“It’s… on the email titled ‘Aurora Codes.’”
Chloe quickly scanned through the collected emails on the phone until she found it. Scrolling down to the bottom of the entry, she quickly sent the code as a text message to her own phone and waited until she got the tone acknowledging it had been successfully sent.
Sandor let out another groan as he gingerly sat up against the wall. “I’ll… I’ll make a deal with you. Keep this… under wraps, and you’ll be well compensated. You don’t know the amount of money this will involve. China, America, Russia, India, they will all want in on this.”
Chloe scowled, crouching down and grabbing him by his shirt collar. “Those people are all dead! I’m going to make sure you get nailed for this.”
Despite the debilitating pain, Sandor managed a grim smile. “You and I know that won’t happen. We can chalk this all up to being an accident. My firm will cover for me.”
“Your ‘firm,’ as you call it, is going to need a fall guy,” Chloe hissed. “And that means you.”
“No, it won’t be me. We’ll make it so that it becomes the fault of the construction crew, like your brother—”
Chloe cursed as she slapped him hard across his left cheek, sending him sprawling on the floor. Taking his phone, she placed it, along with her own, back into the pouch and sealed the waterproof lining. Using Sandor’s own tie and jacket, she bound and gagged him before turning off the lights and leaving the office.
I’ve got to get Gordy out of there first, then we’ll need to contact the Navy to help us put down that creature, Chloe thought as she raced down the corridor, back to where the elevator was.
The lift remained right where she left it. Pushing the button to go back down to the maintenance level, Chloe crouched low, knowing that while most of the crew had turned in for the night, there would still be some assigned to stay on duty, and she needed to remain hidden until she got back into the water.
When the elevator doors reopened, Chloe was momentarily startled by the alarm bells that started ringing all across the entire platform. Realizing that Sandor must have either gotten loose from his bindings or been discovered by another, she raced down the metal walkways to where the ladders were, trying her best to remember which support column she had left her gear behind.
As she began moving down the rungs, she heard a shout from the other side of the deck. One of the crewmembers had spotted her, and he was pointing with a flashlight while shouting into his walkie-talkie, telling the others her location.
Although she was still almost ten meters above the water’s surface, Chloe let go of the rungs and dove feet first into the sea. Her wetsuit gave her enough positive buoyancy to float back up, and she quickly swam over to where her gear was stashed and hurriedly put it on.
One of the security guards had made his way to the upper maintenance level and stared directly at her while aiming his Glock pistol. “You, stop right there! This is your final warning!”
Chloe ignored him as she placed the second stage regulator into her mouth before adjusting the dive mask over her eyes. The guard above fired a shot, the bullet narrowly whizzing past the right side of her head, momentarily startling her.
“Don’t make me kill you,” the guard demanded.
Chloe quickly ducked under the water, just as she heard more shots being fired. Thumbing the throttle, she instantly felt the sea scooter’s pull as the handheld thruster propelled her deeper into the dark liquid abyss as she heard the near impacts of the bullets on top of the water’s surface.
Moving underneath one of the submerged pontoons, Chloe quickly adjusted the undersea scooter’s heading before revving the throttle once more. The Wanderer would be waiting with her lights turned off less than a kilometer away. She had fitted a special homing beacon near the nose of the sea scooter, and she could locate the ship in darkness for a secret rendezvous.
Chloe continued to glide just beneath the water as she heard the whines of a number of outboard motors in the distance. It was clear they were trying to search for her, and it was imperative that she gain as much distance as possible.
Minutes passed, and soon all she could hear was her regulator’s breathing and the slight shrill of the sea scooter. It now seemed obvious she had somehow made a successful escape.
Hang in there, Gordy, she thought. I’m coming to get you.
44
SANDOR CONTINUED TO fume as he stood near the front windows of the Queequeg’s wheelhouse. The sun had come up just several hours before, and he had radioed the ship to come back and pick him up from the semi-submersible barge before they set off towards Typhon once more.
Rudenkov continued to sit on the captain’s chair, silently stoking his anger. He felt that picking up the corporate executive was a waste of time, but Sandor had insisted, so he naturally complied, much to the chagrin of Clive Liger and his dive crew.
After walking into the wheelhouse from the adjoining bridge wing, Yamamoto ran his thin fingers through his ruffled hair as he stood one meter behind the ship’s captain. “This delay was most inconvenient. We could have gotten to Typhon by this time already.”
Rudenkov gave a dismissive shrug while pointing with his chin towards the corporate representative. “I only follow orders.”
Sandor turned and snarled at the both of them. “That bitch has got my phone. I need it back!”
Rudenkov ran a rough, calloused hand over his thick, grizzled throat. “How do you propose we get it back? Shall I take the ship close to theirs and have my men start shooting at her with our rifles?”
Sandor gripped one of the handrails along the walls and muttered a series of curses. It was clear there was nothing he could do about it. His phone’s contents were no doubt being examined by Chloe and her crew, or maybe even perhaps handed over to the US Navy. No, the Navy wouldn’t know what to do. They’d have to contact their headquarters for more instructions. We still have time to salvage this whole thing.
One of the lookouts stationed at the Queequeg’s prow quickly came over the intercom, speaking in Russian. Rudenkov gave a slight nod to the helmsman as he too uttered a command in his native tongue.
Sandor turned towards the captain. “What is all that about?”
Rudenkov leaned sideways and clutched the intercom microphone. “Attention, we have spotted the Wanderer in the vicinity of Typhon. Dive crew, get ready.”
Yamamoto shuffled forward and looked out towards the other ship in the distance. “Are they going to try and get at what we’re here for as well?”
Sandor shook his head. “No, the bitch thinks that her brother, who was one of the divers in the Aurora, is somehow inside the undersea habitat.”
“I hope they will not interfere with our operation,” Yamamoto said.
“They won’t,” Sandor said as he moved closer to the captain’s chair and took the intercom microphone in his hand and activated it. “Liger, you’re going to have company down there. Make sure not to leave any witnesses.”
THE Sedna quickly dived past one hundred meters underwater as her thrusters were close to full throttle. Chloe sat in the rear chair and kept her eyes on the instruments as the once sunny waters quickly began to darken all around her. She wasn’t sure how they were going to pull off Gordon’s rescue, so she had burdened the submersible with as many extra pods as she could carry.
Izzy sat in the forward chair and marveled at the precise controls in front of her. “This sub of yours… she’s amazing!”