Killer Thrillers Box Set: 3 Techno-Thriller, Action/Adventure Science Fiction Thrillers (47 page)

“You mean NASA?” Jen asked.
 

“Yes. They are hoping to deploy these types of viewports on future manned space explorations and unmanned telescope missions. Keeping the main components of a telescope camera indoors rather than in the vacuum of space and away from fast-moving microscopic particles is expected to have a positive effect on the lifespan of the lens and other apparatus.

“Anyway, they wanted an actual prototype that would emulate some of the environmental constraints—pressure, temperature, etcetera. Deep-sea exploration isn’t perfect, but it’s the closest we’ve got.”
 

Jen was impressed, but she had not forgotten what had just happened to them. They’d been attacked almost five miles underwater, and they had no idea if the enemy sub was coming back.
 

“Carter, what happened up there —”
 

“Don’t worry about it. Our CO is a very qualified captain, Jen.”
 

“But the pressure…”

“I understand you’re concerned.” He began to turn away, then stopped. “Here’s what I was taught. If something happens on an underwater vessel, and you’re alive long enough to know about it, you’re most likely going to be able to do something about it.”
 

While it wasn’t exactly comforting, it did help calm Jen’s fears about being crushed to death in an underwater tube. Carter waited for them to ask more questions for a moment before turning again and walking toward the glass dome.

They entered the tiny chamber, and Jen was confused. “It’s dark. I can’t see anything.”

“Right. The captain will turn on the floodlights when they start searching for that docking station. Our technology is more advanced now than the docking station, and considering the fact that it’s unmanned, we’ll be
 
able to find it best by simply using our eyes.”
 

Jen heard a tiny click from outside the chamber, and suddenly the room was lit in an eerie yellow glow. The three of them turned to face the glass bubble at one end of the room and peered out.
 

What stared back at them was one of the most amazing things Jen had ever seen.
 

The research station, reflecting the sub’s floodlights, seemed to sparkle and shimmer, and the glistening of small marine objects and debris added to the effect. The station’s semi-translucent outer shell was reinforced with some kind of mesh, but it was impossible to tell just how thick the walls were.
 

An unimaginable number of small polygons, about two feet in diameter, made up the shell’s outer layer, giving the dome its rounded appearance.
 

The size was the next thing she noticed. It was
massive—
absolutely gargantuan. It rose from the depths below them as if out of nowhere, and it continued on up above their field of view. It must have been over twelve stories tall. The dome could easily house entire buildings. She wondered if it might have at one point in time.
 

“Oh wow,” she said. Mark and Carter both stood mesmerized as well, neither having anticipated the sheer scope and magnitude of an engineering marvel like this.
 

“Wow is right,” Mark said finally. “It’s a shame this has to be top-secret. The world wouldn’t believe something like this could exist.”
 

The sub was facing the dome, but easing sideways through the water, keeping its nose and the observation room centered on the research station.
 

“Captain Volstik will do a full turn around the station, locate at least one of the docking stations, and then his crew will maneuver for the docking. We’ll have a great view from here, since our docking port is topside, directly above our heads. Once we dock, though, we’ll have quite awhile before we can enter.”

“Why is that?” Mark asked.
 

“Well, we can’t know for sure, but we’re expecting this place to be flooded. It’s been sitting down here for over thirty years with no maintenance or upkeep. In order to completely pump it out with the equipment we brought, it would take weeks. We’re hoping, though, that it’s not entirely filled with seawater, or that some of the compartmentalizations the builders included are still doing their jobs and keeping part of the base watertight.
 

“Whatever the case, we’re expecting to pump at least the first and second compartments in—that’ll take around twelve to fifteen hours—and having those levels dry should give us enough space to work and get what we need.”
 

“Assuming we find what we need,” Jen said.
 

“Right. And we will. Don’t worry, this will all be resolved soon, and we’ll get Reese back.”
 

She wasn’t reassured, but at least she understood part of the plan. Enter the station, find whatever clues or pieces of the puzzle they could, deliver that to
Nouvelle Terre
, and get Reese back.
 

Easier said than done.
 

A voice crackled over the intercom, preparing the crew for docking. Jen looked out at the station stretched across the panoramic view, trying to find the docking port.
 

“There it is,” Carter said. He lifted a hand and pointed toward the far edge of the dome, still not yet in full view.
 

Jutting from its base was a rectangular port, pushed out like the entrance to a storm shelter outside of a farmhouse. They watched it roll toward them, the submarine making minute adjustments in her bearing as they closed in on the bay.
 

Another message over the intercom crackled, ordering the docking crew to take over. Carter explained that once they got nearer to docking, the docking crew would guide the sub in by hand, using sensitive thrusters to correct and control their motions.
 

Before they reached the station, however, a looming shape appeared in between the sub and the dome.
 

The dark shadow slipped in front of their ship, obstructing their view.
 

“It’s the other sub,” Mark whispered. His voice had dropped as if trying to hide from the black sea monster in front of them.
 

“Damn. It is. They were trying to disable us; to get us to dock. That was the plan all along. They’ll probably dock on the other side now that they’ve got us where they want us.”
 

“But I don’t get it. Why’d they shoot at the sub?” Jen asked Carter. “If they wanted to kill us, they’d have just sunk us in the first place. Now they just wanted to make sure we docked.”
 

The captain burst through the doors of the observation chamber, his duties for the time being completed. He’d apparently heard Jen’s question. “Because they wanted to make sure we made it here, but that there was only one way
off
the station: their sub.”
 

“Wait, you mean we’re—”

“Yes. They fired a perfect shot, disabling most of what makes this ship a submarine. We can dive, and we’ll have air and food for weeks, but none of that matters anymore. Our maneuverability’s been blown to hell, and we can’t pump out the water from the rise tanks. We can’t resurface.”

This cold truth settled over Jen and Mark. Carter knew this already, and he still gazed silently out the window.
 

They were stranded at this research station under five miles of Atlantic ocean, and the only humans around weren’t their friends.

CHAPTER 14

“THE AIR ISN’T TOXIC; YOU should be good to go.”
 

The young crew member, Lieutenant Johannes, turned to face Carter and Jen. “Actually, it seems pretty healthy. It’ll feel thinner, like you’re standing on top of a mountain, but it’s completely breathable.”
 

“Are you surprised?” Carter asked.
 

“No, I guess not, at least about this. I mean, we were prepared for the worst, but without anything to breathe the air down here there would be no way for it to go bad. We did think we’d have to pump the water out, but with the sub’s structure almost compromised, it’s great we don’t need to keep you on board for that long.”
 

The captain scoffed from inside the sub’s docking hatch. “Well, you can have all the air and dry ground you can find. I’m happy staying right here.”
 

“That’s the plan, Captain,” Carter said. “Keep working on the sub; try to restore surfacing capability. We’ll see what we can find, and we’ll be ready to go in less than twelve hours.”
 

Jen saw Mark emerge from the sub’s hatch, stepping around the large captain. “We ready to go?” he asked Jen. He took a quick look at the other three civilians in the room who had recently joined them, Dr. Sanjay Pavan, Lindsay, and her understudy, sizing them up. Pavan looked concerned, but otherwise stoic. Lindsay looked a little more distraught, but still holding things together.
 

Erik looked as if he hadn’t registered anything that had happened in the past twenty minutes. His gaze was steady, looking at the skipper, intense but not intimidating, intrigued but not frightened. When Jen met his eyes, he tried his best to give a confident nod.
 

“All set,” she said. “I’ve got the papers from Storm’s lab and the toolkit I packed beforehand. Although I still wish we could go without those guns…”

Carter and his team had each outfitted themselves with British-made assault rifles, sidearmed with a pistol and a hunting knife. They were dressed in fatigues, a suit of body armor covering their torsos.
 

“Don’t worry, Jen. This is just a precaution. As I said, we’re out in twelve hours. If the sub’s not ready to go by then, we stay inside until it is.” Carter’s voice was confident, as if there was no doubt in his mind what answers lay ahead. She knew he was a career soldier, gifted in tactical and strategic management, but this particular mission wasn’t like anything they’d ever done before—he’d said so himself.
 

When they’d docked at the research station, the preliminary team had disembarked first, checking the small docking chamber’s air for the necessary amounts of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that made up breathable air. They had yet to open the hatch connecting the docking chamber with the rest of the dome, but a specialized imaging camera had determined that there was no wall of water on the other side, waiting to crush them when they opened the door.
 

As a secondary objective, the small camera was also deployed to seek out any infrared heat images—or, as Carter had explained,
other people
. The other sub hadn’t been seen docking, but Carter’s team wanted to be as careful as possible before exposing unarmed civilians to a strike team.
 

The sub’s captain and his twelve crew members would stay back, repairing the ship and getting it ready to leave. There was routine maintenance to see to, as well as the damage that had been dealt by the two torpedoes fired on them. The mechanic on board was optimistic, however, and diagnosed the issues as small setbacks that could be mostly fixed within eight to ten hours.

Mark joined Jen in front of the chamber hatch, behind Carter. Carter and his team waited until the sub’s hatch was closed and sealed, and then Saunders and Hog Nelson stepped forward to open the airlock door.
 

“Ready when you are, boss,” Saunders called out.
 

“Go for it,” Carter said, as stoic as ever.
 

The remaining team member, Gary Mason, raised his rifle and pointed it toward the hairline crack between the door and the thick steel-reinforced wall.
 

Jen heard a pop, followed by a loud hissing sound, and the two marines pulled open the heavy door.
 

The whooshing sound resided, and Mason pushed forward and through the entrance. He looked left and right, then nodded once. The rest of the marines, followed by Carter, the scientists, and finally Jen and Mark, entered the newly-opened research station.
 

Jen found herself in the middle of a vast hallway that stretched both directions in a curving arch.
 

“This must be the outer compartment,” Carter said. “They built in failsafes in these airlocks; redundant doors that can close in case of a water breach. This hallway will have reinforced locks at intervals from here to the main entrance chamber, and there will be another just like it from the other docking station.”
 

“Which way do we go then?”

“Left. I think the main power grid is controlled by a small room at the north side of the base. We docked at the south station, so—”

Suddenly a deep boom reverberated through the round hallway.
 

“What the…” one of the marines jostled for position, ready to fire on the approaching enemy. But nothing came toward them around the bend in the hallway.
 

“Oh, shit—” Mark grabbed Jen’s arm and pushed her out of the doorway. A blast of heat barreled through, spreading and dissipating down the hall. The soldiers dove to the floor, but Carter wheeled around to the wide-open hatch they’d entered from.
 

“That was an explosion! Help me get this door,” he shouted. Mark jumped up again, helping the man with the thick door. Jen turned to look out just as the door slammed shut. All she saw was fire, followed by—
 

“Hold on!” Carter yelled. They heard another dull crash as water smashed against the hallway wall. The whole dome seemed to bend as if warping in on itself. The floor shook, and Carter and Mark fell back to the hallway floor.
 

Jen’s cheek was up against the cool concrete, her eyes squeezed shut. She could almost feel the immense pressure of the sea—five miles of deep-black saltwater—pushing in on her, the only thing separating it from her a twenty-inch thick wall. Without opening her eyes, she reached out to find Mark’s hand—any hand—and waited for the shaking to stop.
 

“What happened out there, sir?” Mason was sitting, his back up against the interior hallway wall. “Did you see anything?”