‘You’re not going anywhere until you give me whatever you found in that device!’
‘Believe me, you don’t want any part of it,’ Hannah snapped up at Veer. ‘Right now it’s floating out of here alongside the US Navy’s finest submarine. You’ll never catch up with them, and even if you could you’d never be able to get it back. It’s over, Andrei!’
Veer sneered down at her as he took more careful aim. ‘It is for you.’
‘Veer!’ Ethan shouted desperately. ‘Right now, you can get the hell out of here and disappear and nobody will ever be any the wiser. You can still get away, but I swear if you shoot her I’ll hunt you down for the rest of my days!’
Veer smiled cruelly. ‘And what makes you think that you’ll be leaving here alive, Warner?’
Ethan had no suitable response to the big man, and then he heard the rumble inside the huge cavern reach a new crescendo. He looked up at the walls near the rear of the base and saw gigantic stress fissures split the ice with cracks like thunder that echoed through the chamber.
‘The whole place is coming down, Veer!’ Hannah yelled.
Ethan glanced to one side and saw the bodies of several of Veer’s men lying on the dock, their heads a mess of bloodied tissue where Saunders’ unwavering aim had cut them down. Several of them were wearing diving suits, oxygen cylinders still on their backs.
‘Then it’s coming down on you,’ Veer roared as he looked at Ethan. ‘Where is the submarine going?!’
‘What the hell difference does it make?!’ Ethan yelled. ‘You can’t get it back now, it’s too late. You’ve lost, Veer, it’s over!’
Veer grinned at Ethan. ‘It’s not over until it’s over, and I have one play left that will send that sub’ to the bottom of the ocean!’
Ethan frowned in disbelief as Veer produced a small GPS device and activated it.
‘What’s that?’ Hannah asked.
Veer did not reply as he tossed the GPS device into the water, the glowing screen a brilliant light that began moving swiftly with the flow.
‘Radar guidance for the weapon that will destroy you, the submarines and everything here,’ Veer roared back as he shot Ethan a malevolent glare of victory. ‘If I can’t have it, then nobody can!’
Through Ethan’s mind ran images of the submarine’s crew, Riggs’ SEAL team and of poor Amy trapped aboard the tiny Seehund as the Antarctic base was annihilated by some unspeakable weapon deployed by Majestic Twelve.
Ethan turned and threw himself across the dock, his body sliding across the ice as he reached out. His hand plunged into the freezing water and grabbed for the GPS device as it slid past. The frigid cold bit deep into his skin, ached in the bones of his hand as he closed his grip around it and threw it clear of the water.
Veer roared and turned to aim at Ethan, and in an instant Hannah drew a knife from a sheath inside her boot and slammed it down into the bridge of Veer’s boot. The wickedly sharp blade tore into Veer and he screamed in shock and pain as he tried to swing the pistol back around to aim down at her. Hannah lifted one knee, brought it right back almost to her chin as she then flicked her boot out and it slammed into Veer’s groin with an audible thud.
The huge man’s cry of pain was wrenched off as he doubled over. Ethan scrambled to his feet and hurled himself at Veer as Hannah rolled clear. Ethan slammed into Veer and both of them crashed down onto the ice, Ethan grappling for Veer’s pistol and instead getting a hold of his forearm.
The huge soldier was far too strong for Ethan to batter the pistol from his grasp, but he wasted no time in scrambling to his feet and stomping down on Veer’s wrist. He heard the crackle of bones breaking beneath the blow, Veer screeching in agony as he reached out for Ethan’s jacket.
Ethan jerked away as the soldier attempted to wrench the knife from his boot, but the serrated blade caught in the thick leather and the torn flesh beneath.
‘Run!’ Hannah yelled. ‘Now!’
Ethan turned to flee in pursuit of Hannah, but then the walls of the cavern let out a deafening roar and Ethan saw the surface of the water churn as a fresh flow burst through into the cavern from below and the surface of the dock began to surge upward.
‘It’s too late!’ he yelled to Hannah. ‘We’ll never outrun it!’
Hannah stopped and stared at Ethan, who turned back to look at Veer. The big soldier was trying to stand up, but the blade in his foot was too painful and he could not hope to walk out of the chamber.
Ethan dashed to the bodies of Veer’s fallen men and began unzipping the wetsuits they wore. Hannah realized instantly what he had in mind and began tearing the wetsuit off another of the dead soldiers.
Ethan hurled off his thick Arctic jacket and managed to drive his legs down into one of the suits, hauling it over his shoulders as he looked at the black water surging closer and heard the sound of the walls of the cavern crashing inward under the unbearable pressure of millions of tons of water swelling in the tunnels.
‘You’ll never make it!’ Veer yelled as he tried to yank the blade from his boot, his features twisted with pain. ‘We’re all going to die down here!’
Ethan ignored the mercenary as he zipped up his suit and hefted the oxygen tank onto his back, clipping it in place as he looked across at Hannah and saw her pulling the tank of the dead soldier into place on her own shoulders. She pulled the rubber hood into place and attempted to wipe thick blood off the faceplate with numb hands. She yanked the faceplate into place and Ethan quickly sealed it for her.
He stepped out from behind her and saw Veer move.
‘Down!’
Something flickered in the light as it flew across the dock, and all at once Ethan saw that the blade was out of Veer’s boot. He heard a thump and felt Hannah stiffen, her eyes wide with shock as she looked around and down. Hannah slump onto her knees as the thick blade of the knife quivered in her side.
‘No!’
Ethan dropped alongside her, the serrated blade buried in her flesh somewhere just below her ribs, Hannah’s eyes wide and her breathing coming fast as her hands clenched around the handle of the blade.
‘No, don’t move it!’ Ethan yelled. ‘You’ll break the seal of the suit!’
Ethan turned as a tremendous roar burst across the cavern and the fissures in the far wall suddenly burst open. Fierce columns of icy glacial water exploded into the docks and burst past the command center, pouring down onto the docks as frigid water flooded over the dock walls.
Ethan saw the water flood across the dock around them, and then he saw a huge, muscular and torpedo-shaped form surge from the waves and slide onto the dock.
‘We’re going, now!’ Ethan urged as he held Hannah and let the freezing water rush across them.
He kicked off, the flow of water rushing toward the tunnel as he let the fearsome flow carry them along and looked back to see Veer’s body immobile on the dock as the water burst around it. Then he saw the leopard seal, its huge form dwarfing Veer’s as it lunged for his body and sank its razor sharp teeth into his leg and wrenched him toward the water.
Veer screamed as the seal hauled him off the dock but the sound of his torment was lost as the water thundered by them and carried their bodies downstream, Ethan glimpsing Veer vanish into the waves. Ethan held Hannah close alongside him as they were swept along and the current washed them off the dock and sent them careering down the tunnel and out of the chamber.
The walls of the tunnel thundered by, the roar of the rushing water amplified by the enclosed space and the sharp ice walls illuminated only by the glow from the flashlights attached to their wetsuits as they were sent tumbling through the depths of the narrow chasm.