The Aeschylus (11 page)

The pilots hit the ignition switches and the choppers roared to life, the blades spinning up from standstill to whirlwind. Mason stood between the two, watching as his men climbed on board. By the time they got in, they were fully outfitted and dressed.

Two hours with Melvin and that cowboy Mason was using as his second in command. AJ couldn't wait.

He lifted one mud-splattered boot and placed it inside. As he climbed in, he looked over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of the priest up the hill. The padre was standing against the sun, skeletal in the afternoon light, watching.

On land, Kate considered herself a fairly diplomatic person, but two hours into the flight, she found herself unable to wipe a look of disgust off of her face.

AJ sat strapped into the seat across from her. “Something wrong?”

“I'm just thinking how much I hate the man that got us into this.”

Michael had seemed a little too eager to let her come hadn't he? No... no, she supposed he hadn't. Had, in fact, tried to stop her. Of course, when you find yourself in over your head thanks to your own big mouth, you tend to overlook the niceties.

“Well, you're here now,” AJ said.

Next to him, Dutch looked half asleep. How anyone could sleep with the racket, she didn't know. The chopper blade was spinning with such force that she expected it to fly off at any moment. She put a hand to her mouth and put her head back, trying not to get sick.

“You don't like air travel, huh?”

“What was your first clue?”

“The vomit, probably.”

She flushed. Her mother had always hated air travel, even in a private jet. Kate figured that she must have inherited the same problem, because she got physically ill every time she was
airborne. Her father hated showing weakness in front of other people, and she'd inherited that aspect from him. When you put those two traits together, it was bad news.

“It's no big deal. My wife used to get sick, and she loved to fly. Well, at least she loved to go places. She doped up on Dramamine whenever we traveled. You ever take it?”

Kate shook her head.

“She used to say it was a histamine reaction, but I guess that doesn't do you much good now.”

She'd read AJ's file, but she still couldn't picture him married. Bouncing from place to place, living out of the country, working six days a week and sleeping at the job site—those weren't the characteristics that endeared you to a spouse. “You were married?”

“Three years. Gave it up about the time Valley Oil gave up on me.”

“Was it the same cause?” she blurted.

“They didn't like my recommendations. Especially when it came to policing the geography near the drill site. Too expensive. I guess I wouldn't shut up about it.”

“No, I meant your wife.”

“Oh, that.” He gave a wry smile. “Let's just say it ended badly.”

Somehow, Kate wasn't surprised. “I'm sorry I asked. It's none of my business.”

“No harm. Anyways, by the time it was over, I had the offer in Chile. It seemed like a good a time as any to change things up.”

Dutch had come awake when the two of them started to talk, and he patted his buddy on the shoulder. “Check it out, you two.”

Kate turned to the window and saw splash of foam. A school of creatures swam beneath them, darting in and out of
the water. She could just make out their black and white bodies as they broached the surface.

“Killer whales?” she asked.

“Hourglass dolphins,” Dutch said. “Rare as shit.”

She looked again. One of them jumped ten feet into the air, spun, and then dove back into the water. She had never been to Sea World as a kid, but she imagined that's what the animals in captivity were trained to do on command. It was strange to see it here in the wild, strange and oddly beautiful.

“We're coming up on the platform,” the pilot called. “Sit tight.”

The S-70 slowed to a halt and hovered in mid-air. Kate looked out the opposite window and saw Mason's chopper doing the same. A few seconds later, she heard a bunch of radio chatter from the cockpit. It all sounded like gibberish.

The team around her, animals on the beach, were now sitting with their equipment in their laps, as docile as sheep. The tension was palpable, and they were all feeling it. Kate herself never did like sitting still when she was anxious. She unbuckled her seat straps and stood up, able to balance more easily now that the chopper was hovering. AJ put a hand on her wrist, but she shook it off and stepped forward, moving between the ceiling handholds. She reached the flight deck and the pilot turned.

“Ma'am?”

She looked past him out of the front windows. “That's it, huh?”

The platform was still two miles out, but she could see it on the horizon, a clenched fist rising from the water. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but she thought anything would have surprised her equally. If its current state held a surprise, it was how normal it looked. There was no smoke rising from the structure, and she could make out at least one crane still intact. There seemed to be something wrong with the bottom of the platform, but at this distance, she couldn't tell what it was.

She heard footsteps behind her and turned, expecting to see AJ, but it was one of the men from the beach.

“It don't look like much, huh?”

She was about to tell him to back off, but instead, she said, “Do you think they're dead?”

“Don't know.”

“What else could it be? I mean, the place doesn't look like it's burning down or anything.”

He shrugged. “Could be nothin' more than a dead com tower and an accident that's got 'em scared. That's what the boss says, anyways.”

“But you don't think so?”

A smile crossed his face, but she didn't like the look of it. “Yeah. Yeah, I reckon we'll find a tomb. Only thing that makes sense, don't it?”

She shivered.

“You stay close to me, baby, you'll be fine.”

“You finish med school, Melvin?” AJ said, coming up behind them.

The other man's grin faltered. “Why? You planning on getting shot out there?”

“That didn't answer my question.”

“Man, you know I'm a field medic. What's the point?”

AJ grabbed a handhold. “I just think if you ain't got a philosophy degree, you should keep your stupid ass opinions to yourself. You're scaring the girl.”

“You want it to be like that, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you do get shot out there, I'll see if I can remember enough training to save you. How about that?”

“How about it?”

Kate sighed. Without even trying, she found herself in the middle of another pissing contest. She didn't know how they found the time to start so many.

“Hey,” the pilot said. “If you two are going to argue, get the hell away from the flight deck.”

“And away from me,” Kate added.

Then, the radio in the cockpit crackled. “
That's a negative, Hal. They're still not responding. Let's give them one more try on your end
.”

The pilot hit a switch, ignoring the group behind him. “Roger. Trying now.” He hit another button. “Platform Aeschylus, please respond. This is Alpha One-Niner, rescue team inbound on behalf of Valley Oil corporate. Please give us a sit-rep, over.” He waited a few seconds, then tried again, repeating the message.

“Time to go,” Melvin said, pushing past AJ and returning to his seat.

Kate was tempted to do the same but didn't want it to seem like she was following. Instead, she stood her ground, feeling awkward. AJ was looking down at her—staring, really—and she didn't like it.

“Don't do that.”

“Do what?”

“Stare at me.”

“I'm not staring.”

“You're staring,” she said. “It makes me uncomfortable.”

He cocked his head. “A lot of things make you uncomfortable, don't they?”

“Yes, and the sound of your voice is one of them.” It was infuriating. Back home, she could have just gotten up and left. Here, she was stuck in metal box with nothing but six feet of space on either side.

In the cockpit, the pilot hit another switch. “That's a negative, boss. No response here.”

The reply came fast. “
That's a roger. We're going to have a look
.”

The second helicopter roared forward, and out of the window, she saw it thunder towards the platform. They were low enough where the whip of the blades left a wake on the ocean surface. By the time the water settled, the helicopter was a spec on the horizon.

The pilot turned to her. “Have a seat.”

Kate hesitated.

“Move it!”

With a grimace, she turned towards the passenger bay, found her seat, and buckled up. The men were staring at her. The man next to Melvin whispered something to his friend and smiled. She wanted out of the cattle car more than ever.

A moment later, they all heard Mason's voice crackle through the radio. “
Alpha come in. Your path is clear. You better come on up, over
.”

“What's the situation?” the pilot asked, clicking on the radio.

“
The helipad is secure. The rest, you have to see for yourself
.”

Then, they were lurching forward, the chopper skimming the top of the water as it blasted towards the metal skeleton ahead.

As the S-70 came upon the platform and circled round, Kate looked out the window and found that her first impulse, barely stifled, was to scream.

Grotesque, black shapes encircled the bottom of the spar, strangling the base of the platform like vines. They seemed to have grown up out of the water, huge amorphous strands unlike anything she had ever seen. Whether native or allochthonous, the things looked almost like they were a part of a carnivorous plant. It was as if the bottom of The Aeschylus was being swallowed—or cocooned—by a mass of tentacles.

“What the hell is that?” someone moaned.

“Man, I don't like the looks of this,” Melvin answered.

Kate found that her distant impression of the upper Aeschylus wasn't entirely accurate, either. Circling the platform, she saw that while the central derrick was mostly intact, a nearby crane was almost completely severed. It hung over the
side of the platform like a dead finger. A communications dish lay crumpled nearby, shattered by the same force that had cracked the crane. And there was more: broken hallways, a collapsed stairwell, debris and broken metal visible on the drilling deck.

None of these things had been visible from the satellite images, and as they rounded the top, Kate realized why. The satellite looked almost straight down. The organic mass, the collapsed catwalks and stairs... none would be visible when looking at the square from above.

And there were no people.

Kate wasn't sure if she found this more upsetting or not. If she had seen corpses piled across the platform, as horrible as that would have been, it would have provided some kind of closure. It would have meant that whatever struggle had taken place here was over. Of course, finding a group of refugees waving a white flag on the main deck would have been the best outcome, but she hadn't been naïve enough to expect that. What she found instead was that the mystery didn't end. If the crew were alive somewhere, if they were hiding, or if they had been swallowed by something in the ocean, there was no way to tell.

The helipad at the top of The Aeschylus was wide enough to accommodate two helicopters, but a burnt shell of a machine occupied one of those spaces. Kate realized it must be the helicopter she had seen from the satellite images in her father's manila envelope.

Kate's pilot, Hal McHalister, touched down next to the old husk, powering off almost as soon as the legs touched. She breathed a sigh of relief when the platform didn't collapse under their weight. Ridiculous maybe, but seeing those things below, they had no idea how much of the undersea structure remained intact.

Next to her, Markus Reiner took off his sunglasses and brushed back his cowboy hat. “Stay here, sweetheart. The rest of y'all know what to do.”

“Where do you want us?” AJ asked, indicating Dutch and himself.

“Right behind us. Take your piece. It looks quiet, but we don't know what's out there. You get it?”

AJ nodded.

The rest of the men filed out, rifles in hand. It happened so fast, Kate blinked, and they were gone. They took position around the square, scanning the area through the sights on their weapons. A few, Melvin included, took position by the burnt chopper, using its walls for cover.

Mason's bird hovered at the edge of the platform, unable to land, and the man himself jumped across the gap onto the concrete. He walked towards the center of the helipad and greeted Reiner in the middle. The two men exchanged words, and then Reiner jogged back towards the hovering helicopter. He stepped off the platform and into its open hatch, fearless of the gap between solid ground and aircraft. He shut the door from the inside, and in seconds, the chopper was gone, flying up and over the water.

Mason motioned towards Kate. “We're all secure here. Come on out.”

It took her a moment to get moving. She was supposed to get up, but it felt strange. She was going
out there
. Her knees began to shake as she stood.

Kate wasn't afraid of heights, but she felt nothing but vertigo as her feet touched the concrete. The helipad was just an elevated square overlooking the rest of The Aescylus, the highest point save for the crane cabs. Water stretched beyond two of the sides, the steel bones of the rig beneath the other two.

Mason whistled and swirled one arm in the air, his index finger to the sky. Four men broke position and jogged back to the center. She saw that one of them had a grenade launcher, and she shuddered, wondering if that kind of firearm could have caused some of the damage to the upper platform.

“All right, listen up!” Mason said. The men huddled. “High ground is secure. There's nowhere to go but down. We stagger movement and secure this place sector by sector.”

“I never thought I'd be hoping for some jihadies,” the one with the big gun said. “This is some weird shit, man.”

Mason shook his head. “Different shit, same day. In any case, you know the drill. No chances.”