Glass hoped he had guessed right. There wasn’t room to do much in the way of evasion here. Couldn’t go deeper. Couldn’t go more than a mile to the east before he had to turn again. All he could do was dodge and hope that Russian sub was on a straight line to the open water of the Barents Sea. If so, he would pass a few hundred yards astern. If not, they would know the bad news soon enough.

Just had to wait a few minutes and hold on. Beads of sweat formed on Glass’s forehead and trickled down, stinging his eyes.

Glass breathed again. The Russian sub was starting to draw aft. If they were lucky, it would pass astern.

“Right five degrees rudder, ahead one-third,” Glass ordered.

Pat Durand stood beside him, his face dead white and his breath coming in fearful little gasps. “Damn, that was close. I’m sure glad you were out here, Skipper. I wouldn’t have reacted fast enough.” He studied the sonar repeater. The Russian sub was drawing aft as Glass turned. The fire control picture showed Toledo moving around behind the other sub. “What are you doing now?”

“We aren’t clear yet,” Glass answered. “I don’t want him to detect us. I don’t want us to run into the mud. I’m slipping around behind him now.”

The little dance proceeded as Glass guided Toledo around in a slow circle until they ended up dead astern of the departing Russian sub.

Wallich looked at the sonar room door and shrugged. “I don’t know where she came from. One minute, we’re all alone and the next she’s running over us. Definitely an Akula. She had the right signature.”

“Here comes another one!” the broadband operator shouted.

Glass steered Toledo over to the side of the fjord, giving the second Russian sub plenty of room to pass. Then he slipped his submarine in behind it. Durand looked at him. Glass answered his unspoken question.

“We’ll follow this one out to the Barents long enough to call home and give them the news. It looks like all the horses are leaving the barn.”

Chapter 34

Charles Gruver steered his little Honda through the thickening traffic. The farmlands of central New Jersey had given way to the urban sprawl of the northern part of the state. The towers of Manhattan were already a smudge on the skyline. The dark, dreary landscape matched his mood. His mind raced, looking for answers. He had to force himself to concentrate on the knots of cars all around him.