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“Put it on speaker so I can talk to them,” Juan said.
After a moment, an accented voice replied, “Anacapa, this is the Brazilian Navy corvette Barosso. We need no assistance.”
“We picked up an odd signal from this area,” Juan said, even though they hadn’t. “It seemed to be centered on your current location. That’s why we were worried when we saw you stopped.”
“We need no assistance,” the voice repeated. “Do not approach us. Stay at least two miles away.”
“Understood, Barosso. Over and out.”
“Communication ended,” Hali said.
“Yeah,” Max said. “They found the Kansas City.”
“Murph,” Juan said, “do you think they have any rescue capability on the Barosso?”
Murph, who was an expert on foreign navies’ weaponry, shook his head. “Not unless they brought the equipment specifically for that purpose. The Inhaúma-class corvettes are designed for anti-submarine warfare.”
“How long until the U.S. Navy can arrive with a DSRV?”
A Deep-Submergence Rescue Vehicle was a mini-sub built to connect to a nuclear submarine stranded underwater and transfer its crew to safety.
“If the Navy already shipped it down here and attached it to another sub, maybe twelve to eighteen hours, depending on where they are right now. Twice as long if the DSRV is still in the U.S.”
With a disabled sub, every minute counted. If any of the crew was still alive, that could easily change if they had to wait another twelve hours.
“What if we go down and check on it ourselves?” Juan asked Max. “Nomad’s air lock can double as a decompression chamber. If there are survivors, we could get some of them out.”
Max shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. But I don’t think that corvette would take too kindly to us just hanging around in the vicinity when they’re protecting a sunken U.S. sub.”
“We’ll pass by slowly enough to launch the Nomad when we’re two miles out. You take the Oregon out past their radar range and turn around with a new name on the stern. Pick us up on your way back.”
“Oh, no,” Max said. “I’m going with you this time. Eric can handle the Oregon.”
Even though Eric was the best ship driver on the Oregon other than Juan, his first inclination was to have Max in command in case things got dicey.
When Juan began to object, Max added, “Don’t make me mutiny.”
Juan laughed. He obviously had no choice. “Fine. You can pilot Nomad. But we’ll go light in case we need room for passengers. Just you, me, and MacD.”
“Because of the heliox?”
Juan nodded. At a depth of two hundred fifty feet, they’d need drysuits and a combination of helium and oxygen in the tanks instead of just oxygen. But breathing that mixture could be tricky without proper training, and MacD was the only other crew member rated for heliox diving besides Juan.
Since they had readied the Nomad for launch in case they found the Kansas City, it would only take twenty minutes to go through the checklist and put it in the water. The Oregon could get to the Barosso’s two-mile limit in that time from twenty miles out, but seeing a cargo freighter move at such a high velocity would be highly suspicious to the captain of the Brazilian warship.
“Stoney,” Juan said, “adjust your speed to put us within two miles of the Barosso in forty-five minutes. You have the conn.”
“Aye, Chairman,” Eric replied.
“Hali, call MacD and tell him to meet us at the moon pool.”
“Aye, Chairman.”
As Juan and Max left the op center, Juan said, “Remember, this is an anti-submarine corvette. If they detect an unknown submersible around the Kansas City, they’ll probably be very upset.”
“No problem,” Max said. “I’ll take us in below the thermocline and put Nomad’s motors into quiet mode. The corvette will never hear us coming.”
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