Ark Found

Chapter 6

By the time Carter aimed the spotlight under his control straight down toward the source of the new light, he felt the physical impact. First there was a light thud, almost a scraping sound as something came into contact with the sub’s grab arm on Carter’s side. Immediately following that was a much more forceful impact of something heavy colliding with the Deep Voyager’s underbelly.

“What in the—” Jayden began but Carter cut him off as he recognized a discernable shape below them.

“Mini-sub! Manned, two guys inside! Lookout!”

Jayden gunned the horizontal thrusters in the hopes that it would send them darting off into the center of the restaurant space, creating some separation between the two subs. But instead, as soon as he felt the acceleration kick in, Deep Voyager’s progress came to a sudden, jolting halt. Jayden knew the thrusters were still turning, his hand was on the control and he could feel the vibrations and hear the hum of the motor. So why did their sub stop? Did he hit something? Looking ahead and up, he saw nothing to get in their way. He was checking left and right when Carter said, “You’re not going to believe this.”

“Try me,” Jayden said, doing his best to keep his voice level.

“Those bastards clamped their grab arm claw onto the other bracket of the safe on my side.”

“What?”

“They’ve got it in their own grab arm! Watch it, watch it — their moving the sub now — heading up and away from us.”

“Try to radio them on an underwater-to-underwater frequency!” Jayden said, more like yelled, as he grappled with the submersible’s controls to try and wrest it from the interlopers. Carter picked up the radio transmitter and did a channel scan, monitoring for activity, while transmitting “Titanic sub to Titanic sub” on each channel.

Jayden put the sub’s thrusters on full and was able to plow the sub slowly out into the spacious room, towing the other sub behind them. But when they reached the middle of the restaurant, the combatant sub applied its own thrusters in the opposite direction, effectively cancelling out the Deep Voyager’s forward progress.

“Well this is damned stupid!” Jayden yelled, banging on the console in frustration. “We’re both just burning out our batteries! If I stop using our thrusters, we get pulled back that way. What the hell do they want?”

Carter still fiddled with the radio. “They want this safe, that’s what they want.”

“That’s ridiculous! How do they even know what’s in it? We don’t even know what’s in it yet!”

“We know what we think is in it,” Carter said, reaching out to adjust the radio settings, “and I have a feeling that they do, too.” Before Jayden could reply, the radio came to life with a voice that was not Johnny’s.

“You must be violating the rule of one-thirds by now. Let go of the safes — we know you have two of them — and you will be able to return to the surface safely.” The voice was that of an adult male with a vaguely European accent that Carter couldn’t quite place. He turned to Jayden.

“You keep trying to get us away from them and out of this room, back the way we came. “I’ll talk to these losers.”

Carter held the transmitter up to his mouth. “Who are you and what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I told you, we want the safes. Drop them and we let you go. If not, well… let’s just say that we’re willing to play a little game of chicken with battery supply and oxygen levels.” Laughter from the other occupant of the invading sub emanated from the radio speaker. The look on Carter’s face said that he was beyond furious. He growled into the transmitter.

“Look: we’re both in a very treacherous situation here. Release your grab arm, and we’ll be happy to chalk all this up to a happy little accident, okay? Over.”

“You release the safes, both of them, and we will consider this little meeting in the same light,” came the reply.

Maddock became livid as Jayden informed him that he was not having success in freeing them by maneuvering their own sub. The former Naval officer raised the mic to his lips once again. “Listen here, I don’t know who you think you are, ignoring all requests for identification, interfering with permitted operations on an internationally regulated historical grave site, but we are authorized to work this site. We have the proper permits to retrieve these safes, and you do not. We know this because no other artifact recovery permits have been issued for this timeframe. So you are the ones who are breaking the law by not having a permit and sabotaging an underwater salvage operation in a manner that equates to reckless endangerment. Over.” Radio silence ensued during which Jayden and the pilot of the mystery sub continued their oddly quiet, yet deadly, battle.

“They’re smaller than us, and probably a little less powerful, but that also makes them more maneuverable and a little faster,” Jayden summed up as he jostled the controls. “Hey, shine your spot to over one O’clock, down low on the floor — what’s that?”

Carter illuminated the area of interest as requested. “Looks like a pile of rubble. Something to avoid.”

“They’re beneath us, grabbing onto us from below, so I was thinking maybe if I can drag them across it, they’ll have to let go or else take too much damage.” Jayden wrestled some more with the sub’s controls, the net result being that their high-tech craft made its way ever so slowly toward the rubble mound. Meanwhile, the radio stayed silent, their subsea foes apparently deciding that communication was not the answer here.

Carter tried out what he thought of as a potential disorientation technique, aiming his powerful spotlight toward the enemy sub and then rapidly moving the beam back and forth in an erratic fashion. He would do that for a few seconds and then stop for a few in an unpredictable cycle. He had no way of knowing if it was working or not, but soon Jayden called out that they were about to go over the rubble mound.

Suddenly, Deep Voyager burst forward in a rush of relative speed.

“We’re free! They’re off of us!” Jayden shouted in spite of the close quarters.

“Did they let go or get knocked off?” Carter wondered aloud.

“Don’t know, don’t care. Help me locate the exit so we can leave these bastards behind. I don’t want them to catch up to us again.”

Carter had no argument for that and so, after a last salvo of combative spotlighting, turned the spot toward the front, up high, looking for the tear in the ceiling. The room was big enough that even with the spotlight it was difficult to make out much detail that far away. The sub chugged along toward the wall, and Carter began to truly worry about their battery and oxygen supplies. He didn’t dare look at the actual gauges, he was too afraid that would just make him unable to concentrate and send him into panic mode. He scanned the floor and mid-water of the room as well, lest he miss something that could snag them, but found no threats of that type. The next time he swept the beam to the far reaches of the room, in the middle of the wall, he found the top of the elevator shaft from which they had come up.

“I see it, Jayden.” He doused the light so as not to give away their destination too early to their opponents. He pointed with his finger in the cabin of the sub, through the acrylic dome. “Head that way.”

Jayden altered the direction of their craft, angling it upward at the same time. He furrowed his brow after a glance at his instrument gauges. “We are really burning through battery power. We need to shake these guys and get out of here or we’re going to be another stat for Titanic’s death toll.”

“Don’t let me stand in your way,” Carter said. “Just tell me what to do.”

The radio sputtered with Johnny requesting a status report. Jayden nodded to the radio. “You can deal with him while I drag these safes up there with us.”

Carter spoke into the mic. “Topside, this is Deep Voyager, co-pilot. We are inside the wreck engaged with a combative manned submersible. I repeat: We are engaged with a combative manned submersible. Do you copy, over?”

Johnny’s voice came back. “I copy you, Deep Voyager. What do you mean by ‘combative’, over?”

Carter pressed the transmit button and raised his voice. “I mean they’ve locked onto us with their grab arm claws and didn’t let go until we dragged them over a debris pile. We had communications over an underwater sub-to-sub frequency during which they said they want us to drop the two safes we collected. We said no can do, and then they grabbed onto us with their claw arms, we got free, and now they’re chasing us around the inside of the wreck. Over!”

“Copy that, we will board their ship now if we have to in order to get them to radio their people and get them to stand down.”

“Somehow I don’t think that’s going to work,” Carter said, feeling a bump beneath his feet as something knocked into them from below. “But it can’t hurt to try. We’re certainly not getting through to them down here, over.”

“What part of the wreck are you in now?”

“Restaurant. Trying to head back the same way we came, over.”

“Restaurant, copy that. Let me relay this information while you concentrate on getting out of there, but holler if you need anything.”

“More battery power would be great.”

“Ha ha, Deep Voyager. Topside, over and out.”

Carter aimed the spotlight back on their adversaries for a little more chaotic flashing. “Wouldn’t want them getting too comfy,” he told Jayden, who nodded. This time their adversaries returned the action in kind by putting on a light show of their own, casting the cabin of Deep Voyager into a kaleidoscope of blinding halogens.

“It’s like ‘70’s Nite at my favorite singles bar in here,” Jayden muttered under his breath.

“I’d ask you to dance but I’m kinda busy right now,” Carter quipped.

“Give me a little light up here now,” the Jayden said, fully aware that now was not the time for humor, stress-relieving as it may be. Carter shone the beam up toward where the elevator shaft opening was. They weren’t there yet, but they were now close enough to see it in detail with the spotlight. Jayden adjusted their course accordingly, and they began dragging their safes along with them toward their preferred exit.

Suddenly a new barrage of light manifested itself behind them, a searchlight probing in the darkness, passing them by, then sweeping back to hold them in its power.

“They’re coming after us,” Carter warned.

“Good thing we’re a little faster than them,” Jayden said.

“Doesn’t much matter, because if they get their clutches on us again, literally, we won’t even get out of the wreck, much less back to the surface before we run out of oxygen in this tin can.”

“Well you’re just a ray of sunshine, aren’t you, Carter? I mean, if I didn’t know any better—”

It suddenly became darker in the large space as the sub in chase behind them doused all its lights.

“Oh good, maybe they lost power,” Jayden said gleefully. But Carter shook his head. “They’re still moving toward us.”

“Yeah, they still have power. They probably decided to save their own battery power by killing their lights and just letting us use ours.”

“Hurry, let’s get into the elevator shaft, it takes some careful handling and so will take time.”

Jayden eyed the approaching vertical shaft that represented their way out. “I’ve got news for you, though. No way in hell are we going to fit through that with these two safes on the end of the extended grab arms the way we have them now.”

“I’ve got an idea.” Carter’s voice sounded flat, tentative.

“You don’t sound all that sure about it, whatever it is. Give me some enthusiasm, why don’t you. I’ve got an idea!”

“Not sure if it’ll work, but it’s all I got.”

“I’ve heard that before from you and I’m still alive, so I’ll take it.”

Carter made an adjustment to his spotlight and then continued. “I think we aim ourselves nose first toward the bottom, and head straight down into it, instead of a horizontal orientation like we did on the way up. Should be faster.”

He paused as a large squid darted across their field of vision before retreating into a dark corner of the former restaurant. “Looks like calamari’s still on the menu here,” Jayden said.

Carter shot him a serious look. “We get out of this alive, it’s bottomless calamari and brews at Neptune’s Net, on me,” he said, referencing one of his favorite spots on the coast in southern California.

“I’ll remember that,” Jayden said, but he couldn’t hide his furtive glance at the console’s instrument gauges, which gave him increasingly worrying news.

“So let’s do it, come on they’re going to gain a lot of ground on us while you’re maneuvering into the shaft.”

Jayden exhaled deeply while shaking his head. “Here goes nothing.”

He raised Deep Voyager, floating them up to the ceiling, dragging the two safes with them as the spotlight from their foes loomed larger behind them. Then, as planned, he did his best to line them up perpendicular to the opening. But each time he had the right angle, the enemy sub would engage its spotlights, bathing the top of the elevator shaft in a confusing array of photic chaos.

“They might be on to our little plan,” Jayden said, fighting the controls to keep the submersible aimed in the right direction.

Hunter moved the spotlight from their target exit to the bothersome sub, at the same time changing the radio frequency to the underwater channel and then yelling into the mic. “Hey hey hey, what is wrong with you, stay back stay the hell back!” He hoped the sudden burst of light and sound would distract them enough to let Jayden make forward progress, and as it turned out, it worked.

“I’ve got the angle. Here we go, give me the light!” Jayden shouted, the excitement on his face completely unmasked.

“Keep going, full speed ahead. Go, go go!” Carter yelled, before yelling more nonsense into the radio and wavering the spotlight hectically toward their submarine foes.

Jayden brought the nose of the sub over the opening of the elevator shaft, true as could be, and then reversed to stall them over the shaft.

“It’s all clear down there,” Carter said, aiming his light down into the shaft for a moment. Get us in there.”

Jayden hastily lowered the sub into the shaft, and it was all going well until the two extended grab arms reached the top of the shaft walls, halting their downward progress. The port side impacted slightly before the starboard, and so the Deep Voyager tipped up to the left before settling back down, where the right safe caught on the edge of the shaft, too. Jayden activated the vertical thrusters, raising the sub higher as it rotated, until the safe in Carter’s grab arm was clear of the lip.

“You got it, take us down!” Carter shouted.

Jayden complied, jamming the joystick all the way forward until they could hear the high-pitched whinny of the motors straining against their own design limitations. Carter heard a dull scraping sound as the safe hit something. He turned around in time to be blinded by dual halogen spotlights from the intruder sub that had run dark and silent up from below, until now.

“They’re here!” Carter warned his friend, who still wrangled with the controls to angle the Deep Voyager down into the shaft.

“I have the angle, thrusters are on, but we’re not moving, Carter!”

The Omega founder took a look behind and below them. “That’s because the other sub latched onto us again. They’ve got a hold of the grab arm on your side, with their grab arm. They can’t get to mine from this angle, though, but they’re trying.” Carter’s voice rose in volume and intensity. “This is as good as it’s going to get. Try and drag them up and over. My hunch is something’s gonna break.”

Jayden’s hands stabbed at buttons on the console as he coaxed the craft down into the elevator shaft, nose first. “Feel like I’m on the Matterhorn at Disney World!” he said as they stared straight down the elevator shaft into the darkness below. Carter swiveled his spotlight so that it shone away from their combatant sub, and straight down into the shaft. “Let’s turn off our flood lights and just use the one spot. It’ll give them less light to see by.”

Jayden agreed and killed the floodlights that provided general light in a short radius out from the entire sub. The latched-on submersible was cast into relative darkness. Carter tried to get a glimpse of the two figures inside, as he had done a couple of times during the dive over here, but could make out only a pair of silhouetted heads-and-shoulders.

“Now just take us down as fast as you can. Vent everything out of the bladders.”

“I’m already on full thruster power. I can vent the air, but why?”

“The faster we head down, the more force it’s going to put on their little grab arm that’s latched onto ours. I’m hoping it’ll just snap off.”

They heard the shriek of bending and scraping metal. “Something’s going to snap off, that’s for sure,” Jayden said, pressing the button to vent air from the buoyancy tubes. “But we’re not moving any further down… seem to be stuck… maybe just — whoa!”

They lurched forward in their bucket seats as the craft suddenly moved straight down after being freed from whatever had been holding it back. Carter aimed his spotlight back up to see if the sub still followed, but it was gone.

“It worked!” he said gleefully. “Snapped it off!”

Jayden looked out the acrylic dome on his side. “Uh, we snapped an arm off, all right, Carter. But guess what? It wasn’t their arm, it was ours. We’re missing the entire external grab arm assembly on my side of the sub.”

Carter swore under his breath as the Deep Voyager plunged down the elevator shaft. “That means we lost the safe.”

“Wow, you’re a sharp one!” Jayden chided. “No arm, no safe that was being held in the claw grabber at the end of the arm. Your analytical abilities are nothing short of amazing.” He looked over at Carter to see how he was taking the ribbing, but the historical analyst was facing away from him, looking out his side of the acrylic dome.

“We still have the safe on this side, just don’t go too far to the right.”

“Want me to take us back up and fight those guys for the other one?” Jayden said, smiling because he knew it was out of the question.

“Not unless you want to die with it down here. Speaking of which,” Carter added, “how’s our battery life?”

Jayden glanced at his gauges and shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”