“Then what did you expect to achieve?” he asked.
Genevieve didn’t say a word. Instead she drove the short dive knife along the inside of her attacker’s thigh. It sliced his femoral artery. Blood spurted wildly. The man dropped to the floor, releasing her in the process, as his automatic response was to apply direct pressure. By the time his hand reached the inside of his thigh, Genevieve drove the sharp end of the knife along the underside of his throat.
She grabbed the commander’s Heckler & Koch MP5 and fired five shots without waiting for him to bleed to death. The first went into the head of the frogman guarding the door. The second killed the man next to him. The third and fourth went wide. And the fifth killed the person holding Alexis.
“Holy shit!” The remaining frogman swore and grabbed Alexis; using her as a human shield. “Who the fuck are you?”
Genevieve firmly lodged the butt of the MP5 into the crook of her shoulder and took aim. The frogman ducked behind Alexis and began dragging her out the door and on to the deck. She watched him struggle with the weight, but continue to remain protected by Alexis. She could just make out part of his arm. Genevieve squeezed the trigger.
Blood and bone fragments scattered from the end of his elbow. The man screamed furiously, but somehow maintained the fortitude to keep Alexis in front of him. “Who are you?”
“Someone you shouldn’t have fucked with,” Genevieve said. She then aimed at his left boot which was now visible and squeezed the trigger. A single shot fired. The man whimpered as blood quickly drained from the hole where his toes had previously been.
The frogman grunted and heaved Alexis backwards. Genevieve was too late to notice the boarding gate on board the Maria Helena had been left open, giving him the unhindered ability to reach the water.
“No!” Genevieve ran forwards to catch her.
There was nothing she could do. The frogman fell backwards into the ice-cold waters of the Weddell Sea — taking Alexis with him.
Genevieve reached the edge of the deck. With lead weights attached to her ankles, Alexis quickly sank into the crystal clear waters. The frogman, who appeared to be even more negatively buoyant, dragged at her ankles like a tormenting demon to the depths below.
Through nearly a hundred and sixty feet of perfectly clear water she watched as Alexis was dragged down towards the mouth of a large black monster. Unable to make out the full shape, she watched in abject horror, as the two blurry figures were swallowed whole.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Sam heard the shots and ran. By the time he reached the deck of the Maria Helena with two teams of Navy SEALs and the Secretary of Defense by his side, Genevieve was lying face down on the deck of the Maria Helena staring at the water. She didn’t even flinch when he arrived.
“Gen — where’s Alexis!” he yelled.
She stood up. Her mouth set hard. “They got her, Sam. I tried to stop them, but I wasn’t quick enough.”
Sam looked over the edge of the ship. The visibility was so clear he could make out the vague outline of the seabed nearly two hundred feet below. He looked up at her. “What happened, Gen?”
“They came for Alexis, tied her wrists and ankles together. Then weighted her down with lead and dragged her off the side of the ship.”
“They killed her?” Sam shook his head. “It doesn’t make any sense. They needed her!”
“No,” Genevieve said. “I saw one of them shove a regulator in her mouth once she was in the water.”
“Well, there goes that hope.” The Secretary of Defense stepped back from the ship’s balustrade and crossed her arms. Her mouth set hard with a cruel display of pragmatism. “I thought we might have gotten lucky, and she drowned in the attempt.”
Genevieve stood up and looked at the Secretary of Defense. “Would you like to explain to me why five frogmen just abducted Alexis?”
“No,” Margaret said, defiantly. “But I’d like to know where they took her.”
“You mean, where the submarine took her?” Genevieve said.
“Christ!” The Secretary of Defense turned to look at her. “Of course they needed some way to move her.”
Sam nodded in understanding. “Genevieve. Run up to the bridge and tell Matthew to put the sonar buoys in the water. Tell him we’re hunting the submarine which took Alexis.”
“I’m on it,” she replied.
There was a frenzy of action on board the Maria Helena as the Navy SEALS untied the mooring lines and Matthew took them away from the Antarctic Solace. Sam and the Secretary of Defense entered the living area where Alexis was abducted. Four dead frogmen were scattered throughout the room. There was a lot of blood. Three had been shot in the head. A fourth looked as though he’d had the main arteries of his right leg and throat severed. It was hard to believe so much blood could have come from just one person.
The Secretary of Defense looked at the scene of the massacre and then back at him. “Is there something you want to tell me about that young woman who was standing outside?”
“Genevieve?” Sam stopped climbing the stairs to the bridge. He shook his head. “No ma’am. I don’t think you want to know — it will only mean you’d have to knowingly look the other way about another one of my crew.”
“Good. I’d rather not have to put your entire ship and crew in the off-limits basket for surveillance or any investigations by the NSA, CIA, and FBI. Should I be worried about her?”
“Genevieve?” Sam shook his head. “No. We share similar enemies, and for the most part, she’s here to cook and bring a feminine touch to the Maria Helena.”
The Secretary of Defense looked at the swath of dead bodies and grinned. “I can see that.”
“I’ve found she has some other useful skills that come in handy.”
“Just make sure this doesn’t come back to bite me. Pretending Elise doesn’t exist is one thing. I do it out of necessity and because we need the services she provides for you.” The Secretary of Defense looked around the stairwell, checking that no one was within hearing distance, and then lowered her voice. “And because of where she’s come from, she must be protected.”
Sam whispered. “I thought we agreed it was best to never mention her past? You know as well as I do her origins are going to come back to haunt her one day.”
“I’m more worried they’ll come back to haunt the lot of us.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Sam entered the bridge. Matthew stood at the helm and slowly increased power to the twin engines until she moved away from the Antarctic Solace. The computer monitor showed the results in real time of the sonar swathes, providing a clear image of the seabed below. Matthew pointed the Maria Helena in the direction that Genevieve told them she’s seen the submarine move.
The active sonar began emitting pulses of sounds while a computer searched for the acoustic location of any target with a similar shape to a nuclear submarine — the Secretary of Defense had already provided the technical details of the nuclear submarine stolen ten years earlier and suspected of being used by Robert Cassidy.
Sam stepped next to Matthew. “Anything?”
“Look for yourself. The Weddell Sea is riddled with icebergs.”
The Secretary of Defense stared at Sam. “We don’t like icebergs?”
“Not if we want to find something,” Sam said. “Think of them like a giant maze of mirrors found in an amusement park. The active sonar ‘pings’ hit the ice and bounce back. There’s no way the submarine is out of range of sonar yet. My bet is it’s waiting, hiding, somewhere below.”