by Suzanne Robb
As they entered, both expected some sort of indication that an axe murderer lived there. Instead, it appeared like any other bunkroom. There were some photos of his family, clothes on the floor, and digital chips of family occasions. Nothing made sense, and there were no suit parts anywhere.
Johnny's stuff remained on the walls and floor. What stuck out was the fact that Kramer's bunk had never been slept in. Either he was a neat freak, or he was sleeping in the research lab.
"He might have hidden the parts somewhere else; he is crazy."
"Perhaps, or he might not have taken them." Marcus kneeled down and looked at one of the digital images of Tom and his family.
"Who else would have?" Iain admired one of the images Johnny had posted.
"Think about it. If Tom saw the cameras go offline, he might have gone to check it out. While he investigated the problem, there's a good chance he would have run into the real saboteur."
Iain snorted. "Seems like a stretch, Marcus. Let's just keep it simple. Not to mention this is Tom's second freak-out, and he did have that article in his hands."
"We don't know if the article is even true, or if it was him."
"Who would make something like that up?"
"Someone who wanted Tom to lose his mind? Most likely feeding him some sort of hallucinogenic too." Marcus knew he was thinking out loud.
"Maxine looked over his blood work and didn't find anything, but..."
"But what?" Marcus looked at him with an annoyed expression.
"Marcus, Maxine isn't a real doctor. She might have some basic knowledge, but there's no way she's a doctor. Though she seems awfully good when it comes to blood samples. If I had to guess, I'd say she's here to monitor or take samples from any survivors we find. There's also something she mentioned about Johnny earlier."
"This just gets better and better, doesn't it? What did she say?" Marcus shook his head, wondering what else could go wrong.
"Okay, hear me out before you write it off. She told me some of the samples of Johnny's blood indicated he was a long-time squisher, which we all knew. The thing is, though, she found some anomalies in the blood after he died. The bacteria, which is what squish essentially is, was eating the dead cells."
Marcus looked at the captain. "Seriously? That's just wrong. Why do people put that crap in their bodies?"
Iain shrugged. "No idea, but if what she said is true, we might have bigger issues to deal with, like bacteria staying alive and eating their host. Who knows where it could lead."
"No offence, Captain, but bacteria isn't at the top of my list of concerns right now. Finding suit parts and figuring out what happened to Tom is."
The two men walked out of the room. Marcus headed back to the control room, and Iain headed to the med lab to see if he could figure out what Maxine was really up to. He debated going to the control room and looking at the news display with a more critical eye, taking his time.
He decided against it for two reasons. First, he didn't like being lied to by Maxine, and he wanted to put the screws to her to see if she would let anything slip. Second, he thought Marcus was being too na•ve about Tom.
***
Marcus entered the control room and went straight to Ally. He stood next to her, saying nothing. He knew she was aware of his presence, and he also knew she got annoyed when people asked her questions while she worked. When she had something, she would tell him.
He took the time to watch her, the way she concentrated on something. He loved the way her eyes widened just a bit when she found something she thought was important or interesting. Sometimes, the light from the monitors would play off her hair and she looked like a kid.
"I know you're watching me."
"I like watching you."
Ally turned to look at Marcus. "Get me an energy bar and coffee?"
"Whatever you want. I'll be right back." As Ally turned back to the screen, Marcus leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
As he walked out of the control room, Ally yelled back to him, "If it's anything I want, can you make it a burger and a nice glass of wine?" Her smile was evident in her voice.
"I'll see what I can do." Marcus chuckled.
***
Iain entered the med lab and looked for Maxine, but there was no sign of her. He decided to venture inside and look around, since the opportunity presented itself. There were blood slides on the counter, some digital chips, and various syringes with a strange coloured liquid inside them. Something struck him as odd, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
He tried to examine the room more thoroughly. What he didn't see bothered him. Since Maxine had been on board, Iain had never seen her with a medical bag. All the other doctors he knew were obsessive about carrying around their bags. He didn't see one anywhere.
He went to the cabinet and opened the doors. The medications, packages, vials, and syringes lay scattered all over the place. Someone came in here looking for something. Iain wondered what.
"Captain, can I help you?" Startled, Iain turned to see the angry face of Maxine.
"Maxine, I was just looking for something to keep Tom calm when he wakes up. I didn't want to bother you." Iain shut the door and took a step back.
He put on what he thought was a calm face and looked at the woman in front of him. She paled, and a flash of anger appeared in her dark eyes.
"I see. I can get that for you." Maxine walked to where Iain stood and opened the cabinet doors.
She let out a noise of annoyance, then turned to look at Iain.
"Did you have to mess everything up? Did you even know what you were looking for? It's going to take me ages to reorganize this."
"I didn't do this. It was like that when I got here."
"Then it looks like we have someone on board who wants to cause problems."
No kidding, Iain thought.
He observed as Maxine methodically went through the packages and syringes. She seemed to know what they were and organized them accordingly. She pulled out two and handed them to Iain.
"Here, this is what you need. Make him take one every eight hours to keep him docile. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to do some cleaning."
"Right. One more thing. I need you to go through Tom's blood work again and look for anything that might cause hallucinations. Take a new sample if you have to. Let me know the minute you have anything." Iain left the room, wondering if she was being truthful about the cabinet.
He didn't want to believe her, but she really did seem annoyed about the mess. She also seemed to know where everything went and what everything did. He still didn't understand the lack of a medical bag, but she could have it in her quarters. Unusual, but not completely unrealistic. Still, his suspicions were confirmed. She was no doctor. Perhaps he'd look in on Nina and glance around for the bag in her quarters.
He felt confident asking her about the blood samples. She seemed capable enough of doing it. In fact, it seemed like examining blood samples was the only thing she could do correctly. A chill ran through his veins as he wondered why a blood specialist had been sent on the mission.
Chapter Fourteen
"I think I got something. Half an hour after Tom came on duty last night, Kramer came in with a cup of something for him. Then Tom went into some sort of trance or vegetative state. I watched all the footage from the times Tom was on duty, and the same thing happened every shift."
"So it's Kramer. I knew there was something off about that son of a bitch." Marcus stood straight and started to pace.
"Hold on. When I went to look at what Kramer was up to before the cameras went off, the last person I saw was Ivan. He was heading down below, to the electrical area."
"So they're working together?"
"Hard to say. Kramer seemed to be in his lab when the cameras went off. Ivan, on the other hand, was in various places."
"What places?" Marcus stopped pacing and stood behind Ally, unconsciously putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I was hop
ing you would ask. The electrical room, engine room, communications relay system, diving room, and med lab. Seems to me he wants to know every square inch of this sub and what everyone else is doing. He tapped into all our personnel files and data entries."
"Think he has us bugged too?"
"Doubt it. Too hard to do on a sub." As Ally said this, she nodded yes and pointed towards the display panels.
Ally began a methodical search of the control room with Marcus to see if they could find any sort of listening device.
Ally knew the room better than anyone else. After fifteen minutes, she was fairly certain no one was listening in on their conversation.
"I think we're safe." Ally slumped her shoulders as she continued to look around the room with a critical eye.
"How can you be sure?"
"First, this is my refuge; I think I would notice something. Second, the signal would interfere with the communications in here. The most they could do is put a small camera to watch us. That would be much harder to find, but at least we can talk."
In the middle of the discussion, Iain entered the room.
"Ally, please tell me you got something."
"I do." Ally took the next ten minutes to fill Iain in on everything she and Marcus had talked about and discovered.
"Did you ever see Ivan go into the med lab?"
"A few times, but it didn't look like he was hiding what he was doing, and he didn't exit with anything either. Why?" Ally thought the train of thought a bit strange.
"I don't like him, and I hoped you'd have more on him. What about Maxine? I have some suspicions about her. Have you ever seen her with a medical bag?" Ally shook her head no and hoped Iain had more than a bag to go on. She herself had observed some peculiar behaviour she wanted to share after Iain finished.
"When I went into the med lab, I looked in one of the cabinets. It had been trashed. The whole area was utterly disorganized; it didn't strike me as if a doctor worked there."
Ally jumped in.
"I meant to say something, but forgot in all the fuss. The footage we have of Johnny's accident... it's as if she has no idea what she's doing. I think either she's not a doctor, she's a really bad doctor or, more likely, she's hiding something like the fact that she's working for a firm and is here for ulterior motives."
A beeping sound drew all eyes to the display panel.
"The good news is we're on location. We'll still need to dive a few thousand feet so the submersible doesn't break its connection to the Betty Loo."
"Wait on that. I want to gather the crew together before we dive." Iain went over to the communications panel and hit the intercom button.
"All crew members, meet in the rec room in ten minutes."
After he turned it off, he looked at Ally and Marcus.
"You know someone- possibly several someones- on board want this job to fail. Our job is to do a search and rescue."
"Iain, it's too dangerous. We need to turn around." Ally cringed at the begging tone in her voice.
"Not an option. Get ready for the meeting."
Ally and Marcus nodded reluctantly. They watched as Iain walked out. Both of them sagged their shoulders as soon as he was gone.
"What do you think, are we going to fail?"
"I have no idea, Marcus. I just hope Betty Loo doesn't give out on us."
"Speaking of which, I'm going to go and start a systems check on all the oxygen tanks and ballast tanks, and make sure the chicken switch is nice and greased."
"Chicken switch?"
"If things go bad, Ally, it's our one and only option to get our ass to the surface. It'll be a rocky-as-hell ride, but emptying all the water from the ballast tanks and becoming a giant bubble will get us to safety in a hurry."
"Fine, but make sure to warn us. A ride like that will toss us all over the place."
"Will do."
Marcus left the room, and Ally decided to perform her own systems check on all navigation, emergency, and communication systems.
***
Marcus typed in the sequence to start the system overhaul. He also did a visual scan of what he thought to be weakened areas of the sub and reinforced them with an epoxy that dried within seconds and was supposedly as strong as titanium. Marcus hoped it lived up to the ads.
Last, he checked the chicken switch. Most subs didn't even have this device any longer. It was designed more than a hundred years earlier as a safety measure. For once, he was glad to be on an older sub. He just hoped it still worked.
Marcus lifted the flooring grate and hopped down into the pump area. He found the chicken switch on the back wall, rusted and stuck in place.
"Damn!"
He reached into his toolkit and brought out a canister of industrial-strength rust cleaner. He sprayed it on the switch and hoped it ate its way through some of the inch-thick mass collected on the switch. After a few moments, the rust began to flake off. He would have to hope more fell off in time. He sprayed more of the chemical on it and left when the fumes started to make him ill. If it worked, he still hoped they didn't have to use the switch. It was a last resort for a reason.
As he climbed up from beneath the walkway, something caught his attention.
Underneath the walkway hung a small black box mounted to the grating. Marcus knew it shouldn't be there, and he examined it further. It was held in place by a magnet, and he grabbed it. The box was roughly an inch square. Marcus couldn't tell if there was a speaker on it, but he could see the small eyehole for a camera.
He stood on the walkway and shut the grating to the lower deck. He sealed it and looked around once more. Why would someone put this in the engine room? The engine room held nothing interesting or exciting enough to justify spying. He moved farther down the walkway at a slow pace, looking in every nook and cranny. As soon as Iain finished his speech, Marcus would have to show this to Ally.
***
Ally stood up when she realized the time. If she hurried, she would just make Iain's big speech where he tried to convince everyone they weren't going to die.
Looking forward to it, she thought sarcastically.
She sighed and pulled her sweater tighter around her. She felt colder than usual and wondered if it was nerves or if, perhaps, the temperature had been lowered. She read the stats on the life-support controls. All readings were normal.
***
Maxine stood at the med lab examining table, looking at Tom's blood through the magnification panel. This time around, she found something peculiar. There were minute traces of a hallucinogen, potent in small doses, but for short periods of time. The only ways into Tom's system were through food or drink, as it had to be absorbed by the stomach for maximum effect. Not to mention the fact that the taste and odor were horrible and needed to be masked with something. She usually used coffee because of the bitterness.
She heard the captain's announcement and sighed. This job was never going to end. She needed to keep up the faade a little longer. All she had to do was make it to the other sub, get the data chip, and then come home. Whatever happened to the others wasn't her concern.
***
Dutch put out his cigarette and stared at the entrance to the submersible. It was his watch, and he wasn't sure if he should leave or not. He decided that if they really needed him at the meeting, they would tell him. He put his foot back up and lit another cigarette.
***
Ivan hit the tiny panel in his hand. It went fuzzy for a moment and made him nervous. Things were not going as planned. He knew this would happen as they got deeper, but he did not know the extent of the problems he would run into. With Tom out of the picture, he had to count on Ally alone now. The doctor had proven herself to be useless.
Marcus and Ally checked out okay. At least he hadn't seen them doing anything sinister. Nina also passed inspection. Perhaps she drank too much, but she didn't do squish, and she was fast on her feet, a competent diver, and not up to anything, as far as he could see. The captain had remained
sober the last few days. Ivan was shocked but pleased at the same time.
He figured that digital chip he'd left on his desk while he planted the spying device might have something to do with his sudden sobriety. He did not know to whom the captain was loyal. A push in the right direction with the S.O.S. recording might help him to see they were entering into an unusual and dangerous search and rescue.
***
Iain stood in the rec room and watched everyone enter. Nina looked like hell, but she'd been fighting off something the last few days. The tense faces and terse greetings let him know the rest of the crew sensed things weren't going well either. Then again, with the death of Johnny, and Tom being a possible axe murderer, he really couldn't blame them.
"Look, I'm going to shoot straight with you. Tom is in lockdown. I have no idea what happened to him. Johnny is dead. We're above the rescue coordinates. In a few moments, we're going to prepare to dive the Betty Loo. There's going to be a lot of noise, possibility of some water leaks, and electrical failures. I'm sure in the end, everything will be just fine." Nina raised her hand, and Iain nodded at her.
"On the off chance Betty Loo can't take the pressure, what's the backup plan?"
"We stop diving and go up. If something happens to prevent that, we can go to the submersible and surface."
"We can't all fit in the submersible." Iain wanted to tell Nina to shut up.
"We can fit if we take out the emergency equipment, rescue supplies, and whatnot. Trust me, it'll work. Now if I can finish. Once we get down there, we're going to send the submersible the rest of the way down to dock with the sub and get in and out as fast as possible. We're going to scan for survivors when we get close enough so we know where to focus our efforts. Any survivors found, we do our job. Once done, we get back to the Betty Loo and then get the hell out of here. Understand?"