“I’m here, Will. What’s up?”
“We may have a situation.”
Tay looked curiously at Lightfoot and then at Beene, who was rounding one side of the giant drill in slow motion. “What kind of situation?”
“We’re not sure yet,” Borger said. “But Alison says all the dolphins down there are freaking out about something in your area.”
Underwater, the four men turned in all directions and followed the bright light of their helmets into the darkness as far as they could.
Tay listened for a moment. “I don’t see or hear anything.” He looked at the other three, all shaking their heads in unison.
“Nope.”
“Me either.”
“Okay,” Borger’s voice said. “Something’s alerted the dolphins where she is, and we’re not sure what it’s all about yet. But we’re worried it might have something to do with the Valant. Maybe a leak or something that the dolphins can detect and we can’t.”
“What kind of leak?”
“Beats me. Maybe some lingering oil from somewhere?”
The men looked up, now staring through the dark water above them, unable to see anything.
“It’s right over us, but we haven’t noticed anything in the water. If it was a leak, it would have to be pretty small.”
“Yeah, but it might not take much to signal danger to them.”
“We can come back down again when we’re done and test the water.”
“Okay,” Borger replied. “Just keep us posted if you notice anything. We’ll keep looking into it from up here.”
“Roger.”
With that, the men resumed and continued toward the alien ship.
When they reached the upper section of the gray wall, they turned the drill around and extended four legs out. Each leg ended with a massive silicone suction cup around the base, designed to assist in keeping the drill securely in place.
“All right. Let’s ease it in,” Tay said. While he and Lightfoot held onto either side, Corbin and Beene guided gently from the legs — all in slow motion that resembled astronauts working in space.
The huge drill kept drifting gradually closer, smoothly and without incident, when suddenly things changed. Now just several feet away, the drill began to accelerate toward the wall, subtly at first but then faster.
“Whoa! Whoa! Slow it down!” Tay yelled into his mike.
Both Corbin and Beene immediately sensed the change in speed. The giant machine nearly broke free of their grip, causing the men to pull backward, only to have it begin to pull them along with it.
“It’s taking us too!”
“SLOW IT DOWN!” Tay yelled again.
“I can’t!”
All four men quickly began kicking their feet and pointed away from the ship. First hard, then almost desperately, all in an attempt to slow the drill’s approach.
“It’s the damn magnetism!”
“Pull harder!”
Each man kicked violently now. They gave it everything they had, desperate to keep the tool from slamming into the metal wall.
Suddenly with four powerful thunks, the drill hit the gray surface, sending brief shoots of glowing green lights outward from the contact point of each leg.
No one spoke until the glow had faded.
“Stronger than we thought.” Lightfoot swam forward, withdrew a large piece of steel from the drill’s outer housing, and edged it in under the nose of the drill as a lever. “Let’s hope it’s not as hard to get back off.”
Simultaneously, each man tested the placement of one of the feet against the wall before pressing its thick silicone cup into place.
“Okay. We’re secure.” Tay pushed himself backward, running along the length of the drill to the small instrument panel. “Double-check the bit.”
Lightfoot and Corbin examined the three-inch-wide bit from either side. It rested solidly in the middle, tightly packed in the shape of a spiral. The one long continuous ridge would allow it to carefully expand the hole after breaking through the first layer of wall.
“Looks good,” Lightfoot nodded. “I think we’re ready!”
Both men faded back as Tay flipped the safety switch out of the way and pressed the power button. In an instant, the drill’s electric motor began to spin, and the powerful bit spiraled outward.
Next to the spinning bit, a red laser illuminated brightly against the metal, measuring its impact depth to a millionth of an inch.
With one last nod from the other men, Tay pressed a second button to engage the drive, and the tip of the drill abruptly began inching forward.
83
Approaching the oil rig just below the surface of the water, Junior Sergeant Levin was the first to notice it.
With both hands wrapped firmly around the handle of his underwater scooter, he and the remainder of his Russian team could all see the bright glow beneath them — four distinct glimmering points, actually.
Perhaps seventy feet below, near the coral, four tiny lights moved independently around what appeared to be a larger object. Although too far away to be seen clearly, even from a distance, it was clear to Levin and his men what the lights were.
Four of the American divers were working on something. In secrecy.
Belov had been right.
84
The Russian Spetsnaz troops were not the only ones who could see Tay and the others working the drill. Alison could see them too, from a different direction.
But to Alison’s surprise, Sally was not swimming toward the oil rig. At least not that she could see. Instead, they seemed to be heading north of both the rig and the Pathfinder to an area between the two vessels, illuminated only by the fluorescent green glow of the coral below.
After several minutes, Alison could feel Sally begin to slow. She raised her head, peering forward into the darkness. Her headlamp lit up Sally’s gray body directly in front of her, but little else. Even with the exceptional visibility of the Caribbean, she could not make out anything before them in the darkness, except for the specks of particles and sediment flowing past.
But Sally did not stop. Still moving slowly and rhythmically through the water, an object finally began to take shape in front of them.
Alison stared harder, trying to filter out the wash of her light, straining to see what its furthest and faintest rays were now reaching.
She patted Sally’s side with her free hand. “Are we there, Sally?”
She answered with a series of clicks that Alison’s vest could not capture. But Sally pressed on, still moving forward.
And then Alison saw it.
Revealed by both her own lamp and the faint rays of the full moon penetrating the water from above, Alison saw the dark outline of what was simply unmistakable.
“LEE!” she screamed into her microphone.
“Ali?”
“Oh my God, Lee! It’s a submarine! It’s a SUBMARINE!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure! And it’s HUGE!”
“Oh geez!” A panicked Lee Kenwood ran to the door and flung it open, looking down the hallway for Neely or Borger. For anyone!
He then ran back to his desk. “Okay. Wait here! I’ll be right back!”
When he threw open the door to the lab, it slammed hard enough against the inside wall to put a dent on the other side. Lee almost yelled the news to Neely and Borger. “We’ve got company!”
Neely was running at full speed, pounding the metal below her feet, until she reached the ladder and sprinted up two steps at a time. She left behind a winded Borger, huffing and puffing to keep up.