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26
January 24, 6:50A.M.NCT
Under the Coral Sea
Kowalski slid on his belly across the tilted floor. Above him, Byrd crouched in the auxiliary control room. Jarrah braced in the doorway. Haru and Jazz tumbled along with him.
“Hang on!” Byrd called out.
To frigging what?
Kowalski clawed at the steel floor and dug with his toes. The tier was tilted nearly vertical.
Seconds ago, he had spotted the torpedo speeding toward them. Upon his shout of warning, Byrd had yanked on the yoke, sending the nose of their submersible high. By then, they had been under enough speed that the sudden maneuver tumbled Kowalski out of the doorway and across the floor.
“What’re you doing?” Kowalski hollered over.
Byrd was too busy to answer. Kowalski slipped all the way to the far side. His boots hit the curve of glass behind him. Out the windows, lit by the exterior lamps, a huge shape fell past the underside of the tier, covering it completely. It filled the world out there. Kowalski recognized the giant section of decking fromTitan Station Up. It was the chunk of debris they had been trying to avoid a moment ago. It cleaved through the water past them like the fall of a huge dark axe.
But that was not what Byrd intended it to be.
Rather than escaping it, the Aussie took on more ballast, sucking in ocean water. Their submersible sank alongside the fractured chunk of decking.
Kowalski understood.
The guy’s trying to use it like a shield.
That’s even crazier than—
The explosion shattered the ocean with a blinding flare of fire. The shockwave blasted the chunk of decking into their submersible and drove them through the water, sending them tumbling end over end.
Kowalski flew through the air, slamming into steel and glass, sliding wildly.
They all suffered the same.
It seemed to go on forever—until finally the spinning slowed. The tier made one last turn, then settled crookedly in the water.
Kowalski lay on his back, aching and rattled. His ears rang. He tasted blood on his tongue. He rolled to a shoulder. Jazz lay unmoving against one window. Haru sat up, cradling an arm that hung crookedly. Blood ran from his nose.
Jarrah and Byrd had ridden out the storm inside the control room. The limited space had kept them somewhat protected.
Kowalski groaned and wobbled to his feet. He glanced to Haru, who waved that he was all right, though his face was a mask of pain. Kowalski turned and stumbled over to Jazz. Along the way, he searched for any leaks, any cracks in the glass.
“How are we still alive?” he called over to Byrd.
The man checked his systems while explaining. “Submersibles are built to withstand up to twice the expected pressure of a dive. I achieved this with Tethys Tier, but only because it was the smallest section of the station. It’s why I picked this level to make our escape. She can withstand pressures of four tons per square inch. Despite appearances, she’s a glass-and-titanium tank.”
Jarrah sat heavily on the top step and added his own assessment. “The shielding from that chunk of decking probably blunted some of the blast, too.”
Kowalski reached Jazz, who moaned and slowly pushed away from the windows.
“Wh... What happened?” she asked blearily.
“Someone left an attack dog in these waters,” Kowalski said. “We must have strayed into its territory, and it caught our scent.”
Jazz shook her head, addled and still feverish, struggling to make sense of his words. “Dogs? Underwater?”
Kowalski checked her pupils. One was dilated to twice the size of the other. She had a concussion, if not a cracked skull. “Don’t worry about it.”
