by Nick Thacker
Jen nodded. “Usually there’s an intake that sucks the water from a well up into the plant’s main processing station, and then a tube that injects the water back into the water table.”
“Right,” Erik said, “well this station could be of similar functionality, but clearly the conical shape plays a role. Perhaps it helps create pressure, or since we’re technically already inside the water source, the intake could be above us, and the injection funnel could be below our feet at a lower level.”
Erik frowned, then nodded as he looked at the looming station. Jen sensed there was more to the man’s explanation, but she let it go. He was probably just as confused about it all as she was.
Carter, on the other hand, wasn’t impressed. “What is it, Statnik?”
Erik’s eyes widened slightly as he realized he’d been called out. He shrunk in stature, his boyish youthfulness replacing his outward mature appearance.
“Come on, Erik,” Carter said, easing up a little. “On Level Four we found the schematics for this place, and you told us it was a geothermal power plant. Higher production, perhaps, but a power plant nonetheless.”
“No, it—it is, it’s just that I’m not sure why they’d need it.”
“Need it?” Nelson asked, trying in vain to stifle a sarcastic tone. “Clearly living at the bottom of the ocean is a bit more pleasant with some of those luxuries like, uh, microwaves and ceiling fans.”
“Yes, I know. That’s not what I mean. I don’t understand why they would build a geothermal plant that’s merely a prototype, especially for such a high-risk location. I also don’t understand why it needs to have such a high production rate. Even if these facilities were fully staffed, the energy requirements would be sufficiently filled with a traditional mid-level plant.”
“Maybe this entire place is a prototype,” Saunders said. “Like there were supposed to be more than one.”
“The Saudis were experimenting with underwater cities, as was China,” Jen said. “They weren’t public, but it’s evident that most of these cities were eventually abandoned. There was a trade-off in depth: the deeper you go, the more expensive it is to build, but it becomes easier—once you tackle pressure, isolation issues, and corrosion—to maintain via self-perpetuating energy sources.”
“This isn’t exactly an underwater paradise,” Nelson said. “Seems like they could have taken a few tips from those Saudi hoteliers, if you ask me.”
“And I don’t think this place was meant to be replicated,” Carter said. “It’s here for a reason, and that reason isn’t to offer an out-of-the-box vacation option or to be a plausible alternative to above-ground living. This station was built for research, and we need to figure out what kind of research that was.”
Again, Jen felt frustrated. Why her? What did Nouvelle Terre want?
“I mentioned earlier that this power plant was too large and too far-fetched to be useful simply as a means for generating electricity,” Erik said.
All eyes turned to him.
“Even with all the tie ins to electrolysis, condensation-based desalination, and whatever other systems are piggybacking on it, I can’t imagine they’d build it just for these purposes.”
“You said that already,” Carter said. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know yet,” he answered, “but I would bet we can find the answers in one of these buildings.”
Without hesitation, Erik walked toward the massive machine in the center of the circle of buildings and turned to the right. They followed as Erik entered one of the “Geothermal”-marked buildings.
As Jen’s foot stepped over the threshold, a powerful shake erupted from the machine behind her. She gasped as her left foot missed its mark and she stumbled backwards. Nelson caught her, but the shaking grew more intense. He tripped and both of them tumbled to the ground.
Erik ran out of the building. “What’s going on?” he yelled, slipping off the front step.
“I don’t know,” Jen replied, “but it’s getting worse!”
“Get away from the buildings!” Carter shouted. He and Saunders were on their feet, struggling to balance but moving quickly toward an open section of concrete away from the other buildings.
Jen and Erik, followed by a cursing Nelson, ran to the area as well, and they collapsed onto the ground to catch their breath. The shaking grew to a deafening roar and Jen covered her ears. Erik crawled back to Jen and yelled something.
“What?” she yelled in response.
His mouth moved, but she couldn’t hear anything. She yelled again.
He pointed, and she followed his finger. She turned and saw that he was pointing toward the center of the level.
The machine.
The power plant was still moving as usual, but had now started turning as well. It rotated on its central axis, spinning in slow revolutions. She watched, mesmerized, as the giant cone-shaped machine turned completely around. Another rotation, another thirty seconds, and Jen heard Erik’s voice, yelling into her ear over the noise.
“It is a corkscrew!” he shouted.
That was clear to Jen, but she had no idea what it meant.
“What’s it for?” she yelled back.
He didn’t answer at first, and she looked his direction. He was silent, with his eyes closed and his hand on the ground.
She started to ask him a question, but then felt a shudder. She too felt the ground, and suddenly she knew what he was feeling.
We’re moving, she thought. The ground, buildings, and the station itself was shaking from the machine, but there was something else—something different—in this new shudder.
It listed, ever so slightly, and then back. For the briefest of moments it felt like being on a slowly-capsizing ship, but then it settled again. Erik opened his eyes and stared at Jen.
“Did you feel that?” he shouted. Jen still couldn’t hear him, but she read his lips and nodded.
The entire research station just moved.
37
Mark Adams paced impatiently back and forth in the cell.
Assess.
Again, his training kicked in.
They don’t want me dead—yet. What is it that I have that they want?
Analyze.
There’s no way out of this room, but it isn’t the last place they’ll take me before they’re done. Asking me questions won’t be enough. They need something else.
Abstract.
I need to figure out if there’s a—
Suddenly Mark heard a faint click. He stopped, trying to focus his attention on his ears.
Another click sounded, and this time he could tell where it came from.
The corner of the room.
He looked up, walking toward the location of the sound. He examined the spot closely, but just then an opaque cloud began falling from the area.
Shit.
He stepped back, and heard another click. He looked behind him and noticed that each of the four corners on the ceiling were now emitting a small cloud of clear gas.
Achieve.
He immediately knew what his exit strategy would be. Running to the far side of the room closest to the glass wall, Mark put his hands over his mouth and nose, and took a deep breath. The air closest to the floor wouldn’t yet be affected but he didn’t want to move too early.
He counted to five, then shot his eyes open wide. He opened and closed his mouth, pretending to be gagging. He drop to one knee, then fell backwards on the floor. He lay still, his arms sprawled out next to him.
Hold it together, Mark. He could feel the air in his lungs failing, but he held on. He waited ten seconds, then heard the clicking of heels approaching down the hallway.
Come on, hurry. He felt his senses fading. Hold. On.
After what seemed like an eternity, he heard an electronic whooshing sound as the door to his cell slid open.
Too late.
He felt hands lifting him off the ground as he fell asleep.
38
/> She couldn’t believe it. Jen looked at Carter and Saunders, but they were both looking in the opposite direction.
Nelson’s eyes, however, were glued to hers. He mouthed in her direction. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, not wanting to try to explain what she’d felt over the din.
The entire station had moved.
Erik was smiling, no doubt entranced by this bizarre turn of events. Jen thought he was insane. Didn’t he realize what this meant?
She touched his arm. “This place is falling apart!” she shouted.
He immediately shook his head. “No!” he yelled back. “We are okay.”
She waited for him to explain further, but as he opened his mouth, she felt herself being tackled from the side.
“Hey!” she shouted.
Nelson’s linebacker body crushed hers to the ground. She felt the sharp stubble of his 5 o’clock shadow scratching her face, and the weight of his entire frame on hers. “What the hell!” she shouted, gasping for breath.
He shifted off of her but pulled her to her feet. Without waiting for her to ask why, he pushed her forward and yelled to run.
Erik, Saunders, and Carter were already running. Stumbling over the shaky concrete, they finally made it to one of the buildings and ran inside.
Closing the door behind them, Nelson and Jen entered. She punched his chest, still shaken up from his startling tackle. “You want to tell me what that was about?”
The noise from the machine was still deafening, but the sound had subsided substantially now that they were inside a building.
“Sorry. Just making sure you were awake.”
Carter yelled. “Alright, we’ve got bogies coming in from the stairwell; I counted four.”
“They must have split up,” Saunders said.
“Wait. What?” Erik and Jen were still trying to piece together what had just happened.
“The Russians,” Carter explained. “Saunders caught sight of them at the stairs. I don’t think they saw us, but it’s a good thing Nelson got your attention.”
“Yeah,” Nelson said. “Good thing. What were you doing, anyway? Meditating?”
She didn’t answer.
“Okay, let’s figure this out,” Carter said. “I don’t want to deal with them right now, but we might need to. Saunders, Nelson, what do you have left?”
Both the Royal Marines checked their ammunition supply. “I should be good, boss,” Nelson said. Saunders just nodded.
“Right. We need to get back to the stairs. Most likely they’re sweeping each level, starting at the top. That means we’ve got about an hour, maybe two, before they get to fourteen and head back up.”
“What’s the plan?” Nelson asked. He crossed his arms and leaned against a table, expectantly.
“Well, I thought we could see where they are through this window here, wait until they’re far enough away, then run like hell.”
“You know boss, I’m starting to like you more and more,” Nelson said, smiling.
Carter peered through the small window. “Nothing yet, but they should be getting close. My guess is they’re doing a sweep in concentric circles.”
Just as he said that, the door to the small building burst open. Jen shrieked, and Erik fell back against the wall. A Russian soldier entered, saw the group, and raised his gun to fire. He barked into a mouthpiece clamped over his ear, a quick string of clipped Russian words. Before he finished, and before he fired the assault rifle, Saunders smashed his face with the butt of her gun. He fell to his knees, howling in pain, and blood spilled out from his nose.
Nelson strode over and kicked the gun from his hands. He bent down and stripped the man of his sidearm, knife, and communication device. “What’d you do that for?” he asked. He shut the door to the building and looked up at Saunders.
“Really? What would you have done, genius?” she asked.
“It’s way too loud out there. There’s no way they would hear a gunshot.” He winked at her.
She thought for a moment, then fired two shots downward. “Bastard was eyeing me wrong anyway,” she said.
“Eyes up,” Carter said, looking back out the window. “Looks like we’ll need to get back to that first plan.”
Jen looked over his shoulder and saw two soldiers approaching the building from the other side of the circular level. “There’s another one somewhere, right?” she said.
“Should be. And I’d rather go head-to-head with one, not two, so let’s get to those stairs and start heading up.”
“On you, boss,” Saunders said, cracking the door open. He gave a quick nod, and Saunders and Nelson ran out of the building.
Erik and Jen exited next, and Nelson directed them to head to the right, back toward the stairs.
As soon as Jen left the building, her ears were once again bombarded by the noise of the giant rotating machine. She strained to even think straight, but followed Erik and Nelson as they ran toward the stairs.
There was a short wall running behind the row of buildings, situated between them and the stairs to the upper and lower levels. It was about five feet tall and made out of brick. It appeared to have been part of a foundation for another, larger building, as the wall outlined three sides of a large rectangle.
Jen noticed the wall at about the same time as she noticed the woman who stepped out from behind it. She knew the others in front of her wouldn’t hear, but she yelled anyway. “Nelson! Saunders! Look out!”
The woman, dressed in the same black military fatigues as the man who’d entered their building, stood just as Nelson was passing. Saunders was already a few paces ahead, and she kept running, almost at the stairs. Jen could only watch as the woman turned her assault rifle toward the man and fired.
“No!”
The woman’s first shot missed the mark, and Nelson reacted quickly. He dove forward into a roll, and twisted his body around at the last moment. Reaching out with his left arm, he grabbed a loose brick that lay next to the unfinished building. He threw it at the woman’s face. It flew wildly out of control and harmlessly over her shoulder.
He rose to his knees, simultaneously lifting his gun. As he tried to aim, an explosion rocked the left side of Jen’s body. She stumbled sideways, trying to understand what had happened. The vibrations of the machine rose to a tremor, and she almost lost her balance completely.
The woman inside the building foundation staggered backwards, turning toward Jen. She had a contorted look of pain on her face as she tried to raise her weapon once again. Another explosion hit Jen’s ears, and she screamed. No sound came out.
A red circle appeared on the woman’s chest, and she fell down. Jen realized that she, too, was on the ground, kneeling. She tried to shake the ear-splitting pain away as she looked up at Erik. The young man had a nervous grin on his face, but he reached down to offer Jen a hand.
“Wh—what happened?” she said. She couldn’t hear anything, and she wasn’t sure if Erik could either.
She felt Carter’s hand under her other arm, helping her to her feet. He leaned down and spoke into her ear.
“Erik just gave us all a free pass to the stairs, and I suggest we take it.”
She looked down at Erik’s other hand. He was holding a Russian-made assault weapon.
“Grabbed it from that other guy,” he said. “Figured he wouldn’t need it anymore.”
Nelson rose to his feet as well and nodded in Erik’s direction. He mouthed something that looked like “thanks” but the words were lost to the commotion of the rumbling engine behind them.
Together, Jen, Erik, and Carter ran to the stairs behind Nelson. They reached the metal doors just as Saunders burst out. “About time,” she said. “Those other two are on your six.”
Jen chanced a glance behind her as the team fled through the open doors. The remaining two Russian soldiers were sprinting toward the doors, and they didn’t look happy.
“Move out. Let’s get up to Level Nine for now. If we need to keep
going up, we can,” Carter explained, “but we’ll also have the option of heading back into the cave system.”
Jen was still watching the Russian men run toward her as she felt the earth below come to a standstill. She looked at the machine in the center of the level and watched as it came to a slow stop. The roar reduced to a dull noise again, and the gentle shake they’d encountered upon first entering the lower levels once again returned. She didn’t realize that her teeth had been chattering until the wild vibrations ceased and were replaced by the much more docile shake of the power plant.
All over the machine, steam geysers erupted, then fell silent. Clear tubes, previously full of liquid, surged a final time and then depressurized. It was like a giant had been awoken, gone on a rampage, then fell asleep. The gentle rhythm of the humming and shaking replaced the insane earthquake-level grinding.
39
They reached Level Nine in less than a minute, but the Russian soldiers were on their tail.
And most likely they’d called their counterparts—wherever they were—to help out.
Jen, Erik, Nelson, Carter, and Saunders spilled out onto the floor of Level Nine, tired, beaten, and emotional.
They ran to the first building they found—again a large, white, unmarked building.
Saunders checked the door and found it unlocked. She swung it open and quickly checked inside.
“Looks clear. Let’s go,” she said. The others followed her in. Flashlight beams lit up the walls, and Jen could see they were in some sort of workout facility.
Around the room, elliptical machines, treadmills, and stair machines lined the long walls in two rows. In the center of the giant room, an olympic-sized swimming pool stretched farther than their beams could carry.
They were in a gymnasium.
Jen found a map hanging on a wall, below a sign that read “Information,” and she approached it and examined.
“We’re in the station’s gym,” she said, “and it looks like this entire level is dedicated to recreation. There’s a hiking path around the perimeter and a climbing wall in the center.”
