“When she’s drugged,” Virginia said as she finally sat next to Alexandria and put an arm around her.
“Yes, Ms. Pollock. She must have extraordinary mind power to fight off the thoughts that course through her head. I believe she brought you here not to question you about vaults or what you knew about her. She brought you here, using her subconscious will, to help get Leviathan back and to stop what was happening. Oh, she’s still crazy for her cause, but now the insanity issue can be explained,” Farbeaux finished.
“God, do you know what you’re saying?” Niles asked.
Collins answered for the rest, as they were coming to the same conclusion.
“It seems the kind little symbiants aren’t the fuzzy little creatures the Heirthall family thought.”
Before they knew what was happening, the lights flickered inside the observation lounge and then they heard the outer hatchway slam closed. Sparks started shooting through the watertight seal lining the hatch. Samuels turned and tried the wheel, but it didn’t budge.
“It’s dogged from the outside!”
Jack and Everett sprang forward and assisted Samuels. The wheel refused to move.
“They are sealing us inside with a welding torch,” Everett said.
Without a warning signal or announcement, they felt Leviathan go to full speed once more, throwing them all off their feet. Outside the viewing windows, the behemoth shot through the trench canyons as easily as a sports car on a highway. Niles watched the digital readouts on the hologram once the screens closed, and saw that they were once more traveling at one hundred and seventy knots and were headed due south.
“I think the battle for Leviathan has just begun in earnest,” Farbeaux said as he gained his feet, grimacing in pain.
“Yeah, and like always, we seem to be in the wrong place and slightly outnumbered,” Mendenhall said as he assisted the senator to his chair.
Jack slammed the hatch with the flat of his hand in frustration. He angrily turned and looked at Sarah. She looked back at him, and that seemed to bring Jack back to reason. He nodded his head at Sarah and then turned to the others.
“Yes, Will, outnumbered, outgunned, outsmarted.” He walked up to Trevor, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up out of his chair. “But we do have a couple of advantages. We have the man who knows the plan and who’s involved.”
“And the other?” Everett asked, joining him at his side.
“Me.”
They looked to where Alexandria Heirthall was holding herself firm against the table. She was shaking, and her face was pale. The sym inside of her was obviously reasserting itself.
“Yes, Captain, what better ally to have than the designer of Leviathan?” Jack agreed.
It was Farbeaux who brought that thought into real perspective. “Yes, but which captain are we going to get?”
“Commander Samuels, these coordinates—do you have any idea where they are taking us?” Niles asked, indicating the readout at the base of the observation windows.
Samuels stepped forward and looked at the running numbers. He looked confused to Collins. “Yes, we’re making a run for home.”
“Where in the hell is home?” Ryan asked.
“Ice Palace—the Ross Ice Shelf.”
“What’s there?” Everett asked.
“We must retake Leviathan at all costs,” Alexandria said just before she collapsed to the deck, unconscious. Virginia, Mendenhall, Sarah, and Alice rushed to her aid.
“It’s our base of operations,” Samuels said beneath his breath, unable to say what he was thinking. “We’re in the process of leaving there and going to a new base—t he ice shelf has become too unstable. There’s nothing there but the Heirthall fortune and …” Samuels lowered his head.
Collins, who had released Dr. Trevor, faced him once more. He removed the pistol from Samuels’s hand. He placed it against the right hand of the doctor and pressed.
“It’s obviously Sergeant Tyler controlling this thing. Now, why is he going to Ice Palace?”
For the first time Trevor smiled. It was as though he was far braver now that Heirthall was unconscious.
“What’s there, Colonel? Five hundred nuclear weapons—enough missiles to destroy every deepwater port on the face of the earth.” His grin widened. “The symbiants are taking back their oceans, and the Heirthalls and Leviathan have helped them do it.”
“Does every asshole on the planet have access to these damn weapons?” Mendenhall whispered to Ryan.
“Only the ones we run across.”
18
USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)
Missouri was running at six knots on a southern line toward Antarctica, for no other reason than that was the last known direction of Leviathan as she left the area of Saboo.
First Officer Izzeringhausen handed Jefferson the full list of damages that would have to wait until they returned to Pearl for repairs.
“Not bad considering we hit more debris than a garbage truck,” the captain said as he laid the report on the navigation chart he had been studying.
“Conn, sonar, we have just picked up a very weak submerged disturbance. We believe computer says it’s Leviathan.”
“Did you get a bearing?” Jefferson asked with the microphone gripped tightly.
“Aye, Captain—twenty-three miles due south of the Ross Sea, heading straight for the ice shelf on a heading for White Island. Depth, over three and a half miles.”
“We follow, Skipper?”
“Yes, we follow. Get in there as close as we can and hope the damn ice shelf stays intact.”
Jefferson was referring to the massive shearing of thirty-three miles of ice that had recently torn free from the world’s largest ice pack.
“Take us to five hundred feet and bring us up to twenty-two knots. Order the relief shift for sonar, and get the department supervisors up here. We need the best people at their stations.”
“Aye, Captain. I estimate at our revised speed and depth we should arrive at the shelf in three hours.”
“Ten miles out I want to slow to five knots, and we’ll go to total silence from there—no unnecessary movement.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Somewhere out there is the world’s largest shark, and I don’t want to get bitten again.”
LEVIATHAN
Five decks below the control center were the crew’s quarters. Just fewer than eighteen hundred off-duty men and women were enclosed in four different berthing areas. The officer’s quarters were dispersed alongside the larger compartments according to specific division. The symbiant attack started at the larger crew quarters.
“Hey, what’s that smell?” one of the bosun mates called out from his bunk. “Smells like someone is welding something.”
Another man who was playing cards with several others looked around and thought the same thing. Then another became concerned.
Suddenly three flood valves opened to the sea, and freezing water started flowing through and into the compartment. Not one of the crew in the first compartment panicked, but several did run to one of the three hatches located in the compartment. They spun the wheel so they could get free and then isolate the flooding—but the wheel was frozen.
“What the hell!” someone called.
The water was at one foot and rising.
Outside the hatch, the three midshipmen rolled up the electrical line for the portable arc welder and then looked down upon their work, satisfied. The spot welds along the frame and on the turning wheel would make sure that every man and woman in the compartment would drown within an hour. The three had finished at the exact same moment as the other welding crews, who had just accomplished the same task on the remaining crew compartments and officers’ quarters.
Leviathan’s crew had been taken in less than five minutes from the time Yeoman Alvera ordered the attack to commence.
Lieutenant Kogersborg was just finishing his change-of-watch paperwork when the flooding alarm sounded. The constant
electronic buzz filled the command center as the watch crew monitored their holographic stations.
“We have flooding on deck five, crews’ quarters. All four compartments, and officers’ cabins as well!” the damage control officer called out.
Kogersborg looked on in amazement, then reacted.
“That is ridiculous, we didn’t hit anything—it has to be a computer malfunction.”
“Diagnostics check out; that deck is flooding.”
“Jesus,” the young lieutenant said as he moved quickly from the navigation console to the damage-control station. He knew the flooding was real when Leviathan went into automatic damage control, as ordered by her computers, counterflooding to keep the submarine trimmed as they rose toward the Ross Ice Shelf.
When he saw the hologram depicting the flooding in sixteen cabins and the four large crew compartments, he came close to panicking. The second thing he saw was the computer-generated numbers of personnel estimates for the occupied areas.
“Oh my God, ninety-eight percent of the crew is on that deck!”
“Why aren’t they getting out?” one technician asked.
“The computers are not counterflooding, and the pumps have not started,” the damage control officer said.
“Sound general quarters—call the captain and Commander Samuels to the conn. Manually start the pumps on deck five, now!”
“The situation is under control, Lieutenant,” Tyler said from the circular stairwell leading down from the observation platform above control. The sergeant was armed, as were his men coming at the control center from the fore and aft compartments.
Kogersborg without hesitation knew his duty. He jumped for the general alarm. His hand was only inches away when Tyler deftly shot him three times in the back. The boy slowly hit the captain’s pedestal and slid to the deck. The rest of the control room crew started to move to action when several more shots rang out; then the din of automatic fire filled the air. When silence came once more, thirty-five men and women of the control room watch were dead.
“Damn it!” Tyler hissed as he stepped down from the last rung of the staircase. “Call the trainees to the control center to take over the watch, and get these bodies out of here.”
One of his men was leaning over two of the helmsmen.
“Sergeant, these two are still alive. Should we call the—”
Tyler, looking frustrated, walked up and fired two shots into the heads of the wounded, making his security man fall backward.
“Your men were too slow in reacting, and that made the control room crew think they could do something about this. I won’t be cleaning up your mess again. Now get the midshipmen trainees up here, and get replacement modules for the damaged control systems.”
“Yes, sir,” the man said, with one last look at the murdered crewmen.
Tyler deftly stepped over the crumpled body of Lieutenant Kogersborg and reached out to touch the large captain’s chair sitting high on its pedestal. Then he removed the ammunition clip from his handgun and replaced it with a fresh one.
“Have the second assault team meet me in front of the observation compartment—it’s time to confront Captain Heirthall and her guests.”
The Event Group felt Leviathan slow and her bow angle change as she started her climb to the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf. The waters outside of the observation windows were crystal clear as the lights started to pick up the indigenous sea life of the Antarctic Archipelago.
“Look at that,” Lee said as he stepped closer to observe the giant pressure ridges on the bottom of the shelf. Upside-down mountains pointed their sharpened edges at the now diminutive Leviathan as she rose through the depths.
“According to these coordinates, we’re not that far away from White Island,” Everett said as he made some quick calculations on a napkin. “The closest American friendlies are a thousand miles away at McMurdo Station, on the southern tip of Ross Island.”
“We have enough scientists onboard Leviathan as it is. I don’t think those nerds from the weather station will be of any help,” Lee quipped as he looked at Niles. “No offense, my dear boy.”
“No, but if we can find a way off Leviathan, they are within rescue distance,” Carl said as an explanation.
“Good to know, swabby,” Jack said.
“All hands take collision stations, stand by to surface. We have unstable ice ahead,” Yeoman Alvera called over the intercom.
“Well, at least we know who is in command,” Collins said as he looked at the now-silent Dr. Trevor. “We need to know who-all is in on this. The crew? If not, what did they do with them?”
Outside the windows, Leviathan rose dangerously close to the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf, slowing even further as she did.
“The opening to Ice Palace is a natural fault that will allow Leviathan to rise into the ice,” Samuels said, sitting next to Alexandria as she lay upon the long conference table. “I think the captain is coming around.”
Heirthall’s eyes blinked and she turned her head. She looked into Virginia’s eyes. She smiled, reached out, and took her hand. Virginia smiled, and then slowly wiped the blood that pooled and ran from Alexandria’s left ear.
“The sym inside of me is dying, Ginny. I’m afraid it’s taking me with it,” she said, almost silently.
“No, you’re too strong for that.” Virginia squeezed her friend’s hand. “You did good fighting it. If you hadn’t, no one on the outside would have stood a chance.”
Alexandria smiled sadly. “I am not proud of myself for … allowing this thing to happen,” she said, wincing as a momentary pain coursed through her head. “I didn’t think the syms … were capable.”
“Sometimes aggressor species hide their intent well, Alex. You were blinded by your compassion. Your entire family was.”
“Help me … sit up, Ginny.”
Virginia, with Alice’s assistance, did as asked. More blood flowed from first the left, then the right ear. Alexandria leaned her head against Virginia’s chest as Samuels came over. He tried to smile at his captain, but couldn’t.
“We … were both blinded, James.” She smiled and took his hand. “Nevertheless, we’ll fix … it. You must understand this. Listen well, James—the young children, they are innocent. Their syms are too young … to be … a part of this.”
“Yes, Captain, we will make things right, and we’ll get the children off,” her first officer said determined.
“The ice shelf is dying. The polar ice caps are melting; being weakened by the global warming governments say is not cyclical,” she said weakly, trying to make her voice heard.
Leviathan was rising fast toward a giant pressure ridge that shot down from the shelf. It looked as if they were on a direct collision course with disaster, when suddenly the giant vessel veered right and then expertly shot between two of the larger ridges, shifting her bulk into a valley that allowed Leviathan to rise up and into the great ice shelf.
“Yeoman Alvera is quite adept at handling…. Leviathan‘s large bulk in tight spaces. Whenever we are gone for long periods of time, the opening…. to Ice Palace freezes over, and becomes a much tighter fit than when we left,” Alexandria said, watching the view from the windows.
“All hands, this is the deck officer, surface, surface,” Alvera announced. “Chief of the boat, sound the horn—all interior lighting to full illumination.”
Bubbles the size of cruise ships started to rise in front of the windows as the giant submarine started emptying her ballast tanks. She rose slowly, guided by her thrusters in order to stay clear of the sharpened edges of the ice. The deck beneath their feet dipped one way and then the other as the young Alvera maneuvered her to avoid ice slicing through her composite hull.
Finally, the warning horn sounded and Leviathan broke into bright, daylike illumination. As the Event Group looked out of the observation window, they saw a natural ice cave, immense in size.
“We discovered it thirty-five years ago. My parents … estimated t
hat the cave was naturally formed over two hundred thousand years ago by … seismic activity from Mount Erebus to the south. It was possibly a giant air bubble the size of England that rose from the sea floor.”
Leviathan gently rose to the surface of a small interior sea totally encased in ice. The water was calm as the giant submarine eased onto the surface.
“Attention, deck watch to the sail, deck watch to the sail. Riggers and security report to the docking commander. Attention, all hands, Leviathan has arrived at our destination.”
The Event Group felt Leviathan shut down her engines as the great submarine settled on the surface of the inland waterway. Thrusters maneuvered her close to the center of the trapped sea.
“Welcome to the end of the world as we know it,” Alexandria said, blood now lining her lips. “This is where our … journey ends. I suspect this is where Sergeant Tyler will gather whatever his … reward is, and the symbiants will make … their final … stand against mankind.”
To Jack, Carl, Niles, and the others, that was an ominous announcement.
“I’m sorry, Captain Heirthall, but we’re leaving this little shindig, and if we can, we’re going to bring this whole place down, and Leviathan with it.”
All eyes turned to Jack. Even Farbeaux set his half-finished drink down and pushed it away.
“It is about time you said something noble, Colonel. You were beginning to worry me.”
19
Jack walked over and stood before Dr. Trevor. Everett joined him, quickly reached out, and again pulled the doctor to his feet. He eased the smaller man into himself and smiled.
“Captain Everett drew the short straw this time around; he gets to ask you questions. Do you have your persuaders, Captain?” Collins asked, looking from Carl to the double hatchway. He knew that any minute Tyler and his men were going to start cutting through to get at them and finish what he had to do. Jack knew Tyler was trained enough to know he couldn’t leave an enemy onboard while he was ashore. He would definitely attack.
Leviathan: An Event Group Thriller Page 34