Earth Yell: Book 5 in the Earth Song Series
Page 21
‘So that explains where Alvarez and Fischer are hiding,’ I said.
‘Yes, it looks like they entered the base through the dock on the underside of the facility,’ Lucy said. ‘The air pressure inside that room obviously keeps the water at bay.’
‘Safer than relying on an airlock connection, I guess,’ Erin said.
‘Exactly,’ Lucy replied.
As the WASP closed in we began to get a clearer look at the rear of the base. Three corridors led out towards what appeared to be a ragged hole in the middle of the plaza, about three metres across. Over it was a large gantry and slung beneath it were three winches with large cables, two of which disappeared straight down through the hole. The third cable was connected to a round white metal craft with portholes all over it. The craft was connected to one of the corridors by an airlock built into the side.
Jack gestured towards it. ‘That looks like some sort of bathysphere.’
‘Like the old-fashioned diving bells that divers originally used to explore the deep?’ I said.
‘Pretty much the same thing,’ Lucy replied before Jack could. ‘Looking at the design and the thickness of the hull around those portholes, I’d say it was designed to dive to a considerable depth.’
I glanced at the submersible. ‘Deeper than their sub can get to?’
‘Definitely. The round design of a bathysphere is all about surviving extreme pressure. So it looks like wherever that hole leads, it’s somewhere very, very deep indeed.’
A tingle of excitement ran down my spine. ‘Okay, somehow we need to get down there too, but the obvious problem is that that hole is way too small for Ariel to fit through. Besides, the moment we try to get closer we’ll have all those mics picking up the noise from our thrusters, not to mention those torpedo batteries. So we need to brainstorm our next move.’
Jack sucked the air between his teeth. ‘We really need a sound to mask the audio signature of Ariel’s thrusters, something that sounds natural in this environment.’
My gaze snapped up to the whales still circling the crater. ‘Like whale song?’
Lucy nodded. ‘The WASPs are fitted with electronic oscillators, which vibrate the hull, turning the drone into one big speaker when needed. So we could certainly program them to broadcast something pretty convincing.’
Ruby gave a sharp nod. ‘Hell yeah. Then I could manoeuvre them past those mics, sounding just like a passing whale pod, and Ariel can sneak on by.’
A plan was starting to form in my mind. ‘Okay, how about this for a plan? So we neutralise those mics and sneak past them. Then… Lucy, can we use a gravity bubble to connect us to their dock? If we can, then we can enter the base, neutralise anyone who’s in there and recover the micro mind.’
‘And if it isn’t there?’ Mike asked.
I gestured towards the bathysphere. ‘Then we take that thing down the shaft. The Overseers wouldn’t have gone to all that effort for no reason. I strongly suspect the micro mind will be down there.’
Erin gawped at me. ‘Seriously, there are so many things that could go wrong with that plan.’
Jack grinned. ‘Welcome to the world of seat of her pants planning that is Lauren’s speciality.’
‘Isn’t that the truth?’ Ruby muttered as she turned the WASP round and headed it back towards the buildings at the edge of the plaza.
Chapter Twenty
Ruby had finished manoeuvring her WASP swarm into position around the underwater mics that she’d managed to locate running along the lip of the valley.
‘Lucy, how’s that whale song coming along?’ I called out. ‘Are we ready for a performance?’
‘Downloading them into the WASPs now,’ she replied as her avatar popped up on the cockpit’s virtual screen. ‘I’ve put some minke song in there along with a backing track of blue whales. It’s quite the mixtape if I say so myself.’
‘All I’m worried about is that it will be enough to convince whoever is monitoring the feeds from those mics,’ I said.
‘Oh don’t you worry yourself about that. If I were a whale I’d be convinced,’ she said loftily. ‘Okay, the last few lines of code and…done! A new icon should be appearing in your CIC screen any time now, Ruby. Just hit that and your swarm will start singing.’
‘Then let’s give this a whirl,’ Ruby said, pressing the green pulsing icon that had just appeared in front of her.
At once, the incredibly haunting sounds of whales calling to each other came from all around us beyond Ariel’s hull.
‘Wow, you weren’t kidding, Lucy. That sounds like the real thing,’ Jack said.
Ruby nodded. ‘So let’s manoeuvre the WASPs around to make our floor show even more convincing for our audience.’
The video feeds from the dozen drones began to slowly swoop and dive, keeping to our side of the valley’s rim to make sure that no one in the underwater base could actually eyeball them and realise they weren’t actual whales.
And then something truly extraordinary happened.
In the distance, far above us, replying calls came from the whales circling the facility.
‘Bloody hell, you’ve even convinced the locals,’ Mike said.
‘Maybe, but time to put it to the real test,’ I said. ‘Erin, please take us in, nice and slow.’
‘On it, Lauren,’ she replied.
Erin began to move Ariel forward, stealthily creeping along, the thrusters barely ticking over as we rose from our resting place on the seabed. Three of Ruby’s drones came into view beneath us, positioning themselves in a leisurely line that matched the curvature of the valley rim.
The anticipation built inside me as we crested the top of that same ridge. Ruby synchronised the pod of whale decoys to our path as we headed over the lip to mask our movements from one of the mics, less than a hundred metres to our starboard. I held my breath, praying that a barrage of missiles wouldn’t be the last thing I ever saw…
Then, just like that, the ancient underwater structure came into view. It was so breathtaking that I forgot to be scared. Instead, the tension dribbed away as I took in the sight before me.
I glanced at Jack, whose expression matched my own. ‘Wow,’ he mouthed at me.
Lights were everywhere over the structures, many at the summits of the buildings like the blinking warning beacons found on the top of skyscrapers.
We began to track down the slope, following the contour towards the structures laid out tantalisingly before us.
‘So far, so good,’ Ruby said, looking at her CIC screen readouts. ‘I left two WASP units down there specifically to monitor those damned torpedo batteries, and they haven’t picked up any activity.’
‘Then it seems like the first part of this plan has actually worked,’ Erin said.
‘Yes, Lauren’s plans have a way of surprising everyone like that,’ Jack grinned.
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ I said, managing a smile.
He shrugged, the corners of his mouth curling again. ‘Anytime.’
I watched Erin for a moment. She seemed to be doing an amazing job of piloting Ariel, especially considering her foot was sticking out sideways at totally the wrong angle. It made my stomach turn every time I looked at it. Her handling of Ariel’s controls was far subtler and more precise than Tom had ever managed. And it was testament to her character that despite losing Daryl, she was holding it together. A shining example for me to draw inspiration from after the loss of Tom.
We finally reached the bottom of the slope and just as Ruby had done earlier with the drones, rather than fly us over the top of the structures – which could have made us easier to spot – Erin flew between them along the broad streets. The pyramids towered over us, massive and mysterious. We were far too deep for any coral formations down here, but the gold and green lichen covered the structures in almost abstract patterns.
‘How long do you think these things have been down here, Jack?’ I asked, gesturing towards them.
‘Based on the
thickness of the lichen cover, a very long time indeed. But the thing I’m surprised at is that there’s no sign of any erosion. It’s like these things have lasted forever.’
‘That suggests to me that there is some sort of self-repairing going on,’ Lucy said as she appeared in her window. ‘And that could be very significant as it also suggests that this facility has never been dormant.’
‘So you’re saying that’s confirmation that the micro mind was never taken out by that Kimprak virus?’ Mike asked as we reached the edge of the plaza.
‘It’s increasingly starting to look that way. And you all know what that means. We really may be about to discover a micro mind with its memories intact.’
‘Bloody hell, the priority for recovering this micro mind just went through the roof,’ Mike said.
‘Then I say we make sure that that happens to honour the memories of Tom and Daryl,’ Jack said.
I felt a physical surge of love for the man because that was exactly the positive focus I needed to focus away from my grief, which was bubbling just beneath the surface, threatening to escape.
Erin was already nodding. ‘Heck yes.’
‘Then let’s take that underwater base for both of them,’ I said.
‘Booyah, let’s do this thing!’ Ruby said, fist punching the air.
As we passed one of the torpedo batteries, I held my breath, waiting for the death and destruction to rain down on our heads at any moment, but still none came. Okay, maybe I could really start to believe that we might actually pull this off.
Ahead of us the base was steadily growing closer. The structure, with its thick metal walls, was mounted on six tall hydraulic legs. There was enough clearance beneath it for a submersible to reach the built-in dock and thankfully, it was just high enough for Ariel to squeeze in beneath the other sub.
In the murk of the ocean, the bright porthole lights seemed slightly out of place. This was such an alien environment that it was hard to imagine anyone living and working down here. The Overseers might be on the wrong side of this fight, but I had to admire their ingenuity.
‘Okay, we need to get ready for a boarding mission,’ I said.
‘We’d better use hollow-nosed bullets so we don’t accidentally punch a hole through the walls and cause a breach,’ Ruby replied. ‘It’s the same ammo air marshals use on flights.’
‘Jesus. Have you seen what those rounds do to internal organs?’ Jack said. ‘I should know, because I fought to save the lives of soldiers hit by them.’
Ruby shrugged. ‘Yes, I do, but we can’t take any chances, Jack.’
He sighed. ‘Yeah, I get it.’
I noticed the grimace that flashed across Mike’s face. It seemed our newly converted Rambo still had some reservations about killing people and that was a good thing in my book. Yes, like the rest of us he had proved he could take a life. The problem was living with yourself afterwards.
Jack headed to the weapons locker and started handing out the hollow-nosed rounds for our pistols. Ruby loaded her favoured pistol, a Colt M1911A1 and I did the same with my LRS. But when Mike approached, rather than take the Glock, he helped himself to Tom’s dart gun instead.
‘An interesting choice of weapon there, Mike,’ Jack said, raising his eyebrows.
‘Yeah, who was I trying to kid? Shooting that soldier in the head is something that I never want to have to go through again.’
Jack patted him on the shoulder. ‘And in my humble opinion that’s a very good call.’
I could already tell, based on the sense of relief flooding through me, that Mike had absolutely made the right decision. We might never get the old Mike back, but I could certainly do with his perspective of only using force when it was absolutely necessary – which had been exactly Tom’s philosophy too.
Everybody started strapping on body armour and we shared out some smoke grenades, but this time no flashbangs. Ruby pointed out that their effect would be severely amplified in the confines of the base and could have just as devastating effect on us as the people we were about to attack. So instead she equipped us with tear gas canisters, also issuing us with breathing masks to use beneath our combat helmets.
As Ariel neared the base, crawling at the rate of a sea slug, everyone had fallen quiet and tension was visible on everyone’s faces. We were effectively going in blind and everyone knew it. But one positive was that the base itself wasn’t that big and could at most probably hold less than ten people. However, I knew we could really do with more of an edge.
‘Lucy, can you begin to hack into the base’s systems and kill any comms systems they may have, along with the lights?’ I asked.
‘Actually, yes, they seem to have some sort of wi-fi system on that base. As soon as we get close enough, I’ll begin.’
‘Good. Be careful to make it look like it’s some sort of malfunction rather than their base coming under a cyber attack,’ I replied.
‘Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do,’ Lucy said, smiling.
Erin closed the distance in Ariel until she had finally moved us into position, almost directly beneath the base’s dock and Alvarez’s submersible.
‘On the plus side, if they do spot us now we’re way too close to their base for them to risk using a torpedo on us,’ Ruby said.
‘Good point, but we need to be ready with Ariel’s weapons if they do try anything,’ I replied.
‘Already covered. I’ve slaved the systems to Delphi, but I’ll be able to take over control via my Sky Wire if necessary.’
‘Then it sounds like we have the bases all covered with a full-blown assault party,’ Jack said. ‘Now all we need to do is actually pull this off.’
I nodded. ‘How’s hacking into their systems going, Lucy?’
‘I’m almost through and…tut, tut, tut. Their security protocols are really lax and have been way too easy for me to bypass.’
‘I don’t suppose they thought hackers would be much of an issue when they were two thousand feet beneath the surface of the ocean,’ Mike said.
Lucy chuckled. ‘Yes, fair point. Anyway, I now have access to their internal security cameras including one in the docking bay, which I’ve already disabled. The good news is there are only six people onboard, although they are all military. The bad news is that there’s no sign of Alvarez and Fischer.’
My gaze turned towards the cables disappearing into the hole, visible through the rippling tunnel of the gravity field expanded passageway.
‘If they’re nowhere on there, they have to have taken one of those bathyspheres down to whatever is through that hole,’ I said.
‘So we follow them, right?’ Ruby asked.
I nodded. ‘If it turns out that the micro mind isn’t in the base – and we suspect by the fact Alvarez and Fischer aren’t there that it isn’t – then absolutely. At least, once we have dealt with the soldiers in this base, we will. Lucy, are you in a position to kill the lights yet?’
‘I am. One power cut coming up,’ Lucy announced. ‘Oh and I made it look like it’s a fault in their battery room. But the only comms I could find was a laser system that it uses to signal ships on the surface, which I’ve already disabled.’
‘Great work like always, Lucy,’ Mike said.
She beamed at him, then with a flicker the base above us plunged into darkness.
‘Okay, that’s our cue,’ I said. ‘Lucy, can you extend our gravity field up into the dock?’
‘In progress. There’s a ladder built into the side of the dock that protrudes down into the water. I’ll extend the gravity passageway around it. That’ll allow you to gain access without getting an icy cold water dunk that would also crush your bodies at the same time.’
‘We’d certainly appreciate not doing that,’ Jack said, pulling a face at the rest of us.
A shimmer appeared around Ariel and then, like a thin elephant’s trunk, a tiny trail of bubbles started to extend from the top of our hatch towards the bottom of the ladder just above our sh
ip.
‘Increasing the gravity field now and pumping air into it,’ Lucy said.
The trunk grew larger and then with a faint pop of air just audible through the hull, it became a passageway.
‘Okay, you’re safe to open the top hatch now,’ Lucy said.
A moment later, Jack was lowering the ladder and climbing up to the hatch. But he paused before pressing the release button. ‘I know we’ve done this routine before, but you’re absolutely certain that this is safe, Lucy?’
‘Oh you are such a worry wart,’ she replied. ‘There is a ninety-five percent chance that it will be fine.’
Mike pulled a face. ‘So this is where you tell us about the five percent chance where it won’t be?’
Lucy made an embarrassed chuckling sound. ‘Hey, those are still pretty good odds you know.’
‘Then that will have to do,’ I said, slipping my earbud in. ‘Go for it, Jack.’
He nodded, but I tensed, ready for a sudden deluge of icy death as he pressed the green button. With a hiss and nothing more, the hatch swung open accompanied by a popping in my ears as the pressure equalised to the air corridor above us. Thankfully, apart from a few dribbles of water splashing down onto Jack’s face there was nothing further.
Mike let out a long breath. ‘So your ninety-five percent rule was golden after all, Lucy.’
‘You see, ye all of little faith,’ she replied.
Shaking his head, Jack already had his Glock out and was aiming it up through the hatch. I was next onto the ladder, LRS in hand, with Ruby and Mike bringing up the rear. Mike’s dart gun was primed and ready for action and I noticed the look on his face was a lot less haunted. Yes, that had definitely been a good call on his part.
‘Okay, kill the lights in the cockpit, then everyone turn on their thermal vision systems. It’s going to be pitch black up there without any power,’ I said.