Fire Ice

"Sorry to drag you out here so soon after your Novorossiysk trip." He guided them to the mess hall and brought them three tinkling glasses of fresh-squeezed lemonade. "Joe's baby-sitting the crew in the conference room. We're meeting with them in fifteen minutes to hear their story. The crew is anxious to get home, and I've asked them to give us an hour while the chopper fuels up."

Gu

"I was thinking more of the Keystone Kops," Austin said. "Someday I'll look back and chuckle over the whole crazy episode." He brushed his head lightly with his fingers. "But if my hair could have gotten any whiter, it would have."

"I'm intrigued by this Russian you call Ivan," Gu

"Our paths crossed when I was working for the CIA."

"Is he a friend or foe?"

"I'd call him a friend for the moment. I suspect that he'll do pretty much what he thinks is in the best interests of Russia. He is devious and shrewd – and he didn't survive all those purges in Russian intelligence by being a choirboy."

"That's quite a resume. Despite his checkered background, you think we should trust him?"

"For now. And for one very good reason."

"What's that?" Gu

19

TH E SOGGY BUNCH Captain Kemal had rescued from the sea and transferred to the Argo was gone. In their place was a happy band of submariners who could laugh about their ordeal, which was what they were doing when Austin and the others arrived at the conference room.

After boarding the Argo, the NR-1 crew had been checked out by the ship's medical technician, filled with extraordinary meals from the galley and given the loan of NUMA work coveralls. Except for scratches and bruises, the men in the conference room showed few visible effects from their ordeal. Sitting at the metal table that occupied center place were Captain Atwood, Ensign Kreisman and Joe Zavala. Joe smiled broadly when he saw his NUMA colleagues come through the door. He rose and went over to shake hands with Gu

After a quick round of introductions, Austin a

Ensign Kreisman stood and said, "It's the least we can do. I'm sure I speak for the crew when I say thanks to you and Joe for getting us out of that place in one piece."

"Remind us to bring a Bradley fighting vehicle the next time," Austin said. He waited for the laughter to die down. "If you don't mind, Ensign, I'll play Perry Mason. I think it will go faster that way."

"No problem, sir."

"Good. Why don't you start from the begi

Kreisman took a position in front of a wall chart that showed the eastern Aegean. "Our mission was to dive on underwater archaeological sites off the Turkish coast. Here." He tapped the map. "In addition to our regular crew under the command of Captain Logan, we carried a guest scientist who called himself Dr. Josef Pulaski, supposedly from MIT."

Gu

"Too bad we didn't check before he came on board," the ensign said, with a shake of his head. "In any event, the mission was an unqualified success. We retrieved some artifacts with our manipulator capacity. We were preparing to surface, when Pulaski pulled a gun. Most of the crew was aft of the control room and didn't see it happen. The captain in- formed us over the intercom. He ordered us to stay put.or Pulaski would shoot us. The sub went up a few hundred feet and hovered."

"For how long?" Austin said.

"About twenty-five minutes. Then a huge shadow appeared in the monitors. It looked like a whale or shark coming up under the sub, and then there was a horrendous clang. The sub shook so hard, anyone who wasn't holding on was thrown to the floor. Next we heard a scraping and clawing, as if big metal beetles were crawling around on the outside of the hull. Divers. We could see them on the monitors. One clown even waved at the camera! Next thing we knew, the divers were gone and we were flying through the ocean."

Where were the captain and pilot and the other scientist during all of this?" Austin asked.

"In the control room."

"Did the captain say anything more?"

"Yes, sir. He said to send coffee and sandwiches forward."

"What was the support ship doing at this time?"

"We heard them calling on the radio until Pulaski ordered all communications shut down. I assume they tracked us until we were out of range."

"How long did you travel underwater?" Austin asked.

"A matter of hours. When we surfaced, it was as dark as Hades. Not a light to be seen anywhere. Then armed men came down the hatch into the NR-1."

"Russians?"

"We couldn't tell, although 1 think they were carrying AK-47s. They were wearing cami and acted like professional soldiers. Not like those jerks on horseback that you saved us from. They kept their mouths shut. Pulaski did all the talking. He told us to get out of the NR-1. We climbed out onto the deck of a big sub."

"Any idea on the sub's length?" Gu

Kreisman looked around the room. "Anyone want to take a stab at a guess?"

Another seaman spoke up. "I served on a boomer when I first joined the navy. Judging from its beam, around thirty feet, I’d estimate this baby was as long as a Los Angeles class. About three hundred sixty feet."

"The NR-1 is only one hundred fifty feet long. They could easily piggyback you with more than two hundred feet to spare," Austin said.

The sailor nodded. "That sub was bigger than our support vessel."

Austin glanced around the room. "Anyone see markings?"

Nobody responded. "Too dark and no moon," Kreisman explained.

"So they moved you into the big sub?"

"Correct. They locked us in a bunk room. Not enough beds for all of us, so we took turns sleeping. They brought food from time to time. We submerged for twenty-four hours. When we surfaced again, it was night. The ocean was different from the Aegean. The air didn't have the saltiness we'd been used to. More like one of the Great Lakes."

"Tell them about the ship sounds we heard before that," one of the submariners said.

"Sorry, I forgot about that. It was a while before we surfaced. The bunk room was as quiet as a grave. Some of the guys in the bunks said they could hear the sound of ship engines through the bulkheads. We all put our ears up to the hull and listened. It was true."

"You were in an area of heavy ship traffic?"

"That's what we figured. Eventually, the noise died out. Several hours later, we came up next to a surface ship. It must have been waiting for us. They hustled us onto the ship and into another bunk room. That was our home sweet home for three days."