Hot Zone (11 page)

"She's right. Wait until debriefing for any more talk guys. And keep an eye out for that thing. It will be much easier to see now that the sun's up." Ice said.

Jordan couldn't shake the thought of a large fang-bearing manta ray charging down on her. The comfort of being surrounded by four navy SEALs did nothing to soothe the anxiety that continued to build. Sitting for twenty minutes at a time when the divers reached established depths did not help the situation.

They were sitting ducks. Every one of them could not help her fight a monster like that. As much as she was curious as to what lay beneath the coral she was more desperate than ever to leave and go back to her safe little office in New Mexico.

And the words "Home Sweet Home" never sounded so right.

13

Skipping over the water, pushing the zodiacs to their limits Ice Riley radioed the Kitty Hawk and requested gasoline and a small supply of food and water be ready once the group returned to the ship. He also requested one other thing.

The A-12 mini-sub.

The A-12 mini-sub was a compact hand-held propulsion unit designed to allow its user the speed and maneuverability of a slick sea creature. The unit was a variation of previous models designed in the eighties with its major improvement being it’s reduction in size and its greater handling. No larger than two footballs end on end, the unit housed a sixty horsepower propulsion system controlled by an acceleration switch located on the right handle. On the left handle was a kill switch that enabled the user to cut the power immediately.

The simplicity of the design made it very popular among the SEALs and other aquatic forces around the world. All the user needed was to extend the unit in front of his body, and slightly underneath his range of sight to avoid his vision being skewed by the back wash.

Riley felt the A-12 would buy the team extra time. It would get them to the sight faster from a further surface distance. In fact, with the A-12’s fifty mile range capability the team could anchor outside the exclusion zone, thus possibly avoiding detection and stopping the French from sending out an armada of legionnaires after them.

Ice also felt once they reached the structures the A-12 would allow them the ability the survey the area more efficiently. He wouldn’t admit it to the others, but he also felt if the Team came under attack from some creature from the deep they might at least have a half chance of escaping using the A-12’s speed. He couldn’t get the thought of his head that he’d lost one of his men, almost two, and had not had the chance to get a look at the creature. Now he had to lead his men back, knowing that
thing
was still out there.

Ice radioed to the other zodiac: “Should be ten minutes from the ship, we have to make the change-over snappy, over.”

“
Copy that.” Roo cleared.

* * *

For Jordan’s part, she had been sitting patiently and silently in the zodiac next to Ice observing and listening.

It hadn’t dawned on her that they’d be going straight back to the site and when she realized they were heading right back after the reload; the anxiety began tearing at her insides.

For as exciting as the so-called discovery was at the bottom of the ocean, she wasn’t sure it was exciting enough to face the guardian that patrolled it’s waters.

Why not the ancient Inca’s, or a buried Mayan temple somewhere in South America? Even a fossilized triceratops in the middle of the Mojave was better, safer than this.
She was sure she wouldn’t need an armed team of commandos with her for one of those, either.

“
Ice.” Jordan yelled over the roar of the engine, “You sure we should be going back in so soon? Won’t the French see us coming and see Ghost bobbing up and down on the horizon?”

“
Not the way we’re going in Jordan, in fact, Ghost will be coming with us this time...no need for a lookout.”

“
No need?”

“
No need, you’ll see.”

14

Arriving on Mururoa via transport chopper, Grosjean and his newly formed commando team wasted no time surveying the area. This was the first time on the Atoll for all but Grosjean, who had spent months stationed there, preparing the sight for earlier nuclear tests.

To the men he had chosen, this was a break from their daily grind of combat training and more recently, studying for the up coming explosion. While each of them had not necessarily wanted to see war, life in the French Foreign Legion was not always the most exciting; even when it had you posted in a tropical oasis.

Finally
, each one of the men thought,
some action!

Commander Hatick met the team and transported them into the main facility in the most central section of the Atoll.

Bomb shelter in style, the faded yellow building had not been renovated since being re-built in the early seventies. The Atoll itself was a thriving military community, just about all of the land mass was utilized by the Legion. Restaurants, military grocery stores, over one hundred condos, an assortment of storage warehouses and a Hospital surrounded the three level building known simply as the "bomb shelter".

All general military work, whether it be research and intelligence, strategic planning, Legionnaire training and computer programming was carried out in the building. On the ground level, the men were lead into a small situation room with a few scattered chairs and two small tables that stank of stale cigar smoke from decades of stressed commanders puffing their way through countless problems and resolutions.

Hatick pulled Grosjean aside while his men took their seats.

"Marc. What are you going to tell them? You can't tell them the truth, Farry will have your head."

"Farry gave me the green light to take the team out there. No matter what I tell them now, once we're there they will figure out rather quickly what the real story is."

"Then tell them nothing. Tell them there was a break in the exclusion zone and that they are going out to patrol the area…
armed
."

Grosjean contemplated the suggestion.

He hadn't really a clue what he was going to say to his men. The truth would be more unbelievable than any story he could make up. All he could really say was there were a group of US soldiers trespassing on their territory believe them to be armed. If the soldiers had uncovered the secret he had known about for the past five years he would have to tell his men one other thing.
Shoot to kill!

It was imperative nobody else knew what Grosjean and a select few others knew, especially those interfering, nosey Americans who could be relied upon for getting themselves involved in international things that were not their business.

Grosjean's plan was to wait for the Americans to reappear first.
No point rolling out the red carpet for them,
as he thought they might say in Hollywood. By the time Grosjean and the men had arrived on the Atoll, the blip on the radar screen had vanished. As had the combat-dressed soldier in the rubber ducky. Grosjean would wait, he was used to waiting, and when the intruders came up for air, he would attack, leading his team into battle.

Something he had regretted
not
doing in Lebanon.

Though he was seen as a hero for his survival instincts, Grosjean had suffered from survivor guilt for many years.

At the time he believed the battle outside of Beirut was a no win situation and with the rest of the battalion being cut down around him he thought it better to run than stay and fight.

A thought that continued to haunt him to the present day.

Focusing his attention back on his soldiers, Grosjean gave a steely-eyed stare at each one of his men. It was not meant to be intimidating, but motivating. He didn't want his men knowing all the details but he did need to get them fired up for the possibility of an upcoming battle.

They at least needed to know that.

15

Back on the main deck of the Kitty Hawk, Ice was briefing Stevenson on the details of Shooter's death while the rest of the team was loading a Black Hawk with the new equipment Ice had requested. With the A-12's on-hand they would drop in via air, leaving no trace on the surface that they were below. This was a dangerous choice to make should something go wrong, but in broad daylight Ice did not want the French to see his Team coming or see that they were there, period. Ice had the ability to contact the ship via radio once the dive was complete or an emergency forced an early return.

As a back up Ice requested a GPS tracking device, which served as a homing beacon. Manufactured by Magellan Instruments, the beacon sent out its distress signal to a radius of up to one thousand miles.

It was decided that Jordan would wear the beacon, which could be secured to her arm without hindering her ability to move underwater. It was agreed upon between the men that she was the most important person in the team and therefore the one that would most need rescuing if the dive went to hell.

He couldn't quite explain it, but Ice had a real bad feeling about what was to come. Shooter's death was an obvious contributor to the butterflies in his stomach but it was not the only reason.

He hated the feeling because his gut was rarely wrong, not about things like this.

On the other side of the deck Roo was fitting Jordan with the GPS beacon. Every now and then she would throw glances the way of Ice, on every second one he would catch her and their eyes would meet. For his part, Roo, who couldn't help but notice the chemistry between the two kept quiet, but when he did speak Jordan was enchanted by his thick Australian accent.

"How ya holdin' up?" He asked

Jordan didn't know how to answer that question. She had never experienced so many emotions running through her body at one time.

"You tell me." She replied.

Roo smiled: "You're doing just fine Jordan. They put you in a dangerous situation. All things being considered you're doing real well. Just stick next to one of us and if anything goes down we'll make sure nothing happens to you. I promise you that."

Jordan smiled, something about how Roo said those words made her believe him.

"That thing that's down there, that took Shooter. You think we'll see it again?"

Roo nodded: "We have to be prepared for anything, even sea monsters. Shooter was at a disadvantage this morning; it was still dark. We won't have that problem. With the clarity of these waters and the sunlight beaming down you'll be able to see anything coming from far enough away that you'll have the time to do something about it."

"I hope your right, Roo."

Roo grinned: "I'm always right, ask Ice, he'll tell you."

"Tell you what?" Ice said, standing behind Roo.

"Speak of the devil." Roo added

"That Roo is always right." Jordan said.

"Well he
thinks
he's always right, we just go along with it." Ice said.

Skip called over to Ice from the Black Hawk: "We're loaded and ready to rock, mate."

"Roo, would you give us a moment?" Ice asked, nodding at Jordan.