The night was dark up here. Dense clouds obscured the moon and stars. Snow blew past, carried by a bitter wind. Across the harbor, the lights of Polyarnyy Sub Base burned brightly, shimmering through the snowflakes. Trucks and people moved in a steady flow into and out of the big covered dock. Something was up. Hall hadn’t seen this much activity since they first staked their claim on this plot of frozen Russian soil.

Hall kept an eye to the scope as he reached his leg back to kick his sleeping partner.

Martinelli grumbled back to consciousness. He slithered out of his sleeping bag and moved up next to Hall to see what he wanted. He checked his watch on the way.

“Hey, what’s the idea? You’re not due for relief for another hour. I was deep in a good dream, just me and Jennifer Lopez. We were—”

“Good thing I woke you before your groaning gave us away. Get that radio ready to go. There’s lots of activity down there. Tonight is when the ASDV mission comes off. They’re likely coming down the fjord right now.”

Martinelli scooted backward on the ledge and set up the little satellite transceiver. It took a few minutes to put the dish in place on the back side of the hill and aim it up toward the satellite. They were using the hill to help shield the transmissions from any listeners down on the sub base. The system used a very narrow beam, but sensitive intercept equipment that might be close enough could detect side lobes, even as weak as they were. The hill helped to divert those side lobes away, out toward the Arctic.

Martinelli hooked the antenna to the transceiver. The tiny green SIGNAL AVAILABLE LED blinked on. He gave Hall a thumbs-up and hunkered down to wait.

It didn’t take long. Half an hour later Hall saw the black shadowy shape of an Akula-class submarine slip out of the open end of the giant covered dock. He turned to tell Martinelli what he was seeing. The SEAL was already on the radio sending the contact report back to Admiral Donnegan.

Just like the two previous ones, the big submarine crossed the harbor, churning up the thin sheet of ice that had formed on the water. As the SEALs watched, it turned into the Murmansk Fjord and then disappeared as it dove into the deep waters.

Hall watched until the last ripple washed away toward the rocky coastline. That would likely be it for the night’s activity. They would take one more look at the barn and then they could relax for a few minutes before beginning to pack up and get ready for the rendezvous with the ASDV. He spun the scope back toward the covered dock just in time to see another massive dark shape emerge from its mouth.