"I think we are ready, but we don't have a reserve."
Ted Cooper suggested draining the snowmobiles that the soldiers rode in.
"They run on gas," Nicolai said.
Ted threw his hands up in resignation. "Can we get a break, God?"
Miller looked around as Olivia and the other men breezed in from the laboratory with a bundle of documents. Nassif had another rack with him. He was sweating with the burden of it.
He explained, "I have been thinking, I know we are about to abandon the major here. But I could help him if I only have more time."
He grabbed a sheaf of papers from Olivia.
"Look, here we have more to go on. The scientists who worked here must have left some clue for an antidote." He held Miller's hand. "You know what they call reverse engineering?"
"I have heard of it."
"I can apply this shortly. I can come up with a solution that can stop the virus from multiplying in the major. And something like a vaccine, for us all."
Miller gave Nassif's recommendation deep thought. Nassif explained that being exhausted, the crew was even more in danger of incubating and spawning the virus.
"We need a vaccine, and we need it before we leave this place," he finished.
Miller nodded. "Do it."
"Good." The doctor smiled. "Now we need a place in the boat, a little quarantine for the major, and anyone who may come down with symptoms."
Admiral Huebner watched Tomas Benjamin's ship bob in the waves not more than half a mile away. The other ships were close by too. They hemmed him.
Huebner finally got proof for Tomas. The exec came back with news of possible survivors. Huebner knew that Major Santiago was alive. And if that was true, it is not impossible the Americans were breathing too.
Huebner was convinced that he couldn't possibly green-light his way from the vicinity of Antarctica without making sure the infected people do not follow. Guided with that reality, he sent a message to Tomas and the other ships, outlining his reasons.
Tomas sent back four words: "We'll wait with you."
Sleep and drugs helped him achieve some clarity. Though his condition seemed to have improved, major Juan Santiago still felt as though he was dying. The expedition crew had probably left him behind. He couldn't hear a thing.
Santiago got up on weak legs. He looked around to find that he had been put in one of the storerooms of the rocket room. His head swam as he walked, but he was steadier than he had been since he got infected with the virus.
Recollection flooded the major’s head. He had come here with some men, to stop the Americans who were now trying to save him. Or leave him.
He saw the heap of dead bodies and stopped in his tracks. Confused at first, he looked around, half expecting to be gunned down too. Then he remembered what he had done.
Santiago started searching the pockets of the dead soldiers. He found a talkie. He reasoned that he couldn't go in blind.
He started running as best as he could towards the U-boat pen.
Nassif held the narrow tube to the light.
He twirled the liquid around the tube as fast as he could.
"Why do you shake the tube so?" Borodin asked him.
"I need to separate the two substances in the tube as best as I can," he said as he twirled.
Meanwhile, Nicolai has gotten the electricity on in the U-boat. He and Itay Friedman almost plunged the facility into darkness when they took some parts and wires from the engine room.
As Nassif set his vaccine down, and a different tube containing a supposed antidote, outside lights on the U-boat flickered on, illuminating the dark cavern.
Just then, Major Santiago appeared at the entrance.
Garbed in makeshift protective clothing, gloves, and a facemask made out of personal clothing, doctor Anabia Nassif treated the major in the small holding bay of the U-boat.
Nassif paused with the syringe, and his facemask muffled his voice.
"I have to tell you Major, that if this works, you would be my first experiment at making an antidote."
"Will it work?"
"I added something that wasn't in the first antidote."
The doctor smiled under his mask. What use was it if the major knew what he'd added to the drug? None of the expedition members had made such an inquiry.
"Cadmium sulfate," Nassif said. "That's what I added to it. It inhibits chemical reactions in the right amount. It is not the best in the market, but it is what I could find here."
He stared at the major’s quivering face. It was shiny with sweat. The soft flesh around his lower eyelids quaked.
"Here we go, Major. It's going to hurt, very much."
"Hit me."
Nassif injected the major's arm.
The veins in the major’s head were popping when Nassif shut the metal doors as he left.
Borodin and Nicolai could not read the German labels on the machines. Though the parts looked just like the ones on most submarines that Nicolai had worked on, he could not be sure with a U-boat.
Peter Williams and Ted Cooper went down to assist in translation. Ten minutes after, the diesel engines cranked as Borodin hotwired it to life. The boat shuddered, rusting metal props around the body groaned under the weight.
An excited Nicolai announced that their voyage was about to begin. Next, Nicolai opened the flooding hatch in the pen.
A burst of cold air hit his face. Nicolai quickly jumped back on the boat as seawater busted into the open enclosure. Within minutes, the U-boat was buffered.
The crew hurdled together into the pilot room. The ship was not moving because the two Russians who made it work couldn't navigate it. Perplexed, Borodin stared at the console, the sonar panel, and all the many levers and buttons.
Doctor Anabia Nassif tapped Borodin's shoulder. "Hey, I have done deep-sea diving with underwater vessels many times. I know sonar."
The surge in the pen had automatically opened a gate under the facility. The U-boat submerged and went through the entrance into the ice-cold water. Olivia Newton gazed through one of the portholes, her camera ready to take photos.
Misty waves surrounded the boat, and tiny water life floated by. Olivia saw two seals swim past the ship.
She took pictures. Then she began making more notes.
Nassif stared at the dials, glancing in Peter's direction. Peter had taken a seat beside him while the others explored the boat.
"What is it?" Peter asked him.
"Oxygen depletion."
Nassif took a piece off a German jotter left by the former occupants on the console. He copied numbers off the small green screen above the dial with the tag OXYGEN. Nassif made computations.
"We have enough oxygen for just about 200 meters, Professor," said Nassif grimly.
"Shit."
"The crew will panic if they know this," Nassif said.
Peter said he understood.
They hit a pocket of air-filled space under the sea. The U-boat rocked as they went by. The sound of it was like metals scraping together.
"What the hell was that?" someone asked.
Nassif stopped the boat on Miller's suggestion. They needed to find out what had hit the boat and if any damage had been done.
Nicolai found a water suit. He went out a diving hatch, on the tail of the boat. Five minutes later, dripping with water, he hollered, "U-boats, plenty of them—"
"Where?" Miller asked.
They were all looking at another porthole in minutes.
Below, on the seabed, U-boats were piled on each other, scores of them. Nicolai looked at Borodin; he said, "They never sailed, but they must have all their fuels still."