“Yes. There wasn’t much to choose from, since we’ll need all the bullets in the commander’s pop gun, but Ryan gathered up a couple of nice persuasion instruments.”
To the doctor’s horror, Everett let go of him and brought up a steak knife and a shiny corkscrew.
“The corkscrew is compliments of Colonel Farbeaux.”
“I don’t know what I can tell you,” Trevor said, looking at the ordinary kitchen implements that now held a whole new world of possibilities. “Obviously the captain forced Sergeant Tyler and Yeoman Alvera’s hand earlier than they expected.”
“Is the rest of the crew loyal?” Everett asked.
“I don’t know who is …” Trevor screamed as Carl poked him in the ribs with the corkscrew.
“Jack, what are you doing?” Niles asked, approaching them.
Collins turned and looked at his director.
“Torturing Dr. Trevor for information,” he said plainly and without humor.
“Oh. Carry on.”
Any hope that Trevor might have had left with Niles Compton as he returned to the senator and Alice.
“Okay, okay … the crew is unaware of what the syms and Tyler are doing. I never knew the plan for their disposal.” Tyler felt the corkscrew scrape his skin through his coverall once more. “Or if they were to be disposed of at all.”
“What are the syms planning?”
“Tyler will take command of Leviathan. That’s his reward.”
“For what?” Everett asked, not needing to poke the doctor again; his eyes warned of what he was capable.
“The syms will control the sea with Leviathan at their disposal. Most of the world’s navies will be destroyed in the port attacks; the rest can be picked off piecemeal by Tyler. He isn’t in it for money, he’s in it for power.”
Jack reached out and took the steak knife from the table where Everett had laid it. He placed it to the doctor’s neck.
“And your reward for assisting in mutiny?”
“The Heirthall fortune,” he whimpered.
“Ah, the gold and jewels of the Monte Cristo legend.”
Trevor’s eyes flicked to Henri Farbeaux as he joined the trio.
“Good to see that there is old-fashioned avarice alive and well in the world—that everything isn’t all idealistic nonsense.”
Jack lowered the knife and turned toward Farbeaux.
“Colonel, no more drinking. We’re going to need you.”
Farbeaux smiled and then saluted Collins mockingly. Then he looked straight into Trevor’s eyes. The mention of the Heirthall treasure interested him immensely.
Before Everett could continue, there were noises coming from the hatchway, then a sudden shower of sparks.
“I guess our time’s up,” Everett said.
“Okay, get the captain behind a table. Ryan, Mendenhall, get us a barricade set up, a thick one.”
Everyone started moving, tipping tables and piling chairs.
“One pistol, Jack. All we’re going to do is maybe hurt someone and make them mad at us,” Everett said as he tossed Trevor to the floor and dumped part of the conference table in front of him.
Before anyone could react, a locked access door above the observation glass sprang open. All they saw was a man drop into the compartment and dive for cover.
The attack on the observation deck had begun, and it came from a surprising front.
Tyler was watching his security team cut through the same hatchway they had sealed an hour earlier when he was approached from behind by Alvera and three of the sym midshipmen. She watched the progress on the hatch without comment for a moment. Her startling blue eyes did not waver from the bright torch. “The crew and officers were successfully taken in their quarters?” she asked Tyler without turning to face him.
“Yes.” Tyler turned to her, annoyed. “Shouldn’t you go back to your station on the bridge?”
Alvera stopped watching the men cutting through the hatchway. She turned briefly to the midshipmen accompanying her. Then she turned and looked more closely at Tyler, and actually took a menacing step toward him. He tried not to show his fear of the young woman, but failed, as his eyes could not hold her intensity.
“Explain to me again, since you have seized control of the most powerful vessel in the history of your world, how you can be trusted? A man willing to kill millions of his own species is also a man capable of betraying the partners who assisted him in achieving that great power. Why should we trust you?”
“Because the only ally you’ll have after the death of Captain Heirthall is me and the members of my security team. I need you, and you need me. Your kind will live, and I will have Leviathan. You’ll have control of the sea, and I’ll have control of the one thing that guarantees it for you.”
Alvera looked more closely into Tyler’s face. Her blue eyes intensified as she gazed, trying to uncover the lie that she suspected was just under the surface of his features.
Tyler swallowed, but held his ground.
“You acted too quickly. The captain still has the launch codes in her head. Without those codes, we can’t act against the naval powers of the world. Thus far your judgment is not quite adequate to wield the power of Leviathan, Sergeant.”
“Obviously I had to act sooner than planned because Heirthall was being entertained by the men and women she brought aboard, despite your implanted sym. She was in far more control than you ever believed, Yeoman. Act is what I did, to cover for your errors in judgment.” He swallowed. “Now, I have a question for you,” he said, forcing himself to continue. “Are you prepared to do what you have to do? Can you kill more than eighteen hundred loyal members of Leviathan‘s crew—men and women you have worked with for years? More importantly, can you do what you have to do in regard to the children? They are just as loyal to the captain as her crew.”
Alvera turned her back on Tyler and paced to the elevator where the midshipmen were holding the doors for her. Before she entered, Alvera turned with a small grin. “The bulk of the crew will be dead within the hour. As for the children, they are part of the gulf colony, and mean absolutely nothing to me and the others.”
“Then I ask you the same question: How can you be trusted if you can kill off an entire colony of syms, especially when there are so few of your kind to begin with?”
“Simple, Sergeant,” she said, stepping into the elevator. “They are young. They would fight to save the captain. They have none of the aggressiveness of the older sym colonies. They don’t yet realize we are on the short end of a losing war. We must live—not because we are allowed to, but because we have the right to.” She looked with distaste at Tyler. “We hate humankind—we despise them. Somehow, some way, we must secure the seas, even if we have to strike at every man, woman, and child on the planet.”
Alvera stopped the doors from closing.
“I am sending you some special help to ensure you take this compartment. Be sure not to get in their way. If I were you, I would let … us handle them…. The people inside that observation lounge are exceptional at what they do, and as long as the captain draws breath, she’s dangerous.” She smiled as if she had just heard the punch line to a private joke. “Be careful, Sergeant; we would hate to lose you now.”
The closing elevator doors finally blocked Alvera’s hate-filled eyes.
Tyler turned back to the cutting. He then turned back to the now-closed doors of the elevator.
“The only way you can do that, you little bitch, is to have Leviathan do it for you.” He thought, then smiled. “The only thing you must do is join the young syms in the fate you have planned for them.”
Beneath Tyler’s forced bravado, just where he could ignore it for moments at a time, was the fact that he was terrified of Alvera and her midshipmen. They were capable of anything, even eliminating him and his men from their equation.
Jack and Everett were the first to move toward the darkened threat that fell from the access hatch. Collins had the small handgun and
Everett the steak knife. Ryan and Mendenhall took up station on the far side and awaited Jack’s orders. They knew their job; they would be the distraction while Collins and Everett advanced on the enemy.
At the front hatchway, the cutting continued.
Collins rose above one of the upturned tables, took aim at the approximate position where the threat had landed, and waited.
“Hold your fire!” a frightened voice shouted.
Everett looked at Jack and shook his head. “That you, Doc?” he called out.
“Stand up!” Carl shouted.
As they watched, first hands and then the arms rose above one of the tables.
“Don’t shoot me,” Robbins said as he stood with arms raised.
Niles, the closest to Gene Robbins, quickly went over and searched him. Then the director spied a bag at Robbins’s feet.
“It’s not much. I took them from the captain’s cabin.”
“We have four nine-millimeter handguns here,” Niles counted, “and four extra clips of ammunition.”
Everett and Collins advanced on their new ally.
“Noble of you, Doc,” Everett said as he took the bag from Robbins, who couldn’t hold Everett’s gaze and so just looked at the floor.
“Can we get out the same way you came in?” Collins asked.
“We’ll have to find a way up from the deck above. I nearly broke both of my ankles falling from that height,” Robbins said, looking from Jack to the director. “Niles, I—”
Compton turned away and faced Samuels. “Can we get up there?”
“Yes, follow me.”
As Jack motioned for Carl, Mendenhall, and Ryan to follow, he tossed Farbeaux and Senator Lee each one of the handguns and two clips of ammunition.
“Blast anything that comes through that door,” he said as he followed the others up the stairs.
“And what are you going to do?” Farbeaux asked, making sure there was a round chambered in the handgun.
“We’ll try and get behind the assault force.”
“Wonderful. In the meantime, the senator and I will occupy them by collecting their bullets until you achieve your goal,” Farbeaux said as he lowered himself and faced the hatchway.
The five men rushed up the spiral staircase to the small deck above the observation floor. They watched as Samuels reached the open access panel Robbins had come through. He gestured to Collins, who tossed him the nine-millimeter he was holding. The commander quickly stepped underneath the panel and held the gun up, pointing into the blackness beyond. He stepped back and looked at the others.
“Clear so far. Give me a leg up.”
Ryan and Mendenhall stooped so Samuels could place his foot in their hands; they lifted. As the commander gabbed hold of the frame, he started kicking wildly and screaming. Ryan and Will pulled frantically at Samuels’s legs, trying desperately to yank him from the access hatch. Suddenly they were sprayed with blood. Shocked, they continued to pull at the commander’s legs. Then without warning, they fell to the floor, and to their horror they saw that only the bottom half of Samuels came with them.
“Jesus!” Everett said as he reacted quickly, stepping over the commander’s still-kicking legs and opening fire into the open hatchway.
Collins joined Everett and added his fire to the darkness beyond. They heard a mewling sound, as if a large cat had been hurt. Then something fell from the hatch, and before they knew what was happening, the thing rose and jumped on Carl.
Mendenhall saw what it was first, and tried to pull the gelatinous thing from the captain. Ryan joined in, and Jack did the same. The symbiant raised its head, its small hands pinning Everett to the deck, and hissed, showing its clear teeth and deep blue eyes. Without realizing it, all three men released the creature and jumped back. Collins caught his foot on the lower half of Commander Samuels’s body and fell back. As he did he brought the nine-millimeter up and fired directly into the symbiant’s head. The animal jerked, then faced Collins and angrily swiped at him, releasing one of Everett’s arms. The captain quickly fired his gun straight up into the symbiant’s chin. Three quick shots sent bluish-pink jelly upward. Everett felt the sym go lax, and he pushed it off.
As the three men stood and helped Carl to his feet, they heard hissing sounds coming from the access vent.
“Jack, I think we better find another way,” Everett said as he pushed Mendenhall and Ryan in front of him and started for the stairs.
As Collins turned away, he heard another of the symbiants fall from the access hatch. Then another, and another. He turned quickly and fired into the mass of clear membrane of the first. He saw the bullets enter the creature’s gelatinous flesh, but all they did was make it shy away as the next set of bullets found the mark. Then it started after Collins with a hideous scream.
Farbeaux was torn between watching the spiral staircase, where he heard sounds of men running, and the hatchway, where the sparks of the cutting torch had stopped. The decision was made for him as the right-side hatch was thrown back and an object was thrown in. Farbeaux and Lee hit the deck as the flash-bang grenade went off with a bright flash and deafening explosion. In the middle of all of this, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Everett came rushing down to the main deck. They hit the floor, stunned. It was Jack who automatically started firing at the assault element coming through the hatch. He caught the first two unaware, and they crumpled to the floor. When he took aim at the third and fourth as they rushed in from the companionway, he heard the syms flopping down the stairs. He quickly turned, fired upward, and then hopped over the railing the last ten feet. Hitting the deck rolling, he felt hands on him. He looked up and saw Sarah as she helped him to his feet.
Farbeaux had risen from their cover and started firing into the opening. Lee turned his attention toward the staircase and fired in that direction. Then all of the action stopped at once.
“Colonel, there is no escape. Surrender now, and we will call the symbiants off. Refuse, and I guarantee you and your people a harsh death. You have never seen the syms feed—I assure you it is not a pretty sight.”
Jack and the others saw that the symbiants had paused at the higher level. They were moving around, watching them through the smoke, their illuminated eyes penetrating even from that distance.
“We want the captain. Give her up and we’ll put you on the surface of the ice shelf. That won’t guarantee your survival, but it’s a better fate than facing the symbiants,” Tyler called out.
Collins took a breath and looked at Niles. Compton in turn looked at Heirthall lying between Alice and Virginia.
“They won’t ever … get the … launch codes … I swear. Ginny, Dr. Compton, you and your people have done … all that you can.”
Niles looked back at Jack and shook his head.
“Sorry, Sergeant, I guess you have to come and get us,” Jack called out, and then he, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Everett took up positions next to Farbeaux and Lee.
“I can’t say that I am happy with your decision-making, Colonel,” Henri said, not taking his eyes off the hatchway.
“Colonel, I am accessing the view screen on the observation window. Judge for yourself what the consequences are before deciding,” Tyler shouted.
As Jack turned, the view screen in the upper portion of the viewing glass illuminated. The picture showed a fish-eye view of one of the crew’s quarters. Men and women were struggling to get higher in the compartment as seawater rose beneath them. Although the picture had no sound, Collins knew they were screaming and yelling. Several of the more experienced crew were trying desperately to open the hatch, diving and then surfacing for air.
“There are three more compartments like that one, Colonel. Surrender, and I’ll let the crew go along with you.”
Collins lowered his head.
“Jesus, Jack, that bastard is holding all of the cards,” said Everett.
“I daresay he’s right, my boy,” Lee said as he lowered his weapon.
Jack stood and slowly walked to the op
en hatch. He safetied the handgun and tossed it out into the companionway.
The battle for Leviathan had ended.
As the elevator took Tyler’s security team, the Event Group, Farbeaux, and Captain Heirthall up through the skyscraperlike conning tower, Jack watched Alexandria. She was deteriorating fast. He looked down at Sarah, and he could tell she was seeing it, too. The captain clung to Virginia, holding on to something of herself she could still feel and touch. As far as he knew, she hadn’t been medicated since their arrival in the Ross Sea, so her speculation that the symbiant implant had died was true.
At the topmost deck of the conning tower, Tyler opened a large access hatch and they were shown outside for the first time in two days. The bridge overlooked an amazing sight—a cavern that was eight hundred feet high and a mile in length. On both sides of Leviathan, to port and starboard, and only seven hundred feet away, were the sheer walls of the naturally formed bubble. The ice, illuminated by lighting placed by Heirthall and her crew years before, made the cavern gleam with a natural beauty no one outside of Leviathan had ever witnessed before.
A natural shelf with smaller pockets of caves lined the cavern. It looked as if the crew of Leviathan had expanded these to accommodate items such as vehicles and equipment, which had already been removed from the dangerous location.
The bridge phone rang, and Tyler quickly answered it.
“We have sunrise on the surface of the shelf. Winds are picking up to about sixty knots. We will start to see rougher seas shortly. If we are to launch the missiles today, we have to accomplish it before the winds exceed seventy knots.”
“I see. We’ll be retrieving the codes shortly.”
“How can we be getting winds here, beneath the ice shelf?” Compton asked, adjusting his fur-lined hood.
“In answer to your question, Dr. Compton, the winds are from the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf, one mile above us. They are coming through one hundred and fifteen thousand years of accumulated ice,” Alexandria said weakly, shivering.
“How is it penetrating?” Virginia asked, looking around her as the wind picked up in intensity.
Leviathan: An Event Group Thriller Page 35