Laura 02 The God Code

by Anton Swanepoel

  Already an air pocket has formed on the roof of the chamber, and Victor pulls himself up using some of the pipes on the roof. He manages only to get his mouth and nose out of the water and has to control his body’s natural responses to the feeling of drowning, panic. Carefully he gasps in breath after breath, keeping close watch over his body’s reactions, willing to act to the slightest feeling of being poisoned and dive down and press the activate button again. Slowly the water level goes down and Victor is able to stand with his head out of the water.

  Victor searches around, but he cannot find a camera. There is only one conclusion as to why the chamber is being drained. Someone outside the hatch must have seen him turn the locking wheel. When Victor stopped turning the wheel to attach and arm the bomb, the person on the other side must have thought that he had drowned before he could unlock the hatch.

  So they are now draining the chamber from the other side of the hatch in order to open it and see who is inside. This gives Victor an advantage, they are expecting him to be dead.

  The problem now is to fool the people into thinking he is dead, while hiding his gun. So how can I fool them into thinking I am dead to allow me to surprise them and kill them? I can lie on my stomach and allow them to turn me over, then surprise them. No, what if they think like me, first shoot the body in the head before turning it over. I have to lie on my back. But even then they can just shoot me to make sure I am dead. How can I fool them? The water is now ankle deep, Victor has only a few seconds left to act. Come on Victor think, how do you simulate death, death in a submarine? Then suddenly it comes to him.

  Quickly he picks up his breathing apparatus and scoops it full of water. Then he takes out his small backup knife and gently nicks the inside of his nose. Blood starts to run down his face and drip into the mask. Victor removes his backpack from his leg and puts it in front of the hatch, then kneels next to it, still letting the blood drip into the mask. He waits until he sees the locking mechanism being turned, then quickly takes a deep breath and bends forward, putting the mask on without spilling any water. Victor then lies down backwards, feet pointing to the door with his pistol under his backpack. He is just in time before the door opens. Victor keeps his eyes open, forcing himself not to blink. Two men open the hatch, pistols ready. One man, a red haired youngster with freckles raises his pistol and aims for Victor’s head. Slowly the man’s finger tightens around the trigger.

  “He’s dead mate, save your bullets.”

  “How do you know?” The man’s finger is twitching slightly.

  “Check the blood in his mask, it’s coming from his nose, he swallowed water, damaging his lungs.” Redhead leans forward, not sure what he should do.

  “I still think we should shoot him in the head to make sure.”

  “And if you miss, or the bullet goes through and hits a pipe or something, what then?”

  The two men half turn to each other as they talk.

  “Okay, what if I shoot him in the-” The bullet splits his skull open, cutting his sentence short. Blood and brains spatter over his colleague’s face and eyes, blinding him. Before he can turn to fire blindly, a second bullet finds its mark, the man’s right temple. His scull bursts open and his brains spatter on the wall, mixing with his colleague’s. Victor rips the mask off and takes a few deep breaths, then carefully peaks outside to make sure there is no one else. He quickly picks up his backpack, carrying it to the bodies where he places it next to the first one. Searching the two bodies, he finds only their pistols and spare magazines. Leaving the bodies as they are, he takes only the spare magazines and both pistols. There is no use in hiding the bodies with all the blood and brains on the wall, and he has no time to clean up the mess. Neither of the two men mentioned anything about a second person coming aboard. Ernest must have successfully made it onboard undetected.

  While kneeling next to the bodies and keeping an eye on the end of the passage, Victor opens the waterproof bag and quickly removes a map of the submarine and a H&K MP7 machine gun with four spare magazines.

  Having borrowed the weapon from the armory on the aircraft carrier, it is fitted out for defending the ship. Thus the gun has a shortened stock for use in close quarters and uses armor piercing rounds to penetrate body armor. The gun has no silencer, although a suppressor is fitted to help with recoil and accuracy. Victor chambers a round, then stuffs the spare magazines in his pants’ hip and back pockets and puts the waterproof bag on his back. Opening the map on the floor, he notes his position.

  The aft of the submarine is split into two identical sections, with Victor in the port side torpedo room. The port engine room is directly at the end of the passage in front of him. From there, he will need to pass through the battery room to get to the mess hall where the port and starboard side of the submarine merge. Being one of three rooms on the submarine that is not split, with the bridge and missile room the other rooms, the mess hall is massive and the most likely place to hold the crew, needing only a few armed guards to keep control over them.

  Soaking wet and cold, Victor carefully sneaks to the hatch at the end of the passage. Sitting just outside the doorway, he slowly opens the hatch an inch, then listens for any movement or sound.

  “No funny stuff, I’m watching you.”

  Victor slings his machine gun over his shoulder and takes out the knife he used to cut himself earlier. He has had the knife for years. Even though the knife is only eight inches long in total and one solid flat piece of titanium, he prefers it as a killing knife as it is not easy to block the small knife.

  The knife has tasted many people’s blood, and will do so for some time still to come. Peeking around the corner, Victor sees a pair of boots sticking out from beneath a raised control panel. Slowly he maneuvers to just by the end of the panel, watching the boots. As soon as he sees the tips of the boots point away from him, he quickly sneaks around right up behind the guard. Expertly he grabs the man’s mouth with his left hand, pulling him against his body while bringing his right hand around and knocks the man hard on the right temple with the back of the knife handle. The shock to his brain instantly renders him unconscious. Victor cuts his throat, and then lowers him to the ground. The technician sitting at the controls stares wide eyed from shock at Victor.

  “Where is the rest of the crew?”

  Victor’s question brings the guy back to life. “In..in the mess hall, through there.” The man points to a hatchway at the far end of the room.

  “How many guards?”

  “Five, I think.”

  “How many men in total?”

  “Twenty or so.”

  “What will happen if you disable the engine?”

  “The system will switch to battery mode and an alarm will sound in the control room.”

  “Can you control the second engine from here?”

  “No, only from the control in the bridge or the engine room itself.”

  “How long will the batteries last?”

  “48 hours.”

  “Can you disable the alarm and hook it up so that the power goes off in 20 minutes?”

  “Yes, I can unhook some of the batteries. However, the submarine has two engines and two battery rooms.”

  “One at a time mate, one at a time. Take this weapon, disable the alarm and switch to battery mode, then meet up with me at the entrance to the mess hall.”

  Victor makes his way through the hatchway leading to the port battery room, and stops as he reaches the entrance. Victor listens for a few seconds. Hearing no one in the battery room, he makes his way through the room to the exit leading to the mess hall, where he waits until the engine room technician makes his way over, taking up position behind Victor.

  “Give me your belt,” Victor commands.

  Without questioning, the man removes his belt and hands it to Victor, who presses himself against the wall and uses the shiny buckle as a mirror. The room has a number of tables and 30 crew are sitting in groups all over the room. Two exits at the b
ack lead from the room to the sleeping quarters, with the missile room next, followed by the bridge, the forward storage areas, and bow torpedo rooms.

  Two armed men are standing guard at each exit to the forward compartments, with an additional guard right next to the entry Victor is sitting at. Victor judges that there must be another guard at the entry leading to the starboard side battery and engine room. Five crew men are busy playing cards, with one of the men having a direct view of the entry Victor is at. Victor leans his head just far enough into view for the man to see him, but not the guard at the door. Placing his finger on his lips, he indicates for the man to say nothing.

  The man responds with a very slight head nod, continuing his card game, but looking up every now and again towards Victor’s direction. Victor has no means of communicating with Ernest, as there were no waterproof communicating devices on the ship. However, even if he had a communicating device, he is not going to risk giving away that he is still alive, in case Ernest was caught.

  When the crew member looks up towards Victor again, Victor indicates that he wishes to crawl to the other room and that the man must start a fight. Victor hopes the man to be too important for the guards to just start shooting. A few seconds later the man yells to his buddies that they are cheating and jumps up, grabbing one by the collar. The two then start throwing punches. Victor was hoping for a word exchange, but this will do just as well.

  The guard at the door runs towards the commotion, trying to break up the fight. Victor quickly crawls beneath the table next to the door. There are a few men sitting there, and he has to push their legs out of the way to move to the next table. Victor has two more tables to go before he is at the entry to the starboard battery room.

  Victor looks to his right while crawling to the hatch. Boots are coming his way just as he passes from one table to the next, totally exposed. The guard is almost directly in the aisle that Victor is in, if he looks down he will surely see him. As quickly and as silently as Victor can, he tries to get under the table. The guard is now at the passage, with Victor’s feet hanging out.

  Victor tries to move, but cannot. He is stuck, his shirt caught on a loose screw under the table.

  Suddenly two sailors jump up right in front of the guard and start a fight, blaming each other that their friend cheated. The other fight had already been broken up at gunpoint. Victor thinks of pushing forward hard, hoping the guard does not hear his shirt rip, when someone grabs his shirt and pulls him back. Shit, they have me. Suddenly someone unhooks him, and as soon as his shirt is free the person lets go of him. Quickly Victor continues crawling underneath the last tables, getting the all okay from one of the sailors before sliding on his belly into the battery room. The second he stops, someone puts a gun to his head.

  “Shit, I could have shot you!” Ernest pulls his pistol back.

  “Good to see you too! Anyone alive back there?”

  “Yes, a technician. Tied him up and gagged him.”

  “And you say I should show respect, what did you tie him up for?”

  “Didn’t trust him.”

  “Well, go back and untie him, then ask him to disable the alarm that will indicate to the bridge that the engine has stopped and they are running on battery power. Then have him disable the engine, switching over to battery power and also have him hook it up that the batteries only run for 15 minutes, we are going dark.” Ernest nods then silently disappears.

  Two minutes later he joins Victor again, giving a nod that it is all set.

  “I make six guards in the room. As soon as the lights go out, I will take the one by the door here, then move over to the other door and take the guard there.

  “When I go, move forward and we will each have two more guards. Use your knife, I do not want to risk any crew getting killed.”

  “How do you know the guards will not just blindly start shooting in the dark?”

  “Because they need these men, and they will be afraid of hitting each other. Furthermore, there are flashlights on the wall near the front, I reckon they would go for them before randomly shooting.”

  Ernst nods his agreement, hoping Victor is right. The two men wait in silence, with Victor noting the time on his watch. Just before the power is about to fail, Victor slowly moves to the door, getting ready, with Ernest right behind him.

  Suddenly everything goes dark, and an eerie silence fills the ship. Victor immediately jumps up and enters the mess hall, turning left towards the guard. He bumps into the first guard and instinctively stabs up, driving his knife into the man’s throat, then twisting the blade before pulling it out and stabbing the man in the heart. Victor then makes his way to the other guard by feeling his way along the wall.

  “Everyone stay where you are or we will shoot!” comes the order from one of the guards in front. Ernest is crawling along the floor towards them. Victor finds the second guard at the entrance to the port battery room and stabs him in the heart, covering his mouth with his hand, then quickly cuts his throat. Feeling his way along the tables, Victor moves to the front of the mess hall. One of the guards finds a flashlight and pulls it off the wall. As he switches it on, he turns around to scan the mess hall.

  The guard’s muscles tense and desperately he tries to force his body to react, but it is too late.

  A knife slices through the air and rips into his throat. Blood spurts out of his neck arteries, cut open by Victor in one move. The guard frantically grabs his throat to stop the bleeding, just as Victor brings the knife back and stabs the guard’s buddy next to him in the neck. Victor quickly pulls the knife out of the second guard’s neck and stabs the first guard in the heart. The second guard’s wind pipe is damaged, and blood runs down it, choking the man. As the guard falls back against the wall, trying to breathe, Victor pulls the knife out of the first guard and stabs the second guard in the heart. The second guard slowly sinks to the floor, dying beside his colleague. It is all over in three seconds, and the first guard’s flashlight rolls on the floor, having been dropped by the man as he grabbed his throat. The flashlight rolling on the floor confuses the other two guards, giving Ernest an opportunity.

  Ernest jumps forward when one of them goes for the flashlight. Ernest hits the man in the face with his elbow, which he then uses to push the guard backwards as he blocks off his airway. While pushing forward, Ernest stabs the man several times, then pulls his elbow back and swings the knife around, cutting the man’s throat. The last guard lifts his weapon to shoot, aiming for Ernest’s head, but several sailors tackle him, stabbing him in the throat and heart with kitchen knives, and wrestle the pistol from him before he can fire a shot.

  Picking up the flashlight, Victor addresses the first two sailors closest to him. “There is a bag by the door at the back, it has two guns in, take it and guard each of the doors.” He gives the flashlight to one of the men, and then addresses Ernest. “You take the starboard side, I will take the port, meet up in the missile room.”

  Victor and Ernest both feel their way around as they pass through the deserted dark sleeping quarters. Stopping at the exit from the sleeping quarter, Victor peeks into the blackness of the missile room. A number of missile tubes are faintly visible in the darkness, illuminated by a guard walking around with a flashlight, searching the area. A second guard walks up to the first, starting a conversation.

  “What happened, why did the lights go out?”

  “Not sure, total power loss. I’m on my way to check the engine room. Stay on guard.”

  Quickly Victor goes back into the sleeping quarters and climbs onto the top bed of the first bunk. Pulling the curtains closed, he waits for the guard to walk past. Carefully the guard starts to enter the room, but stops in the doorway. Shining his light over the bunks, the guard searches the room. Suddenly his flashlight shines over the drawn curtains where Victor is hiding. Victor holds his breath and freezes as the guard keeps the light on the curtains. Suddenly the man draws his pistol and aims at the curtain. Did he see something? Vict
or’s diaphragm spasms, urging him to breathe, but he dare not. The guard listens for 30 seconds more, while Victor is still holding his breath. Slowly the guard lowers his firearm, satisfied that all is clear, and walks forward, right into Victor’s knife that takes him under the soft of the chin.

  Victor drives the knife hard up and twists the blade. As the man chokes on his own blood and tries to pull the knife out, Victor grabs his head and pulls the back of the man’s neck against the edge of the bed. Victor leans on the man’s head until he hears the snapping sound of the man’s neck breaking. The guard’s body goes limp and Victor lets it drop to the ground. He quickly jumps out of the bed, and drops down next to the body. Bending over the body, he switches off the guard’s flashlight that has dropped to the floor. Victor pulls his knife out of the dead guard’s throat, and cleans it on the guard’s clothes.

  “Hey Bart, are you okay?” the second guard calls to his colleague while making his way over, having seen the flashlight drop and go dead. Before Victor can react, the guard shines his flashlight into the room, right onto Victor. Victor quickly draws his pistol, but the man already had his pistol drawn and pulls the trigger. Fear fills the guard’s body as the gun misfires. Looking down at the pistol, a lump forms in his throat. A hand is covering the back of his pistol. The hammer is biting into the flesh, having stopped the hammer from hitting the firing pin. Footsteps in front of the guard cause him to look up, just as a knife is driven into his heart. Victor had already closed the distance between him and the guard, and covers the guard’s mouth, preventing him from raising the alarm, while driving the knife deep into the man’s chest.

  Ernest holds the guard from behind. Together the three men go down, and as soon as the man stops moving, Victor lets go and pries the gun from the dead man’s hand, then pulls the hammer back, freeing Ernest’s hand.