Soviet destroyers prowled the Barents Sea, hunting for American submarines. It was 1982, and their sonar crews had been searching for months, ever since they’d found the tap on the cable linking Murmansk to Moscow.The Soviets knew the Americans would try again. They were right.Five hundred feet below, a Navy diver dropped into darkness.Above, USS Parche hung motionless while enemy propellers whispered beyond her hull. The diver kept his hands steady. If they were found, there was nothing they could do; no torpedoes, no weapons, nowhere to run.He reached the cable by touch, locked the new tap in place, and waited. For a moment, there was only the hum of his umbilical and the beat of his pulse.Then a metallic ping cut through the dark. Sonar. Above, the sea began to move.
