“Less than two kilometers. Vostok’s external pressure is rising as the ice sheet drops. Keep it nice and easy, I want you to descend to three hundred feet as you power up both lasers. Then turn the sub back over to me. Once you reach the extraction zone, I’ll launch you on a ninety-degree vertical plane and begin a countdown.

“At zero you’ll pop up out of the water and melt the ice directly above you. The hole you’ve created will cause a vacuum effect, and the low external-pressure zone you create above you will suck the Barracuda straight up through the borehole, forcing the sub up through the ice sheet. By the time the water freezes behind you and reseals the hole, you’ll be halfway home.”

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

“Shit.” I pushed down on the joystick, watching in horror as the blip rose away from the lakebed to meet us.

“Okay, Moby Dick, let’s see if you like my noise.” Going ACTIVE, I let loose a chorus of pings, backing the monster off.

“Schager, you there? I’m at three hundred feet. Lasers are powered up and on high. Turning over control on my count: three… two… one!”

I pushed the button beneath my console… and prayed.

“Cease all sonar pings and hold on to your balls.”

I stopped pinging and gripped my armrests as Vostok Command rolled the Barracuda into a steep 2-G ascent, driving us back into our seats while slingshotting us into a vertical ascent.

“Two hundred feet until surface. Counting down: five… four… three—”

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.

“—two… one!”

We launched out of the water and instantly hit a ceiling of ice, only we never actually hit the ice. It simply washed away into a progressively evaporating tunnel of mist and water while a geyser exploded upwards through the borehole from behind the sub, driving us faster, its wave pushing past around our acrylic dome.

“Congratulations, gentlemen, you’ve achieved orbit and are headed home. Stand by, Colonel Vacendak wants to speak with you in private. See you topside. Schager, out.”

I hyperventilated gasps of relief as I checked my depth gauge, which was already resetting to accommodate the ice sheet. A little less than four thousand meters, about thirteen thousand feet, until we surfaced. Ascending at a steady fifty feet per minute, I estimated our ascent would take a little more than three hours.

And then we stopped moving.

I checked the Valkyrie gauges. “Something’s wrong. The lasers powered off.”

Colonel Vacendak’s voice crackled over the radio. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I thought we might have a private conversation before you arrived topside. Answer my questions honestly, and you’ll enjoy a steak dinner on me. Lie to me, and you’ll end up as dinner for that magnificent creature still circling below.”

The engine shut off. A wave of queasiness hit me in the gut as the Barracuda plunged twenty feet tail-first through a funnel of icy water.