Sea of Greed

When the pressure equalized, Kurt gave the glass a powerful shove. It tilted upward and floated away.

Rudi went out first, pulling himself forward and swimming free. Kurt followed, careful to avoid the yellow bag and the lines connecting it to the canister. He pulled out a diving knife and went to cut it free.

“Look out!” Rudi shouted.

Kurt glanced up. At first, all he saw was the yellow plastic wafting in the current. But as it swept to the side, a blunt gray shape came into view. From this angle, it resembled the square snout of a sperm whale, but made of metal.

Kurt dived out of the way and the bulky vehicle swept in above him. It grabbed the canister with a robotic arm and continued on its way without ever slowing down.

70

AS PLANNED, Kurt swam after the submersible. But even with the power assist from the suit, he was losing the race. The ungainly sub was still faster than the fastest swimmer. It pulled away on a direct line to the Monarch.

Kurt realized he could never catch it. He turned and swam the other way, heading for one of the powerboats still bobbing on the swells above the Minerve.

He reached it, found it empty and climbed in. By the time he started the engine, the submersible had reached the Monarch. He saw the crewmen gather around, pull the canister free and discard the submersible as if it was nothing.

They didn’t bother trying to haul the sub aboard. They hadn’t sent any help for the injured divers and they’d abandoned Volke at the bottom of the sea. They were about to hightail it out of there.

Kurt gunned the engine and turned the wheel. His last chance to stop the Monarch and grab the canister was fading fast.

• • •

TESSA WATCHED as Woods brought the canister on board.

“Is that it?”

“Looks like the one we found on the Dakar,” Woods said.

Tessa used a crowbar to knock the accumulated salts and rust from the latches. “Open it,” she ordered.

Woods dropped down and pried the canister open, revealing two smaller, hermetically sealed containers. They were untouched by corrosion. “The seals are good,” he announced. “The cultures should be intact.”

“Great work,” Tessa said. She immediately contacted the pilots. “Power up. Get us into takeoff position.”

Woods looked out the back. “What about the rest of the men?”

“We don’t have time to wait,” she said. “Austin may have called for help. We don’t want to be here if any arrives.”

Woods hesitated for a second and then nodded. “So long, Volke. Looks like you’re the one being left behind.”

Tessa thought about rescuing Volke, but even that effort would have been too time-consuming. “Secure the canister,” she ordered. “I’m going to the cockpit.”

She rushed forward and up the ladder, never looking down. Had she even glanced below, she would have seen a figure emerging from the hatch that led to the maintenance tunnel beneath the bottom deck. She might even have recognized him as one of her former captives.

• • •

JOE HAD ALREADY OPENED the hatch when he heard Tessa running his way. Pulling it down, he waited for her to pass by and go up the ladder. He could feel the plane moving and picking up speed and had no desire to be on it when it tried to get airborne again.

Glancing along the bottom deck, he was surprised to see it completely empty. No cars, no boats, no submersibles, just a vast, cavernous space and the bearded man named Woods working to secure a metal cylinder.

Joe stepped onto the deck, began moving aft and then rushed at Woods.

Woods looked up from the cylinder at the last moment just as Joe swung his leg. The blow caught Woods on the side of the face and sent him tumbling. Before the big man could get to his feet, Joe dropped down on him and threw a knockout punch. “That’s for Priya.”

The punch left Woods unconscious and sprawled on the deck. Now he needed to get off the plane. Joe rushed to the back of the aircraft, rolling the container along with him.

It banged against the upraised tail ramp and stopped. Joe didn’t bother with the regular controls. He went right for the emergency release, pulled it down and watched the ramp fall.

This time, it hit with the splash he’d been expecting before. It locked into place, creating an instant wake and pulling water back up onto itself in two swirling eddies.

• • •

KURT HAD THE SPEEDBOAT running flat out, but with the Monarch’s engines spooling up to full thrust, he couldn’t close in. He ducked behind the tail, to avoid the jet blast and bring the boat up onto the Monarch’s wake.

With the smooth wake of the aircraft to travel on and the suction effect caused by the Monarch’s forward progress, Kurt picked up more speed, drafting the big plane and nearing the tail.

Now he needed some way to stop the plane. Looking around, he spotted one of the grenade-tipped spearguns. He reached down, grabbed it and brought it up to his shoulder.

He was about to fire when the tail ramp dropped and a long-lost friend appeared.