Donlan pushed a couple of display buttons on the touch screen of the multifunction display. The display changed from a sonar road map to a video picture, a shot taken mere inches above the surface. Even though it was pitch-black outside, the low-light video camera showed the harbor as clearly as if it were high noon.

“Looks like we’re where we’re supposed to be. Don’t see a welcoming committee, though,” Donlan said as he panned around. He zoomed in to look at the sub base in more detail. “Looks quiet as a church at midnight.”

“Well, then, time’s a-wastin’,” Gonzales murmured. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

The next half hour would be the most nerve-racking. All their intelligence sources claimed the base had no sensors looking for a submarine in this close. They should be invisible at this spot.

But they were on this mission because the same intelligence sources had failed to detect any hint of submarine activity here in the first place.

If they were discovered, the first hint would be somebody coming their way to take a look. Their only recourse would be to back out, hit the bottom, and try to hide in the mud until they could slink back out toward where Toledo waited.

The ASDV eased across the open water. They had to get inside the covered dock before they could move up to take another look. The periscope was covered with “RAM,” a special radar-absorbing material. It gave a radar return the size of a soda straw. Out in the Murmansk Fjord, one tiny moving return popping up for a few seconds would be ignored. In the glassy smooth waters of the Polyarnyy Basin, though, the observers wouldn’t be so lax.

Gonzales leaned back and stretched his shoulders. They ached from the tension. “We’re there,” he said. “What say we take a look?”

The navigation screen showed them inside the dock, just beyond the large open doors. No reason to go in any farther. Getting too close would increase the chance that they might attract attention.

Gonzales pushed the speed control lever in to stop the screw turning. The mini-sub coasted a few more meters before easing to a stop. Gonzales flipped a switch to engage the depth-control hovering system, which would pump water on or off the sub to keep them on depth without the ASDV moving. For the next few minutes, they wanted to stay stationary. Anything moving across the water, even something small and dark like the periscope, would draw attention.

“I’m game if you are,” Donlan answered. “That’s what we rode in here to do.”

Gonzales eased back on the control column. He could hear the quiet hum of a pump back in the engineering section. The ASDV moved upward almost imperceptibly.