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Datuk entered the elevator and held the door open.
“We’ll catch the next one,” Adam said.
Datuk looked confused, but he was too tired to challenge them. His hand slipped from the door, and it closed.
Monk waited until the cage started ascending before facing Phoebe. “Adam told me that you’re skilled with driving a DriX USV.”
She shook ash from her hair and stared down at him. Her eyes were the color of warm caramel. “Skilledmay be too flattering a description, but yes, I can manage one.”
“How abouttwo?”
Her brows lowered, pinching her expression. “Why?” She glanced over at Adam. “What has you both so spooked?”
Monk appreciated her astuteness and saw no reason to lie. “I need you to help us hunt a submarine—and not a wreck this time.”
She looked between him and Adam. Her next words proved exactly how astute she was. “You think the Chinese sent another boat. To protect what sank. That’s what you thought you heard on the acoustic phones.”
“We don’t know for sure,” Adam admitted sheepishly.
Phoebe shrugged. “Then let’s get sure.”
Monk smiled as she turned and headed away from the elevator. He and Adam followed her.
The monitoring station for the two DriX units was just off the stern hold. They pushed into the small communication cabin, where a lone operator monitored a spread of glowing screens.
The young tech stood up as they entered, his eyes wide. He searched all their faces. “How was the dive?”
Phoebe offered one word. “Interrupted.”
The man pointed to the control station. “I was just about to shut everything down and recall the USVs before those waters get any more covered in ash.”
“We can handle it,” Monk said. “We wanted to review some data before retiring.”
“I’m happy to—”
Adam took him by the elbow and guided him out. “We’re fine.”
As Adam closed the door behind the man, Phoebe faced them. “Why not have the tech help us? He’s probably more proficient than I am.”
“For now, we should keep this between the three of us,” Adam said.
Monk nodded. “If there is a threat lurking in these waters, we don’t want to alert the enemy of our knowledge.”
“And if we’re wrong,” Adam added, “there’s no reason to start a panic. Especially as there’s plenty to worry about already.”
Phoebe frowned, clearly not comfortable with such subterfuge. Still, she took the seat before the console. She quickly scanned the twin set of monitors, one for each DriX. With the multibeam system switched off after the dive, the two sonar screens were dark, but smaller windows showed positional and operational data of the two USVs.
“The pair should be circling in tandem,” Monk said. “One on each side of theTitan X.”
Phoebe leaned toward a small screen on the desktop that showed the DriX’s position in relation to the yacht. “That’s correct.”
“Can you send them circling wider? Very incrementally. No sudden changes.”
She leaned over the control keyboard, tapped a few times, and manipulated a mouse cursor across some menus. “Done. I’ve set the radius of their transit to increase by five percent with each pass.”
Monk nodded. “Can you set up a scheduled pinging of their sonar? As regular as clockwork. As if it’s an automated routine.”
“Simple enough.” She worked the controls again. “I’ll set them to alternate their pinging. One after the other. Five minutes apart.”
