Several of the crew sputtered and spat. The survivors were half-frozen, but grateful to be alive and free. They splashed through the water and looked around confusedly, helping those who were worse off than others.
"Well, they're not much, but that's the army we have to work with," Ryan said as he tossed the ax in the water. "Not much of a cavalry coming to the rescue, but we do what we can."
With that, they started explaining to the rescued crewmen what was happening, and where their captain was.
The second and deciding battle for Leviathan was about to start.
21
Tyler sat on a stool next to the navigation table after his men had retaken the conning tower. An hour and a half had passed since Heirthall and the Event Group escaped into Ice Palace. They had brought the warheads, which had been stored in one of the vast caverns where they had not run into Collins or any of the others, and had installed all thirty of the MIRV weapons on the missiles buried inside their launch tubes. Tyler looked at his watch. In record time, too, he thought.
Tyler looked around at the security men and midshipmen at their consoles, then at the captain's chair above him. He was tempted to climb into the large chair, but felt that since Alvera was forsaking the seat of power, he would also. He felt there was no need to risk a power showdown before the launch was complete. Then he could take command with his men at the controls.
"Putting to sea while Captain Heirthall is free is a foolish and unnecessary risk," Tyler said as he stepped up to the navigation table where Alvera was studying the hologram of the Ross Sea.
Alvera raised her eyebrows and straightened up from studying the coordinates where the missile launch would take place. Eight circles of red were targeted for the opening salvo of Heirthall's grand invention — the very first breed of stealth cruise missiles. The main naval ports of the United States, France, England, Russia, China, Germany, and Australia were the hard targets of the strike. Eight reentry warheads would be targeted for each nation, which would effectively destroy each of the deepest water ports, knocking out a good percentage of those nations' surface and subsurface fleets without them putting to sea. The rest of the threats could be taken care of from another launch location.
"Heirthall is nearly dead; the others with her will be located soon by the syms. No, Sergeant, these people are no threat." She looked at Tyler and briefly smiled. "As easy as it was for them to escape you and your men, they won't be so lucky against my family. My family will find them and kill them all. Now, let's get under way, shall we?"
"Sonar, conn, anything close aboard?" she asked over the intercom.
"Inconclusive contacts at this time. The movement and instability of the ice shelf above us may be masking any potential threats."
Alvera looked down at the chart and made her final straight line from under the Ross Ice Shelf.
"You seem worried," Tyler said.
"That American Virginia class submarine could be lurking in open water, and we wouldn't know it until she put two torpedoes into us."
"Leviathan can take anything Missouri can throw at her."
"That vessel is a Special Operations platform — do you understand what that means? Let me enlighten you, Sergeant — they are stealth capable. They can sit for hours and we wouldn't know they were there unless we put our laser web on them. Here's one more fact for your files, since you seem to have missed the captain's classes on the subject of American capability. She may have nuclear weapons onboard, and unless Leviathan is protected by depth, it is possible that they can destroy her. It would take a lucky shot, to be sure, but it's still possible."
"Then we rely on your ability to evade. After all, you were personally trained by the captain."
Alvera ignored the false compliment by Tyler. "Watch officer, make your depth six hundred feet, course heading three-three-zero degrees at fifty knots," Alvera ordered. "Weapons, load tubes one through twenty with Mark sixties, activate and warm up vertical tubes one through thirty with SS-twenties — special war shot."
"Aye."
Alvera reached for the dive alarm and looked at Tyler one last time.
"All hands prepare for dive." She hit the horn. "Dive — dive!"
* * *
Leviathan spewed more than a million gallons of seawater straight into the air as she started sliding beneath the trapped inland sea. What remained of the now-stranded Event Group, along with Robbins and Farbeaux, watched from a distance, behind a wall of calved ice.
"Good luck, Jack," Niles Compton said as Sarah joined him at the edge of the ice.
She looked around and then above them. The ice looked even more unstable than it had an hour before.
"Look at this," Lee said, making Sarah and Niles turn away from the view of the giant Leviathan disappearing underneath the Ross Sea. As they did, they saw ten of the children emerge from one of the carved-out ice buildings. They reached Henri Farbeaux first as they gathered around the group.
"Some of them made it out," Alice said.
"I'm afraid their escape may be for naught, my dear Mrs. Hamilton," Farbeaux said as he looked beyond the children who gathered around him.
Compton and the others turned to see the clear-skinned hand of a symbiant taking hold of the ice and starting to pull itself up.
"Get the children inside," Sarah said. "We don't stand a chance out here."
As they turned to herd the children back, more syms swam to the surface and started making their way ashore.
The Group's only hope now was that the few hurt and tired men, women, and children left aboard Leviathan could somehow stop the missile launch and then return to save them.
It was now all in the hands of Captain Heirthall and Jack Collins.
USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)
"Conn — sonar — we have a possible disturbance under the shelf."
"What have you got exactly?" Jefferson asked, nodding for his sonar officer to rejoin his department.
"Possibly the same water-release noise picked up in the Bering Strait. Leviathan may be moving out from under the shelf, Captain."
Jefferson thought a moment. His boat was as ready as it could be. All hands were at battle stations-torpedo, and Missouri was as quiet as they could make her.
"Keep tracking her and calling out the position of the target," he said, then hung up.
"What are you thinking, Captain?" Izzeringhausen asked.
The captain continued to study the chart. "We do nothing but sit and let that big bitch come to us." He tapped the chart of the Ross Ice Shelf. "The shortest distance to the sea is the way they came in — to the north — and that's exactly where we'll be waiting, Izzy."
"Good plan."
"Hell, it's the only plan. Send an ELF message to National Command Authority."
Izzeringhausen removed a pen from his coverall and waited for his captain to speak.
"Inform the president: Missouri is preparing to engage Leviathan."
LEVIATHAN
Everett and Virginia were frantically looking for the command bypass on the main auxiliary control panel. Alexandria was sitting in her chair in the control suite and trying to explain to Everett what he was looking for just as they both heard Leviathan sound her diving alarm. A few moments later, she felt her stomach leap as the giant ship slipped beneath the surface.
"Leviathan is starting to make a run for the sea," she said. The only good news thus far was that Tyler's men hadn't discovered them in the auxiliary control suite — yet.
Everett let out a whoop when he finally found what he was looking for. He quickly threw a switch, and the holographic controls lit up, coming to life with a myriad of colors.
For the first time in weeks, a true and meaningful smile crossed the red lips of Alexandria Heirthall.
She now had access to her element — the brain of Leviathan.
Heirthall smiled at Virginia as she once more took her place in the elevated command chair and turned on the holographic controls for her personal hologram. It faile
d to illuminate.
"They have cut power to my command hologram, but I will still give Tyler and Alvera the ride of their lives," she said as she reached into a compartment on the side of the command chair and removed a small case. "Captain, get to control and assist Colonel Collins. Kill Tyler and Alvera, and anyone else you can. Without Tyler and the yeoman, the rest won't launch. I'll do my best to keep Leviathan under the ice."
Everett started to turn when Alexandria stopped him, taking his arm. It seemed the captain had regained some of her strength and determination.
"I will sink her… if I have to."
"Understood."
Everett left the control suite. If he had lingered, he would have beheld a new Heirthall.
Alexandria Heirthall had chosen a side — her human side. Virginia smiled at her friend, then strapped herself into her seat.
ICE PALACE
"There have to be more weapons and good cover here someplace," Niles said as the last of the children filed into the large ice building.
Henri Farbeaux turned away from the large group and limped across the composite floor. For the moment he was just grateful for the warmth of the carved-out interior, but he knew their time was short. All the syms had come out of the water.
"Here they come," Sarah said, looking out of one of the shuttered wooden windows embedded in its ice frame.
Farbeaux went to the first room in the great building of rooms. He opened the door and found a comfortable meeting area, complete with long mahogany table and Queen Anne chairs. He shook his head and closed the door. He went to the next and opened it. It was a supply room — no firearms, only ice spikes, spearlike devices. The rest were ropes, ladders, boots for ice walking, and other cold-weather gear. Lined along the far wall were self-inflating, Zodiac-style rubber boats — only these were of a size Farbeaux had never before seen. They could easily seat one hundred and fifty adults. He also knew that they would do them no good one mile down in the Ross Ice Shelf. Farbeaux grabbed ten of the long, spiked poles and left the room.
"These are all we have," he said, handing them out to Niles, Sarah, Alice, Robbins, and Lee. "They may stop them better than bullets. I will check the last room. When I return, the senator, Dr. Compton, Dr. Robbins, and I will stand our ground at the front of the building. Young Sarah, you and Mrs. Hamilton will take charge of the children. I do not expect mercy from these creatures — do you understand?"
Everyone nodded. Henri turned and walked as quickly as his wound would allow to the back of the large building. He found the last door and saw a small staircase that went down into the ice. The composite material, resembling rubber, was scarce, unlike the rest of the building. He started down, hoping it might be an armory. When he reached the bottom, he stopped suddenly. He couldn't believe what he was looking at.
"My compliments, Captain Heirthall and Roderick Deveroux," he whispered.
At the lowest level of the building, in a special vaultlike room that was sealed against the harsh environment and lined in rubber for protection against the sea, was the Heirthall treasure — at least a thousand tons of gold, silver, and crates of jewels, a few of which were broken open and spilling their contents across the ice floor. Golden weapons; Saracen swords; golden shields from the time of Christ, and suits of armor from the Crusades. As he studied the room's design, he knew it would possibly be an area capable of a last stand against the enemy lurking outside.
Farbeaux shook his head at the discovery of the treasure — wondering what its true value would be, not only in terms of what it would bring on the open market, but in the prestige of owning some of the artifacts arrayed on the shelves. Henri looked upon the richest treasure in the history of the world and smiled.
"Colonel, here they come!" Sarah shouted.
"Ah, nothing is ever easy," Farbeaux said, turning away from the find of a lifetime, and he made his way back up the carved staircase. "How many, little Sarah?"
"Uh, all of them, I think."
When he looked through the open doorway on the main level, the first awful scream of a sym sounded. Niles Compton scored the first blow for the defense by jabbing the long, spearlike pole into the right eye of the first creature that came at them.
"Yes, nothing is ever easy," he repeated as he came forward, spike at the ready.
LEVIATHAN
Captain Heirthall took the handgrips of the two toggles. Without rudder control, she could only use the bow and tower planes. She knew it might be enough to cause Leviathan to slow, or at the very least announce to whomever was listening that Leviathan was coming their way. This last point she kept to herself.
Heirthall removed a large pair of holographic glasses from their case and put them on. They resembled the visor of a pilot's flight helmet. She needed to utilize these because of the power loss to visuals. She flexed her fingers as the visor came to life. Leviathan's depth was close to a mile and a half, or a quarter of a mile under the deepest pressure ridge of the Ross Ice Shelf. The great vessel was only sixty miles from breaching the open sea. In the lower-right corner of the visor, she patched in to sonar, and could clearly see open water in front of her. She knew that didn't mean anything. As a matter of fact, she was guessing that Missouri was there — somewhere.
"Ginny, if I pass out or die on you, take the right plane control and pull back to its stops. Ram Leviathan into the bottom of the ice and keep her there. Give Colonel Collins and Captain Everett time."
"Can ice sink this damn thing?"
"I don't think so, but we can tear her up enough to slow her down, possibly causing enough damage to make her stop the missile launch."
Alexandria took hold of the hand grips, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She pulled the right toggle control all the way back, at the same time pressing a small red button on the top, releasing control of the submarine from the command bridge. Her brainchild was once again hers.
Leviathan responded.
* * *
Yeoman Alvera made her final calculation for launching the missiles. A straight, deadly red line ran straight toward the center of the surface of the Ross Sea.
"Acting chief?"
"Aye," said the sixteen-year-old girl standing between the helm seats.
"Make ready to adjust depth and course in three—" Alvera almost bit her tongue off as Leviathan suddenly went nose up and shot for the bottom of the shelf. The yeoman watched the navigation hologram as the symbol for the submarine was speeding at fifty knots toward a series of jagged pressure ridges.
"Down planes — down planes, engines to slow!" Alvera yelled as she wiped blood from her mouth.
"Planes are nonresponsive," the helmsman said loudly.
Tyler picked himself off the deck and then looked at the hologram with fear in his eyes.
"We are receiving conflicting impulses from the computer, we are being overridden!"
"Captain Heirthall!" Alvera said, looking directly at Tyler. "Engines all back. Helm control, make sure she cannot, I repeat, cannot gain rudder and ballast access! Sergeant Tyler, obviously the captain is not stranded at Ice Palace. May I suggest you start your search in auxiliary control?"
Tyler angrily turned away and went to communications.
Alvera turned and studied the hologram, for the first time becoming frightened herself.
"Sound the collision alarm," she shouted as Leviathan's engines went to full-reverse power. "Give me twenty thousand gallons of ballast in the forward tanks only!" The collision alarm started sounding throughout the boat. "Close all watertight doors, close the observation shields." Even as she gave the order, she knew it was too late.
Leviathan started to turn her bow down but was still rising at an incredible rate of speed. With her reactors screaming at more than 120 percent power, it wasn't enough to avoid the unavoidable.
The midshipmen braced themselves as the conning tower of Leviathan hit a large pressure ridge, tearing it free from the bottom of the shelf. The tower shook in its mountings, but held firm as
the bow came up and struck another spikelike ridge, crushing the starboard observation shield and pushing it inward by three feet. The combination acrylic/nylon glass cracked and then gave way, creating a cascade of pressurized water that shot a hundred feet into the compartment.
"We have an outer and inner hull breach in the forward observation lounge!"
"Are we showing hatch integrity of the compartment in the green?"
"Yes, watertight doors are closed. We are two minutes from isolating plane control from the auxiliary suite."
Leviathan struck the bottom of the shelf again, throwing the control-room personnel from their seats.
"Tyler! The captain is trying to sink us!"
USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)
"Conn — sonar — we have her at fifty-six miles, bearing three-nine-seven degrees. She just hit the ice at over fifty knots!"
"Collins and his men, it has to be. Izzy, match bearings on Leviathan's noise and fire tubes one through six, a full spread, maximum range!"
LEVIATHAN
Alvera braced herself as the pummeling continued. Heirthall was ramming the uppermost deck and tower into the shelf, causing damage to the topmost sensors housed in the conning tower.
She happened to look into the flickering hologram in time to see six blips light up at fifty-plus miles. They were bearing right on Leviathan.
"We have torpedoes in the water — they have us locked at long range!"
Alvera wasn't concerned with the American-made Mark 48s, as they could easily lose them under the shelf at the extreme range at which they were launched.
"We have a bearing on Missouri's location. Should we fire torpedoes?" the acting weapons officer asked.
"Yes, launch tubes one through ten. Blow the Americans out of the water," Tyler shouted as he tried in vain to get his men on the radio.
"Belay that order. We have to get to the launch point. Concentrate all efforts on regaining control and—"
Leviathan slammed into the ice again. This time it wasn't as devastatingly harsh as her engines, near to reactor scram, started pulling her back from the surface.
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