by Jeff Carlson
He was near panic. “Can you stabilize number two?”
“I’m on it. What’s happening?”
“We’re under attack, speedboats, they’re widecasting some Animal Earth crap!”
Three small cylinders lanced into the far range of my sonar, moving fast. Smart torps. They were beautiful in the way that sharks can be, sleek and purposeful, a hard swarm of warheads chased by their own turbulence.
I probably wouldn’t attract their attention, not being a power source or made of metal — not much metal — but the concussive force of a detonation anywhere nearby would kill me.
I dug and kicked down, down—
Tightness in my bad arm made my effort lopsided, slowing me. The buzzing torpedoes grew very loud.
The rift wasn’t deep compared to the plunging valley where I’d encountered the squid, but at its edge was a thick bulge of carbonate. I ducked past, scraping my hip.
That rock saved me by taking the brunt of the explosions, then nearly killed me as parts of it broke away. I was stunned and slow to move.
Animal Earth. The rant-and-slants they’d posted during our efforts here had been based on a refusal to accept our stated purpose. They were Greens. They should have supported us, but frothed instead about the blatant destruction of ocean habitats…
I stayed in the rift for two hours, watching, listening, afraid to broadcast on any channel in case there were more hunter-killers waiting to acquire targets. The attack had stopped after five minutes, but our radio communications remained incoherent. Stenstrom tried miserably to raise me on the emergency link again and again.
He tried the general frequencies, too, even sharecasting his public response to the attack. One of the speedboats had been apprehended by Japanese military aircraft, and suspects were in custody. Given the armament involved and the coordination of the assault, Stenstrom suggested that the whole thing was a cover for our competitors in the nuclear or oil industries, and already there were conflicting denials and claims of solidarity from Animal Earth spokespeople.
Finally I began my ascent, goaded by the constant dig of the voices in my cheekbone. At one hundred feet I saw a man, a body, deformed by violence and twisting loosely in the current. We hesitated together in the dim, penetrating glow of the sun.
Then I turned my back on him.
Andrea and the boys were well provided for, and she obviously didn’t need me. Brent had never needed me, and Roberto… Roberto was young enough to forget and move on. Let them think I was dead, lost to the tide. The insurance payouts alone would be a fortune.
Four miles proved to be the radio’s range.
I kept going into the beautiful dark and never let anyone intrude on my world again.
END
About the Author
Jeff Carlson is the international bestselling author of the Plague Year trilogy, Long Eyes, and Interrupt. To date, his work has been translated into fifteen languages worldwide.
He is currently at work on a new thriller novel.
Readers can find free fiction, videos, contests, and more on his website at www.jverse.com including a special Europa-themed photo gallery featuring images from the Voyager 1, Galileo, and Cassini probes.
Also included in the Galleries is “The Making Of Alexis Vonderach,” where award-winning artist Jacob Charles Dietz has arranged a spectacular art sequence. It shows his initial concept work through the final cover of The Frozen Sky.
Jeff welcomes email at [email protected].
He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter at www.Facebook.com/PlagueYear and @authorjcarlson
Reader reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and elsewhere are always appreciated.
Other Books by Jeff Carlson
Interrupt
The Plague Year Trilogy
Plague Year
Plague War
Plague Zone
Short Story Collection
Long Eyes
Contacts
Jeff Carlson
[email protected]
www.jverse.com
Film / TV
Jim Ehrich
Rothman Brecher Kim Agency
9250 Wilshire Blvd., 4th Fl.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
310-432-4629
Literary
Don Maass
Donald Maass Literary Agency
121 West 27th St., Ste. 801
New York, NY 10001
212-727-8383
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons either living or dead is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the author.
Copyright © 2012 Jeff Carlson
eBook ISBN 9781936460137
Second Edition
Orbital diagrams and maps by Jeff Sierzenga. Copyright 2012. Reproduced with permission.
Cover art by Jacob Charles Dietz Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
Images and text for “The Making Of Alexis Vonderach” by Jacob Charles Dietz and Jeff Carlson. Copyright © 2012. Reproduced on www.jverse.com with permission.
Interior illustrations by Karel Zeman. Copyright 2009 and 2012. Reproduced with permission.
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