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On the screen, the blip of the torpedo closed on them. The pings of its targeting system repeatedly struck the sphere, ringing it like a bell.
Bryan made a grim assessment. “We’re not going to make it.”
4:31P.M.
Daiyu sped upward in theQianliyan. The fissure’s cliffs swept past on both sides. More rocks pummeled the vehicle’s exterior shell, but it continued to shield the passenger sphere. A couple of stones bounced off the unprotected glass, making her jerk away.
A moment ago, she had increased her rate of ascent by shedding the vehicle’s extra oxygen tanks, stripping theQianliyandown to its barest essentials. At this point, all that mattered was getting clear of this fissure.
To either side, the walls steadily pinched toward her. Through the acoustic headphones, she listened to the constant grinding of rock.
I will not die like this, an ignoble and solitary end.
She glanced at Yang’s corpse. He had voided his bowels and the stench filled the sphere with a putrefying rank.
Not like this.
She tried casting up a call to her forces miles overhead, to both alert them to her distress and to prepare Aigua to ready the ELF array in theDabie Mountains. But all she got back was that ongoing rumble. The quake continued to deafen and mute her efforts.
She clenched her jaws, taking solace in the fact that her onboard systems continued to show she had just enough time to clear the fissure.
Then a loud cracking boom shook theQianliyan. Out the window, a large slab of the cliff fell away, like an iceberg calving from a glacier. It tilted toward her.
She cringed and goosed the thrusters on that side.
She held her breath. Rock scraped down theQianliyan’s shell as the vehicle shied past the slab’s top edge. Once free, she raced upward again, heaving out a sigh of relief.
Below her feet, the massive shard fell away and knifed into the darkness. She returned her gaze skyward and repeated her promise to herself.
Not like this.
4:32P.M.
“Hold tight,” Bryan called out.
Phoebe braced a palm on the curve of the roof. Adam had suggested this maneuver. She prayed it would work.
Bryan unloaded their ballast again.
It had quickly become evident that their angled descent would never allow them to reach the coral forest before the torpedo struck. Adam had offered a desperate alternative.A sudden reversal of their flight. He hoped it might throw off the torpedo’s targeting system, requiring it to reestablish a lock. And if not, the weapon was weighted down by the eight miles of water. Any sudden change in its trajectory could slow it.
Maybe just enough.
TheCormorantshot upward again. Bryan tucked their wings tight to the side, streamlining their profile. He lost some maneuverability, but he compensated by driving the thrusters at full power. As they climbed, the vehicle aimed for the forest.
The curving trunks and twisted branches filled the world on that side.
Adam leaned between the front seats. He ignored the view out the window and concentrated on the sonar. “The torpedo’s swinging around. It’s noted our change.”
“It’s fucking smart,” Datuk said.
“But it lost some speed making the turn,” Phoebe reported.
“Still, it’s quickly compensating.” Adam pointed to the accelerating blip.
Bryan yelled again. “Going to try something.”
No one had time to ask him what it was.
