With a deep sigh Dr. Nina Gould gathered her papers and zipped her bag, hoping that she would get the chance to redeem her attempts or watch Frank Matlock choke on his tongue, whichever came first.
Chapter 4
Purdue rushed to his waiting helicopter. News of his ROV gone missing disturbed him immensely and he had to get to Deep Sea One as soon as possible. The circumstances under which the minisub vanished were not particularly unusual, but never before had it been dislodged during routine inspections or repairs, not even while the North Sea brought its most violent power to the oil rig. Gary, his pilot, was already waiting for him as Purdue jerked open the round door and quickly fixed his headphones to his ears and then fastened his seatbelt. On his private plane he did not care much for belts, but in the small Robinson it was a must.
"Go, go, go, Gary!" he shouted. Gary had never seen his employer like this. Sure it was a very costly loss, but he reckoned Purdue was overreacting and although he wanted to ask why the urgency was so great he knew that this was not what he was paid for. Purdue was quiet for most of the way as the jagged borders of land below gave way to the blanket of shifting blue majesty. It seemed endless, with a glimmer running over it as the sheeted squalls rolled over the rising tide.
"Do you have a mint?" Purdue asked his pilot.
"Uh, yeah, in the satchel behind your seat, sir," Gary gestured with his head.
"Thanks, I like to chew when I'm nervous," Purdue admitted as his fingers struggled clumsily with the wrapper before he managed to pop the foil and toss the white sweet into his mouth.
"May I ask…?" Gary started slowly, hoping his boss would catch on to his question before he was forced to utter it and sound inappropriate. Fortunately for him Purdue was a sharp, no-bullshit man and he replied immediately without looking at Gary.
"It is just that I have been dealing with some rather serious discrepancies on the ocean floor under the platform and I have to send it down for inspection at least twice a day or we might face a catastrophe," Purdue explained. "You see, without that minisub there is no way to avert any problems that might arise. I'm sure you appreciate the gravity of that."
Gary did appreciate the importance of it and he affirmed so with a serious nod of his head without showing Purdue that he was still confused by it all.
Within an hour they had reached the platform and Gary carefully set the Robbie down, his piloting prowess formidable. It took great skill to land the helicopter in conditions such as these and before the left skid even touched the slippery deck Purdue leapt out into the onslaught of the saline patter. He cowered into the second building from Drill 1 and disappeared, leaving Gary to the peril of the weather.
"The weather is terrible! Tell Gary to take the heli back. I'll be here for the next few hours," Purdue told Liam, even before the nervous crewmen could properly greet their employer.
"Will do, sir," Liam replied, and shot a quick concerned glance to his colleagues in the booth before exiting.
"I don't know how this happened, sir. There was no alarm for the detachment of cords or umbilicals and the camera was functioning perfectly the last time I checked the screen," Tommy reported with a shivering voice. The men did not know why their boss considered inspections so crucial, but he had made it clear to all of them that the minisub was a pivotal part of the functioning of Deep Sea One. Purdue shook off the excess water from his coat and hair and appeared so engrossed in what he could make of the monitors that he did not even respond to Tommy.
"Do you have the feed ready?" he asked.
"The feed?"
"The footage from the camera. You were recording the inspection, were you not?" Purdue asked smoothly, his eyes pinning Tommy and Darwin as he spoke. They did not know what to make of his demeanor. His expression was neutral and his voice calm.
"We did, sir, of course," Tommy said, relieved that he had something to offer that he had not fouled up.
"Run it, please. You have not had a look yet?" Purdue asked, with his eyes nailed to the blank monitor in anticipation.
"Yes, sir, I had a look, but it is very murky down there. All I could see on the footage was some contours of the landscape deeper down from where we last got a reading of 800 meters below surface," Tommy reported, with his hand on his hip as he waited for the minisub footage to roll.
Purdue grabbed a chair and slid it in under him. He leaned on the dashboard edge with his elbows and watched intently, hoping to ascertain the location of his rogue machine while the storm escalated by the minute. His right hand reached for the control, ready to hit pause as soon as he noticed something that could point out the vicinity of the submersible. Liam came in quietly, joining the other three to watch the monitor. The camera, as instructed, had recorded the descent and the subsequent movement along the north post of Deep Sea One. It was virtually impossible to discern one thing from another down there, occasionally there was a glimpse of marine life and drift kelp. During a succession of small mounds the camera fell forward as the minisub dipped into a deeper ditch, moving past the other steel posts in the ocean bed.
It appeared to be disturbed for a moment, shaking once or twice, before continuing. A few meters on the screen hazed and displayed some electrical disturbance. White and grey horizontal lines of static crossed briefly over the screen before the minisub capsized. All four men held their breath, but the footage remained unchanged as the machine glided toward the edge of a reef, sliding gradually as if pushed a little farther every time the current swept it.
"Thank you, gentlemen, I'll take it from here. Take a break," Purdue said. He loathed people peering over his shoulder, especially when he tried to concentrate. Almost disappointed, the three crewmen left for the kitchen, not entirely impartial to a proper break from duty. It had been a long day full of toils and the storm did nothing for their morale either.
Purdue watched the opaque ocean bed on the screen as the minisub appeared to tilt slightly. Then it stopped moving, merely turning its front as it was rotated by the water. In the near distance Purdue could distinguish an object of considerable size. He squinted and leaned forward.
"No fucking way," he whispered, his heart jumping in his chest. No more was his attention merely on the location of his missing submersible, but now he could see something truly astonishing on its footage. Eagerly he pressed Pause and zoomed in on the image of the object. He had no idea what it was, but it certainly was not natural, nor was it part of the smooth ocean floor. Curiosity flooded his common sense, as it always did, and he leaned so far forward that the tip of his nose almost brushed the screen.
"What are you?" he marveled at the strange long structure stretching across the sand bank, half-submerged in the sand. His finger sat on the Play/ Pause button. He jabbed it quickly once and then once more, to shift it a split second on. Purdue's face lit up, but he said nothing. Fire ignited behind his eyes when he saw the detail that the closer frame provided.
"It cannot be! Could it be?" he gasped as he saw the narrow hull come into view, atop which the elongated hatch sat, emerging into sight from the obscurity of the dark depths. "My God! A sunken Elektroboot? Here?"
The Type XXI submarine was well-known to Purdue. He had learned about these submarines produced in the latter part of the Second World War while he was searching in the Strait of Gibraltar for a rare Roman artifact a few years before. Aboard a questionable trawler, which dealt in more than fisheries, he had heard tell of the 118 U-boats of superior design that were used by several countries in the Second World War.