The South Pacific was calm, the water like glass. Lieutenant Mia Chen of the Australian Navy guided her patrol boat through the shallows, searching for smugglers. The sonar pinged, then pinged again—a large object, moving slowly, deep beneath the surface.
“Submarine,” her ensign said. “But it’s not one of ours.”
Mia ordered a sonar buoy deployed. The readings were impossible—the submarine’s hull was rusted, its propellers still, yet it moved with purpose.
“It’s a ghost,” her ensign whispered.
“There’s no such thing,” Mia said. But she didn’t believe her own words.
The submarine