by S. L. Menear
“Good idea,” Bern said. “My team will be designated Striker One, and your team will be Striker Two.”
Mike raised his hand. “Are you expecting the Chinese to attack this ship?”
“No, but the North Koreans have already attacked us three times,” Max said. “No reason to think they won’t try again, especially now that we’re back over Atlantis.”
Ross’s team from the mesa exchanged surprised glances.
Bern glanced at his watch. “Gear up. Wheels up in five. Samantha Starr’s safe return is priority one.”
Five minutes later, the men climbed aboard two Seahawks—the U.S. Navy’s version of Blackhawk helicopters—and sped toward the Chinese freighter, which was about thirty miles south of Leviathan.
As they closed in on Sun Dragon, Ross’s team received a message from Bern. “Texas reported a Chinese submarine in close proximity to the freighter. We have to secure the package before that sub gets a chance to take her aboard.”
“Understood,” Ross said. “We’re ready.”
As soon as the helicopters were in position, Bern said into his helmet mike, “Execute! Execute! Execute!”
Ten Special Operators dropped down from ropes onto the Chinese cargo ship, the teams boarding near the bow and stern with their weapons ready. As they descended, crewmen fired at them, and they returned fire.
Ross’s team managed to reach cover on board without being hit by any of the bullets being sprayed from Chinese machine pistols. His men took aim with their infrared sights and green lasers and decimated the men defending the afterdeck.
Ross said, “Striker Two is clear.”
“Copy that. Check lower decks and Striker One will cover the upper decks,” Bern said.
Ross led his men belowdecks as Bern’s team annihilated the forward crew and then moved aft to check the bridge and crew quarters.
Striker Two moved methodically, tossing flash-bang grenades ahead in passages to stun defenders, then rushing in and shooting them before they could regain their senses.
The team checked every cabin, expecting to be met with gunfire behind every door. Many areas were empty, and some had defenders in small groups. The stun grenades did their job—casualties were avoided on Ross’s team as they continued downward.
Halfway through the next deck, Mike yelled, “Ross! In here!”
Ross ducked into a small cabin where restraints were still fastened to a bunk’s side rails. Mike pointed at a spot on the sidewall that was even with the right bedrail.
“Looks like SAM-SUB-PYR,” Ross said. “They must’ve transferred her to their submarine. That means they’ll drag her into the pyramid soon. Bugger!”
Derek nudged Ross. “Best advise Texas our package is on that sub so they don’t sink it.”
Ross called Bern. “Striker One, package may already be on the sub. We found a message scratched on a wall where it looks like she was held.”
Mike held up a long blond hair.
“Correction—Sam was definitely in this room. Mike found a strand of her hair.”
“Copy that, Striker Two. We searched the bridge tower. No package. Check the cargo holds just in case,” Bern said. “Start in the bow and we’ll meet you in the middle. I’ll notify CIC the package may be in that submarine.”
“Understood,” Ross said. “Striker Two will meet you in the middle.”
The holds were empty, which expedited the search.
Bern assembled his teams on the central deck as the Seahawks hovered above them. They hooked themselves onto lines dangling from their helicopters.
“Time to bug out.” Bern signaled the pilot.
The Seahawks climbed and cleared the ship, towing the teams under them.
Ross glanced back and spotted two crewman who had emerged from a hidden compartment on the deck. Each held a shoulder-fired rocket launcher.
He yelled into his mike, “RPGs!” as rocket-propelled grenades streaked toward both helicopters.
The Seahawks had been too close to the shooters. There was no time to evade the rockets.
It was obvious the Seahawks would be hit, so Bern commanded, “Release and drop!”
All ten Special Operators dropped into the sea seconds before their helicopters spun out of control from direct hits to their tail rotors.
The choppers crashed into the sea just a few feet from Ross’s team.
Chinese Submarine
My guards locked me in a small cabin. This time they left me untethered. No drugs, either. My Hardsuit dive into the 2000-foot depths of ancient Atlantis must be imminent. They’d need me sharp to fire the weapon inside the obsidian pyramid. They were assuming it worked the same way as the one the US had bombed in the Himalayas.
I closed my eyes, and a vision flashed into my head. Ross, my brother Mike, and several soldiers with them in two helicopters were shot down by RPGs. I saw the SEALs drop into the water moments before their choppers crashed with the air crews inside. The birds sank in seconds.
Worse, two Chinese men were firing at the soldiers from the deck of the freighter.
I contacted the kraken telepathically and prayed it would do my bidding again. Time was critical. I had to make certain assumptions about the teams from the helicopters and command accordingly. Dear God, I hope this works!
The door to my cabin opened just as I finished sending my instructions to the kraken. Dragon Master stepped in.
“Queen, we almost ready for historic mission. Ironic, ancient city will change modern history. Your electromagnetic energy will pass through metal claspers in Hardsuit when you fire the Atlantis half of Poseidon’s Sword.” He motioned for me to follow him.
Two guards waited in the passageway. They took positions behind me as I followed the future emperor of China to their dive center. Four Hardsuits connected to cables stood ready for divers.
“You go with two divers. Other suit is for backup.” Dragon Master pointed.
“No, I need three divers to help me fire the weapon. It’s not like the one on the Himalayan pyramid.” I didn’t want them to have any backup divers once I was out of this submarine.
The Chinese elder crossed his arms. “What different?”
“There are four energy stations, the triplet goddesses and Poseidon, all of which must be operated in a specific order. That’s why we need four divers.”
“But only Queen can fire weapon. Other divers cannot help you.”
“I will fire the weapon from Poseidon’s throne, but I’ll need divers at the three goddess’s thrones to disarm the safety features in the proper sequence first. It’s rigged so I can’t fire it until after the final safety is released.”
“How do you know this?” he asked. “You’ve never been there.”
I took a big chance and told him the truth for a change. “The triplet goddesses transferred all their knowledge to me seconds before they died.”
“And you still intend to help us by firing the weapon?” His tone was tinged with suspicion.
“I’ve had time to consider everything you said, and I realized you were right. It may be harsh, but the monumental loss of life will solve many worldwide problems. Also, it’ll be easier for me to take my place as ruler of risen Atlantis without interference from the US. They’ll be too busy dealing with the total destruction of their eastern seaboard.”
Dragon Master stared at me for a long moment. Finally, he said, “I am glad you agree with my plan, but if you double-cross me, my divers will shoot you.”
“You can trust me. There’s just one problem you seem to have missed.”
He straightened. “What problem?”
“You said I’ll ride the pyramid to the surface, which is fine with me, but first I’d need to cut the cable tethering me to your submarine, and I’m not certain how soon Atlantis will rise after the weapon is fired.”
He nodded to the divers. “Cut her cable after she fires weapon.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at the divers. “Now, how do you intend to get us pa
st the British nuclear sub that’s guarding the pyramid’s entrance?”
Twenty-Six
Strike Teams
Mike and Oz swam toward the choppers to rescue the air crews while Banger, Ross, and Derek struggled to tread water and fire at the snipers on the ship. Bern’s team had been partially pinned by one of the floundering birds. His free men struggled to rescue the rest.
The main rotor blades had hit the water when the choppers tilted sideways in the swells, churning the water and flinging metal shards from the broken blades. In moments, sea water had rushed into the open side doors, and the Seahawks had slipped beneath the inky surface.
The crewmen who’d fired the RPGs stood at the railing, firing rifles at the teams in the water.
Then something unexpected happened.
A huge tentacle rose up out of the water in front of the ship and swept the shooters off the deck as if it were swatting flies.
Ross, Derek, Mike, and Oz aimed their weapons at the sea monster.
Banger yelled, “Don’t shoot the kraken!”
Bern shouted the same thing.
Ross turned to Banger. “Are you crazy?”
“Sam’s commanding it to save us. Look at the helicopters.” Banger pointed.
Ross turned and spotted huge tentacles holding up the wrecked choppers.
“Attention, Seahawk crews, don’t shoot the squid! Deploy life rafts,” Bern said.
As massive tentacles supported the wrecked choppers, the air crews dragged the rafts out and inflated them.
An enormous head surfaced, and giant eyes watched the activity.
After the teams climbed into the rafts with their air crews, the kraken pushed them toward Leviathan.
Mike glanced at Ross and Derek. “Holy shit! My sister really is Queen of Atlantis!”
“Too bad the kraken can’t get her out of that big-ass Chinese submarine,” Banger said.
“She’ll have to leave it to enter the pyramid,” Ross said. “That’ll be our one opportunity to save her.”
“Maybe she won’t be the one who needs saving.” Oz focused on the enormous tentacles pushing them.
Chinese Submarine
I watched a Way of the Dragon diver enter the air lock in a Hardsuit. He was soon released outside the sub. A video screen in Dive Ops displayed his progress as he used his thrusters to approach the stern of the UK’s nuclear-powered sub, Audacious.
The diver had a satchel clipped to his metal suit. When he reached the submarine guarding the pyramid, he pulled a device from the satchel and secured it to the hull close to the idling propeller. He placed another device on the opposite side. Then he thrusted himself about a hundred yards away from it.
I watched the video screen as he pressed the detonator. The devices fired metal rods into the massive propeller, destroying it. The diver remained stationary with his video camera pointed at Audacious.
It wasn’t long before the crew of the huge British submarine realized they’d been sabotaged. Dead in the water, their only option was to blow their ballast, surface, and get towed to port for repairs.
I watched as the sub rose rapidly and soon disappeared from view. I wasn’t happy about what Way of the Dragon had done, but at least they hadn’t sunk them. No one had been injured or killed on the British sub—not yet anyway. If a tsunami were to hit their sub on the surface, I doubted it would survive.
The Chinese submarine glided into position beside the entrance to the massive 500-foot black pyramid.
I knew that each side of the ancient structure was approximately 786 feet long at the base, and that the entrance door was halfway across the base near the bottom. That meant the circular chamber housing the weapon in the center of the base was about 300 feet in from the outer door.
The entrance door and corridor to the central chamber weren’t big enough for my kraken buddy, and even his longest tentacles couldn’t reach that far anyway. Besides, right now the beast was busy saving Ross, Mike, and their teammates—at least I hoped it was.
It was up to me to outsmart my dive partners and figure out a way to destroy that weapon without causing an underwater earthquake. And it would be nice if I could manage to survive somehow.
Several men carried in a metal-encased rectangular device about four feet long and a foot and a half wide. It had an electronic control console on the top side protected by a six-inch thick plexiglass shield. A bright LED timer was counting down from sixty minutes.
I glanced at Dragon Master. “What’s that?”
“Tactical nuclear weapon—insurance in case you fail to fire weapon in pyramid. Bomb will detonate into fault line, causing earthquake and compression of tectonic plates. One way or another, Atlantis will rise and tsunamis will destroy much of the world.” He smiled.
“How will we deactivate the bomb after I fire the Atlantean weapon?” I stared at the numbers counting down from one hour.
He held a small device. “This will deactivate bomb. I will send the signal after you fire the weapon.”
“You’d better do as you say. If that bomb explodes after the weapon has fired the energy beam into the fault line, it may have the opposite effect and push the tectonic plates apart.”
My gut tightened as I watched them place the bomb in the air lock.
“Get into your Hardsuit. Time is running out.” Dragon Master pointed at the bomb and gave me a sinister smile.
Checkmate.
USS LEVIATHAN
Max focused his night-vision binoculars on the teams in the life rafts. “Full stop!” he commanded.
Leviathan drifted to a gentle halt a few minutes after its engines shifted to idle. The kraken pushed the rafts about halfway down the five-hundred-foot hull and stopped. It raised its enormous head above the surface and looked up at the ship.
Executive Officer Vance Lowes shook his head. “Dang it, what do we do now? Sam isn’t here, and it might not be friendly to our crew.”
“It saved our teams and brought them back here. I just wish I knew exactly what she told it to do.” Max licked his lower lip. “Let’s wait a minute and see what it does.”
The giant squid proceeded to use its long feeder tentacles to lift a raft full of men onto the open deck where it had deposited the gold vaults recently. It gently released its grip and then lifted the other raft onto the deck. Once the men were safely on board, the massive beast submerged and vanished into the depths.
Lowes exhaled. “Thank God! Now I can breathe again.”
Max shook his head. “None of that is going in my report.”
An ensign rushed onto the bridge and handed Max a printout at the same moment Audacious breached the surface beside the ship.
Max stared at the sub and then read the message. “Sonofabitch! The Brits suspect a diver from the Chinese sub sabotaged their propeller. Before Texas could maneuver around to take their place, the commies parked in front of the pyramid’s entrance.”
“That means they’re in position to drag Sam into the pyramid and fire the weapon. I don’t think our ship can survive a thousand-foot tsunami,” the XO said.
“We won’t need to survive it because we’ll be stranded on top of the risen city of Atlantis. So will the Brits in that submarine.” Max clenched his fists.
“You’re right, it’s our eastern seaboard and a bunch of other places around the Atlantic that won’t survive.”
Max pounded the console. “Dammit! We can’t let them win. XO, you have the conn. I need to talk to Kip and Banger. They’re the only ones on board who’ve been inside that weapon chamber.”
“Aye, Captain, I’ll maintain status quo until I hear from you.”
Twenty-Seven
Obsidian Pyramid, Ancient Atlantis
I exited the air lock into inky black water. It was late at night, but sunlight couldn’t have penetrated the 2,000-foot depth if it had been high noon. Headlamps on the Hardsuits provided bright tunnels of light in the clear, cold ocean water. The dark entrance to the black pyramid came into fo
cus when we were about twenty feet away.
I glanced back at the huge submarine Way of the Dragon had commandeered. It rested on the seabed about thirty yards from the enormous structure we were about to enter and shined bright floodlights at us. The guy who’d sabotaged Audacious guarded me while the other two divers carried the nuke.
I had a bad feeling that even if my Chinese nemesis pressed the button, the bomb’s deactivation signal wouldn’t penetrate the pyramid’s thick volcanic blocks. And he probably didn’t intend to press it.
I glanced at the timer. The bright numbers read 35:25. Too bad that didn’t mean hours and minutes, instead of minutes and seconds. I looked ahead and followed the men with the nuke through the broad entrance door that had been blasted open a couple of months ago by men from Leviathan.
We entered a wide corridor flanked by eight-foot statues of Atlantean kings and queens wearing gold crowns. I might’ve enjoyed the view if I hadn’t been so worried about the nuclear bomb.
I spoke into my voice-activated mike, “We’d better hurry. It’s a long way down this hallway to the weapon chamber.” Everything I said was heard by my three dive companions and the crew listening in Dive Ops on the submarine.
My guard said, “You go first. We follow.”
I took the opportunity to use maximum thrust and zoom ahead. It only took a few minutes to reach the arched entrance to a huge circular chamber with a domed ceiling about nine stories high. Brilliant light emanated from inside the round room.
I rushed in. A hundred statues lined the broad perimeter. Four thrones were evenly spaced along the circumference, each throne sitting with twenty-five statues on either side of it, dividing the perimeter into four quadrants.
Four orca statues in the center of the room supported a huge diamond as they stood back-to-back on their tailfins with their heads facing away from the beaming gem pressed between their upper backs. The jewel, cut in the shape of a rhombus, was like a two-foot-high vertical baseball diamond and reflected light in all directions. It also had energy beams that shot straight up and down from the vertical tips of its geometric shape. The weapon couldn’t be fired without it.
