CHAPTER 56
Aimee let Casey take the gun from her hands. Luck more than skill had guided the shot that had struck the PLA captain. She continued to watch, a grim smile on her lips.
Yang’s body was held aloft, and then the green and black tentacle around his waist began to tighten. Yang’s screams became a moan as the squeezing continued until the coil met in the middle, just stopping at his spine. His body was crushed like a tube of toothpaste, all the contents forced to either end. He flopped in half, just the skin holding the two separated portions of his body. Only then was the carcass drawn silently down below the water’s surface.
“Straight back to hell,” Aimee whispered.
The group stood in silence for several moments more, and Aimee could feel Alex’s eyes on her. She wondered whether he was shocked by her callousness. She faced him, and raised an eyebrow. After a moment he nodded and turned back to the water.
Shenjung felt Soong burrow into him, pressing her face hard into his shoulder. He didn’t want to watch either, and though he detested Yang, no man deserved the fate that had been inflicted upon him and his men.
“Oh god,” Jennifer said. “We’ll never make it past that.” She looked around, almost panicked. “We’ll never make it. We need to go back, find another way.”
“There is no other way,” Alex said.
“Then we’re dead… dead.” Jennifer turned away, and Franks went to her, talking softly.
“It’s a suicide run,” Jackson said softly.
“It’d be suicide to sit here and wait for rescue,” Aimee said. “We’ve got to check that sub; it’s the only chance we’ve got.”
“If it works,” Cate said, her face pale.
“We overheard Yang and his men talking,” Soong said, with a glance toward Shenjung. “The Sea Shadow’s power source is nuclear, and everything internally was designed to deal with a highly damp and extremely caustic and corrosive environment.
“If the hull wasn’t breached, then it could still be operational,” Alex said.
Rhino joined Jackson’s side. “Good enough for me. And one more thing to think about. If the hull wasn’t breached, then there could be survivors.”
Shenjung grimaced and looked back to the pile of skulls. Though some looked ancient, there were a few still a glistening bone-white. “This is wishful thoughts,” he said to Soong. Blake was nearby and nodded, his face still pale.
“Your submarine disappeared in 2008,” she said. “If there was anyone inside that made it here alive, we doubt they survived for long.”
“If it works, then it’s got to be our way out,” Aimee said.
“No, it is our way out,” Cate added.
“What are you thinking?” Alex tilted his head.
“When you and I first dropped into the water, the sea,” Cate started, “we passed through a column of freezing water — a vortex. This corresponds to algal blooms in the Antarctic’s coastal zones. We think it’s due to an upwelling of warm water, an unexplained phenomena in the freezing waters of the Southern Ocean. The water obviously came from here.” She pointed. “That sub, we need that sub. If it can still do what it was made to do, then that vortex might be a way out for us — an open sea tunnel.”
Alex exhaled and turned back to the far shoreline. “Well, I got nothing else.”
“But it’s beached,” Jackson said. “How the hell do we get it back in the water?”
“The props are still in the water. Reverse thrust and that thing will pull itself back in,” Alex said.
“Then we need to get to it,” Rhino said, and smiled. “This is going to be a rush.”
“We need to think about this. There must be another way.” Jennifer grimaced. “Please.”
“Every option now is probably a bad option,” Aimee said, her eyes on the group. They lingered on Alex. “We just need to choose the one that gives us the greater return on our risk.”
Jennifer put a hand over her eyes and rubbed. “By risk, you mean our lives.”
Casey cradled her gun. “Well, I ain’t staying here to become a member of the clan of the cave squid.” She pointed a thumb at the small being that was still standing docilely behind them. “And I like my teeth as they are.”
Alex turned to the small being and drew his knife. “Best if she’s not here when we’re about to go to war with her god.”
“Wait,” Shenjung said. Soong turned to him, and he tried to continue in English. “You said the ultrasonic sound they made… scared it off.”
Jennifer crowded in. “Make her do it.” She grasped the small being by the shoulders. “Make her do it to protect us.”
“How?” Alex asked. “I don’t think I can make her understand. I’m not sure she’d want to help anyway.”
He went to cut her bonds and Jennifer pushed his hand up. “Then we keep her with us… as a shield.”
“That might work,” Shenjung said. Alex looked over at the Chinese engineer, and Shenjung immediately knew that the American leader didn’t trust him. He sighed. “Perhaps not then.”
Alex cut the bonds, and placed a hand on the being’s shoulder. She lifted her mask, and the huge dark orbs stared into Alex’s eyes for a moment, before she looked down at her cut bonds, her long deathly white fingers picking away the remnants of the cords, and dropping them to the ground. She turned to Alex again, staring for a few more seconds before lowering her mask, and then in an instant, she scampered away, dancing over the rocks like a goat. As soon as she was within a few feet of one of the openings, dozens of the small pale folk appeared, to grab at her and take her in. They all held spears, knives, and loops of rope. They stared down at Alex and the group for a few moments, before backing silently into their caves.
“Look’s like we got an audience,” Rhino said.
“I think we always had one,” said Jackson.
“Mighty Aztlan, center of the world, and possibly the seed of all human wisdom, now reduced to cave dwellers,” Aimee said.
“All civilizations fall. It’s not a matter of if, but when,” Alex said. “One thing these guys learned to do is survive, and anyone that can do that down here is pretty clever.” He turned back to the group. “We can’t take this thing head-on with the weapons we have. Options?”
“Diversion,” Casey said. “I take one group over to the other side with the rifle, and attract its attention, draw it to us. Keep it off you guys as you make it to the sub.”
“Oh please, can I be in that group?” said Jackson, grinning. “Because that sounds like a real long-term career option.” He turned to the wounded HAWC. “What do you say, Blake?”
Casey grinned back. “I accept your volunteering. Especially since you’ll make the bigger target.”
“Forget it; Jackson is right,” said Aimee. She folded her arms, turning to Casey. “You’d last about two minutes. It’d finish you off, and be all over us again — your death would be wasted. And then what do we do once we’re in the sub? That thing is obviously big enough to move it around — it dragged it in here for godsake. And as for outrunning it, it probably overtook the sub when it first grabbed it all those years ago. We could just piss it off.” She shrugged. “Sorry, Casey.”
Jackson exhaled. “Thank god for that.”
Jennifer looked pale, her eyes red-rimmed. “Then we just get to the sub and seal ourselves in. Wait it out.”
“Fish in a bottle,” Cate said, shaking her head sadly. “Ever heard the story of the biologist who gave an octopus a puzzle once. He placed a small fish in a jar, and screwed the lid tight. Now, the octopus had never seen a jar before, and didn’t know how it operated. But it wanted the fish real bad.” She sighed. “It took the octopus ten minutes to work out how to undo the jar, and then it ate the fish.”