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“Only in base exercises as the weapons officer I was supposed to take it out onmission before ent down”

“Then consider this your replacement mission If the Brazilians fire a torpedo, my submersible is too slow to evade it”

“They don’t know you’re here?”

“We had to ht now”

“What can we do?” Bradley asked

“Do those mini-torpedoes on the SDV have active warheads?”

“Yes, but we can’t fire on a friendly warship”

“That’s not what I’”

Juan opened the hatch to the hangar and found the controls for extending the cradle holding the SDV The external cap was already pivoted to the side from when Juan entered, so the cradle motored back until it reached its limit

The SDV was intended to be aseen It had the cigar shape of e propeller powered by rechargeable silver-zinc batteries Unlike other subs, however, the SDV’s six seats were open to the sea, which allowed for easy ingress and egress by SEALs in their scuba gear All electronics were sealed, but the controls were exposed to the water

This SDV was armed with two Compact Rapid Attack Weapons, or CRAWs, which weresmall surface vessels or subs They were hing just forty-five pounds, the CRAW wouldn’t inflict e upon a two-thousand-ton corvette even if Juan wanted to target it But the CRAW could provide theainst an anti-sub torpedo launched from the Barosso

He and Bradley swaar It was too dark to see the rear escape trunk hatch, but Juan spotted the Nohts a hundred yards off the KC’s port stern While they unmoored the SDV from the cradle, he called Max

“Did you get the rocks cleared?”

“It was going to take hours to pick them up one at a time because they were so small, so I bulldozed the rest of them off I told the sailors inside, and the first two crew in the escape trunk now to evacuate But we have a new problem”

“The ping?” Juan asked “I heard it”