Library

Chapter 74

74

Aboard the Spook Fish

Callie’s steady hand guided the submersible motoring along at just over four knots. She trusted the AI piloting program, but her own judgment even more. The weight of the human cargo trailing behind her like a baited dragline altered the vessel’s handling characteristics. The four Gundogs and Murphy held fast to a long nylon tether with handhold loops. Their larger one-hundred-cubic-foot scuba tanks were heavier and created more drag than regular tanks. But they had to travel eighty minutes underwater sixty feet below the surface. The bigger tanks gave them an extra twenty minutes of air for a cushion to make the journey and do everything else. That was cutting it close.

Too close.

Callie was pleasantly surprised that Murph had volunteered. She assumed he was just a sweet nerd. Her only concern was that he had never scuba dived before. Fortunately, all he had to do was hang on.

Callie was also shocked that Cabrillo didn’t put up much of a fight when she volunteered to pilot the Spook Fish—not that she would have given him any other choice. But it also spoke to Cabrillo’s determination to carry the fight to the Vendor, and his lack of resources to do it.

The Oregon’s drone deployed a thermal infrared camera and a spectrometer when it flew back over Pau Rangi. The sensors confirmed a definite temperature spike at one specific location, where a trail of inorganic compounds were also detected. Callie’s nav computer indicated they were nearing that spot. A thousand feet away she halted the Spook Fish and keyed her comms.

“Sending the drone,” Callie said.

“Copy that,” Juan replied in his mask mic.

Callie deployed the Spook Fish drone on its long graphene power cable. With the boys on the towrope running low on air she didn’t have time to fool around. She had to be stealthy about it. If she alerted anyone inside the sub pen, she’d likely get them all killed.

The first obstacle she had to overcome was an anti-submarine net barring the way into the underwater entrance. Cabrillo warned her to expect this. Her handy little demolition drone deployed its welding device and cut a perfectly circular eight-foot-diameter hole in the middle of it—plenty of room for the divers to swim through, as well as her drone.

It wasn’t long before the familiar shape of a submarine hull loomed in the gloomy distance about a hundred yards away. She surfaced her drone just enough to allow the camera to record the interior. The images were fed live to the HUD displays on the diving masks of each of the team members. The same images appeared on her screen.

The underground cavern and lagoon was roughly circular and approximately one hundred yards in diameter. It was ringed with a rocky ledge wide enough for a person to walk along.

The sub entrance was at the three o’clock position. The sub itself was docked at a loading pier at the nine o’clock. Directly behind it was an elevator dug into the cave wall. At the eight o’clock position was another, smaller pier where a mini sub was docked.

She counted at least twelve armed men scrambling on or near the larger sub. They were shutting hatches and securing the boat.

Alarmingly, two unmanned, automated machine guns tracked back and forth in silent sentinel, one at the two o’clock position, the other at the six o’clock.

But what really caught Callie’s eye was the large digital clock fixed to the cavern wall. It registered seven minutes, twenty-two seconds. She assumed it was a launch clock.

“You getting this?” Callie asked, choking down the anxiety in her voice.

“Got it,” Cabrillo said. “Retract the drone, and get us closer.”

She checked her own digital clock. By her reckoning, the team had ten minutes of air left to get through the net and unleash hell.


★Cabrillo studied the drone imagery in real time. Like Callie, he assumed the digital readout on the cave wall was a countdown clock. And since the sub was leaving in just moments, he was convinced the target was Guam.

“Callie, radio Oregon. Tell them to put Guam on alert. I’m certain that’s the target.”

“Will do.” The Spook Fish trailed a comms antenna attached to a floating buoy that gave her radio access to the Oregon.

Cabrillo wasn’t convinced there was anything that Guam could do to defend itself against whatever the Vendor had in mind. Ten thousand American lives hung in the balance. The best chance those people had were his Gundogs.

Right here.

Right now.

“Those two auto guns are going to mow us down if we don’t take them out first,” Juan said. “Linc and Murph. You both carry C4, so you pull the short straws.”

“Roger that,” they both replied.

“Chairman, one thing,” Murph added. “Those machine guns are on targeting mode—see how they track back and forth? The only reason they don’t open up and kill those tangos is because they’re wearing tags that prevent the guns from shooting them.”

“Your point?”

“Hopefully Linc and I take out those guns. But if we don’t, hiding behind one of those tangos is better than a bulletproof vest. And don’t forget, those guns are wicked fast. They’ll lock onto you in nanoseconds.”

“Anything else?”

“I’d also bet the sub is tagged, not that there’s anywhere to hide on that thing.”

“Copy that. But do your jobs and they won’t be an issue.”

“Aye.”

“Gents, we have two goals. First, take out that sub. Second, capture the Vendor. While Linc and Murph are taking out the machine guns, the rest of us will advance clockwise toward that smaller mini sub and use it as cover in our approach to the main pier, where the target sub is located. Anybody else carrying C4?”

“I am,” Eddie said.

“Then the rest of us will provide you covering fire while you get on the target. Use the C4 to blow a hatch if you have to. But get inside and pull the guts out of it any way you can.”

“Can’t you just shoot holes in the hull?” Callie asked over the comms.

“We brought peashooters compared to that pressurized hull,” Juan responded. “No chance of penetration. Our only chance is to get inside of it.”

“What about the Vendor?” MacD asked.

“I’d like to capture him,” Juan said. “But if we can’t, he’s all mine.”

“And the techs?” Eddie asked. “What are the rules of engagement?”

“Prisoners if we can. But if they pull guns, take them out.” Cabrillo added, “With extreme prejudice.”

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.