“I see it, Jayden.” He doused the light so as not to give away their destination too early to their opponents. He pointed with his finger in the cabin of the sub, through the acrylic dome. “Head that way.”
Jayden altered the direction of their craft, angling it upward at the same time. He furrowed his brow after a glance at his instrument gauges. “We are really burning through battery power. We need to shake these guys and get out of here or we’re going to be another stat for Titanic’s death toll.”
“Don’t let me stand in your way,” Carter said. “Just tell me what to do.”
The radio sputtered with Johnny requesting a status report. Jayden nodded to the radio. “You can deal with him while I drag these safes up there with us.”
Carter spoke into the mic. “Topside, this is Deep Voyager, co-pilot. We are inside the wreck engaged with a combative manned submersible. I repeat: We are engaged with a combative manned submersible. Do you copy, over?”
Johnny’s voice came back. “I copy you, Deep Voyager. What do you mean by ‘combative’, over?”
Carter pressed the transmit button and raised his voice. “I mean they’ve locked onto us with their grab arm claws and didn’t let go until we dragged them over a debris pile. We had communications over an underwater sub-to-sub frequency during which they said they want us to drop the two safes we collected. We said no can do, and then they grabbed onto us with their claw arms, we got free, and now they’re chasing us around the inside of the wreck. Over!”
“Copy that, we will board their ship now if we have to in order to get them to radio their people and get them to stand down.”
“Somehow I don’t think that’s going to work,” Carter said, feeling a bump beneath his feet as something knocked into them from below. “But it can’t hurt to try. We’re certainly not getting through to them down here, over.”
“What part of the wreck are you in now?”
“Restaurant. Trying to head back the same way we came, over.”
“Restaurant, copy that. Let me relay this information while you concentrate on getting out of there, but holler if you need anything.”
“More battery power would be great.”
“Ha ha, Deep Voyager. Topside, over and out.”
Carter aimed the spotlight back on their adversaries for a little more chaotic flashing. “Wouldn’t want them getting too comfy,” he told Jayden, who nodded. This time their adversaries returned the action in kind by putting on a light show of their own, casting the cabin of Deep Voyager into a kaleidoscope of blinding halogens.
“It’s like ‘70’s Nite at my favorite singles bar in here,” Jayden muttered under his breath.
“I’d ask you to dance but I’m kinda busy right now,” Carter quipped.
“Give me a little light up here now,” the Jayden said, fully aware that now was not the time for humor, stress-relieving as it may be. Carter shone the beam up toward where the elevator shaft opening was. They weren’t there yet, but they were now close enough to see it in detail with the spotlight. Jayden adjusted their course accordingly, and they began dragging their safes along with them toward their preferred exit.
Suddenly a new barrage of light manifested itself behind them, a searchlight probing in the darkness, passing them by, then sweeping back to hold them in its power.
“They’re coming after us,” Carter warned.
“Good thing we’re a little faster than them,” Jayden said.
“Doesn’t much matter, because if they get their clutches on us again, literally, we won’t even get out of the wreck, much less back to the surface before we run out of oxygen in this tin can.”
“Well you’re just a ray of sunshine, aren’t you, Carter? I mean, if I didn’t know any better—”
It suddenly became darker in the large space as the sub in chase behind them doused all its lights.
“Oh good, maybe they lost power,” Jayden said gleefully. But Carter shook his head. “They’re still moving toward us.”
“Yeah, they still have power. They probably decided to save their own battery power by killing their lights and just letting us use ours.”
“Hurry, let’s get into the elevator shaft, it takes some careful handling and so will take time.”
Jayden eyed the approaching vertical shaft that represented their way out. “I’ve got news for you, though. No way in hell are we going to fit through that with these two safes on the end of the extended grab arms the way we have them now.”
“I’ve got an idea.” Carter’s voice sounded flat, tentative.
“You don’t sound all that sure about it, whatever it is. Give me some enthusiasm, why don’t you. I’ve got an idea!”
“Not sure if it’ll work, but it’s all I got.”
“I’ve heard that before from you and I’m still alive, so I’ll take it.”
Carter made an adjustment to his spotlight and then continued. “I think we aim ourselves nose first toward the bottom, and head straight down into it, instead of a horizontal orientation like we did on the way up. Should be faster.”
He paused as a large squid darted across their field of vision before retreating into a dark corner of the former restaurant. “Looks like calamari’s still on the menu here,” Jayden said.
Carter shot him a serious look. “We get out of this alive, it’s bottomless calamari and brews at Neptune’s Net, on me,” he said, referencing one of his favorite spots on the coast in southern California.
“I’ll remember that,” Jayden said, but he couldn’t hide his furtive glance at the console’s instrument gauges, which gave him increasingly worrying news.
“So let’s do it, come on they’re going to gain a lot of ground on us while you’re maneuvering into the shaft.”
Jayden exhaled deeply while shaking his head. “Here goes nothing.”
He raised Deep Voyager, floating them up to the ceiling, dragging the two safes with them as the spotlight from their foes loomed larger behind them. Then, as planned, he did his best to line them up perpendicular to the opening. But each time he had the right angle, the enemy sub would engage its spotlights, bathing the top of the elevator shaft in a confusing array of photic chaos.
“They might be on to our little plan,” Jayden said, fighting the controls to keep the submersible aimed in the right direction.
Hunter moved the spotlight from their target exit to the bothersome sub, at the same time changing the radio frequency to the underwater channel and then yelling into the mic. “Hey hey hey, what is wrong with you, stay back stay the hell back!” He hoped the sudden burst of light and sound would distract them enough to let Jayden make forward progress, and as it turned out, it worked.
“I’ve got the angle. Here we go, give me the light!” Jayden shouted, the excitement on his face completely unmasked.
“Keep going, full speed ahead. Go, go go!” Carter yelled, before yelling more nonsense into the radio and wavering the spotlight hectically toward their submarine foes.
Jayden brought the nose of the sub over the opening of the elevator shaft, true as could be, and then reversed to stall them over the shaft.