Following his advice, I climbed into the forward cockpit, noticing my bow compartment and grey leather bucket seat were sunk a foot below Ben’s, sort of like the cockpit of an Apache helicopter. Sacrificing warmth for comfort, I removed my jacket and buckled the safety harness so that the dual straps crossed my chest in an X configuration.

“Get in already; I’m freezing my ass off.”

Ben climbed in and hit a control switch to close the hatch. When it sealed, he buckled in and then pointed to a power switch on my forward dash. “Care to do the honors?”

I removed my mittens and pushed a gloved index finger to the control.

The pump-jet propulsor engine growled to life beneath us. The vents blasted us with cold air, forcing me to use my jacket as a blanket.

“Give it a few minutes. It’ll warm up.” Ben pointed to a joystick attached to my right armrest. “The joystick controls direction, pitch, and yaw. Flip the toggle switch up and the system activates. I have to power mine off to activate yours. There are two foot pedals on the floor. Each controls one of the props.”

He pointed to the center of my dashboard at a sonar array. “Headphones are on that hook by your right knee. Ever use sonar before?”

“Assume I know nothing.”

“Okay, I’ll teach you once we’re moving. Ready to go?”

“That’s it? Isn’t there some kind of checklist you need to go over?”

“What’d you have in mind?”

“I don’t know. Should I buckle these straps dangling by my legs?”

“Seems like a good idea.” I heard him buckle his.

“What about the rest of these controls? I’d like to know how to use them, just in case something happens to you.”

Ben smirked. “What’s going to happen to me down there that isn’t going to happen to you?”

“I don’t know. You could have a stroke. The point is I want to be prepared.”

“That’s the problem with you eggheads; you always have to read the instruction manual before you test drive the car. Me? I prefer to hit the highway and learn on the job.”

Rapping his knuckles on the glass above his head, Ben gave one of the techs a thumbs-up.

I held on as the four men pushed us toward the freshly carved rectangular hole in the ice. “This is how you’re going to launch us? By pushing us in like… like my father taught me how to swim?”

“Yours did that, too?”

“Oh, geez!” I gripped the seat as we plunged bow-first into the dark blue world, our weight distribution continuing our forward roll into a full somersault as we fell like a sinking dagger.