He tapped on the RPM monitor. Confirming the speed of the main rotor blades had reached its minimum takeoff speed. He pulled on the collective and they took off, banking almost immediately to the left and away from the wave.
Seconds later, the rogue wave destroyed the Coast Guard vessel as though it were a bath toy. The pilot pulled the helicopter up.
Vanessa watched as the giant wave reached its peak.
It was going to be close to reaching them. In front, she saw the helicopter’s altimeter read 126 feet. Will it be enough?
She watched as the wave flowed beneath them and the water reached within two to three feet. She sighed deeply with relief.
And then a following crest clipped the side of the helicopter.
Chapter Ninety Five
The helicopter dipped its skids into the water. The main rotors continued to spin. For a second Vanessa thought the helicopter was going to pull out. Instead the wave seemed to pull it downwards.
A moment later the helicopter, failing to maintain lift, banked to the left. The main rotors sliced at the seawater sending a spray of misty green water into the air.
And then her entire world went dark as the cabin was enveloped by the wave. The sound was horrifying. The powerful engine roared and then exploded as the cold seawater reached the internal point of combustion. The front windscreen shattered.
There was no way to tell the direction to the surface. Everything was dark. She was nothing more than a ragdoll. Vanessa fought with her seatbelt which finally gave way to the frantic pressure of her hands tearing at it.
Her chest hurt but she couldn’t recall why. In her panicked state, she didn’t even realize that it had been nearly half a minute since she’d last taken a breath.
She felt her way to the side of the helicopter. The doors were still closed. She slid her hands all over the dark space until one of them reached the emergency release latch. She pulled on it. No response. Changing her position, allowing for greater leverage over the handle, she pulled on the latch again.
Gas powered explosions ruptured and the door disappeared.
It was still dark out there. And she had no idea which way was up. She swam through the open door and pulled the toggle on her life jacket.
It inflated instantly.
A moment later her head pierced the surface of the water.
Chapter Ninety Six
Tom flew over the location where the Coast Guard vessel was supposed to be. The previously glowing green water had returned to its naturally dark state. The hive must have returned to deeper waters.
Sam checked the GPS.
Staring down at the dark seascape he knew the truth. He was too late. The rogue wave had killed again. Nothing remained on the surface. The ship, its life rafts, everything had been taken to the bottom of the ocean.
He had just given up hope when he spotted a single head bobbing above the water. It was attached to a yellow life jacket. For an instant he wondered if the person was already dead. And then it started to move its hands. It turned to face him.
He recognized the face immediately. Senator Vanessa Croft had a face hard to forget.
Tom lowered the helicopter until his skids rested approximately twenty feet above the water. Any lower than this and the downward pressure of the rotors would likely drown her.
Sam left the cockpit and shuffled to the back of the helicopter. He slid the sliding door open and attached a life ring to the winch. He checked to see that Senator Croft had followed what he was doing.
Then he threw it into the water next to her.
She didn’t wait for an invitation. She immediately placed it over her head and wrapped her arms around it.
“Okay Tom. She’s good. I’m going to start the winch.”
In front of him, Tom prepared to take the additional weight in the helicopter’s controls. Sam then pressed the red arrow pointing upwards and the winch began to draw the cable inwards. Thirty seconds later, she put her feet on the skids and Sam drew her into the main cabin.
She smiled at him. “It’s good to see you, Mr. Reilly. This time I really do owe you one!” Her eyes darted around the helicopter and back towards the desolate sea. “Where’s everyone else?”
“I’m afraid you’re the only survivor we found Ma’am.”
Chapter Ninety Seven
At 8 a.m. the next day, Sam Reilly walked into the office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington DC. He explained everything he’d discovered and what he had done. He explained about the symbiotic nanotechnology embedded in the plankton and how it had grown to be much more advanced than he’d first thought. That they had tried to destroy it near Mosquito Bay, where it appeared to have a hive. And how he’d lost it.
At the end of his rant, he looked at the Defense Secretary. He was surprised she had let him speak for so long. She still maintained the same dark red hair she always had. Her emerald green eyes appeared slightly wearied by the strain of responsibility, but her face lacked none of the beauty that she’d commanded for her other 45 years of life. She maintained a permanent scowl instead of a smile. Somehow, even it too appeared just as beautiful as it had always been.
“Well, Mr. Reilly, you have certainly had a busy month. Now, tell me what you came all the way out to Washington D.C. to ask me about. I doubt very much that you’re all that taken with our latest Democratic Nominee. She can be quite the flirt with younger men in private, but I’m told she’s reigned it in since she got the Nomination. So you can’t simply have come here to receive her formal congratulations for rescuing her — what do you want to know?”
“Madam Secretary. I’m talking about a weapon capable of destroying America. It will cripple our ability to defend ourselves, crush our economy through the destruction of our shipping lanes, and consume our people with fear, hunger and futility. It’s an entirely automated weapon, and I believe it’s specifically choosing its targets. At first we thought it was randomly sinking ships, now we know it targeted them all for a very specific reason. It’s playing a game of chess right now, and the end game is the total annihilation of America.”
“No, no. I heard what you said about the damn weapon. Now, for Christ’s sake young man, what have you come here to ask me?”
“You’re the Secretary of Defense for a country with the largest military budget in the world. You’re advised by countless people who have devoted their life to defending America. The CIA, FBI, Counter Terrorism, and Homeland Security — they all feed you with information. You must have some idea who’s responsible. Madam Secretary, we’re at war — we just don’t know who our enemy is.”
She walked closer to him. Staring at him. Her face full of derision. “My God, you really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Why, who paid for the research and development, of course.”
She looked right into his eyes. Close enough that he could smell her perfume. The warmth of her breath. The tiny sparkles in her emerald eyes. And the freckles on her cheeks, which she’d worked hard to cover with makeup. His heart quickened. Sam had often wondered if he hated or loved her more. He was certainly compelled by her. She had commissioned him and made him the man he was. Taken him out of the Corps and trained him for his unique projects. He did it for his country, but he never would have remained if it wasn’t for her.
“So, who paid for the research and development into manufacturing rogue waves?”
She looks at him. Her serious expression remained unchanged. She lowered her glasses as a teacher would before reprimanding a bad child. “We did, Mr. Reilly. We commissioned its research and development. When it killed its creator, we lost control of the best technological advancement the Department of Defense has gained since the atomic bomb.””