by Nick Cook
Everyone nodded.
Erin flicked a switch and the virtual cockpit display dulled to a faint red, night vision glow.
Lucy’s avatar gazed out at us from her window. ‘I’ve killed the rest of the security cameras that have a separate backup power source. That way, hopefully, they won’t be tipped-off about this being a raid until it’s too late.’
‘Good thinking,’ I said, slipping my breathing mask on.
The strong smell of rubber filled my nostrils. The others were just silhouettes now in the darkness, so I flicked down the HUD built into my helmet and turned the vision system on. Immediately, the team became visible as ghostly glowing shapes.
Jack climbed out onto the hull with me right behind him. I went to step onto the ladder up into the dock first, but Jack shook his head.
‘Lauren, just this once you shouldn’t be in the frontline,’ he said.
Ruby nodded. ‘Yeah, you and your Empyrean key are way too critical to pulling this mission off.’
I was about to argue that I should always go first, but Jack just looked at me with that challenging look of his that he seemed to specialise in when he needed to pull me into line. Maybe this time he had a point.
‘Okay, okay. I’ll cover you then rather than waste time getting into an argument about it.’
A brief smile flickered across his lips. ‘Good that you’re seeing sense for once, Commander.’
I scowled at him, but the effect was totally lost when he could only see me in thermal vision mode.
We peered up through the underwater passageway into the dock above. It appeared to be empty with no guards in sight. It made sense though, after all who would expect any uninvited guests to enter the dock at this sort of depth?
I watched as first Ruby, then Jack ascended the ladder, with me ready to shoot anything that might even vaguely look like a threat. But they reached the top of the ladder without incident and disappeared for a moment. Then, much to my relief, Ruby reappeared and gestured to Mike and I.
‘We’re all good, guys. Erin, keep the engine running,’ she said over the comms channel, her voice slightly muffled by her mask.
‘Got it. Don’t be too long, I don’t want to get a ticket,’ Erin replied.
Snorting, Ruby turned away and disappeared into the dock.
I nodded to Mike, who was already taking deep breaths.
‘Ready?’ I whispered.
‘As I’ll ever be, Lauren,’ he said, cocking his dart gun.
Then with my LRS in my hand and a sense of the calm before the storm settling over me, I began to ascend the ladder into whatever was waiting for us.
Chapter Twenty-One
We spread out round the small indoor area of the dock with Alvarez’s submersible floating in it and Ariel submerged beneath the other craft.
‘Lucy, to play things on the same side in case Erin needs to make a fast getaway by herself, kill the gravity field corridor to Ariel,’ I said into my mic.
Erin immediately cut in. ‘Hey, hold up. I’m not going anywhere without you guys.’
‘You may have to if this mission goes wrong,’ I replied. ‘Better to have at least one of us report back and return for a rescue mission.’
A long sigh followed. ‘Okay, I want it noted that I’m not happy about it, but if you order me to, I’ll pull back if that moment comes,’ Erin replied. ‘So let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.’
‘Now there’s something we can all agree on,’ Ruby replied.
I nodded at her. ‘Lucy, please retract the gravity corridor.’
‘You got it,’ Lucy said.
With a gurgle, the passageway back to our ship collapsed and water flooded into it. That was it – we were cut off and on our own until the other side of this thing.
Beyond the door leading out of the dock, I could hear the distant murmur of voices and cursing in what sounded like Serbian, which was being translated into a string of expletives by my earbud.
‘Lucy, can you give me a fix on the current location of the crew?’ I asked.
‘Looking at the schematics, if you exit the dock through the door at the end, you’ll enter a short corridor. The main power supply room is the room off it on your left. There are two soldiers in there right now trying to work out what the hell is going on. The other four soldiers are in a control room at the end of the corridor off to the right. So far no one’s realised that they’ve lost comms with the bathyspheres because I’m feeding false data to their screens, which they are running on emergency power.’
‘You may not be here in your micro mind, but you’re already making a hell of a difference to this mission, Lucy,’ Jack said.
‘Hey, you crazy kids just can’t do without me,’ she replied, clearly amused.
Ruby glanced towards the door. ‘So how do we want to play this, Commander?’
‘We need to try and take out the two soldiers in the power room as stealthily as possible,’ I said. ‘Then hopefully, with the element of surprise on our side, we can storm the main control room.’
‘An alternative strategy is that we split into two assault groups,’ Ruby replied. ‘Jack and I can head for the control room whilst you guys deal with the power room. With a simultaneous assault, there’ll be less chance of anyone raising the alarm.’
‘Okay, I like your plan better,’ I said. ‘Mike, you’re with me to storm the power room. Jack, when you’re in position with Ruby, let me know and we’ll coordinate.’
‘Will do,’ he said, taking hold of the circular handle that would release the bolts from around the edges of the frame. Ruby took up a position to one side of it with her Colt drawn.
Mike and I hung back, weapons ready as Jack spun the pressure door handle as slowly as possible to keep the noise down. But when its hinges let out a teeth-grinding squeal, I tensed, ready for the immediate shout of a challenge. Thankfully, none came.
So far so good.
Ruby stepped out first, followed by Jack. A second later, Mike and I followed them out into the corridor. Jack and Ruby were already disappearing down it, heading to the right.
Less than five metres away was another pressurised door with another round handle. It looked like the base had been designed to be able to seal off any flooded sections, just like in every submarine movie I’d seen. Mike and I crept along the corridor towards it, grateful for our helmets’ image intensifiers in the pitch black.
The murmured conversation on the other side of the door grew louder as we closed in. It took one look at the circular handle for me to realise it would screech to hell if we opened it. That alone was going to make it near impossible to sneak up on the soldiers on the other side of it. We needed a different approach.
‘We’re in position,’ Jack whispered through my earbuds.
I looked back along the corridor. Jack and Ruby were either side of the far door and were ready for my order. I held up a hand, palm forward just as Tom had taught me, to tell them to stop. Mike gave me a questioning look.
‘Trust me,’ I whispered. Then I raised my fist and gave three sharp raps on the door.
On the other side the conversation stopped dead.
’Sta?’ a man called out, which my earbud translated into what?
I ignored the question and rapped again.
This time I didn’t need my earbud to translate the curse. Footsteps approached and I immediately made a hand chopping motion to Jack and Ruby - the signal for attack.
I breathed in as Mike stepped to one side of the door, his dart gun raised.
My LRS safety was off, my body primed and pumped for combat. The door began to open. At the other end of the corridor, Jack began to spin the wheel to unlock the door in front of him.
I’d hoped the soldiers would assume we were their colleagues come to check on them, especially in this darkness. What I hadn’t counted on was the guy that opened the door, with a massive torch that would give a searchlight a run for its bloody money. As the burly guy cracked the door open, the
blinding beam from his torch overwhelmed my image intensifier system.
My brief hesitation was all that the man needed.
He shoved the door hard into me, knocking the LRS from my hand. At the same moment, shouts came from the end of the corridor, followed by the staccato burst of semi-automatic pistol fire.
But as the burly guy reached for his own holstered weapon, he suddenly gave me a shocked look and crumpled to the ground, a dart poking out of his neck. Then before I could stop Mike, he charged past me into the room. A shout came from inside, followed by the crack of a bullet.
My stomach clenched as I dashed into the room, sweeping my LRS left and right to target the bastard who’d just shot Mike. Then my mind caught up with the scene before me.
Mike stood panting in the corner, looking down at a giant of a guy that made the first soldier look like a wimpy kid. But as huge as the man was, the dart sticking out of his shoulder had obviously done its job. The goliath was still twitching, his eyes shut, a pistol still in his hand. Mike grabbed the weapon from him and stowed it in the back of his own belt.
I gave Mike a sharp nod, partly stunned by the foolhardy bravery that he’d just shown, but mainly stupidly proud of him. But there wasn’t any time for praise – weapon fire was still echoing from the corridor. Then, like a switch had been thrown, it all went ominously quiet.
I spun round and headed out into the corridor, holding out my LRS in both hands. At the far end, the door was open and there was no sign of Jack or Ruby.
I was already reaching for a tear gas grenade as I stalked towards the scene, blood pounding in my ears. Ready to pull the pin, I stood to one side of the door and prepared to lob the grenade through the gap and then slam the door shut to let the gas do its worst.
But then Jack appeared, his hands raised. ‘Woah there, Lauren, we’re all good.’
I pulled off my mask and took several deep breaths as I clipped the grenade back onto my belt. I steeped past Jack into the control room, the only light coming from the numerous displays. The smell of cordite from the discharged weapons assaulted my nose as I took in the scene.
Ruby was holstering her Colt, standing over a woman who lay dead at her feet, still clutching a pistol. A torch on the floor cast a spotlight cone across the walls. My gaze flicked around the room to see three other soldiers in black uniforms, all lying slumped in their seats, ragged wounds peppering their bodies.
I took a deep breath to steady the thumping of my heart. ‘Thank God, you’re both okay.’
‘You too,’ Jack said, squeezing my shoulder. ‘Looks like you dealt with your guys okay too?’
‘It was actually Mike who did the heavy lifting. It was pretty impressive to be honest.’
‘That’s big praise coming from you,’ Mike said behind me.
I turned and found myself hugging him. ‘You were bloody spectacular back there, mister.’
‘Seems all that extra combat training I did with Niki paid off.’
‘Since when?’ Jack asked.
‘Hey, I don’t have to tell you guys everything.’
Despite the life and death situation of a moment ago a laugh bubbled up inside me. I pulled away, resisting the urge to ruffle Mike’s hair like a kid brother, although maybe in a way that was exactly what he’d become to me over the years.
‘Lauren, would you like me to restore the lights now?’ Lucy said through my earbud.
‘Please. Also can you make a start of seriously hacking into the computers in here to see if we can learn anything useful?’
‘Already almost finished doing exactly that.’
The lights flickered on as the four of us raised the HUD reticules on our helmets.
‘I also have control of all the base’s torpedo batteries.’ Lucy added.
‘Nice! That could come in useful if we get any more company,’ Ruby said.
‘Precisely. You should also know that I have now fully accessed the security camera playback. According to the footage I just analysed it does indeed look like Fischer and Alvarez took one of those bathyspheres to wherever that hole they blasted through the rock leads to.’
‘Any reference to what that might be stored in this base’s computers?’ I asked.
‘There’s certainly nothing about a micro mind and nothing has been recorded by any of the security cameras to suggest that it’s been here. The only thing I can find is a mention of a lot of heavy excavation equipment on a transport manifest, which was shipped down through that hole.’
Jack’s eyes widened. ‘That sounds like it could be for one of Fischer’s not-give-a-damn archaeological digs.’
‘Sounds like the next stop on this ride, then,’ I said as I turned back towards the door.
I closed the hatch behind us in the bathysphere. If I’d thought Neptune’s cockpit was cramped, it was practically palatial compared to the tight space the four of us were now squeezed into. Making it an even tighter squeeze was all the extra ammo and grenades that we’d crammed in, including Ruby’s Accuracy International sniper rifle with a Starbright KL303 that she’d absolutely insisted on bringing.
A heater was blowing out a constant stream of hot air but was doing little to counteract the freezing temperature of the walls encircling us. Our breaths were clouding like four steam trains in the confined space.
The walls and floor were lined with six portholes and there was also a depth indicator display by the door, indicating that the bathysphere was currently at just over two thousand feet.
Ruby was looking intently at the screen of her Sky Wire and following the live feed from the WASP unit tethered to Ariel, which she’d sent out ahead to scout out the shaft before we were lowered down into it.
‘How’s it looking?’ I asked.
She scowled and swivelled the screen towards me – it was filled with nothing but static. ‘It’s not. I lost the signal to the WASP about ten seconds ago.’
I sat up straighter. ‘Was it taken out?’
‘No, I was getting warnings about electrical interference interrupting the signal before I lost it completely.’
‘But surely that shouldn’t happen? It was using a tethered connection,’ Mike said.
Ruby frowned. ‘Yeah, that’s what’s got me confused as well.’
I pressed my finger to my earbud. ‘Lucy, presumably you were listening in to that. Any insights?’
‘I was actually monitoring the WASP’s feed before we lost contact with it. There was a significant power surge as it entered the shaft and that’s probably what overwhelmed its systems.’
‘So in other words, we have no way of finding out what we’re heading into?’ Mike asked.
Ruby cracked her knuckles. ‘I could always pop back to try and get an answer out of that prisoner we brought round with that shot of adrenaline. I can be very persuasive when I need to be.’
We’d tried everything with the giant of a man to get him to talk, but he’d just glowered at us. In the end Jack had knocked him out with a shot of tranquiliser and we’d left him and his buddy securely tied to one of the bulkheads.
‘We’re so not stooping to Alvarez’s level just yet,’ I said. ‘Jack, Mike and I have far too much personal experience of his expertise with torture to wish that on anyone else, even one of his soldiers.’
‘Damned right,’ Jack said, giving me an approving nod.
Ruby held up her hands. ‘Hey, it was just a suggestion, guys. Anyway, let’s shake our tushes and get down there already.’
‘You heard the lady. Lucy, can you start lowering us?’ I said.
‘Will do. Good luck, folks,’ she replied.
‘I’ll be here keeping that engine warm for you, as always,’ Erin said.
‘Good to know,’ I replied. The thing I didn’t voice was that I was uncertain what real help Erin could provide when there would be no way of reaching us once we headed down the shaft.
With a lurch the airlock retracted back into the corridor that we’d entered the bathysphere through. Then our r
ide began to descend towards the shaft entrance that the two other cables were already leading down into.
Through the portholes in the bottom of the bathysphere I could see there seemed to be a pinprick of light at the end of a long stone tunnel beneath. As we descended into it, I grabbed a last look at the base and at Ariel, still fully cloaked, which made her almost impossible to see. Far above us, the stealthed Zumwalt destroyer was still prowling, no doubt ready to drop more instant death down onto our heads if ordered to. Hopefully, that was now extremely unlikely as Alvarez and Fischer were somewhere down here rather than up there.
The depth display ticked passed two thousand five hundred feet and if anything our descent was actually speeding up.
Around us, as the blast walls skimmed past, I started to notice vertical grooves running through them. I pointed them out to the others. ‘Any idea what those lines might be?’
‘They certainly aren’t natural rock formations if that’s what you’re asking,’ Jack said.
‘Maybe something to do with the Angelus technology down here?’ Mike suggested.
Whatever the explanation, the strange markings slid past the portholes for another few minutes and the depth indicator had already passed three thousand feet when at last the end of the tunnel rushed towards us.
Then we descended into one of the most extraordinary things I’d ever seen in my life.
We had dropped into a vast underwater chasm at least ten kilometres wide and maybe the same again deep. Above us, a smooth, domed stone roof arched away from the shaft, which had been punched straight through the middle of its summit. The grooves that I’d seen in the shaft radiated out down through the roof in tangents, making it clear that it was anything but a natural rock formation. If there were any lingering doubts left in my mind, they were soon swept away by what awaited us below.
Dotted around the vast chamber were vast tree structures at least the height of the tallest of the world’s skyscrapers, all made from shining crystal. The columns seemed to be made from strands woven in a spiralling shape. The caps on the top of the structures had filigrees of light lines running through them like the branches of a tree, which pulsed brighter every so often. Small luminous fibres connected the strange towers to the walls like glowing spider webs.
