Collected Fiction (1940-1963)

by William P. McGivern

  Zoru nodded.

  “But we will have to use the Crawler as it is. You understand that once we leave in it we can not come back. And we can not rise. That is why I said there would be no chance for us.” Brick hesitated helplessly. For himself there was no decision to be made. But it was not only his life that would be sacrificed. He didn’t have the right to ask Leolo and Zoru to sacrifice theirs. His shoulders slumped wearily.

  “I can’t ask,” he began, but Leolo interrupted him softly.

  “You don’t have to ask us,” she said. “Leolo is right,” Zoru said quietly. “Let us start to work. We have much to do.”

  Brick felt an eager flame of hope fluttering in his breast.

  “Come on,” he said with grim exultation.

  IT TOOK sixteen precious hours for Zoru to transform the two hydrogen guns into weapons of destruction. Even when the job was completed, the guns, to Brick, looked hopelessly innocent. Each gun consisted of a six-foot barrel about four inches in diameter. The barrel connected to a thick drum about the size of a wash tub on which was welded a control board. Their principle was a mystery to him but he knew that time was too important to waste in explanations, so he did not impede Zoru with questions.

  When the guns were in place their muzzles protruded from the nose of the Crawler like the feelers of a giant bug.

  And twenty-five hours had flitted past. Neither of the three had slept. They were grimy and exhausted, but there was an unquenchable inner flame driving them on far beyond the limits of their normal strength.

  Brick’s impatience burned him like a fever. Already the deadly subs would be slipping upward like schools of sharks to unleash their terrible destructive power on the convoy of ships carrying supplies that meant life to the British.

  “How much longer?” he asked desperately.

  Zoru didn’t answer. Instead he made a last adjustment on the guns, then straightened up, his face haggard with weariness, but a glint of triumph in his eyes.

  “We are ready,” he said.

  With a smile, the first in days, Brick wheeled and climbed out of the Crawler. It was the work of an instant to twist the wheel that controlled the water locks. A steady trickle of water flowed through the valve spreading over the floor in a widening circle.

  Leolo was standing by the ladder when he turned and started for the rear door of the makeshift compression chamber. There was a strange mixture of relief and sadness in her expression. He could understand something of what she felt.

  “Better climb in,” he said gently. “When I close and clamp the rear door we’re shoving off.”

  She smiled at him fleetingly. Then with a last long look back, she turned and climbed into the Crawler. In that look she had said good-bye to Atlantis.

  The water was up to Brick’s ankles as he strode toward the rear door. In six more minutes the chamber would be filled, the pressure equalized, then the great door that held back the crushing force of the ocean would open automatically.

  It was then that he saw, through the half open door of the chamber, the three Germans moving cautiously through the laboratory, guns in hand!

  The expressions of greedy triumph on their faces told the whole story. They had evidently stumbled on the sealed section of Atlantis, and followed the twisting corridors to the lab.

  Brick had perhaps one-half second advantage over them. But he was too stunned to utilize it. It was gone then, for they spotted him, and with a concerted roar, hurled themselves forward.

  THEIR GUNS coughed spitefully, viciously, as they charged the door. A slug slammed into Brick’s shoulder with enough force to knock him on his back had he been standing still.

  But he wasn’t standing still. He was charging forward, every muscle in his body straining. The slug turned him half-way around, but it didn’t stop him. With a desperate lunge he hurled himself at the door. His good shoulder drove into its hard surface at the same instant that the Germans crashed against it.

  For a second the door remained motionless, pressed in a vise of the human bodies straining at either side of it. Then it swung inward, slowly but inexorably, as the superior weight of the three Germans told against Brick’s tiring body.

  Dimly he heard a scream behind him, but it was blotted out as one of the Germans forced his arm through the steadily widening crack and pounded his thick fist against Brick’s face. He tasted salty blood in his mouth.

  Then he heard a heavy, ponderous, crunching sound growing in volume in back of him. With a sudden flash of clarity his mind identified the sound. It was the Crawler’s spikes biting into the floor.

  Desperately, Brick hurled himself sideways. He slipped to his knees, foundering in the waist-high water. But he was out of the path of the huge spiked wheels of the Crawler as they pressed against the door and closed it with powerful, irresistible force.

  Brick pressed his hand to his face as a horrible, gasping scream broke high and then gurgled into frothy silence.

  One of the Germans hadn’t gotten clear of the closing door.

  Sickened, Brisk staggered to his feet and threw the bolts that sealed it. The water was breast-high when he climbed the ladder and toppled into the Crawler.

  Zoru closed the hatch behind him and bolted it. Leolo helped him to his feet and led him to a chair. Blood was streaming down his shirt from the slug wound in his shoulder.

  “There’s nothing for you to do now,” Leolo whispered soothingly. “Just rest for a moment.”

  Her voice was like the whisper of a breeze in his ears. Although he knew he shouldn’t, he closed his eyes.

  HE CAME around with a start. Beneath his feet he could feel the floor of the Crawler twisting and rocking. Looking up he saw, through the thick glass top, the green murk of the Atlantic not two feet above his head.

  Zoru was up front at the controls and Leolo was at his side. Brick climbed to his feet. His wound had stopped bleeding, but it was aching horribly. He felt a surge of relief flooding through him. They were away from Atlantis, heading for the enemy.

  “How long have I been out?” he asked, surprised at the weakness of his voice.

  Leolo turned and hurried to him, her face anxious.

  “Just a few moments,” she told him. “We just left the compression chamber and have traveled only a hundred feet or so.”

  Brick put an arm over her shoulder and let her help him to the front of the Crawler alongside Zoru. Through the thick curved glass cowl that surrounded the control room he could see opaque masses of green waters swirling before him. He sat down and felt the back of the chair push into his spine as the nose of the Crawler tilted upward as it lumbered up a hillock of muddy sand. The floor of the ocean was pock marked with craters[11] of all sizes and shapes, through which the squat, bug-like Crawler scurried like a powerful turtle. Its huge spiked wheels bit deeply into rock and sand, driving it forward with awkward speed.

  Turning to his left, Brick drew in his breath sharply. They were skirting the edges of the huge domed structures of Atlantis. Starkly white in the green water the curiously formed buildings presented a spectacle that was fairy-like in its fantastic unreality.

  But this could not drive from his mind the job that faced them. The terribly, all important job of checking the submarine attack on the huge American convoy. Sitting in the ridiculously small Crawler, unarmed save for the two hydrogen guns, the thought of the task they had set out to accomplish seemed absurdly hopeless. Their strongest blows against hundreds of subs would be childishly ineffective. Suddenly all of the harrowing risks they had taken seemed pointless and futile.

  “We should sight the enemy,” Zoru said, “in another few minutes. Around the next group of buildings is the location of their main docks. Better get ready to fire.”

  “What good will that do?” Brick asked bitterly.

  “These apparently innocuous guns might surprise you,” Zoru said calmly. “Unfortunately we had no way of testing the amplifying device I attached to them. But if it works as I hope it will the re
sults will be very interesting.”

  A moment later, Brick, who had been peering intently into the murky water ahead of them, grabbed Zoru’s arm.

  “Ahead and above us,” he snapped. “I think I can spot subs heading toward the surface.”

  A second scrutiny convinced him. They had evidently arrived just as a squad of under-water killers was slicing up for the attack. He counted ten slim, shadowy lengths knifing through the water above. Past them he could see the dim outlines of more. They were a hundred yards above them and off fifty feet ahead of them. But every second was putting their deadly shadows farther away.

  “We’re too late!” he cried bitterly. “They’re on their way. In another sixty seconds they’ll be releasing torpedos, sinking our ships without warning, without a chance.”

  “Start firing!” Zoru said quietly. “But—”

  “Please do as I say,” Zoru said insistently.

  BRICK SWUNG the barrel of the gun upward until it covered the area through which the submarine squad was slipping.

  The control board of the gun was fitted with a firing lever and a small sparking button. Brick shoved the firing lever forward and heard the inner mechanism of the gun begin to thrum into life.

  At the tip of the gun’s muzzle he saw a bubble forming, swelling and growing larger by the second. When it was almost ten feet in diameter it broke from the gun and flashed upward. Leaning forward Brick could trace its ascent through the murky water by the foaming stream of bubbles in its wake. In a second it reached the area of the silently moving submarine shadows.

  “Use the spark!” Zoru snapped.

  Brick’s hand jammed on the sparking button, and a fiery pellet of flame streaked from the muzzle of the gun, streaking surface-ward like a miniature comet.[12]

  And almost instantly the Crawler shuddered violently from the jarring force of a devastating explosion that churned the water about them into a maelstrom of furious turbulence.

  Peering through the foaming water Brick saw a shadowy submarine turning slowly, almost lazily, on its side and settling toward the bottom. Half way down it collided with another sub, rebounded sluggishly from it and continued on its descent. The sub it had struck hesitated, then slipped backward and started down.

  Brick tripped the firing lever again. The huge bubble formed swiftly, flashed away.

  “Hydrogen and oxygen,” Zoru said, “exist together in water. But separate them, as we have done, then touch one off with the other and you have an explosive of almost limitless power. The force of these hydrogen oxygen formations exploding next to a submarine will break its back.”

  “Fine,” Brick said grimly.

  He pressed the firing button, shooting another streak of electric flame upward. The explosion sounded like the muffled beat of a mighty drum.

  The Crawler was still moving sluggishly forward, but with an adjustment of the controls Zoru stopped it.

  Brick glanced at him inquiringly.

  “I am afraid,” Zoru said, “that we have missed the fleet. They have already cleared their docks and started up. If we had been an hour sooner we might have smashed the dock locks and bottled the submarines in their nests. Now we must look for them.”

  Brick peered up and cursed under his breath. There was nothing but an occasional fish to break the sameness of the green expanse. The squad they had sighted was out of range now.

  ZORU TURNED the Crawler and headed back, but this time he veered out from the mighty structures of Atlantis until they faded into a shimmering blur behind them.

  They heard occasional rumbling detonations, but it was impossible to guess their source. It was obvious from this that the attack, or phases of it, had started.

  Brick swore violently and searched the waters about them with desperate impatience. Suddenly he saw myriad shadows materializing out of the green murk. In formations of five the vast fleet of shark-like subs were drifting over their heads. It was impossible to gauge the size or number of the underwater armada. As far as he could penetrate the dim water he could see them on all sides moving slowly, and slightly downward, holding their V formation as if they were welded together with invisible supports.

  He guessed the reason for their downward angle. The rumbling explosions they had heard must have been depth charges dropped from British or American destroyers. The subs would have to keep below the range of the depth bombs or run the risk of having their seams blasted open.

  They were probably maneuvering into position to attack the convoy from the rear.

  Brick’s hand closed on the firing lever.

  “This is the pay-off,” he said softly.

  Zoru stopped the lurching motion of the Crawler and Leolo moved to the seat before the second gun. She smiled once at Brick and then with an almost vicious gesture she threw the firing lever forward.

  Brick flashed a grin back at her and went to work. His hand slapped the lever and shifted to the sparking button without the loss of a second.

  Two huge bubbles flashed away from the two muzzles, followed by hissing electric pellets. The double explosion crashed in their ears with deafening clamor.

  A hundred yards above them a V formation of five subs was slammed together by its terrific force. One ship seemed to twist in agony before cracking in the middle and settling drunkenly.

  Brick and Leolo worked the mechanism of the guns as fast as their hands could move. The huge bombs of hydrogen rocketed upward in a steady stream from the Crawler chased by the sizzling streaks of fiery sodium.

  The close formation of the German fleet was its doom. The sledge hammer blasts of the hydrogen bombs transformed a mile square of ocean into a heaving, exploding inferno that ground and battered the subs in its terrible maw.

  Zoru sprang to the controls and started the Crawler moving ahead at full speed. Brick flashed an approving nod at him. By changing their position they would be able to rake other sections of the vast fleet.

  WITHOUT WASTING a second Brick and Leolo continued to fire bomb after bomb into the bellies of the German underwater force. Their ears were ringing queerly from the constant barrage of mighty sound, and the shudderings of the Crawler under the impact of the explosions almost knocked them from their seats. The turtle-like construction of the Crawler was all that saved it from the tempest created by the tremendous detonations of the hydrogen bombs.

  Brick paused long enough to glance up. The German fleet’s geometric formation was shattered completely, and as far as he could see, the subs were milling wildly about like blind and wounded sharks.

  Those that were still under control evidently realized that the barrage was coming from beneath them, for Brick saw dozens of subs pointing their noses up and slithering to the surface.

  He redoubled his efforts with the hydrogen gun, working with a frantic fury. But another glance convinced him that the larger body of the fleet was moving up out of range and danger.

  Leolo stopped firing and followed his gaze upward.

  “Damn it!” Brick grated. “They’re out of range.”

  Both guns were silent now but in a few moments again the thunder of explosions could be heard rumbling above them.

  Zoru and Leolo listened bewilderedly, but Brick grinned joyously.

  “We’ve driven the subs into depth bomb range,” he cried. “There must be two-hundred destroyers above showering ashcans of dynamite down on them. We’ve caught them between a cross-fire.”

  In only a moment or so they could see the slim lengths of the subs again, coming into range as they sought to escape the merciless pounding from above. Many of them were listing wearily and settling out of control.

  Brick and Leolo began firing. Into the disorganized turmoil of subs their hydrogen bombs blasted again and again, savagely, endlessly.

  For another half hour they fired ceaselessly, driving the subs up to meet the depth charges again and again. But with every hydrogen bomb explosion there were less subs to slink upward. And every time the remnants of the once mighty underwater a
rmada sought to slink away to the surface, the depth bombs took their terrible toll.

  Brick’s gun, hot in his hands, suddenly ceased firing.

  “It’s through,” Zoru said, glancing at it. “The device that split the hydrogen has burned out probably.”

  Leolo ceased firing then, and a strange silence seemed to settle over them. There was still the rumble of depth charges, growing fainter by the minute, as the destroyers chased the fleeing subs; but beyond that there was nothing.

  THEN THEY felt a faint jar shake the Crawler. And a faint noise that was like two huge mountains of stone grinding slowly together grew in their ears. It was not as loud as some of the explosions they had been hearing, but there was limitless infinity about it that was terrifying.

  The Crawler was moving slowly ahead, and through the green murk Brick saw the spires and structures of Atlantis. Even as they sighted them, he saw one spire tremble and then fall slowly sideways and crash to the floor of the ocean. The Crawler was trembling steadily now.

  “It was the same,” Zoru whispered, twelve thousand years ago.”

  Brick remembered.

  “Volcano?” he asked tensely.

  Zoru nodded.

  “The explosions must have started

  it again. It will not be long now.”

  Leolo, who had been gazing steadily at the beautiful city, suddenly tugged at Brick’s arm.

  “Look!” she cried pointing.

  Brick followed her direction and saw a long black German sub crossing the spires of Atlantis and driving toward them. It was emblazoned with a huge swastika, and through the dim greenness Brick saw its numeral—U-95.

  That he knew was Von Herrman’s flagship.

  With a mental vision he could picture the German commander, hysterically enraged at the failure of his attack, ordering his ship into a suicidal ramming of the Crawler. For there was no doubt that that was the intention of the huge submarine closing on them like a greedy shark.[13]

  Brick put his arm about Leolo’s shoulder, pulled her close to him.