Then a southward turn between the Portuguese Azores and the Gold and Ivory Coasts of West Africa. Down into the South Atlantic, east around Cape Town, and north past Madagascar into the Indian Ocean. Four thousand miles farther east in a smooth, easy arc that took it through the Torres Strait above Australia into the Coral Sea and then the North Pacific. There the submarine bore north by northeast past the Solomon Islands, the Republic of Nauru and the Marshall Islands, to finally come to rest underwater, hovering at a depth of three thousand feet north of the Kure and Midway Atolls.If someone had drawn vertical north–south ruler lines connecting the two atolls to the submarine’s location on the map, and then a horizontal east–west line between the atolls, it would have formed an isosceles triangle with the drone at its vertex.

And there it lurked roughly two hundred-fifty miles southwest of Oahu, Hawaii, waiting for a signal to get back on the move. And strike.

It was half past two in the morning when the Dolphin jumped into the sky from Air Station Barbers Point, then banked slightly east over Mamala Bay. Notified in advance of its flight, the control tower at Pearl Harbor-Hickam radioed the pilot to confirm he had a clear lane to Honolulu Harbor.

Also at two thirty, a pair of twenty-nine-foot small-crew United States Coast Guard cutters swung from their berths at Hickam into Kalihi Channel. Rounding the east side of Sand Island, they buzzed down to the Pier 1 anchorage and moved into position alongside the Xingyun Liwu.

Their searchlights speared the ship’s hull. Overhead, the Dolphin spun toward the ship and hovered in place above its deck, bathing its stacks of containers in the glare of high-intensity xenon floods.

The three orange-and-white USCG land vehicles—two Lenco BearCats followed by a thirteen-ton computer/communications truck—left Barbers Point first and arrived last. They had made the big loop north on the H-1, swinging below Ewa-Schofield Junction and then down past Pearl Harbor and the Shafter Flats barracks to the quay.

The BearCats’ rack lights were flashing carnival patterns into the darkness as their rear hatches opened and the boarding team poured out. Carmody, Dixon, Schultz, and Musil arrived in the lead BearCat, along with Harper and seven of his men. The other eight from PSU Hawaii exited the second BearCat. Kali and Natasha Mori were in the C2 truck with its driver and three additional technical personnel.

The coast guards were in ballistic helmets, camouflage and vests. They carried M4A1 carbines, Remington 12-gauges and compact versions of the Sig P226 in Carmody’s sidearm holster. Carmody’s group wore midnight-black stealthsuits and carried M249 light machine guns with Bluetooth-enabled optics. They had HIVE-compatible A/R flip-down goggles on their helmets. All had secure channel radio-over-IP headsets.