Chloe turned her attention back to Izzy. “What happened? Did this thing get loose somehow?”
“I-I’m not sure,” Izzy said. “I think it was already in the water. When we first built Typhon, I know the bottom structure was intact. Then we came back a few months later after the storm hit, and all I know is that the main building got damaged and we were tasked to repair it.”
Ethan crossed his arms. “Typhon?”
“It’s the name of the underwater habitat,” Izzy said. “We were getting paid so much and all of us were sworn to secrecy, so we didn’t tell anyone.”
“My brother only started working with you people on this last job,” Chloe said. “Do you know what happened to him?”
Izzy looked up at her. “Your… brother?”
“Gordon Gietz. I’m his older sister.”
Izzy gasped, placing a shaky hand over her mouth. “Oh my god.”
Chloe inched closer to her. “Please, do you know where he could be?”
The former ROV operator exhaled deeply. “He… he was doing work down in the bell when that monster attacked the boat.”
Chloe instantly jerked backwards and let out a shriek of anguish. Tears began to form in her eyes once again. “No! He’s gone! Oh Gordy.”
“Wait,” Ethan said. “We located the bell. It was submerged and the interior partially flooded. We managed to recover a body from inside of it, but it wasn’t Gordy.”
“That would have been Don O’Keefe,” Izzy said. “Gordy must have been outside.”
Ethan nodded. “The umbilical line had been cut, so Gordy must have escaped somehow.”
Chloe sobbed as she shook her head. “No, no. If he made it to the surface, the outside pressure… it would have killed him.”
“He could have made it into Typhon,” Izzy said. “He could still be alive if he did.”
Chloe could only stare back at her in astonishment. “What?”
“Typhon has an escape pod built into it,” Izzy said. “I know Gordon was working on the habitat when the monster attacked, so he might have purposely cut his umbilical to get loose from the bell since the ship would have dragged it down with her.”
“And then swam into that base,” Ethan said. “Does that structure have any breathable air?”
“It might still have some,” Izzy said. “When the work barge was actively stationed on the surface above it had long umbilical lines to supply air down to Typhon, but there still might be some emergency bottles inside the base.”
Ethan gave a thin, optimistic smile. “Gordy’s still alive. I can feel it. He’s still gotta be down there.”
“If he made it to the emergency escape pod, then he would be decompressing right now,” Izzy said. “I’m not going to cover up for Morgenstern anymore. If you want my help, I’m willing to do whatever I can.”
Chloe used her wrists to wipe her tears away. “Okay, we appreciate it. How do we get him out of there?”
“I know that all our divers have GPS locator devices built in their harnesses,” Izzy said. “But we’ll have to figure out the code to track him down. I know the Aurora had them, but she’s gone.”
“Who else could have this code?” Ethan asked.
“There was… a guy who always looked over our shoulders during the whole project,” Izzy said. “He was the official company representative, and everybody followed his orders. I hated him.”
“Does he have a name?”
“Yeah, goes by Sandor.”
Ethan shook his head slowly while glancing at Chloe. “We just met him a few hours ago. Total corporate weasel.”
It was Izzy’s turn to be surprised. “What? Where are we?”
“We’re a few kilometers from the work barge,” Ethan said. “A ship called the Queequeg caught us snooping around the shipwreck site and escorted us over here.”
A look of fear quickly came over Izzy’s eyes. “Please, please d-don’t hand me over to them.”
“We won’t,” Ethan said calmly.
Chloe mentally shifted her concentration back to the problem at hand. “So it looks like I’ll need to have a talk with this Sandor guy again, or maybe take a look at his private files to get the codes for the locator device.”
Ethan pursed his lips. “Easier said than done. They asked us to leave, so how do we get back onto that work barge and talk to him?”
Chloe clenched her jaw. “Leave that bit to me.”
42
CHLOE BREATHED SLOWLY using the regulator as she glided just beneath the surface of the dark, calm sea. Her flashlight had been turned off, and the only thing she could see up ahead of her were the faint lights coming from the support columns of the semi-submersible work barge, slightly over a kilometer away.
Ethan had cautioned her against what she was planning, for the scheme was fraught with risk, but Chloe would not be dissuaded as she put on her all-black wetsuit, buoyancy compensator vest, diving mask, and fins before slipping into the opaque waters.
The rest of the crew on the Wanderer’s aft deck could only watch as Chloe tightened her mask and tested the second stage regulator, before making a shallow descent, less than a meter below the tranquil swells. Wrapping her arms around the handheld diver propulsion vehicle, she activated the motor, hearing its shrill, vacuum-like whine, before pointing the underwater scooter in the direction of the semi-submersible rig and increasing the throttle.
Night diving was inherently dangerous without a dive buddy or any kind of illumination, but Chloe’s concern for her brother outweighed any sort of hesitancy as she continued to glide just underneath the water’s surface using the handheld thruster.
She couldn’t see what was below or around her as the night wrapped its impenetrable dark cloak around both the sea and sky. Long moments passed, and the once blurry lights up ahead soon began to brighten as she continued to close the distance.
The long, agonizing journey came to an end as the massive support struts of the construction rig loomed dozens of meters above her, like the steel columns of some amphibious temple. Chloe maneuvered the underwater scooter until she was just below a ladder leading up to what seemed to be a maintenance level, one floor underneath the main platform.
Chloe tied one end of the scooter’s handlebars around the lowest rung of the ladder, before she took off her buoyancy compensator vest with the attached air tank and wrapped them around the vehicle. I need to make sure I come back this particular way, or it’ll be a long swim back to the Wanderer.
With her means of escape secured just beneath the water, Chloe hefted the waterproof pouch she carried and slung it over her shoulder before she began climbing up the ladder.
She recalled Ethan trying to discourage her, saying it was a foolhardy thing to sneak back into the rig and try to find a code that only Sandor knew, but she felt she had no other choice. Gordon’s life hung in the balance, and she would move heaven and earth to save him.
By the time she made it to the top rung, her arms had begun to ache. Maybe I’m getting too old for physical exertions like this, she thought.
The maintenance walkways were crosshatched steel, with holes drilled into them. Chloe’s diving boots made slight squishy noises as she started making her way towards an industrial elevator.
Izzy had told her that Sandor’s offices would probably be in the main administration building, and she had to make her way inside without detection. Easier said than done, she thought.
The night wind had begun to pick up, and Chloe felt uncomfortable in her damp wetsuit, but she figured it was best to keep it on, in case of any trouble that might arise.