Svetlana said, “Thanks for letting me know. I had no idea what went wrong. I was in my surveillance room, and my array of hydrophones were concealed, while a submarine mated with our dock beneath the keel. Our commander purchased something from that submarine – by the sounds of things, it was this strange material you talked about, blackbody. You have to believe me, that’s all I know.”
“Okay, I believe you,” Sam said, with his customary insouciance.
Svetlana said to Tom, “I’m sorry about your father.”
Tom frowned. “I still believe there’s a chance my father might still be alive.”
“I hope you’re right. Thank you, both of you,” she said. “What’s your support vessel?”
Sam smiled, “It’s the USS Gerald R. Ford.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Svetlana’s response was visceral. “No, you can’t leave me with the U.S. Navy.”
“Why not?” Sam asked.
He noticed her composure suddenly shatter.
“You have no idea what’s going on, do you?”
“No.”
“You think I’m frightened of your navy?”
“Aren’t you?”
“No.”
“Then what are you frightened of?”
“It was recently discovered that advanced military technology and government secrets are being passed through senior officer’s hands. I was sent to join the Vostok in an attempt to discover who was involved from our side.”
Sam made a wry smile. “You’re worried about what your own people will do once they find out you’re still alive.”
“Yes.”
“You want to appear dead forever?”
“It beats actually being dead forever.”
“What would you do?”
“It depends. I have information. If I can work it out, and discover who’s responsible, then I can return to Russia. But until I know who’s responsible, I will be returning to a trap.”
“What do you need?”
“I need a computer, and I need you to keep me a secret for a few more days.”
“I can’t give you connection to the internet,” Sam said, emphatically.
“I don’t need it. I just need to review some data I already have.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“You can’t.” She smiled. “But while we’re out at sea, without access to your satellite phone, there’s nothing I can do. In fact, it’s probably the safest place for you to keep me.”
“You’ve already admitted that you work in intelligence gathering for a foreign country. Your entire training and purpose is to spy and gather information that might be used against my country. Why should I help you fix problems in your own government?”
She set her jaw firm. “Because I heard that whoever infiltrated my government has penetrated yours, too.”
Sam expelled his breath. She had hit a raw nerve. This was precisely what the president had feared.
“Go on.”
“And what’s more. Whoever betrayed me was involved in the sinking of the Omega Deep.”
Sam met her eye.
Against his better judgment, he said, “All right. You have three days until the Maria Helena arrives. You can stay aboard until then.”
Chapter Forty-Three
The next two days passed quickly.
On the morning of the third day, the Matilda rendezvoused with the USS Gerald R. Ford. Svetlana remained below decks, while Sam went on board to have a meeting with the secretary of defense who had flown there directly to discuss their progress in person.
At a length of 1,106 feet, with a beam of 206 feet and 25 decks, the USS Gerald R. Ford made the Matilda look like a bath toy. Sam ran his eyes across the vessel. He’d been on the same aircraft carrier previously, shortly after she was first launched, but somehow every time he came onboard he was amazed by the sheer size of it. To him, the aircraft carrier, with more than 75 aircraft and a complement of nearly 4,000 servicemen and women, the place always appeared more like a small city, than a ship.
He was taken to a strategic planning room. With its leather chairs and mahogany table, the place looked more like the boardroom of a Fortune 500 company than the meeting place for military strategists.
The officer who had escorted him asked him to take a seat. Sam took a seat and a moment later, the secretary of defense entered the room, closing the door behind her.
“What did you find?” she asked, without preamble.
“On board the Vostok?”
“Yes. On board the Vostok. Why else do you think you were sent here?”
Sam ignored her derision. “She was frozen solid.”
“Any survivors?”
“No,” Sam lied.
He didn’t trust Svetlana, but he had accepted her case that they shared a common enemy. Someone had infiltrated a high level of both their governments and militaries. It was a long shot, but if she could find out who, then he was betting it would be worth his time to give her the opportunity to do so.
Besides, the secretary of defense had already admitted they believed they had a leak in the U.S. government.
The secretary fixed her emerald green eyes on him, as though she could see his discomfort. “What did you find, Mr. Reilly?”
“Like I said, ma’am, the entire place was frozen solid. I broke into the iced-over frigid bridge. The digital systems were all destroyed by ice, and their Admiralty charts were nothing more than a ruse, identifying deep shoals and reefs known to be good for longline fishing.”
“Did you retrieve anything of use?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Why did it sink?”
Sam sighed. “It was listing to port heavily. I believe the melting ice had flooded the bilge. The Vostok sank within an hour of boarding it. I nearly got caught below decks.”
The secretary scrutinized him with her piercing green eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Sam smiled. He’d never been a good liar, and even the best couldn’t lie to the secretary. “I can’t tell you yet.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No. I don’t trust anyone.”
“Will this lead you to the Omega Deep?”
“It may.”
“All right.” She asked, “How long do you need?”
“Another week. Then, one way or the other I can reveal what I know.”
“Okay. After that, I’m bringing you back in, and I expect you to give me a full, unadulterated report.”
Sam stood up. “Understood, Madam Secretary.”
“Sit down, Mr. Reilly,” she said. “You’re not finished, yet.”
Sam swallowed but remained silent.
“I have someone here who has something that may help you find the Omega Deep.” She pressed an intercom and said, “Please send the professor in.”
Sam turned to see Professor Douglas Capel enter the room, an astrophysicist and astronomer - the same man who’d first identified the strange material now known to be blackbody. Sam stood up to greet the professor.
Professor Douglas Capel said, “Hello, Mr. Reilly. It’s good to see you again.”
Sam shook his hand. “You, too, professor.”
The professor was tall for his generation, standing eye-to-eye with Sam. Wiry gray hair sprouted from his head and made his eyebrows look like those of a mad scientist. The same hair sprung from his ears like coiled antennae. His skin was surprisingly smooth in contrast. His blue eyes twinkled with good humor. A ready smile, somewhat crooked, gave him the appearance of smirking below a large, well-shaped nose.
Both men took their seats.
The professor handed Sam a metallic suitcase. “Madam Secretary has brought me up to date with our problem.”
Sam met his eye. “And you’ve found a solution?”
“I’ve found a tool that might help you, but first you’ll need to locate the rough location of the USS Omega Deep.”
Sam asked, glancing at the metallic case
. “What have I got here?”
The professor smiled. “Radioactive isotopes.”
“Of course,” Sam said, willing to accept anything.
“As I’m sure you will remember from your high school chemistry, an isotope is an element that contains equal numbers of protons, but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, and hence differ in relative atomic mass.”
“Sure,” Sam agreed.
“In that case, you have naturally occurring cadmium, which is composed of 8 isotopes. For two of them, natural radioactivity has been observed, and three others are predicted to be radioactive but their decays were never observed, due to extremely long half-life times.”
“Right.” Sam squinted as though it would help him put everything together. “And how is this going to help me locate the Omega Deep?”
“It won’t. You’ll need to find the rough location of the submarine, but this should help you locate the otherwise invisible hull.”
“Go on.”
“Cadmium is in a class of isotopes, known as primordial isotopes.” The professor pulled his glasses forward to meet Sam’s eye, and seeing little understanding there, made a dramatic sigh, as though a complaint on the state of science education these days. “Primordial isotopes were present in the interstellar medium from which the solar system was formed and were theoretically brought together during the Big Bang.”
Sam simply said, “Of course.”
“This is important for you because when we were running tests on blackbody, we discovered that it had an extremely powerful affinity to the unstable isotope of cadmium. These have been coated with ultraviolet materials, meaning that they will be easy to see under UV light.”
Understanding finally cleared the mist of Sam’s confusion. “When we find the rough location of the Omega Deep, we can scatter some of these particles into the water, and… what… they will be drawn to the hull of the Omega Deep.”
“That’s exactly right.”
“How much range?”
“Definitely up to 10 miles. But it might be longer.”
“I’ve also included a device you’ll need to mount onto your keel if you want to track it.”
“Thank you, professor.”
The professor, realizing that he’d been dismissed, stood up and said, “Good luck, Mr. Reilly.”
The professor left, and a navy officer entered the room. Without preamble, the officer handed Sam a second metallic suitcase and left.
Sam’s eyes swept across the two suitcases and landed on the secretary of defense. “Do you want to tell me what the second one is for?”
“As you’re aware, China and Russia are both up in arms regarding the USS Omega Deep. Everyone is searching for the submarine. As much as I hate to admit it, there’s a significant chance Commander Dwight Bower has gone rogue. Are you following what all of this means?”
Sam said, “I need to find that submarine and fast before it escalates to World War III?”
The secretary spoke slowly and clearly, so there could be no confusion. “If we ever locate the Omega Deep – we’re going to have to send her to the bottom for good. There are too many secrets on board that the world can’t know. Too much of a risk that Dwight Bower’s gone rogue. We need to destroy it.”
“Are you sure we don’t want to try and salvage it?” Sam asked.
“Afraid not. It’s too dangerous now. The Russians and the Chinese have both sent their own aircraft carriers into the region.”
Sam opened the suitcase. There were three magnetic beacons with a single switch at their center. “What do I do with these?”
“They’re homing beacons. Attach them to the hull and flick the switch.”
“What will happen?”
“You and anyone you want to keep alive will get as far away as possible. As soon as the USS Gerald R. Ford picks up the homing signal, it will launch a pair of torpedoes. In the end, you’ll have less than five minutes between flicking the switch and the complete destruction of the submarine.”
“What about the crew of the Omega Deep?”
The secretary of defense’s face twisted into a grimace of indecision. “It’s been more than 130 days since the Omega Deep left its harbor. They had enough food to keep them for 90 days. I think one thing’s for certain, Mr. Reilly. We’re never going to see the crew of the USS Omega Deep again.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Ten Miles West of the Skeleton Coast, Namibia
Sonar Technician Belinda Callaghan’s head hurt.
Not just her head. Her entire body was sore. She had blisters on her hands, her tongue was dry, and her skin was burned. Even just breathing took effort. She tried to roll onto her side, but that only hurt more, and she still couldn’t see anything.
Where was she?
She felt the ground beneath her back move. It was enough of a surprise to jolt her into action. She tried to sit up but struggled to find her balance. She was lying on some sort of rubbery canvas. Again, the ground seemed to move underneath her. Her original fear that she was being attacked by some sort of giant snake had now been quelled, but as yet another ripple of movement knocked her onto her back again, she was still no closer to determining where she was or what had happened to her.
Belinda gritted her teeth, utilized every piece of energy she could muster and sat up fully. Still, all she could see was yellow. She reached the edge of the shallow wall and pulled herself up onto it. Her eyes peered over the edge.
A carpet of ultramarine blue blinded her vision all the way to the horizon.
I’m in the middle of the fucking ocean!
The sudden understanding of her location didn’t provide her with any relief. The fact it didn’t fill her with terror, just proved how lethargic her mind was at the moment, and that it was unable to process what she was seeing.
How did I get here?
She considered the last few things she remembered. She was at her station on board the USS Omega Deep.
There was an accident.
Something happened.
The Omega Deep ran aground!
They all had to escape via their submarine escape immersion equipment – SEIE – she glanced at the side of the life raft. It was part of the SEIE suit. That’s why she was on her own. But how long had she been out at sea? Something seemed wrong. What happened after she and the rest of the crew surfaced? That’s right, they were attacked. Everything was coming back to her in incoherent bits and pieces.
She closed her eyes.
There was a cave. A massive cave. And a sandy beach with a small aircraft at the end of it. Large trees reached for the top of the world in an ancient forest. There were delectable fruits, wild animals, and a small freshwater river with plentiful fish that ran straight through the heart of it. Something about the place made her feel warm.
It felt like some sort of utopia.
A prehistoric Eden.
How long had the rest of the crew been there? Did they all make it? She couldn’t remember. But something went wrong. What went wrong? Why did they ever leave the place? Her heart started to race, and her chest felt heavy at the memory.
She opened her eyes.
That’s right. They were attacked.
By wild beasts! Monsters as big as cars. Some covered with giant spikes. Others were more than ten feet tall and capable of jumping twenty feet at a time.
Her memories seemed so incredibly real yet at the same time, entirely impossible.
She put the thought out of her mind and returned to reality.
How did I get here?
“Hello there!” someone shouted in the distance. “Is anyone alive?”
She squinted.
Was that someone calling for me or just my imagination?
“Hello!” the voice was getting closer. “Are you alive?”
The sound was too clear to be anything but real.
Belinda tried to answer. “I’m here!” Her voice was a dry croak. Relief and hope and dread were jamming her tongue i
nto the roof of her blistered mouth.
The voice continued as though the owner hadn’t heard her. “We’re coming about. Yell if anyone is alive.”
She tried to yell. But the sound came out as an inaudible hiss. She fumbled with her safety vest. There were several attachments. One of them was a whistle. She fumbled with it until she could get it into her mouth, and then blew multiple short, sharp, whistles.
“I hear you!” the voice replied. “We’re going to come get you.”
Belinda rolled onto her back. A dark shadow blocked the burning sun. Her eyes went in and out of focus, trying to make sense of the sight that towered over her. Then she spotted someone waving their hands.
A man climbed down to greet her with a bottle of water.
“Are you all right?” the stranger asked.
“I am now,” she replied with a level of enthusiasm she didn’t quite feel.
The stranger opened the bottle of water. “Here drink this.”
Belinda took a small gulp of water. It burned her blistered mouth but seemed to soothe her dry throat.
She looked at the man who rescued her. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Where did you come from?”
“I don’t know. I was on a submarine. We must have struck some sort of underwater mountain. There was a hull breach. And the submarine flooded…”
“You’re American,” the stranger said, noticing her accent.
“Yes.”
“Where were you when the shipwreck… submarine wreck occurred?”
“I’m not certain exactly. But somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean.”
The stranger stared at her. Even in her confused state, she spotted the incredulity in his face. “I’m sorry, that’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“You’re ten miles out, off the West African coast. No way you could have drifted all that way.”
Chapter Forty-Five
South Pacific Ocean – On Board the Maria Helena
The Maria Helena made its rendezvous with the Matilda at 8:15 a.m. Genevieve had flown the Sea King out to San Cristóbal to pick up a company skipper for the Matilda, who took possession of the vessel, and by 9:00 a.m. exactly, the Maria Helena was making its way due south.
Omega Deep (Sam Reilly Book 12) Page 20
