Текст книги "Piranha"

Автор книги: Dale Brown

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

“I’m going to swing by the trailer and see what’s up on the way,” he told her.

“We’ll have it ready by the time you get back.”

Aboard Quicksilver

1840

A giant snake wrapped itself around Stoner’s body and squeezed, pushing his blood toward his mouth. He felt the warm liquid on his tongue, knowing he was forcing himself to breathe the long, quiet breath of purity. The universe collapsed on top of him, but Stoner sat as still as a pillar, remembering the advice of the bent old man who had taught him: you are the light of the candle, the flame that cannot be extinguished.

But no religion or philosophy, Eastern or Western, could overcome the simple, overwhelming urge of gravity. The plane jerked back and forth, trying desperately to avoid being hit while Fentress worked to sink both Piranha com buoys. He’d already managed to put the probe on the automated escape route—or at least that was how Stoner interpreted the groans and grunts he’d heard among the cacophony of voices in his earphones.

The sitrep was still on his screen. One of the carriers had been hit badly, though at least two planes had managed to get off in the chaos. Planes were swarming off the other. An Indian flight was coming north to meet them. There were missiles in the air, and flak all over the place. The destroyers on the eastern flank were attacking the submarine that had launched the torpedoes.

The lights in the cabin flashed off and on; there was a warning buzzer, another flash. The snake curled tighter.

Stoner pushed his hand to his face mask, making sure his oxygen was working. Two or three voices shouted at him from far away, urging him into the darkness. He forced his lungs to empty their oxygen slowly into the red flame of the candle in the center of his body.

Aboard Shiva in the South China Sea

1843

A fresh found of depth charges exploded over the conning tower; the submarine bobbed downward as if her namesake had smashed his powerful leg against its bow. Admiral Balin fell forward against the map table, then slid to the floor.

One of the electrical circuit had blown. It was impossible at the moment to assess the damage, but he would welcome death now. At least one of the torpedoes had exploded directly beneath the aircraft carrier; the damage would be overwhelming. The failure of the Kali weapons had been requited.

Calmly, Balin rose. Accepting fate did not mean wishing for death—he turned his attention to his escape.

Someone screamed nearby, seized by panic.

“There will be none of that,” he said in a loud, calm tone before making his way toward the helmsman. “We will carry on as we were born to do. We will survive this.”

Aboard Quicksilver

1845

“We lost engine three,” Chris told her.

Breanna didn’t acknowledge. The Indian MiGs had sent a volley of missiles at long range at the Sukhois; there was so much metal in the sky now, it was impossible to avoid getting hit.

“It’s sunk, it’s sunk,” said Fentress. “Both buoys are down!”

“Fighter on our tail,” said Chris. “Out of air mines.

She could feel the bullets slicing into her, ripping across her neck. Breanna pushed the stick and stomped the pedals, trying to flip the big jet away from the fighter. But the Sukhois was more maneuverable than the Megafortress, and the Chinese pilot was smart enough not to get too close or overreact. He wasn’t that good a shot—maybe one out of four of is slugs found its target, a half dozen at a time—but he was content with that.

“Four’s gone,” said Chris.

“Restart.”

“Trying.”

Her warning panel was a solid bank of red. Part of the rear stabilizers had been shot away; they were leaking fuel from one of the main tanks. The leading-edge flap on the left wing wouldn’t extend properly, complicating her attempts to compensate for the dead engines.

They were going in.

Breanna fought off the flicker of despair. She pushed herself toward the windscreen, as if she might somehow add her weight to the plane’s forward momentum. The Sukhois that had been dogging them pass off to the right; he’d undoubtedly run out of bullets, or fuel, or both.

About time they got a break.

Ahead, a jagged bolt of lightening flashed down from the clouds. It seemed to splatter into a million pieces as it hit the ocean, its electricity running off in every direction.

Zen, why aren’t you here with me? I need you.

Jeffrey!

the altimeter ladder began to move—somehow the big Megafortress was managing to climb.

“Come on, baby,” she told it. “Hang with me.”

“I can’t get four,” said Chris, who’d been trying to restart the engine. “Fuel’s bad. Fire in the bay. Fire—”

“Auto extinguish.”

“I’ve tried twice,” he said.

“Dump the AMRAAMS,” she told him.

“No targets?”

“Let’s not take sides at this point. Kevin—put Piranha into auto-return and sink the probe we just launched.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As Chris fired one of the missiles, there was a slight shudder in the rear.

“Fire won’t go out,” the copilot told her. “I think the extinguisher system has been compromised.”

“Okay,” she said.

They absolutely had to go out, and they had to go out now.

“Dreamland Command, this is Quicksilver. Gat, you hear me?” she said over the Dreamland line.

There was no answer. It was possible the fire had already damaged the radio or antennas, but she trued again, then broadcast their position and that they were ditching.

“Bree, we’re running out of fuel,” said Chris. “And the temp is climbing. The fumes will explode.”

“Prepare to eject,” she told him. “Crew—prepare to eject.”

The leading edge of the storm front punched at the persiplex glass in front of her. Windswept hail whipped in her face.

“I don’t know if we’re going to make it,” said Chris.

The panic hit her then, panic and fear and adrenaline. Someone grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her up from her seat, dangling her in midair, twirling her around.

Jeff, honey, where the hell are you when I need you?

“Crew, listen to me,” Breanna said calmly. “We’re all going out together. Cinch your restraints. Put your legs and arms inside your body. Check in, everybody—Chris?”

“Ferris.”

“Dolk.”

“Collins.”

“Fentress.”

There was no answer from Stoner.

“Stoner?” she said.

Nothing.

“Stoner?”

Engine two—” Chris started to tell her the engine had just died, but it was unnecessary—the thump jerked her so hard she nearly let go of the stick.

“Manage our fuel,” she told him. “Fentress—where’s Stoner?”

“He’s here, he’s here—his radio’s out. He’s ready.”

“Crew, we’re going out on three. I have the master eject, authorization Breanna Rap Bastian Stockard One One Rap One,” she told the computer in her level voice.

The computer didn’t answer, as if it were hesitating , as if it didn’t want to lose its crew. Then it came back and repeated the authorization. All the seats would now be ejected when she pulled her handle; the Dreamland system would greatly increase the probability they could find each other after the chutes deployed.

“The weather’s hell out there,” she told her men. “Let the chutes deploy automatically. Just enjoy the ride.”

Given the intensity of the storm they were flying into, it was probably suicidal to go out now. She reached for the throttle slide, pushing for more speed, hoping to maybe get beyond the storm, or at least through the worst of it.

“Fire in the Gat compartment,” said Chris. “We’re going to blow.”

Breanna heard a rumble and then a pop from the rear of the plane. She reached down to the yellow handle at the side of her seat.

“Three-two-one,” she said quickly, and the universe turned into a tornado.

Chapter 7

In the hands of the gods

Philippines

August 28, 1997, 1847

The screen blanked.

“Get them back,” Zen told Bison.

“I’m not sure what’s going on,” said the sergeant sitting at the com panel.

Zen pushed his chair back and then forward at an angle, as if realigning himself would make the picture from Quicksilver reappear.

“Get them back,” he said again, this time his voice softer.

“They’re off-line,” said Bison. “They were hit—they may be down.”

Zen pushed backward and wheeled to the door. One of the two navy people in the trailer said something, but Zen didn’t hear the words and wasn’t about to stop to ask him to repeat them. he had to reach awkwardly to open the door, pushing with his other hand on the wheel; he nearly fell out of his chair and down the ramp as he burst outside, downward momentum the only thing keeping him in the seat. He mastered it, got his balance, and continued to the oversized tent where Major Alou and the rest of the flight crew were just starting to brief for their mission. The fabric sides were rolled up.

“Merce—Quicksilver is down,” said Zen. “We need Iowa now.”

Without waiting for Major Alou to acknowledge, he wheeled back onto the path and headed for the aircraft.

It took nearly twenty minutes for the crew to get the Megafortress airborne. It was totally good time—the plane hadn’t been refueled, and the work on meshing the Piranha and Flighthawk systems was far from complete. Every second stretched to torturous infinity.

In the air, the buffeting pressure of the fresh storm system held them back. Zen launched the Flighthawk and pushed ahead, scanning through the thick rain even though they were still a hundred miles from the coordinates of Quicksilver’s last voice transmission. Other resources were being scrambled from the fleet, but at the moment they were the only ones on the scene, and certainly Bree’s best chance.

The storm was so severe, both the Chinese and Indians had landed all of their planes. The thick cloud cover made it impossible for satellites to scan the ocean, and at points Zen had a difficult time separating the waves from the much he was flying through. Ten miles from the gray splatch of sky where Quicksilver had been lost, he felt his arms and shoulders sag. Zen leaned his head forward. The fatigue nearly crushed him, pounding his temples. He saw Bree on their wedding day, the blue and pink flowered dress tight against her hips in the small chapel. Her mouth trembled ever so slightly, and when the minister had her repeat the words of the vows, she hesitated over “richer or poorer.”

Did not, she said that night, cuddled against his arms.

Did too, he told her.

Didn’t, she said a thousand times later.

Too, he replied.

But there’d been no hesitation on sickness. Ever.

“Commencing visual search.” Zen tightened his grip on the U/MF’s control and pushed the plane through a reef of wind and rain. Clouds came at him in a tumble of fists; the small plane knifed back and forth as it fell toward the dark ocean. Finally, he broke through the worst of it, though this was only a matter of degree; at three thousand feet he found a solid sheet of rain. Leveling off, Zen gingerly nudged off his power. Not exactly optimized for slow flight in the best weather, the U/MF had trouble staying stable under two hundred knots in the shifting winds. Zen had his hands and head full, constantly adjusting to stay on the flight path. But he needed to go as slow as possible, since it increased the video’s resolution and, more importantly, the computer’s ability to scan the fleeting images for signs of the survivors.

At least concentrating on flying meant he couldn’t think about anything else.

“Coming to the end of our search track,” said the copilot above.

“Roger that. Turning,” said Zen.

Zen selected IR view. The rain was too thick for it to fight through, and finally he decided to flip back to the optical view. Two long circuits took them slightly to the north. Iowa’s look-down radar fought through the storm to scan the roiling waves, but the conditions were severe. Zen punched over the waves at just under a thousand feet, convinced the U/MF’s video cams—and his eyes—were the best tools they had, at least for now.

A distress call came over the UHF circuit as one of the Sukhois ran out of fuel before he could complete a landing on his storm-shrouded carrier.

“Poor shit,” said somebody over the interphone circuit without thinking.

Yeah, thought Zen to himself. Poor shit. Then he pushed the Flighthawk lower to the ocean.

Los Angeles International Airport

August 27, 1997, 0600 local (August 28, 2100 Philippines)

Flying as a passenger on a civilian airliner was bad enough, but Colonel Bastian had the bad luck to draw an overly talkative seventy-year-old as a seatmate. The woman spent roughly an hour detailing the cruise she had just been on; when that topic was exhausted, she moved on to the wallpaper she was putting in her bathroom, and finally the oranges she had ordered for her daughter’s upcoming birthday. Dog was too polite to tell her to shut up. By the time he got off the plane, his ear had a permanent buzz; he knew if he checked in a mirror it would be red.

He hadn’t decided how to get over to Edwards; thinking he might rent a car and drive, he headed in the direction of the Hertz booth. On the way, his eye caught the fleeting text on a TV screen set to deliver headline news.

“Fighting breaks out between China and India,” said the words.

Dog stopped so abruptly, a short man walking behind him bumped into him with his suitcase. Instead of accepting the man’s apology, he asked where the phones were.

“Major Ascenzio has a jet en route,” said Ax when Dog dialed into Dreamland. “I’ll transfer you down to him for the details.”

“Thanks, Ax.”

“Colonel, one thing—Breanna was aboard the plane.”

“What plane?” Dog asked.

For the first time since he’d known him, Chief Master Sergeant Terrence “Ax” Gibbs was lost for words.

“What plane?” Dog demanded when he didn’t answer.

“Quicksilver is down, sir.”

Aboard Iowa, over the South China Sea

2308

Twice Zen thought he found something, but the brief flickers from the computer proved to be anomalies. Jennifer Gleason worked the freeze-frames back and forth silently, sometimes calling up the radar and IR scans on her own. But none of the sensors picked up anything substantial in the swirling torrent.

They refueled the small plane three times. Knocking off the refueling probe and diving through the thick storms, Zen felt as if he had plunged back into the underworld, battling the winds of hell. He funneled his eyes into the viewscreen, scanning with the computer, looking, looking, looking. The copilot kept track of the search tracks; his announcements of the approaching turns marked the time like a grandfather clock clanging on the quarter hour.

Zen saw nothing. The radar found nothing. Still he flew, back and forth across the angry ocean, repeating the tracks.

In sickness and in health, she’d said. and she’d meant it.

“Jeff, we’re about three ounces from bingo.” Major Alou’s voice sounded as if he were speaking from the other end of a wide pipe.

“Where’s our tanker?”

“There are no tankers,” said Alou. “The storm’s too much and we’re too far. There’s no choice—we have to get down. I’ve already stretched it out.”

Zen didn’t answer.

“There’s a Navy P-3 out of Japan due in twenty minutes,” he told him. “They’re going to continue the search. As soon as the carrier can launch more planes, they’ll have another search package out. The F-14’s will stay over the area in the meantime. They’ll hear a transmission.”

Who the hell would manage to use a radio in this?

“Jeff, we’ll find her. They will, or we will. But we have to go. We’ll be out of the storm at least, so we can refuel and take off right away. It may be far east. Okay?”

“Yeah, Roger that.”

Dreamland

0936 local

The flight from LAX to Dreamland was quick—Ax had sent an F-15E, and the pilot, Major Mack Smith, had probably broken the speed barrier twenty feet off the tarmac. Ax met Dog in a Jimmy SUV as the airplane taxied toward the hangar; the truck whipped over to Taj so fast Dog never got his seat belt buckled. Even the notoriously slow elevator seemed to understand this was a real emergency; it started downward three seconds after Dog touched the button for the subbasement level where the command center was located.

Major Ascenzio, Ray Rubeo, and about a half-dozen mission specialist were waiting for hi,

Rubeo stepped up and started to talk, telling the colonel they shared his concern for his daughter and the rest of the crew. The scientist was not only sincere, but actually seemed on the brink of becoming emotional—a development so out of character Dog felt worse than before.

“Thanks, Dog. Thanks, everybody. Let’s get to work. Who’s searching, what have we heard?”

“Iowa’s just knocking off for fuel,” said Gat. Major Ascenzio reached down to his desk and hit a key; a diagram of the search area appeared on the main screen at the front of the room. They had used data from Quicksilver’s transmission to plot its probably flight path after it was hit. Because of the clouds and Quicksilver’s altitude and position, there was no usable information from the Crystal asset—a KH-12 satellite—covering the area, but there was some possibility a satellite used to monitor missiles launches might have picked up explosions aboard the plane; they had a query in to the Natioanal Reconaissance Office to see. That information might help them tweak their search area, though Gat felt they had a decent handle on it.

One thing the major didn’t mention: Like much of the rest of the Air Force, Dreamland’s standard survival equipment included the PRC-90 survival radio. While the radio was a time-tested veteran, it had a limited range and was hardly state-of-the-art equipment. Newer versions utilizing satellite communications were hard to come by—a ridiculous budget constraint that might have proved fatal for Captain Scott O’Grady in Bosnia two years before. O’Grady’s heroism and resourcefulness notwithstanding, a more powerful radio with a locator would have shortened his ordeal considerably.

“We’ll find them,” said Gat. “A P-3 from the Pacific Fleet in en route.”

“That’s it?” said Dog.

“The weather is fierce,” said Gat. “Hurricane winds, hail, the works. Half the Pacific is covered by it. The carriers can’t launch aircraft.”

Dog folded his arms. The storm had even more serious implications for the people who had parachuted—if they parachuted—from the plane. Even if they somehow got into the water without injury, climbing into a life raft in mountainous seas could be an almost impossible task. And once you were in it—hell, you might as well go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

“PacCom has lost at least one plane as well,” said Gat. “The storm is that bad. They feel they’ll be in a better position by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Tomorrow afternoon? Fuck that. Fuck that!”

The words flew from his mouth like meteors, spitting down on everyone in the room.

“We need to organize the search,” said Dog, not apologizing. “We have three planes—two planes.” He caught himself. His breath was racing but he couldn’t corral it. “We’ll run eight-hour missions out of the Philippines.”

“Raven’s not ours,” Gat said. “And besides, the storm there is incredible. Kitty Hawk had to curtail operations, I had Major Alou divert all the way over to Japan.”

“Why didn’t he just refuel in the air and continue the search?”

“We didn’t have a tanker available.”

“Punch me through to Woods.”

“Yes, sir.” Gat grimaced. “It’ll be voice-only.”

“Yeah, okay.” Dog wasn’t mad at Gat—he wasn’t even mad at Woods, but he nonetheless barked at the Navy lieutenant who came on the line.

“Where’s our search team?”

“Excuse me, sir, this is lieutenant Santiago. The admiral is tied up.”

“I understand that,” said Dog. He pushed his arms tighter to his chest, as if by holding himself he could calm down. “I need help searching for my people.”

“We have a plane en route. I’m in charge of—”

“Get Admiral Woods for me,” said Dog.

“Uh—”

“Just do it.”

The line went dead for a moment.

The others in the room were trying to be discreet, but he knew they were watching him. He had to fight for his people—even if it wasn’t his daughter who’d gone down, he had to do everything he could to get them back.

“We have our hands full here, Colonel,” said Woods, his voice snapping though the speakers. “I understand the difficult position you are in, but I’ve lost another plane as well, and one of our destroyers was fired on inadvertently—at least we think inadvertently—by the Indians. One of our submarines has missed two scheduled transmissions, and at least one helicopter in an hour overdue. In the meantime, the Chinese ships up near Taiwan are in a frenzy. We are looking for your people, Tecumseh. They’re one of our priorities, just not the only one. The storm is complicating everything.”

“My plane on the Philippines can get around the storm,” said Dog.

“Those are my planes,” said Woods. “Now I’m not going to press the point, but Major Alou and his crew took off without orders and without authorization. Granted, it was an emergency, and I certainly would have approved—but that will not happen again. Those are my assets. I need to be able to control what’s going on, and that requires—”

Dog cut the connection. It was either that or punch something.

Rubeo broke the silence. “I have a suggestion,” said the scientist.

“And?”

“The UMB is due for a flight in six hours. We can use it to conduct the search. The mini-KH photo package is already scheduled for telemetry tests—completely unnecessary, I might add, given that we’ve already proven it works without flaws.”

“It won’t see through the storm,” said Dog.

“The imaging radar will. By coincidence, it happens to have been loaded into the plane just prior to your arrival. Merely to see if the double load would fit. The aircraft ad to go up anyway. We are merely speaking here of an inconsequential change in the flight plan.”

Dog considered the situation. The mini-KH gear not only could identify an object .3 meters in size—roughly a foot—but placed in the B-5, it could train its sensors wherever they wanted, without having to worry about the complications of earth orbit and maneuvering in space. Launching the plane and flying it over the Pacific was completely within his purview as Dreamland commander. There was only one problem—the UMB’s pilot went down in Quicksilver.

“The computer can fly it,” said Rubeo, anticipating Dog’s objection.

“We need a pilot,” said Dog. “Maybe Mack Smith—”

“Piffle.” Rubeo’s face contorted. “Smith would have it rolling into the ocean within minutes. Colonel, the computer can fly it. That’s what it’s designed to do.”

“I want someone at the controls.”

“Naturally. I’ll be at the controls, with Fichera as backup,” said Rubeo. “Along with the rest of the team. Precisely as designed. This is what the system was created for.”

“Where’s Zen?”

“Why Zen?”

“He’s flown the B-5.”

“He merely guided the computer by voice as far as that goes, he’s no more competent than I. Freddy, Colonel, I not only have considerably more experience flying the aircraft, but—”

“No offence, Doc, but I want a combat pilot at the controls.” Dog turned to the lieutenant handling the communications panel. “Get Major Stockard.”

“Colonel—”

“We’ve been over this, Ray. I appreciate your getting it ready—that was damn sharp of you. But I want an experienced pilot making the call when the shit hits the fan. The scramjets—they’re still a problem?”

“They function within parameters.”

“Plan the flight without using them.”

“That’s overly cautious,” said Rubeo. “The problem was in sensors. They’re due to be tested on the flight.”

“Then set it up so that they’re used on the back end of the flight—on the return to Dreamland.”

“There’s no reason not to use them in-flight,” insisted Rubeo.

“If they fail we’ll have to return home.”

Rubeo’s face paled ever so slightly. “As you wish,” he said.

“Major Stockard is on the line, sir. They’re just landing on Okinawa,” said the lieutenant.

“It’ll take ten or twelve hours to get here,” said Rubeo.

“Eight,” said Gat.

Ascenzio’s voice surprised Dog—he’d actually forgotten the others were in the room.

“Hardly,” hissed Rubeo. “But even if it were only eight, you want to lose all that time? We can have the UMB off the main runway in four hours, perhaps even less.”

“Zen doesn’t have to be here, does he?” asked Dog. “If he’d guiding by voice. You just have to work out a connection, right?”

“It’s not that simple.” Rubeo frowned, then put his finger on his small gold earring. “I’d have to talk to Dr. Gleason. Maybe,” he added, as if reluctant to concede his assistant would have the final say. “The communication protocols—if we use the channels reserved for the extra Flighthawks, and reprogram them into the network. Maybe. Yes.”

“Put Major Stockard on the screen.”

His son-in-law’s helmeted face came on the screen. Zen was still piloting a Flighthawk and had his visor down; he looked a bit like a race car driver in his crash cage, head bobbing left and right before he spoke. “Stockard.”

“Jeff, I want to talk with you, Major Alou, and Jennifer Gleason,” said Dog. “Dr. Rubeo has an idea—”

“This is not exactly my idea,” said Rubeo.

“I have an idea,” said Dog. The others plugged into the line and he laid it out.

“I think we can do it,” said Jennifer. “We may even be able to use the Flighthawk controls for limited maneuverability.”

“Don’t get fancy,” said Dog. “There’s no time.”

“It’s not fancy—we built the control section from the same module; it’s meant to be portable.”

“That storm’s pretty fierce,” said Zen.

“The KH Storm and Eyes modules are to be tested,” said Rubeo, using the nicknames for the sensor arrays. “We’ll see anything we want to see.”

“Can I see them on my screens?” asked Zen.

“That part’s easy,” said Jennifer.

“Voice commands can be issued by myself—or even you, Colonel,” said Rubeo. “There’s no need to create a camel here—with all due respect to Major Stockard, I’d imagine he’s tired.”

“I’m fine.”

“I want a combat pilot at the controls,” insisted Dog. “Major Alou, Admiral Woods may call you to assist other missions. Could you accomplish them while you’re handling this?”

“I don’t know that we can be in two places at one time,” said Major Alou.

“You won’t have to be,” said Jennifer. “It’ll be just like a regular mission with Flighthawks—except you won’t have to stay close to the UMB. We can do it, Tecumseh.”

Her use of his name paralyzed him; he felt a strange mix of love and fear.

“Ray,” she continued, “on the Piranha translation module, the 128 processor—”

“Yes. The assembler will—”

“But we won’t need the weapon section.”

“That’s where we’re routing the KH radar unit.”

“I can do it, I can do it. We can use the channels reserved for the helmets. I can do it!”

“Don’t play schoolgirl.”

“All right, listen,” said Dog. “Major Alou—you land your plane, gas up, take off ASAP. Dr. Gleason and Dog—” he pointed at Rubeo. “See what you can work out. I want a go, no-go recommendation in two hours. Less if possible.”

“It’s go,” said Zen.

“I appreciate the sentiment,” said Dog.

“What do I do if I’m given a mission before then?” asked Major Alou.

“Take it,” said Zen.

“We need to be on the ground for at least two hours,” said Jennifer. “Maybe a little more.”

“It’ll take a while to refuel,” said Alou. “And the weather may delay us too.”

“Two hours, go or no-go,” said Dog. “Lets get to work.”

Aboard Iowa

August 29, 1997, 0207 local (August 28, 1997, 1107 Dreamland)

Zen checked the instruments on Flighthawk One, preparing to land on Okinawa. Jennifer was bouncing up and down next to him, already working out the problems on one of her laptop computers. He could feel her adrenaline rush, the excitement that came with facing the impossible, the sureness it could be overcome.

He’d heard it in their voices back at Dreamland too. They all had it. Even Rubeo, despite grousing that the computers would do a better job than Zen could.

The one thing they hadn’t talked about was that Bree and the others were very likely dead already, blown to bits in the plane.

Which was why they didn’t talk about it.

Somewhere in the South China Sea

Time and date unknown

She was the rain, soaking them. She was the wind sheering through their skulls. She was the tumult of the ocean, heaving her chest to plunge them into the black, salty hell, then lifting them up into the pure gray clouds. Again and again she twirled them back and forth, lashing them in every direction until she became them all, and they became her.

When Breanna Stockard pulled the handle on the ejection seat, time and space had merged. She now occupied all possible times and all possible places—the moment of the ejection seat exploding beneath her, the storm reaching down to take her from the plane, the universe roaring at her pointlessness.

She could see the canopy of the parachute. She could see the ocean collapsing around her. She could feel her helmet slamming against the slipstream; she could smell the rose water of a long-ago bath.

Somehow, the raft had inflated.

Stoner had saved her with his strong arms, pulling against the chute that wouldn’t release, but that finally, under his tugging, did release. Breanna had pulled at Ferris, who bobbed helmetless before her, but it had been Stoner who grabbed her. It was Stoner who disappeared.

She was the roll of the ocean and the explosion that sent them from the airplane. She was the storm soaking them all.

Stoner felt his fingers slipping again. They wouldn’t close. The best he could manage was to punch his hands on the raft, shifting his weight slightly as the wave swelled up. It threw him sideways and, whether because of good luck, or God, or just coincidence, the momentum of the raft and the swell threw him back into the small float, on top of the two pilots. Water surged up his nostrils; he shook his head violently, but the salt burned into his chest and lungs. Fortunately, he didn’t have anything left to puke.

The sea pushed him sideways and his body slipped downward. An arm grabbed his just as he went into the water. In the tumult, it wasn’t clear whether he pulled his rescuer into the sea or whether he’d been hooked and saved; lightening flashed and he realized he was on his back, lying across the other two, the man and the woman.

“Lash ourselves together,” he told them, the rain exploding into his face. “Keep ourselves together until the storm ends.”

The others moved, but not in reaction to what he said. they were gripping on to the boat, holding again as the waves pitched them upward.