Hot Zone (32 page)

"It was a little dicey for awhile there, mate. We had to do a little dog paddling to get back to the ship." Skip said, then added: "Where's Ice and the girl?" Which was said at the same time as Storm said: "Fuck me." Looking at Ghost on the ground. "What happened down here?"

"It went bad in a hurry. Ice and Jordan are trying another way out, I don't know if they're going to make it, but we don't have time to go looking for them." Roo said.

"You got that right." Skip added.

"Looking over Skip's shoulder Roo saw the four man aquanaut that the two men had arrived on. Shaped like a torpedo with four saddle-like seats the SEALs used the aquanaut when they needed to cover great distances underwater in a hurry.

"Nice." Roo said and then: "Let's get out of here."

"We taking Ghost with us?" Storm asked.

"It's a four seater. Throw him in between us. He doesn't deserve to stay down here." Roo said.

Together the three aussies and their fallen American friend straddled the aquanaut and vanished below the surface of the water.

17:23

51

14:58

Claude awoke with a splitting headache, his face encased in a small red pool of his own blood which had become tacky. He lifted his head and looked around the cavern.

There American was gone and so was his dive gear.

"Shit" He said, struggling to his feet.

Claude knew there was more dive gear hidden within the walls of the cavern, so it didn't concern him. Not as much as the two large, yellow eyes did, blinking rapidly that sat amongst those walls. The bird eyed him, waiting for Claude to do something hasty before it made its move.

Claude stared at the bird, he knew he couldn't get his dive gear on fast enough. The bird was on the other side of the dive pool and the only chance that Claude had was the water, minus the dive equipment. But if he could stay underwater long enough maybe the bird would leave.

Maybe.

Claude had about fifteen feet to the water's edge. The bird stood up from behind the rocks, it was easily seven feet tall. It began to edge its way in Claude's direction. Claude took a deep breath and ran towards the water, diving headfirst. At the same moment the bird took off, flying over the dive pool, snapping its beak and flexing its talons.

Claude broke the surface of the water, his body out stretched and intent on continuing well below water level, rocketing downwards.

The bird slammed its feet deep into the water, like an eagle fishing for trout on a nature channel the bird grasped at Claude with his razor sharp talons.

Claude felt it slice through the back of his thigh, the pain was excruciating. For a moment he thought he was going to pass out as he continued to swim deeper into the dive pool. A cloud of blood spread out around him.

But he was free.

The bird had not gotten its prey.

Claude held his breath for as long as he could then slowly headed towards the surface. Worried he was going to pass out and drown he broke the surface, gasping for air. He had expected the bird to be waiting for him, but it was not.

The cavern was empty.

Claude breathed a sigh of relief as he tread water. His leg was bleeding and sending daggers of pain through his body. But he was alive.

He swam over to the side of the pool, a trail of blood spreading out behind him. A trail of blood that suddenly disappeared as the pool turned black.

Claude clutched at the dirt, pulling himself up out of the water, his torso lying on the ground as he remained waist deep in the water. He lay on dirt, breathing heavily and thanking god for still being alive.

From behind him the menacing sight of an eight foot long tail with a razor sharp end curled up like a scorpion ready to strike appeared. Claude looked off at the tunnel, thought he saw the bird but didn't and suddenly tensed up as the manta ray's tail pierced him in the back. The tail pulled him up in the air for a moment before slamming him into the water, ravishing his body in a manic craze. The water foamed with blood as the ray feasted in a frenzy and as fast as he appeared he vanished. The water was tinged with blood and that was all of Claude that remained. Not even the memory that he had been down here and saw the compound.

The last person for Grosjean to worry about was gone, just as he had planned.

9:02

52

Jordan and Ice were sprinting down the tunnel. Suddenly a set of railway tracks appeared in the dirt and just up ahead Ice spotted their way out.

Another old see-saw cart, just like the one that had brought them to the steel door, sat there and it was obvious that it had been the source of transportation for the two Frenchmen to get to the location.

"You've gotta be kidding me?" Jordan said, staring at the cart. "Dumb friggin’ luck”

"They both stood on the cart, Jordan stood with her back to the tunnel, allowing Ice to see anything that they may come up against.

"Push." She said, pushing down on her handle.

Ice's handle rose quickly then he pushed his end down forcing Jordan's arms to rise. They did this several times and the cart started to move, slowly at first but as the two got into a rhythm they picked up speed. After a minute or so they started to slow and it was obvious to Ice that they were heading up an incline. It was gradual but enough that it made working the see-saw cart much more difficult and after the day that both of them had experienced they had little energy left for this workout.

"I don't know how much more of this my arms can take, Ice."

"Just think about that bomb a couple of miles back, I don't think we're safe from that yet. We have to push through it, like we have all day."

"Just promise me when this is all over I can sit in a Jacuzzi with a blonde Swedish masseuse named Sven giving me a foot rub."

"It's a date." Ice said, looking her deep in the eyes. "I've been known for years to have the best foot rub technique in town."

"But your name isn't Sven." Jordan gasped in between pumps on her handle.

"Ice is just my call sign, Jordan."

"I think after this day is through I should get a call sign, don't you?" She quipped and pushed down again, forcing Ice's arms up.

"I definitely think you've earned it. I'll come up with a good one for you." He pushed back down.

The air in the tunnel started to feel dryer to Jordan, almost fresh, like it was circulating. The walls and the ground appeared to be hardening around them and the incline steepend dramatically over the space of a hundred yards. Suddenly it wasn't just difficult to work the see-saw cart, it was almost impossible.

They slowed considerably but still pushed and pulled as the cart crept up the incline, with every push the cart moved a yard.

"Just keep it going for a few more seconds." Ice said, looking at his watch which he had set in time with the bomb's timer.

2:00.

53

Grosjean had made good time leaving the underwater tunnels out of the compound and began heading for the surface. He took a risk by not decompressing on his way up, he also knew the legion had a hyperbaric chamber on Hao Atoll and any effects the fast ascent would have on him could be taken care of with a couple of days spent breathing in the modified gases.

Grosjean broke through the surface, his head feeling as though it would burst. He felt disoriented and sick but the sun’s rays felt good on his face. He was in the middle of the ocean, he couldn't see land but he didn't care. On is waist he hit the button on his distress beacon. A beacon that would send a signal to the tower on Hao and Mururoa that he was out here; with the exact location to within three feet.

He leaned back in the water, floating, waiting. It would take his men a good half an hour before they would be able to get out and pick him up.

All he had to do was stay conscious.

Something he was having trouble doing with the nitrogen build up in his blood. It could also cause cardiac arrest if one of those bubbles entered his heart.

Trying not to think about what might happen inside his body a tired and dizzy Grosjean leaned back even further into the water, lifted his knees up around his chest and floated.

All he had to do was wait.

* * *

One hundred feet below the surface and holding at that depth to allow their bodies to adjust to the pressure, the SEALs cruised away from the compound, the sun light cutting through the crystal clear water like laser beams. They had made great time getting as far away as possible, heading due north towards the ship and about two miles from the compound and cruising. Skip and Storm had set up a rendezvous with a black hawk helicopter from the ship, which would do flybys every fifteen minutes after 14:00 hours.

It was 14:10.

Roo sat on the back of the aquanaut, holding Ghost's body tightly against his.
He didn't want to lose him
, he kept thinking.

At least give him a proper military burial.

Let his family get a flag. Though he knew the family would be told something like,
“It was a training exercise, an accident. A freak accident."
They would never be told the truth, that was the way it was and the way it would always be.

He remembered it annoyed the hell out of him; that excuse.

00:09

00:08.

He remembered when he had to tell Daniel Lucas's family that Daniel had been killed in East Timor, during an exercise gone wrong.

00:07

He remembered the look on their faces when they knew he was lying.

00:06

00:05

He remembered the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach when he walked away from Daniel's family, having given them the Australian flag, folded and framed in a glass case.

00:04

00:03

He remembered Daniel Lucas, and the things he had done for him, just three months before he was killed, and the look on his face when his body was found.

00:02

Just like the look on Ghost's face now. And for a brief second Roo thought he might do the unthinkable when he arrived in San Diego, he thought he'd tell Ghost's family the truth.

00:01.

54

The black hawk was en-route to the SEALs when the pilot pointed at something in the distance for Mark Stevenson to see.

It looked as if God had dropped a pebble into a pond, the ripple effect spreading across a wide part of the ocean, just kept spreading and it didn't look like it was stopping anytime soon, either.

"Jesus." Stevenson said. "That looked an awful lot like an atomic blast. I hope our boys weren't anywhere near there."