Resurface

by Tony Batton

  Ninety-One

  LENTZ AND KATE ARRIVED ON Sub Level 12, having taken the stairs at least two at a time for several flights. They sprinted down the main corridor, Lentz holding out her scanner. "I'm still getting traces of that radiation down here," she wheezed.

  "Meaning what?" Kate gasped.

  "That the Accumulator was probably moved down here."

  "To protect it?"

  "I don't think a few extra floors will help."

  "Will the explosion really hit us down this deep?"

  "They're not going to mess around. Probably some type of fuel-air bomb. The real trouble is that a surface strike will shut down the air systems. Without them, we won't be able to breathe down here. Nor will we be able to climb out."

  "So we die in an explosion or we suffocate?"

  "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Lentz stopped outside a door. "The reading is strongest here." She reached for the handle. "It's locked. Of course it is."

  "Looks like a storage cupboard."

  "You might be right." Lentz crouched. "I can see the end of a key still in the lock, meaning it's been locked from the inside."

  "Someone went in there and didn't come out?"

  "That would be my thinking."

  "Stand back," Kate said, lunging forward with a perfect kick. Her boot struck the door, but it held firm. Kate fell away, swearing.

  "It's steel reinforced," Lentz said. "That's not going to work unless you have a lot more firepower." She pulled a small black cube off of her belt and stepped away. "We should get clear." They ran back down the corridor and Lentz pulled out her phone. "They've got an app for everything these days." She touched the screen and the door exploded inwards.

  They ran into the small room, guns raised. Apart from old furniture, it was empty.

  "Someone was in here and locked the door, so they must have got out some other way. We just have to find it."

  The floor shook violently. Kate looked around. "What was that?"

  "I'm guessing the first of the bombs. Time's up."

  "Is one of these walls hollow?" Kate asked, hitting the nearest with her fist. It rang dully, as if solid concrete were behind it.

  Lentz joined her, moving around the room. Kate kicked out with her boot. A panel burst inwards and she stumbled forward, only just catching herself on the sides of the opening. She looked down and gave a whistle.

  Lentz peered down. "It's a shaft for an escape lift."

  The floor shook again, this time more violently.

  "So where is the lift?"

  "At the bottom?" The room shook a third time. The walls started to creak and groan. "There's a cable," Kate said.

  Lentz tapped the controls on her belt. Her suit seemed to vibrate as the surface recalibrated. She ran her fingers over the surface and smiled, then nearly slipped over. She caught herself and beckoned to Kate. "Come here and get ready to grab something." Lentz made the same adjustments to Kate's belt.

  Kate felt her feet start to slip out from under her. "What did you just do?"

  "Reduced the friction coefficient on the entire exterior of your suit. Significantly."

  "Why?"

  "We're going to need to slide. And fast." The ceiling of the room started to buckle. Lentz stepped up to the gap in the wall. "Lock your arms around the cable and hope."

  Ninety-Two

  LESKOV HEARD THE CALL DISCONNECT in bewilderment. He was not used to being cut off. What kind of a tactic was it to say you were going to bomb your opponent? It made no sense. He turned to Fabienne. "This man is an idiot. Does he think he can call my bluff...?"

  She stared back at him, an odd look in her eyes. "He's not bluffing. We need to get out of here."

  "What? You don't believe--"

  She grabbed his arm and pulled. "Now!"

  There was surprising steel in her grip, inevitability in her tone. And he let himself be led.

  They sprinted up the staircase to ground level, then ran through the lobby, snatching at thick coats hanging on a row of hooks. Bemused staff watched them run past. Leskov slapped the emergency release on the airlock and they burst outside, the cold hitting them like shattered glass. Three four-wheel-drive vehicles stood waiting. Leskov jumped into the first and, hardly waiting for Fabienne to climb in next to him, gunned the engine and pulled away.

  "It still could be a trick," he said.

  "It's not. Believe me."

  Above them the noise of jet engines obliterated all else. Two aircraft tore the skies apart. Leskov slammed his foot on the accelerator, barely keeping the car on the ice track. Then the planes were gone.

  He slowed. "See! I told you they wouldn't--"

  Fabienne's voice was urgent. "They're coming back. Drive!"

  And then the world erupted behind them. The blast wave shunted the car forward, slewing it sideways. Leskov gripped the wheel, fighting for control. The rear windscreen cracked and splintered. One of the tyres burst, but the car stayed on the track and kept moving.

  Leskov's eyes widened. "You were right. Oh my God, you were right. Why are they doing this?"

  "Bern," she replied. "Maybe they followed him here? Or the Accumulator? Does it matter?"

  A second bomb struck behind them.

  "All this for that device?" Leskov saw their destination ahead. "It's ridiculous."

  "You were outplayed. Deal with it."

  He frowned. "Perhaps. But Bern is the one who is not going to escape." Leskov pulled the car to a halt next to the ice tunnel. "We, however, will." He glanced over his shoulder, towards the Dome.

  Fabienne leapt from the car and he followed. They ran down the tunnel, slowing to descend the metal staircase. At the dock the submarine sat waiting.

  "There should be three crew on board," Leskov said. "It will be enough. We'll sail right under the Americans." He pushed ahead of Fabienne, who suddenly seemed distracted. He climbed on deck and half-jumped down the hatch. "Get in here! We're leaving immediately--"

  His words caught in his throat. Three uniformed bodies lay on the floor.

  "I wasn't able to persuade them to my cause," said a voice from the air behind them.

  Leskov spun to see the air shimmering and a figure warping into view. It was the man who had murdered his father.

  Peter Marron.

  Leskov instinctively reached for the automatic pistol in his belt. Marron was only holding a knife. The old man had misjudged--

  Something gripped his wrist. Steel-like fingers twisted his hand away from the gun, then he felt another hand remove the weapon. The air shimmered again and Marron's daughter, Alex, was suddenly standing in front of him, holding his pistol.

  Leskov felt the air sucked from his lungs.

  Marron cleared his throat, hefting the blade in his hand. "This was one of the knives Sharp was carrying. He won't be needing it any more. I thought you'd like it."

  Leskov raised his hands. "Peter, we can negotiate."

  "No," Marron replied, stabbing fast and hard, "we can't."

  Marron wiped the blade clean on Leskov's clothes. "Seems our timing was impeccable."

  Alex secured the hatch above them. "I'm loving these suits. There was a certain symmetry in using them against Leskov."

  "Before we spend too much time congratulating ourselves, we should remember we still have work to do. And what happened to the woman that was with him? She didn't follow him inside?"

  Alex peered at a monitor showing a feed outside the submarine. "No sign. Maybe she fell in the sea? Or maybe she has one of the suits as well?"

  "It doesn't matter. She was just a lackey. Either she'll die out here, or the US will scoop her up."

  "They didn't mess around with those bombs - the Dome has been obliterated. Do you think Bern will have made it out?"

  "He's reliable in that respect. How quickly can we be under way?"

  Alex moved to the helm and began tapping instructions. "Three minutes. Where are we heading?"

  "After Bern, naturally."

  "
But how are we going to find him?"

  "In all the clever trickery he's come up with, he's overlooked one thing: he's still using CERUS nanites. In their uncorrupted state, we can track them."

  She frowned. "Sorry, what is he using CERUS nanites in?"

  "In the Accumulator, for one thing. And if there is one item that Bern will have made sure he escaped with, it will be the Accumulator."

  "The thing that he had stolen from the US? I don't understand, how does that contain CERUS nanites?"

  "That's quite a long story, so I'll explain on the way." Marron stood and walked over to a silver flight case. He popped it open to reveal a black cube, pulsing with red and green LEDs. "And when we get there, do remind me that I have a present to drop off."

  Ninety-Three

  TOM STOOD ON THE DECK of the aircraft carrier, watching the final crates being secured. Far above there was the sound of a deep rumble.

  "It's started," Brody said. He pointed up at the cavern roof, where spirals of rock dust were falling. "We have to hurry."

  "We won't even get a hundred metres outside," Tom said. "If we don't surrender, they'll sink us on sight."

  "We'll see," Bern said. Above them another huge rumble shook the cavern. "Why don't you go below decks and leave this to those of us who are running things?"

  Tom shook his head and made his way to the nearest steps down. On the lower levels there was a steady hum of activity. Men and women in overalls flowed around him, bearing equipment and serious expressions, but nobody was panicking. A security guard recognised him and pointed him to a cabin. George Croft was there, waiting.

  "So he did keep his promise to you," Tom said.

  "So it seems. I'm sorry about how I brought you here, but, as I think you'll find, William Bern really has changed."

  "Doesn't he seem a bit too prepared for this situation? Those tunnels. This ship."

  "However well-hidden this base, having an escape route was just common sense."

  "The US Navy are just off-shore: we either surrender or get sunk. Unless this thing is equipped with missiles."

  "It's equipped with a lot of things. It pretty much is the beta site now. It's why he chose an aircraft carrier. Well, and the fact that it has a nuclear power source: important when you can't risk regular fuel stops."

  Tom walked over to the porthole. "I guess we won't have long to wait to see how this works out." The staff from the base were untying the ship's moorings. His eye was caught by a sudden movement on the tracks where the tunnel emerged from above. He thought he saw two black objects shoot out of its maw, but as he tracked where they would be, he could see nothing. He rubbed his eyes, realising he felt strange: distracted by an itch he couldn't scratch. Actually, as he thought about it, he was feeling an actual itch. Lots of them. He'd been feeling them off and on for a while, but now the suit was itching all over.

  "Something wrong?" Croft asked.

  "It's this suit. It feels like it has ants inside it."

  "Maybe you're allergic to the fabric?"

  Tom reached behind his neck for the zip fastener, but it was stuck. "Can you help undo it?"

  "I'm not sure if there's a change of clothes here--"

  "There'll be a spare set of overalls somewhere. I need to get it off."

  Croft walked up to him and tugged on the zip. "It's jammed."

  Tom pushed him away. "I could have told you that."

  Croft reached behind his own neck. "You know, mine won't move either." The ship started throbbing. A voice broke over the ship's tannoy system: 'DEPARTING IN SIXTY SECONDS. SECURE FRAGILE ITEMS AND PREPARE FOR RUN-QUIET OPERATION.'

  "We'll have to sort these suits later," Croft said.

  "What's 'run-quiet'?"

  "No movement, action or conversation louder than a whisper."

  "But what difference will that make? How can they possibly think we can sneak away without being noticed?"

  Ninety-Four

  BERN STOOD ON THE BRIDGE, watching as the aircraft carrier, Phoenix Reborn, began to move. Behind them cracks were forming in the cavern ceiling, spirals of dust and fragments of rock falling faster and faster.

  Brody cleared his throat. "Time to see if everything was worth the effort."

  Bern nodded. "The reactors are online?"

  "They're running at 80%. It should be more than enough."

  "And the circuits are ready to engage?"

  "We only tested it yesterday for the first time, and we only had limited power available, but--"

  "I guess we'll find out pretty quickly. What about the Dome?"

  Brody pointed at a monitor showing a wide angle view of the dome in ruins. "We won't be going back there."

  "I never go back. Anything salvageable?"

  "It's possible."

  "Then you know what the plan calls for."

  Brody took a deep breath. "I do." He leaned forward to the keyboard and brought up a new screen. "If you could confirm your code."

  Bern leaned forward and typed in a ten-digit sequence.

  Brody tapped a further sequence. A red button lit up on the screen. "It should seem like a secondary explosion, but it will wipe the lower levels. Would you like to do the honours?"

  Bern nodded and clicked on the button. Above them came a deep boom, resonating more loudly than before. The Phoenix Reborn moved into the tunnel and towards the sea.

  "We'll be clear of the cave in thirty seconds," Brody said. "Holding speed at seven knots. Standing ready to activate circuits."

  Bern slapped Brody on the back. "Let's get out of here."

  Thirty thousand tonnes of steel, painted grey-white, approached the exit to the cave system and the cold waters of the Davis Strait. The Phoenix Reborn was not a modern design, but it had received a number of modifications in recent weeks, one of which came online as they emerged, its powerful computer drawing power from the nuclear power plants. It fed a complicated matrix of commands into the billions of tiny particles contained in the newly applied paint covering the ship's surface.

  The Phoenix Reborn rippled, shimmered and vanished from sight.

  Ninety-Five

  TOM STARED OUT OF THE porthole, looking at the huge grey forms of the three destroyers and the accompanying aircraft carrier: a vessel that, at over eighty thousand tonnes, would dwarf them if they were closer. The Phoenix Reborn, at least two kilometres away, was sailing slowly but surely for the open waters of the North Atlantic.

  And it was being ignored.

  "Are they blind?" Tom said in a whisper.

  Croft stood next to him. "Can you not guess what is happening?"

  Suddenly, it was obvious. "Project Resurface. Somehow they've made a suit on a super-sized scale." He hesitated. "This ship is... invisible."

  "Effectively."

  Tom frowned. "But... what about radar? Won't that pick it up?"

  Croft shook his head. "That's just a different wavelength of electromagnetic radiation."

  "And the displaced water?"

  "The Resurface field displays what is behind the entire vessel - just more sea water. It can't hide the ship's wake, but we're travelling slowly and we're a good distance away from the US fleet. Plus the ocean isn't calm today."

  "So they have no way of detecting us?"

  "I'm told a secondary effect also absorbs sonar, but obviously it won't block outgoing sound."

  "Hence the run quiet instruction," said Bern, appearing at the door.

  Tom span to look at him. "This is audacious, even by your standards."

  "In fairness, they are a bit distracted." Bern pointed at a grey cloud in the sky. "It was a pretty big explosion."

  "Hang on. From the conversations I heard, you literally only just got the invisibility working. Your whole exit plan depended on it?"

  Bern shook his head. "The full translucency was a major upgrade, but we were confident we could get it working. And if we hadn't, static camouflage would have given us a very good chance."

  Tom shrugged. "So where are we
going?"

  "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Follow me. And, just in case our American friends are listening, please do it quietly."

  A tarpaulin covering one of the lifeboats at the rear of the Phoenix Reborn lifted and two pairs of eyes peered out, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.

  "You know, it could have been worse," Lentz said.

  "How?" replied Kate, rubbing her elbow. "I think you landed on me after we came out of that tunnel."

  "Well, excuse me. I was distracted by trying to switch the suits from low-friction mode to translucent."

  "It's a bit of a flaw that they can only do one thing at once."

  Lentz raised an eyebrow. "One incredible thing. But, sure, if that's how you want to view it. It meant we got on board without Bern or his men seeing us. It means we still have the element of surprise."

  "To do what?"

  "First we find out if Tom is on board. After that, we'll come up with something."

  Kate pointed at the navy vessels off to the south. "Why aren't they reacting to us?"

  Lentz pulled out her scanner and activated it. Every LED lit up. "It's because they can't see us. Bern's people must have coated the ship in the nanite particles, then activated translucency."

  "But wouldn't that take a lot of power?"

  "This ship will have a nuclear reactor."

  Kate shook her head. "Shouldn't we do something?"

  "Like what?"

  "Attempt to contact those ships: reveal what is going on?"

  "We'd give ourselves away to Bern's crew, who might shoot first, ask questions later. I think we need to find Tom before we try that."

  "Then what do we do?"

  Lentz looked at an indicator on her belt. "I've tweaked the power consumption, so we've got another twenty minutes of translucency. Let's take a look around."

  Ninety-Six

  THE LABORATORY WAS LOCATED TWO decks down. It was filled with equipment. Three technicians were busy working on computers, but one look at Bern and Tom and they quickly left the room.