That is their exit strategy, King thought. The total destruction of the island.
King could tell by the speed and direction of the flowing lava that the Manifold facility and the whole of Edinburgh would soon be wiped out. Erased from existence. And long before they had time to run through town to the docks. He turned to Queen and Bishop, who had already thrown Pierce back over his shoulder, and said, "Stay close."
After leading them across the courtyard, ever wary of lurking re-gens, King opened the metal door leading to the submarine bay. He motioned them through, shouting, "Haul ass to the end. We'll figure out the next step when we get there."
Queen led the way, followed by Bishop.
King looked back and found a wall of lava eating through the back side of the facility's wall. It would slow the advance, but not for long. He slammed the metal door closed and locked it tight, praying it would take some time for the lava to melt through. He sprinted down the long cement hallway, its lights flickering as the facility's power died. He caught up with the others as they reached the end of the hallway and the second metal door. Bishop kicked the door open as the ground began to shake more violently. The volcano was hemorrhaging lava. With everyone through the door, King turned to close and seal it. He paused, looking down the hallway where the other end glowed bright orange.
He slammed the door shut and locked it. He turned, facing the others and the submarine docking cave. A cement L-shaped platform held several lockers, tool chests, and storage bins, but there was no clear mode of egress from the interior of the cave. "It's too far to swim out. Look for oxygen tanks, rebreathers, anything."
The lights blinked.
King dove for the nearest lockers, tearing them open and pouring through the contents. Queen joined him. After the first three, the lights went out. With no source of illumination, the bay plunged into total darkness.
Then the darkness ebbed, pushed away by a subtle glow as the metal door began heating from the other side. In the dim orange light, Queen found a flashlight and turned it on, handing a second to King.
"Time is running out," Bishop said, pointing to the metal door. A trickle of molten liquid leaked through a hole at the door's base. Then another.
King flung open a long metal chest. "Here!" He pulled out a sleek, black X-Scooter CSI diver propulsion vehicle and handed it to Bishop. The small handheld machine could pull the two men through the water faster than either could swim. They would make it out alive… in fact, he wasn't sure Pierce could even drown and knew Bishop could hold his breath for minutes. "Get him out of here."
Bishop nodded and headed for the black pool of seawater. He jumped into the water, sank beneath the surface, and disappeared with Pierce.
King moved to the next chest and flung it open. Empty.
"Strip and swim, boss," Queen said as she shed her fatigues, weapons, and cartridge belt.
Lava burst through the door, moving like warm honey across the cement floor. A wave of heat filled the space. King tore his clothes from his body as Queen popped the thumb drive into her mouth and dove into the water dressed in her jet black boyshorts and sports bra. As King discarded his pants and stood in his boxer briefs, he saw a pair of swim fins in an open locker. The far end of the locker was already melting into the lava. He acted without thinking, racing against the flow of lava, he grabbed the fins, raced back to the edge, and dove high just as the lava ate the cement at his feet and spilled into the pool. King struck the water and slid away fast and deep. As his momentum slowed, he put on the swim fins and kicked hard into the water, keenly aware that the cave glowed bright around him where it had been pitch-black before. He was even more aware of the water's rising temperature. If he didn't drown, he'd soon be boiled like a lobster.
King gained on Queen thanks to the swim fins. They were fifty feet from the exit, which stood out as a dim, moonlit circle. King pointed to his feet and reached a hand out to Queen. She saw the fins, nodded, and took his hand. They kicked together, increasing their speed. Twenty feet from the tunnel exit, King saw a thick drip of something sinking through the water. A flurry of bubbles flew away from the object as it descended. Then a second, larger blob sunk past. The lava had reached the island's edge ahead of them.
King kicked harder, his legs and lungs burning, as a small stream of lava oozed into the water to their right, filling the ocean with steaming bubbles. King watched the bubbles burst and expand as a second stream of lava struck. They'd be trapped in seconds.
A shadow shot out of the depths like a hunting shark, moving fast and fluid. King fought the urge to stop swimming and face the object, whether it be shark or torpedo, but with gouts of lava about to rain down from above, he kept on kicking… and waiting for death to come from above, or below.
THIRTY- SEVEN
The shadow emerged from the depths, reached out, and took King's arm in a vice grip. He and Queen were yanked up and away as Bishop, still holding the high-powered scooter pulled them away from the mouth of the cave. An explosion of bubbles and wave of heat pursued them as lava spilled into the ocean. With the scooter pulling and King still kicking with his fins, they cleared the area just in time not to be boiled alive, but as King's vision began to fade, a new threat emerged.
He needed to breathe.
Sensing this, Bishop turned the scooter toward the surface and pulled them up. After breaking through the waves, King and Queen gasped for air, taxed beyond their limits, but unwilling to give the grim reaper his due. As they fought against the waves, hands reached down from above and plucked them from the ocean and onto the plush, comfortable deck of the Mercury. Bishop started up after them.
Rook reached down to help him up.
"I got it," Bishop said.
He took Bishop by the wrist. "C'mon, big guy. Let me help you—"
"I said I got it!" Bishop twisted his wrist out of Rook's hand, took hold of Rook's shirt, and pulled him overboard. Rook sank under the water and came back up a moment later. "Bishop, what the hell!"
Standing on the deck of the Mercury, Bishop looked back at him. "Just stay away from me, Rook." He stalked away, ignoring the stunned looks of King, Queen, and Knight, and entered the cabin.
King helped Rook back onto the deck. Water poured from his waterlogged clothes. "What was that about?"
"Probably upset about being captured," Queen said, wrapping a towel around her scantily clad body. "He'll cool off soon enough."
"Well, I'm doing like the man said and steering clear of his grumpy ass," Rook said. He didn't like being humiliated, or manhandled, by a teammate. Broken trust could lead to all kinds of trouble on the battlefield. As Rook stripped out of his drenched clothing he frowned and added, "To top things off, the island is a total loss."
King looked up as Knight hammered the throttle, launching the yacht away from the island. The whole of Tristan da Cunha was consumed in lava, smoke, and fire. Edinburgh burned. Manifold Beta sat beneath a pool of molten lava that would cool and harden. The site would take years, perhaps more, to excavate. Even then any evidence left behind would have been burned or melted within the cauldron.
The mission had been a disaster.
Well, not a complete disaster. King looked to his side and found Pierce, if it even was him, lying next to him. His eyes remained closed and breathing shallow. He'd rescued his friend, but at what price? He might have been better off if they'd shot him and been done with it. Now he had to, what… live life as an immortal monster? A modern mythological creature?