Sea of Greed

Kurt pressed the talk switch once more. “We’ll go have a look. No point trying to save the other rigs if we’re going to let someone come in and blow them up.”

“We’ve already plotted an intercept course,” Brooks said. “Head zero-seven-seven, assuming they haven’t changed course or depth, which should bring you right in behind them and fifty feet above.”

Joe made the adjustments to the controls and the sub turned and picked up speed. They crossed the tangled arrangement of pipes at an angle, navigating away from the main fire. “You know,” he said, “we could just leave them down here and let them get a monster headache when our explosives go off.”

“The thought crossed my mind,” Kurt said. “But there’s a chance it’s not a hostile vessel. A lot of wealthy people have their own submarines these days. And I wouldn’t put it past one of the news networks, or an independent reporter, to charter a submersible and send it out to get the first video of the disaster. The pictures would be worth millions.”

“We should be so lucky,” Joe said. “But on the chance it’s not a wayward reporter, what do you propose we do about them? Unless you’ve forgotten, we’re not armed.”

“When has that ever been a problem?” Kurt said.

“At least eighty percent of the time.”

Kurt had to smile. “You’re not wrong,” he said. “Let’s find out what we’re dealing with first. Then we’ll come up with something.”

Joe kept them moving at the submarine’s maximum speed. He diverted slightly to avoid one of the smaller fires and in doing so came upon something new. Something he or Kurt couldn’t have possibly expected to find.

Down on the seafloor, lined up side by side as if they were in a parking lot, sat four full-sized tanker trucks without the tractors attached. The tires had been stripped and the steel wheel hubs were buried in the sediment up to the axles.

An intricate series of pipes connected the cylindrical bodies of the tankers to a thick pipe that ran horizontally and then downward into the seabed.

“What in the world…” Joe whispered.

“Raleigh, are you seeing this?” Kurt said.

“We’re looking at it.”

“What kind of setup are you guys running here?” Kurt asked.

The question was for Cox. “I have no earthly idea what those trucks are doing there. They’re not ours, that’s for sure.”

“They’re connected to the pipeline,” Joe said. “Could they be responsible for the flammable gas we’ve been dealing with?”

“Even four tanker trucks couldn’t hold enough gas for what we’ve seen,” Kurt replied.

“Those aren’t the collection pipes,” Cox said. “Those are the injection lines. We use them to pump pressurized water into the rock layers beneath the oil field. That’s how we force the oil to the surface in these old wells.”

Joe circled the arrangement. A little farther off, he spotted four more tankers connected to another line in the distance.

Before he could move to investigate, Captain Brooks spoke. “Target reacquired,” he said.

Kurt and Joe glanced around. “We can’t see anything.”

“It’s a quarter mile to the east. It’s heading right for you.”

Joe slowed the sub and turned to the east, but still they saw nothing.

“Three hundred yards,” the captain warned. “Two hundred…”

Normally, in the depths of the ocean there was zero light to see by. Even powerful lights would be absorbed in a few hundred feet of water. But with the columns of fire burning all around them, the seafloor was a patchwork of light and shadows.

Through that kaleidoscope, Kurt spotted an object headed toward them. It was thin and flat. And then it seemed to expand as it changed depth, raced above them and dropped three items that looked suspiciously like the charge he and Joe had just placed.

“Get us out of here,” Kurt said.

Joe shoved the throttle to full and the submersible began to move away from the parked tankers. It seemed to move very slowly.

“Is this all we’ve got?” Kurt asked.

“This thing wasn’t built for speed,” Joe replied.

The objects dropped slowly behind them, landing in the nest of submerged tanker trucks.

Kurt knew it wouldn’t be long. “Take us up.”

Joe vented the ballast tanks, raised the bow and held on tight as three flashes went off in rapid succession.

The shock waves hit simultaneously, slamming the submersible and sending it tumbling.