Counterpoint

by John Day

  According to the Senator, it is entirely out of character for Ingrid to just up and leave like this, she loved her job and family; they are extremely close. She is a bit of a boffin type by all accounts.

  The Senator has asked for our help in case there is something politically damaging at the root of the affair that would become public knowledge, if say, the F.B.I or police were involved. Anyway, it is outside their jurisdiction and the local law enforcement is not interested. Either they are being paid off, or it is too domestic for them.

  A man called Mike Teal; a senior agent at the F.B.I. has been doing the background digging and investigation of the drilling operation for the Senator. You both know him don’t you,” said Sam smiling.

  They both felt the tingle of anxiety and fear at the mention of his name. “Don’t worry about Teal;” assured Sam, “he did very well out of the Gregor affair. He was promoted and is held in high esteem, with the President, no less. Teal knows he will drop from favour if the President hears you two were the key players, not Teal. Anyway, rumour has it that his computer technician made a mistake with bank account numbers and all the money paid by the arms buyers, disappeared without a trace. As you know, the poor man died, and the computer was destroyed in the warehouse fire, so the truth died with him. I am sure Teal would hate to have the subject of the lost funds brought up again.”

  Max and Carla looked at each other with relief at what Sam had just said. Their worries about the FBI coming after them, melted away, but what the FBI would do about the arms payments, going into a secret account belonging to Max & Carla, was another matter.

  “We have booked you both on the same flight to Mexico City, and then you go your separate ways. Here are your detailed instructions, all the background we have on the case so far, and your tickets, Carla.”

  At the airport, Carla took another flight to Minatitlan and then a taxi, to take her to a hotel. Using that as her base, she decided to hire a jeep to take her out to the drilling site. She hoped to pick up Ingrid’s trail from there.

  Max was met by Ron Aldridge, the project coordinator for the team, who designed and produced the submarine. The tall welsh man appeared to be rather laid back for someone with such awesome responsibility, but Max soon discovered this was just a front to cover his shyness with newcomers. He soon switched back to his normal self, intense and focused, with his team around him.

  Max and Ron flew by Cessna, to a recently laid landing strip and from there to the sub base, near Veracruz, by land rover.

  Chapter - Aboard the US1.

  For the next three weeks, Max had little time to worry about Carla, but there was always the fear for her safety in the back of his mind. She always managed to attract danger and excitement somehow; still she always came out on top, so far at least.

  At the US1 base, Max was introduced to the technical team, and Captain Williams, who commanded the new vessel.

  Max found the technical aspects of his role with the team most interesting; fortunately, he had no trouble absorbing the superficial detail of how things worked. Whereas each member of the on-board team was a specialist in his field, Max only had to consider the big picture.

  Tomorrow was the big day. Military and civilian procurement personnel would be on board along with two scientific advisors from the Presidential staff. They would all be looking to buy specialised versions of the sub for their own needs, so everything had to run smoothly.

  Just as Sam had said, the vessel was extraordinary in so many ways. It was the sweeping aside of the traditional ideas of how to design and build a submarine, and use workable technology in an exciting new way.

  The modular approach to hull design made the cost savings of mass production a reality. The change between carrying ICBMs or collecting manganese nodules from the sea bed, was mainly switching sections of hull.

  The potential for high speed and silent running was of considerable interest to the military.

  Everyone was impressed by the control and navigation system. The designers claimed the sub could be run indefinitely, without anyone being aboard. Using the same sensor and visual information available to a crew, the system could go from place to place or even patrol and observe without human intervention. A very attractive proposition, but even the designer’s weren’t prepared to let it off the leash yet. Primary control remained manual, and was compared with the automatic system recommendations.

  The team came on board at 8.00 am, and guests, 2 hours later, casting off 30 minutes after that. Because the trials would take place over several days, luxurious cabin facilities had been installed.

  Those familiar with the immense surge of smooth power, as the large vessel accelerated to open water in the Gulf of Mexico, and the quiet, vibration free hum of pumps and motors, filled them with pride.

  The guests were already amazed at the enormous space inside US1, free of the tangle of pipes, levers and wheel valves found in conventional craft. Some even wondered if they were being conned and that this was just a simulation.

  Chapter - Sabotage.

  As required by law, the medical staff were also aboard, Dr Tony Homer and his female nurse assistant Kate Winslow, routinely carried out their medical equipment checks. Dr Homer specialised in the breathing gasses and verified the readouts were within acceptable limits.

  Two hours out, Kate left the cabin to get coffee for both of them. Homer opened the drugs cupboard and took out a large bottle of chloroform. On the control panel, he clicked a few switches and finally locked out the alarm sounder, and went aft to the filter and air purification plant. Next he released the spring catches to the last filter box, took a deep breath and poured the chloroform into it. With the filter cover replaced he moved briskly forward to a conduit cover plate, outside the radio room. The whirring of the electric screwdriver lasted just five nail biting seconds, any second now, someone would see or hear him and he would be caught. A few more seconds and the power supply cable to the radio room was disconnected. All communication to the outside world was now lost. Back in the medical cabin, Homer took out an Oxygen mask and waited, sweating profusely and trembling, for ten agonisingly long minutes.

  Homer then got up and reset the switches, but not the alarm, that would kick in automatically in five minutes anyway. Finally, he replaced the filter and bagged up the contaminated one in polythene. The air would be fresh again in ten minutes.

  A quick search showed everyone else had succumbed to the anaesthetic and was out cold.

  In the main control room, Homer shut down the power to the propulsion units, and the vessel slowed to a stop just six metres below the surface.

  As the Doctor busied himself handcuffing the bodies to each other and convenient anchor points, way below him approached an old wartime submarine.

  Chapter - Old sub arrives.

  At the submarine base the moment telemetry and communications were broken, everyone was at full alert. Satellite checks on the area would not be available for an hour or so, but reconnaissance aircraft were mobilised at once. The motionless craft, in the clear water, was soon spotted from the air, and rescue vessels were already on their way to the last point of contact.

  At such a shallow depth, there would be no problem in achieving rescue, and towing the stricken craft back to the dock, if it couldn’t be repaired there. The priority would be to tow the US1 away from the exceptionally deep trench, back to the shallow ledge half a mile away. If for some reason it sank on the ledge, rescue would still be straightforward.

  The circling aircraft constantly relayed the motionless status of US1 back to base. The tugs would be on station in a matter of half an hour, and divers were already entering the water to investigate and set up new lines of communications.

  Suddenly to everyone’s horror, a large explosion appeared under the hull of US1, and as the disturbed water settled, the vessel could be seen to be slowly sinking into the trench, a mile or so deep.

  Chapter - Carla meets Teal.

  To Carla’s mind, tr
acing the girl was a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. The trail was probably cold by now if she and the man had moved on, and made a life together. The drilling site intrigued her though, from what she knew from an earlier mission in the African jungle, the project could not have been entirely speculative, the operation of drilling was far too expensive for that. A lot of research would have been done first. She also knew that a mystery is only such, to those without the right facts.

  Odd though that Mike Teal had not come up with anything worthwhile. As though her thoughts were his cue, the hotel phone rang. It was the man himself, calling from the lobby. He wanted to come up and see her. She looked around the room again, a bad place to meet if things turned nasty, was her first assessment when she arrived. It was not a better prospect, now she had the chance to explore the room. She insisted they met in the lobby. Mike Teal chuckled to himself, he had already familiarised himself with the hotel and knew he would do the same if he was in her position.

  They met in the centre of the lobby. Carla saw the area was busy with people, but poor on cover, if Mike Teal had helpers.

  Teal saw just her! He could not explain it to himself, why did she have such a mesmerising effect on him. He had thought about her all the time, since they first met face to face on the dock side. He knew he was infatuated with her, and did not want it to change. Yes, she was very attractive, he preferred blondes with long hair, though hers was short now. Her vivid blue eyes, both shocked him and captivated him. He was shocked by their intensity and felt she could read his very thoughts. Captivated by the way they could soften and warm once they had laid bare his innermost secrets. She smiled at him as she walked up to him.

  “So! What have you to say for yourself, mister FBI man?”

  “You have a nerve crossing my path, I should arrest you,” said Teal.

  “Well, ” she countered “you could try and if you got that lucky, I am sure the president would understand that the capture of Gregor’s armament buyers was down to me, but hell, perhaps he wouldn’t, especially as you're out of your jurisdiction.” Teal, winced inwardly at the taunt, he knew she was right, best to let it drop.

  “Let’s grab a drink,” suggested Teal.

  “A large pineapple juice please, no ice,” she replied.

  They went and sat down at the bar.

  “I am here on a sort of holiday, courtesy of the senator. He wants me to help you, unofficially of course, using the resources available to me. Where do you want to start,” Teal questioned.

  “Well, Mike, I think if we uncover the facts about the drill site, it might reveal leads to where the girl is now. We will also know how to handle any potential political fallout before it hits the fan.”

  “I suppose so,” said Teal thoughtfully, because of his briefing; the missing girl was his focus, not the site. That might be why he had not found her so far.

  Chapter - Snooping at the drill site.

  “Shall we go to the drill site now,” he offered. “It will be nearly dark when we arrive so it will give us better cover.”

  Carla had already decided to do that, but let him think he was in control, for now.

  Under cover of darkness, they approached the drill site.

  “That’s strange, there is no drill rig,” murmured Carla.

  “It can only just have been cleared away,” whispered Mike, “it was here a week ago.”

  “I have never seen a building like that either,” she continued. “The dome shape is most odd and judging by the sound, there is a very powerful generator running inside.”

  “Do you hear that low pitched roar, almost a rumble,” Mike pointed out, “it sounds like rotor blades or giant fan?”

  “That might be something to do with the flat top of the dome, perhaps it’s some sort of air intake.”

  “May be there is a small helicopter inside, if so, it will either take off soon or shut down.” However, nothing changed over the next half hour.

  They decided to move in for a closer look. They could see a tall fence enclosing the site. Large double gates on the other side allowed access to the compound inside. Suddenly a personnel door opened in the side of the dome, and bright yellow light flooded out, a guard came out to light a cigarette. His eyes were unaccustomed to the darkness; he never saw them as they dived for the sparse cover.

  When the man slowly wandered around the dome, Carla and Mike Teal crept away and booked in at the nearest hotel, in the nearby village. During dinner, Carla kept Mike focused on sifting the facts of the case, but later, before Mike could turn the conversation and talk about her, she suddenly got up from the table, said good night and, “see you for breakfast at 7.00am.”

  The following morning over an early breakfast Mike and Carla discussed what to do next. By splitting up, they believed they could improve their chances of discovering more about the site, from the locals. That evening they would share what they knew, and plan the next move.

  Between them, it became clear the site raised more questions than ever. The locals said, “After the large 8m diameter hole had been cut into the bedrock, metal sections forming tubing to fit inside, was shipped in. Then lorry loads of concrete were poured between tube and hole. Next followed lorry loads of machinery. The drill rig was cleared away, and the excavated rock chippings were bulldozed into the hole. The village was filled with workmen for a week assembling the machinery and building the dome. After that, most of the workmen appeared to have left, although the amount of food supplied to the site was about the same.”

  There was a young girl staying in the village all this time, and from the description, it was certainly Ingrid. There was no mention of a young man seeing her, although there were so many men, he probably went unnoticed.

  Anything shipped into the site now, came from well outside the village, so no more information was forthcoming. The twelve armed guards were the only persons working there now, doing eight hour shifts; they do not speak to anyone, except shout warnings to keep away.

  From Carla’s experience, such a large diameter hole implies the need to get something down it like men and machinery. The metal lining supports that argument. The disappearing men and sustained food supply could indicate they are at work at the bottom of the hole. However, everything that came out of the hole was poured back in. The volume of excavated material is always greater than the volume of the hole it came from, so again this cannot be explained. Finally, what was the hole for anyway, and why the dome and running machinery? Neither of them could come up with a feasible theory, on those subjects.

  “There is only one way to find out,” said Mike, “we must get inside the dome.”

  “Also, if the girl is still with the rest of the men, then we will find her as well,” added Carla.

  That night the two of them made their way back to the Dome and edged up to the gates. Someone had not locked them, so they quickly slipped inside. The noise from the machinery prevented them hearing anyone inside the dome, so cautiously they opened the personnel door. They both squinted for a moment as their eyes adjusted to the brightness. Seeing no one inside, they went in. Mike and Carla could not believe their luck in getting so far in. Soon all their questions would be answered.

  The flat top of the dome was simply where the curved top had been cut away to form an air intake to a multistage compressor system. This fitted with the idea of men working at the bottom of the hole, but where did the rubble go?

  Proceeding around the inside of the dome brought them to a box shaped projection fixed to the side of the large metal shaft. Mike thought it looked like some sort of air lock and tried to open the door to it.

  The simultaneous rattle of three automatic pistols being cocked made Mike and Carla spin round, their guts turned over with sickening dread. Guards had crept up behind them.

  “Just press the green button,” the leader suggested, motioning with his gun. Aggressively Carla jabbed the button and the steel door swung inwards to a loud hiss of compressed air.

  “G
o in!” the Guard ordered. With no alternative, they walked in and another guard pulled the door closed behind them. The room was circular, about 7.5m diameter, enough to fit inside the steel shaft forming the hole. The room now slid down the shaft like a lift, in rapid decent. Air pressure rapidly built up in the room hurting their ears and sinuses. They were now preoccupied dealing with the mounting pain and pressure to wonder what might happen next.

  Chapter - US1 hijacked.

  Keeping US1 above for cover, the ancient U-boat now released divers from its escape hatches. As the last man exited, the U-boat descended back into the depths. It took the ten men about 25 minutes to join the relieved Dr Homer and take over control of the revolutionary vessel. From one of its stern torpedo tubes the U-boat shot a live torpedo. Following its programmed course, it exploded 20 meters below the hull of the motionless US1. The pressure wave was colossal, but the sound inside US1, was heavily damped by the special skin, surrounding the hull.

  Only the newcomers knew what had happened, and they were not telling anyone, they were too absorbed in restarting US1 and making it descend straight down. When it had reached 400meters, another shock and sound wave hit them. Not as bad as the first one, but terrifying to the prisoners. The U-boat had fired another torpedo at the rim of the trench causing a massive earth slide into the depths 3000m below, close to the descending sub. The surface ships and circling aircraft reported another explosion on the ill-fated sub and a massive earth slide engulfing it