by Matt Betts
The Fleet Admiral nodded. “Tell me.” He leaned over and spat more over the side.
Assuming that meant he should explain what he knew, Linden started recounting the events of the find, up to the Montenegro’s demise. “My agent was embedded with a salvage crew, the crew found an item of ours, and in securing it, they released this beast.”
“The item was the Cudgel A-9.” Dana chimed in. The Fleet Admiral’s expression didn’t change.
“The monster destroyed several ships in travelling on a course for this location. Research found that it may be a remnant of the Lusca, a biological weapon trapped by the Cudgel all this time. It somehow sucks in stored energy from enemies, rendering them inactive and defenseless. According to a scientist that worked on several projects, the thing is headed for the power storage inland, where it will absorb energy until it explodes in a blast akin to a nuclear explosion.”
“Okay,” the Fleet Admiral said.
Linden took it as a sign to continue. “After an interview with the prisoner revealed this information, we flew to the Montenegro…”
The admiral held up his now free hand to stop Linden. “Okay. I have reports on what happened there.” He dumped some shells over the side and rubbed his hands together to get the rest off. “Thanks for your help.” He turned and walked inside.
Linden looked at Dana. “That’s it? He doesn’t want any more information?”
“He has what he needs, I guess.”
“Well, my team and I could use an office or even just a couple of desks to communicate with the salvage unit. We may have a way to help, if we can get the resources,” Linden said. He looked around at the nearby buildings and other structures. “I mean, this place is huge. Give us a charging station and point us to the coffee, you won’t even know we’re here.”
The look on Dana’s face was a pitiful attempt at a smile. “I’m sorry. We can’t do that. You don’t have clearance with us, not right now, and with a live threat out there, we can’t keep you on the base.”
“Seriously?”
“Sorry.” She opened the door, and Linden found two armed soldiers standing by the desk. “These men will escort you to your friends. You can grab a coffee or a sandwich in the mess if you’d like.”
That did not exactly go as planned. Linden sighed.
38
Cass stayed on the Adamant with Rina, Ben and Martin. They stared out at the sea and waited for the others to finish securing the outer buoyancy devices. The balloons would work in conjunction with the Cudgel’s own flotation devices to slowly bring the craft up to the surface. The disk that Rina had devised gave her control over a very limited number of functions on the Cudgel, mainly water drainage areas, and the buoyancy compensators. At least that was all she’d been told about. After the whole deception that got that disk placed in the first place, she wasn’t sure who to trust. She wasn’t exactly a prisoner, they hadn’t locked her away, but she’d been put at arm’s length from the act of raising the Cudgel. “This isn’t going to work. We’re talking about a machine that normally takes up to two dozen crew members, a ground team, command and logistics, navigation…”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out.” Rina shoved one of her ear buds in and fumbled for the other. “We are a pretty resourceful crew.”
“What the hell does that matter? You can be resourceful, but still come up short. This isn’t looking for ancient lamps off the Amalfi coast, this is piloting a war machine the size of an ocean liner,” Cass said. “You mess up; you might land on a highly-populated area. You could kill us all and take a huge number of civilians with us.”
“Sounds like we need a chaperone. Know any?” Rina stuck the other earbud in and some loud metal/pop/rap hybrid of a song bled out, just loud enough for Cass to hear.
The sun drifted across the afternoon sky, shimmering on the ocean, another beautiful day on the water. There was a point that Cass considered going inside to talk to Martin, but she wasn’t sure how coherent he was, and certainly Ben wouldn’t be much help, as he made occasional appearances on the upper deck, looking out much like Cass was, before straightening the red blanket on his lap and heading back inside the top deck. It looked like there wasn’t anyone on the ship that had a problem with raising this battle vehicle and doing the most foolish thing possible with it. As they’d revealed their plan, they suggested that Ben could be their radar/sonar man, relaying information from the Adamant to the Cudgel so the crew wouldn’t have to bother, but Cass saw it as another distraction, one more thing to listen to, one more piece of information to verify and act on. It was an added step in a situation where they needed as few steps as possible.
The top of the first giant grey balloon broke the surface nearly a quarter mile away, sending waves out to raise some of the Adamant’s red marker buoys. Rina lifted her phone and her fingers began their dance with the interface. Another balloon appeared and rose until it was as far out as it could go once Rina adjusted the inflation rate.
Cass was taken aback by the appearance of any of the balloons, let alone two of them. “How the hell did you do it? How did you get those balloons to raise that ship? It shouldn’t be possible.”
Jakob stood at the railing and watched. “Once we had control of some of the functions of the Cudgel, we activated half of the ship’s own buoyancy regulators. We basically took a chance that the emergency flotation devices were going to work on the ship itself.”
“Coupled with ours, it was enough to bring it up.” Rina flipped to another screen and started adjusting another balloon and then another, until all six had appeared; half were near the Adamant, the other half were well out of sight, nearly nine hundred feet away, supporting the Cudgel’s feet. The ship itself, however, was nowhere to be seen.
“Well?” Cass asked. “Where is this behemoth?”
“Just below the surface,” Rina said. “The internal tanks aren’t inflating all the way for some reason.”
Ozzie appeared with a thinscreen in his hand. “It looks like the internal floatation devices are leaking. Maybe they decayed after all this time?”
“No.” Jakob looked over Ozzie’s shoulder and pointed at the screen. “It doesn’t look like it’s leaking, looks like maybe it just can’t inflate anymore. Maybe the readout that shows how far to inflate the bags isn’t calibrated?”
They all looked up at the nearby balloons bobbing on the surface of the sea.
“So, it’s just below the water, then?” Cass asked. So far, her crewmate’s plan was going about as well as could be hoped.
Rina’s brow furrowed and she started swiping screens on her phone again. She stopped at the controls of each of their floatation devices, inflating them just a bit more, driving the balloons closer to exploding and ruining the balance, sending the Cudgel slowly back to the bottom of the sea.
Her tinkering paid off, if only just a bit. Somewhere in the distance, a large gleaming white chunk of metal broke the waves slowly. Off the starboard side of the Adamant, Champ raced off toward the visible chunk of the Cudgel. Takis was in the con room handling the controls, and he brought it about quickly, training the video camera down at the outline of the Cudgel. Soon, all of the screens around Cass showed what the visible part was: the chest plate. It was a wide rack that held a great variety of defensive and offensive ordinance. According to the manuals Cass had read, this early model was equipped with anti-radar flares, mini-missiles, and advanced torpedoes housed in cases as small as footballs.
“I’m taking the drone down closer,” Takis said. “I’ll secure the hatch up here.”
“I’ll get the Adamant hooked in and start assisting with our solar panels,” Jakob said. He turned and made his way down the stairs and out toward the diving equipment. The plan involved using the collectors from the Cudgel and the Adamant to charge up the battle vehicle and get it up to acceptable levels.
Rina’s lips pushed together tightly and she tinkered further with the inflation controls. “Hang on,” she said
. As she did, the Cudgel rose just a bit more, until more of it was above water. The whole body of the ship was lying flat on the surface of the ocean nearby, it wasn’t much, just a thin layer, with the bulk of it still underwater, but the whole outline of the metal vehicle could be seen. “There were some buoyancy compensators in the Cudgel’s back. I wanted to wait before we deployed them, just in case we needed this extra push.”
“Shit,” Cass said. She’d seen the plans and schematics, she knew the dimensions, and all the other specs, even sat in a simulator, but she’d never seen it for real. Underwater it was like some lost statue from an ancient civilization, moss-covered and hidden in the depths of the ocean. But here, it was in the open air, the ocean washing it clean. It was magnificent, and frightening.
“Just because I’m not behind this plan, doesn’t mean I can’t help set up,” Cass said.
“And what, then you’d find some way to sabotage us? Keep us from doing what we want to do?”
They both looked over to see Jakob climb onto the partially-surfaced metal body with a long line of cable wrapped around his shoulder a number of times. He let it out as he went, laying the line from the Adamant.
“No, Rina. Believe it or not, I’d rather not see the crew get injured or killed.” Cass moved away, headed back to her cabin. She wasn’t sure if she’d call Linden, or take a nap. She knew that she couldn’t stand helplessly and watch what was happening around her.
As she reached the doorway inside, she heard a loud explosion behind her. She turned to see parts of one of the nearest balloons flying through the air. It had popped and now that part of the Cudgel was sinking. On the water, she could see Jakob fall into the sea, wrapped in cables.
39
They stared at the sign for Kay-Tee’s Ocean View Motel for a moment, taking in the amenities touted on the giant sign. “They have free Wi-Fi,” Tsui said. “And a continental breakfast. That’s something.”
Linden and the rest had walked from one hotel to the next near the military base, but most were boarded up already in anticipation of the monster making shore. Those that weren’t had staff hastily making those preparations. The navy had kindly driven Linden, Holli and Tsui off the base and dropped them at the edge of Oceanside, Oregon.
An older woman came out of the front door to the Ocean View, carrying two suitcases, which she put in the trunk of a waiting car. A man came out a minute later with three kids. They all piled in the car and thanked the woman, who waved as they drove off.
“Are you Katie?” Linden asked.
The woman looked at him. “Pardon?”
This time he pointed to the sign. “Kay-tee’s Ocean View Motel. Are you Katie?”
“Oh. No. We named the hotel after my daughter. I’m a little old to be a Katie. No, I’m Ellen. My husband and I own the motel. Something I can do for you?”
“We need a couple of rooms. Maybe for a few days.”
Ellen nodded. “You must be from out of town. Or you haven’t watched the news or something. The military has an evacuation order in place. Everyone has to leave. All up and down the coast for miles.”
“Aren’t you leaving?” Holli asked.
“I don’t care much for the military telling me what to do.” Ellen laughed.
After fishing in his jacket, Linden produced his badge and identification. “I’m with the government, but I don’t much listen to what the military says either,” he said. “If you’re staying and the motel is going to be available, we’d gladly pay for some rooms.”
“What’s going on, Ellen?” A man stood in the glass doorway to the motel.
“Just some people looking for a room, Ted. I think we have a few available, don’t we?” Ted looked puzzled, and walked inside.
After fishing out a few keys, Ellen led them to the second floor and gave them three adjoining rooms in the middle of the motel. She dramatically pulled the blinds apart in the middle one, showing the sunny view of the ocean. “Don’t know what you’re here for, but you have to admit the ocean is just gorgeous.”
From the sliding glass door, Linden could see the bay and the military complex, and the ships floating and flying in preparation of what was to come. Drones loaded ships with supplies just a couple of miles away. “It’s perfect.” The rest of the room was a little… dated. Old wood paneling, wallpaper with sea shells and waves, and conch lamps placed the motel somewhere in the last century by Linden’s estimate. But the room was large, had a kitchenette and a couple of tables. It would have to do.
“Well, other than me and Ted, you have the place to yourself, sent the last guests packing already.” Ellen looked away from the view to talk to Holli and Linden. Tsui had hung back to look through the kitchen. “I know you’re government folks, but you should really think about leaving too. I don’t know exactly what’s coming, but it could be pretty bad.”
“Thanks,” Holli said. “We know what’s coming. That’s why we need to stay.”
Their host departed with a nod and disappeared down the hallway.
“Well, since there’s a bed for each of us, I think I’ll take a nap and we can get started fresh in an hour or so,” Tsui said.
“Grab the other end of that table,” Linden replied.
“What?” Tsui looked confused. “I need a break.”
“From what? We haven’t really done anything yet. Help me move this table.”
“You pulled me out of prison, flew me to a combat zone, pulled me off of a sinking battle platform, had me hack a submersible, walked me through a naval base, and then we had to walk through town looking for a place to stay. I need some sleep.” Tsui folded his arms and stood defiantly.
“Help me move the table, and you can sleep while we set up.” It wasn’t a compromise that really benefitted Linden, but he hated to give in to their prisoner. He needed it to appear he was in charge and called the shots. He needed a victory for once in this weird string of events.
Tsui walked over and lifted his end of the table, and went on to move tables from the other rooms, and configure them. It was more than Linden asked for and he didn’t bitch when Tsui dropped himself into the bed and fell asleep soon after.
Holli opened her laptop case and pulled out not one, but two nearly paper thin workstations. She wired them next to each other and started connecting to her servers back at home. “Once we get logged in through all the security protocols, we should be able to communicate with the Cudgel and hopefully find a way to help control it.”
“I can’t believe they’re even attempting this,” Linden said.
“And yet you’re willing to help them try.” Holli typed smoothly on the keyboard while she talked.
It was a lapse in judgement, maybe. Or it could be a genuine belief that the crew could handle it. Or desperation. There was always desperation.
40
Cass dove into the water, barely taking the time to slip off her shoes before she did. She swam for a couple of minutes underwater, propelled by her dive from the high deck. She could see the huge outline of the Cudgel to her left, but during that initial dive, she didn’t see Jakob. She surfaced, caught her breath, and looked around. She found the place on the robot where she’d seen Jakob fall off, and headed that way, underwater. As she moved, she could see part of the cable that Jakob was spooling out, hanging from the Cudgel. She followed it with her eyes until she found the other end of the cable, wrapped around Jakob. He was struggling, and she counted it lucky that the man was in good shape and an experienced swimmer or panic might have set in and caused him to run out of air more quickly.
When she reached him, she grabbed for the knife on Jakob’s belt, but he stopped her and shook his head no—He didn’t want the cable cut. Cass marveled that he was so intent on making this happen that he would sacrifice himself to save a charging cable. Whatever motives she questioned about what the crew was doing, she certainly couldn’t fault their commitment.
Cass felt her lungs start to ache with the need for air. She got below Jakob, a
nd started to kick as hard as she could; shoving the cable and her crewmate with all the strength she had left. Jakob joined in-his arms were pinned, but he kicked with her, toward the sunlight. They surfaced and moved quickly to the Cudgel, where Cass held on with one hand, while trying to help untangle Jakob with the other. Luckily, the movement had loosened the coils around him and he could slip out with her help.
They held on and caught their breath, Jakob coughing as he thanked her.
“No problem,” Cass said. “What the hell do we do now?”
Once he looked around and got his bearings, Jakob replied, “Well, unless I guess wrong, this end of the Cudgel is still sinking slowly because of that balloon, so we’d best plug this in at the ship’s mid-section and then find a way back to the boat.”
“Sounds right.”
They helped each other up to the part of the leg that was still above water, and began to head all the way up toward the chest. The Cudgel shifted occasionally with the waves, but it was steady going other than the slight incline due to the sinking. They reached the midsection easily and began looking for the correct place to install the line. Neither had a phone or an earpiece in to ask anyone a question; Cass had taken hers out, and Jakob lost his in the sea. They kept looking until Jakob literally tripped over it.
“Christ,” Jakob said, tumbling onto the shell of the Cudgel. He laughed as he got to his feet, realizing what he’d done. “That’s it. That’s the damn junction we need.” He leaned down and Cass helped him pry open the sealed input. They took the other end of the cable, fed it in, and sealed it off to keep water from getting in. A green light came on and flickered to indicate it was properly attached. Now they just needed to know if the power was coming through.
From back the way they came, Cass heard a sound that made her knees buckle: another balloon broke. Then another. The Cudgel’s legs began to sink faster, taking the midsection down as well.