Chloe grimaced as she clenched her fists in anger. “The whole world already knows about the sinking of the Aurora. If you people won’t give us the truth right now, it’ll be on your heads when this blows up in your faces.”
Liger laughed again. “Are you making a threat, Matahari? Don’t you know that we’ve got the best lawyers in the world working for us?”
Chloe took a step forward, right before Ethan moved in front of her and grabbed hold of her right forearm. The two security guards standing a few meters away were also about to close in, but the pair quickly stopped when Sandor gestured at them to remain still.
Liger kept on laughing. “You’ve got nothing, Chloe. Why don’t you just go back to that nice looking ship of yours and go sail into another ocean. This one’s ours.”
“We’re in international waters, asshole,” Chloe said. “If anything happened to my brother, I’m holding you and this goddamn company of yours fully responsible, you hear me?”
Sandor pointed towards the ladder leading back down to the service dock. “Okay, this is getting nowhere. You both have been informed about what happened, and you both may now return to your ship.”
Ethan figured it was best to remain calm to counteract his partner’s frustration and anger. “What happened? How could a brand new, state of the art diving support vessel sink like that?”
“It… seems like some sort of industrial accident,” Sandor said. “That’s all I can tell you for now since our own internal investigation is still ongoing.”
Chloe’s anger quickly gave way to misery as tears began welling in her eyes. “Please, tell me what happened to Gordy.”
Liger scratched the top of his head. “He wasn’t in the group of survivors we rescued, Chloe. Sorry to disappoint you.”
Chloe’s shoulders began shaking and she nearly collapsed, but Ethan managed to keep them both upright as Liger turned around and walked away. Sandor moved towards the pair of guards and gestured at them to escort their guests back towards the dock. Chloe was in tears by the time she returned to the Wanderer.
41
CHLOE SAT ON THE SIDE of the bunk in her personal cabin as the Wanderer cut her engines and drifted a few kilometers out of visual range of the Morgenstern semi-submersible platform. Their hopes of using the audio recordings from the meeting they had with Sandor had been dashed when both Chloe and Ethan realized there was some sort of electronic jamming that prevented their phones from working properly during their time on the barge.
The tears on her cheeks were dry, and now her grief had turned inward. Chloe’s mind was telling her to accept Gordon’s passing, but a part of her still believed he was alive somewhere. It was a hopeful feeling she could not dampen, despite the massive tragedy that had occurred with the Skandi Aurora. Her soul felt like it was being pulled back and forth in a spiritual tug of war as she vacillated in a sea of conflicting emotions.
A knock on the door brought her back to reality. “Yeah, come in,” she said.
The door opened slightly as Ethan poked his head in. “You okay?”
Chloe looked down at the floor and nodded. “I guess so. Thanks for keeping me sane.”
Ethan gave a slight smile as he leaned on a cabinet by the open doorway. He lowered his voice before speaking to keep things calm. “Hey, for what it’s worth, I think Gordy’s still alive. There’s too many safety checks in today’s sat diving industry so there’s a fair chance he’s okay.”
“If he was inside the sat chamber when the ship started going down, then yeah, he probably made it to the hyperbaric lifeboat,” Chloe said softly. “But if he was in that diving bell when it happened—”
Ethan leaned forward and placed his hand on her forearm. “Don’t speculate, Chloe. Not yet.”
“Okay, I guess maybe now we could—”
Her musings were interrupted when the intercom inside the cabin crackled to life and they both heard the ship doctor’s voice. “Chloe, our patient is now awake and lucid.”
Chloe quickly reached down for her deck shoes before putting them on and getting back up. “I’m going to see her.”
Ethan backed out into the corridor. “Let’s just all take it easy, okay?”
Chloe didn’t answer him as she brushed right past and made her way down the corridor before jumping off a short flight of stairs, hurrying towards the sickbay. Ethan bit his lip as he followed closely behind.
The Wanderer’s sickbay was a small cabin with an adjoined operating theatre and four separate bunks, only one of which was currently occupied. Dr. Lillian Daway had been employed as the Wanderer’s medical officer for half a dozen years, and the crew affectionately called her Dr. D. She was standing beside the patient’s bed when Chloe and Ethan entered the room.
Lillian shuffled over to them, her voice in a near whisper. “She’s been through a lot, so please, take it easy on her.”
Chloe nodded. “We will. Thanks, Dr. D.”
The portly and compact gray-haired woman nodded before she headed back towards her office. “Call me if you need anything.”
Ethan winked at Lillian and engaged in a brief conversation with her, while Chloe made her own way towards the bunk where the patient lay.
Izzy was sitting partially upright on the bed, her lower back propped up by a pillow. She looked up at the tall blond woman looming over her. “I… I wanted to thank you for saving my life.”
Chloe crouched down so she could get to eye level. “You’re welcome. I know you’re still in a state of recovery, but I really need to ask you some questions.”
Izzy looked down at her folded hands on her lap. “I… I don’t remember much. I must have been in the water for days. I was… so thirsty, but I knew I couldn’t drink it, even though it was all around me.”
Chloe held her impatience in check. I’ll ask her about Gordy soon enough, but I need to know the circumstances first. “What happened to your ship?”
Izzy blinked a few times before she answered. “I… I left the ROV control room to check up on one of the units because it had a malfunction. Then I heard the sounds of metal being smashed, and the whole ship just started shaking… I knew then the Aurora’s hull was being ripped open.”
Chloe leaned closer, narrowing her eyes. “What caused her to sink?”
“I… I’m not sure.”
“What did you think it was? Did your ship run aground or something?”
“No, no.”
“What, then?”
Izzy’s voice became a hollow whisper. “Something… attacked us.”
Ethan had finished his conversation with the ship’s doctor and now began to drift closer to them. He had just managed to hear Izzy’s last statement. “What was it?”
“I… I’m not sure.”
“Describe it,” Chloe said.
Izzy’s hands began trembling. “It… it was some sort of beast.”
Chloe nearly fell backwards, but she used her arms to keep herself steady as she slowly stood upright once more. “What? What did you say?”
Ethan was unconvinced. “There’s no sea animal in the world that can wreck a ship’s hull and cause her to sink.”
Chloe turned in his direction. “This is Morgenstern we’re talking about. Remember those news reports about that artificial island to the northeast of us? Lemuria? Lady Frankenstein?”
Ethan arched an eyebrow. “What? You mean those stories about some sort of monster that massacred the guests in that resort? Come on, you can’t expect me to believe in that.”
“It’s all true,” Izzy said. “My crew spent years building an underwater base. I thought it was to house some sort of deep sea vehicle like a submarine, but I was wrong.”