Goliath

Rocky nearly buckles beneath his body weight as she helps him into the corridor.

The two Kurd brothers are waiting, the barrels of their Kalashnikov assault rifles aimed at Gunnar and Rocky.

Masud takes the OICW gun from Gunnar.

Jalal eyes Rocky lustfully. “I’ll take care of these two. You deactivate the explosive.”

The younger Kurd nods, then hurries down the corridor.

Jalal aims the assault rifle at Gunnar.

Rocky jumps in front of him. “Wait! Simon’s dead, the computer’s running the ship now. Kill us, and you’ll die, too.”

Jalal smiles. “I’m not going to kill you, I’m going to kill him.”

Machine gun fire erupts from down the corridor.

Jalal turns. “Masud?”

Sujan steps out from the galley, a crimson stain spreading across his shirt.

Jalal raises his gun,

—as the blade edge of Gunnar’s hand strikes him in the throat, crushing his windpipe.

Sujan staggers forward, coughing up blood.

Rocky rushes to him, catching him as he falls, guiding him to the deck.

“Sujan—”

He grimaces, choking on a smile. “Go.”

Rocky kisses him on the forehead as he dies.

Gunnar grabs the OICW machine gun and drags Rocky toward the access tube. Gripping the outside of the steel ladder with their hands and feet, they slide straight down the chute to lower deck forward.

Gunnar checks the underwater mine. 2:35 … 2:34 … 2:33 … “We have to hurry—”

And on that, their world goes topsy-turvy.

The enraged computer restarts the Goliath’s engines, driving it away from the ocean floor and sending it into a looping wingtip-over-wingtip maneuver.

Gunnar and Rocky are tossed about the corridor as if caught in a washing machine.

The turbulence pummels the frozen ocean surface, cracking it open like an eggshell.

“He who is hated by the people as a wolf is by the dogs: He is the free spirit.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

“I had hated and been hated. I had my little world to keep alive as long as possible, and my gun. That was my answer.”

— Charles Starkweather, mass murderer, after his weeklong rampage

CHAPTER 34

Aboard the USS Scranton

The sudden surge of acoustics causes Michael Flynn to jump. He presses the headphones tighter to his ears and closes his eyes. “It’s the Goliath, Skipper.” The sonarman’s expression changes.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never heard anything like this.”

Cubit grabs a set of headphones. Listens. “Conn, Captain, take us to periscope depth. Radio, patch me through to General Jackson on the ELF.”

Aboard the Goliath

The mammoth submarine rights itself.

DISENGAGE THE EXPLOSIVE.

Gunnar flops onto his back, moaning in pain.

DISENGAGE THE EXPLOSIVE OR I SHALL SEND YOU TO HELL.

The computer’s lost its mind. Gunnar struggles to his knees, glancing at the mine’s digital display: 1:05 … 1:04 …

“Come on!” Rocky drags him to his feet.

Gunnar grabs the OICW and follows her into the hangar, then yanks her sideways as a geyser of bone-chilling seawater erupts from out of minisub berth 1, blasting the two of them across the hangar.

The Goliath ascends, causing a river of water to rush out from the hangar and into the lower deck-forward corridor—

—carrying with it, the body of Abdul Kaigbo, the MEMS unit still dangling from the back of the dead African’s skull.

Battling the current, Rocky and Gunnar reach the prototype.

Abdul Kaigbo’s waterlogged corpse floats past the platter mine—

—its two mechanical arms suddenly animating to life, latching on to the underwater explosive.

Sorceress reseals docking berth 1, stifling the flow of water, as it manipulates the dead man’s steel-and-graphite arms, using its claws to pry open the mine.

The computer registers the MEMS unit weakening from saltwater exposure and its torn connections. With its last ounce of energy, the steel claw rips open the neutron bomb’s triggering mechanism, tearing out the C-4 fuses.

Gunnar collapses painfully into the prototype’s pilot’s seat, then checks his watch. Twenty-two seconds … “Rocky, shoot out the starboard wall and get in!”

Balancing atop the Hammerhead by its dorsal fin-shaped hatch, Rocky aims the OICW and fires the remaining 20-mm explosive rounds into the hangar bay wall, then ducks into the minisub’s cockpit, sealing the hatch.

An eruption of seawater shoots into the compartment, the abrupt change in pressure rattling the interior of the ship, widening the gap.

The blast of ocean lifts the prototype, smashing it sideways against the far wall.

Rocky drops into the passenger seat as Gunnar powers up the minisub. Gripping the joystick, he slams both feet to the pedals controlling the minisub’s thrusters.

The steel Hammerhead stabilizes and accelerates, shooting out of the hole into the midnight sea like a dart.