BLACK TRIDENT Beneath the Arctic ice, Lieutenant Commander Viggo Czeslaw commands USS South Dakota on a mission to locate a Russian autonomous nuclear torpedo carrier that the intelligence community believes is operational but has never confirmed. Armed with an untested AI combat system that classifies threats faster than his crew and makes recommendations his instincts reject, Czeslaw must navigate a defended Russian bastion, evade hostile submarines, and track a weapon no Western sensor has ever recorded. When he finds it, he faces the decision the mission was always building toward: he has a confirmed nuclear weapon heading for the Atlantic, a valid firing solution, and rules of engagement that place the judgment entirely in his hands. The machine says shoot. His orders say he can. The consequences say the decision belongs to someone who can see further than one man at a plot table under the ice.