Текст книги "Noah's Ark: Encounters"

Автор книги: Harry Dayle

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Eighteen

JAKE DIDN’T REACT immediately. Nobody on the bridge did. Everyone was trying to process the words they had just heard, and the implications of those words.

Vardy was the first to move. Instinct, training, or both, propelled him from his position near the bridge door all the way to the port windows from which, under normal circumstances, it was possible to see at least the conning tower of the Ambush as she rode alongside, and very often a large part of the top section. He gasped loudly. Jake sprinted to join the doctor.

The Ambush had gone.

There was a tell-tale trail of bubbles and wash showing where she had dived whilst at the same time accelerating away. The umbilical cord that connected the Royal Navy nuclear submarine to the cruise liner, supplying power and enabling communications and shared navigation, dangled uselessly from the side of the ship.

None of this was, in itself, of grave concern. What struck fear into the heart of the two men was what they saw approaching at high speed. Below the surface of the sea, just about visible with the naked eye, something dark was streaking towards them.

“Torpedo,” Vardy whispered. He was transfixed by the shadow, staring open-mouthed at it.

Unlike Vardy, Lucya, and McNair, Jake had no experience of the military. He hadn’t undertaken war-game exercises, nor had he ever been sent into any theatre of war. His only experience of sea battles came from what he had seen in the movies. The few films he had watched that featured torpedo attacks had all been accompanied by impressive, pounding, menacing orchestral scores. The bass line of the music, and the discordant, incessant percussion had always rammed home the intensity and the despair of the situation. So watching this real underwater missile hurtling towards them in complete silence seemed quite unreal. It was less menacing, and somehow that made it all the more terrifying.

“What do we do?” Jake whispered.

Lucya and McNair had joined them now. All four stared at the shadow.

“Nothing,” Vardy said, his voice hoarse. “There’s nothing…”

“No.” It was McNair who spoke. “There’s time. If the Ambush deploys counter measures—”

“She’s too close!” Vardy pounded the window with a fist.

“She can make it! She can draw it away!”

As McNair spoke, the torpedo did seem to be changing direction, though barely.

Lucya and Jake’s hands found each other. Jake pulled her towards him, and held her tightly. He’d lost count of how many times he had thought he was about to die since the asteroid. On some of those occasions he’d been ready, prepared for the end. This time was different. He thought of Erica, happily making a scrapbook down in the classroom. She would feel the brunt of the inevitable explosion. She and the other children would almost certainly drown before there was any chance of getting them out. He thought of Coote under sedation. He thought of the thousands of people, of the survivors on the ship, who had come this far. They had no lifeboats, and only a handful of rafts.

If the Arcadia was sunk, all was lost.

He looked into Lucya’s eyes, those dark pools of love and hope, and kissed her.

Then the torpedo exploded.

Nineteen

CHIEF ENGINEER MARTIN Oakley, unaware of the impending doom, had just finished his preliminary survey of the Lance. He was impressed. She had a powerful engine, and good fuel reserves. The ship had been very well maintained and, battered radio mast and radar aside, was in excellent condition. There was no doubt in his mind that she would make an excellent and very welcome addition to their little fleet should the crew decide to remain with the Arcadia, and he saw no reason why they wouldn’t.

Since the cruiser’s lifeboats had all burned, and its two tenders had been destroyed, flimsy inflatable life rafts had been their only means of getting to and from land. The four ports they had visited so far had been too badly damaged to bring their giant ship in close. Debris in the water made such manoeuvres too treacherous, as Lucya had discovered to everyone’s cost when she had punctured the hull on a chunk of concrete pier hidden in the freezing waters of a Svalbard fjord.

The Lance on the other hand, was tiny in comparison. With the agility offered by her bow thrusters, her reinforced hull, and her relative size, she would make the perfect runabout to ferry landing parties ashore as they continued to explore further and further south.

That wasn’t all she had to offer. As there hadn’t been any pressing reason to return to the engine room of the Arcadia after checking out the Lance’s own motor, he’d taken the time to explore the rest of the ship. The laboratories appeared to his untrained eye to be very well equipped. He suspected that Surgeon Lieutenant Russell Vardy would be overjoyed with what he would find there. The Lance also had an impressive stash of food supplies. For such a small crew, they really were very well stocked.

But perhaps the best features of the research vessel were her winches, nets and baskets. She even had an old harpoon launcher up near the bows. Her heritage as a converted fishing boat was plain to see. They may have lost an excellent and well-liked fisherman in Stieg, but they had gained a terrific tool for catching more food. Stieg’s homemade nets and Martin’s cobbled-together winch system had served them well thus far, but there was no doubting that the efficacy of the Lance would far outweigh their current methods.

All in all, Martin thought to himself as he crossed the walkway between the Lance and the Spirit of Arcadia, the day had gone very well. Things were looking up.

It was as that thought played out in his mind that there was a massive explosion.

It came from the other side of the Arcadia, out of sight. The noise was one Martin would never forget. It sounded like a dozen volcanos erupting at once.

Beyond the bows of the cruiser, a tsunami wall of water rose up, spreading out in all directions. It hit the front of the ship within a second of the deafening sound, sending her rearing up and then over to the starboard side.

The ropes securing the Lance tightened as they were stretched to their fullest extent, pulling her towards the hull of the Arcadia. The walkway buckled and folded in two. Had Martin been a metre further ahead, he would have been eaten up by the closing jaws of twisted wood and metal. As it was, he was thrown into the air, where he executed an unbalanced somersault, and came crashing down into the sea headfirst, just as the tsunami reached the Lance.

Martin was lucky. He had time to draw a breath before hitting the water, so was already under as the tidal wave rolled over him. He kicked and pulled at the bubbling, swirling sea, disoriented, struggling to find the surface. When the wave, as high as a house, passed over, he was sucked back to the top in its wake. His head broke through into the air just in time for him to see the sky-blue hull of the Lance tumbling down the back of the wave towards him.

He had seconds remaining before he would be crushed between the two ships.

• • •

The North Koreans who had taken the Lance had exchanged their position of power for a deck-one dungeon, not unlike that into which they had thrown their captives. Like the room that had held the Lance’s true captain, their new home was in the very bowels of the ship, well below the waterline. The old store room was similar to the one used as a temporary morgue, but much smaller. It had previously housed stocks of alcohol for the ship’s numerous bars. These had long since been moved. Too many people who worked on the Arcadia knew where the booze was stored, and as alcohol was not part of the rationing system and was therefore effectively banned, it was deemed too risky to leave it where it could be found, even if the room was secure. Instead, the hundreds of cases of drink had been relocated, along with thousands of cigarettes, cigars, and other luxury products, into a store in which mechanical spares were supposed to be kept. In fact there were very few spares, and a lot of space. It made it the ideal hiding place for substances that would undoubtedly lead to temptation, and thus possibly to crime.

The room smelt of alcohol. Over the years, many a bottle had been dropped and broken in there, and the smell was hard to get rid of. Its whitewashed metal walls were entirely featureless, as was the metal floor, and ceiling. Fluorescent tubes protected by metal cages provided the illumination. The switch for these was situated outside, next to the heavy door. So when the lights went out, the North Korean prisoners naturally assumed that their guard was punishing them, or toying with them in some sadistic way.

On the other side of the door, security officer Rupert Bembridge, assigned to watch the new brig, was far less certain as to the reasons for the sudden plunge into darkness. His first thought was that his charges inside had somehow cut through a power cable in a bid to make their escape, or at least to make his life difficult.

His orders from Max had been perfectly clear: “You watch the door. If any of the bastards try and get out, shoot them. If anything else happens, you call me.”

He had thought Max had been joking about the shooting part, but then he’d been handed a gun. He had to sign for it in the arms register, and then Max had left him to it. Suddenly the job, which he had seen as a significant step down from patrolling the restaurant, had taken on a whole new level of importance.

Although Rupert had never been part of SCO19, the armed response unit of the Metropolitan Police, and therefore did not carry a weapon in his day job, he had undergone a firearms training course when he had been promoted to sergeant. The training had given him an enormous respect for the power of a gun. He really didn’t want to shoot anyone at all, even a North Korean who had, he’d been told, done terrible things to fellow survivors. The trouble was, when he tried to contact Max via the radio, he found the device wasn’t working. The Spirit of Arcadia, being built from steel, aluminium, and other metals, made radio communication difficult at the best of times. The superstructure acted as a giant Farrier cage, blocking transmissions. For the security radios to work, relays were installed throughout the vessel, part of a spider’s web of communications infrastructure. Without power, those relays were little more than decoration. Unfortunately, the technicalities were lost on Bembridge. He simply saw a radio that didn’t work, and no way to contact his boss.

However, there was another, more pressing problem. The lock on the brig door was not manually operated. Instead, it used a magnetic card reader which was linked to a series of electromagnetically operated bolts. Under normal circumstances it was a highly secure system. Bar staff were issued with key cards, and a computer logged all access in and out of the store. Any time a crew member was reassigned, or left the ship’s company, their card was deactivated. With no lost keys, or stray copies floating around, it meant there was almost no problem with theft of the stock, as every movement could be accounted for. But when the Ambush dived, cutting the power connection to the cruise ship, the door went into emergency mode. Using a capacitive charge, it immediately disengaged the four hefty bolts that secured it shut. This was a safety override, designed to ensure nobody was locked inside the room in the event of power failure or other catastrophe.

Bembridge heard the bolts retract. He knew that the prisoners would hear it too. He raised his pistol towards where he knew the door was, and fumbled around on his belt for his torch. His hand closed around the substantial body of the Maglite, and his thumb found the rubber switch. He pressed hard, and a tightly focussed beam of light picked out the door. He was just in time. It was already swinging open.

“Stop! Step away from the door or I will shoot!” His voice boomed around the cave-like passage, making him sound far more authoritative than he felt.

The door opened wider, but nobody came out. Bembridge stepped to the left, to better see inside the brig. He had one foot on the ground, the other moving through the air, when the explosion happened.

The deafening sound ripped through the deck. A second later, the Spirit of Arcadia lurched to the side, throwing him off balance and sending him skidding across the slippery painted floor on his back. His torch fell to the ground with him and was lost, rolling away unseen. He gripped the gun tightly, desperate not to lose it. Too tightly. His finger clamped round the trigger and the weapon discharged, sending a bullet ricocheting off the thick metal walls. A tenth of a second later, his head hit one of the same walls, knocking him out cold.

• • •

Carrie Walters was attending to Captain Gibson Coote, changing the drip that kept him sedated when the lights went out. Then she heard the explosion. In the medical suite on deck five, the sound itself wasn’t so frightening. It was more of a distraction than anything.

The tidal wave that followed was another matter.

The ship reared up then listed to the starboard side, groaning and creaking as it went. The movement was violent, and it happened quickly. Carrie, like almost everyone aboard, was tipped off balance. She was thrown into the wall of the treatment room. The drip in her hand burst open, sending liquid into the air.

She could see Coote rolling towards the edge of his bed. She tried to turn, to get to him and stop him falling, but the floor had become a steep incline and her shoes failed to grip sufficiently. She watched, helpless, as he plunged to the ground, rolling in mid-air and landing face first.

• • •

The view of the explosion from the bridge was quite spectacular. Jake pulled away from Lucya in time to see it: a column of water erupting from the sea off the port bow. It looked for all the world like a skyscraper sprouting from the ocean as the seawater pushed its way upwards, higher than the deck of the ship, higher than the bridge, its tip sharpening as it stretched for the sky.

As the massive plume reached its zenith, a secondary eruption burst from the seabed, spraying black silt into the air, giving the scene in front of them the appearance of a deathly aquatic firework display.

The explosion was accompanied by a deafening boom, a sound wave that threatened to blow in the bridge windows.

As the ship reared up and rolled, Jake, Lucya, Vardy, and McNair were all thrown backwards towards the banks of consoles. Jake caught hold of a handrail that ran around the perimeter of the room and steadied himself. He was still hanging onto Lucya, and pulled her close to him again, preventing her fall.

Vardy stumbled and managed to turn so that as he pitched into the side of a control panel, he bent over double, absorbing the shock.

McNair was not so lucky. He hurtled into the map table, his back connecting with it with a crack. His head was flung backwards. He bounced and seemed to fold in two, before once again falling back, rolling away under the table and out of sight.

Twenty

BEING AN ENGINEER meant enduring derogatory comments from most other crew members at some point in one’s career. “Bolt tightener”, “stoker”, “grease monkey”; the list of belittling nicknames went on. Officers above deck enjoyed telling those below that they weren’t intelligent enough to get a real job. Engineering was where you went if you were a bit slow, they said. Martin had learnt long ago to let these types of comments pass. It wasn’t so much that he had developed a thick skin, it was more that he knew they were simply wrong. His team were some of the brightest people he’d ever met. He himself, although no genius, was also prone to bouts of inspiration and quick wit. As he watched the Lance – which from his new perspective appeared considerably bulkier than before – fall towards him, his brain ratcheted up a gear. The faster he thought, the more time seemed to slow down.

He turned so he was facing the Arcadia, then pushed his head below the water and dived. He could never have got far enough below the surface under his own power, but he didn’t need to. The timing was impeccable. As he inverted himself, he brought his knees in close to his chest. The Lance connected with his feet, and Martin pushed off with all his might. The momentum of the research ship launched him forwards and downwards. As the Arcadia was still rolling to her starboard side, he was pushed into the space that her hull was vacating, his back sliding along her underside.

Behind him there was an almighty crash as the two ships connected. The cruiser continued to roll, pushing the Lance down into the water and threatening to submerge her altogether. Martin didn’t think about that. He didn’t think about anything except kicking for all he was worth, until finally, with his lungs ready to burst, he broke free, passing under the keel of his beloved ship and into empty water beyond. Then he pulled with his arms, fighting his way to the surface. He escaped into the air, gasping, filling his oxygen-starved lungs to capacity.

Yet there was no time to recover. Behind him, the Spirit of Arcadia had rolled as far as she was going to, and had started to pitch back in the other direction. If he hung about much longer, she would come crashing down on his head. Martin took another lungfull of air, dipped his face back into the churning sea, and started to swim away as fast as he could.

• • •

The first thing Rupert Bembridge noticed when he came to was that his head was throbbing so hard he wasn’t entirely sure he was alive at all. He didn’t think it was possible to be conscious and in so much pain.

The second thing he noticed was that both his hands were empty. The Maglite had gone. It had either broken or been taken by someone, because there was no light to be seen in any direction. He knew the other hand had held something important, but his thoughts swam uncontrollably in his head. It was painful to concentrate, but that was what he had to do.

The gun.

He remembered the gun. Why had he been brandishing it? The door. The door had been open. He was trying to stop the prisoners from getting out, then something had happened and it had all gone mad.

Bembridge hauled himself up onto his hands and knees. His head still pounded but he tried to block out the intense discomfort. He shuffled forwards on all fours, feeling in front of him for a wall, the gun, the torch, or the door.

His outstretched fingers found a wall first, so he shuffled along it until he reached the opening to the hastily converted prison cell. It was wide open. The sickly smell of alcohol mixed with sweat wafted out. Rupert didn’t need a light to know that there was nobody inside.

• • •

“Are we hit? Did it hit us?” Jake found himself shouting, but the noise from the explosion had already subsided. The prevailing wind carried the falling spire of water away from the bridge and out to sea.

Vardy struggled to regain his balance. The ship had started to roll back again, causing yet more disorientation. He was winded, and spoke in barely a whisper. “No.”

Lucya was the only person who had seen McNair crash into the map table. She was nimble and light on her feet, and had survived the impact of the tidal wave better than the others. She was already on her way to help the injured helmsman.

“Are you sure?” Jake asked. He was gripping a secondary navigation console, his fingers turning white with the strain as the Spirit of Arcadia crashed back down into the sea, sending a shockwave of vibration through the ship. “Jesus!”

“I’m sure.” Vardy drew short, sharp breaths, refilling his lungs as best he could. “That was a non-contact explosion. I’ve seen them before, with test firings. Believe me, we’d know if we’d been hit.”

Lucya was down on her hands and knees, crawling beneath the table. McNair was twisted into a position that made her wince with pain just to look at. She checked his neck for a pulse. He was alive. Mercifully for him, he wasn’t conscious.

“What about the Ambush?” Jake asked. “Did it hit the sub?”

“No. I said it was a non-contact explosion.”

“So they got away?”

“Possibly.”

“You said non-contact?”

“If that went off in close proximity, they will have suffered. Hull breach, electrical interference, harm to the propeller, there’s all sorts of damage they could have endured.”

“We have to call them. Martin can get the battery backup online.”

“No.” Vardy snapped the word, taking Jake by surprise. “They can’t respond. Any transmissions from them and they’ll give away their position.”

“Who the hell shot a torpedo at us anyway? This makes no sense!”

“Guys? I need help here,” Lucya called from the floor at the back of the room. “McNair is injured.”

Vardy limped towards the table, noticing for the first time that he had hurt his leg on something. “Great, now I’m going to be walking like Grau, as well as running his medical centre.”

Jake checked himself over and was relieved to find he was in one piece and unscathed. He knew that wouldn’t be the case for everyone aboard. Medical would once again be overrun. The cuts and bruises of the masses would have to wait; the temporary hospital was already full of the Lance’s crew, and they had to take priority.

“We have to get him to medical,” Vardy said after taking a cursory look over McNair. “And we have to be very careful about moving him. We need a stretcher and trolley.”

“I’ll go,” Jake volunteered.

“I’ll come with you,” Lucya said. “I’m going down to engineering to see how long before they get the emergency power on.”

Vardy looked at her. “And?”

“Okay. And on the way I can check the classroom and make sure Erica is okay.”

• • •

“Dan, will you stop pacing, you’ll wear out the carpet….ooh!” Vicky’s last word twisted into a long and pained groan.

Dan ran to her, kneeling in front of where she was perched on the end of the bed. “That’s another one!” I should have timed it. How long ago was that explosion?

Vicky puffed and puffed, then let out a long sigh. “It’s not another one. It’s just cramp. Stop worrying, will you?”

“Stop worrying? Are you mad? That’s two contractions! You’re obviously going into labour!”

She eased herself back until she was lying on the bed. “Don’t be daft. It’s not due for another two weeks yet. It’s too soon. It’s just cramp. That explosion made me jump, that’s all.”

Dan started pacing again. He looked at his watch, spoke to himself, then out loud. “I think I should fetch Doctor Vardy. He’ll know.”

“No! Don’t leave me on my own.”

“Why? If it’s just cramp…”

“It is just cramp. But still, I’d rather you stayed with me. Look, if and when my waters break, that’s when we’ll call the doctor, okay? Listen, calm down. It’s not as if we have a long drive to a maternity unit ahead of us. We can be in the medical centre in minutes Or Doctor Vardy and Carrie can come here.”

“I’d like one of them to come here now.”

“There’s no point wasting their time over nothing. They’ve got those people from the other ship they need to be helping. They don’t want us getting in the way.”

Dan was far from convinced, but he knew better than to argue with his wife. “Just promise me, if anything changes, you’ll tell me and I’ll go and get Carrie, okay?”

She nodded, but avoided his eye.

• • •

The ability for rumours to spread like wildfire through the Spirit of Arcadia was both a good and a bad thing. As many untruths and half-truths were in circulation as facts at any one time. Misinformation was disseminated with alarming rapidity. On this particular occasion, the gossip network was something of a blessing. As Jake and Lucya made their way down to medical in search of a stretcher and trolley, they encountered people on every deck who were confused, injured, or both.

Everyone wanted to know what had happened.

“Is the ship sinking?

“Did someone attack us?”

“Was there an underwater earthquake?”

“Are we safe?”

“Why did the power go off?”

“Where is the Ambush?”

The couple quickly realised it was better they split up. By taking different routes they could more efficiently get the truth out. At least, as much as they knew of the truth.

“The Ambush was attacked. We don’t know by whom. They missed. We’re not sinking. The power will be back on soon.”

The majority of people were understanding about the lack of detail. Simply being told that they weren’t about to meet a watery grave was enough; the finer points could wait. Not everyone’s curiosity was so easily satiated though. From some, the questions kept on coming.

“Who attacked the sub?”

“Will they attack again?”

“Will they attack us?”

Jake was sympathetic to this need for information; he wanted answers as much as the next man. Replying – truthfully – that he didn’t have a response led some to question his leadership. But for the most part the community was too preoccupied with dealing with their shock, as well as their cuts and bruises, to be engaged in political shenanigans. Jake made it to the medical suite relatively unscathed.

He found Carrie on the floor with Coote.

“Jake! Can you help me get him back onto the bed?”

“Of course. What happened?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing. He fell when the ship rolled.”

Jake outlined what they knew about the attack, while the two of them heaved the heavy submarine captain back up onto the bed.

“Is he going to be alright?”

“I think from the way he fell that his arm might be broken. I’ll need a second opinion from Doctor Vardy. If only we had x-ray equipment on board…and ultrasound. Poor Vicky Mitchell, we’ve no way of seeing her baby. I listened to its heartbeat and everything sounds normal, but it’s a long time since I did any midwifery. To be honest, I’m as nervous as anything.”

“You’ll do just fine. Everyone has risen to the challenges of our rather unique situation better than I could have imagined. I have no doubt you will be equally impressive. Now, I need to get back to the bridge with a stretcher. Our helmsman is in a bad way and Vardy wants to bring him down here. I expect he’ll need your help.”

“I’ll get some space cleared, get us organised.”

He turned to leave, pushing the trolley with him.

“Jake?”

“Yes?”

“Are they going to try again? Another torpedo?”

He hesitated, then shrugged his shoulders. “What can we do? The Ambush is out there, somewhere. I just hope she can deal with whatever this threat is.”