“How would we possibly find it? There are active electronics everywhere.”
“We shut it all down,” said Alexis. “Every console, computer, light, oxygen supply, anything with an electromagnetic signature. And then we scan every millimeter of the submarine. The transponder should be the only system still active.”
“Is possible,” mused Vitaly. “I never consider this.”
“I saw an EMF detection meter earlier. I’m not going to pretend the transponder will be easy to find, but I don’t know what else we can do.”
“How do we begin?” asked Dr. Nassiri. “Time is of the essence. Obviously.”
“I can’t do it,” said Fatima. “Crawling around in the dark, feeling for who knows what? I’m sorry Hassan, but after the crash, being underwater is—”
“That’s fine.” The doctor put an arm around his mother’s shoulders and earnestly hoped he wouldn’t be forced to search the forward compartment alone. Too many bad memories made all the more vivid by the dark, to say nothing of the smell of antiseptic and burned skin. “Find a bunk and close your eyes. It will be over soon, one way or the other.”
“Beginning system-wide electronic shutdown,” Vitaly said as he powered down the computer systems to the command compartment.
“Vitaly, I think we have to put you back in your bunk. I don’t want you crawling around in the dark; the risk to your stitches is too great.”
“I get handcuffs?” asked Vitaly glumly.
“No handcuffs. I trust you.”
The doctor was impressed with the speed of Vitaly’s recovery and had been slowly weaning him off a series of powerful painkillers. Even so, the Russian was still not very mobile and struggled to get in and out of his chairs and bunk.
“Two days,” said Vitaly exuberantly, his mood now entirely improved by the proposition. “In two days, I will be recovered. I will wrestle you, Doctor! Russia versus… Egypt?”
“Morocco.”
“Russia versus Morocco! One night only! Crowd is very excited!”
Fatima followed closely behind as the trio made their way into the bunk compartment. After Vitaly was settled, she found an unoccupied bed, climbed in without taking off her shoes, closed the curtain and rolled a blanket over her head. Maybe she could convince herself she wasn’t marooned in a steel tube on the bottom of the sea.
Dr. Nassiri joined Alexis in the engine compartment. The Texan experimentally held the EMF meter up to a light bulb. It chirped, the needle dancing. She hoped it’d be sensitive enough to discover the source of their tracker, concealed somewhere in the length of the submarine. Alexis nodded, satisfied. With a final grunt, she tripped the series of main circuit breakers for the battery bank. Compartment by compartment, the lights flickered and died.
The doctor felt as though he’d just fallen into an ocean of darkness in the center of the earth, a vast emptiness of starless space. The darkness surrounding him was so deep, so intense, that the effort of his eyes and mind adjusting to the sudden blackness resulted in dull, flickering hallucinations, flashes of imaginary light.
He heard Alexis’s footsteps beside him, heard her breath. In the stillness, he almost thought he could hear her heartbeat over his own.
“Shall we?” he asked.
“Might as well,” she said. “Can’t dance, can’t sing, and it’s too wet to plow.”
He didn’t know what this meant, but could sense her fear matching his own. Alexis’s hand brushed against his chest, feeling down his arm. He allowed her to grasp his hand, their fingers intertwining. With his limited perception, the heat of her fingers and the electricity of her touch became his entire world.
“Let’s start with the weapons locker,” said Alexis.
Dr. Nassiri allowed her to lead him, taking cautious steps towards the stern of the submarine while he reached forward with his free hand, trying to anticipate when he’d reach the hatchway. Alexis was a good guide, she found the hatchway in moments. She released his hand, and a twinge of loss ricocheted through his body.
Sounds — Dr. Nassiri heard Alexis running the silent EMF meter over the walls, along the deck. She bumped the device against rifles and ammunition boxes. The detector made not so much as a burble.
“Maybe it’s not working,” whispered Alexis.
“May I?” replied Dr. Nassiri in his own hushed tone.
The doctor gingerly walked towards her voice, making little gentle sweeps with outstretched fingertips to find her. He touched something firm, her shoulder, and ran his hand down her upper arm. He reached her wrist, fingers softly running over the barely-there peach fuzz of her forearm. The doctor felt goosebumps, felt her shiver. Strange — it was not cold in this compartment. He felt around the outside of her hands, coming across the plastic construction of the EMF reader and slipped it from her grasp.
The doctor placed his free hand into the small of Alexis’s back and brought the EMF reader up underneath her left breast, gradually increasing pressure until it was firmly against her chest. He felt the muscles in the small of her back tense up for just a moment, then release.
The EMF reader gently chirped, reading a faint signature.
“It’s your heart,” he whispered, holding the device in place. “The EMF reader is detecting the electrical charge in your skin from each beat.”
“It works,” whispered Alexis, breathlessly.
She fumbled against his hands, taking the device back as his hand fell away from her lower back. No guiding her fingers this time, he was forced to follow the sounds of her footsteps as she exited the weapons locker for the engine room.
Dr. Nassiri followed, trying to keep up with her. She stopped dead and swiveled and the doctor collided with her. He’d just opened his mouth to utter a profound apology when he felt her arms reach around his torso, running up and down the length of his abdomen, pulling away at his shirt. His body reacted before his mind could issue a single command. He found himself lifting her entire body onto his, her legs wrapped around his waist as he held her in his arms, hands sliding across her back and up to the nape of her neck.
Her mouth found his. The EMF reader dropped on the ground and clattered across the metal deck as Dr. Nassiri pressed Alexis into the wall, her nails digging into his skin, days of tension and attraction between them culminating in a singular moment. She ripped open his shirt, buttons bouncing off the engine block as she pressed herself against his bare chest.
The EMF reader sat unnoticed a few feet away, as if content to chirp away merrily and without attention.
“Wait! Did you hear that?” Alexis pushed Dr. Nassiri’s face away from the tiny dimple just above her clavicle.
“What?” he asked as he held Alexis suspended, her legs still wrapped around his waist.
“I… I think it’s beeping,” said Alexis.
The Texan wriggled her hips, lowering herself to the ground. Both she and the doctor dropped to all fours, feeling around for the reader.
“Found it,” Dr. Nassiri said, his fingers brushing against the undamaged plastic casing of the device. Alexis took it from him and began running slow sweeping patterns across the floor and wall. The beeping strengthened as Alexis found the source of the signal behind a panel just a few degrees off the apex of the rounded ceiling.
“Clever putting it in here,” said Alexis. “The electromagnetic signature from the batteries could have made it impossible to find. I guess we’re lucky they’re so low right now.”
“Lucky,” mused Dr. Nassiri. He could still taste her lips on his.
“I think it’s just behind this panel,” said Alexis. She grabbed Dr. Nassiri’s hand, a little more forcefully this time, forcing him to mark the location.
“Got it,” said Dr. Nassiri.
“Don’t move,” she said. “I’m going to turn all the lights back on.”