AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She cut him off. “Destroyed how?”
“Sunk into a magma lake.”
She heard the panic in his voice. Maybe he feared a nuclear explosion. She sneered at such foolishness. As an engineer, she knew molten fire would not ignite a warhead. At worst, it might blow the missile’s fuel tanks.
Still, the pilot was plainly alarmed and explained why. “The quake is closing the fissure overhead. We leave now or not at all.”
Daiyu searched up, trying to confirm this threat with her own eyes. She hit her sonar, pinging it for the first time. Focused below, she had failed to watch her backside.
She lowered her gaze to her sonar screen. She pinged three more times, just to be certain. Her breath caught in her throat as each image refreshed, showing the incremental squeezing of the walls overhead.
The others weren’t lying.
She used the heel of her hand and flipped the ballast toggles—all of them. TheQianliyantrembled as its pistons emptied all its tanks. Explosive bolts cast off more weight. She also dumped batteries and three of the heavy torpedoes.
The vehicle’s descent braked so hard that it threw her low. She felt a thousand kilos in weight. Then theQianliyanreversed itself. It slowly rose, quickly gaining speed.
The molten destruction of the navy’s nuclear submarine had completed one task assigned to her. Once the quake quieted, she could still send a message above, to be passed to Aigua Choi, to have him transmit the ELF signal. She could still observe its effect from the seas above the fissure.
First, I must reach there.
To ensure that, she needed to lighten theQianliyan. Doing so would also complete her final mission in this cavern. She reached to the weapons console and used a joystick to fix her target. TheCormorantcontinued its noisy ascent. She settled the system’s crosshairs atop it and squeezed the trigger.
The last ofQianliyan’s fangs shot away from the vehicle’s undercarriage. TheDú-yátorpedo sailed off into the darkness.
At these depths, where the pressures turned the water leaden, its pace was sluggish at first, but its speed steadily increased. She followed its path as it pinged a continual barrage at its target, doggedly fixed to it.
It was a slow dagger aimed at the heart of her enemy.
The torpedo swept wide, then spiraled down toward theCormorant.
Satisfied, Daiyu turned her attention upward. According to her onboard computer, she still had time to make her escape.
But just barely.
4:28P.M.
“I’m picking up a target lock,” Bryan said.
Adam needed no such warning. A rapid pinging had started bombarding theCormorant. It was loud enough to sting his ears and was rising steadily.
“They fired something at us,” Adam said. “Likely a torpedo. We must find cover.”
“Where?” Phoebe asked.
Recognizing the approaching threat, Bryan had already begun sucking water into their ballast tanks. Their ascent rapidly slowed, hard enough to lift Adam off his seat.
He braced an arm and pointed out the window. “Into the coral forest. It’s our only hope.”
And not much of one.
Bryan engaged the vehicle’s thrusters and angled them to the side. He used the vehicle’s wings to swing them around.
“I’ve got the weapon up on our sonar,” Phoebe said. “Its speed is rapidly increasing.”
“Steepen our angle of descent,” Adam warned. “We have to get into that forest.”
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Bryan quipped.
