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Naval intelligences were notoriously cagy when it came to revealing the true crush depths of their submarines and ancillary weapons.
Datuk monitored their depth gauge.
So did Adam.
Three hundred meters...
Phoebe kept an eye on a small screen that showed a glowing schematic of their location. Their navigational position was fixed by the three landers on the seabed:Huey,Louie, andDewey. The screen was fuzzy and flickering with interference. TheCormorantappeared as a winged blip dropping along a gradient. The seabed glowed below inbright colors, courtesy of the last echo-sounding. The fissure was also evident, showing as a gaping black scar.
Adam watched the winged dot speed toward there.
Four hundred meters...
Phoebe gasped and ducked lower in her seat.
Adam leaned forward. “What?”
She glanced back. “A huge ping just struck us. Far louder than the repeated blasts from the DriX. Hurt like hell.”
Datuk’s eyes got huge. “They found us.”
Five hundred meters...
Adam waved for the phones. Phoebe passed them over. He quickly pulled them over his ears. He closed his eyes. Noise filled his skull—a disharmony of tonal frequencies from Monk’s efforts overhead.
Adam tried to push it all aside, straining for one tell-tale signature.
As he did, an ear-piercing ping struck theCormorantagain, strong enough to ache his teeth. He flinched and waited as it faded into a receding doppler—then a new noise cut through. It was a low rumble that grew steadily in volume. A slightly louder bump interrupted it, confirming his worst fear.
It marked the slam of a torpedo hatch.
He opened his eyes and stared over Datuk’s shoulder.
Six hundred meters...
The rumbling escalated rapidly.
Phoebe stared back at him. He tried to mask his reaction, seeing no reason to panic everyone. Still, her eyes narrowed, and her lips tightened.
She knows what I’m hearing.
He held his breath.
The rumbling quickly drowned out all else—then suddenly stopped. He girded himself for an explosion, but nothing happened. The torpedo must have reached its crush depth and been disabled by the pressure. He pictured it toppling inertly into the depths.
He leaned forward and checked their position.
Seven hundred meters...
He sighed with relief and stripped off the headphones. Monk’s ploy had proven successful. The diversion had bought them enough time to escape into the deeper water—but just barely.
“We should be safe from here,” he said.
Datuk glanced back. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
The man sounded ominous enough that Adam half expected him to pull out a pistol and point it at Phoebe’s head. Instead, he motioned to his screen.
“Sensors are already picking up radiation.”
