BLACK COBRA (Aaron Quinn thriller series, No. 2) (21 page)

---

Byrd picked up a mic and his entire crew heard the following over the intercom:
“This your Captain speaking. I know that what just occurred onboard the USS Hampton may seem strange or even frightening to some of you. However, I can assure you that everything is under control. We are professional submariners, and we shall act accordingly. Proceed with the Emergency Nighttime Surface Drill. Captain out.”

He replaced the mic.

---

Jason was just outside Cobra’s Forward Torpedo Room. He shouted down the corridor to the Control Room. “What the hell happened, Captain? Did we miss?”

“You loaded the wrong
goddamn torpedo!
” Pankov shouted back.

“That’s
impossible
,” Jason shouted. “Uri loaded the damn thing himself!”

“Obviously he screwed up!” Pankov yelled. “Now shut up and load
the
live
one
,
damn it!”

Jason knew it too late, the flooding was getting worse, and the USS
Hampton
was probably long gone anyway. Purely out of curiosity, he went back to take a look at the torpedo that was still on the rack.

But what he saw there was not the conventional weapon Uri had described. It was a forest green torpedo with the markings:
VA-111 Shkval.

It was a goddamn
nuke!

That’s why Fagan was fighting with Pankov when I shot him
, Jason thought miserably.
He found the nuke. He knew that Pankov and Uri were planning a damn suicide mission!

Chapter 59

Aaron knew he had to make his move. He figured his mother, Katya, and Brandy were safer with him than alone in the Captain’s Cabin, so he gathered them together and moved cautiously out and down the corridor toward the Control Room.

---

The flooding was out of control, now, and even Pankov knew they had to abort the mission. But in his crazed state he was certain they could pick up where they left off at a later date — if only he could save his beloved submarine.

“Forget the torpedo, Jason,”
he yelled down the corridor.
“Blow main ballast. Flank speed! We need to surface!”

Jason heard him, and did his best to make that happen.

---

Aaron had the girls wait in the corridor while he entered the Control Room alone. Pankov was hunched over the helm trying desperately to make something happen. He looked up briefly — Aaron stiffened and started to go for his knife — then returned to the controls, ignoring him.

 Aaron gestured to the others, hoping that they weren’t too deep and that he and the girls could climb the ladder to the fin hatch and escape.

He felt a shake and heard the sounds of Cobra’s propellers struggling to drive the sub to the surface; but her old batteries were weak and the electric motors were unable to overcome the weight of the seawater filling the pressure hull.

Suddenly the sounds stopped, followed by a low, metallic groan, like the bellow of a great, iron demon from a cavern in hell. The submarine drifted slowly downward, tilting slightly on its side before hitting the mud on the bottom of the bay with a tremendous
WHUUMPP!

Aaron and the girls were knocked off their feet, splashing into water that was now almost knee deep.

Pankov held on and managed to remain at the helm, his hair wet and falling in his eyes. Chilling seawater sprayed in from every direction with a deafening roar.

Aaron stood and helped the girls to their feet. “
Can’t we surface?
” he shouted to Pankov.

“Didn’t you
hear that?
” Pankov yelled back. “We’re on the bottom! The engines have quit! The electrical has shorted out! We’re taking on water like a sieve, and we have no compressed air to blow ballast! A damn cinder block would have a better chance of making it to the surface!” He turned away and put his gun to his head.

“
No!
” Katya cried, running to him.

POP!

The lead entered Pankov’s right temple, followed by a gush of blood, and he fell backward into the rising flood.

Katya watched her father sink beneath the churning waters, never to breathe air again. She turned and looked at Aaron, her eyes filled with the kind of horror only a grieving daughter could know, and then she collapsed in his arms.

Aaron held Katya close, looking desperately at his mother. He had hoped that before they died, she would learn the truth: that her only son had
not
been killed but had lived through the crash after all. He knew in his heart that that was all she’d need to snap her out of the amnesia and bring her back where she belonged ... with him.

But they were running out of time.

Chapter 60

Brandy stood in the back of the Control Room, staring blankly at the others. Her dress was drenched and clinging to her skin like tissue paper, and she was in a state of shock. Along with everything else that had happened to them tonight, this was too much to take on.

Suddenly a hand closed over her mouth and another gripped her arm, and she was hauled violently down through the watertight hatch leading to Compartment Two.

---

Brandy struggled with all of her strength as Jason pulled her down the corridor and threw her into the Captain’s Cabin; but instead of hurting her, he backed her against the wall and kissed her passionately on the mouth.

Frightened and confused, Brandy kissed him back, and for a brief, glorious moment she thought he really meant it. Everything else in her chaotic world vanished, as she lost herself completely in him.

 But then came a frightening, sickening, excruciating pain in her abdomen. A pain like she had never known or begun to imagine. She opened her mouth to scream, but Jason covered it with his hand, using the other to yank his knife out of her stomach. He stepped aside to avoid the gush of blood, and then let her fall on the bunk where she lay looking up at him.

Why did you do this Jason?
she pleaded silently.
What could I possibly have done that would make you do this?

Jason looked down at her, seawater dripping from his hair and clothing. He wiped the sharp blade on his wet thigh and turned to leave.

He stopped and looked back at her. “Before I go,” he said. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

Brandy saw the evil that was coming and her eyes narrowed.
Let me die in peace, you sick bastard.

“My last name isn’t really Beckham,” he said. “I assumed that name after being kicked out of the Navy. My birth name is Souther. I’m Johnny’s brother.”

Brandy stared at him, utter disbelief momentarily masking her pain. But what Jason had just told her was far too cruel to be a lie. The bastard had lived a lie, and he would die a liar ... but for once she knew he was telling the truth.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you as well, Jason,” she said. “You’ll never be
half
the man your brother was.”

Jason faked a smile and then turned and left the room.

Brandy tried to sit up and call for help, but she was far too weak and only managed a feeble moan.

Chapter 61

Aaron held Katya tightly, not knowing how to comfort a girl who just witnessed her own father’s suicide.

He turned to look at Brandy, who’d been standing by the open hatch where they had come in, but she was gone.

“Keep Katya here with you,” he said to his mother, handing Ekatarina to her, and then he ducked through the hatch into Compartment Two.

---

Aaron splashed down the corridor, quickly checking each of the rooms, and when he checked the Captain’s Cabin he saw Brandy lying on the bunk with a wound to the stomach, blood soaking her dress and the blanket on which she lay.

Of all the people on earth, there was no one she would rather have seen walk through that door. She managed a weak smile and held out her hand, speaking just above a whisper.

“Aaron ...”

Aaron squeezed her hand, and then he pulled off his shirt and used it to help stop the bleeding, but Brandy’s face was pale; she had clearly lost a lot of blood already. All he could think to do was make her as comfortable as possible. He sat next to her on the bunk and took her hand. “Lie still, Brandy. You’re going to be all right.”

She looked up at him and spoke in the calm voice. “People used to ask me why I was always attracted to the weird ones,” she said. “I never really knew how to answer that question.”

Jason did this
, Aaron thought, and a rage unlike any he had ever known swelled in his breast.

She squeezed his hand. “I love you Aaron,” she said.

He looked at her for a long moment. “I love you, too, Brandy.”

“Katya told me about your ordeal with Johnny Souther,” she said, “and that answers a lot of my questions about you. But there’s something you need to know about me.” She turned and coughed into the blanket. “My name’s not really Brandy Fine. I-it’s Barbara Fischer. Johnny renamed me after we first met.”

“You know
Johnny Souther?
” Aaron said.

“We were lovers,” Brandy said, gritting her teeth in pain. “We lived together until the day he died.”

Aaron was suddenly outside Sally’s Diner again as he and Willy pulled the triggers on their assault rifles and watched Johnny Souther die in a shower of glass.

 “Th-there’s one more thing,” Brandy said. “Jason told me his last name isn’t Beckham. It’s Souther. He’s Johnny’s brother.”

Aaron’s brain nearly shut down. All the time he had spent with Jason, the weeks at sea, the bars, the cafés — the
camaraderie
. How could he have been so
stupid?

“Jason told me Johnny was dead when he found him,” Brandy said, “but I think he’s the one who
killed
him.”

What? No,
Aaron thought
. I’m the one who killed him.

Then, with a rush, it all dawned on him:
Jason was the one driving the black Hummer!

Brandy took hold of Aaron’s arm and looked him in the eye. “Promise me, Aaron,” she said. “If it’s the last thing you do on this earth ...”

But then she was gone.

Rest easy my dear friend
, he thought, touching her shoulder.
That’s exactly what I’m planning to do.

He stood and went in search of Jason Souther.

Chapter 62

The water was thigh high as Aaron splashed through the hatch into the Control Room. More icy water sprayed in on him from every direction, and footing was difficult and progress slow due to the now steeply sloping deck.

For a brief, terrifying moment, the lights went out, and when they blinked on again, Aaron saw, to his horror, that Jason had somehow gotten past him and was standing near the helm controls holding Ashley and Katya at gunpoint.

Jason’s back was turned, and with his free hand he was trying desperately to restart the electric motors. Aaron wanted to blow Jason’s brains out, but Ashley and Katya were too near to his line of fire.

The girls saw him and wanted to call out to him, but he shook his head and held a finger to his lips, and then moved slowly over and pointed his pistol at the back of Jason’s head.

“You and your brother are the reason I have no family!” Aaron said.

Jason froze for a long moment, and then suddenly he jerked to the side, grabbing Katya and backing off with his gun to her head. “What are you talking about?” he said. “Johnny’s
dead
.”

“
I’m the one who killed him,
” Aaron said.

Jason looked carefully at Aaron. “Wait a minute,” he said. “You were at Sally’s Diner that night. You left in an Aston Martin DBS.”

“And you’re the one that hit us and ran!” Aaron cried.

“What? I may have saved your life!” Jason said. “We were halfway to the hospital before the cops came and fucked everything up!”

Ashley Quinn’s hand went to her mouth and she stared at Aaron in disbelief. Tears filled her eyes as a flood of memories rocked her senses and she was overwhelmed with both sorrow and joy. She had wanted so badly to remember ... She had wanted so badly to know who the young man named Aaron really was.

Aaron glanced at her and his heart stopped. Through her tears he could see the clear light of understanding in her eyes.

His mother was back.

---

Suddenly the submarine’s pressure hull thumped and squealed as another rusted bulkhead weld gave way to the pressure.

Jason shoved Katya aside and fired. Ashley screamed as the bullet grazed the thin flesh covering Aaron’s ribs. He staggered back and fired just as Jason ducked through the watertight hatch to Compartment Four.

“Head for the Forward Torpedo Room,” he told the girls. “I’ll meet you there.”

He went after Jason.

---

Ashley felt a rush of adrenaline as her motherly instincts returned with a vengeance. She spotted a large pipe wrench on a shelf and picked it up. It had a good weight to it.

“I’m going with him,” she said.

Katya hefted her own heavy piece of iron. “So am I. If we’re going to die tonight ... it may as well be in a fight!”

---

Jason ran through Compartments 4, 5 and 6, all the way to the stern of the boat, Compartment Seven, the Aft Torpedo Room.

He climbed to the top of the compartment, frantically trying to get out through the escape hatch. But, to his dismay, instead of repairing it, the workmen had simply welded it shut.

Just then Aaron peered in through the watertight hatch.

Jason saw him and fired, the bullet ricocheting off the steel ring, inches from Aaron’s face.

Aaron fired back and missed.

Suddenly a large pressure valve blew, spraying water like a fireman’s hose, knocking Jason off his feet.

Aaron saw him go down and stepped inside the room with him. The water was waist deep now and spraying everywhere, making it difficult to move.

The lights blinked out again and then flickered back on.