Hot Zone (8 page)

“
Why are we diving in the dark? What do you think we can see down there?”

“
To avoid detection for one. Our lighting equipment will give us enough vision to know if there’s any survivors or evidence down there. With our latitude and this being summer, the sun will start rising in the next hour or so, we’ll have some light to head home on.” Ice said.

Skip, turned to Ice, looking at his hand held GPS system: "Ice, were on top of it now, slow it up." Then into his radio: "Roo, ease up, we're here."

The zodiacs cut their engines and slowed until they were drifting.

"Deploy anchors." Ice ordered as he brought the zodiacs together. Roo and Storm both grabbed hold of the anchors and tossed one off opposite sides of the boats. The anchors themselves were Fortress FX-7 marine anchors, which weighed four pounds and held upwards of three hundred and fifty pounds and held a hundred and fifty yards of quarter inch rope. This would keep the zodiacs in the same spot provided the seas didn't pick up, which was unlikely in this part of the world.

"You all know the plan, stay in pairs, keep sight of one another at all times. If you find anything, plug the GPS location into your systems and let the rest of us know where you are. And keep an eye out for anything with teeth." Ice sounded nervous. He didn't like night dives, period. The thought that they could be diving right into the jaws of a rogue shark did not help.

Ice turned to Jordan to help her with her dive equipment. "You doing okay?" He asked.

"Been better. How the hell are we supposed to see anything down there?"

"You'll be okay, just remember to breath normally, try not panic down there, it can be overwhelming at first."

"Wow, that's comforting to know."

Ice grabbed a six-foot length of rope and tied one end to Jordan's weight belt and the other end to his. "There, you'll never be more than six feet away."

Ice put on his mask and ordered everyone else to do the same.

"Ghost, radio check."

"Check."

"Roo?"

"Roo on, copy."

"Skip?"

"Roger, Skip copies."

"Shooter?"

"10-4, Shooter here."

"Storm?"

"Yep."

Ice turned to Jordan: "Jordan?"

Jordan nodded with terror in her eyes. "I copy."

"All right guys, let's go find ourselves something to remember. Ghost, keep your eye's open for those Frenchies, we won't have much time if they show up."

"I'll be all over them like white on rice." Ghost said as he stood in the middle of the zodiacs, one foot in each. They lined themselves up along the edges of the two boats, sitting with their backs facing the water.

Ghost gave the signal: "Go."

In unison the group fell backwards into the water, holding their facemasks. And before he knew it, Ghost was alone on the small boats, alone in the dark in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a boatload of guns and the stars.

Just how he liked it.

The ripples caused by the divers subsided and then they were gone. Moments later large balls of light appeared under the surface, growing smaller and smaller and smaller, until they resembled the stars above.

8

Marc Grosjean couldn't sleep. It wasn't the years of war and bloodshed, the dead bodies, the victims of circumstance that was causing his insomnia. Those had been laid to rest years ago. It was the distress call sent out by the Professor that troubled him.

Grosjean had not paid any attention to the details of the call when it had first come over the airwaves. Now he could not get them out of his head. The sheer panic of the caller, the screams, the muffled, breathless plea's. They in themselves were strangely curious, but they weren't what concerned Grosjean. It was something else he thought he had heard.

Grosjean rolled out of his twin, military issue, steel-framed bed and threw on some sweats and sneakers.

Suddenly he felt he was racing against time and needed to hear that call again, to decipher its contents to understand. Grosjean jogged out of his tiny bungalow and continued up the dirt road leading to the control tower where the distress call had been recorded.

He couldn't get there fast enough.

Exploding into the communication center in the control tower Grosjean looked like a mad man; his hair disheveled, eye's bloodshot and sweating from his hundred yard dash he could have easily been mistaken as a crazed maniac by the ROT operator on duty, had it not been his brother.

"What's your deal, training for something?" The brother asked.

Panting, Grosjean responded: "The tape, the Mayday tape. You still have it here?"

The brother ruffled through a couple of drawers before producing the tape. "This tape?"

"That tape. Run it through for me."

The brother slipped the tape into a machine and hit play, there were a few seconds of static feedback and then:

"--Mayday, Mayday. Greenpeace Warrior Jr., needs emergency med assistance. Help. Found something, not sure what-city."

Then the tape went dead. Grosjean's eyebrows rose. "Rewind it back to
help
."

"
Help. Found something, not sure what-city
."

Grosjean looked at his little brother who showed no interest or surprise at the tapes contents. Nor should he. Grosjean on the other hand had known exactly what the American Professor had found.

"Mouffi ou Moufflarge!" Grosjean shook his head in disbelief. This was no longer a murder investigation.

"François, get me a list of every cruise ship, carrier, aircraft and sub within two-hundred miles of the site at the time of that transmission."

"That's going to take some time." François complained.

"You have something else to do?"

Shaking his head François said: "I'm on it brother."

Grosjean turn to leave before turning back to his brother. "I need that tape."

François tossed it to him as Grosjean left the room.

Back into the cool night air now, Grosjean felt himself tensing up. The American Professor had indeed
found something
and his job was now to ensure that the discovery died with the Professor.

Stopped in the middle of the dirt road, he pulled the tape out and ripped it off its spools, snapping it in as many pieces as he could before throwing the thing into the scrub. His next move was to get some sleep; his week of hardship had just turned into his week of hell. The list his brother would come up with in the next couple of hours would determine just how hot it might get.

9

Ink black. That was the only way Jordan could describe the world that engulfed her as she fell back into the water with the rest of the Team. She had never experience darkness like this. Even the stars in the sky could not provided light once the surface above her settled.

This must be what it feels like to be dead.
She thought to herself.

Complete blackness, coupled with the feeling that you were floating and it was not hard to imagine that death was just like this. Jordan had been in dark environments before. The caves deep in the heart of New Mexico had long been an archaeologists haven for their ancient relics. They were also pitch black at their center, pitch black and
dead
quiet. Still, the darkness in those caves was nothing compared to the void she found herself floating in now. She also couldn't escape the fact that just because she was shrouded in darkness did not mean she was safe. A man-eater in any form could take her at any moment and she would have no defense and no idea what it was.

"
Lights on
." Ice said through his headset.

Moments later a flicker out of the corner of her eye exploded into a burst of light and suddenly Jordan found herself illuminated along with her Team, but still surrounded by total darkness. The Team could see each other and nothing else as they started their descent towards the dark unknown.

Ice kept an eye on his depth gauge, wanting to ensure the Team was not descending too quickly. As he knew well, eagerness and anticipation often led to mistakes and mistakes underwater could easily lead to death.

Jordan felt herself drifting down further into the darkness; the warmth of the water that saturated it's way through her wet suit calmed her fear the darkness had initially raised. She looked left to where Ice was taking in his surroundings, on the lookout for anything that could be dangerous to the Team. He caught her looking his way. "How you holding up?"

"Fine." She lied.

"You should start seeing the floor soon, just keep looking down."

"Usually it's
don't look down
, but okay."

"Everything will be fine Jordan." Ice reassured her.

Shadows started to come in to focus. The silhouette of the terrain morphed from a burnt outline into a watercolor of coral reef and marine life accentuated by the lights provided.

"Oh wow." Skip said, in awe of his surroundings.

Sinking further and closing in on the ocean's surface tiny phosphorescent balls started appearing around the team, multiplying rapidly the deeper they sunk. Within seconds the Team was overwhelmed with the tiny organisms, surrounding them from every direction, impairing their vision and causing the level of anxiety to increase.

"Jordan, please tell me you know what the hell these things are." Roo said.

"I think its coral spawning gentlemen. Happens once a year on reefs throughout the world, somehow we happened to dive straight into it this time round."

"Sperm?" Shooter chipped in.

"Yep. Millions of them" Jordan replied as she gazed on at the wonder. She was close enough to the seabed to see the coral releasing millions of sperm into the water one at a time.

"You might never see this again guys, it's a rare experience. Or so the discovery channel said. I never studied this."

"It's thrilling." Ghost added from above. "I'm just loving it."

"Ahh, the life of a sniper." Ice remarked. "Ghost, we're on the floor now, starting to look for the structures. What's it like up top?"

"Just another balmy evening in the south pacific." His transmission crackled.

"Visibility is bullshit right now, everyone stay within sight of each other, it would be easy to lose someone down here. We have about fifty yards with these lights, spread in twos, we're going to head south first." Ice ordered.

Storm and Roo veered off to the right, staying close to the ground with watchful eyes. Skip and Shooter went left leaving Ice and Jordan to continue their path alone. Kicking in tandem the pair stayed well within their six-foot limit gazing at the amazing formations below. Jordan still didn't know what she was looking for.