' Speed one-third!' Peace ordered.
Adele saw my face. What is it?' she whispered. I whispered back, If she strikes-I love you..
Peace at the 'scope gave a quick glance round-and astern.
All stop!' The engine annunciators swung. ' Rig for ultraquiet!'
Speed zero,' called the plotter softly.
All stop. Sonar?'
Would Willowtrack come crashing into us at full speed just as we had stormed the wild passage, unable to detect us in her path because of the breaking surf? Would Tyler take the risk? Goblin contact slowing'
Of course. Tyler had no way of knowing there was a gap in the barrier reef.
Ease her down, to one hundred feet.'
The auxiliary pump clattered softly and sea-water crunched into the trimming tanks. Would Willowtrack hear-and come on? Goblin contact-speed zero'
Tyler had funked it! But Devastation was in mortal danger
– the swift race of the current had swung her stern towards the coral cliffs.
Peace was on the ball. Periscope depth! Pump from auxiliaries to the sea!'
The diving officer's handling was masterly. A 5,000-ton submarine is not meant to ride up and down like a lift, especially when a current is snatching and spinning her towards destruction.
Every eye was on Peace. Slowly, deliberately, he made a 360-degree sweep with the main periscope.
Down periscope! Ahead one-third! Course two-twozero.'
Straight into the inlet!
` Goblin contact lost,' chanted the soner-operator.
` Can't Willowtrack hear us any more?' Adele asked me anxiously.
` No,' I replied. ` Tyler's outside the barrier reef. He could try and follow us in, if he heard us enter..
MKG said tersely, He's outside; maybe he guesses we're inside..
Peace altered course and headed down the inlet, parallel to the way we had come up the coastline, but inside the shelter of the reef now.
He joined us. His face was set. ` There are half a dozen tiny coral atolls in the inlet,' he said. I'm making for them. They're about the size of Devastation.' .
MKG said quietly, Tyler's sure got you, Commander'
But Peace spoke to Adele. ` You spoke about an umbrellashaped piece of coral in the Grand Carreaux when we were headed round St Brandon-what was it like?'
' Like-why, an umbrella, or a mushroom. There was a stem of coral in the middle and-'
` Was there an overhang?' He cupped his hands. A sort of roof?'
Not a roof,' she replied. The coral wasn't strong enough for that.'
He leaned forward eagerly. Not strong enough?'
Not at the rim of the overhang, anyway. It was a favourite with the fishermen, as the fish concentrate under the shelf
'Shelf?' he queried.
Yes-it's so thin near the edge that if you're spear-fishing you have to be careful not to fall through.'
MKG said. Commander, there's no way out of this-and
Willowtrack's waiting outside.'
Peace swung on his toes. There is a way out-through the coral.' We looked at him in astonishment.
He gestured upwards. Up-through. I'll take Devastation up-like they do through the ice. American nuclear subs pioneered the technique of breaking through polar ice-they smashed up from below. It's standard practice now. All these subs are equipped with polynya delineators-a special type Of sonar which traces the outline of a hole in the ice. The polynya, or gap in the ice, is often covered with a thinner layer of ice a couple of feet thick- a skylight, they call 'em. If a sub can penetrate thin ice like that, it can smash through a coral skylight just as easily. That's why Adele's information is invaluable to me at the moment. I intend smashing through the coral umbrella of one of these little atolls and making Devastation seem to be part of the atoll itself-undetectable by Willowtrack's radar.'
He turned and went back to the diving-stand. Adele's hand was clenched on my arm at what he was about to attempt. Devastation approached the first jagged coral atoll. Depth?' asked Peace.
Fifty-five feet.'
Devastation edged closer, barely under way.
' Flood her down, Bob!'
Vents opened, water poured in.
Three hundred feet!'
Down she went.
Secure flooding!'
Devastation coasted to a standstill.
Switch on the ice-detector I '
Eyes turned in amazement to the black figure merged against the shadows of the periscope stand. A switch was thrown and a new instrument face came to life in the Control Centre-an upward beam fathometer to detect the thin patch of skylight '-if it existed. A metal stylus began to oscillate against a paper-covered cylinder. A pattern appeared. Smash-through technique worked in ice-would it do so in coral?
Speed?'
Zero.'
'All stop!'
' Clear water overhead!'
We had found a polynya in the coral!
The polynya delineator traced the outline of its edges. I stood by the instrument. My hands were wet with sweat.
Ice-coral-solid-overhead!'
Devastation had drifted clear of the skylight! I recalled the current sweeping into the inlet.
Peace raised the periscope and beckoned to me. At first I saw nothing. I directed the prism upwards. I saw then a blurred green-blue: a school of dark turquoise surgeon-fish blended against the jagged splendour of coral on one side.
A pale shell-pink fish drifted into view above and then coasted down curiously towards the 'scope. I could see his pink sides and silvery-blue back, he was so close. I swung the periscope round against the pressure of the sea-its tip was still nearly 140 feet below the surface-and winced.
Within touching distance, it seemed, a coral mass towered from the deeps. It flowered, cantilever-like, surfacewards. This was what Peace intended to break through!
Ease her up to one hundred feet,' he ordered.
I stood with him, not trusting my knees to take me across to the ice-detector.
Call out the depths as she comes up!'
One-eighty.
One-sixty.'
One-twenty.'
One hundred.'
The growing light showed up Peace's face in the periscope eyepiece. Its top was now only 40 feet from the coral.
"Thin ice-coral-overhead. Offset skylight,' intoned the man at the ice-detector. I saw the muscles tauten round Peace's parted lips. He held a hundred lives in his hand.
Down periscope! Stand by to hit the coral! Bring her up!'
Aye aye, sir!'
The only sound was the thrum of the pumps.
Devastation rose.
There was a sickening shock. I grabbed the stand. The sub caromed off the coral, hurtled downwards. I saw Peace check his order to blow all the main ballast-if he had done that to hold her mad career, she would have raced headlong up into the coral above without nicety of control…
Pumps.'
The diving officer caught her. We hung at 120 feet.
Again!' ordered Peace. 'Harder this time, Bob!'
I felt the strong bite of the pumps and the upward rise of Hunter Killer the ship. Then, from overhead, came a violent rending and crunching. Eyes went automatically upwards for the tell-tale inrush of water from Devastation's crushed sail. It did not come. Fore and aft were a series of heavy thumps. Sweat ran down Peace's throat. Then-quiet.
We're through!' MKG exclaimed in disbelief.
The long barrel of the periscope slid up with its customary hiss. Peace put his eyes to the instrument's rubber cushions – then drew back. They were wet-with his own sweat of fear. He ran his sleeve across the eyepiece. The tension was unbearable. He turned the 'scope a full circle, slowly. He drew back, his voice slack with reaction.
Blow the main ballast!'
I swallowed hard as the high-pressure air volted into the tanks, upsetting the pressure in the Control Centre. We had broken through-now Peace was securing his handhold on the coral. He was bringing the entire buoyancy of the 5,000ton craft to bear on the underside of the coral to clamp the sub there-part and parcel of the atoll itself. Devastation creaked and groaned. A film of apprehension spread momentarily over Peace's eyes as a high-pitched squeal of tortured metal, followed by a heavy crunch, came from somewhere up for' ard.