Hannah stood up straight. “If I didn’t think it was possible, we wouldn’t be here.”
I hated the plan. All of it. But again, I really didn’t have a choice, so I nodded.
“Here’s the supplies,” Max said, hauling up a small crate. “Put it all in one for ya.”
“She also needs the mines,” Hannah said.
Max stretched his back. “I know. Give me a sec, shit.”
After a bit, he climbed back down.
“The mines are pretty straightforward,” Hannah explained. “Press the red button and you have exactly 10 minutes to return to your sub and get the hell out of there.”
“Sounds like fun,” I said.
“You keep surprising me with your sarcasm,” Megan said. “But I dig it.”
I shot her a wink, then returned my attention to Hannah. “And what about you all? What are you gonna do while I do all the work?”
There was a pause, then Megan spouted, “We’ll be monitoring nearby to provide assistance if needed.”
“Jesus jumpin’ on lily pads,” Max said. “Assistance? Did I hear that right? Because I, for one, think we should all get a bit dirty too.”
Hannah crossed her arms over her chest and eyed Max. “And how would you make it right?”
“Well,” Max said, “I’d be out there with her planting the explosives, for one. We all can dive and those mech things help a lot. So, why isn’t someone out there helping her?”
“We can’t dive as well as Wen,” Hannah said. “You know that. And we’ll be right there keeping watch for Roofus if he somehow gets out of the net before eight hours. We’ll be guarding her as she places the mines. That’s our job.”
“He was sleeping during the meeting earlier,” Megan said. “Well, off and on.”
“I know.”
“Hey,” Max said. “I’m standing right here, you guys.”
Hannah shrugged. “Guess you know your flaws now. Maybe time to work on those?”
Max laughed, all theatrical-like. “Funny. Very funny. Can we get on with whatever the fuck you wanna do here?”
“You know what we’re here to do,” Hannah said. “You know it’s for a good cause, and not just to line our pockets.”
“I do?” Max chuckled lightly, still hauling mines onto my sub. “Must’ve been asleep, right, Meg?”
Megan made an ugh sound and turned away from everyone. She appeared to be messing with something, though I couldn’t tell what it was.
“Anyway,” Max said. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” He gave me a withering look. “Are you up to this? If not, you can say no. Not like she’s going to pay you more or anything.”
“Actually,” Hannah said, “I am. She’ll get one million when we get our payment.”
All I could do was gape at her. Did I hear her right? One million dollars? I could live on that for years…
“Well, then,” Max said. “That’s news to me.”
“You were sleeping when she said it,” Megan said.
He snorted. “I bet.”
Hannah sighed. “Anyway, no time to argue. I only have one net. Once that one holding Roofus dissolves, we’re done. We can only stun him so much before he gets pissed off and swallows us whole.”
Max stretched, yawned. “Yeah, so…am I riding with her or…?”
“No. I want Megan here. She knows more about minisubs.”
He frowned. “Since when?”
“Since forever, dumbass. What the hell is going on with you? You’ve never acted like this before, really.”
“Well,” Max said, “excuse me for being concerned for Wen, here. Jesus.”
I smiled at him, as warmly as possible. “I’ll be okay. Thanks.”
He sighed and shrugged. “This shit is dangerous. I just wanted you to be prepared is all.”
I really didn’t know what to say to that, so I nodded. After a second or two more, I managed, “We got this.”
He gave me the longest, strangest look just then. Something, maybe, between concerned and bemused. Finally, he smiled. A warm, almost loving smile. Then he climbed down to the other sub.
“I haven’t been dishonest with you, Wen,” Hannah said. “We just never got the meeting I wanted to have so I could fill you in on everything. Max, he actually helped solve some issues, I think. Unless you still have questions?”
I sighed. “No. Let’s just get this over with.” I added, “And you’re serious about the one million dollars?”
“Yes. Of course. Meg, can you get the contract up here so she can sign?”
Megan sighed, stowed some kind of device in her pocket, and climbed down to the other sub.
“You can trust me, you know,” Hannah said. “Max likes to go all theatrical with everything. True, this is the first time he’s gone this far, but I assure you, I would never hurt you in any way, nor trap you into doing anything. If you said you wanted out right now, I wouldn’t stop you.”
I nodded. “I believe you. And if this furthers studies in prehistoric species, then I’m all for it.”
Megan climbed out of the latch and said, “Got it. Dude, she’s getting paid more than I am.”
Hannah took the tablet and waved a hand at Megan. “You won’t be doing much this time. She’s the one really risking her neck out here, so she deserves the better pay.”
“Fair enough,” Megan said.
Hannah handed me the tablet. On the screen was a contract. I scrolled through it as carefully as I could under the time constraints. Everything appeared in order. Except…in the section labeled 10, which read: The Party shall waive any right of any funds if injured during investigation.
I stared at that a long time before finally scrolling to the one-million-dollar payment. Which was to be paid after any goods were reported and/or distributed.
Basically, it was a standard contract. I used my finger to sign and handed the tablet back to Hannah. She checked it out, nodded, tapped something, and told Megan to take it back to the other sub.
Megan huffed out a breath, but climbed back down.
Hannah gave me a firm nod. “Are you ready for this? No turning back now.”
“Not really,” I said. “But I’ll do what you need me to do.”
I didn’t know what I was thinking, to be honest.
When you’re on the poor side of lower-middle class and someone offers to pay you one million bucks for simply placing mines and helping collect or record prehistoric specimens…it was a no-brainer, really.
Anything to get out of the dead weight of financial death. Which, at the time, I was very close to, despite all the hours I put in at the park. Debt had a way of creeping up on a person, regardless of how much one worked.
So, yeah, let it be known I started the mission with money on my mind.
“We’ll locate good potential cave openings,” Hannah said. “When we do, I want you to get into the Flex Mech and place the mines at each one.”
I hated being ordered around, but again…what other choice did I have? What if I said no and remained firm? Would Hannah have me killed?
I shuddered at the thought and nodded. “Okay. Let’s get this over with then.”
Hannah grunted and walked toward the opening leading down into her sub. Before descending, she faced me. “For what it’s worth, thank you for helping us out and the cause. And, for me, it’s more about the cause than the money.”
I had to choke down laughter. What cause, exactly, was all of it for other than exploiting once-extinct animals for profit? That made me rethink my job at the park. Christ, I was doing pretty much the same damn thing.
Hannah and her small team were more or less mercenaries. Instead of killing, though, they captured their targets and sold them to the highest bidder. It was sick, actually.
And there I was…helping them for a measly million.
As Hannah climbed down to her own sub and Megan returned to mine, I found my thoughts drifting to my son, Venis. I hadn’t seen him in months. More of a work and sche
dule issue rather than wanting. Because I wanted to see him. I wanted to hold him in my arms and sing to him like I used before Deb decided I wasn’t enough for her. Deb…my ex-wife. She liked to keep Venis from me. She denied all the calls I made. She probably even tore up all the letters I sent.
You work, and you work. You try to create a better life for yourself and your children. You try and no matter how much you fight the good fight, more often than not, all you’re doing is spinning your damn tires in a mud slick.
“Ready for this?” Megan asked, ripping me from my thoughts.
“I guess. Yeah.”
“We probably won’t find anything,” Megan said. “Most of our leads or guesses are dead ends.”
With nothing really to say to that, I closed the hatch and sealed it. Before I could return to the head of the sub, Megan was already there, powering up. I frowned, not really sure what the hell I was supposed to do.
Megan nudged our sub upward, eventually detaching from Hannah’s sub.
Over the speakers, Hannah said, “Commencing ping location.”
“What’s ping location?” I asked.
“Seismic echoes,” Megan said. “They show where the hollow spots are. Every hollow spot might be a tunnel.”
“I see.”
A bunch of beeps sounded and Hannah said, “We have our first location directly in front of you.”
“Okay,” Megan said. “Awaiting images.”
All I could do was stand there and watch as this group of mercenary collectors did their thing. It was much more intricate than I thought.
“Images sending,” Hannah said. “Thirty meters to the right is the next location. Configuring location three…”
Over her shoulder, Megan said, “Better start suiting up, hun.”
I sighed, feeling like a used condom rather than someone important. Still, I walked over to the Flex Mech and stared at the thing. I mean, how the hell did it even go on? There were no latches or zippers or anything.
Then I noticed a round, silvery object near the neck. Curious, nerves sparking, I tapped it. Nothing happened. But when I pressed…
The suit whispered air and split down the middle, head to toe. It opened like a newly awakened flower would. Slow. All I needed to do was lie down in it. Once I did, though, that would be that. No turning back. As always, what choice did I have?
“Mine deployment in…ten, nine, eight…”
I laid down in the suit and it slowly closed around me. Hissing filled the tight area and for a minute or two, I almost freaked out from claustrophobia. Then the face puffed out a bit as air was drawn into the suit. Not only could I see 10 times better through the suit’s eyes, there was a small screen showing what was behind me and to the sides. It was surreal, to say the least. But once I got the hang of breathing in an airtight suit, it was like standing outside and breathing. Pretty amazing piece of technology.
Through whatever hearing device served the Flex Mech came, “Six. Five. Four…”
I sat up. The air in the suit shifted a bit, but not horribly so.
In front of me was Megan. “I’m going to close off the cabin and increase the pressure in here. When you open the latch, there shouldn’t be much water coming in. If there is, just say so. The mech is directly synced to the comms on both subs so we’ll all hear you.”
That did little to quell the fear stuttering through me.
On one hand, I knew how to dive. I knew, kind of, how this Flex Mech gives me air. But there was serious doubt. It’s a prototype. Which meant there were probably glitches. What would happen if I dived into such deep water and the mech malfunctioned? What if the intakes failed to transfer water oxygen into oxygen so I could breathe? What if there were sealing issues and water got into the suit? Who would save me if any of that happened?
No one. Because none of them had the suit. They’d die if they went out in merely a wetsuit at such a depth.
I’d be utterly alone out there.
If things failed…would I make it back to the sub in time?
For the first time, I realized just how disposable I really was. Merely a tool to be used.
“One.”
The door to the cockpit slid closed and the hatch hissed open slowly. No water gushed into the sub. Instead, it all remained at the bottom of the hatch’s opening. Who knew a minisub could produce enough pressure to create sort of a moon pool, like on a lot of ocean oil rigs? As much as I had piloted the minisubs, I never knew about such an option. It must’ve been added for just this purpose. Which made sense.
Despite all the reassurance, I still held my breath when I lowered myself through the hatch opening and into the deep.
Instantly, I felt it. The pressure of the ocean, though nothing horrible, was still uncomfortable. I drew in my first breath and relaxed a little. I was about to close the hatch when I remembered the mines. So, I pulled myself back into the sub, opened a box, and found black belts with six pockets. Within these pockets were the mines. I strapped a couple of the belts around the Flex Mech and grabbed a few more, then jumped back into the water. I reached to shut the hatch, but it closed on its own.
“I got it for you, hun,” Megan said through a speaker near my ear.
It smelled like freshly molded plastic and warm circuit boards in the Flex Mech.
“Okay,” Hannah said. “Swim straight ahead from where you are. You’ll see a large section of sand which appears to be caving inward a bit. That’s the first tunnel. Clear the sand as best you can and place a mine there.” She paused a second or two, then added, “I’m sending you coordinates for the next several possible tunnels. Just follow the same instructions. Once all the mines are placed, return to the sub. We’ll back away and detonate the mines.”
“Sounds like loads of fun,” I said.
“Think of it like a game,” Megan said. “See how many you can place before a certain time or something.”
“Lamest game ever,” I spouted, though I swam forward.
“There are options for the mech,” Hannah said. “You can use water-powered thrusters, which will get you to where you need to go faster.”
“Okay? How the hell do I do that?”
“Say: forward thrust, right thrust, left thrust, and backward thrust.”
“Sounds lovely,” I said.
Still, I needed to get a feel for it. If I was to be stuck in such a situation, I needed to know how to maneuver.
“Forward thrust,” I said.
The moment the words were out of my mouth, the mech shot forward so fast I didn’t realize what was happening until a wall of sand loomed over me.
“Shit,” I managed.
“Tell it to stop!” Hannah shouted.
“Stop!”
The sensation of full stop jarred me a bit, though that soon faded. I was merely inches from the wall of sand. This close, I couldn’t see if it was slightly concaved or not. Still, I dug deep until the mech hand thumped on stone. I brought a mine out of one of the belts around the mech and shoved it into the hole I dug. Almost instantly, when I pulled my hand out, the sand blanketed everything. Didn’t even look like I dug at all.
A second later, my vision was overlaid with a geographic of the ocean floor and a red line, accompanied by dots, revealing where I needed to place the mines.
The red line streamed to the right, so I followed, calling on forward thrust. Took less than a few seconds to get me to the next destination. I needed to work around some coral, but I dug to the rock below the sand and placed the mine. I did that seven times. Going from one supposed tunnel to the next placing mines.
On the seventh, Hannah said, “There are more, but return to the sub and let’s see what these ones show us.”
So, I returned to the minisub. Megan opened the latch and I pulled myself in. Once in, the hatch closed and sealed.
“Reversing 40 meters,” Megan said.
“Detonation in, five, four, three, two…”
“Hold on,” Megan said, and I found a metal bar to
hang on to.
“One.”
The entire minisub jostled and shook, knocking me off my feet despite the mech. I landed hard, though I barely felt anything. By the time I stood up, it was over.
“Waiting for the sand and debris to settle,” Hannah said. “Well done, Wen.”
I don’t remember how long I waited, but it felt like forever. Then…
“We have one—no, two tunnels visible,” Max shouted. “Waiting on more visuals.”
A full minute passed. “Four visible. Five…”
Another minute…
“Six tunnels! We have six! The last one is solid stone.” Max sounded on the verge of salivating. Which was weird considering how against everything he seemed before. Well, regarding me anyway. Maybe it was more about not wanting me on the mission than anything truly factual, as I had assumed before.
“Good work, Wen,” Hannah said.
“You did it,” Megan pretty much shouted.
And there I stood in the body of the minisub, listening to praises I knew I really didn’t deserve. I literally only placed mines. Nothing mind-blowing. Pretty simple stuff. The Flex Mech was odd, but easy enough to figure out. So…why all the praise? Was it because they were all too afraid to try it, in case the mech failed or malfunctioned? Could I have been more of an expendable guinea pig, rather than someone of value?
I didn’t know.
Again, my mind drifted to my dear, beautiful son, Venis. What if I never saw him again? I could die any moment at such depths. If Roofus didn’t get free and eat us, something else could happen. Perhaps even worse. I would need to go to court if I made it out of all the madness and see about getting full custody of him. He deserved a better life than what Deb could provide. Besides, he was my world. He was why I worked so hard every day.
“Okay,” Hannah said. “We have roughly, very roughly, five hours until the net over Roofus dissolves. We need to inspect every tunnel. We’ll go into each, about 200 feet. If suspected in a given tunnel, we’ll go in farther. The subs should fit just fine, judging by the tunnels’ circumferences.”
“So,” Megan said. “You want me to take tunnel two while you take tunnel one?”
Below The Earth Page 4