“You sure you’re alright?”
I nodded, muscling through it.
I peeled out of my wetsuit and wrapped myself in the thermal blanket.
Jack throttled up and lifted the Neptune from the seabed. He banked the craft around and headed back toward the habitat. We floated over the sunken enemy submersible.There were no markings on it, and nothing to indicate any of the occupants had escaped. It was another watery grave.
I kept watch on the sonar the entire way. I was looking forward to a hot meal and a hot shower.
Almost an hour later, the lights of the habitat came into view.
I grabbed the mic and keyed it. "Neptune to Oceanus, do you copy?”
There was no response.
I tried again, and still nothing. Maybe the AquaLink system was down.
"I don't like this," I said. "Circle around the habitat.”
Jack knew what I was thinking.
"Oceanus, this is Neptune, do you copy?"
Jack angled the mini-sub around to the control room. Through the massive porthole, we got a look inside. Several hostiles dressed in black tactical gear with assault rifles had taken control of the habitat. They held the crew hostage.
Dread twisted my stomach, but it didn't totally surprise me. I knew there were other hostiles in the area. In the back of my mind, I had considered this very possibility.
An ominous voice crackled back through the speaker in an Eastern European accent. "Neptune, I see you have returned to base.”
"Who is this?" I asked.
"Who I am is none of your concern. It's what I want.”
"What do you want?”
"You have something that doesn't belong to you. If you return it, I will let the hostages go, and you can go about your business.”
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, playing dumb.
"You see, I've lost contact with my team. The last communication I had with them warned of trouble.”
"I'm sorry to hear that. There are a lot of things that can go wrong at this depth.”
"Indeed. The problem I have at the moment is that you have taken property that doesn’t belong to you."
"I still don't know what you're talking about.”
"Perhaps if I kill one of the hostages, you will develop a certain clarity.”
"That's not necessary.”
"I thought you'd see it that way." He paused. "I suspect you can confirm that my team is not returning."
I said nothing.
"I see we’re still having a communication barrier. I know you recovered items from the Silent Dragon. I know my people tried to engage your craft. The last communication I received from them was that they had fired a torpedo at your sub. Is that correct?” After a brief pause, he said, "Answer truthfully, or I will kill a hostage.”
"This submarine is not equipped with any weapons. How your team’s submarine ended up at the bottom of the oceanhas nothing to do with me. Piece of advice, don't use acoustically targeted light torpedoes. They can come back to haunt you.”
