by JC Ryan
39
MACKENZIE WATCHED ANXIOUSLY from the operating theater balcony as her clinician used guided imagery to carefully thread a fine needle into Carter’s lung. The magnified and color-enhanced image looked like pink chenille, with white lace edging. Beside her, her parents, Liu, and Dylan watched as well. They’d flown in that morning from Athens. Dylan had sent his team home, now that they were certain the kidnapper wasn’t on the mainland.
Sean was being prepped for his injection in pre-op. As soon as the patients were released, shortly after the procedure, Sean and Dylan would coordinate with Sean’s team to surveil the decoy operation. Merrybeth was standing by with Franklin in the bay, and Jasper was in communication with them from near the boat in the town harbor.
When Merrybeth signaled Jasper that she was leading Bashar away, Carter, the boat’s crew, and a few of Sean’s men would set out for the bay. Carter had asked Mackenzie to stay ashore, but she refused, saying she needed to be there when he got back to the boat with the children. But her parents and Liu would stay at the hotel and wait for news.
Mackenzie felt as if a tornado was wreaking havoc in her gut. Her entire future could be determined today. Between apprehension about the known side effects of the respirocytes and the unknown outcome of the rescue operation, she was experiencing an electrical storm along every neural pathway. Yet, at the center of it all, there was a calm space. That was where she knew that they had made the right decisions until now, and that the outcome was in God’s hands.
The scientist in her pushed away her own anxiety to observe Carter’s condition. He didn’t seem anxious, but she didn’t see how he could not. “Carter, how are you feeling? Any aftereffects of the anesthetic?”
He took her hand. “Mackie, it was a local anesthetic. I’m fine. I feel great, in fact, like I’m breathing pure oxygen.” He took a deep breath to show her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say I feel like I could run up mountains, or swim to the mainland.”
“That’s the increased oxygen in your bloodstream. That helps my anxiety!” Mackenzie exclaimed. In response, Carter kissed the top of her head.
Determined to take Carter’s mind off the stakes of today’s task, put her anxiety aside, and spend what may be her last moments with Carter in some meaningful way, she introduced a subject she’d been thinking about ever since Merrybeth told her that Carmen had been kidnapped.
“Carter, are you thinking about your dive, or can we talk about something else?”
“Nothing to think about. I’m going to take a deep breath and swim into a tunnel. Keep going until I find the kids and bring them out. Since I don’t know what I’ll encounter in there, there isn’t anything to think about.” He gave her a lopsided grin.
She loved him even more for acting like it was no big deal. She grinned back. Then she said, “Okay, then here’s what I want to talk about. Kidnapping is a crime in every civilized nation, if not every nation. But the dolphins have virtually no protection. I want to campaign to have them recognized as sentient and get some laws in place to protect their rights. If Bashar hadn’t kidnapped our children, there would have been nothing to charge him with for taking Carmen.”
“You mean, besides a dozen or more murders in London,” Carter mentioned sardonically.
“Well, right. But I mean this incident. Carter, it’s mind-boggling that this person we know is a serial killer. And because he has our children, I don’t want to think about it. Can we just talk about the dolphins for now?”
“Of course, Mackie. I didn’t mean to sidetrack you. So, let me understand you. You know that the extent of their intelligence has been a secret, touching on national security. But now you want to have that set aside and publish to the world that we are not alone in advanced intelligence? And that it isn’t aliens among us, but dolphins?”
“Yes, Carter. That’s exactly what I mean. They deserve to have their rights protected, don’t you agree? Otherwise, we’re tacitly saying they’re less than human. The US has been down that road before. It wasn’t pretty.”
“I’ll support whatever you want to do about that, Mackie. But just be careful about revealing top secret information. We’re already skating on thin ice, and don’t tell me you don’t remember being wanted for treason just a few years ago.”
“I’ll negotiate to have the top-secret designation removed before I go public with my campaign, I promise.”
“Then I’m behind you all the way. And speaking of all the way, we’re here.”
They’d been so focused on each other that they hadn’t realized how quickly the shoreline was changing until the boat stopped.
“Are you ready, sir?” one of the crew asked.
“I was born ready,” he answered, winking at Mackenzie.
“Aren’t you going to wear any dive equipment?” she asked.
“I’ll get on some flippers to help me swim faster, and a mask to help me see better, but there’s no point in tanks or the rebreather. They won’t go through the first narrow spot, and there’s no place to take them off. Wish me luck,” he said, kissing her goodbye.
She wanted to cling to him, tell him not to go. But she couldn’t give up the hope of seeing her children alive and safe. “Luck,” she whispered, as he went over the side.
CARTER HAD ONLY a few yards to go before he ducked under the water to find the flooded entrance to the underground river. He had an idea of what it would look like from his experience of the other entrance. He’d be swimming upstream of the current, and he had to remind himself that he’d have plenty of oxygen, and he should not to try to breathe. Land-humans’ breathing is normally an involuntary function, but like dolphins, they can voluntarily control it – usually for a short time. Most people who learn to hold their breath for extraordinarily long periods do so with practice. Carter had not had the opportunity to practice, so a small part of his cortex was engaged in a rigid battle to maintain control.
Sean had told him that Navy SEALs must be able to hold their breath for two to three minutes, though trained divers could learn to hold it for about eleven minutes. While the average person can hold it for about one minute, a world record holder who prepared by hyperventilating for nearly twenty minutes was then able to hold his breath for an astounding twenty-two minutes and twenty seconds. He’d immediately followed up with the opinion that no one could go that long while also swimming as fast as they could, though the lack of a place to breathe in air might help them hold it longer than they otherwise could.
Carter’s dive watch told him he’d been underwater about fifteen minutes when he sensed air above his head. He surfaced into a void that was just large enough to allow him to get his nose and mouth above water before he bumped his head on the rock above him. However, the distance was enough that his headlamp didn’t extend to the end of the shallow cave. He turned on his back and breathed deeply while he swam toward the other end. Idly, he wondered how there was any air at all in the pocket, and whether he would use it all before he had to go underwater again.
Swimming on his back, using his arms underwater in a reverse breast-stroke pattern because his hands would hit the top if he used the normal technique, he wasn’t making progress as fast as he could underwater. But he reasoned he should take advantage of all the external oxygen he could get. Not only would it replenish the supply in his bloodstream and brain, but it gave the respirocyte generators time to do their jobs if he wasn’t constantly drawing down their product.
When he bumped into a solid wall, he took a last deep breath and dove under again, seeking the opening that would get him through. Immediately, he understood that this one was where Franklin had been forced to turn back.
Not normally claustrophobic, Carter had to draw on every iota of his will to force himself into the tight confines of the tube. And then he was forced to back out, remove his flippers, and push them ahead of him as he used one hand to pull himself through. To his astonishment and delight, the narrow opening was less than three feet long, and was bare
ly underwater on the other side. He pushed the side hard with his free hand and popped out into a large opening, the top of which was easily ten feet above the surface of the water. Furthermore, there was dry land beside the water.
He climbed out to explore further, but soon realized this was not the place. No dolphin was in the water, no children on the rocks beside the river waiting for him. It was disappointing, but Ahab had warned him in the video that the children were inaccessible. He didn’t really expect to find them right away. His dive watch told him he’d been in the water for nearly forty-five minutes. He figured he had four or five hours at most before Bashar started back for the entrance, and he’d know by then that he’d been tricked. Carter didn’t especially want to meet him coming in as he was leading the children out. He wasted no more time on the empty cave, but instead he put his flippers and mask back on and headed farther into the cave system.
40
IT WAS NEARLY three hours later when Carter swam through a narrow but tall crack into another cave. He’d encountered several in the meanwhile, but all were either too small or brief exploration had convinced him they were empty. His control over his breathing had gradually become almost second nature in the spots where the river had carved tunnels through smooth sedimentary rock, some only a few feet long, and the longest taking more than half an hour to traverse.
He was no longer surprised at the strength he felt, but he was astonished when he calculated his distance with the pedometer-type measurement function of his dive watch. He’d traveled more than twenty miles by that calculation, far more than he’d thought necessary to reach the children. He thought he must be near the other end of the cave system, a hunch borne out by the fact he’d been traveling with the current for the last hour.
He climbed out of the water, noting he felt as fresh as if he’d only just started, pulled off his flippers, and turned on his headlamp, which he’d been keeping off as much as possible to conserve the batteries.
“Dad!”
Carter’s heart leaped. The shout had startled him, but it was the word that caused the irregularity in his heartbeat. “Liam?”
“Dad, over here!”
He turned toward where he thought the sound had come from. In the distance, almost at the end of his headlamp’s reach, a small figure stood waving his arms. Carter sprinted for the child, heedless of the cuts on his bare feet from several small, sharp stones.
When he got to Liam, he threw himself to his knees and swallowed his son in a bear hug. Liam returned it enthusiastically.
“Beth?” Carter asked, holding Liam by both arms and looking around wildly. A few feet away, Beth was holding her arms out to him. Both children had been tied by thin climbing ropes to boulders too big for them to move. They had enough leeway to reach bottles of water and still-wrapped energy bars, but they couldn’t reach each other.
“That bastard,” Carter mumbled.
“I guess we made him mad when we threw rocks at him,” Liam explained. “He tied us up like this right after he made that video. I’m sorry I used a bad word in the video, Dad.”
“He did! He used a lot of bad words to that man,” Beth affirmed.
Her indignation over her brother’s transgressions struck Carter as hilarious, given the circumstances. He laughed loudly and told Liam he got a pass this time but to watch it in the future. He was busy untying Beth when Liam said, “Uh oh.”
Carter turned just in time to see a large figure rushing him. He stood to protect Beth from the charge and threw himself backward and sideways, his arms wrapped around his assailant. They both scrambled for purchase for a moment. Carter was a second faster. He swung a wild roundhouse just as Bashar got to his feet. Although he connected, it hardly delayed Bashar’s response at all. Carter felt a solid blow to his solar plexus.
“Hit him, Dad!” Liam and Beth were both cheering him on. It would have been cute if it hadn’t been such a desperate situation.
Carter drew on his martial arts training to regroup. Bashar was huge – at least a head taller than Carter, and his muscular body matched. Carter, though was in superb physical condition. His tai chi training, with its beneficial effects on pulmonary function and mental control had already been enhanced by the respirocytes. He could feel it. But his true advantage would come from his krav maga skills.
Carter counterattacked before Bashar could press his advantage. While Bashar threw awkward punches at Carter’s body, Carter targeted Bashar’s most vulnerable points – his eyes, neck, throat and face. Nor did he feel any compunction to follow Marquess of Queensbury rules. This wasn’t by any definition a fair fight, so Carter targeted Bashar’s groin, ribs, knee – anywhere where he could potentially cripple his opponent and end the fight as soon as possible.
The two men rained blow after blow on each other. Bashar was bigger, but Carter was faster. He got in three punches for every two of Bashar’s. But it was a lucky one that knocked Bashar off his feet. His head connected with a rock with a sickening thud, and he lay still.
Carter staggered back and breathed deeply, waiting for the other man to stir. He bent down and picked up a large rock, ready to brain Bashar before he got to his feet. But Bashar didn’t rise. Carter approached him cautiously and felt for a pulse, finding a weak one. He sighed in relief. He needed Bashar to tell him how he got the children in here without drowning them. After that, the bastard could die for all Carter cared.
“Keep an eye on him while I get Beth loose,” he said to Liam. “Let me know if he starts coming around.”
“Okay, Dad. You need to check on the dolphin, too. I can wait.”
The dolphin! Was Carmen still alive? Carter finished untying Beth and went back to the shoreline. Beth was right behind him. “She’s over here,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him farther along the edge of the river.
“How do you know it’s a she?” Carter asked, smiling down at his little girl.
“I just know. I guess Akela told me,” she answered. She didn’t seem to think it was remarkable.
Carter saw Carmen lying on her side, held mostly out of the water by a fishing net. He approached slowly, reluctant to learn the dolphin was dead while Beth looked on. But when he put his hand on her side, Carmen whistled. Carter snatched his hand back. “You’re alive!” he shouted. “Your mother is going to be so happy.”
He could tell Carmen was in bad shape, but he felt there was one silver lining. She must have been difficult to get in through the narrows in the cave system, but he could tell she’d lost weight by the way her skin hung on her around her dorsal fin. “We’ll get you out of here and fatten you back up in no time,” he said, patting her gingerly. Then, not knowing if the tatters of skin were sensitive, he withdrew his hand. “I’ll be right back.”
He wasn’t certain Carmen understood everything he said, and he had no way of knowing what she’d said with her one weak whistle, but he needed to release Liam, who’d been very patient for a boy of nine.
Bashar came around not long after Carter had used the ropes he’d removed from his children to truss the man securely. Carter was watching him for signs of consciousness when he did.
“Glad you could join us, Ahab,” he said.
“I knew you recognized me,” Bashar snarled. “How did you get in here? It’s impossible for anyone but me.”
Carter grinned a feral grin. “That will remain my secret for now. But if you want to get out of here, you’ll tell me how you got my children and the dolphin in.”
“Two can keep secrets, my friend. How long can your children go without food and fresh water? I’m betting I can last longer than they can.”
“You’d be betting that I won’t continue to incentivize you to tell me,” Carter answered mildly. He looked around for a rock of just the right size. Finding one, he picked it up and walked over to Ahab, then casually dropped the rock on his shin. A sickening crack told the story.
Ahab howled in pain but bit off his cry. He glared up at Carter. “You’re a monster.
”
“Oh, I think we both know who’s the monster. Be quick. We… correction, you don’t have all day.”
“You would not torture me as your children looked on,” Ahab tried.
“Try me. Better yet, I think I’ll let my son drop the next rock. He’s the one who was yelling ‘kill him’ a few minutes ago.”
“Dad,” Liam said.
“Quiet, son. I’m having a conversation with our guest.”
“But Dad, Sean’s here.”
Carter turned around to see his friend climbing out of the water, a black tubular object in one hand. “Hey, buddy! What are you doing here? And what’s that?”
“All according to plan, Carter. You’ve been in here over four hours. Coming up on five. I thought I’d better come and rescue you. And this,” he said, brandishing the black tube, “is what he must have been using to get in and out so fast. It’s a SeaDoo. Individual propulsion device. I found it tucked under an overhang just over there.” He grinned, casting a significant look at the tied and miserable Bashar.
“You were supposed to follow me five hours later, and it took me four to get here.”
“So, I swim a bit faster than you. And I figured if it was much of a distance, I’d better follow as soon as we knew the respirocytes were working. I knew that in an hour.”
A gasp from Bashar turned both their attention to him. He’d turned a bit green, or maybe it was the bioluminescent organisms on the wall that gave him that color. “Do you have something to say, asshole?” Carter asked.
Beth said, “Daddy, that’s a bad word.”
“Yes, it is, sweetheart. Unless the person is a bad person. And then it’s the perfect word. But I won’t say it anymore.” To Bashar, Carter said, “What’s your problem?”
“Respirocytes. That… that is impossible. The research was destroyed.”
“What research?”
Bashar spilled it then. His life story. Algosaibi’s research, all the failed experiments. His extraordinary abilities. “But you have not been genetically altered. You cannot have respirocytes.”