Leviathan

Ryan and Mendenhall followed Natika toward deck five and the crew level. Ryan looked at Will as the girl started acting strangely. She placed her hands on each hatch as they passed them. She would slowly, sadly shake her head, with tears in her eyes.

"What is it?" Mendenhall asked, leaning down in front of her to bring him to eye level.

"They are all dead. They died scared--frightened at not knowing what was happening to them."

The girl started again, passing the first, then the second, until she came to the third compartment. She stopped and her small hand wavered, then it moved higher, then lower.

"Alive," she said, closing her eyes. "Ten--twenty--maybe forty crew--they are cold, scared--they want out."

Ryan quickly looked at the large spot welds on the hatch wheel and the four on the hatch and frame. Then he turned to look for something, anything, to break the welds.

"Damn it, we need a cutting torch," Mendenhall said, looking behind him, expecting Tyler's men at any minute.

Ryan spied something on the composite hull--a fire hose and ax in their case. He ran, smashed the glass, and removed the heavy ax.

"You any good at chopping wood?" he asked Will.

"Man, I'm from L.A., I--"

"Forget it. Stand back," Ryan said as he raised the ax and swung at the weld holding the center wheel in the middle of the hatch.

The blade struck, making an unbearably loud ping. Then he swung again, and then again. Natika was holding her hands to her ears as protection from the loud noise. Finally, on the fourth swing, the makeshift spot weld gave way.

"Turn it, Will. I'll start on the hatch welds."

Mendenhall cranked on the wheel. It refused to turn at first, then slowly spun in his hands.

"Got it," he cried.

Ryan didn't hear. He swung at the right side of the hatch and the first weld broke free. A small trickle of water started oozing out along the seal. After breaking the second and third welds, more water started squeezing between the steel and the rubber gasket as the pressure from within started to push the water out. Ryan moved Mendenhall and Natika to the safe side of the hatch, and was just raising the ax for the last weld when they were surprised.

Two men stood standing at the juncture of the companionway, pointing weapons at them. They stepped forward, coming within three feet. Will pulled Natika in toward him and stepped next to Ryan as Mendenhall, with his free hand, raised his weapon.

The two men raised their weapons. Ryan was about to throw the ax when suddenly, and without warning, the last weld broke free. The hatch gave way as the single weld was no longer strong enough to hold back the pressure of the water inside. The hatch sprang so hard and so suddenly that the two guards never knew what hit them. Their bodies were smashed as the hatch crashed into them. Water cascaded from the compartment, along with bodies, live men and women, and the detritus of the personal lives that once sat in lockers and upon tables.

Ryan, Mendenhall, and Natika were washed thirty-five feet down the companionway before the flood subsided.

Several of the crew sputtered and spat. The survivors were half-frozen, but grateful to be alive and free. They splashed through the water and looked around confusedly, helping those who were worse off than others.

"Well, they're not much, but that's the army we have to work with," Ryan said as he tossed the ax in the water. "Not much of a cavalry coming to the rescue, but we do what we can."

With that, they started explaining to the rescued crewmen what was happening, and where their captain was.

The second and deciding battle for Leviathanwas about to start.

21

Tyler sat on a stool next to the navigation table after his men had retaken the conning tower. An hour and a half had passed since Heirthall and the Event Group escaped into Ice Palace. They had brought the warheads, which had been stored in one of the vast caverns where they had not run into Collins or any of the others, and had installed all thirty of the MIRV weapons on the missiles buried inside their launch tubes. Tyler looked at his watch. In record time, too, he thought.

Tyler looked around at the security men and midshipmen at their consoles, then at the captain's chair above him. He was tempted to climb into the large chair, but felt that since Alvera was forsaking the seat of power, he would also. He felt there was no need to risk a power showdown before the launch was complete. Then he could take command with his men at the controls.

"Putting to sea while Captain Heirthall is free is a foolish and unnecessary risk," Tyler said as he stepped up to the navigation table where Alvera was studying the hologram of the Ross Sea.