Return to Atlantis: A Novel (38 page)

“There’s nothing to break! It’s a bloody big slab of pig iron held on by an electromagnet—cut the power, it falls, we float!”

“Forget floating,” Eddie warned, watching the LIDAR display, “just get us moving!” All three enemy blips were closing on the center of the screen.

Matt opened the throttles, steering the
Sharkdozer
clear of the temple. “She’s slow,” he warned. “Feels like a damaged thruster.”

Eddie reached past him to take one of the manipulator controls. “What are you doing?” said Nina.

“Seeing what’s wrong.” A monitor screen showed the view from the starboard arm’s camera as it moved out
from the sub’s side. He brought it around to look back along the hull.

Matt made a sound of dismay at the sight of one of the thruster pods, the casing of which had been torn away to expose the propeller blades within. “Eddie, move it down and look under us,” he ordered.

Eddie did so. The camera revealed that both the port-side skids had been bent underneath the
Sharkdozer
by the collision with the temple … and the buckled metal had trapped the ballast slab in place beneath its keel. “The thing’s stuck under there! How long will it take to get back to the surface using the thrusters?”

“Too long!” Matt pointed outside as the vessel continued its turn. A set of spotlights was visible in the dark water.

Closing fast.

The approaching submersible took on form as the
Sharkdozer
’s own spotlights illuminated it. Unlike Matt’s utilitarian craft, this was sleek and purposeful in design, its sharp prow resembling that of a powerboat. Instead of a hemispherical viewport, it had a pair of long windows set into its bow, giving the impression that it was watching them through slitted eyes.

The wreck of the
Evenor
came into view. “Matt, go down there,” Eddie told him. “We can use it as cover.”

“Yeah, and we might get snagged on it if we get too close!” But he tipped the
Sharkdozer
into a descent.

Nina stared at the LIDAR. All three enemies were changing course to intercept. “Can we outrun it?”

“The sub?” said Matt. “Not a chance, even if we had full power. It’s a Mako; I know the bloke who designed it. It’s a pleasure boat, a millionaire’s toy—but it can still shift.” He frowned. “No way it could have gotten out here on its own. Max range is only about a hundred kilometers …”

He turned his full attention back to piloting as the wreck loomed ahead. Torn metal stabbed outward from the crushed hull, the area around it strewn with debris. Nina watched the approaching jagged shards with
growing nervousness before glancing back at the LIDAR. “Oh my God! One of them’s right on us!”

A smaller blip had closed to within fifty feet of the
Sharkdozer
’s stern. Eddie hurriedly moved the arm to bring it into the camera’s field of view. More lights shone in the darkness.

He recognized their pattern immediately. A deep suit, a halfway house between traditional scuba gear and full-body deep-diving systems; the torso and bubble helmet were rigid, allowing the user to breathe ordinary air without risking the dangers of the bends, while the limbs were enclosed in standard neoprene dry suits. Eddie had used deep suits himself on several occasions, and knew their capabilities—which included high-speed movement with the aid of their built-in thrusters.

He also knew what the diver’s weapon could do.

Their opponent held an ASM-DT rifle, a Soviet-designed weapon for use both underwater and above. In air, it fired the same 5.45-millimeter ammunition as the Kalashnikov AK-74 rifle; beneath the surface, it used identical cartridges to propel not bullets, but six-inch-long hydrodynamic nail rounds.

And the gun was pointing at the
Sharkdozer
.

“Incoming!”
was all he had time to shout—

The diver opened fire on full auto, blasting a stream of nails at them. Matt was already taking evasive action, but it was too late—the lumbering submarine was an unmissable target at such close range.

Piercing clangs rang through the pressure compartment as the nails struck the hull. There was a flat
thump
, followed by a fizzing sound—and the
Sharkdozer
jolted. An urgent warning siren hooted, more red lights flashing. “He hit an air tank!” Matt reported.

Nina pointed at the
Evenor
. “Matt, there!” A large hole was visible in the side of the survey vessel’s hull, angling upward toward its main deck. “Can we fit through it?”

“It’ll be tight, but if it stops us getting shot I’ll have to try!” Matt replied, changing course.

Eddie shifted the arm to keep their attacker in view. The diver was fumbling with his gun, changing the large and awkward magazine. “He’s reloading—we’ve got a few seconds.”

“I dunno how much I can do in that time, mate!” Matt told him as he took the sub into the gap. Mangled metal clawed at them from all sides—and something larger hove into view across their path, a twisted steel beam. “Hang on!”

He jammed the controls hard over—and rolled the submersible onto its side.

Loose objects clattered across the cabin, Nina only holding herself in place by grabbing Matt’s chair, while Eddie thumped painfully against the wall. The beam swept past, scraping along the
Sharkdozer
’s fiberglass upper bodywork. There was a sharp crack as something was torn away, the sub slewing sideways … then they were clear.

Matt rolled the vessel back upright. “What’s that drongo behind us doing?”

Eddie found the diver again, who had now reloaded the gun and was following the sub through the passage. “Still gaining.” He looked ahead. The
Sharkdozer
was coming to the end of the mangled tunnel. “Matt, as soon as you get to the top, go hard right.”

“But that won’t—”

“Just do it!” He worked the manipulator arm again, extending it farther out—and back.

“Turning now!” Matt warned, pushing the controls over to their limit. The
Sharkdozer
’s thrusters pivoted, throwing the craft into a tight turn.

Eddie opened the claw and swung the arm around as the sub emerged from the
Evenor
’s ruined deck. He searched for the pursuing diver’s lights.

They reappeared on the monitor, much closer. He pushed and twisted the joystick as if trying to guide a giant robot’s punch, closing the claw again—

It clamped around the deep suit’s chest section.

Eddie thumbed the control harder and the claw tightened,
the diver’s limbs flailing as he struggled to break free. If he could crush him, or at least puncture his suit, it would make the fight slightly less one-sided …

The man brought up his gun—but didn’t point it at the submarine. Instead, he aimed at the arm itself. Jets of gas burst from the muzzle as he fired more nail rounds, clanks echoing through the metal into the cabin—and a light on the console flashed urgently. “Matt, what’d he do?”

Matt checked the instruments. “He’s shot out the claw’s hydraulic line!”

“You mean it’s jammed?” The camera now showed the trapped diver turning his gun around to bash at the arm with its stock. Without hydraulic pressure, the claw would soon be forced open.

And once he was free, the diver would resume his attack—from almost point-blank range.

Eddie considered using the arm to slam the man against the wreck, but the
Sharkdozer
’s momentum had carried it away from the angled deck. Instead, he flicked the switch to engage the secondary arm. The view on the monitor changed from the main manipulator to its smaller counterpart. He extended the arm. The paralyzed claw and the man clutched within it came into view.

The diver’s face was now visible inside his helmet. He looked up in surprise—then his expression turned to shock. He turned the gun back around, but by the time it was pointing the right way the mechanical hand was right in his face …

Eddie didn’t waste time trying to grab him. Instead he pushed a button marked
DRILL
.

A tool smoothly pivoted into place from the manipulator’s wrist, the hand itself folding downward out of its way. The diamond tip of the eight-inch tungsten carbide bit scraped the diver’s bubble helmet, scratching the tough material.

Before the man even had time to scream, Eddie started the drill.

It took under a second for the high-powered mechanism to chew through the polycarbonate helmet.
Now
the man screamed—and was abruptly silenced as water exploded into the deep suit with the force of an artillery shell. The transparent bubble filled with a churning pink froth.

The extra weight of the water inside the suit finally overcame the crippled claw’s grip. The dead man broke free, falling away into the wreckage of the
Evenor
.

Eddie nodded in satisfaction. “That’s what I call getting the bit between your teeth.”

Nina gave him a look of distaste. “At least you didn’t say
You’re screwed!
” She looked back at the LIDAR screen. A large part of the scanner’s field of view was now obstructed by the sunken ship, the second deep-suited diver hidden somewhere behind it.

But the Mako’s blip was still visible, changing course to come after them.

“Eddie,” Matt said urgently as he headed away from it, “use the other main arm and reach underneath us. If we can drop the ballast slab, we’ll be on the surface in three minutes.”

Eddie did so. The
Sharkdozer
rocked again as the port arm extended. Nina’s gaze switched between the LIDAR and Eddie’s monitor. “Can you see it?”

“Just a sec … there.” The submersible’s underside came into view as the claw twisted around. The iron slab was still wedged in place by the bent skids. He moved the arm closer—

It jerked to a stop. “What’s wrong?” Nina asked.

“I dunno.” He tried again, pushing the controls harder, but the arm still stopped short. “Matt, I can’t reach it.”

The Australian quickly checked the monitor. “That’s as far as it goes—try the secondary arm, see if that’ll reach.”

“You don’t know?” Eddie said, incredulous.

“It wasn’t designed to scratch its own belly! Or dodge torpedoes, for that matter.”

“Speaking of which,” Nina said in alarm, “I think he’s about to fire another one!”

A trill from the LIDAR confirmed her fears. A new blip appeared in front of the other submersible—drawing closer each time the display refreshed. Matt turned again, but the damaged
Sharkdozer
was even slower to respond than before. “Shit! It’s going to hit us!”

Nina braced herself, but knew the effort was pointless. The Mako’s first torpedo had destroyed Hayter’s vessel and killed everyone aboard with a single direct impact, and there was no reason to think theirs was any stronger. She stared helplessly at the LIDAR display as the projectile raced at them—

Eddie abandoned his attempt to release the ballast—and instead swung the arm up at the torpedo.

The
Sharkdozer
’s occupants were thrown bodily against the cabin wall as the shock wave of another explosion pounded the sub like a strike from a colossal hammer. An air line burst, compressed gas shrieking into the crew compartment. Debris pounded the outer hull.

More alarms sounded, the instrument panel now a battery of flashing red lights. Matt clambered back into his seat and struggled to regain control of the tumbling submersible.

Nina pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling the warm dampness of blood against her palm. “What happened?” she asked Eddie.

“I caught the torpedo,” he said. The manipulator arm was visible through the left viewport—or at least, what was left of it. The metal limb had been severed at the wrist, control cables and hydraulic lines hanging like torn tendons from the shattered stump.

Matt finally stabilized the
Sharkdozer
and rapidly turned a valve on the ceiling. The piercing squeal spluttered and died. “How much air did we lose?” Nina asked.

The engineer only needed to give her a worried look for her to know that their already perilous situation had
become worse. The sub reeled queasily as he gunned the thrusters.

Another alert from the LIDAR. Eddie tensed, but it wasn’t another torpedo. The third enemy—another deep-suited diver—had just reappeared from behind the
Evenor
. “They’re both catching up.”

“I know, I know!” Matt said. “We can’t outrun them.”

Eddie pointed over his shoulder at a dark shadow on the sea floor. “Down there! We can lose ’em in the ruins.”

Nina shook her head. “They’re not tall enough to hide us—but I know something that is,” she continued, suddenly hopeful. “The SBX! It’s big enough to give us cover.”

“It’s also messed up enough for us to get stuck in the wreckage, or worse,” Matt warned.

“At least we’ll have a chance.”

Face full of trepidation, Matt swung the
Sharkdozer
around on a new course. The ocean floor rose on the LIDAR display: They were approaching the edge of the excavated area. Many more ruins lay ahead, the Atlantean capital extending far beyond the city’s heart, but they were safely concealed beneath eleven millennia of silt deposits. “Where are they?”

Eddie studied the screen. The Mako and the diver were both following them—and gaining. “Behind us, and catching up. Matt, how badly are we damaged?”

“It’d be quicker to tell you what’s
not
crook,” the Australian answered, checking the warning lights. “Power’s draining fast, the thrusters are damaged, and …” His face sank.

“And?”

“And we’ve got maybe ten minutes before we start running out of air. The recycling system’s shot.”

“You couldn’t have
started
with that?”

“Wait, so even if we lose these guys chasing us, we’re still not going to be able to get to the surface?” Nina said. “Well, that’s marvelous!”

The first signs of the SBX’s strewn wreckage came into
view at the edge of the LIDAR display. “Only way we can get up there before we croak is by dropping the ballast slab. We might be able to knock it loose on the rig debris,” said Matt.

“Not with those arseholes shooting at us.” Eddie thought for a moment, then made a decision. “We’ll have to take them out.”