Itay Friedman stepped into the cabin, gun cocked.
Admiral Huebner spread a map of half of the earth on a drawing board. The half of the earth with the Antarctic on it, that is.
The U-boat had not come up again. Indeed, this was an evasive tactic, and they were trying to make a run for it. If that was the case, they must be trying to reach the closest landmass.
But the closest island was at least five thousand miles away to the South. He surmised that going that far was not practical for the U-boat. He considered that they might have depleted their fuel supply too, just as he was taking water and losing speed.
He saw an atoll, back in the direction that the luxury ship had come from. Tomas Benjamin was supposed to have stopped that vessel. Tomas was a pussy.
Perhaps the luxury ship was a distraction, and the U-boat was docking at the atoll even at that moment.
A fit of cold anger gripped his stomach, and he cursed Tomas Benjamin.
To give the crew some air time before the end, Nassif killed the engine. He turned the swivel chair and faced the crew. They all stared at each other. Then Cooper managed a smile.
"Well, folks, it has been a pleasure coming with you on this expedition," he eulogized. "I should say my German vocabulary has since expanded…"
None of the crew members seemed to find his little speech amusing. Miller was trying to reach his ship again, but the lower the U-boat dropped, the worse the reception got. Olivia took her camera and brought it to her face slowly.
"I'd like to take our pictures," she said in an even voice, surprising herself. "If they find our remains, we will not be some faceless John Does and a Jane Doe. They'll, of course, find our research. But with our pictures, they'll know who we truly are. Say cheers—"
"Wait."
It was Friedman. He had been standing at the door of the cabin, his guns dangling from his side. Miller asked him if he found the major.
"I killed him."
"What?!" Cooper jumped where he sat.
"And I'll kill you all if you don't do as I say," Friedman said coolly. "I'm hijacking this ship."
Miller's face distorted in pain and anger. He came towards his bodyguard. Itay Friedman pointed his gun at Miller's head.
"I won't hesitate to shoot you. Sir."
"Itay? What the hell got into you?"
"Everyone, I need you all to form a line and walk down to the engine room, now, people. I killed the major, I will kill you all if you don't do as I say." He pushed Cooper, who dragged his feet.
"Don't try to be brave, Cooper. I don't like you. So be careful," he said to the professor.
Friedman had already opened the compartment where the engineers of the U-boat had kept a life raft. It was wide enough for seven adults to squeeze into. And the engineers were ingenious enough to put a booster in it.
Friedman ordered Miller to pull it down. Liam Murphy was big, and he could take Itay Friedman down if he tried. He looked at Borodin, but the Russian was frowning in deep thought.
They filed into the raft. Friedman shut the hatch over his companions. Olivia was crying, "Friedman, no, please."
Miller tried one last time. "Itay, what are you doing?"
Friedman punched the red button on the wall beside the hatch. Then he pulled down a lever. There was a popping sound behind the metal wall of the boat. Friedman stepped back onto a platform where the sucking mechanism that will eject the life raft could not get to him.
The raft moved about a meter in a treadmill. The hatch came down, and the last thing Friedman saw was the weeping journalist, waving at him, saying goodbye.
She was a good woman, he thought with some sadness.
Yes, she was.
Olivia took a picture of her escape from the deep twice. First, when they almost made it, and the second time when Itay Friedman gave his life so they could make it out alive. Though at the time billionaire Frank Miller could not understand why his bodyguard could sacrifice himself for the team.
Olivia kept taking the shots until they hit the surface.
Itay Friedman coughed into his hand. He looked at the blood in his hand, then he opened his shirt. The handle of a small knife was stuck to his abdomen. Santiago had stabbed him with it during his struggle with the major. The long blade had punctured his left kidney; the major had expertly twisted the hilt so that the object had gone up to his left lung.
He was dying. There was no use trying to save himself, for there was no way he would have survived.
Friedman staggered back to the engine room, blood dripping down his left leg and leaving a long trail behind him.
"You still got some juice in you, I know."
And this way, he discussed with the engine, cajoled it until the last minute when the machine woke up. It belched steamy white smoke.
"That's my lady," Friedman yelled.
The propellers started turning urgently, as though they suddenly possessed their own spirit, and they understood the stakes.
Friedman took the steps with the last of his strength, two at a time. He took the seat that Nassif had been sitting in some minutes before.
He fired the engine for the last time, and the boat slanted, then it shot forward.
"Here I come, you bastards!"
The life raft broke the surface of the water just as Admiral Huebner was about to give the order to change course for the atoll not far away.
"Oh, there you are."
The exec had joined him. His spirit fell when he saw the raft.
"Give me the 350-millimeter caliber," the admiral shouted. "I want that raft out of the water in one shot."
The exec, blank-faced, shrugged; he gave the word, but nothing happened.
"Where is my gun? Why is that damn raft still on the water!?" Admiral Huebner shrieked.
The exec said, "The crew won't do it, sir."
"Then make them do it!"
"I can't, Admiral."
The crew had armed themselves, and they were waiting for the admiral when he came down to the officers. They begrudged the admiral for their slain comrade.
Huebner, crazy with rage, picked up his gun and began to stumble off his station. The exec called, "Sir, we have company moving in fast."
Huebner charged back to the sonar screen. It was the U-boat.
"Who's driving it?" he gasped.
"Must be the devil himself, sir." The exec was trembling. "Contact is off the port side, 30 meters and closing. Advise what to do, Admiral."
The U-boat was coming with the highest speed they had seen it do. Desperate and scared, Huebner shouted off orders.
"Evade, evade!” Huebner yelled, feebly.
The destroyer was too late. The U-boat crashed into the ship through the hole where her torpedo had done damage. Metal crunched against metal, the prow went through that hole, hitting the fuel tanks. Combustion followed instantly. In his last moment alive, Itay Friedman had one of the rarest grins on his face.
Admiral Huebner, his crew, and the ship disintegrated in the ensuing explosion.
Frank Miller's ship finally sailed alongside the raft.
Ladders were lowered from the ship, and the crew went up one after the other. The captain of the ship was a white-haired man who spoke with an English accent. He wore a bowler hat and tailcoats. He addressed Olivia formally, calling her ma'am.
As they watched the destroyer burn down, life rafts appeared in the water. Survivors swam away from the destruction.
From behind them, they saw a helicopter hover past. It flew low over the wreckage as the ship began to sink. A rescue team dropped ropes in the water to take the sailors to safety.