Though severely injured, Luoshu wasn't the least bit worried.
He had survived two consecutive nuclear strikes!
The A-10C Warthog couldn't possibly carry a third nuke—he'd escaped this calamity. Even if the Guantanamo Base scrambled a second fighter to bomb him, the Black Pearl had already fled Site-167, vanishing into the boundless ocean.
Luoshu used Anomalous Item-500, the Panacea, on himself. His internal injuries healed rapidly.
By now, the Black Pearl had navigated through the undersea fissure and entered Guantanamo Bay. For caution's sake, Luoshu didn't restore it to full size immediately, keeping it compact as it sailed toward open waters.
Negro Perta asked, "Master, where to now?"
Luoshu pondered.
If he were the "God" in this scenario—unsure whether the nukes had eradicated his target—he'd monitor Cuban waters closely, waiting for any sign of resurgence. Florida would be watched too, since Luoshu's logical escape route was back to the mainland.
So, he'd do the opposite.
"Haiti!" Luoshu ordered.
"Aye! Hard starboard, full sails, away! The great Caribbean pirate, Negro Perta, sets sail once more!"
Luoshu cringed internally. If Negro Perta introduced himself like that, did that make him… Pirate Luoshu?
Minutes later, the Black Pearl exited Guantanamo Bay. Through his long-range tracking, Luoshu sensed "God" still hovering above the naval base. Clearly, the old bastard wasn't convinced two nukes had finished him off and was waiting for confirmation.
Only then did Luoshu instruct, "Restore the Black Pearl to full size now—but stay submerged."
The coffin-sized captain's quarters were suffocating; he needed space. Returning to full size also allowed him to stow the Pickup Truck Transformer in the cargo hold before it fell apart completely.
Rebuilding it with his Silicon-Based Intelligence wouldn't be hard, but this particular model carried something irreplaceable: a portable Scranton Reality Anchor. Losing it would cripple his future movements.
The Pickup Truck Transformer whimpered: Master, you don't love me anymore…
The barely surviving Bermuda Vortex at Site-167 sighed: At least he took you with him…
The Black Pearl stayed silent. Its only concern was comfort—it far preferred sailing freely on the surface to creeping underwater.
Negro Perta tactfully reminded Luoshu, "Master, submerged speed is half of surface speed."
Luoshu shrugged. Haiti was just across the water from Cuba; even at reduced speed, they'd arrive within hours. He didn't want satellites spotting the Black Pearl the moment it surfaced.
But he'd underestimated how seriously "God" took him.
After hovering for half an hour, "God" grew restless.
Back in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Luoshu had slipped away like a cicada shedding its shell. Now, with an underwater escape route blasted open by the Black Pearl, "God" couldn't afford complacency. He ordered all Foundation satellites to surveil the Caribbean.
Then, he called General Bowe again. "Dispatch submarines. Sweep the entire Caribbean. Attack any suspicious underwater contacts immediately."
Bowe, already desensitized to absurd demands (two nukes had been dropped, after all), complied. Submarines from Florida and Guantanamo mobilized, sonar pinging across the seafloor in a grid search.
The Hunt
Meanwhile, Pirate Luoshu sailed toward Haiti, the second-largest island in the Greater Antilles. The Black Pearl's route—from Guantanamo Bay to Cap-Haïtien—spanned just 160 km. At its current speed, they'd arrive by dawn. Luoshu decided to nap.
While he slept, the Foundation's submarines toiled.
Tracking a submerged vessel wasn't easy. The British Astute-class subs boasted a detection range of 100 km—enough to spot a double-decker bus.
That was pure propaganda.
In theory, passive sonar could achieve such range… if the ocean were silent. But ambient noise averaged 70–110 decibels, and the "bus" they claimed to detect emitted 96 dB. Most military subs stayed under 110 dB.
Passive sonar was near-useless against stealth targets.
The Black Pearl, being a ghost ship, had no engine noise. Even if it glided past a nuclear sub, passive sonar would miss it—akin to Luoshu's own unobservable nature.
Active sonar worked like radar, emitting sound waves that bounced off objects. But effective range was just 12–15 nautical miles, and sound attenuation distorted returns.
The Black Pearl's surface speed was 30 knots (15 knots submerged). Within an hour, it'd outrun active sonar coverage.
Even if a sub did scan it, the sonar would only register the Pickup Truck Transformer in its hold—a car-sized blip, easily dismissed.
By dawn, the Black Pearl reached Haitian waters, utterly undetected.
Luoshu bypassed the backwater Cap-Haïtien (worse than Cuba's La Coloma) and headed for the capital, Port-au-Prince. If even there lacked parts to repair his dying Transformer, it'd be time to scrap it.