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MYSTIC:
Okana steers the sub underneath the Mystic and stops fifty-feet from the wall as they slowly descend to the bottom of the ice.
A few minutes later, Okana looks at Alex in the mirror. “Do you believe that?”
When Alex leans forward around Okana to see out the window, the bottom of the ice wall turns ninety-degrees at a sharp edge back under itself. The flat bottom of the ice acts as a lens, bringing light down from the surface and illuminating the water as if in daylight. “That is amazing.”
The bottom of the ice continues to be flat for another fifteen minutes, then Okana has to slow down for another wall of ice. Alex leans over his shoulder. “This is not good. If this mirrors the surface, this will be an upside-down pyramid.”
Okana repeats the process two more times before they are at the bottom of the iceberg. “I’m going to bring the nose up so we can see what’s above us. I’m giving you a warning since you’ve never done this before. You’ll be lying on your back in the seat.”
Okana maneuvers the submarine as if it’s an extension of his body, and the nose slowly rotates as he drops lower to increase their upward view. “There it is,” he says over his shoulder as he brings the submarine to hover directly below a dark object high up in the ice.
Alex is leaning forward by grabbing the back of Okana’s chair, but when he sees the device is nearly the same size as it appeared on the surface, he leans back in his chair and sighs in frustration. “Damn!”
“I’m sorry, Alex. Do you want me to head back?”
“You might as well. It looks to be about the same size we saw from on top. That means it’s directly in the center and we could never get it out.”
Okana notices a clear liquid dribbling down between his feet and reaches under the instrument console for the main hydraulic manifold. One of the high-pressure hose fittings feels slippery and the connecting nut turns easily in his fingers. He tightens it as best he can, then levels the sub and sets a course back to the Mystic. When they get close, the radio starts working, and he calls to inform them the mission is a failure and they are returning to the surface.
***
Bett is on the bridge with Dieter when Okana tells them the bad news and sees the rage in his eyes when he learns they are alive. When he spins around to go out the door to the stern, she grabs the microphone for the intercom. “The sub’s almost here.”
When Dieter reaches the bottom of the stairs, he looks around to make sure no one else is on the stern as he stomps across the deck to Bartram, sitting on the sub’s storage bracket.
“They are coming back. Did you do what I told you?”
Bartram jumps down onto the deck. “I did just like you said, Captain. I don’t know what went wrong.”
Dieter hears footsteps approaching. “Just keep your mouth shut. I will take care of this.”
***
Ten minutes later, the sub is in its bracket and Alex and Okana climb down the ladder. Alex notices Okana’s clenched fists. “What’s going on?”
Okana doesn’t answer and stomps straight over to Bartram. He drives his fist into Bartram’s jaw, driving him backward onto the deck. He stands over him, glaring down into his eyes. “You mess with my sub again and I’ll kill you!”
Okana turns and glares at Dieter. “Did you really think you could get away with this?”
Alex isn’t sure what’s going on. “Okana?”
“They tried to kill us, Alex. Bartram loosened one of the hydraulic fittings. If we had activated the arm with the pincer, we would have lost all the hydraulic controls. I didn’t notice until we were vertical and the fluid ran down the floor.”
Bartram gets back on his feet. “I didn’t do anything, Okana. You should take better care of your equipment.”
Alex grabs Okana’s shoulder when his arm reaches back to swing at Bartram again. “Not yet, my friend.” He steps past Okana and stares at Dieter. “He was just following orders, Okana. Isn’t that right, Captain?”
“You are a suspicious man, Professor. It was a simple maintenance issue.”
Mike knows without proof nothing will be resolved for the moment and walks up to Alex. “What would you like us to do next? We still need to find a way to shut down the devices.”
Alex turns and looks at Mike. “I’m not sure yet. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to stick around until I talk to a few people.”
“No problem. We’ll stay here until you’re ready to go.”
Alex turns and moves away, then goes up the stairs to the bridge deck. He leans forward with his arms against the railing, and stares across the bow at the wall of ice. He’s not looking forward to telling the bad news to all the people counting on him. He looks back over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps, then turns from the railing as Okana approaches. “I fear we are too late, my friend.”
Okana turns up his collar and shoves his hands into the coat pockets of his thick dark blue coat as he stares at the wall. “Maybe the Discovery is making some progress.”
Dieter steps onto the deck from the stairs. “What would it be worth if I know the location of another one of those devices, only this one is not in the water?”
Okana spins around, fire in his eyes as he grabs the front of Dieter’s coat. “What’s it worth for me not to throw you over this railing, you son of a bitch!”
Alex puts his hand on Okana’s shoulder. “Let’s hear the man out. Then we’ll decide whether to throw him overboard.”
Okana gives Dieter a shove as he lets go of his collar, then takes a step back and continues to glare at him.
Dieter remains calm and sticks his hands into his coat pockets. “It appears your journey has come to an end, Professor. I was not talking about you paying me. I was talking about what percentage of a large stash of treasure you would want in exchange for using this ship to find it.”
Alex leans back against the railing. “This isn’t my ship, but I’m listening.”
Dieter looks over at Okana. “I will tell you what is on that disk you are so interested in. It is a digital copy of a motion picture made in 1945, at the end of World War II.” He turns back to Cave. “There are two items in the movie that no one has been able to identify, until you showed up, Professor.”
Alex straightens from the railing. “I’m interested. Show me.”
‘CRRRAAAACCCCKKKKKK!’
Bright blue light suddenly radiates from the wall of ice as the air is ripped open by a bolt of blue lightning racing up from the location of the device. In an instant, it’s gone, then high-pitched cracking sounds echo off the face of the ice wall.
Alex spins back to the railing and sees small fracture lines racing up the face of the wall. He spins back around to Okana. “Turn us around and get us out of here!”
Okana is thinking the same thing. He runs into the bridge and engages the thrusters to spin the ship around.
Alex moves along the railing to keep an eye on the lines as the Mystic spins one-hundred-eighty-degrees in the water. He sees the one massive slab of ice breaks free from the wall and splashes into the ocean behind them.
The turbine engines increase to a high-pitched whine and the jet pumps move her forward. The broken slabs of ice in front of them are closely scattered across the open water creating a formidable maze ahead of the ship. There is no way to go around, so the only option is to nudge the slabs out of the way.
Alex glances into the bridge through the rear window where Okana is concentrating and doing the best he can. Dieter walks over and stands beside him at the rear railing. They feel heavy thuds against the hull of the ship as Okana increases their speed, moving them further from the wall.
Okana looks out the rear window and shoves the throttle further forward. The number of thuds against the hull increases rapidly, but he knows a few dents is a small price to pay for freedom when the ice starts to freeze.
Alex’s fingers tighten on the fiberglass railing as the ice continues to fracture, then without warning it suddenly stops. He notices a discoloration in the ocean at the base of the wall and knows what’s about to happen.
He spins around and runs to the front railing to see what’s ahead of them. Fortunately, the floating slabs are beginning to thin. He turns back around and runs to the rear railing, and the ocean is freezing out from the wall and gaining speed toward the stern of the Mystic.
The rest of the crew is huddled together on the deck, staring at the approaching ice. Okana increases speed as the slabs ahead begin to thin, and glances out the rear window at the ice, still closing the distance. He shoves the throttle forward in a desperate attempt to reach open seas, then the Mystic leaps onto the surface, her pontoons slicing through the water and riding up over the smaller slabs of ice.
The unexpected surge from the twin jet pumps tosses those below off their feet and sends them tumbling across the deck. Rita manages to grab the bracket for the sub with one hand and reaches out for Mike’s hand as he tumbles toward the stern, but she’s too late and he rolls out of range. Lisa suddenly grabs her arm and Rita pulls her closer so she can grab the bracket.
Mike sees the world spinning around him. His eyes lock onto the back edge of the ship, and he’s helpless to stop sliding into the freezing water. “Help me!”
Harrison nearly goes over the stern himself, but manages to wrap his arm around the hoist post before sliding over the edge into the water.
“Harrison!” Mike yells as he slides past on his way into the water.
Harrison grabs Mike’s hand as he passes the hoist, but Mike continues sliding until his torso itself is now hanging over the stern. Harrison is unable to pull him back aboard with just one hand. “Grab my arm with your other hand and pull yourself up, damn it! I can’t hold on much longer!”
Rita jumps up and runs to Mike, grabs his coat sleeve, and is nearly dragged over the stern when Harrison loses his grip on Mike’s hand. Suddenly, Lisa is kneeling next to her and pulling on Mike’s coat collar, and together they drag him up over the edge onto the deck.
When the Mystic stops accelerating, Mike rolls onto his back and stares up at Rita and Lisa’s ashen faces. “Thanks.”
A moment later, the Mystic reaches a cruising speed of seventy-eight-knots, and everyone adjusts to the movement and stands back up. They look behind the ship and stare at the sheet of ice, still racing across the water and closing the distance to the stern.
Alex is amazed by the speed of the freezing water, still gaining, if only by a few feet at a time. now only thirty-feet from the stern. He looks into the bridge and Okana is staring back, and he knows the Mystic is at full speed.
Okana thinks about turning the Mystic on a different heading, but the width of the approaching ice is miles across, and they would lose the race if he tried. He feels a sudden lurch in her speed, but it’s nothing he did.
Alex feels the Mystic lunge forward, and he turns around to look at the ice. He thinks the reflection of the sun is causing an illusion, but the distance is widening between the stern and the ice. Sixty-feet of separation, then eighty, one-hundred, one-fifty. Everyone below is watching the receding ice as the Mystic continues to increase the distance, now four-hundred, six hundred, one thousand, then the freezing abruptly stops.
Alex feels their speed decrease rapidly, and suddenly Okana is at his side. They hear loud cracking sounds, and stare at the new ice wall rising out of the water, forcing the ice pyramid higher into the air.
Okana shakes his head in wonder. “Wow. You don’t see that every day.”
“I felt our speed increase. What did you do?”
“It wasn’t me.”
“Hey, guys?”
Alex and Okana look down at Rita, smiling up at them. “Yeah?”
“That was close. I bypassed the governor for the turbines, so don’t increase speed until I can reset them, or they’ll fly apart.”
“How did you know they would hold together?”
“I didn’t. I figured we didn’t have a choice.”
“You have my undying thanks.” Okana steps back into the bridge, switches the controls from turbines to thrusters, and sets them to hover. He walks outside and grabs Dieter’s arm. “Let’s watch a movie, Captain.”
Dieter jerks his arm free and glares up at him. “There is more to this than just the movie, Okana. If you want my help, you had better show me a little courtesy, or you will never find that device.”