Leviathan

11

LEVIATHAN, EIGHTY MILES

NORTH OF THE BERING STRAIT

After dessert, the choir had been replaced with a string quartet. They played classical music as the officers and Leviathan's guests stood talking.

"If I may ask, Captain, what is Leviathan's crew complement?" Lee asked as a designed intelligence question.

"Of course--we have seven hundred seventy-two officers and crew. We also have aboard fifty-two trainees and seventy-five midshipmen. They form an excellent choir, don't you agree?"

"I am becoming aware of your crew's extreme loyalty to you ... and your philosophy, Captain," Niles said, choosing to ignore the question about the midshipmen.

"Dr. Compton, my crew's loyalty has never entered my mind. As for my philosophy, I never hold back any information from them. On the contrary, I rely on their research, their study, and their ideas."

"Can I safely assume there is a base involved with Leviathan'supkeep?" Lee asked, tapping the teak deck with his cane.

"Yes, there is a place we call home, actually two of them. My great-grandmother Olivia and her husband, Peter Wallace, established the first permanent base after the betrayal of her own father, Octavian. I along with my parents excavated the second base in the last fifty years." Her gaze moved away from the two men and she looked at the sea outside of the large windows, flowing above and around her. "The second one is a place that was unreachable for many years, until certain problems were worked out."

"And that base is where?" Lee asked.

She turned and looked at the two men, smiling.

"It would do me no good to tell you about it. We will arrive at the first in a day or so, and the second soon after."

Niles studied the beautiful woman before him. She had moments of clarity where she seemed as if she were just any other passenger on a cruise ship, marveling at the vessel and seas around her. Niles was close to the unalterable conclusion that he was indeed looking at the most intelligent person he had ever known, and as Lee had suggested on many occasions, the most insane.

"Captain, I am not a stupid man, but I'll be damned if I can figure out your hull design and the materials used in Leviathan's construction. How can you achieve such depths?" Lee again waved his cane around him, indicating the ship as a whole.

"Leviathan's hull is a composite material derived from nylon, spun steel, plastic, and an ingredient that is found only at the most extreme depths of--" She suddenly stopped and smiled at Lee. "You almost had me, Senator. I must say, your OSS history came into play there, didn't it?"

"I had to try," Lee said, not smiling.

"However, I see no harm in telling you a little something. You wouldn't understand the dynamics involved at any rate, so I will just give you the end result." She smiled at her small insult to the senator. "You may be surprised to know that the deeper Leviathantravels, the denser our hull material becomes. It compacts itself, quadrupling its strength."

Alice came up and took Lee by the arm. "Captain Heirthall, why didn't you sit down with the leaders of the world and show them what you are showing us before you started shooting?"

"Yes, Alex, why don't you explain why you didn't do that?"

They turned and saw Virginia standing behind the captain. She was dressed in a simple green evening gown, and her eyes were somewhat puffy, as if she had been crying.

"Certain developments in the Gulf of Mexico arose that made talking beforehand unacceptable. Immediate action was required, and I acted. The greed of a single country was--"

"Be careful, Alex, your hatred is showing through your words," Virginia said as she reached out and removed a glass of wine from the table.

Alexandria looked from Virginia to the other members of the Event Group, then smiled.

"Why, Ginny, are you still angry with me for setting you up? I've explained in no uncertain terms your complete innocence in my getting the information and intelligence I needed on your Group."

Virginia tilted her head after taking a drink of wine.

"No, not angry. I love the Group and the people I work with," she said, looking over at Niles, who lowered his own eyes to the floor. "They would have eventually found out the truth. I also thought I knew you, Alex. The person you are now kills innocents so easily. The Alex I knew in college would have convinced anyone who listened that she had a better way." She looked around, gesturing at Leviathan. "A person who creates something as magnificent as this, and she turns out to be as cold as the sea she claims to protect." Virginia drained the glass of wine and then reached for the bottle on the table. " 'With great power comes great responsibility.' I forget who said that."

Lee started to answer but Alice squeezed his arm for him to be silent.

"And I take that responsibility seriously, Ginny, you know that," Heirthall said, looking harshly at her old friend.