak contact.”

Glass nodded. “Very well, XO. Is this the guy we’re looking for?”

Edwards shrugged. “No way of telling for sure yet. He’s the only contact we have, though. He’s coming from the right direction and the right frequency.”

“Okay, it’s the best we got. Let’s track it and find out if this is our little playmate.”