Kronos

37

Ray-Jeffery’s Ledge

Gloom fell over the seafloor below Atticus and Kronos. Two hundred feet above, the Titan blocked out the midmorning sun. Kronos swirled into motion. It rose from the seafloor in a flurry, building speed, preparing to flee. But why? The Titan posed no threat to it.

Then he saw them, caught in Ray ’s lights. Yellow cylinders like oversized coffee cans tumbling toward the seafloor. Atticus spun in his seat. They were everywhere. “What…”

Recognition slammed into Atticus a second before the first shock wave.

Ray shook as the first depth charge exploded fifty feet to the rear. The metal shell of the submersible groaned as it pitched forward, burying its nose in the sand. The second explosion, ten feet closer, but to port, almost knocked Atticus from his seat. His mind whirled as he fought with the control stick, urging the sub to free itself from the sand.

“What the hell are you doing, Trevor?” Atticus’s eyes settled on the radiant, yet determined, face of his patron. Had Trevor gone insane?

Atticus realized the truth. He had become expendable, a mere obstacle standing in the way of Trevor’s goal.

Atticus pushed the throttle full ahead and pulled back on the control stick. Ray ’s nose lifted out of the sand, pulling up a mound of the terrain with it. The extra weight made Ray unstable and sluggish. Two more explosions rocked the sub. A second to port and another dead ahead. The shock wave from the second, much closer explosion, lifted Ray ’s nose toward the surface. The sand slid down the surface of the sleek, black sub, covering the lexan bubble. Visibility became totally obscured, but with the throttle still at full, Ray broke free from the seafloor and shot up toward the surface, shedding the sandy covering.

Atticus looked up and saw the hull of the Titan high above-a black swath surrounded by sparkling blue sea. Motion to his right caught his attention. He caught his breath when he saw Kronos rising alongside him. The explosions that continued to pound the seafloor had startled the beast.

Kronos’s movement through the water became erratic, undulating left and right as well as up and down. Atticus realized it was trying to bunch up, away from the explosions below. While he was 100 feet above the explosions and still rising, a large portion of Kronos’s 150-foot body still remained near the seafloor. The creature moved faster than anything Atticus had ever seen in the ocean, but its massive size made attaining that speed a lengthy process.

As a large portion of Kronos’s body moved his way, Atticus rolled Ray over and around the bending body. For a few moments their movements were entwined, each rising and falling, moving in and around, like two synchronous fighter jets. A shallow explosion rocked Atticus to the side. Ray spun away from Kronos, and they ascended on two different paths-Kronos up and away from the Titan, and Atticus up and directly toward the Titan ’s bow.

The bursting depth charges shook the Ray as they detonated closer and closer to the surface. It was dumb luck that Atticus hadn’t been struck by one yet. He guessed the charges had been dropped in a radius, designed to force Kronos to the surface. Trevor knew the charges couldn’t kill it. But what did he have planned for it at the surface? What kind of weapons did the Titan have on board?

A projectile shot across Atticus’s field of view in answer to that question; then four more. Atticus recognized them as MK-54 lightweight, high-yield torpedoes. But they moved like nothing Atticus had seen before. As they shot through the water, he could see a pocket of air blasting bubbles away from the nose of each projectile.

They’re cavitating! Atticus thought.

He’d seen failed tests of cavitating torpedoes on one of his post-SEAL, top-secret Navy projects. His job had been to assess the lethality of the weapons and gauge any environmental impacts the warheads might have. A cavitating torpedo pushes water away from the projectile, allowing it to move through a pocket of air, reducing friction and allowing it to move at incredibly fast speeds. An underwater missile. The ones Atticus had seen worked, but the high speeds made the trajectories erratic, sometimes veering off target. Until guidance technology caught up with the speed, they were unpredictable at best. But the consistency of these torpedoes made it clear that Trevor had overcome the technological hang-up.

Kronos neared the surface and picked up speed, but the torpedoes closed the distance with ease. A wail tore through the ocean following the first explosion. Each torpedo found its target, and they were hurting the creature.

Giona…

Atticus focused his vision on the bow of the Titan. He had to put a stop to this. He had to save his girl. By the time he parked the sub and sprinted up countless decks, he’d be too tired to stop anyone, and the hunt would most likely have come to a conclusion by then. He knew Trevor was driven, but he’d also proven himself to be sensitive, or a very good actor. Still, he might negotiate.

With the surface fifty feet above, Atticus saw only one chance to reach Trevor in time. He positioned Ray at a forty-five-degree angle, heading straight for the Titan ’s bow. Then he crammed his thumb down on the yellow button, activating the sub’s auxiliary thrusters. If Ray was as aerodynamic as he thought, his plan might work. If not, he’d give the Titan’s side its first blemish on the otherwise pristine hull. As the sub’s speed built far beyond the rate at which it had gone the first time Atticus had pushed the button… for just a moment, he saw an explosion of bubbles burst from the sub’s nose.

Ray could cavitate!

Before Atticus checked the sub’s speed, the air bubble at the sub’s nose, burped into the open air. As the ship rose higher and higher through the air, the white hull of the Titan loomed. Rising quickly, the airborne Ray shot toward the figurehead, a shouting Viking woman brandishing sword and shield. She threatened to put a quick end to Ray’s first flight, but merely managed to scratch the sub’s white underbelly.

As the sub leveled out, Atticus got a clear view of the Titan. The first thing he saw was a massive cannon aiming out to sea. Where did that thing come from? He thought. Then his eyes widened as he saw the bridge come into view. Ray plummeted straight for it. Atticus quickly located his seat belt, yanked it tight, and waited for the head-on collision that would end his life and save his daughter’s.