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divers to travel farther and faster underwater, and with minimal exertion. Initially conceived of as a way to transport SEALs to shore from large ships, which often had to stay far from shore in deep enough water, without being seen, the vehicles allowed SEALS to conserve air consumption and energy.
    “Perfect.” Professor said. “With the four of us plus two of your frogmen, we’ll have three divers on each SDV.”
    Maddock turned to his fellow SEALs. “I’ll go with Bones and one of Officer Metcalf’s men. Willis and Professor, you take the other SDV with the other one of the officer’s divers.”
    They nodded and Metcalf indicated for them to walk with him. They made their way to the SDVs, where a dive locker was also housed in the recessed area. Several men were working here on maintaining various pieces of equipment. Maddock looked at the officer, hoping he would get the message without having to be told. There were too many people here to brief the new divers on the mission. They needed privacy. Thankfully, Metcalf’s next words were, “Attention: I need everybody except for Jiminez and Yu to clear out of this immediate area until further notice. This is a minimum required personnel task necessitating Top Secret level clearance.”
    Maddock nodded his approval and after the other sailors had left, only two besides the officer remained. One was short and thin, of Hispanic descent, while the other was a medium-built Asian man. They introduced themselves to the team as Raul Jiminez and Alex Yu, respectively. Bones asked them if they had ever dived the Wilhelm before and both shook their heads.
    “You’re the first U.S. military guys we’ve heard of diving it, but we’ve been over the site topside before in a boat on patrol. We know right where it is.” Yu said. His officer and Jiminez both nodded their agreement.
    “Is there a spot where we can go over the dive plan?” Maddock asked.
    For the next several minutes the SEAL team reviewed their objectives with the Gettysburg sailors. Once satisfied they understood the plan, the team of six loaded the SDVs onto a small, fast boat. The SEAL team took jump-style seats while the Gettysburg men sat at the steering console. The boat was an inflatable RIB, or rigid inflatable boat, suspended above the waterline on a crane.
    “We better get moving,” Yu said, signaling a crane operator on deck to lower them to the water.
    “Why, you in a rush to make it back for the award-winning chow?” Bones wanted to know. “I still haven’t forgotten the stuff they fed us on these ships, or more precisely, my intestines haven’t.”
    Yu shook his head without laughing. “No, radar has a storm front moving in. Doesn’t look too bad...yet. But if we can we should beat it.”
    Bones nodded. He knew from experience that inclement weather at sea was nothing to mess with. But Yu still looked like he had something to say. “What else?”
    “Just trying to get us out there before it gets too busy, is all.”
    “Busy with what?”
    “The Russians have been hanging all over the site for the last couple of days. Been secretive. They could be diving, could just be profiling from a surface sonar pinger or maybe an ROV, but whatever it is they’re doing, they’ve been ramping up their activity. More boats, even a few aircraft, and staying longer.”
    The RIB splashed into the water. They double-checked that the SDVs were securely tied down, and then Jiminez gunned the twin outboards as he aimed the craft out into the Baltic.

Chapter 4
     
    Baltic Sea
     
    A cold, shallow sea.
    Very different from the warmer waters of southern Europe, the Baltic was known as one of the best wreck diving sites on the planet, due to its low salt content which preserved wood and metal. It was a stormy sea, long known for treacherous, erratic currents and green waters both mysterious and strangely alluring.
    The wind picked up almost as soon as they left port, whipping up frothy whitecaps on what had