Arctic Drift Part 57

It was the last they were to hear from Dahlgren. But having extended their bottom time, they were more concerned about reaching the surface with auxiliary power to spare. Pitt shut off the external lights and sensing equipment to save power, while Giordino did the same with the nonessential interior computers. As the submersible fell dark and they began gliding upward, Giordino sat back in his chair, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes.

"Wake me when it's time to let in some fresh ten-below air," he muttered.

"I'll make sure that Jack has your slippers and newspaper waiting."

Pitt again reviewed the electrical power readings with a wary eye. There was plenty of reserve power for the life-support systems and the ballast-control pumps, but little else. He reluctantly shut down the submersible's propulsion system, knowing they would be subject to the strong currents during their ascent. Plugging the Narwhal's moon pool would be out, as they would likely end up a mile or two down current when they broke the surface. And that's only if the Narwhal was back on-site.

Pitt shut down a few more electrical controls, then stared out at the black abyss beyond the view port. Suddenly, an urgent cry rang out on the radio.

"Bloodhound, we've been ..."

The transmission was cut midsentence and was followed by complete silence. Giordino popped forward in his chair and was returning the call even before he had his eyes open. Despite repeated attempts, his transmissions to the Narwhal went unanswered.

"We might have lost their signal in a thermocline," Giordino offered.

"Or the transponder link was broken when they began running at speed," Pitt countered.

They were manufactured excuses to reason away the truth neither man wanted to accept, that the Narwhal was in real trouble. Giordino continued making radio calls every few minutes, but there was no response. And there was nothing either man could do about it.

Pitt looked at the submersible's depth gauge and wondered if they were tied to the bottom. Since receiving the interrupted call, their ascent rate had slowed to a crawl, or so it seemed to Pitt. He tried to keep his eyes away from the gauge, knowing the more he watched it, the slower it moved. Sitting back, he closed his eyes for a time, imagining the troubles the Narwhal might be facing, while Giordino diligently kept up his radio vigil.

He finally opened his eyes to see they were just over a hundred feet deep. A few minutes later, they rocked to the surface amid a rush of bubbles and foam. Pitt kicked on the external lights, which simply reflected back a surrounding billow of fog. The radio remained silent as they rocked back and forth in the heaving waters.

Alone in a cold and empty sea, Pitt and Giordino both knew that the worst had happened. The Narwhal was no more.

70

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE RESCUE TEAM DISAPPEARED? "

The President's angry voice echoed off the walls of the White House Situation Room on the lower level of the West Wing. An Army colonel, brought in by the Pentagon generals to serve as a sacrificial lamb, responded in a quiet monotone.

"Sir, the team failed to appear at the extraction site at the appointed time. The airfield support squad was not advised of any problems from the strike team and were themselves evacuated on schedule."

"I was promised a low-risk mission with a ninety percent probability of success," the President said, glaring at the Secretary of Defense.

The room fell silent, no one wishing to antagonize the man further.

Seated two seats down from the President, Vice President Sandecker found a touch of amus.e.m.e.nt to the inquisition. When called to an emergency meeting by the National Security Advisor, he was surprised to find no less than five generals seated around the Secretary of Defense in the conference room. It was not an omen of good things to come, he knew. Sandecker was no fan of the secretary, a man he found to be narrow-minded and trigger-happy. Yet he quickly put his personal feelings aside for the crisis at hand.

"Colonel, why don't you tell us exactly what you know," Sandecker said, deflecting the President's anger.

The colonel described the planned mission in detail and the intelligence that supported the rescue strike. "The befuddling aspect is that there are indications that the team was successful in freeing the captives. Radio intercepts from Canadian forces in Tuktoyaktuk report an a.s.sault on the holding complex and the subsequent escape of the Polar Dawn's crew. We've detected no indications that they were recaptured."

"What if the Special Forces team was simply delayed?" Sandecker asked. "The nights are short up there right now. Perhaps they were forced into hiding somewhere for a period before making it back to the airfield."

The colonel shook his head. "We sent an aircraft back to the extraction site under darkness just hours ago. They touched down briefly, but no one was there, and additional radio calls went unanswered."

"They couldn't have just vanished," the President grumbled.

"We've a.n.a.lyzed satellite reconnaissance, radio traffic, and local contacts on the ground. They've all come up empty," stated Julie Moss, the President's National Security Advisor. "The only conclusion that can be made is that they were quietly recaptured and relocated to a new location. They might be back on the Polar Dawn or possibly flown out of the area."

"What has been the official Canadian response to our request for release of the ship and crew?" Sandecker asked.

"There has been no response," Moss said. "We've been curtly ignored through diplomatic channels, while the Prime Minister and Parliament continue to make outlandish claims of American imperialism that are straight out of a banana republic."

"They have not limited themselves to words," the Secretary of Defense interjected. "They have placed their military forces on alert status, in addition to their recent port closures."

"That's true," Moss echoed. "The Canadian Coast Guard has started turning away all American-flagged ships approaching Vancouver and Quebec, as well as Toronto-bound barge traffic. It's expected that their border crossings will be temporarily closed in a day or two."

"This is getting quite out of hand," the President said.

"It is even worse. We've received word that our pending natural gas imports from Melville Sound have been suspended. We have reason to believe the gas has been diverted to the Chinese, although we don't know if this was directed by the government or the gas field operator."

The President slunk into his chair with a dazed look on his face. "That threatens our entire future," he said quietly.

"Sir," the Secretary of Defense declared, "with all due regard, the Canadian government has wrongfully blamed us for the loss of their Arctic ice lab and damage to one of their patrol craft. They have illegally captured a U.S. Coast Guard vessel in international waters and are treating the crew as prisoners of war. They have done the same to our Delta Forces team, or perhaps killed them and the ship's crew as well, for all we know. On top of that, they are threatening our entire nation with energy blackmail. Diplomacy has failed, sir. It is time for another option."

"We've hardly met the threshold for a military escalation," Sandecker said bitterly.

"You may be right, Jim, but those men's lives are at stake," the President said. "I want a formal demand presented to the Prime Minister for the release of the crew and rescue team within twenty-four hours. Do it privately, so that the media-happy PM can save face. We can negotiate for the ship later, but I want those men freed now. And I want a reversal on those natural gas shipments."

"What's our response if they don't comply?" Moss asked.

The Secretary of Defense piped up. "Mr. President, we've drawn up several options for a limited first-strike engagement."

"A 'limited engagement' ... What is that supposed to mean?" the President asked.

The conference room door opened and a White House aide silently entered and handed a note to Sandecker.

"A limited engagement," the Secretary of Defense continued, "would be deployment of the minimum resources required to incapacitate a high percentage of Canada's air and naval forces through surgical strikes."

The President's face turned red. "I'm not talking about a full-blown war. Just something to get their attention."

The Secretary of Defense quickly backed down. "We have options for single-target missions as well," he said quietly.

"What do you think, Jim?" the President asked, turning to Sandecker.

A grim look spread across the Vice President's face as he finished reading the note and held it up before him.

"I've just been informed by Rudi Gunn at NUMA that their research vessel Narwhal has gone missing in the Northwest Pa.s.sage, off Victoria Island. The ship is presumed captured or sunk with all hands, including the Director of NUMA, Dirk Pitt."

The Secretary of Defense broke into a wolfish grin as he gazed across the table at Sandecker.

"It would seem," he said pointedly, "that we have suddenly found your threshold."