The Shadow Beneath The Waves

by Matt Betts

  Martin laughed and climbed the stairs to the next deck and followed the hall to his quarters. He didn’t change, brush his teeth, or wash up, he got in bed, put his head on his pillow and fell straight to sleep.

  10

  The Adamant crew continued to document the wreck site deep below the ocean surface over the next few days, but they put more time into preparing for their trip to the search zone. They checked food and supply levels, checked trouble spots on the ship that had vexed them in the past-resulting in a quick patch on the bow by Jakob-they confirmed alcohol levels were at maximum, and that everything they needed to transfer to the Alba Varden was ready to be moved over as quickly as possible.

  One late afternoon, as Cass examined the search area map on her tablet, a huge green drone appeared from near the waterline, hovered just near the railing of the Adamant, and then rushed forward to buzz just over her head. It was followed by another almost identical drone with a number 2 painted on its side in white. The second one had mismatched, recently-repaired red arms protruding from each side. As they both flew over her, Cass guessed they were the size of shipping containers; huge and yet graceful in their own way. Both machines turned and followed the line of the ship, dipping and rising until they had completely encircled it, then they came about and hovered next to each other at the bow of the ship, seemingly staring at Cass.

  The hatch to the interior of the Adamant slammed open and Rina ran out, followed by Jakob. "They're here!" Rina was smiling and nearly leaping, two steps at a time, as she ran to the forward railing. Jakob stopped on the deck and pointed off toward the horizon. A large ship loomed in the distance, cutting its way through the ocean. The Alba Varden had arrived.

  Martin came and stood next to Cass and watched the ship's approach.

  "So that's it?" Cass had heard about Martin's other ship since she'd come onto his crew, but they'd never had occasion to use it, and every time they'd been to port, the Alba Varden was off somewhere being refitted, or painted or waxed or some nonsense, almost to the point where Cass believed the crew had been pulling her leg and the craft didn't really exist.

  "That's it," Martin said. "The Alba Varden. Sounds like they finally have everything just the way I want it."

  "It looks..." Cass looked for diplomatic words to use, but she was wildly unimpressed by the old vessel as it approached.

  "Like a crappy old container ship?"

  It wasn't what she was thinking, but she agreed anyway. It was large, way larger than a treasure-hunting vessel had a right to be. Cass had heard they’d remade the inside hull into amazing living accommodations on one end and a glorious research and recovery facility at the other end. Of course, she’d never seen the inside, she’d been stuck on the Adamant since the beginning.

  "They were preparing to scrap it and I just couldn't stand to see her go. Maybe soon we can make it our new headquarters. I’ll need to sign off on everything, of course. It has to be just so."

  "But you've had all this work done to it. And..."

  "And it STILL looks like a crappy old container ship? Yeah. That's partly by design. We wanted something big in case we needed to live off it for an extended time. We wanted to be comfortable, even at sea. But we also wanted something relatively inconspicuous. So we could stay off of people's radars, so to speak."

  "And that's it?" Cass gave him a piteous look. "You got swindled if they sold it to you as a stealthy vessel. It's not. Not even a little."

  Martin nodded with a grin. "I know. I just like it.”

  They walked down the stairs together to the dingy moored to the aft of the Adamant and Martin held down the button on the motor until it sprang to life with a quiet hum. Rina jumped in with them just as Martin gunned the motor and pulled it quickly away from their ship and toward the nearing vessel. A number of the crew from the Alba Varden had gathered along the rails to wave to their friends and fellow crewmembers. Rina waved back, but Cass barely knew any of them and just smiled at the cheering group on the humongous boat.

  “How long do you think the transfer will take?” Cass asked. She didn’t want to be too eager, but the idea that their quarry could be out there waiting for them made her anxious.

  Martin leaned closer. “What?”

  “When can we get loaded up and leave?” Cass had to shout over the sounds of the ocean, the ship, the dingy.

  “Depends on whether they brought good beer or not. If they didn’t, we can leave in the morning. If they did…” Martin shrugged. “Maybe a little later.”

  They pulled up to a lift at the aft of the Alba Varden that attached to the dingy and raised it steadily to a midlevel. A half dozen people gathered around to help Martin and his passengers out of the tiny boat. They hugged Rina and Martin, kissed them on the cheeks and then turned and shook Cass’s hand.

  One woman shook hands a little longer and more enthusiastically. “You must be the new one. I’m Caroline.” She was tall and rail-thin, though Cass noticed she was muscular, probably from hauling equipment around for the Alba Varden.

  Cass didn’t realize that she might possibly be the most recent hire to Martin’s team. Surely there was someone else on a lower rung. “That’s me. I’m Cass. New girl.”

  “I study plant life.”

  Cass looked at her and nodded. Not entirely sure what that meant.

  “Underwater, of course,” Caroline said. “The plant life.” She nodded and sipped at a glass of something clear that Cass was fairly sure wasn’t water. “Oh, with limited or no light.”

  “Plant life that grows in the darkness underwater?”

  “That’s what I said,” Caroline smiled.

  They were alone, Cass suddenly realized. The rest of the party had disappeared through an open hatch without a word. “Hey, do you know where everyone was headed?” She swept her arm around the deck area to show that they’d been left behind.

  “Oh.” Caroline looked puzzled. “Dining hall? Let’s check the dining hall.” She stepped gingerly over the threshold and into a hallway lined with beautifully done woodwork. Cass thought maybe it was mahogany, but it could’ve been a decent fake. Mahogany was terribly hard to come by anymore. The lighting and fixtures looked similar to images that Cass had seen of the Queen Mary, and were surely forgeries, unless Martin himself had rescued them from the ocean floor.

  It was certainly beautiful, Cass thought. She certainly couldn’t see why Martin might not find it acceptable. Maybe he was nit-picky, or a perfectionist or maybe he was looking for a reason not to come in from the nomadic life.

  Caroline led on to the dining area, and sure enough, the rest of the Alba Varden’s crew was already laughing it up with Rina and Martin. Caroline joined them and Cass waited by the door, next to the coffee maker. Eventually, some of the other crew introduced themselves—Lewis, Theo, Hakim—but none lingered. They got back to the more boisterous members of the party. As the others had their fun, Cass poured a cup and loaded it with sugar packets and creamer before she even tasted it.

  11

  The rest of the Adamant crew came over, with Takis and Ozzie swimming from boat-to-boat, rather than taking the other dingy with Joe and Jakob.

  As the impromptu party got louder, Martin excused himself to hit the bathroom, but instead walked up the stairs to the con room. At the controls, Ben Durant moved swiftly from one console to another in his wheelchair.

  “You say hi to everyone else before you say hi to me?” Ben asked before Martin could speak.

  “Do you always frantically work at steering the ship when it’s anchored?”

  Ben gave Martin a sideways look. “Shut up. It’s a delicate machine that needs constant attention.”

  “You could have come down,” Martin said.

  “You could have come up.”

  It was a stalemate. They were both right, Martin figured. And both stubborn. “You didn’t have to come along. You could have had someone else pilot this whale out here.”

  “I’m tired of sitting in the harbor and
yelling at seagulls. I needed to get out.” Ben wheeled starboard to the floor-to-ceiling window that curved around the wheelhouse. He stared out at the smaller boat not far off in the water. “The Adamant in good shape?”

  “Great shape. Do you seriously yell at seagulls? Do I need to look into some sort of support group for you?” Martin laughed and looked at his friend.

  Ben wheeled himself around to face his friend. “Look, Martin. I appreciate that you’ve kept me out of the field out of concern, I really do, but I’m bored as hell. I can get around fine, but I need you to let me get around.”

  It was Martin’s turn to look away and turn his back. He thought he was being sly, or being a good boss or something by keeping Ben back on dry land and safe from whatever the sea could do to him. He wasn’t so sneaky apparently.

  “While I was waiting for you to get your ass up here, I’ve been filled in on all the gossip.”

  “Rina’s been up to see you?”

  “She says Joe Goldman is out. Doesn’t want to go on this little escapade of yours anymore.”

  Martin nodded. “True.”

  “Thought about what you were going to do for a pilot?”

  “I thought maybe Jakob could fill in.”

  Ben sighed. “You thought?”

  “Not like I had a lot of warning.”

  Ben rolled closer. “I’ll do it.”

  “What?” Martin could understand Ben captaining the research and recovery vessel, but the Adamant was a whole different animal. “That’s…”

  “That’s what I want. Or maybe I walk, too.”

  “Jesus. That’s how it is?”

  “That’s how it is.”

  Turns out they brought wonderful wine, bourbon from Kentucky, and vodka from the old Soviet territories that could knock you on your ass, but no beer. They prepared to shove off in the morning.

  Ben joined the expedition, along with Caroline and another researcher named Lewis. They came over and Joe agreed to temporarily stay on as the pilot of the Alba Varden as they researched the Swansea find. Once the Cudgel expedition was over, they’d take him back to port. Cass was surprised he was the only one, as she’d sat at the fringe of a number of conversations at the party; she’d heard whispered tones about the attack from Rina and Ozzie. Takis boasted about his role in the whole thing and how he’d had a plan all along, but she’d been there with him, swimming to the boat and rigging that leaky line, and she knew he was just as freaked out as anyone. The Alba Varden’s crew sounded alternately impressed and terrified at the prospect of being accosted by pirates or whatever those men were.

  Everyone said their goodbyes after loading up on supplies and the Adamant set off at a decent rate of speed.

  12

  Here we go again. Linden dropped the phone back on his desk and sat back. Maybe the information would be good this time. It would take a little while to find out. If this noise they were talking about happened when they said it would, they had five days to wait. It would take the Adamant itself nearly three of that just to get in the general area. If they were right. He rolled his chair to the doorway and shouted toward Lou’s office. “They’re on the move.”

  “Headed for the Cudgel?” A shout came back.

  “Allegedly.”

  Linden heard his cohort snort back laughter.

  On his desk, Linden had the transcripts of the recording open on one monitor, and a map of the general area open on another. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled another flexiscreen out and attached it to the first two. After it was paired, he displayed all the information he and Lou dug up on drone maps, sub sonar returns, corporate fishing information and whatever else they’d thrown in. He took the maps and displayed them in layers. Each source added a little more to the picture of the sea floor in the area. But it really wasn’t enough. There was so much open area and even private mapping efforts hadn’t managed to reach that far out. It was simply too much area to cover.

  He added an additional layer--the satellite records of the Cudgel’s last flight path. They did take the robot close to that area, but it was off by a couple hundred miles to the north. Not entirely out of the question, as no one knew what happened after they lost communications, and their last directive was to pursue the ‘shadow’ they’d seen in the water.

  Linden put all these factors into the program and hit enter. He looked in his empty mug and took it to get coffee while the program did its thing. The coffee maker was empty, so he opted to be a good guy, fill it, and start it again. He stared at it as it whirred and ground the beans. It whistled and brewed for a few more seconds before Linden got bored and headed to the conference room to see if the computer had finished rendering his simulation.

  In the dark room, a blue button flashed on the keypad. Linden logged in and started the simulations. The computer ran through all the possibilities that Linden had asked for and more. It showed the shadow as a whale, as a school of fish, as an oil slick, and a garbage patch, all of which shouldn’t have confused the Cudgel’s sensors. One of the likely scenarios was that the shadow was an advanced submarine for the Circle, with stealth or jamming technology. The Cudgel and this mystery ship engaged and the sub bested the Cudgel. But what happened to the sub? One of the simulations suggested the opponents destroyed or disabled each other in the fight.

  Lou knocked at the door. “You coming to the game?”

  “Game?”

  “Football at the Duplex? Remember? Argentina and Mexico in the lower deck, USA versus Canada in the upper? I got good seats for Argentina, but my Canadian seats suck,” Lou said.

  “Nah. I’ve got too much going on here.” Linden nodded to the simulations that were still playing out. For fun, he had asked the computer to work in an iceberg like the one that sunk the Titanic. The animation playing before him put the odds of that scenario at nearly zero percent, showing the Cudgel deftly avoiding the iceberg with no trouble.

  “You do look crazy busy,” Lou said. “Emphasis on crazy. This’ll be here tomorrow. Come on.”

  Sports had never been a big draw for Linden, and the crowds would be insane. “I’m going to pass. Thanks, though.”

  “On that old ship of theirs? It’ll take two days to get there, right? Two days. You just going to stare at maps and simulations until then?” Lou pulled on his suit jacket and fixed the collar.

  “Maybe.”

  “Fine. Adios,” Lou said, as he walked away. After a minute, Linden heard the faint ding of the elevator that came to pick Lou up and whisk him down to the ground floor.

  The most recent simulation ended, with the computer declaring the chances the Cudgel was abducted by a UFO to be in the six to ten percent range, which made Linden laugh. He watched the three dimensional computer rendering again, to see a swarm of saucer-shaped objects swarm up around the Cudgel and carry it off.

  “This looks important.” Linden turned to see Holli in the hall, staring at the simulation. “Is this for another case, or are you still trying to find the Cudgel?”

  After a couple of taps, Linden hit the right button to make the images go away. “It’s for the same search. Just eliminating possibilities.”

  “Okay.” Holli gave Linden a small smile. “I don’t have a whole lot of time before I have to be back upstairs to the office.”

  “I was thinking of going to the coffee shop across the street, just to get away from the awful stuff here. Why don’t you come with me?” Linden took his ID and his wallet and started out the door past Holli.

  “No. I need to get back.”

  “Come on. Fifteen minutes. They won’t miss you for fifteen minutes.” Linden tapped the down button on the elevator repeatedly. “Let me buy you coffee, just to make it up to you.”

  Holli held up the coffee cup in her hand that Linden hadn’t noticed when she walked in.

  “Fine. Let me order you a scone or something with pumpkin flavoring in it,” Linden said.

  “I despise pumpkin anything; let’s just get on with this.” She l
ifted her cup and sipped, all the while staring at Linden. She handed a file folder with a thin disk inside. “This took no time, really. It was pretty straightforward once I cleaned up the audio and removed the ocean sounds, and various other crap.”

  “Other crap?”

  “Whoever made these recordings also had a lot of ambient noise in a lot of them—ship sounds, mostly, the screws on a sub turning, the creak of a rudder or old sonar array, nothing big… Well, one thing that was big, but we’ll get to that.” Holli pulled her paper-thin laptop open and turned it around to show Linden. “See it took a while to figure out that each instance was slightly slower than the last, so I had to speed each recording up a little depending on when it was made.”

  “And?” Linden looked at the screen to see a graph of some sort, showing what he assumed were the years of the instances, and how much they’d slowed.

  Holli tapped the screen and the picture advanced to the next slide, which showed an advertisement for a wristwatch.

  “Do you have pop-up ads for your debriefings now?” Linden was confused by Holli’s inclusion of this in her research.

  “Click on the part of the ad that says ‘More Information.’”

  He did as he was told and the browser switched over to the website for Connery and Sons Watches. “And?”

  “Now click the link for ‘Unique Alerts’ in the middle of the page.”

  Linden rolled his eyes. “Just fucking tell…”

  “Humor me. I’m doing this for you out of the goodness of my heart, at least let me have the thrill of revealing what I’ve found,” Holli said.

  Fine, Linden thought. If she was going to continue doing me favors, might as well let her have one. He clicked the link and a low-pitched alarm sounded in long beeps.