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“Do you recognize it?” Phoebe asked.
At this point, Monk saw no reason to lie. “It’s a Chinese sub.”
Phoebe frowned. “Then we’ll have to hope that the Chinese are willing to—”
With a great boom, the landscape lurched ahead of them. The coral forest rose in a huge wave and swept swiftly toward them. Bryan goosed the thrusters and shot them higher, trying to escape the quake. Still, they barely got clear in time. The rolling wave of the forest canopy brushed theCormorant’s underside as the wave passed beneath them.
Turbulence continued to rock the DSV like a paint shaker. This quake was far more violent than the other.
But that was not the only danger.
“Radiation is spiking!” Datuk yelled.
Bryan spun theCormorantand fled farther away.
“Eighty rem!”
Monk pictured the quake shattering the shielding around the sub’s nuclear reactor, breaking it open wider. They were never going to escape in time.
Not like this.
“A hundred! If it crosses much higher, we risk radiation poisoning. Even in here.”
“Blowing all ballast,” Bryan warned. “Jettisoning external battery packs, too.”
Small booms sounded outside the DSV as explosive bolts were blown, casting off extra weight. TheCormorantshot upward like a cork out of a champagne bottle.
Below, the glowing landscape fell away. The dark stain spread wider as the surge of radiation fried more of the sensitive coral.
A new voice intruded, rising from the radio modem. The messagewas urgent, panicked. “Cormorant, this isTitan X! Get out of the Tonga. Now!”
Monk knew there was a lag time in communications at this depth. The warning had been dispatched seven seconds ago.
He prayed it wasn’t already too late.
Fourth
18
January 24, 12:02A.M.WIB
Jakarta, Island of Java, Indonesia
Gray had to appreciate the irony of the location for this hostage exchange. It was called the Love Bridge, a tourist attraction at the Ancol beach resort in northern Jakarta.
He stood at the western leg of the U-shaped wooden bridge as it arced out over Jakarta Bay and returned to the beach nine hundred feet away. Between the two legs stretched a curve of sandy beach. The Love Bridge got its name because the arc of the wooden jetty and the curve of the beach formed the outline of a huge heart at the edge of the city’s bay.
“It’s gotta be a trap,” Seichan said.
“Love usually is.” Gray cast her a sidelong glance.
It waslovethat had drawn them here. Valya had captured Seichan’s mother in Singapore. The Russian had contacted them through the triad network, showing proof of life and arranging this exchange. In the brief video, Guan-yin’s face had been a mask of fury, one eye swollen shut. Valya had given them little time to reach Jakarta from Singapore. Her demand had reached them only six hours ago. Either they came to Jakarta and handed over the papers that Gray had secured at the museum or Guan-yin would be returned to them—piece by piece. The schedule had left them little leeway to do more than scramble to get to the island of Java.
Seichan’s anxiety and fury were palpable as she stood alongside Zhuang and a dozen of theDuàn zhiTriad members. More gunmen guarded the paths to the bridge on this side. Zhuang carried an H&K assault rifle. His other men bore a slew of firearms.
Nine hundred feet away, the opposite leg of the bridge had been equally fortified by the enemy. Gray had studied them through a set of binoculars. He had easily spotted Valya standing next to Guan-yin. The former Guild assassin had shed her disguise. Her pale face and white hair were a beacon in the dark, aglow in the wan light of a streetlight on that side. She had brought not only a handful of her own men—a mix of Russians and Eastern Europeans—but also a large cadre of Chinese gunmen. From the way the latter carried themselves and their QBZ rifles, they were likely military, possibly one of the PLA’s elite combat units.
With the two encampments entrenched on either side, the exchange would happen out on the middle of the bridge, where the wooden jetty pinched inward and formed the top of a heart sitting on the water. There was a restaurant—Le Bridge—located at that picturesque point, but it was closed and dark for the night. The two parties would meet on the bridge near there.
