Part 22 (1/2)

She got up. ”Now we need a focused light source. Something like a laser beam.”

”The laser pointer!” Skarda said.

The scientist with the pointer stepped forward, holding the device out. ”It's a hundred milliwatts. Will that be enough?”

”I don't know,” she admitted. ”Is there any way to increase the strength of the beam?”

From below came the sound of metal screeching. The s.h.i.+p lurched.

Staggering, Flinders took off her gla.s.ses and handed them over to her. ”These are bifocals.”

”It might work,” the female scientist said. ”The lens should increase the amplification of the beam.”

April took the gla.s.ses. ”Okay,” she said. ”It's worth a try. Now everybody get down! Cover your heads and look away from the door. I have no idea what's going to happen.”

Again the s.h.i.+p groaned with a sound like slabs of steel grating against each other. The roar of water rushed to their ears.

Taking the pointer, April flicked on the beam, then moved across the room and angled it to s.h.i.+ne through the lens. Without hesitation she aimed the laser at the scissors, then turned away.

A second later the hatch and the surrounding bulkhead erupted in a brilliant flash of white light, the force of the explosion blowing straight up as the quarter-inch plating vaporized into a mist of burning slag, spraying out into the corridor beyond.

___.

Scrambling onto the windswept deck, April raced to the port forecastle rail and looked down at the ice-choked ocean. The Zodiacs and the submarine were gone.

The big s.h.i.+p yawed violently and groaned, listing to starboard.

She spun to face the crowd gathering on deck. ”Where are the lifeboats?”

The petty officer spoke up. ”We have two free-fall lifeboats, fully enclosed and heated. They're big enough to fit all of us.”

”Okay,” April said. ”get started loading these people.” She turned to her companions. ”Flinders, help get the people loaded. Park, come with me. We need to find that bomb!”

They raced across the deck. Under their feet the planking heaved as the hull pitched violently, filling with thousands of gallons of water. The wind had had increased in intensity, bringing with it an almost horizontal rain, interspersed with thick swirls of snow and ice.

In his head, Skarda calculated the time they had left.

Ten minutes at the most.

With the wind howling around them, they ran across the deck, inspecting each hatchway, each hold, stabbing the LED into the snow-shrouded darkness to look for anything that resembled a bomb.

Then Skarda pointed. Up ahead a crane rose up next to an open cargo hold. Beside it lay a coil of cables, one snaking down into the darkness. Running up, he thrust the light into the black hole, seeing the reflected edges of the t.i.tanium case resting on the bottom.

”That's got to be it!”

”I'm going down!” April shouted.

Swinging her legs into the open s.p.a.ce, she descended a steel ladder bolted to the bulkhead. From the last rungs she jumped, running for the case.

Skarda saw her turn her face up toward him, a pale oval in the gloom.

”It's lashed to the floor,” she called up. ”The lid is bolted, too!”

”Okay, we're running out of time! Get out of there!”

Metal groaned and screeched. The steel plating of the interior bulkhead buckled with a tortured shriek, followed a second later by an avalanche of black water surging into the hold with a horrifying sucking sound, swirling around the case in a vortex of foam.

An instant later April had scrambled on top of the case. The s.h.i.+p shuddered, careening violently back and forth. Even though her legs were braced, the motion of the s.h.i.+p was making her stagger. Her boots slithered over the wet surface. A roar came to Skarda's ears: the surface of the ocean drawing nearer, churning out whirlpools of boiling water as the s.h.i.+p was rapidly sucked under the waves.

Five minutes left, at the most.

He leapt onto the ladder, his boots hammering as he dropped two rungs at a time toward the ma.s.s of water below. Pain throbbed in his shoulder where Jaz had struck him. The rungs were wet and slick under his grip.

”No! Park-go back!” April's urgent yell was faint over the rush of black water.

When Skarda reached the last rungs, he twisted his body, grasping a rung above his head with one hand and reaching out with the other, stretching out his hand to her.

But she was too far away.

”Go back!” she shouted at him.

The s.h.i.+p pitched with a violent lurch. April's legs shot out from under her and she slid, her fingers scrabbling for a hold on the slick t.i.tanium.

Without thought Skarda leapt, arms pinwheeling, landing in a sprawl on top of the case, reaching back and grabbing her parka just as she was about to topple into the swirling sea. With a jerk so hard he thought his muscles were tearing, he hauled her up next to him.

Boots slick and sliding, they managed to get to their feet, the case rocking as if they were caught in a landslide.

April pointed at the ladder. ”Think you can make it?”

Another bulkhead groaned, threatening to burst.

”I don't think so. It's too far to jump back up!”

”We have no choice!”

The s.h.i.+p was shuddering more convulsively now, seeming to heave up and down on the surface even as its downward momentum dragged it under with inexorable finality. The ocean thundered in their ears.

”Wait until the s.h.i.+p rolls again, then use the momentum to jump!” she yelled.

With a deafening roar, the bulkhead burst open. A cataract of water boiled into the hold, knocking April off her feet. With a quick grab, Skarda snaked his forearm around her shoulder, ramming his hand into her left armpit and hanging on, the tendons of his arms rigid as steel cables.

Panic clawed at him- But he hung on, grimly fighting to keep them alive.

Then something struck his ribcage-something hard and metallic that bounced off into the churning water. He cut his eyes downward. The end of a steel cable line was slipping over the edge of the case, slithering through the water like a snake!