Below The Layer

The watch I gave my protagonist is the watch I stood. Twenty years in the Submarine Force. Senior Chief Sonar Technician. Twenty SSBN deterrent patrols, twice aboard USS Ohio. On the first weapons firing of China's newest nuclear attack submarine, 1,200 miles east of Honshu, the torpedo runs straight and true. It was supposed to turn away at 70 meters.

It doesn't. Senior Chief Adam Mercer runs the sonar shack aboard Ohio. He recorded the acoustic signature of a Chinese attack submarine American intelligence has spent twenty-six months trying to prove exists. That recording makes him the most dangerous man in the Pacific.

Six thousand miles away, the DIA analyst who predicted that submarine from a thermal smudge on a satellite pass finally has her proof, and she knows it won't survive if Beijing gets to the site first. In Pearl Harbor, SUBPAC faces one decision: confirm what Ohio heard and own the consequences or let China write the only history that survives.

Captain Liang Wei, six months in command, signs the after-action report that says his torpedo behaved as designed. He knows what it cost him to sign it. So does Mercer. So does the analyst. When SUBPAC sends USS Seawolf west to recover the recording, two navies close on the same site, and everything turns on who gets there first.

BELOW THE LAYER is a 102,000-word submarine thriller in the tradition of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER , written for readers of M.P. Woodward's THE COLD WAR EXCHANGE. Terry made twenty SSBN deterrent patrols, including a 127-day run around Cape Horn and through the Drake Passage. Qualified Sonar Supervisor, Diving Officer of the Watch, and Contact Coordinator.

He served twice aboard USS Ohio, including her 2002 conversion overhaul to SSGN. After the Navy he earned an MBA and managed the Seahorse program for PMW-120, supporting the NRO, NGA, and ONI. The overhead intelligence tip that opens the novel runs on the kind of system he ran for a living. BELOW THE LAYER is his first novel. BELOW TH