“Negative.” As tempting as it was, Juan wouldn’t consider it. He had always been a firm believer in letting the other guy throw the first punch. He toggled his microphone to make a shipwide announcement. “This is the Chairman. There’s a real good chance we were just spotted, and that means the sub knows where we are. We’re already at combat stations, but I want all hands to be extrasharp.”

“What does this mean, Juan?” Tamara Wright asked. He had forgotten all about her, as she sat strapped in to one of the damage-control stations over his shoulder.

He spun around in his chair to look her in the eye. “It means I should have gone with my gut and forced you off the ship when I had the chance.”

Her chin lifted slightly and her eyes narrowed. “You would have had to knock me unconscious and truss me up.”

“I know, and I should have done it.”

“And left me alone in that little lifeboat of yours in these conditions? No way and no how,” she countered. “Besides, there’s a lot you don’t know about me, and one thing is I never walk away from a fight.”

“This might not be a fight but a turkey shoot. That submarine has all the advantages going for it.”

“Then if my fate is to die with all of you, I am ready to accept that.”

“Sounds like Eastern fatalism to me.”

“I grew up in Taiwan, remember.” She slipped her yin-and-yang pendant from under a blouse lent to her by the Magic Shop. “I’m a Taoist. It’s not fatalism I believe in, just fate.”

“You’re as stubborn as Max. I can see why he has a thing for you.” Over Juan’s other shoulder, he heard Max Hanley groan aloud and the sound of his palm slapping his forehead. He swiveled to look at his second-in-command. “Sorry, Max, was that a secret?”

Max’s blush started at the base of his throat and didn’t stop until the crown of his head was as red as a cherry. Snickers filled the op center. Juan felt bad for teasing Hanley like this, but he needed something to relieve the tension.

“Mr. Hanley, I had no idea.” Tamara’s smile was genuine. “Come to think of it, my Mississippi cruise was cut short because of you. I think it only fair that, when this is all over with, you find some way to make it up to me.”

Married and divorced three times, Max had always been comfortable around women, especially the ones he found attractive, but for the first time Cabrillo could remember his friend was tongue-tied.

“Helm,” Juan said to get their heads back in the game. “What’s our current speed?”

“Twenty-one knots. That’s the best we can manage in these seas.”