SdL Orca, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova

"Lost 'em, captain," Yermo told Quijana. "I think maybe they went under the layer."

Quijana nodded while thinking, Man, ever since Pedraz booted me off the Trinidad I've felt like a fugitive from the law of averages. And my instructions didn't cover this. What's that frog sub doing? What would I be doing in his shoes?

"I've got a better signature on that surface disturbance, sir," Yermo said. "It's definitely at least one helicopter . . . and I've got a plonk from a sonar buoy. Active sonar pinging now."

"Don't sweat the buoy," Quijana said. "I doubt they need it for us, with the clicker going. If I had to make a guess, I'd say they're looking for that sub we lost track of." Of course, that assumes the frog sub is still playing a game with her own battle group. I'm really getting uncomfortable with all this.

Then again, my mission is to provide cover for the Meg to get under the fleet. Have I already done that? I could use the underwater phone to find out but if I do the frogs will know there's another sub out here. One they hadn't a clue to. That might panic them. Hell, it would panic me. This is . . .

Yermo interrupted Quijana's train of thought. "Captain, I've got another plonk. High frequency noise but not sonar. One of the helicopters, if there is more than one up there, is talking to the frog sub. And . . . there goes another plonk. Skipper, I'm sure there's more than one helicopter up there."


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