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Still, Monk stared into those black seas, searching for the threat that they both knew must be hiding out there. The gravelly noise could be nothing. It could be, as Phoebe had attested, some residual grinding of the tectonic plates under them. But it could also be a more immediate threat—one close by.
The noise sounded worrisomely like the cavitation of a propeller thrumming through the water around them, circling closer and farther, creating a shifting doppler as it moved.
Adam hoped he and Monk were both wrong, especially considering the nationality of the wreckage under them. He leaned forward and joined Monk’s vigil of the seas, but in his gut, he knew they were both right.
There’s a submarine hiding out there.
4:12A.M.
As theCormorantcrested out of the water, a thunderous boom greeted their arrival. Phoebe had heard similar muffled explosions for the past two minutes as the vehicle neared the surface. It sounded like they were rising into the middle of a sea battle. The others all crowded toward the front window.
“Dumping the freeboard weight now,” Bryan said.
Small bolts blew outside, and theCormorantlifted higher in the water. The seas receded across the glass, stopping about three-quarters of the way down.
Above the waterline, the sight made no sense. It looked as if they had surfaced into another world. There were no stars. The skies lay low and heavy. Lightning and deep flashes coursed through a thick cloud layer—but the source of the booming was not thunder.
To the east, the horizon was on fire. A handful of patches glowed a bright orange through the gloom. The closest danced with a cascade of flames.
“Volcanos,” Phoebe said.
Another shattering explosion blasted a distant glow into a fiery spectacle. She glanced over to Adam, remembering the maps she had shown him, along with the cataclysm he had forecast.
Is it already coming true?
Adam pointed toward the view. “Those fires must mark the neighboring Kermadec Islands. A chain that runs alongside the trench from New Zealand to Tonga.”
“Does anyone live on them?” Monk asked.
Adam shook his head. “They’re all uninhabited. I think there’s a field station on one that’s periodically occupied.”
“Thank god for that,” Monk said.
Phoebe felt little relief.
These islands aren’t the only ones threatened.
She cast her gaze past Adam’s shoulder, picturing the regions west of the trench and the hundred-plus volcanos that he and his uncle had judged to be the most at risk. Adam met her gaze before she could look away.
“Are we too late?” Phoebe asked him.
He simply shook his head. “We need to get aboard theTitan Xto find out.”
She turned around. Already a fine layer of powdery ash settled over the window. Even the waves that washed along the bottom of the glass were heavily clouded by the same.
Bryan pulled the yoke by his seat, and the thrusters hummed. As theCormorantturned, the giant yacht came into view. Its lights shone dully, dimmed by the ash fall. Even the huge glass sphere of Science City was crowned by a layer of dark powder.
The pilot hit a switch, and a Xenon strobe started flashing above, signaling their location. Phoebe knew from her pre-dive instructions that it also ignited an Iridium satellite beacon.
Bryan unhooked a handset. “Now that we’ve surfaced, I can radio theTitan X. Get them to send out a recovery boat.”
“Make it fast,” Adam said, sharing a worried look with Monk and a guarded glance at Datuk.
Phoebe suspected Adam’s concern went beyond erupting volcanos. As the two men faced the window, they both stared across the water, ignoring the glowering expanse of theTitan X.
Bryan reached the yacht’s radio room and chattered in the arcane language of pilots. All acronyms and shorthanded instructions. Once done, he hauled out of his seat and squeezed over to the heavy wheel of the overhead hatch. He twirled it open, then shoved hard on the hinged door. Once it was open, he climbed up the short exit trunk to reach the exterior hatch. He cracked the door enough to let in fresh air—thoughfreshwas far from what it smelled like. The sea breeze reeked of burning sulfur. He didn’t open the hatch any farther, to keep ash from contaminating the interior of the sphere.
Outside, a low rumbling continued, punctuated by louder blasts.
