Into the Black

by Sean Ellis

  Soon, he felt the pressure increasing inside the helmet. The relief valve began hissing, equalizing the pressure inside by venting out some of the air. This surprised him at first, but he quickly realized it was a normal function of the helmet's regulator. As he rose from the depths, the gas molecules would naturally expand, increasing the volume of air. Kerns had warned him not to hold his breath at any time, especially when coming up; the air in his lungs would also expand, causing the delicate tissues to rupture if he did not maintain steady respiration. Kismet reminded himself to keep breathing, wondering as he did if there was sufficient oxygen remaining in the helmet to keep him conscious until he reached the surface.

  The Boyevoy lurched into motion, plowing up a frothy wake as it angled away from the trawler. The destroyer suddenly cut sharply to port, crossing the trawler's bow in an unmistakable display of force. The threat was apparently understood, for the reeling in of the anchor line seemed to take on a frenetic urgency. Kismet could feel the change in temperature as he rose up into the warmer layer of water near the surface.

  The last few feet took an eternity. He kept expecting to break through at any moment, but some trick of the water—an optical illusion caused by light refraction—made the surface appear within reach while still he rose. He endured the agonizing passage of that remaining distance, confident that he had escaped death at the bottom of the sea, and that he would, in a second or two, be hoisted up onto the deck of the trawler.

  The journey finally came to an end when the anchor broke the surface in a splash of white spray. As the flukes emerged from the sea, sliding through the gap in the gunwale, his extended arm came out of the water as far as his elbow. The crown of his helmet broke the surface ever so slightly...and then Kismet stopped moving.

  The anchor was completely drawn in, yet Kismet remained there, clinging with one hand to the metal crosspiece, almost completely submerged. He stared up at the peeling paint on the hull of Anatoly's boat and cursed his ill fortune.

  He tried to pull himself up, flexing his right arm, but relented when he felt his grip start to fail. A rushing noise, muffled by the insulation of his helmet, signaled that the engine was turning over. The water around him started to move then he realized that it was not the water, but rather he and the boat moving through the sea.

  Anatoly wasted no time driving the boat's engine to maximum thrust. Soon, the trawler was churning toward shore at fifteen knots. The drag of water flowing past Kismet was not as great as if the trawler had been a speedboat or even a craft like the Russian destroyer which still shadowed the fishing vessel, but it was taking its toll. He threw his left hand up, seizing the anchor but losing the remnant of the air hose in the process. The severed rubber line trailed along behind him, partially filling with water.

  With his left arm now added to the struggle, he was able to heave himself nearly two feet above the surface. He released the hold of his fatigued right hand and thrust it up to grip the gunwale. With a second stretch and reach of his left arm, he managed to pull his head and shoulders above the agitated surface.

  Immediately, he began screaming for Irene or Anatoly to help him up, but his words merely bounced back at him, trapped in the metal globe. He tried to pull himself up farther, but there was nothing else to grab onto, and the weight of the dive suit was too great. He even attempted kicking the side of the trawler with his heavy boots, but nothing could get the attention of the two persons on board.

  Even though he had reached the surface, he was still in danger of suffocating. The hose was blocked, and the air supply he had stored from the hold of the golden ship was already stale. The helmet, his salvation against drowning while beneath the sea, now prevented him from breathing the life-giving atmosphere above the water. He could not hope to manipulate the clamps and nuts, which locked the portholes shut, not while hanging from the moving trawler.

  His right arm was burning from the ordeal of hanging onto the anchor and Kismet knew he couldn't trust that solitary limb to keep him from slipping back into the sea. Instead, he put his faith in the grip of his left hand and released the right. The boat's forward motion caused him to twist, straining his good arm, and banging his back against the hull, but he ignored the pain and focused his attention on seizing the air line with his free hand. After a moment of fumbling, he fished it from the water and held it upright to restore the flow of air.

  A splash of cold seawater drained into his suit as the hose cleared, then cool salty air filled the helmet and subsequently his lungs. With the rubber tube tucked between his thumb and hand, he twisted back around and reached for the gunwale. There was nothing to do but hang on. For almost an hour he remained suspended there, unable to move. His arms began to ache with fatigue, but letting go would mean certain death.

  The Boyevoy had broken off and headed west shortly after Anatoly had gotten underway. Not long after the destroyer disappeared over the horizon, the sun began to follow. Anatoly piloted the trawler into the harbor in the gray of twilight. No one at the dock seemed to notice the strange figure clinging to the bow of the craft. Even when a young dockhand cinched the belays, firmly mooring the boat in its berth, Kismet went unseen.

  He watched in impotent frustration as his companions disembarked, Anatoly sheltering the younger woman in an avuncular embrace, both of them deaf to his cries, then sagged in defeat as the pair vanished into the growing darkness.

  There was nothing left for him to do. He knew he couldn't hang on forever, certainly not until morning, when someone might happen to notice him. With no other options available, Kismet decided to simply let go. He slipped from the bow of the trawler and vanished into the water without a splash.

  * * *

  Irene drank from the glass Anatoly set before her—vodka—but its fire could not cauterize the wound in her heart. The big Russian and his wife looked on, unsure of how to comfort the girl. Finally, Anatoly spoke. "Irina, I know how you must grieve. But think. Your father is safe. You must join him. Go back to your life."

  Irene coughed, trying to choke back a sob. "I don't even know how to find him. Nick...I don't know where my father went."

  "Kismet said he would make his way home, did he not?"

  She shook her head. "Nick met with someone, a friend of his, a woman. My father went with her. But I don't know how to reach them. I'm stuck here. And Nick's gone. What difference does it make?"

  Anatoly tried to speak again, but his wife forestalled him, touching her husband's forearm in a gesture that said: 'Leave her be.' The Russian nodded to his spouse and they left Irene alone with her tears.

  "A bad day," said Anatoly, when they were out of Irene's earshot. "Kismet did something that was either very brave, or very foolish. He did not come back—"

  A loud knock interrupted him. After the events of the previous night, Anatoly was apprehensive about opening the door. "Go to the girl. Hide her."

  * * *

  Irene was numb. The trepidation that gripped Anatoly and his wife ought to have triggered in her a sympathetic release of adrenaline, but she felt nothing at all as she was pushed toward the hearth. They thrust her into a shadowy niche behind the firewood bin. Sealed into a dark, claustrophobic space, still she felt no fear. Through her hollow grief, she had heard the disturbance at the door, and knew that either Severin or Grimes—it didn't matter which—was waiting on the threshold to take her away and subject her to unimaginable torments in order to learn the truth about Kismet's fate, but the realization was meaningless.

  There was a metallic click as Anatoly breached his shotgun, and another as he snapped it closed on two loaded barrels. In her mind's eye, Irene saw him warily approach the door, opening it with one hand, while the other remained poised on the triggers. She waited for the sound of a shot, but instead heard only a long silence, broken by the impossible.

  "It's about time," complained a familiar voice. "Now can you help me get out of this thing?"

  Irene exploded out of her hiding place and gracelessly trippe
d over the scattering of cordwood in her haste to reach him. She knew, even as she ran, that she must have fallen asleep and was dreaming this moment. Fearful that the ghostly figure might evaporate if she lingered too long with her incredulity, she threw her arms around him and held on with all her might.

  Nick Kismet had returned.

  FOURTEEN

  "So the Golden Fleece is real? It saved your life?"

  Kismet smiled. It was not the first time he had heard the incredulous questions. Irene's joy at seeing him had left her virtually paralyzed for several minutes. After being relieved of the burden of the bulky diving suit, Kismet found himself once more submerged, only this time it was a sea of difficult questions in which he foundered.

  "Yeah, I guess you could say that. It created a supply of oxygen which I was able to breathe after the compressor was shut off."

  Irene looked chastened, as if she were to blame for that act, which at the time she had believed to be a deadly one. Anatoly now spoke. "Then the Fleece is a... a magical thing?"

  Kismet shrugged. "In the legend, it has supernatural origins."

  He had looked up some of the details of the myth prior to their departure, but those defied credibility even more than the events of the Argonauts' adventures. The Golden Fleece was said to be the skin of the winged ram Chrysomallus, sent by the god Hermes to rescue Phrixus and Helle, the heirs of King Athamas, who had been targeted for death by their ambitious stepmother. Their literal flight took them east across the Black Sea, though Helle fell along the way, and according to the myth, her death created the strait known in ancient times as the Hellespont--since renamed the Dardanelles. Her twin, Phrixus survived the journey and eventually came to the kingdom of Colchis where he sacrificed Chrysomallus out of gratitude to the gods, and gave the Fleece to the king of that land. In many respects, the elaborate nature of the myth had been part of what had led Kismet to give some credence to its actual existence, albeit not in a strictly literal sense. Myths often ascribed supernatural origins to geological formations—and that was certainly the case with the death of Helle. There was a certain logic to the idea that the Golden Fleece might have been as real as the Hellespont, though formed in an equally mundane fashion.

  He briefly pointed out some of the more salient facts. "Some of the later Jason stories do speak of his using it to end a drought, but it is usually thought of as a trophy, not a talisman."

  "But it saved your life. It turned water into air; what other explanation is there?"

  Kismet equivocated. "It may have something to do with electrical fields—"

  "Electrical fields," Irene scoffed. "You think that electrical fields could encase an entire ship in gold, turn sea water into breathable air, and cause fish to defend the Fleece with their lives?"

  "It's not so farfetched," he replied, choosing his words carefully so as not to sound foolish. "It's a known fact that electricity can split the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. And the ancient Greeks knew how to electroplate bronze. Sea water is loaded with dissolved metal particles; over the course of three thousand years, an electrical field generated by the Fleece could draw quite a bit of gold out of the water."

  "That might also explain the light you described," offered Anatoly. "And the fish would naturally be drawn toward the oxygen rich waters of the wreck site."

  "Even if I accept that theory," Irene retorted, "it doesn't explain what causes the Fleece to generate an electrical field in the first place."

  "Some kind of galvanic reaction with the sea water," Kismet speculated, withholding the information Harcourt had earlier entrusted to him. "I don't know; I'm not a chemist. But I can see why Grimes is interested."

  As Kismet attempted to change the subject, Irene realized that she did not care one whit about learning the source of the Fleece's power. She was arguing with Kismet simply to hear the sound of his voice. The sea had given him back to her and she was overjoyed.

  After losing his hold on the anchor, Kismet had immediately sunk to the bottom of the harbor. However, the sea floor beneath the trawler's moorage was only about five fathoms deep; cold and dark, but not an especially dangerous depth to Kismet in his diving gear. All he had to do was walk up onto the shore beneath the dock pilings. Once on dry land, he was able to force open the faceplate of the helmet before cautiously making his way to Anatoly's house. Thus far, he had experienced none of the symptoms associated with the bends.

  "I thought you dead," Anatoly confessed. "It was impossible that you could have survived, yet you were clinging to my boat all the time. I am such a fool."

  "You couldn't have known. But maybe next time we can figure out a better way to communicate—"

  "Next time?" Irene gasped. "You almost died. You can't go back."

  "I have to. Now, more than ever. Severin marked the site; if he gets there first, he'll have the Fleece and that will be the last anyone ever sees of it." Unless the Russians learn about the EMP weapon, and then we're really in trouble. "But if we act quickly, we'll be long gone before he returns."

  "I can't believe I'm hearing this."

  "Irene, this is something I have to do. Now listen, I know what I'm going to be up against. And I know what the dangers are. I've got a plan."

  She threw up her hands and headed for the door. "I'm done shedding tears for you, Nick. Go on, get yourself killed. Leave me out of it."

  Kismet stopped her with a firm hand on one shoulder. "Irene, I need you."

  She refused to face him, but dug the heels of her hands into her eyes, ashamed that she still did have tears to shed for him. "Damn you, Nick."

  "Irene. I will come back. I promise you that. And you know that I keep my promises."

  She slowly turned toward him, still refusing to look him in the eye. Her hands came up to his chest, her fingers knotting in the fabric of his shirt. "That's not good enough," she rasped, her voice thick with emotion.

  "What else can I give you?"

  She looked up, biting her lip, as if afraid to answer the question. But Kismet knew the answer, and let her draw him down against her body.

  Anatoly gaped in disbelief as the kiss grew more passionate, but his wife quickly took his hand and led him from the room, giving the couple a measure of privacy. Kismet and Irene were too lost in each other's arms to notice or care.

  * * *

  Almost twenty-four hours later, Kismet, Irene and Anatoly stole quietly through the city and boarded the trawler. It had taken most of that day for Kismet to make all the preparations for his second attempt to gain the Golden Fleece. One of the technically complex jobs had been rigging a telephone line, which would link him to the surface. Many of the other details had been time consuming and given the threat of surveillance from enemies on two fronts, somewhat dangerous. Other aspects of the preparations seemed like a scavenger hunt. Anatoly's mechanical skills had been invaluable, and Irene had proved quite capable, apparently having inherited her father's talent for engineering.

  Leaving under cover of darkness had been essential to Kismet's plan for several reasons. Primarily, he hoped that it would spare them from the spying eyes of informants in the village. Whether or not they were successful in this regard was difficult to ascertain. Kismet was confident that his return from the sea had gone unnoticed by the locals, but there could be no disguising the sound of Anatoly's trawler chugging out of the harbor and out to sea after dark.

  The night was astonishingly clear, the stars and moon shining down with alarming brilliance. The still waters of the Black Sea reflected the myriad points of light, giving the journey a surreal aspect, as though they were sailing on a sea of stars. Kismet found himself wondering if Jason and the heroes of the Argo had experienced such a sight on their voyage.

  He knew better. The story of Jason and the Argonauts was just a fairy tale. That the Fleece, or rather a golden fleece did exist, proved nothing. Likely, the very real object that he had discovered in the wrecked ship had merely served to inspire the legend.

&nbs
p; As his thoughts wandered, Irene joined him. She had not voiced any misgivings since their coming to an understanding on the previous night. Remarkably, she had maintained her good mood throughout the day, evincing confidence not only in Kismet's plan, but also in his promise.

  After a full day, Kismet was convinced that he had dodged the bullet of decompression sickness. He had always understood that the bends were by no means inevitable. Nevertheless, the incautious nature of his escape from the depths had left him feeling like another character of Grecian myth: Damocles, who was forced to sit beneath the point of a sword which was suspended by a single hair. But twenty-four hours later, with no signs or symptoms of the bends, Kismet dared to believe that the danger had passed. Returning to the pressurized environment of the deep would actually alleviate the risk by breaking up any pockets of nitrogen gas lurking in his muscle tissue, and Kismet was determined, upon his next descent into the sea, to religiously observe decompression times.

  "Is that it?" whispered Irene.

  He followed the line she was pointing, expecting to see the buoy left by Severin. But Irene was calling attention to something else; a faint gleam in the depths, which might have been reflected moonlight, except for its golden hue.

  Kismet nodded. The luminescence from beneath the sea underscored the second reason for his attempting another dive on the golden ship after nightfall. Because the ship was a superior source of light, it would be much easier to find in the dark. He had gambled on being able to visually pinpoint the exact location of the ship from the surface, and that risk had paid off.

  Irene helped Kismet don the completely repaired diving suit. Anatoly dropped the bow anchor, although the seas were calm enough to prevent the boat from drifting without its help. That was about to change. Still positioned in the bow, Anatoly pitched two small packages, both wrapped in several layers of plastic sheeting and taped watertight, into the water.