As he returned to flinging boxes across the room, I stood running escape possibilities over in my mind. After a minute exhausting my imagination, none of them worked better than the C4 idea. But it was so dangerous.
“Hey Marker. I found a C4 packet back here. On the wall over the hatch.”
“Find the wires too?”
“Yep. Orange and white. They run into a pipe sticking up from the floor. More wires of all colors with them but they’re the only orange and white pair.”
“Hold on, I’m coming back there.”
The pantry was dark but enough light filtered in from the kitchen for me to see the Chief standing there by a thick patch of C4 on the wall holding the wires trailing from it looking confused.
“Can you reduce the size of that explosive pack,” I asked remembering his warning.
“Let me see,” he said digging his hand into the putty-like layer. “How much do want Marker? Reminds me of Play-Doh but a tad more dangerous.”
“Just enough to poke a man-sized hole through this wall.”
He turned back and stared at me.
“You may think I’m smart but I am not a demolitions expert. Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Then grab a fistful and put the blasting cap in it and slap it on the wall.”
“You’re obviously not a demolition expert either Marker. That handful will set the other ninety-nine pounds of this pack off in a sequential explosion wiping out this entire deck.”
“Then, what do we do Chief?”
“We have to scrape this remainder of the pack from the wall and move it to a distant location in another quad.”
“Can you do that?”
“Yep, but it may take me a few minutes. I have to avoid any sparks when I scrape it off.”
Then he scratched his head and seemed to realize the folly of our plan.
“I hate to bring up the obvious Marker, but how are we going to explode this handful of C4? It takes an electrical pulse to set the cap off. And who’s going to do it with this short wire.
I patted my pocket and took out the D-cell.
“Dave said this would do it. I’m going to use some pallets for protection and do it myself. All I have to do is hold the orange wire on one end and the white wire on the other. Then I hold my breath and pray.”
“But the water will rush in and kill us all.”
“Not if I close the pantry door. There’s not that much pressure outside the dome. Then when I signal you that the pantry’s full you open the door and let it into the quad and everyone swims out.”
He put a hand on his hip and cocked it. “Now Marker that’s the most cockamamie story I’ve ever heard. You’ll kill yourself and take us all with you. That’s like your balloon-strap solution for raising the whale-ship: doomed to failure.”
“Just do it Chief. We don’t have all day and our oxygen will soon be exhausted. Want to die like those Chinese spies gasping for their last breath?”
I timed him and in seven minutes, he had removed the excessive C4 and replaced it with a handful-sized ball with a six-foot orange-and-white wire pair dangling down.
“I put the extra C4 on the wall in Q1. Should be far enough away to prevent a sympathetic detonation but I don’t guarantee it.”
“Close the panty door, Chief and listen for my instructions. Tell the crew to brace for a wall of water if it fails. Oh, and please say some prayers for me.”
Suddenly he grabbed the battery from my hand and ran into the pantry locking the door behind him.
Seeing him close the door, I panicked and started banging on it pleading for him to return.
“Marker,” he yelled, “If I don’t make it tell Barb that I love her and went out doing what I love. Now I’m going to count down from ten. On zero, I’ll complete the circuit and if all goes well we’ll be free one way or the other. I guess we’ll have to postpone that Big Bear vacation until we meet again. Now brace yourself for the detonation.”
“Ten.”
“Nine.”
“Eight.”
“Seven.”
I put my mouth to the door and yelled hoping he could hear me.
“Hey Chief! I don’t think I ever told you but I love you like the dad that I lost. I thank God every day that you came into my life after he died in that horrible crash. You’ve kept me on the straight and narrow and I never repaid you. Please give me a chance. Let me do it.”
Silence.
“Six.”
“Five.”
As he continued counting down, between the numbers I heard a thunderous rumbling of overhead choppers circling the dome. Suddenly I heard a weak voice coming through the ceiling. It was not from outside but echoing down from inside the dome above us.
“Three.”
“Attention crew,” an amplified voice crackled from above with a megaphone’s resonance.
“We have broken through the dome above the waterline and are cutting our way down to you deck by deck with a torch. Knock or bang on the ceiling so we can find your location. We know you’re in here somewhere: Simon and Broyles just told us.”
“Two.”
“Did you hear that Chief?” I screamed, frantically banging on the pantry door.
He slammed back the door and stood grinning at me.
“What? That voice from heaven? Sure did, Marker. Sounds like two are already out. We’re next.”
As he left the pantry and reentered the mess the crewmembers had grabbed anything longer than three feet including chairs, tables, and brooms and were banging them raucously on the ceiling over the big room.
“Move to the end of the room by the core,” he shouted over the din. “They’re probably coming down from the hallway surrounding the core. Less chance of fire.”
On his command, they all moved with Franklin to the narrow part of the wedge near the bulkhead door and resumed their noise.
“We hear you now. We’re on our way down. Clear the area for slag and metal droppings.”
Shortly we heard a loud metal clank on the ceiling. Then it scraped off and went silent above us.
“That’d be the third deck’s floor cutout dropping down,” Briscoe said. “Then they’ll have to let the rim cool and drop down a ladder and torch for the second deck.”
“Sounds like you’ve been here before, Mr. Briscoe,” Franklin commented looking at the ceiling with anticipation.
“Previous Navy training, Admiral. Something you never forget, being trapped on a sinking ship.”
He finally grinned again, showing relief and agreed, “Yes. Some of our training is rather rigorous.”
In a little over ten minutes, as we all stood watching holding our breath, a spray of fire broke through the ceiling and spewed down by the bulkhead door. Fiery droplets of glowing metal danced over the floor as they landed.
“Wha-what’s happening here?” shouted Bowman. “We’re on fire! Somebody do something; don’t just stand there.”
I looked down and saw him lifted up on one arm confused and staring through the crowd in fear. Then I realized he couldn’t see the circle being torched through the deck above.
“Dave!” I shouted, “It’s our rescuers. They’re on the deck above us cutting their way in.”
“You mean we-we’re on the surface? We’re s-safe. Th-the monopole’s gone? I must have fallen. Oooh, my head hurts.”
“Yes. We made it, Dave, thanks to you and your station’s unique design. Now let’s get you up and ready to leave.”
“No, Matt. Not this time. I’m staying with the station now that it’s made it this far. I have nowhere to go and there’s plenty of work for me to do here. My sandcastle’s not going to be gone by morning this time.”
He stood and groggily walked to the Admiral putting his arm over his shoulder. “The Admiral here will probably get me into a dry dock by sunset. Won’t you Admiral?”