“A hyperbaric blowtorch.”
“Are you kidding me, Sam? The steel in this sub is eight inches thick. You would most likely starve to death before you managed to burn a hole through it.”
“You’re right,” Sam agreed, and then switched the blowtorch on and off again. “But I’ve no desire to burn my way out.”
“What then?”
“We’re jammed up against the hatch on one side, and the mechanical robot arms on the other side.” Sam looked at Tom, to make sure that he was following. “I’m going to cut the hydraulic lines to those arms.”
“Detaching the wedge, and sending the Sea Witch spiraling down the tunnel again.”
Sam removed the protective cover to the starboard side wall, where he could see the robotic arms were resting firmly on the granite walls of the pyramid’s tunnel. Three hydraulic lines ran along the barren submarine’s inner surface.
“That’s the plan. The question is, where are we going to end up, this time?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Tom replied.
Sam switched the hyperbaric blowtorch on. Its blue flame hissed out of the end of the nozzle. Cutting the tough hydraulic wires like butter, he started at the top.
“One at a time, Sam. It will give us more of a chance to move just enough to escape.”
“Good idea.”
The first hydraulic strut did nothing.
Out the porthole, Sam could see the limp arm of one of the robots that hadn’t been trapped on the side of the tunnel.
The second one was connected to the largest of the five robotic arms, which appeared to be wedged and responsible for their problem.
Sam cut it and watched a plume of black oil spurt out under pressure.
He then looked out the porthole.
The arm had not moved at all.
Sam looked at his watch. He now had 25 minutes of Hydrox left to breathe. “Any idea why that didn’t take the pressure off that arm?”
“No.”
Sam proceeded to cut the fifth and final hydraulic strut. “Lucky last.”
Nothing happened.
Peering out the porthole, Sam noticed the robotic arm appeared as inflexible as ever.
“Now we’re in trouble,” Tom said.
“I don’t know what’s keeping it rigid. I’ve cut the strut. Look at it, it’s still pissing out oil.”
“Of course!” Tom braced himself against the submarine wall. “The pressure hasn’t fully left the strut—”
The robotic arm retracted with a violent CRASH!
Sam grabbed hold of a bracing bar, just in time for the submarine to start spinning again. They went circling down the tunnel, as though they were being flushed down a toilet bowl.
It rolled nearly a dozen times before finally coming to rest.
Sam stared out the porthole.
The murky water appeared to be slowing down, as though something was impeding its movement. Whatever water was making its way through, it wouldn’t be enough to drown the miners below. On the other side of the submarine, Sam could see Tom taking a long look out the other side.
“The water’s stopped!” Tom said.
Sam looked at the position of the hatch, now below his feet. “That’s great, but I think we’re now resting right on top of the hatch.”
At the pilot controls of the submarine, Rescue One, Michael watched the sudden movement of the Sea Witch in horror. Something appeared to have given way, so that the small submarine started tumbling down the tunnel again.
“What the hell happened?” he asked.
“If I had a guess, I’d say Sam just worked out how to cut the hydraulic cables for the robotic arm, freeing the Sea Witch to be drawn further down the tunnel,” Veyron replied.
“That’s great.”
“It may be. And it might not.”
“What do you mean? Why not?”
Veyron adjusted the angle of his sonar, and said, “Unless they had the good fortune to land in such a way that they block the tunnel and also have access to their hatch, we’re going to have to go in there after them.”
“And, did they have good luck?”
“How’s the current? Is Rescue One still pulling towards the entrance?”
“Yes, but it’s not as strong,” Michael confirmed.
Next to him, Veyron pulled away from the sonar screen. “Shit.”
“It’s not where it needs to be?”
“No. As luck would have it, the Sea Witch appears to be lying upside down, which means there’s no possible way they can get out.” Veyron looked at his watch. “And by my calculations, they don’t have much more Hydrox to breathe. You’d better take us in.”
“You want me to navigate Rescue One, in there?” Michael was incredulous.
“I believe it is the only way we can move the Sea Witch so that it blocks the flow of water, and saves your miners — that is, if you have the constitution to keep going?”
“Damn you, Veyron. They’re my men. Of course, I’ll do it!”
“Good man. Now, I’d be most obliged if you were to avoid getting us stuck, too.”
Sam’s dive watch made an irritating noise, the kind of grating sound capable of waking the dead. He stared at it, for a moment hoping his vision was playing tricks.
He muttered a soft oath — no such luck.
The timer indicated he was out of Hydrox.
He knew there’d be a few more minutes of residual Hydrox inside his dive helmet, but it was mostly irrelevant now. They had run out of time.
Concealed inside his dive helmet, Sam displayed a broad last smile. The sort he was renowned for, which said, he could have it all.
He and Tom had saved as many as 10,000 people today.
Not a bad way to die.
“Sorry to drag you into this, Tom.”
“Not your fault Sam. Had to be done.”
The Sea Witch jolted. “Can you see what happened?” Sam asked.
Tom moved towards his nearest porthole. “Well I’ll be! Who would’ve thought, eh?”
“What?” Sam moved toward the porthole and looked out.
“Some idiot just piloted Rescue One into the tunnel!”
Rescue One wasn’t trying to turn them around so that they could escape. It was attempting to push them further into the tunnel, so they could block the entire flow of water.
We must be missing something. The water must still be flowing beneath us.
They moved another few feet towards the narrowest point of the tunnel, and then stopped dead still.
Sam’s Hydrox supply ran out.
“Some rescue team. They should’ve come a couple minutes earlier. We’ve had some fun Tom, but now I’m out. Good luck.”
“I have another five minutes. I’ll buddy up with you, and we’ll get out of here alive.”
“The hell you will. We both know it’s going to take them a lot more than a couple minutes to rescue you.”
“Whatever you like, Sam.” Tom moved above Sam and started to attach his secondary rescue regulator to the back of Sam’s Hydrox tank.
Sam tried to move away, but he suddenly found his body no longer had the strength to fight it.
The darkness came over him. Not the horrifying obscurity that is taught to us since childhood of death. But instead, a warm, comforting darkness, like a blanket. Something to cuddle up to, and die.
Then there was the intense light.
For a moment, Sam thought the glow might be the radiant light of a powerful oxythermic torch, cutting through the thick hull of the submarine.
But it was followed by more darkness.
And then nothing at all.
The thick steel fell away from the submarine. Dumping the oxythermic torch on the ground next to him, Michael peered through the opened hull. Inside, two bodies floated, their eyes lifeless as a corpse.
We were too late…
“They’re dead,” he said to Veyron.