Deep Fathom (12 page)

Lisa's voice came over the radio, but interference drowned out her words. Not static. It was as if someone had recorded Lisa's voice and played it back at a higher speed.

“Say again, Topside.”

He concentrated, and he could just make out Lisa's words. “Your heart rate…it's dropping significantly. Are you okay?”

Jack glanced to his own pulse reading. It was normal. “I don't understand.”

Any response was lost in a high-pitched whine. Jack lowered the volume as it began to ache his ear. He thought there must be a glitch with the radio, and glanced to the compass. It still pointed toward the strange pillar.

The damned thing must be magnetic.

As he moved nearer the pillar, the tingling sensation was swept from his body, as if cool water were drenching him. Jack shivered and slowed the submersible. He hovered before the pillar.

Craning his neck, he examined its length. The column continued to glow, but not with its own light. It was simply
an optical effect, a reflection and refraction of his own light, like sunlight on a diamond. Though the pillar was clearly stone, it was not black volcanic rock. Instead, it was made of some type of crystal, like a shaft of quartz thrust up from the seabed floor.

Under his lamplight, the crystal had a slight aquamarine hue to it, streaked with whorls of brilliant ruby. Though it stood as straight as an arrow, Jack sensed it was a natural structure. Not man-made. Some natural phenomenon, undiscovered until now. With only five percent of the ocean floor explored, such discoveries, like the lava pillars, were being made all the time.

Jack circled the crystalline obelisk. With the communications still garbled, he feared the video feed might also be affected, so he switched the cameras to local recording, saving it all on DVD disk. Once he was done, he turned the sub around and returned to the edge of the debris field.

The mystery would have to wait for now. He had a mission to complete. He would use his own hydrophones and sonar to search for Air Force One's data recorders. It would make the work harder, but not impossible. Whatever communication glitch had occurred would have to be worked out topside.

As he swung free of the debris field, Lisa's voice came over the radio, as clear as glass. “Jack…What the hell is going on down there?”

“Lisa?”

“Jack!” The relief in her voice rang clear. “You goddamn asshole. Why didn't you answer me? The readings we were getting were all frizzed, and the video feed became garbled nonsense. We didn't know what was going on.”

“How are my readings now?”

“Uh…fine. Green lights across the board. What happened down there?”

“I'm not entirely sure. There's something here that I can't explain. It's screwing with my compass and must be affecting other systems, too.”

“What is it?” Charlie asked, piping in. “I was getting tiny seismic readings just as you went off-line. You scared me
good,
mon
.”

“I'm not sure, Charlie. But I got it all on DVD. I'll show you when I get topside, but right now I still have my mission to accomplish.” Jack glided the sub near the jet's tail fin again. He had come complete circle. “Lisa, can you guide me to the boxes?”

“Y-You're right on top of them.” Lisa's voice trembled. She was clearly still shaken. “Grab them and get your ass out of there.”

Jack lowered the sub. “Will do.” He glanced to his compass. It still pointed to the strange pillar thrusting up from the heart of the debris, a gigantic gravestone marking the resting place of the dead.

He began his search through the rubble with a quiet prayer for the men and women of Air Force One, especially one:
Rest in peace, Mr. President.

“Miyuki!” Karen yelled. A second shot blasted from beyond the short tunnel, muffled this time. But who? Karen knelt on both knees. She saw the passage to the outside blocked. Someone was crawling toward her.

She swung her tiny flashlight up.

From the tunnel, Miyuki's panicked face stared back at her. “Pull me to you,” she hissed. “Someone's shooting at us.” Miyuki extended her arms.

Karen dropped the flashlight and reached out to grasp her friend's wrists. Planting her feet, she hauled Miyuki inside the cramped heart of the pyramid's temple.

Miyuki, panting and wild-eyed, rolled off Karen and sat up. She reached down and unhooked two packages from her ankles: their tote bag of equipment and Karen's .38 automatic, still in its holster. “I didn't want to leave anything behind,” she said, handing Karen the pistol.

Karen undid the snaps and shook the holster off her gun.
It reassured her to feel cold steel in her palm. “What happened?”

“Men…three of them. They must have spotted our boat and come to see what we had discovered.”

“Looters?”

Miyuki nodded.

“So you crawled in here?”

“I didn't know what else to do.”

“Did they see you slip in here?”

“I don't know.”

Already, harsh voices echoed to them. Their attackers were climbing the pyramid. Karen did not have time to crawl back out and set up an ambush. She scanned around the cramped chamber for another exit. They were trapped. All they had to defend themselves were the eight remaining bullets in her pistol.

Miyuki backed away from the tunnel opening. “What are we going to do?” She crossed to the snake-adorned altar and crouched next to it.

The rasp of boots on stone approached, the voices louder. The looters were not speaking Japanese. It sounded like a dialect of one of the South Pacific islanders. Karen strained to understand, but the language was unfamiliar to her.

A pair of legs appeared at the tunnel's entrance.

Tensing, Karen flicked off her flashlight, plunging the chamber into darkness. She raised the pistol in both hands. Sunlight blazed beyond the tunnel. She had a clear shot. Three men, eight bullets. If she shot well, they might have a chance. But her hands shook. She was an excellent shot, but had never aimed at a human target before.

The man knelt at the exit, leaning on one palm. Karen noticed a pale tattoo scrawling up his dark arm: a winding snake. The man twisted, barking an order to a companion. As his forearm turned, Karen saw the sprout of feathers about the head of the snake. Its red eyes stared back at her.

Karen suppressed a gasp. It was the same as the altar's carving! The man's face leaned into view, flashlight in hand. In his other hand he held her embroidered jacket. He yelled something toward them. Though she didn't know the
language, she knew he was ordering them to show themselves.

Karen ducked to the side as a beam of light pierced their hiding place. She clutched the gun to her chest. She would only shoot if forced. Maybe they would believe that she and Miyuki had fled.

The beam of light vanished and darkness reclaimed the chamber. Karen leaned against the damp rock wall. As long as they sat still, she thought, they were safe. If any of the men tried to crawl inside, she could easily dispatch them with a single shot.

The best defense right now was a waiting game.

The men outside had grown quiet. Karen could hear scuffling and scraping but could not discern what they were doing. Moving quietly, she shifted to peer out of the tunnel again.

In the bright sunlight, she saw a rusted metal canister being tipped and its contents splashed into the tunnel's entrance. The reek hit her nostrils at the same time understanding clenched her heart.

Kerosene!

Karen watched the trail of flammable liquid flow down the slanted tunnel toward them. She covered her mouth against the rising fumes. The looters meant to burn them out or kill them. She backed away from the tunnel, knowing she dare not shoot, not when a spark might ignite the kerosene.

Karen bumped into Miyuki behind her. Her friend had her handheld Palm computer. In the gloom, she saw Miyuki furiously tapping at its tiny glowing screen.

“I'm trying to reach Gabriel,” Miyuki said sternly, all business. “A call for help, but there is too much interference.”

Karen was surprised at Miyuki's resourcefulness. “What if you were nearer the entrance?”

Miyuki glanced toward the opening. “That might help,” she said.

Briefly illuminated by the computer screen's glow, Karen's eye again caught on the ruby-eyed altar serpent. It
was similar to the rendering on their attacker's arm. Was there some connection? But how? The pyramid had been submerged for centuries in these waters.

Miyuki had moved closer to the entrance, with Karen beside her. The flow of kerosene now trailed into the chamber. Karen peered out and saw the canister on its side. No men were in sight, but she could still hear them. Tilting her head, she listened. They were singing—or perhaps
chanting
.

Shivering, she gestured to Miyuki. “Hurry.”

Her friend knelt into the stream of flammable liquid, her hands trembling. She dropped to her belly, extending her computer to arm's length down the tunnel, seeking a wireless signal. “I can barely see the screen.”

“Just try. We have to—”

“Good afternoon, Professor Nakano.”
Gabriel's voice seemed explosively loud.

Miyuki froze, sprawled in the stream of kerosene. “Gabriel?”

“I am continuing to collect and correlate your data. May I be of additional assistance?”

The singsong chanting continued uninterrupted from beyond the tunnel. Their conversation had not been heard.

“Can you pick up our location?”

“Of course, my GPS is working perfectly, Professor Nakano.”

“Then please contact the Chatan authorities. Tell them we are under assault by looters at this location.”

Before Gabriel could acknowledge this command, the chanting outside abruptly ended. Karen clutched Miyuki's arm, warning her to silence. Miyuki yanked back her computer, and the two women rolled to the side. Karen saw the first man's face appear again at the tunnel's mouth. This time it was not a flashlight he held in his free hand, but a matchstick.

Time had run out.

He struck the match on the stone. A tiny flame sprouted. Holding the match aloft, the man again called toward them. His words almost sounded laced with regret. Then he tossed the flaming match down the tunnel.

“You're running out of air, Jack,” Lisa warned through the radio. Her voice had remained edgy since the glitch in communications. She had been calling him every other minute.

“I know,” he snapped back at her. “I can see my oxygen gauge.” Jack worked the pedals of his submersible while simultaneously manipulating the controls to the remote exterior arms. He dragged a large chunk of fuselage out of the way. Silt billowed up from his motion, clouding his view. He had been working now close to an hour, shifting through the debris, following the
ping
of the wreck's black boxes. Jack released the chunk of twisted metal and shifted the sub into reverse, using the thrusters to blow the silt clear. He didn't have time to wait for it to settle on its own.

The
Nautilus
glided backward, but he watched the water clear ahead of him. Once satisfied, he slowed the submersible and edged back to the work site. Tilting the sub, Jack examined the sandy seabed. A thick sea cucumber rolled across the empty space, disturbed by his passage.

C'mon, you bastard, where are you?

Then he spotted it. A squarish object half buried in the muddy silt. He swung his lights to focus on it and sighed in relief.
Thank God!
He wiped sweat from his eyes. The small space had grown humid from his labors. “Found it!” he called hoarsely into his microphone.

“Say again?”

“I found the second black box.”

He inched the sub forward and settled it to the seabed. The characteristic orange and red box lay near the sub's nose. The term “black” box was a misnomer. The data recorders had never been black. Jack reached out with his titanium arms. Using the right pincer, he gripped the rectangular box and carefully pulled it from the mud. He lifted it into view and grinned in relief, suddenly giddy. He had done it! It was Air Force One's cockpit recorder.

“Got it!”

“Then get your ass up here, Jack. You're damn near the point of no return. Your CO
₂
levels are already rising.”

“I hear you, Mother,” he said, checking his gauges. He had just enough oxygen to reach the surface—at least, he hoped so. Swinging around in a tight arc, he returned to where he had left the first box—the flight's data recorder—and collected it up in his left pincer.

“Got both prizes. Coming up!”

Jack had reached for the key to blow his ballast when a glint from the seafloor caught his eye. Frowning, he swung his lamps. A gasp escaped his throat. “Oh, God!”

“Jack, what is it?”

In the lamp's glare a
face
stared back at him from the seabed floor. It took Jack a couple heartbeats to realize the visage was not that of a dead body—instead, the face shone bright green under his light. It was hard, crystalline. Jade. As he adjusted the light, he recognized the distinct Asian features and ancient war crown. He'd been told about the gift given to President Bishop by the Chinese Premier—a full-sized replica of a terra-cotta warrior, done in jade. Jack nudged the
Nautilus
closer and bumped the bust with one of the sub's arms. The head rolled across the silty bottom. It was all that was left of the ten-foot statue.

“Jack, what is it?” Lisa repeated.

Jack swallowed hard. “Nothing. I'm okay. Coming up.”

But before he could leave, his eyes returned to the green gaze of the jade bust. The features were so lifelike—the sole survivor of the tragedy. Switching both black boxes to one pincer, Jack used the freed-up arm to grab the piece of jade sculpture. It had been the last gift to a dead President. He would not leave it behind.

With his treasures in hand, Jack tapped a key and blew his ballast. The sub burst upward from the seabed with a goose of his thrusters.

Below, he watched the debris field fade away. Near its center, the strange spear of crystalline rock came into view again, jabbing up from the seabed. His gaze was drawn to it. He knew Charlie would sell his eyeteeth to catch a glimpse of the amazing structure. Jack hoped the video footage he had recorded to disk would come out.

As he climbed, the sight vanished beyond the reach of the
sub's searchlights. Jack settled back to his seat. Every muscle ached. He had not realized how the effort had worn on him: the tension, the cramped quarters, the meticulous work. While sifting through the debris, he had kept himself tight as a fist. Periodically as he'd worked, the strange tingling sensation had washed over him, quivering the tiny hairs all over his body. It was as if the eyes of the dead were studying him. Occasionally he would swear he caught movement at the corners of his eyes. But when he'd looked, all he found was wreckage and debris.

“Jack, there's someone here who wants to speak to you.”

“Who?”

A new voice came over the radio. “How are you doing, Jack?”

“Admiral?” What was Mark Houston doing aboard the
Fathom
?

As if reading his mind, the admiral answered, “I was flown to your boat about ten minutes ago. I heard the good news en route. So you've recovered
both
data recorders?”

“Yes, sir. I should be up with them in about fifteen minutes.”

“I knew you could do it, Jack.”

Jack remained silent. As much as he wanted to distance himself from his naval past, praise from his old commander still affected him.

Admiral Houston continued, “How did your submersible handle?”

“Except for that glitch in communications, she handled like a dream.”

“Good, because the NTSB team has been monitoring your video feed of the wreckage. The team has already targeted a few key pieces of the plane that they'd like to see brought to the surface.”

“Sir?”

“Would you be willing to haul cable from the winches?”

Jack bit his lower lip, holding back a curse. He had hoped the retrieval of the flight's data recorders would end his obligation here. “I'd have to check with the rest of my team.”

“Of course, you have the night to sleep on it. The NTSB
will have enough on its hands just analyzing the black boxes.”

Jack grimaced. He did not want to return to the deep-sea graveyard. Though he had been searching wrecks for the past decade, this one was different. It reminded him too acutely of his own accident.

“I'll consider it, Admiral. That's all I'll say for now.”

“That's all I'm asking.”

Sighing, Jack leaned back and watched the depth gauge wind toward the two hundred meter mark. The seas around him began to lighten. It was as if dawn were approaching after a long moonless night. He had never wanted to see the sky so desperately.

A more familiar voice returned to the radio. “We have your GPS picked up,” Lisa said. “Charlie already has the dinghy in the water.”

“Thanks, Lisa. The sooner I get out of this titanium coffin and into a cold shower, the better.”

“What about what the admiral wants us to do?”

Jack screwed up his face. He did not want this conversation. “What do you think? Should we do it?”

He could almost hear Lisa shrug. “It's up to you, Jack, but I don't like that communication glitch. The sub is still experimental. It was not meant to be tested so vigorously. I'd really like to see the sub dry-docked and inspected to make sure the seals are undamaged. You don't take chances at these depths.”