The four SEALs hurried out into the water and swam toward the ASDV as a Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter rounded the headland and moved their way. The ugly wasp was searching the shoreline. It would be, by now, looking specifically for them. Beaman could see the short wing, loaded with rockets. The four-barrel 12.7mm 9A624 machine gun slewed around like an angry cobra searching for prey. If they spotted the SEALs in the water or spied the ASDV while it was still on the surface, the helicopter gunship would chew them and the mini-sub into little pieces.

Abruptly the Hind spun around until its snout pointed directly at the furiously swimming SEALs. Fire erupted from either wing tip as two 9M17P Falanga antitank missiles roared toward them. The missiles passed overhead, slamming instead into the BTR-80 where they had left it on the cliff. The armored personnel carrier exploded with a deep-throated whoomp! It erupted into flames, brilliantly lighting up the cold night sky.

“Down!” Beaman yelled. “Get under and swim for it. Don’t come up for anything.”

He took a deep breath and dove deep. They had to make it to the ASDV before the chopper lost interest in the destroyed personnel carrier and began sweeping the surface of the cove.

Beaman took long strokes and kicked hard toward the sub. The bone-chilling water sapped strength from his body. An iron band seemed to be wrapped around his head and it was being tightened until the pain was unendurable.

Still he swam on. He was at the point of giving up when he bumped hard into the steel shape of the ASDV. With one more lunge downward, the SEAL commander surfaced inside the lower hatch. He gasped for air as the other three came up alongside him.

“If you children wouldn’t mind getting out of the water, we’ll head home,” Sam Donlan hollered.

The men struggled out of the icy water as quickly as they could while the mini-sub sank beneath the waves of the fjord, out of sight of the killer chopper.

Chapter 37

Chuck Gruver stepped into an even bigger maelstrom than he had anticipated. The Exchange was in pandemonium. He had never seen such expressions of raw fear on the faces of the traders on the stock exchange floor, not in any of the assorted panics and sell-offs he had witnessed over the years.

As he turned the corner toward the stairs leading down to the computer control center, he crashed headlong into the chairman of the Exchange going the other way. Sweat poured off the normally imperturbable executive’s face. His tie was askew and his usually carefully combed gray hair was mussed. He grabbed Gruver by the shoulder.

“There you are! Chuck, it’s coming apart at the seams! I’m calling all the senior executives to an emergency meeting in the conference room in ten minutes. Be there.”