Park Skarda-April Force: Emerald Part 22

She got up. "Now we need a focused light source. Something like a laser beam."

"The laser pointer!" Skarda said.

The scientist with the pointer stepped forward, holding the device out. "It's a hundred milliwatts. Will that be enough?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Is there any way to increase the strength of the beam?"

From below came the sound of metal screeching. The s.h.i.+p lurched.

Staggering, Flinders took off her gla.s.ses and handed them over to her. "These are bifocals."

"It might work," the female scientist said. "The lens should increase the amplification of the beam."

April took the gla.s.ses. "Okay," she said. "It's worth a try. Now everybody get down! Cover your heads and look away from the door. I have no idea what's going to happen."

Again the s.h.i.+p groaned with a sound like slabs of steel grating against each other. The roar of water rushed to their ears.

Taking the pointer, April flicked on the beam, then moved across the room and angled it to s.h.i.+ne through the lens. Without hesitation she aimed the laser at the scissors, then turned away.

A second later the hatch and the surrounding bulkhead erupted in a brilliant flash of white light, the force of the explosion blowing straight up as the quarter-inch plating vaporized into a mist of burning slag, spraying out into the corridor beyond.

___.

Scrambling onto the windswept deck, April raced to the port forecastle rail and looked down at the ice-choked ocean. The Zodiacs and the submarine were gone.

The big s.h.i.+p yawed violently and groaned, listing to starboard.

She spun to face the crowd gathering on deck. "Where are the lifeboats?"

The petty officer spoke up. "We have two free-fall lifeboats, fully enclosed and heated. They're big enough to fit all of us."

"Okay," April said. "get started loading these people." She turned to her companions. "Flinders, help get the people loaded. Park, come with me. We need to find that bomb!"

They raced across the deck. Under their feet the planking heaved as the hull pitched violently, filling with thousands of gallons of water. The wind had had increased in intensity, bringing with it an almost horizontal rain, interspersed with thick swirls of snow and ice.

In his head, Skarda calculated the time they had left.

Ten minutes at the most.

With the wind howling around them, they ran across the deck, inspecting each hatchway, each hold, stabbing the LED into the snow-shrouded darkness to look for anything that resembled a bomb.

Then Skarda pointed. Up ahead a crane rose up next to an open cargo hold. Beside it lay a coil of cables, one snaking down into the darkness. Running up, he thrust the light into the black hole, seeing the reflected edges of the t.i.tanium case resting on the bottom.

"That's got to be it!"

"I'm going down!" April shouted.

Swinging her legs into the open s.p.a.ce, she descended a steel ladder bolted to the bulkhead. From the last rungs she jumped, running for the case.

Skarda saw her turn her face up toward him, a pale oval in the gloom.

"It's lashed to the floor," she called up. "The lid is bolted, too!"

"Okay, we're running out of time! Get out of there!"

Metal groaned and screeched. The steel plating of the interior bulkhead buckled with a tortured shriek, followed a second later by an avalanche of black water surging into the hold with a horrifying sucking sound, swirling around the case in a vortex of foam.

An instant later April had scrambled on top of the case. The s.h.i.+p shuddered, careening violently back and forth. Even though her legs were braced, the motion of the s.h.i.+p was making her stagger. Her boots slithered over the wet surface. A roar came to Skarda's ears: the surface of the ocean drawing nearer, churning out whirlpools of boiling water as the s.h.i.+p was rapidly sucked under the waves.

Five minutes left, at the most.

He leapt onto the ladder, his boots hammering as he dropped two rungs at a time toward the ma.s.s of water below. Pain throbbed in his shoulder where Jaz had struck him. The rungs were wet and slick under his grip.

"No! Park-go back!" April's urgent yell was faint over the rush of black water.

When Skarda reached the last rungs, he twisted his body, grasping a rung above his head with one hand and reaching out with the other, stretching out his hand to her.

But she was too far away.

"Go back!" she shouted at him.

The s.h.i.+p pitched with a violent lurch. April's legs shot out from under her and she slid, her fingers scrabbling for a hold on the slick t.i.tanium.

Without thought Skarda leapt, arms pinwheeling, landing in a sprawl on top of the case, reaching back and grabbing her parka just as she was about to topple into the swirling sea. With a jerk so hard he thought his muscles were tearing, he hauled her up next to him.

Boots slick and sliding, they managed to get to their feet, the case rocking as if they were caught in a landslide.

April pointed at the ladder. "Think you can make it?"

Another bulkhead groaned, threatening to burst.

"I don't think so. It's too far to jump back up!"

"We have no choice!"

The s.h.i.+p was shuddering more convulsively now, seeming to heave up and down on the surface even as its downward momentum dragged it under with inexorable finality. The ocean thundered in their ears.

"Wait until the s.h.i.+p rolls again, then use the momentum to jump!" she yelled.

With a deafening roar, the bulkhead burst open. A cataract of water boiled into the hold, knocking April off her feet. With a quick grab, Skarda snaked his forearm around her shoulder, ramming his hand into her left armpit and hanging on, the tendons of his arms rigid as steel cables.

Panic clawed at him- But he hung on, grimly fighting to keep them alive.

Then something struck his ribcage-something hard and metallic that bounced off into the churning water. He cut his eyes downward. The end of a steel cable line was slipping over the edge of the case, slithering through the water like a snake!

He raked his eyes up.

Flinders!

She was standing at the edge of the open hold, reeling up the line from the crane.

He lifted his hand, acknowledging her. "Throw it down again!"

Through the thunder of water and boiling mist he saw her wave. Less than a minute later the line snaked back down. This time he was ready. He caught it, hoping she would know to allow enough slack. April grabbed the cable as well and pulled, helping him wrap a length around her waist. Then he pressed his body close behind her, reaching his long arms around her torso and grabbing the line just ahead of where her hands gripped it. Already the metal threads had cut through his gloves, slicing b.l.o.o.d.y furrows in his palms, but he didn't care.

On the deck, Flinders scrambled to the crane, leaning on the hoisting wheel with all her weight to turn it. Skarda and April swung into empty s.p.a.ce. Under their feet the eddying water was like a monster trying to suck them into its maw. Panic whirled through Skarda's brain. Now they were swaying, pendulum-like, swinging with the violent yawing of the s.h.i.+p.

Words came to his ears, torn to pieces by the wind: "I can't do it!"

A flash of despair deluged him as he lifted his eyes, seeing Flinders backing away from the crane in horror. She had reached the limits of her strength.

The s.h.i.+p pitched, sending them cras.h.i.+ng toward the walls of the hold. Twisting violently, Skarda wrenched his body around, taking the brutal, bone-crunching blow on his back. Pain screamed through his muscles. They felt like they were being ripped from his skeleton. He cried out as the s.h.i.+p's motion flung them back into empty s.p.a.ce, spinning them around in a dizzying circle.

Maybe three minutes left before they'd be sucked under the frigid waves in a t.i.tanic whirlpool.

But then another shape appeared in the twilit gloom of the deck. A man running toward Flinders, his mouth open in a shout.

The petty officer.

Shouldering past her, he hunched over the wheel, yanking it in a violent half-circle. Then another. Cold rain lashed his swollen face.

But the cable began to rise!

Less than thirty seconds later, Skarda's b.l.o.o.d.y fingers clawed at the lip of the hold, hauling himself and April up onto the frozen deck.

"Thanks!" Skarda called out to him.

But the man had no time for grat.i.tude. He was already running aft. "We got one lifeboat away!" he shouted. "Hurry!"

As a torrent of water eddied over the submerging deck they raced after him.

FORTY-THREE.

Airs.p.a.ce Over Norway THE roar of the Eurocopter Puma's engine and the machine-gun stutter of the rotor blades were m.u.f.fled in the luxurious cabin as Skarda settled down in a leather chair and took a grateful sip of hot coffee. He looked across the aisle at Flinders. She was sitting by herself at the farthest end of the cabin, staring out a porthole. In her hands the steam from an untouched mug of coffee fogged her gla.s.ses.

They'd landed the lifeboats on a desolate rocky beach near Laponiahalvoya, Svalbard, an ice-bound archipelago north of the coast of Norway. Skarda had arranged for transport and flights for the scientists and crew to the airport at Longyearbyen, where the petty officer would get medical care, while the Norwegian Eurocopter picked them up and flew them south.

He was worried about Flinders. She'd barely said a word since they'd escaped from the icebreaker. A cold detachment had encased her like a suit of armor. Not that he blamed her: what she'd experienced at Jaz's hands was too horrific to imagine.

He caught April's eye. Getting up, she crossed to Flinders' side, lowering herself easily down next to her. Flinders didn't turn her head, but her shoulders hunched as if she were expecting a physical attack.

"When I was in the Army," April said in a soft voice, "my commanding officer called me into his office one afternoon and tried to rape me at gunpoint. I broke his jaw and his left arm. It cost me my career. He lied at the court martial trial and his fellow officers, who weren't even there, backed up his story. They swore I attacked him without provocation. I was dishonorably dishcharged and he wound up getting a promotion."

Flinders' head snapped around, her eyes blazing with a sudden rush of anger. Then red spots bloomed on her cheeks and her head dropped. "At least you stopped him." Her eyes lifted, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears.

April gave a little shake to her head. "I had the skills. You don't. You can't blame yourself for what happened. And you can't change it." A smile touched her lips and some of the natural ferocity went out of her black eyes. "What you can do is deal with it here-" she touched her head-"and here." She flattened her palm against her chest.

"That's easy for you. You're a much stronger person than I am."

"Maybe yes, maybe no. But we all have a choice. Either deal with your problems, or let them deal with you. Now we're counting on you to help us stop these people, so I'm going to ask you to put your emotions aside for the time being and concentrate on what we have to do. Can you do it?"

Flinders lifted her head, meeting her gaze. She nodded.

Getting up, April laid a hand on her shoulder. "Good girl." Flinders didn't flinch. "Now let's figure out what our next step is."

She moved away toward Skarda.

"April-" Flinders called out behind her.

She stopped and swung around.

"Thanks."

Nodding solemnly, April crossed to a chair next to Skarda and sat down. Flinders followed, carrying her mug. When she sat, she glanced at Skarda and showed him a weak smile.

"So what now?" he asked, smiling back. He could tell she was embarra.s.sed, knowing that he knew what had happened, so he let nothing show in his eyes.

"We know Jaz is going to set that bomb off," April started off. "But we don't know if it's made out of orichalc.u.m."

"Whether it is or not, I'm going to inform OSR. But the problem is, the situation is too volatile. If we send our subs down there, the Russians will see it as an act of war. And if the Russians are behind this, they'll just sit on their hands and let it happen. So it's up to us to stop Jaz before she sets it off."

"She knew about the ice cavern. Which means she's looking for the n.a.z.i isomer bars, too. Which could mean that whoever she's working for needs more bars to put their plan into action."

"At least that buys us a little time." He turned to Flinders and grinned. "You're the one who comes up with the leads. Any ideas?"

Flinders pressed her lips against her coffee cup, but didn't take a sip. "Well...judging from the stamps on those crates in the ice cavern, the bars were transported there on a U-boat, and they were probably taken away the same way at the end of the war and maybe hidden somewhere. So if we can get access to Kriegsmarine records, and maybe a log from the right boat, then we can find out where they were finally delivered."

"Do those records exist?" Skarda asked.

Flinders nodded. "Yes. There's a U-boat archive in Stuttgart. If they're anywhere, they'd be there."

FORTY-FOUR.

Stuttgart, Germany THE Kriegsmarine U-Boot Archiv smelled of old, yellowing paper. An elderly attendant, obviously pleased that Flinders could speak fluent German, had helped them locate U-boat records for 1945 and now Flinders was hunched over a thick, leather-bound volume, the lenses of her gla.s.ses an inch away from the tiny print.

She glanced up, her eyes s.h.i.+ning. "I think this is it." She ran her finger under a handwritten entry. "The U-3531 sailed from Ostrov Gukera Island with two officers and a skeleton crew on January 29, 1945, made port at Gdynia, Poland in the Baltic Sea, then into the Mediterranean and finally into the Black Sea, where it was scuttled."