by A. G. Taylor
And then opened them again. Nothing had happened. No explosions. No sound of the hull being opened like a tin can. No rushing water. Kaminski stared across the table at her and then down at the sonar screen.
The object had disappeared.
“Where did it go?” Wisher said, wiping away the sweat dripping from his face with the back of his hand.
Kaminski shook his head. “This doesn’t make sense.” He looked back at Rachel. “Nothing can pull up that fast. Can it?”
“We’re not dealing with anything we’ve seen before, Lieutenant,” she replied. “Assume it’s moved under the ship.”
Wisher gave a spluttering laugh. “Under? The ship?”
There was a groaning sound from deep within the Ulysses, as if the metal of the hull was being gradually compressed. The floor rocked and anyone who had relinquished their handhold was thrown to one side. Computer screens flickered around the room – one of them exploded in the corner, sending up a shower of sparks.
“That is not good,” Kaminski muttered.
“Bring up the external view,” Rachel ordered and the lieutenant changed the table screen to shots of the Ulysses’s exterior. Two giant tentacles – black, metallic and segmented – were rising out of the sea on either side of the flight deck and starting to wrap around the body of the ship. As they smashed down on the deck, the entire ship vibrated again. Crew members up top went running as the tentacles drew tighter, crushing the frame of the Ulysses as if it were cardboard. Another metal tentacle rose into view, further down the ship, and started to wind around the bow.
“It’s squeezing us!” Wisher exclaimed.
Kaminski raised an eyebrow. “It could have torn us apart in one go.”
“It looks as if it wants to play with us before the kill,” Rachel said, reminding herself that this was Bright’s revenge on them all for defeating him twice: once in Australia when he was under the command of Colonel Moss, and a second time in Russia when he tried to betray them after they defeated Makarov. And he would want his revenge to take time. She just hoped against hope that the delay gave Sarah the time she needed to get there.
Two minutes out from the Ulysses, Sarah and Wei spotted it in the middle of the ocean: hovercopters circled like gnats around the carrier, seemingly on the attack, but it wasn’t the Ulysses they were attacking. It was the eight alien tentacles rising from the sea all around, as if the squid had positioned its body directly beneath.
Enhance, Sarah ordered and a magnified section of the heads-up display opened, showing a clearer view of the action. One of the tentacles swiped through the air at a hovercopter, swatting it the length of the deck. The flying machine skidded across the landing strip and flew off into the ocean. More hovercopters circled, firing at the writhing tentacles with tracer bullets that merely glanced off the surface of the alien metal.
“They’re not even scratching it!” said Louise, who had appeared in the cockpit doorway.
“Let’s see if we can do any better,” Sarah said. With her mind, she adjusted the tactical HUD, focusing on a tentacle waving near the stern of the ship. A red targeting reticule flashed madly as it locked on.
Fire, she ordered.
Two missiles flew from the underbelly of the stealth jet, casting parallel white smoke trails in the sky as they zoomed towards the target. Seconds later, they hit the tentacle simultaneously, creating a massive fireball. The tentacle jerked back from the impact, but then rose again, unharmed.
“They didn’t even make a dent,” Wei said. “How do we stop it?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah said, sending the jet in a wide arc around the Ulysses. She didn’t want to get close enough for one of the tentacles to knock them out of the sky. “But we have to find a way, or everyone on that ship is dead.”
Up close, it was clear to see the Ulysses was listing dangerously to one side, as if the squid intended to pull it over and drag it to the bottom of the ocean. As they watched, a tentacle sliced across the flight control tower rising from the deck. The top of the tower flew away, casting bodies into the sea with it. Hovercopters rushed in to distract the squid from its attack, but were efficiently knocked out of the sky by the tentacles not engaged in pulling the ship over.
“What do we do?” Louise asked.
“Can’t land on the ship,” Sarah said, looking at the listing flight deck, which had four of the tentacles wrapped across it. “And our firepower isn’t working.”
“We need to get closer.” They all looked round, surprised to see Robert appear beside Louise. His face was ashen and he seemed to be having problems just staying on his feet, but his eyes were determined. “I can get Louise and Wei down there.”
Sarah gave him a stern look. “I thought we had you strapped down.”
“You can’t hold me that easily, sis,” he said with a grin. “You know it’s the only way.”
“You’re too weak,” Sarah argued, but her brother shook his head.
“There’s hundreds of people down there. We can’t just let them sink with that ship.”
Wei rose from his seat and went to stand with the other two. Robert took Louise’s and Wei’s hands in his. It was decided.
“Okay, okay,” Sarah said. “Just be…”
Robert and the other two dematerialized.
“...careful.”
The floor of the war room now listed at a thirty-degree angle. Rachel Andersen held onto the side of the table just to stop from falling over. Objects that weren’t held down had started to slide across the room.
“We’ve got multiple hull breaches,” Kaminski said, examining a diagram of the ship. More and more areas flashed red by the second, indicating water rushing in from rips in the hull. “Too many to contain, sir. We’re going down.”
On another of the screens there was an explosion as another hovercopter got hit.
“Our pilots are getting killed up there,” Rachel said. “Order them to pull back, Lieutenant.”
Wisher gave her an outraged look. “But they’re our last line of defence!”
“We have no defence,” Rachel said, picking up the ship-wide comm. “This is Colonel Andersen. I’m ordering a full evacuation. Repeat, all remaining stations, abandon ship immediately. Good luck, everyone.” She killed the comm and looked around the war room at the operatives manning the defensive systems there. “Get to the boats. We’ve done all we can here. Move out!”
As the HIDRA personnel went for the door, Kaminski pointed at something on one of the screens. “Look!”
On the flight deck, three figures had appeared: Robert, Louise and Wei.
“What do those kids think they’re doing?” Wisher said.
“What they always do,” Rachel replied, “saving our backsides. Let’s get out of here while we still have the chance.”
As they hurried across the tilting floor, Wisher asked, “Isn’t the captain meant to go down with the ship?”
“To hell with that,” she replied, pushing him into the corridor.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Robert said, looking at Wei and Louise, who were standing beside him on the listing deck of the Ulysses.
Debris from crashed hovercopters lay all around, and black, acrid smoke hung thick in the air. Here and there the bodies of crew members lay abandoned as the survivors desperately tried to make it to the escape boats. Sirens wailed.
Up close, the alien tentacles were massive and imposing – the impenetrable black surface so shiny it was reflective. The ones wound around the ship itself were as thick as a man was tall. The others, waving high in the air above the deck, towered as high as skyscrapers, ready to smash any resistance.
How’s it looking down there? Sarah asked from the jet as it swooped low across the starboard side.
Scary, Wei replied.
One of the tentacles swiped at the plane, making the barest contact, but it was enough to send the jet flying off course. It swung round and out of danger as Sarah expertly managed to keep it in
the air.
It’s scary up here! Sarah said. Just try to keep the squid busy while the crew gets off the ship. And don’t take any chances.
Right, Robert said as one of the tentacles began to swiftly descend towards them. Watch out!
They scattered. The tentacle slammed down before them, jarring the entire deck. As it rose again, Robert heard the sound of people crying out for help from the remains of the flight control tower. It had been cut in half earlier, but there were clearly people trapped inside still.
“You two keep it occupied,” he said to Louise and Wei. “I’m going to get those people out.”
He disappeared. Louise held up a hand as the tentacle descended again. It took all her mental strength, but she managed to hold the tentacle several metres above the deck. It writhed like a snake trying to escape from an invisible fist, but Louise wasn’t about to let it go. The end of the tentacle was flattened and wide to allow greater damage when it struck – it hovered above Louise, ready to squash her like a bug.
“Wei!” she cried. “Heat it up!”
The Chinese kid unleashed a wave of flames along the length of the trapped tentacle, but this had no more effect than the bullets or missiles had. Then he focused all of his power, refining the flames to a single heat beam of incredible strength. He aimed his beam on a point of the tentacle halfway down. The metal began to glow red as it became superheated to an unbelievable temperature.
“That’s it!” Louise said. With all her power, she wrenched the tentacle round with her mind. There was a terrific tearing sound and it ripped apart at the point Wei had been heating. With a cry, Louise cast the severed section of tentacle to one side, where it landed in the sea with a crash of water. Wei looked at her with wide eyes.
“We did it!”
Another tentacle smashed into the deck between them and burrowed into the ship. Seconds later it whipped backwards, tearing away a giant section of deck and almost taking the two kids with it.
“I think we just made it mad,” Louise said as it came in for another strike.
As they fell back, the tentacle ripped open another great tear in the surface of the Ulysses. The stealth jet tore overhead on a pass through the waving tentacles, momentarily distracting the attack. As the arms of the squid tried to catch the jet, Louise focused her attention on two of them, bringing them together and twisting them round. Wei instinctively knew what to do: he fired a burst of heat along the tangled length of the tentacles, fusing the alien metal, reforming it. Cooling in the air, the melted-together tentacles gave a terrible groaning sound and then crashed down onto the deck, immovable.
Good work! Sarah’s voice rang in their heads as the jet flew over again. Weld it to the ship!
Wei used his heat beam to melt the surface of the deck, while Louise reshaped the heated matter with her mind, forming great loops of metal around the tentacle. Now the squid was linked to the sinking Ulysses…
The five remaining arms of the squid now turned their attention towards Louise and Wei, but as they towered in the air, explosions erupted around them. The remaining hovercopters were firing upon them. The squid swatted at the tiny attackers, giving Louise time to grab another pair of tentacles and twist them together.
“The HIDRA crew are off the ship,” Robert said, materializing beside Louise as Wei melted the tentacles together. “Time to leave.”
“But we’re winning!” Louise said.
Robert shook his head, having to lean against her for support. His face was ghost-white. “No, the ship is sinking. We can’t prevent that.”
Louise caught his arm and held him up. The black mark on his neck seemed to have spread even further. The entire ship rocked to one side as it went into the terminal stages of sinking into the ocean. A great plume of water, hundreds of metres high, exploded off the starboard bow and the bulbous body of the squid rose, its huge shining eye reflecting a distorted view of the ruined Ulysses.
“We have to get back to the jet,” Wei said, helping Louise hold Robert up.
“Wake up!” Louise said, shaking Robert. “We have to get out of here!”
He nodded weakly and grabbed their arms as the deck tilted dangerously to one side…
...and they were inside the stealth jet again. Wei grabbed Robert and moved him to one of the leather sofas lining the main cabin. Louise ran through to the cockpit.
“Is Robert okay?” Sarah asked, not looking round from the controls.
“Wei’s looking after him,” Louise said, transfixed by the awesome sight outside the cockpit window. The tentacles of the squid were wrapped around and melded to the body of the Ulysses, which was now beginning to resemble a twisted lump of metal, kept afloat only because it was held by the monster. The head of the squid lay alongside the ship, giant eye facing upwards. On the other side of the Ulysses, a flotilla of yellow escape boats powered away from the wreck as fast as possible.
A howl split the air, audible even through the walls of the jet. The squid ripped one of its damaged tentacles free, and smashed it down into the sea, sending tiny boats flying.
“It’s not dead yet!” Louise exclaimed.
“It soon will be,” Sarah said, swiping her hand across a section of the HUD. The computer began to analyse the now-exposed head of the squid. The red reticule flashed around its eye.
Weakness detected.
Target all missiles, Sarah ordered. Fire everything.
A stream of missiles flew from the underside of the jet, locked on the head of the squid. Seconds later they hit the eye, shattering the glassy lens. The beast howled once more and went into a death roll, snapping the hull of the Ulysses in half as it went down for the last time. A series of explosions wracked the inside of the ship as the failing engines finally gave out. In a matter of seconds, the deep claimed it, along with its alien attacker…
The force of the two giants sinking sent a massive ripple across the surface of the sea, threatening to engulf the speeding escape boats. Colonel Rachel Andersen stood at the back of her boat and looked at the wall of water rising. She turned back to Lt. Kaminski, who was at the wheel.
“Is this as fast as this thing can go?” she demanded.
Kaminski shouted something that was lost over the sound of the two giant engines at the back. The hull of the boat slammed against another wave and the thirty or so crew members on board clung to the side for dear life. David Wisher lay flat on the floor and was starting to turn green.
Behind them, the wave receded. They’d escaped the massive forces generated by the sinking ship. As the sea settled, Rachel felt a pang of sadness as she looked across the water at where the Ulysses had been – now lost for ever to the depths.
The stealth jet ripped overhead, disturbing her thoughts. Rachel unclipped the mobile comm from her belt and switched it to the jet’s frequency.
“Sarah!”
“Are you okay down there?” the girl asked.
“Yes,” Rachel replied, shouting above the noise, “the remaining crew got off. Thanks to you.”
The jet circled overhead. “What can we do to help?” Sarah said.
“Kaminski has already put out a distress call. We’re heading for the nearest land. We’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” Sarah said. “We’re going after Bright.”
“Is there any point in telling you to be careful?”
“None. We’ll follow the tracker on Hack – it’s our only lead. Whatever Bright has planned, this is just the beginning.”
“I know,” Rachel said. “Good luck.”
The jet made a final pass over the emergency boats and the remaining hovercopters, before turning and heading east. Across the water Rachel heard a sound from the other boats: cheering. The surviving crew of the Ulysses were on their feet, waving Sarah and the others safely on their way. Rachel tapped Wisher on the shoulder and he got to his knees.
“So, Mr. Wisher,” Rachel said. “Do you still want to take my command?”
He held up a hand as the boat hit an
other wave. “No!”
“Because if you want to take charge right now—”
“Keep your command, Colonel!”
“And the report?”
“Positive. It will be positive.”
Rachel smiled with satisfaction. “And my authority isn’t going to be challenged again? I get to run things how I see fit?”
Wisher nodded. “Just sort this out, Colonel. You can have anything you want.”
Rachel bent down so she was looking into his eyes. “Get me another ship.”
Hack dabbed at May’s sweat-covered forehead with a tissue from his pocket. Once again, connecting with the Entity to manipulate the meteorite rock had been a traumatic, draining experience for him – but it had almost knocked the girl out. The demand on her power to change the very structure of the rock seemed to be so much greater.
“We need water and food and blankets,” Hack said as Major Bright appeared from the front of the plane.
The major looked at him with a hard expression, but then nodded his assent. “Fine. We must look after our prize possessions, mustn’t we?”
Hack looked away.
“There’s just one thing I need first,” Bright added. He removed a knife from his belt and flicked out a gleaming blade. “You’ve got something that I think we should get rid of.”
Hack took a step back. “What are you talking about?”
Bright pointed the knife tip at where Robert had injected the GPS tracker. Before Hack could resist, two mercs stepped in and grabbed him by the shoulders, holding him firm.
“Don’t worry,” Major Bright said, advancing with the blade, “this isn’t going to hurt a bit.”
PART TWO
25
Nestor sighted on the target…took a breath…and followed through with the pool cue. The white ball shot towards the black over the top corner pocket, but at the last second veered off course and rebounded against the cushion. It rolled back and came to a rest in the centre of the table, perfectly lined up for the black.
