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Datuk pointed to his array of sensor data. “I’m not detecting any more radiation. It has dropped steadily after we rose through the salt-dense brine layer. It’s been holding at zero for the past twenty minutes. We should be safe from here.”
Their pilot sat in front next to Phoebe. After the radiation level had dropped to within a tolerable zone, he had halted their ascent at various depths. Each time, like now, he performed a system check. Half of the green lights across his control board blinked an angry red. Even more worrisome were the wisps of smoke rising from several spots. Bryan had assured them it was just some fried circuits and that there was nothing to worry about.
Still, Adam was all too aware of the fire danger aboard the enclosed vehicle. He glanced at Datuk’s screen. TheCormorantwas still a thousand meters underwater.
“We should be able to complete our ascent from here,” Bryan said.“I’ve bypassed the electrical actuator and manually released the last of our ballast weights.”
They began rising again, but it was impossible to tell from looking out at the black ocean. There was no sense of motion inside the enclosed bathysphere. The only evidence was the steadily decreasing number on their depth gauge.
Up front, Bryan toggled a switch back and forth, clearly trying to get the dead section of his board to turn back on.
Monk grimaced at this effort. “Maybe we should have reserved a couple of those extra battery packs, instead of jettisoning them all.”
Adam refused to second-guess their pilot. As rapidly as the radiation had been spiking after the quake, he was happy that Bryan had tossed away the extra baggage of those batteries.
Anything to hasten our departure.
Still, it was taking them longer to ascend than it had taken to get down. Once away from the radiation, Bryan had insisted on a more cautious ascent. Especially as theCormoranthad been struck by the coral’s canopy as the quake wave passed under it. The brief brush had damaged several systems.
“Do we have enough power to reach the surface?” Phoebe asked.
Bryan nodded and wiped the moisture from his brow. “With most systems turned off, the shipboard batteries should suffice.”
“What about communication with theTitan X?” Monk asked.
Phoebe lifted a pair of headphones. “No luck. I’m still getting interference. It’s a common problem with acoustic modems... they’re highly susceptible to background noise. Whale song from miles away can block sound waves and halt communication for hours.”
“What’s causing this interference?” Adam asked.
“It could be anything,” Phoebe said. “Oceans are noisier than most people realize. I ran into a colony of pistol shrimp when working on the Sur Ridge off California’s coast that confounded our sonar efforts. They’re considered the loudest creatures on the planet. They each have a huge claw that snaps so strongly it shoots out a vacuum bubble that collapses in a burst of glowing plasma that reaches a thousand degrees.They literally shoot bullets to kill prey. And very noisily so. Colonies can deafen a sea for miles.”
Monk nodded. “DARPA is actually studying the noise of those shrimp, along with the loud booms of territorial groupers, as a means of detecting underwater threats rather than actively casting out a sonar ping from a boat or buoy. The project called PALS—Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors—is seeking an algorithm that would allow searchers to use the natural background noise of sea creatures as a version of active sonar, listening for how those sounds reflect off hidden objects.”
Phoebe turned to him. “Truly?”
Monk shrugged. “DARPA is always looking for innovation. The oceans cover seventy percent of the earth’s surface, which makes it a huge potential battlefield, one where tensions are increasing rapidly. Especially the seas around this region.”
Phoebe’s interest visibly soured. She surely did not appreciate the natural world being co-opted for war.
Adam changed the subject, back to what truly mattered at the moment. “So, Phoebe, you have no clue where the noise on the phone is coming from?’
“It sounds like gravel spilling down a hillside. Which makes me think we might be hearing the residual tectonics under us.”
Datuk lifted a brow. “The earth grinding its teeth.”
Adam did not appreciate the imagery.
Monk waved for the headphones. “Let me hear it.” He took the phones and listened for a full minute with his brow crinkled, then passed them to Adam. “What do you think?”
Adam slipped the headphones in place and pressed both palms over its earpieces. The tone filled his head. He closed his eyes and noted it did sound like an avalanche of gravel, only this landslide never ended. The only change was a slight rise and fall in volume. He felt a sickening lurch in his belly.
It can’t be...
He swallowed and passed the headphones back to Monk. The Sigma operative stared hard at him, his eyes unblinking, clearly asking for confirmation.
Adam nodded.
Monk turned to stare out the front window as theCormorantascended through the water column. A glance at the depth gauge showed the vehicle had risen out of the midnight seas and into what should have been sunlit waters. But at this late hour, it remained as dark as the depths of the trench.
