Black wind

rounds into an assortment of computer and navigation monitors positioned about the bridge. As Ling had been ordered to do with the launch control computers in the hangar, Tongju disabled the navigation computers in the pilothouse, destroying any possibility of last-minute intervention. With less than an hour till liftoff, all control of the platform and the rocket was in the hands of the Koguryo, and there it would remain.
    “Let me go with you,” Summer said. “You know that I can pilot anything under the sea.”
    “It’s just a two-seater, and Jack is the only one with experience in this thing. It’s better that he and I go,” Dirk replied, nodding toward Dahlgren as he prepared the deep-probe submersible for launching. Grabbing his sister’s hand, he looked deeply into her pearl gray eyes.
    “Get ahold of Dad and tell him what happened. Tell him we need help right away.”
    Giving his sister a quick embrace, he added quietly, “Make sure Burch keeps the Endeavor in a safe position even if something happens to us.”
    “Be careful,” she said as he quickly climbed up and into the submersible, sealing the hatch behind him. Squirming into the pilot’s seat beside Dahlgren, he saw that the submersible was fully powered up and ready to go.
    “Thirty knots?” Dirk asked with skepticism.
    “That’s what the owner’s manual states,” Jack Dahlgren replied, then turned and gave a thumbs-up signal through the view port window. On the stern of the Deep Endeavor, a crane operator nodded in reply and lifted the bright red submersible off the ship’s deck and over the side, dropping it hurriedly into the ocean. The two men caught a quick glimpse of Summer waving to them on the deck before they were engulfed in the green water. With the NUMA ship’s bow pointed toward the platform, the submersible was effectively blocked from view by the Deep Endeavor’s superstructure and they were deployed without being seen. A diver in the water released the cable hook, then gave a rap on the side to signal they were free.
    “Let’s see what she’ll deliver,” Dirk said, activating the six thrusters and pushing the throttles to their stops.
    The cigar-shaped submarine surged rather than leaped forward, amid a whine of electric motors and rushing water. Dirk adjusted a pair of diving planes slightly until they were at a submerged depth of twenty feet, then followed a compass-directed path toward the wreck of the Narwhal.
    Through his hands, the ride felt like driving a vacuum cleaner. The submersible bobbed and weaved through the current and maneuvered like they were in a bowl of molasses. But with the buzzing of the thrusters in his ears, there was no denying she was a speed demon. Even without a relative speed gauge inside the submersible, Dirk could tell from the water rushing past the view port that they were moving at a rapid clip.
    “I told you she was a thoroughbred,” Dahlgren grinned as he monitored an elapsed time clock on the console. Turning serious, he added, “We should be approaching Narwhal’s position in about sixty seconds.” Dirk gradually eased off the throttles a minute later, throwing the motors into idle as the Badger’s forward momentum waned. Floating to the surface, Dahlgren adjusted the ballast tanks to keep them low in the water in order to remain as covert as possible. With his expert touch, the submersible just barely broke the surface, showing less than a foot of its topside surfaces above the water.
    A few yards in front of them, they could see the demolished hull of the smoldering Narwhal, her stern raised high in the air at an awkward angle. Dirk and Dahlgren barely had a chance to gaze at the hulk before her stern tipped upward even higher, then the entire remnant slipped quietly under the waves. Scattered about was a handful of floating debris, some smoldering but none larger than a doormat. Dirk guided the Badger in a small circle around the wreckage, but there was no sign of life in the water. Dahlgren solemnly radioed Aimes on the Deep Endeavor and reported that all appeared lost in the explosion.
    “Captain Burch asks that we return to the Deep Endeavor at once,” Dahlgren added.
    Dirk acted as if he didn’t hear the comment and guided the submersible closer to the platform. From their vantage point low in the water, there was little on the platform deck they could see beyond the top half of the Zenit and the upper portion of the hangar. But suddenly he halted the