Brande hated to wipe away that smile. “I thought you’d be lucky to get the mining explosives and grenades. You did get the grenades?”
“Oh, yeah. A hundred of them, most of them fragmentation, and a few phosphorous. Guaranteed to be good.”
Brande was certain the torpedoes would be useless at 18,000 feet of depth. They just weren’t designed for it. The grenades, however, were already densely compacted, and could take the pressures.
“How about the magnets, Bull?”
“No sweat there, Chief.”
Dokey grinned. “Now it dawns on me. We’re going to build our own mines.”
“What do you think, Okey?”
“It’s far better than using a cutting torch on a manipulator arm.”
“My original thought,” Brande said, “was to plant a few of these things around, disable their equipment, and slow down the march. Mark Jacobs would probably approve.”
“We won’t tell him, though, I trust?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“You don’t like the torpedoes?” Kontas asked.
“I want to keep those in reserve, Bull. We’ll go after the floor crawlers, first. If they attack us with subs at shallower depths, we’ll have those as a surprise.”
Kontas grinned yet again.
The three of them conducted their conversation scrunched into the starboard aft corner of the lab. DepthFinder’s bulk was again taking up most of the space, her innards being explored and tested by a gaggle of technicians and scientists, a few of whom had seen the torpedo and were probably wondering when they’d signed up for military service. The empty cardboard boxes and protective plastic bags for dozens of replacement circuit chips were spread all over the deck.
Not part of their group, but listening intently to them, Rae Thomas leaned against the side of the submersible. She had a look on her face that was wavering between complete amazement and stark disapproval.
Brande was doing his best to avoid her eyes.
“Bull can help me,” Dokey said, “and we’ll start building us a few Marine Visions Unlimited Mark One, mod one, deep submergence mines.”
“The hell you will,” Thomas told him.
Which stifled the activity around them.
Bob Mayberry, standing near a workbench with an opened black box for the forward-looking sonar resting on it, said to the grad student interns, “Come on, people, back to work.”
“Why don’t we put the lid back on this thing, Bull,” Brande said.
He knew that, within seconds, everyone on board would know that the Orion was now an armed vessel, and he didn’t think that most of them would appreciate the change of status.
Brande and Kontas replaced the lid on the crate, and Kontas picked up a hammer to drive the nails back home.
“Are you listening to me?” Thomas asked.
“Rae, let’s you and I go get a cup of coffee,” Brande suggested.
He reached for her arm, but she shrugged it out of his grasp.
“Please.”
She wasn’t happy, but she followed him out of the laboratory, across the corridor, and into the wardroom. Otsuka was there, gathering a box of soft drinks for the people working on the sub.
“Hi,” she said brightly. Brande thought she was looking at life a little differently now, as he was.
“Kim,” Thomas said, “do you really want Okey to blow himself up?”
“What? Of course not.”
“Go talk to him.”
Otsuka left them alone in the wardroom.
“You’re not happy, I guess,” Brande said.
“I’m upset about Svetlana, yes. I’m upset about you taking Okey and Kim into an area where you knew there could be nuclear activity. And, you’re damned right, Dane, I’m unhappy about you ordering up all this armament without telling me. We’re not fighting this war alone.”
Thomas’s eyes seemed to be firing tiny sparks at him.
“I’m incensed about Svetlana myself, Rae. And my run-in with the nuke only convinced me that Deride won’t be stopped. Not at any cost. Sure, it’s a war. You tell me what Washington is doing about it. If it shows, I don’t see it.”
“It’s not up to us.”
“It is up to us. We’re the ones on the scene, and we’re practically the only outfit available that’s capable of reaching the scene.”
“You’re so certain,” she said, “that you speak for the company. You’re putting others at risk without asking them, Dane.”
He was taken completely by surprise. She was correct, and he knew it.
“Come on, then,” he said. “I’ll ask them.”
He started for the door, but she stopped him with, “You won’t even talk to Deride.”
He hesitated and turned back to her. “We’ve tried a couple of times.”
“Try again.”
“All right, I’ll do that first.”
Brande decided to use the acoustic phone in the laboratory, and he went directly to the command console, where Emry was sitting, fiddling with the map he had on the screen. Thomas trailed along.
“Larry, let me on the Loudspeaker a minute, will you?”
Emry looked up. “Sure thing.”
They exchanged places, and Brande tried first on the frequency they normally used. There was no international convention for a hailing channel on acoustic transmissions, but Glenn had called them once before, so it was possible that she was monitoring them.
“AquaGeo habitat, this is the RV Orion. Come in, please.”
He tried three times before he got a response.
“Orion, this is AquaGeo Sea station AG-4.”
Even with the warbled acoustic characteristics, he could tell that it was a man’s voice, but not one that he knew.
“Dane Brande calling for Paul Deride or Penny Glenn.”
He didn’t know whether or not Deride would be aboard the habitat.
“Hold on a minute.”
Dokey, Otsuka, and Mayberry came over to stand beside Thomas and Emry.
It was Deride who finally responded. “What do you want, Brande?”
“Let’s talk about what you’re doing.”
“Let’s not. We’re pursuing a perfectly legal activity, and you’re interfering with it, Brande. You have been enjoined from doing so, and if you want talk, talk to my lawyer.”
“Deride, I don’t give a damn about your mining. You can dig for gold anywhere you want. My concern is your methods and how they endanger both the ocean and the west coast of the United States.”
“My methods are my business. Stay out of the way, and you won’t get hurt. Goodbye, Dr. Brande.”
Brande sat back. “We probably should have sold him Gargantua. Maybe he’d be nicer to me.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Emry said.
He looked up at Thomas. “I tried, Rae.”
She appeared to be as frustrated as he felt. “Yes, you tried.”
Brande stood up and went to the head of the laboratory. He didn’t have to call for attention; all eyes were on him. There were fifteen people present, all gathered around the bow of DepthFinder. All of them depended upon him for their livelihood as well as competent decisions. He felt the weight.
“We’ll get involved with a little democratic governance,” he said. “Everyone knows what’s been taking place. According to Larry’s projections, if AquaGeo continues its current pattern of blasting, we’ve got three more days, including today, and three more detonations before they’re interfering with some delicate structures in the Pioneer Fracture Zone. We don’t know the probabilities of a nuclear detonation triggering earthquakes, but as long as it’s possible, I’m concerned. On top of that, their activities are leaving behind a lot of ecological damage. You’ve seen the videos of dead and irradiated sea life.
“My intention would be to delay them as long as possible, until the legal beagles have a chance to act.”
Brande saw a few affirming nods in his audience.