Leviathan

17

"I have no idea where to go from here," Jack said to Carl, far away from the others. He felt the bandage on the top of his head.

"We're too deep for any sort of attack on the crew, at any rate, Jack."

"Right now that's the only saving grace — she can't kill anyone down here because she's the only person in the world who can go this damn deep."

Everett was about to respond when the hatchway opened and Sergeant Tyler stepped into the observation compartment with four of his security men. They were quickly followed by Virginia and Captain Heirthall.

The security team took up station on either side of the hatchway with their automatic weapons at the ready across their chests. Virginia walked in with her head lowered and joined Alice, Sarah, and the senator at the large table. Niles took a step forward, but Tyler held his hand up to stop him from advancing.

"Has it been reported to you that your Sergeant Tyler here nearly killed Colonel Collins? Did he do it of his own accord, or was he acting on your orders?"

Alexandria Heirthall sat in the nearest chair and closed her eyes as she felt the rush of the Demerol finally taking effect. Then she looked at Compton. She mentally fought the urge to turn on Tyler, instead looking at Jack.

"My apologies, Colonel, for the sergeant's temper. We are all under tremendous strain."

"Is that what you call it? My God, woman, you and your trained killer are damn well out of control!" Lee said, pointing at Tyler with his cane. This time Alice didn't try to silence him.

"And now do you believe that the world will sit idly by and have you threaten the starvation of millions of people? Men like the ones onboard Missouri will keep hunting you," Niles said as calmly as he could.

"I'll do what I can for the survival of my people, my vessel, and for the life in the seas, Dr. Compton. Moreover, I have never once doubted the bravery of your nation's submariners. I just thank God they have a captain that understands the limitations of American naval science."

Alexandria finally seemed to focus with dilated eyes as the heavy dose of Demerol hit her system in earnest. She looked into the faces staring at her from around the observation deck. Then she stood with what looked like grim determination, fighting the helping as well as the debilitating effects of the drugs in her system.

She paced to the front of the compartment, then stopped and turned to face the Event Group. Virginia was now seeing a very different woman from the one she had seen less than thirty minutes before, maniacally piloting Leviathan on her deep run into the trench. She was now calm, and although drugged, seemed more in control emotionally.

At that moment, Commander Samuels stepped into the compartment and stayed by the hatchway. Alexandria gestured for him to come forward.

"My apologies, James," she whispered near his ear. Her eyelids fluttered, closed, then opened. "I believe it's time I explain a few things to you and our guests. Please stand by the hatchway, and take this." Alexandria slipped a small.32-caliber pistol into his hand. He pocketed it and then turned away.

She cleared her throat and waited for Samuels to take his station.

"My ancestor, Roderick Deveroux Heirthall, was the first to discover what I am about to reveal to you."

Tyler looked from Samuels to Heirthall. His features were twisted and ugly.

"Captain, I ask you not to do this," the sergeant said, taking what everyone thought was a menacing step toward Heirthall. "These people won't understand. No one will."

"Sergeant Tyler," Alexandria said, looking fatigued, "you are relieved. Report to your quarters, and inform security to stand down." She steadied herself against the sill of the observation window.

Tyler abruptly turned to the hatchway and then out of the compartment, roughly brushing by Samuels. His security team quickly followed him.

Heirthall nodded and Samuels closed the hatch. She rubbed the back of her head, then shook her head as she advanced toward the glass where Niles was standing.

"Now." She looked up at Compton, who stood challengingly before her. "I believe we are at a point in the trench system where we can begin to answer some of your questions, Dr. Compton." She reached into her pocket and brought out a small bottle of pills. Without looking, she turned the bottle up, and shook two pills into her mouth, and dry-swallowed them. "Then I will tell you the reason why you are here."

Alexandria nodded toward Samuels, who moved to the control chair and threw a switch. The protective shields of the massive observation windows began to part. To the Event Group it was as if they were looking deep into the darkest void in the entire world. As their eyes started adjusting to that blackness, they began to see the swirl of unnatural colors surrounding the bow of the giant vessel. A glow of bluish-green light extended outward to almost to sixty feet, showing a sight that no man outside the crew of Leviathan had ever seen before.

"The combination of helium, hydrogen, and our electrical field is what you are seeing. In essence, the field is assisting in pushing back the very pressures of the sea, actually forming a bubble of depressurized water around our compressed hull." Alexandria again had to hold on tightly to the sill in order to keep her balance, but she continued, as she knew her time in control was short. "Even though the pressure of the abyss is still seeping through, it is controlled, being held at bay by the combination of our electrical field and Leviathan's composite design. Dr. Compton, if you will, go forward and touch the observation window, please."

Niles stepped toward the acrylic window and then looked back at Heirthall, who nodded for him to continue. He placed his fingers against the glass and felt the extreme coldness. Then, to his surprise, the glass was soft and pliable under his touch.

"The entire composite matrix of Leviathan has been altered. We are not fighting the pressure of the deep so much as we have become a part of it."

Alexandria nodded at Samuels, who hit a switch and spoke into a hidden microphone.

"Conn, this is Commander Samuels. Bring the exterior lighting to one hundred percent, please. Helm, dead slow."

"Aye, Commander, slowing to two knots, floodlights coming on at full illumination."

"I tell you this not to explain the dynamics of Leviathan, but rather to show you just how extreme an environment we are in, and the magic of what this environment holds."

At that time, Henri Farbeaux, assisted by the doctor, entered the observation lounge carrying his robe bundled in one arm. Henri placed the crutch he was using against the conference table and then sat. The doctor seemed interested in what was happening and moved to the side of the compartment. Farbeaux, for his part, looked at Collins and gave a slight nod of his head. Jack understood that Henri had come across something in sickbay.

As the Event Group tuned toward the large and expansive windows, the deep sea opened up around them and the blackest night became day. There were audible gasps from Alice and Sarah.

"My God," was all Niles Compton could utter.

The view of the depths showed the far southern wall of the Mariana Trench. There were crags and ridges common to undersea ranges, but interspersed in the wall were small holes. Billions of them, each hole aligned with its neighbor. Lined up straight in many rows, they looked ancient to the eyes of the Group, as though excavated a million years before. Samuels hit another control, and the center viewing window glazed over and then magnified the wall of the trench at one of its many bends. Then the engineering of the openings became apparent. They were actually small arches that could never have been created naturally by the currents and tides of the ocean.

"It looks like the Anasazi Indian ruins of the Southwest," Sarah said as she recognized the high arches of the small excavations.

"Exactly what my great-great-grandfather said when he first saw them in eighteen fifty-three, only in the much shallower waters off of Venezuela. James, you may order all-ahead standard for the next ten minutes until we reach" — she smiled as she looked back at Collins and the others—"the grounds."

"Aye, Captain," Samuels said as he relayed the order, allowing the Group to feel the minute acceleration of Leviathan.

Alexandria noticed that the doctor and Farbeaux had joined them. Her attention stayed on Trevor for a moment, enough time to make him feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Doctor, it is fortuitous that you are here. Please explain to Ginny my diagnosis. She seems worried that I am not myself."

Trevor swallowed, but didn't move from his position against the bulkhead. He uncrossed his arms and looked at the many people looking his way. He had no choice but to explain the captain's illness.

"Captain Heirthall's disease is hereditary and one that causes severe cramping, possible blood clots, and hemorrhaging inside the brain. Naturally, all of this places immense pressure on the captain and may cause episodes of severe mood swings, even schizophrenic behavior. I will tell you, since obviously the captain has not, this illness is fatal; all of her family has succumbed to it. It's mostly developed in females, thus they succumb at a much younger age."

"For the most part you have described Osler's disease, Dr. Trevor," Collins said, looking at Farbeaux, who returned the look with mild surprise. "One of the symptoms you described is not listed in her family history as being a part of Osler's."

Trevor looked from Jack to Heirthall, who was watching him closely. He cleared his throat. "And that is?"

"There is no history of schizophrenia attached to the description of the illness," Collins said, waiting for a reaction. There was none because Heirthall continued talking as though his comment regarding her illness had never been made. If this was done intentionally Jack didn't know. However, he did observe Heirthall's gaze linger for an extra moment on Trevor.

"My compliments, Colonel, your research justifies my suspicion that your Group knew more about my family than my crew believed. Now please, all of you take a seat. We have much to discuss, and I'm sure after I have finished, you will have more questions," Alexandria said, cutting the doctor's explanation off before it started.

As they sat, they all could see that Alexandria was functioning much better with all of the pain medication, although her eyes were hazy and unfocused. It was a testament to her will power.

"I need to ask some questions of you first. Senator Lee, whose knowledge in natural history is far beyond most, is a good person to start with, since his hatred for me is so hard to hide."

There was no protest of innocence from the senator; only a stern countenance as he waited.

"Answer quickly, Senator, and keep your answers to one or two words if you will. The first answer that comes into your mind — are you ready?" she asked as she looked from Lee to the others around the large table.

"Fire away, Captain," Lee said as he patted Alice on her hand, trying to tell her he would keep his cool.

"Excellent. Answer 'true' or 'false' to these questions about the Event Group's vast archives."

"If it's games you would like to play, have at it, young lady — especially if it keeps you from killing."

"Flying saucers?" Alexandria asked, ignoring the senator's comment.

Lee smiled knowingly. "True."

"A large animal in Loch Ness?"

"Once true, but no longer. The species finally went extinct during World War Two."

Ryan and Mendenhall looked at Alice at the same time and with the same question etched on their faces. She only nodded her head.

"Bigfoot?" Alexandria asked quickly, trying not to give the senator time to think.

"No hard evidence — false."

"Yeti?"

"Again, no credible evidence — false."

"Mermaids?"

"Myth, fairy tale — false."

"Wrong. True," Heirthall said, shocking the Group.

Everyone in the room looked over at the captain of Leviathan, confirming beyond anyone's doubts that she had lost her mind.

"You did very well, Senator; three out of four."

"What sort of nonsense is this?" Lee asked, looking angry at being played for a fool.

"A bit melodramatic, I agree; however, it was just too tempting, Senator. The excavations you have just seen were accomplished by a life form that predates our human existence by twenty-three million years — give or take a millennium."

"Mermaids, please," Ryan said, looking the smallest bit hopeful.

"That's just what my ancestor referred to them as. He was a mystical man, after all. He first thought they were angels that had come to take him to a better place — so what is more fanciful, angels or mermaids? They actually saved him from sure death when he escaped a French prison."

"The Chateau d'If," Farbeaux said aloud.

"Yes, the very same. He would have drowned upon his escape, but a group of what we now know as symbiants saved him. He was lucky, as this group of small symbiants was no longer indigenous to the Atlantic. They accidentally came upon Roderick Deveroux, the father of Octavian Heirthall, the man who built the first Leviathan."

"You call them symbiants. Why?" Compton asked.

Alexandria lowered her head and then paced to the observation window.

"Because they can live inside of a human host," Farbeaux answered for her, finally speaking up from his chair.

"Score one for you, Henri," Jack said, nodding in the Frenchman's direction.

"When Roderick Deveroux discovered them," the Frenchman continued, looking from Collins to Alexandria, "they were a dying species. At only four to five feet long, and grown from an octopuslike body, like a cocoon, they were formally known as Octopiheirthollis."

"Impressive, Colonel Farbeaux," Alexandria said, looking not at Henri but Dr. Trevor. "Continue, by all means." Her eyes flicked to Commander Samuels, who nodded once and then moved his attention to Trevor.

"They eventually shed their outer shell. They are like us in skeletal structure, but that is where the resemblance ends. They have a clear membrane they use as an outer skin, gelatinous to our eyes. They live in the deepest part of our seas. One of the last known areas, outside of the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico, was in the Mediterranean. That was why Leviathan was there during the Atlantis incident that nearly claimed the life of Colonel Collins, much to my personal horror."

"The children," Jack said, more to himself than to anyone in particular.

"Yes, the children," Heirthall said, turning away from the window where she had been listening. "You must explain to me your vast knowledge on the subject, Colonel Farbeaux."

Henri unwrapped his robe and tossed the book-sized medical chart and history onto the table. He opened it, pulled one sheet of paper out, and passed it to Jack. The colonel read it, then placed it in his pocket.

"I'm what you would call a speed reader, Captain. You'll forgive my inquisitive nature. Colonel Collins, I have done my part."

"That you have, Colonel," Jack said.

"I think I understand," Virginia said, wanting to approach her old friend but staying well back. "They are symbiant with the human children, two beings living in the same body — you've taken them from the seas to protect them."

"My Ginny, you see, don't you? All of the small children onboard are the last of the Gulf of Mexico young."

"That's why the strenuous attacks on Venezuela and Texas City?" Lee asked.

"Yes. That is why we will continue attacking until the gulf is emptied of production platforms and all oil facilities. There can be no negotiation on that point. Now for the hardest truth of all — the midshipmen, the teenagers onboard, used to live right outside of these windows. They are the very last of these marvelous creatures from the trench. Only a few adults remain here. The very first of their kind."

"Where did you get the human element for this cross-breeding?" Niles asked.

"They are throwaways, Dr. Compton — children that your world could not, or would not, save. Third-world, dying children; starving, disease-ridden, saved by us — saved by the introduction of symbiants into their systems. They both use each other to live. When they grow too large, other hosts will be found for the syms. The midshipmen have the eldest of the young inside of them, but they must be removed soon, or both will die. The syms are starting to grow beyond the human brain's capacity to hold them."

"What gives you the right to take children against their will?" Virginia demanded.

"I saved them; my ancestors saved them, just like we are still saving them… not from natural extinction, but from the human element of this planet. The trillion tons of pollution you have sent into the seas from petroleum and the fall of acid rain are killing this life form."

Just as she stopped talking, the hatchway opened, and the young woman they knew as Yeoman Alvera stepped inside. She looked from person to person until her eyes settled upon Dr. Trevor. Then her gaze wandered to Henri Farbeaux.

"Why have you left your station in control, Yeoman?" Samuels asked.

"It's all right, James; part of her knows she's home. Allow her in," Alexandria said. "Come here, Felicia."

They watched as Alvera slowly approached Heirthall. Once standing before her, Alexandria turned the young girl to face them, keeping her hands on her small shoulders.

"Yeoman Alvera is from Nicaragua. I found her fourteen years ago in a small village where she had just witnessed the execution of her parents by a death squad. When a shore excursion found her, she was starving to death. Dr. Trevor saw a long and painful recovery for her. I ordered one of the symbiants placed inside of her, where it wrapped around her cerebral cortex. She recovered quickly after that." She gestured for the girl to look at Niles. "Tell Dr. Compton about being host to the symbiant."

As Collins watched the scene play out before them, he caught sight of Everett. They both saw that the visage and demeanor of the young yeoman had changed. She no longer looked innocent and sweet at all.

"Can you control this… this… thing?" Niles asked.

"The question is moot, Doctor — neither one controls the other. I and my symbiant are merely sharing the same body. We share knowledge and learn together."

Farbeaux looked from the girl to Dr. Trevor, watching and gauging his reaction to the lie that was being presented to the Americans. Henri saw that the girl was starting to make the doctor uncomfortable.

"Are you saying each one of the children we saw being brought aboard are hosts to one of those… syms?" Mendenhall asked.

"Yes, just like all of my crewmen you have seen, they all at one time were hosts to their own symbiant, at least until their life spans ran their course."

"That's why they are so fiercely loyal to you and your cause," Collins said as he turned and walked back to Sarah.

"Your perception is accurate, Colonel."

"But why destroy the vaults at the Group complex when you would have eventually told us anyway?"

"It wasn't only the Leviathan vault, Dr. Compton, it was the vault below it I was really after. It was that damnable relic stolen from my family by P. T. Barnum more than a hundred and eighty years ago. It was purely selfish on my part, but no trace of the syms can be left behind." Heirthall leaned down and kissed the top of Yeoman Alvera's head.

Samuels cleared his throat and nodded to the observation windows.

Alexandria closed her eyes and gestured for Samuels to commence.

"Please cover your ears. A few of you may feel some discomfort, but it will pass in a moment."

Yeoman Alvera pulled away from Heirthall, almost as if she was being held against her will, and then she faced the glass expectantly.

"Officer of the deck, this is the first officer. Begin the tones," he said into the microphone embedded into the large chair.

"Aye, Commander, tones have been initiated."

Before the orders were confirmed from below, Alice, Everett, Lee, and Mendenhall placed their hands over their ears as a soundless tone penetrated into their brain through the ear canal.

"Okay, that hurts… uh… really… it hurts," Mendenhall said as he leaned into Jason Ryan.

"The tones are used to call the syms. It resembles their own style of speech and can carry up to a hundred miles. This is what led to my family's understanding of whale song."

The tones stopped, and Alice was the only one who had to sit, feeling sick to her stomach.

"Oh, God," Virginia said, looking through the glass.

All eyes turned in that direction, and then one by one the Event Group slowly approached the large windows as Leviathan came to a complete stop at the deepest part of the trench.

"Conn, lower exterior lighting to twenty-five percent power," Samuels ordered. Then he too advanced to see the wonder of the entire world.

"Beautiful." Ryan was the first to react.

The adult symbiants came out of the darkness. They had long ago shed the protective shell of octopuslike armor and were in their final form, as they would remain for the rest of their lives.

The tails, shaped like maple leaves, gently pushed them through the water toward the humans staring at them from their strange environment. They had small, thin legs that extended through the tail like veins, ending in tiny humanlike feet that exited the tail at its sides. There were discharges of internal electricity that coursed through the tail, pulsating soft pink and light blue in blood veins and arteries far different from that of man. The center of the tail radiated a soft greenish color, pulsing as their small hearts beat at the center of their chests, which could be seen through the clear membrane of their outer skin.

The first symbiant to reach the glass raised a small hand and touched it as its tail kept its body in pace with the drifting Leviathan. As the Event Group watched, its deep blue eyes shrank, allowing the creature to view them through the intense light.

"Yes, Mr. Ryan, it is beautiful," Niles said as he slowly reached up to the glass. He stopped and looked at Alexandria. She nodded her head that it was all right to touch the window.

The symbiant, with blinking eyes, smiled. The clear mouth curved upward and the hands slid across the window to mimic Niles's movement. The small creature tilted its head and looked directly at Niles. The smile remained.

"Captain, what nourishment do they consume at these depths?" Everett asked the practical question.

"There are over two million lava vents that supply nutrients and animal life that the symbiants harvest. Their needs are not all that great. When we visit, we like to leave them several tons of goods on the sea floor. Vitamin-filled feed, usually reserved for cows and horses. We do the same for the small children and their adults in the Gulf of Mexico."

"I count ten in all," Jack said as he too became entranced by the legend of all legends before him. He could feel Sarah next to him take a deep breath as she took in the wondrous sight.

"There is more. We estimate this colony is down to fewer than a thousand," Samuels said as he helped Alexandria to a chair. She sat and watched the Event personnel closely. "Captain, have you noticed there are only a few here? Where are the rest?"

Heirthall counted and then recounted the syms outside the glass.

"This is strange. There should be what's left of the colony here," she said, looking concerned.

Other symbiants came to the window and examined the faces looking at them. The colors in their tails enhanced to deeper blues and brighter pinks. They crowded around the glass, seemingly looking beyond the gathering of humans, looking for something that wasn't there.

"They look like a species of jellyfish. They must use the electrical current and colors for—" Virginia started to say.

"Mating, communication, navigation; right now they are asking a question," Alexandria said, watching Niles and the others closely.

"May I guess, Captain?" Sarah asked.

"I can see you have figured it out through their body language, Lieutenant, but go ahead."

"They want to see their children," she said as she moved her gaze from the window to the captain.

Alexandria nodded once more, and Samuels nodded at Yeoman Alvera. The girl stepped to the glass, placed her hand up, and sighed. Then several other midshipmen came through the hatch. Thirty-one in all approached, looking excited and sad at the same time.

"This small group is all that is left of the Mariana Trench young," Heirthall said sadly.

The teenagers were stretching and pointing, placing their hands on the glass, trying desperately to seek out their parents. The symbiants outside the glass had become excited as their colors turned to the purest pinks and the brightest blues. Their hands reached out toward the gathered midshipmen.

Soon, even more syms had joined the grouping at the windows, and then the momentary joyfulness dissipated. The humans watching this amazing event saw that several of the adults were being assisted by other syms as they made their way to the glass. The colors and electrical discharges on these syms were dull, less vibrant.

One of them reached outward toward the glass, and that was when Niles and his people saw that its clear skin had become milky in color. Its fine black and gold hair was sparse as it looked upon the men and women inside.

Yeoman Alvera stepped over, saying nothing. She tilted her head, staring at the sickly adult.

The creature tilted its head, mimicking Alvera, and then held its small, clear hand to the glass. The colors in the adult briefly flared to life, but just as quickly faded as the yeoman watched. She held her other hand to the window, hoping that the adult would follow suit, but two creatures advanced and slowly pulled the parent away from the glass. The adult's hand, still on the window, slowly fell away — the fingertips lingering for as long as they could keep contact until the parent was assisted out of the dimmed lights of Leviathan. Then it was gone.

Yeoman Alvera watched for the longest ten seconds Jack could ever remember. When she turned away from the glass, the look in her deep-set blue eyes was terrifying as she glanced from face to face. Then she abruptly left the observation lounge.

"You see our predicament, Mr. Director?"

Niles swallowed and turned to look at Alexandria. He could only nod his head.

"Regardless of what happens next, Doctor, thank you for that."

"Now that the family reunion has been concluded, I think it's time for the doctor to explain how much trouble we are in." Everyone turned and looked at Farbeaux as he stood and made his way to the bar. He found a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a drink.

"Especially since the captain's pain medication will soon wear off, and she'll become someone other than who she really is."

Heirthall stared at Farbeaux and allowed her body to relax for the first time in months. She slowly walked to a chair and sat. She placed a hand over her face and held it there.

"Explain," Samuels demanded.

"Colonel Collins, I must say that it is fortuitous indeed for us to have you and your men aboard. We will need some of that magical escapism that you so readily apply to bad situations." He took a drink of the whiskey, exhaling when he emptied the small glass. "It seems there has been a small mutiny aboard Leviathan in the past few months." He poured another drink.

Dr. Trevor tried to get past Samuels but the commander blocked his way, pulled the small.32-caliber pistol from his pocket, and placed it against the man's chest.

"Captain, amongst your medical papers is a description of a small procedure conducted by the boat's surgeon. This will explain the symptom added to your hereditary illness that isn't listed in any medical journals. Colonel Collins was quite right; the schizophrenia is brought on by something else."

Jack turned from Farbeaux to look at Trevor, who backed away from Samuels until he could sit in one of the chairs.

"You placed a symbiant in her?" he asked.

Trevor swallowed, lowered his head, and then shook it. He refused to look up.

"You son of a bitch," Samuels said, taking a menacing step toward the doctor. "That's why the captain has been aggressive, changing her own orders!"

"I suspect that she has moments of clearheadedness." Farbeaux poured one last drink, limped toward Trevor, and sat down. "The good doctor became suspicious, and had the good sense to note it in his case file." Henri patted the doctor on the knee, then looked up at Heirthall, who was looking ill and lost. "She has much more stamina than the sym she has inside of her. She's quite rational when she is exhausted, like in the early morning hours, or—"

"When she's drugged," Virginia said as she finally sat next to Alexandria and put an arm around her.

"Yes, Ms. Pollock. She must have extraordinary mind power to fight off the thoughts that course through her head. I believe she brought you here not to question you about vaults or what you knew about her. She brought you here, using her subconscious will, to help get Leviathan back and to stop what was happening. Oh, she's still crazy for her cause, but now the insanity issue can be explained," Farbeaux finished.

"God, do you know what you're saying?" Niles asked.

Collins answered for the rest, as they were coming to the same conclusion.

"It seems the kind little symbiants aren't the fuzzy little creatures the Heirthall family thought."

Before they knew what was happening, the lights flickered inside the observation lounge and then they heard the outer hatchway slam closed. Sparks started shooting through the watertight seal lining the hatch. Samuels turned and tried the wheel, but it didn't budge.

"It's dogged from the outside!"

Jack and Everett sprang forward and assisted Samuels. The wheel refused to move.

"They are sealing us inside with a welding torch," Everett said.

Without a warning signal or announcement, they felt Leviathan go to full speed once more, throwing them all off their feet. Outside the viewing windows, the behemoth shot through the trench canyons as easily as a sports car on a highway. Niles watched the digital readouts on the hologram once the screens closed, and saw that they were once more traveling at one hundred and seventy knots and were headed due south.

"I think the battle for Leviathan has just begun in earnest," Farbeaux said as he gained his feet, grimacing in pain.

"Yeah, and like always, we seem to be in the wrong place and slightly outnumbered," Mendenhall said as he assisted the senator to his chair.

Jack slammed the hatch with the flat of his hand in frustration. He angrily turned and looked at Sarah. She looked back at him, and that seemed to bring Jack back to reason. He nodded his head at Sarah and then turned to the others.

"Yes, Will, outnumbered, outgunned, outsmarted." He walked up to Trevor, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up out of his chair. "But we do have a couple of advantages. We have the man who knows the plan and who's involved."

"And the other?" Everett asked, joining him at his side.

"Me."

They looked to where Alexandria Heirthall was holding herself firm against the table. She was shaking, and her face was pale. The sym inside of her was obviously reasserting itself.

"Yes, Captain, what better ally to have than the designer of Leviathan?" Jack agreed.

It was Farbeaux who brought that thought into real perspective. "Yes, but which captain are we going to get?"

"Commander Samuels, these coordinates — do you have any idea where they are taking us?" Niles asked, indicating the readout at the base of the observation windows.

Samuels stepped forward and looked at the running numbers. He looked confused to Collins. "Yes, we're making a run for home."

"Where in the hell is home?" Ryan asked.

"Ice Palace — the Ross Ice Shelf."

"What's there?" Everett asked.

"We must retake Leviathan at all costs," Alexandria said just before she collapsed to the deck, unconscious. Virginia, Mendenhall, Sarah, and Alice rushed to her aid.

"It's our base of operations," Samuels said beneath his breath, unable to say what he was thinking. "We're in the process of leaving there and going to a new base — t he ice shelf has become too unstable. There's nothing there but the Heirthall fortune and…" Samuels lowered his head.

Collins, who had released Dr. Trevor, faced him once more. He removed the pistol from Samuels's hand. He placed it against the right hand of the doctor and pressed.

"It's obviously Sergeant Tyler controlling this thing. Now, why is he going to Ice Palace?"

For the first time Trevor smiled. It was as though he was far braver now that Heirthall was unconscious.

"What's there, Colonel? Five hundred nuclear weapons — enough missiles to destroy every deepwater port on the face of the earth." His grin widened. "The symbiants are taking back their oceans, and the Heirthalls and Leviathan have helped them do it."

"Does every asshole on the planet have access to these damn weapons?" Mendenhall whispered to Ryan.

"Only the ones we run across."

18

Missouri was running at six knots on a southern line toward Antarctica, for no other reason than that was the last known direction of Leviathan as she left the area of Saboo.

First Officer Izzeringhausen handed Jefferson the full list of damages that would have to wait until they returned to Pearl for repairs.

"Not bad considering we hit more debris than a garbage truck," the captain said as he laid the report on the navigation chart he had been studying.

"Conn, sonar, we have just picked up a very weak submerged disturbance. We believe computer says it's Leviathan."

"Did you get a bearing?" Jefferson asked with the microphone gripped tightly.

"Aye, Captain — twenty-three miles due south of the Ross Sea, heading straight for the ice shelf on a heading for White Island. Depth, over three and a half miles."

"We follow, Skipper?"

"Yes, we follow. Get in there as close as we can and hope the damn ice shelf stays intact."

Jefferson was referring to the massive shearing of thirty-three miles of ice that had recently torn free from the world's largest ice pack.

"Take us to five hundred feet and bring us up to twenty-two knots. Order the relief shift for sonar, and get the department supervisors up here. We need the best people at their stations."

"Aye, Captain. I estimate at our revised speed and depth we should arrive at the shelf in three hours."

"Ten miles out I want to slow to five knots, and we'll go to total silence from there — no unnecessary movement."

"Aye, Captain."

"Somewhere out there is the world's largest shark, and I don't want to get bitten again."

Five decks below the control center were the crew's quarters. Just fewer than eighteen hundred off-duty men and women were enclosed in four different berthing areas. The officer's quarters were dispersed alongside the larger compartments according to specific division. The symbiant attack started at the larger crew quarters.

"Hey, what's that smell?" one of the bosun mates called out from his bunk. "Smells like someone is welding something."

Another man who was playing cards with several others looked around and thought the same thing. Then another became concerned.

Suddenly three flood valves opened to the sea, and freezing water started flowing through and into the compartment. Not one of the crew in the first compartment panicked, but several did run to one of the three hatches located in the compartment. They spun the wheel so they could get free and then isolate the flooding — but the wheel was frozen.

"What the hell!" someone called.

The water was at one foot and rising.

Outside the hatch, the three midshipmen rolled up the electrical line for the portable arc welder and then looked down upon their work, satisfied. The spot welds along the frame and on the turning wheel would make sure that every man and woman in the compartment would drown within an hour. The three had finished at the exact same moment as the other welding crews, who had just accomplished the same task on the remaining crew compartments and officers' quarters.

Leviathan's crew had been taken in less than five minutes from the time Yeoman Alvera ordered the attack to commence.

Lieutenant Kogersborg was just finishing his change-of-watch paperwork when the flooding alarm sounded. The constant electronic buzz filled the command center as the watch crew monitored their holographic stations.

"We have flooding on deck five, crews' quarters. All four compartments, and officers' cabins as well!" the damage control officer called out.

Kogersborg looked on in amazement, then reacted.

"That is ridiculous, we didn't hit anything — it has to be a computer malfunction."

"Diagnostics check out; that deck is flooding."

"Jesus," the young lieutenant said as he moved quickly from the navigation console to the damage-control station. He knew the flooding was real when Leviathan went into automatic damage control, as ordered by her computers, counterflooding to keep the submarine trimmed as they rose toward the Ross Ice Shelf.

When he saw the hologram depicting the flooding in sixteen cabins and the four large crew compartments, he came close to panicking. The second thing he saw was the computer-generated numbers of personnel estimates for the occupied areas.

"Oh my God, ninety-eight percent of the crew is on that deck!"

"Why aren't they getting out?" one technician asked.

"The computers are not counterflooding, and the pumps have not started," the damage control officer said.

"Sound general quarters — call the captain and Commander Samuels to the conn. Manually start the pumps on deck five, now!"

"The situation is under control, Lieutenant," Tyler said from the circular stairwell leading down from the observation platform above control. The sergeant was armed, as were his men coming at the control center from the fore and aft compartments.

Kogersborg without hesitation knew his duty. He jumped for the general alarm. His hand was only inches away when Tyler deftly shot him three times in the back. The boy slowly hit the captain's pedestal and slid to the deck. The rest of the control room crew started to move to action when several more shots rang out; then the din of automatic fire filled the air. When silence came once more, thirty-five men and women of the control room watch were dead.

"Damn it!" Tyler hissed as he stepped down from the last rung of the staircase. "Call the trainees to the control center to take over the watch, and get these bodies out of here."

One of his men was leaning over two of the helmsmen.

"Sergeant, these two are still alive. Should we call the—"

Tyler, looking frustrated, walked up and fired two shots into the heads of the wounded, making his security man fall backward.

"Your men were too slow in reacting, and that made the control room crew think they could do something about this. I won't be cleaning up your mess again. Now get the midshipmen trainees up here, and get replacement modules for the damaged control systems."

"Yes, sir," the man said, with one last look at the murdered crewmen.

Tyler deftly stepped over the crumpled body of Lieutenant Kogersborg and reached out to touch the large captain's chair sitting high on its pedestal. Then he removed the ammunition clip from his handgun and replaced it with a fresh one.

"Have the second assault team meet me in front of the observation compartment — it's time to confront Captain Heirthall and her guests."

The Event Group felt Leviathan slow and her bow angle change as she started her climb to the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf. The waters outside of the observation windows were crystal clear as the lights started to pick up the indigenous sea life of the Antarctic Archipelago.

"Look at that," Lee said as he stepped closer to observe the giant pressure ridges on the bottom of the shelf. Upside-down mountains pointed their sharpened edges at the now diminutive Leviathan as she rose through the depths.

"According to these coordinates, we're not that far away from White Island," Everett said as he made some quick calculations on a napkin. "The closest American friendlies are a thousand miles away at McMurdo Station, on the southern tip of Ross Island."

"We have enough scientists onboard Leviathan as it is. I don't think those nerds from the weather station will be of any help," Lee quipped as he looked at Niles. "No offense, my dear boy."

"No, but if we can find a way off Leviathan, they are within rescue distance," Carl said as an explanation.

"Good to know, swabby," Jack said.

"All hands take collision stations, stand by to surface. We have unstable ice ahead," Yeoman Alvera called over the intercom.

"Well, at least we know who is in command," Collins said as he looked at the now-silent Dr. Trevor. "We need to know who-all is in on this. The crew? If not, what did they do with them?"

Outside the windows, Leviathan rose dangerously close to the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf, slowing even further as she did.

"The opening to Ice Palace is a natural fault that will allow Leviathan to rise into the ice," Samuels said, sitting next to Alexandria as she lay upon the long conference table. "I think the captain is coming around."

Heirthall's eyes blinked and she turned her head. She looked into Virginia's eyes. She smiled, reached out, and took her hand. Virginia smiled, and then slowly wiped the blood that pooled and ran from Alexandria's left ear.

"The sym inside of me is dying, Ginny. I'm afraid it's taking me with it," she said, almost silently.

"No, you're too strong for that." Virginia squeezed her friend's hand. "You did good fighting it. If you hadn't, no one on the outside would have stood a chance."

Alexandria smiled sadly. "I am not proud of myself for… allowing this thing to happen," she said, wincing as a momentary pain coursed through her head. "I didn't think the syms… were capable."

"Sometimes aggressor species hide their intent well, Alex. You were blinded by your compassion. Your entire family was."

"Help me… sit up, Ginny."

Virginia, with Alice's assistance, did as asked. More blood flowed from first the left, then the right ear. Alexandria leaned her head against Virginia's chest as Samuels came over. He tried to smile at his captain, but couldn't.

"We… were both blinded, James." She smiled and took his hand. "Nevertheless, we'll fix… it. You must understand this. Listen well, James — the young children, they are innocent. Their syms are too young… to be… a part of this."

"Yes, Captain, we will make things right, and we'll get the children off," her first officer said determined.

"The ice shelf is dying. The polar ice caps are melting; being weakened by the global warming governments say is not cyclical," she said weakly, trying to make her voice heard.

Leviathan was rising fast toward a giant pressure ridge that shot down from the shelf. It looked as if they were on a direct collision course with disaster, when suddenly the giant vessel veered right and then expertly shot between two of the larger ridges, shifting her bulk into a valley that allowed Leviathan to rise up and into the great ice shelf.

"Yeoman Alvera is quite adept at handling…. Leviathan's large bulk in tight spaces. Whenever we are gone for long periods of time, the opening…. to Ice Palace freezes over, and becomes a much tighter fit than when we left," Alexandria said, watching the view from the windows.

"All hands, this is the deck officer, surface, surface," Alvera announced. "Chief of the boat, sound the horn — all interior lighting to full illumination."

Bubbles the size of cruise ships started to rise in front of the windows as the giant submarine started emptying her ballast tanks. She rose slowly, guided by her thrusters in order to stay clear of the sharpened edges of the ice. The deck beneath their feet dipped one way and then the other as the young Alvera maneuvered her to avoid ice slicing through her composite hull.

Finally, the warning horn sounded and Leviathan broke into bright, daylike illumination. As the Event Group looked out of the observation window, they saw a natural ice cave, immense in size.

"We discovered it thirty-five years ago. My parents… estimated that the cave was naturally formed over two hundred thousand years ago by… seismic activity from Mount Erebus to the south. It was possibly a giant air bubble the size of England that rose from the sea floor."

Leviathan gently rose to the surface of a small interior sea totally encased in ice. The water was calm as the giant submarine eased onto the surface.

"Attention, deck watch to the sail, deck watch to the sail. Riggers and security report to the docking commander. Attention, all hands, Leviathan has arrived at our destination."

The Event Group felt Leviathan shut down her engines as the great submarine settled on the surface of the inland waterway. Thrusters maneuvered her close to the center of the trapped sea.

"Welcome to the end of the world as we know it," Alexandria said, blood now lining her lips. "This is where our… journey ends. I suspect this is where Sergeant Tyler will gather whatever his… reward is, and the symbiants will make… their final… stand against mankind."

To Jack, Carl, Niles, and the others, that was an ominous announcement.

"I'm sorry, Captain Heirthall, but we're leaving this little shindig, and if we can, we're going to bring this whole place down, and Leviathan with it."

All eyes turned to Jack. Even Farbeaux set his half-finished drink down and pushed it away.

"It is about time you said something noble, Colonel. You were beginning to worry me."

19

Jack walked over and stood before Dr. Trevor. Everett joined him, quickly reached out, and again pulled the doctor to his feet. He eased the smaller man into himself and smiled.

"Captain Everett drew the short straw this time around; he gets to ask you questions. Do you have your persuaders, Captain?" Collins asked, looking from Carl to the double hatchway. He knew that any minute Tyler and his men were going to start cutting through to get at them and finish what he had to do. Jack knew Tyler was trained enough to know he couldn't leave an enemy onboard while he was ashore. He would definitely attack.

"Yes. There wasn't much to choose from, since we'll need all the bullets in the commander's pop gun, but Ryan gathered up a couple of nice persuasion instruments."

To the doctor's horror, Everett let go of him and brought up a steak knife and a shiny corkscrew.

"The corkscrew is compliments of Colonel Farbeaux."

"I don't know what I can tell you," Trevor said, looking at the ordinary kitchen implements that now held a whole new world of possibilities. "Obviously the captain forced Sergeant Tyler and Yeoman Alvera's hand earlier than they expected."

"Is the rest of the crew loyal?" Everett asked.

"I don't know who is…" Trevor screamed as Carl poked him in the ribs with the corkscrew.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Niles asked, approaching them.

Collins turned and looked at his director.

"Torturing Dr. Trevor for information," he said plainly and without humor.

"Oh. Carry on."

Any hope that Trevor might have had left with Niles Compton as he returned to the senator and Alice.

"Okay, okay… the crew is unaware of what the syms and Tyler are doing. I never knew the plan for their disposal." Tyler felt the corkscrew scrape his skin through his coverall once more. "Or if they were to be disposed of at all."

"What are the syms planning?"

"Tyler will take command of Leviathan. That's his reward."

"For what?" Everett asked, not needing to poke the doctor again; his eyes warned of what he was capable.

"The syms will control the sea with Leviathan at their disposal. Most of the world's navies will be destroyed in the port attacks; the rest can be picked off piecemeal by Tyler. He isn't in it for money, he's in it for power."

Jack reached out and took the steak knife from the table where Everett had laid it. He placed it to the doctor's neck.

"And your reward for assisting in mutiny?"

"The Heirthall fortune," he whimpered.

"Ah, the gold and jewels of the Monte Cristo legend."

Trevor's eyes flicked to Henri Farbeaux as he joined the trio.

"Good to see that there is old-fashioned avarice alive and well in the world — that everything isn't all idealistic nonsense."

Jack lowered the knife and turned toward Farbeaux.

"Colonel, no more drinking. We're going to need you."

Farbeaux smiled and then saluted Collins mockingly. Then he looked straight into Trevor's eyes. The mention of the Heirthall treasure interested him immensely.

Before Everett could continue, there were noises coming from the hatchway, then a sudden shower of sparks.

"I guess our time's up," Everett said.

"Okay, get the captain behind a table. Ryan, Mendenhall, get us a barricade set up, a thick one."

Everyone started moving, tipping tables and piling chairs.

"One pistol, Jack. All we're going to do is maybe hurt someone and make them mad at us," Everett said as he tossed Trevor to the floor and dumped part of the conference table in front of him.

Before anyone could react, a locked access door above the observation glass sprang open. All they saw was a man drop into the compartment and dive for cover.

The attack on the observation deck had begun, and it came from a surprising front.

Tyler was watching his security team cut through the same hatchway they had sealed an hour earlier when he was approached from behind by Alvera and three of the sym midshipmen. She watched the progress on the hatch without comment for a moment. Her startling blue eyes did not waver from the bright torch. "The crew and officers were successfully taken in their quarters?" she asked Tyler without turning to face him.

"Yes." Tyler turned to her, annoyed. "Shouldn't you go back to your station on the bridge?"

Alvera stopped watching the men cutting through the hatchway. She turned briefly to the midshipmen accompanying her. Then she turned and looked more closely at Tyler, and actually took a menacing step toward him. He tried not to show his fear of the young woman, but failed, as his eyes could not hold her intensity.

"Explain to me again, since you have seized control of the most powerful vessel in the history of your world, how you can be trusted? A man willing to kill millions of his own species is also a man capable of betraying the partners who assisted him in achieving that great power. Why should we trust you?"

"Because the only ally you'll have after the death of Captain Heirthall is me and the members of my security team. I need you, and you need me. Your kind will live, and I will have Leviathan. You'll have control of the sea, and I'll have control of the one thing that guarantees it for you."

Alvera looked more closely into Tyler's face. Her blue eyes intensified as she gazed, trying to uncover the lie that she suspected was just under the surface of his features.

Tyler swallowed, but held his ground.

"You acted too quickly. The captain still has the launch codes in her head. Without those codes, we can't act against the naval powers of the world. Thus far your judgment is not quite adequate to wield the power of Leviathan, Sergeant."

"Obviously I had to act sooner than planned because Heirthall was being entertained by the men and women she brought aboard, despite your implanted sym. She was in far more control than you ever believed, Yeoman. Act is what I did, to cover for your errors in judgment." He swallowed. "Now, I have a question for you," he said, forcing himself to continue. "Are you prepared to do what you have to do? Can you kill more than eighteen hundred loyal members of Leviathan's crew — men and women you have worked with for years? More importantly, can you do what you have to do in regard to the children? They are just as loyal to the captain as her crew."

Alvera turned her back on Tyler and paced to the elevator where the midshipmen were holding the doors for her. Before she entered, Alvera turned with a small grin. "The bulk of the crew will be dead within the hour. As for the children, they are part of the gulf colony, and mean absolutely nothing to me and the others."

"Then I ask you the same question: How can you be trusted if you can kill off an entire colony of syms, especially when there are so few of your kind to begin with?"

"Simple, Sergeant," she said, stepping into the elevator. "They are young. They would fight to save the captain. They have none of the aggressiveness of the older sym colonies. They don't yet realize we are on the short end of a losing war. We must live—not because we are allowed to, but because we have the right to." She looked with distaste at Tyler. "We hate humankind — we despise them. Somehow, some way, we must secure the seas, even if we have to strike at every man, woman, and child on the planet."

Alvera stopped the doors from closing.

"I am sending you some special help to ensure you take this compartment. Be sure not to get in their way. If I were you, I would let… us handle them…. The people inside that observation lounge are exceptional at what they do, and as long as the captain draws breath, she's dangerous." She smiled as if she had just heard the punch line to a private joke. "Be careful, Sergeant; we would hate to lose you now."

The closing elevator doors finally blocked Alvera's hate-filled eyes.

Tyler turned back to the cutting. He then turned back to the now-closed doors of the elevator.

"The only way you can do that, you little bitch, is to have Leviathan do it for you." He thought, then smiled. "The only thing you must do is join the young syms in the fate you have planned for them."

Beneath Tyler's forced bravado, just where he could ignore it for moments at a time, was the fact that he was terrified of Alvera and her midshipmen. They were capable of anything, even eliminating him and his men from their equation.

Jack and Everett were the first to move toward the darkened threat that fell from the access hatch. Collins had the small handgun and Everett the steak knife. Ryan and Mendenhall took up station on the far side and awaited Jack's orders. They knew their job; they would be the distraction while Collins and Everett advanced on the enemy.

At the front hatchway, the cutting continued.

Collins rose above one of the upturned tables, took aim at the approximate position where the threat had landed, and waited.

"Hold your fire!" a frightened voice shouted.

Everett looked at Jack and shook his head. "That you, Doc?" he called out.

"Stand up!" Carl shouted.

As they watched, first hands and then the arms rose above one of the tables.

"Don't shoot me," Robbins said as he stood with arms raised.

Niles, the closest to Gene Robbins, quickly went over and searched him. Then the director spied a bag at Robbins's feet.

"It's not much. I took them from the captain's cabin."

"We have four nine-millimeter handguns here," Niles counted, "and four extra clips of ammunition."

Everett and Collins advanced on their new ally.

"Noble of you, Doc," Everett said as he took the bag from Robbins, who couldn't hold Everett's gaze and so just looked at the floor.

"Can we get out the same way you came in?" Collins asked.

"We'll have to find a way up from the deck above. I nearly broke both of my ankles falling from that height," Robbins said, looking from Jack to the director. "Niles, I—"

Compton turned away and faced Samuels. "Can we get up there?"

"Yes, follow me."

As Jack motioned for Carl, Mendenhall, and Ryan to follow, he tossed Farbeaux and Senator Lee each one of the handguns and two clips of ammunition.

"Blast anything that comes through that door," he said as he followed the others up the stairs.

"And what are you going to do?" Farbeaux asked, making sure there was a round chambered in the handgun.

"We'll try and get behind the assault force."

"Wonderful. In the meantime, the senator and I will occupy them by collecting their bullets until you achieve your goal," Farbeaux said as he lowered himself and faced the hatchway.

The five men rushed up the spiral staircase to the small deck above the observation floor. They watched as Samuels reached the open access panel Robbins had come through. He gestured to Collins, who tossed him the nine-millimeter he was holding. The commander quickly stepped underneath the panel and held the gun up, pointing into the blackness beyond. He stepped back and looked at the others.

"Clear so far. Give me a leg up."

Ryan and Mendenhall stooped so Samuels could place his foot in their hands; they lifted. As the commander gabbed hold of the frame, he started kicking wildly and screaming. Ryan and Will pulled frantically at Samuels's legs, trying desperately to yank him from the access hatch. Suddenly they were sprayed with blood. Shocked, they continued to pull at the commander's legs. Then without warning, they fell to the floor, and to their horror they saw that only the bottom half of Samuels came with them.

"Jesus!" Everett said as he reacted quickly, stepping over the commander's still-kicking legs and opening fire into the open hatchway.

Collins joined Everett and added his fire to the darkness beyond. They heard a mewling sound, as if a large cat had been hurt. Then something fell from the hatch, and before they knew what was happening, the thing rose and jumped on Carl.

Mendenhall saw what it was first, and tried to pull the gelatinous thing from the captain. Ryan joined in, and Jack did the same. The symbiant raised its head, its small hands pinning Everett to the deck, and hissed, showing its clear teeth and deep blue eyes. Without realizing it, all three men released the creature and jumped back. Collins caught his foot on the lower half of Commander Samuels's body and fell back. As he did he brought the nine-millimeter up and fired directly into the symbiant's head. The animal jerked, then faced Collins and angrily swiped at him, releasing one of Everett's arms. The captain quickly fired his gun straight up into the symbiant's chin. Three quick shots sent bluish-pink jelly upward. Everett felt the sym go lax, and he pushed it off.

As the three men stood and helped Carl to his feet, they heard hissing sounds coming from the access vent.

"Jack, I think we better find another way," Everett said as he pushed Mendenhall and Ryan in front of him and started for the stairs.

As Collins turned away, he heard another of the symbiants fall from the access hatch. Then another, and another. He turned quickly and fired into the mass of clear membrane of the first. He saw the bullets enter the creature's gelatinous flesh, but all they did was make it shy away as the next set of bullets found the mark. Then it started after Collins with a hideous scream.

Farbeaux was torn between watching the spiral staircase, where he heard sounds of men running, and the hatchway, where the sparks of the cutting torch had stopped. The decision was made for him as the right-side hatch was thrown back and an object was thrown in. Farbeaux and Lee hit the deck as the flash-bang grenade went off with a bright flash and deafening explosion. In the middle of all of this, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Everett came rushing down to the main deck. They hit the floor, stunned. It was Jack who automatically started firing at the assault element coming through the hatch. He caught the first two unaware, and they crumpled to the floor. When he took aim at the third and fourth as they rushed in from the companionway, he heard the syms flopping down the stairs. He quickly turned, fired upward, and then hopped over the railing the last ten feet. Hitting the deck rolling, he felt hands on him. He looked up and saw Sarah as she helped him to his feet.

Farbeaux had risen from their cover and started firing into the opening. Lee turned his attention toward the staircase and fired in that direction. Then all of the action stopped at once.

"Colonel, there is no escape. Surrender now, and we will call the symbiants off. Refuse, and I guarantee you and your people a harsh death. You have never seen the syms feed — I assure you it is not a pretty sight."

Jack and the others saw that the symbiants had paused at the higher level. They were moving around, watching them through the smoke, their illuminated eyes penetrating even from that distance.

"We want the captain. Give her up and we'll put you on the surface of the ice shelf. That won't guarantee your survival, but it's a better fate than facing the symbiants," Tyler called out.

Collins took a breath and looked at Niles. Compton in turn looked at Heirthall lying between Alice and Virginia.

"They won't ever… get the… launch codes… I swear. Ginny, Dr. Compton, you and your people have done… all that you can."

Niles looked back at Jack and shook his head.

"Sorry, Sergeant, I guess you have to come and get us," Jack called out, and then he, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Everett took up positions next to Farbeaux and Lee.

"I can't say that I am happy with your decision-making, Colonel," Henri said, not taking his eyes off the hatchway.

"Colonel, I am accessing the view screen on the observation window. Judge for yourself what the consequences are before deciding," Tyler shouted.

As Jack turned, the view screen in the upper portion of the viewing glass illuminated. The picture showed a fish-eye view of one of the crew's quarters. Men and women were struggling to get higher in the compartment as seawater rose beneath them. Although the picture had no sound, Collins knew they were screaming and yelling. Several of the more experienced crew were trying desperately to open the hatch, diving and then surfacing for air.

"There are three more compartments like that one, Colonel. Surrender, and I'll let the crew go along with you."

Collins lowered his head.

"Jesus, Jack, that bastard is holding all of the cards," said Everett.

"I daresay he's right, my boy," Lee said as he lowered his weapon.

Jack stood and slowly walked to the open hatch. He safetied the handgun and tossed it out into the companionway.

The battle for Leviathan had ended.

As the elevator took Tyler's security team, the Event Group, Farbeaux, and Captain Heirthall up through the skyscraperlike conning tower, Jack watched Alexandria. She was deteriorating fast. He looked down at Sarah, and he could tell she was seeing it, too. The captain clung to Virginia, holding on to something of herself she could still feel and touch. As far as he knew, she hadn't been medicated since their arrival in the Ross Sea, so her speculation that the symbiant implant had died was true.

At the topmost deck of the conning tower, Tyler opened a large access hatch and they were shown outside for the first time in two days. The bridge overlooked an amazing sight — a cavern that was eight hundred feet high and a mile in length. On both sides of Leviathan, to port and starboard, and only seven hundred feet away, were the sheer walls of the naturally formed bubble. The ice, illuminated by lighting placed by Heirthall and her crew years before, made the cavern gleam with a natural beauty no one outside of Leviathan had ever witnessed before.

A natural shelf with smaller pockets of caves lined the cavern. It looked as if the crew of Leviathan had expanded these to accommodate items such as vehicles and equipment, which had already been removed from the dangerous location.

The bridge phone rang, and Tyler quickly answered it.

"We have sunrise on the surface of the shelf. Winds are picking up to about sixty knots. We will start to see rougher seas shortly. If we are to launch the missiles today, we have to accomplish it before the winds exceed seventy knots."

"I see. We'll be retrieving the codes shortly."

"How can we be getting winds here, beneath the ice shelf?" Compton asked, adjusting his fur-lined hood.

"In answer to your question, Dr. Compton, the winds are from the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf, one mile above us. They are coming through one hundred and fifteen thousand years of accumulated ice," Alexandria said weakly, shivering.

"How is it penetrating?" Virginia asked, looking around her as the wind picked up in intensity.

"Look up," Alex said, gesturing with her gloved hand.

As they did, the sight was terrifying. The sun, just rising on the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf, was showing like a fan of sunbeams through a massive crack in the shelf itself. It was at least a mile long that they could see, stretching far beyond the cavern.

"Over five hundred miles of the shelf is breaking away. This single event will add more than three inches to the water levels of the world. More will soon follow."

"My God," Alice said, taking Lee's arm as she looked skyward.

"Losing the ice shelf alone is bad enough, but that coupled with the melting of the Arctic will eventually be devastating to the coastal areas of the planet."

"This is what you are allowing with your alliance with the symbiants, Tyler," Jack said, watching the man who had binoculars trained on a distant, hollowed-out section of ice.

"Why haven't we seen the crew? Are they released as you promised?" Sarah asked.

"They will be released soon," Tyler said, lowering his glasses and looking right at Sarah. "As soon as the captain gives us the launch codes for the weapons."

Everett took a menacing step forward, but Collins reached out and stopped him just as ten security men brought their automatic weapons up.

"I fear… Sergeant Tyler and Yeoman Alverez are too late," Alexandria said. "The fault line has opened even farther than the last time we were here. I would… say by at least a thousand feet. The cavern is too unstable for a launch."

"Nonetheless, we will launch in half an hour. Captain, I fully expect the launch codes once we get back below. Colonel, your people go first, and before you try anything, remember: I have men stationed at the bottom of the sail, and they will not be forgiving the second time."

Collins stared at Tyler, wishing for just two minutes with the sergeant. He then looked at the others on the sail and thought better of it. There still might be a time and a place.

Moving down the steep staircase, Virginia grabbed for Alexandria as her knees let go. She held her upright until Mendenhall and Ryan stepped up to take the captain's weight.

"Take her down," Tyler shouted from above as the first of the above-deck security men reached the opening of the conning tower hatch.

As Jack's feet hit the inside of the tower, the light from above them was suddenly cut off. The hatch had slammed shut. As men and women scrambled in the darkness, their eyes adjusted. Jack saw them first. It was three of the children. They had hidden in the darkness of the stairwell, then slammed the hatch shut and dogged it before Tyler and his men could follow them.

The three children, one of whom was the small girl that Will had come across on Saboo, smiled at Mendenhall. They were silent as they looked at the assembled group. Then the girl, along with her two male companions, gestured for them to follow.

Collins stopped the small child. "There are security men below us," he said.

"Yes, they are there," the girl said, but turned and went down the stairs anyway.

"I think we better follow the child," Farbeaux said, limping after her.

As they reached the bottom of the long staircase, they were amazed to see five more of the children. The pounding on the hatch above told them of Tyler's anger. Around the children were the limp bodies of ten of Tyler's security men. Collins didn't even want to know how the children had subdued them.

"There are… still… a few weapons in the… cavern," Alexandria mumbled.

"All ashore that are going ashore," Everett said as he started to open the escape hatch on the base of the giant sail tower.

Jefferson was staring and thinking about the chart in front of him. Missouri was at station keeping — only using her thrusters to adjust for drift as she waited. They were one mile off from the Ross Ice Shelf. He looked every few minutes at the latest ELF message from National Command Authority — the president of the United States. The coded wording was clear after deciphering: Sink Leviathan through any means possible. Release of special weapons has been authorized.

Captain Jefferson ran a hand through his graying hair, then looked up as his first officer approached.

"Maybe the president doesn't know that Collins and the others are still alive and onboard."

"It doesn't matter, Izzy. He knows they very well may be, but our orders stand. When Leviathan comes out from under the shelf, we bushwhack her with a Mark seventy-eight 'special.'"

"Goddamned nuclear-tipped torpedo," Izzeringhausen said, shaking his head.

"Let's get the cursed thing loaded into tube three. Load one, two, and four with standard Mark forty-eights."

"Aye, sir."

"Izzy, we will do our duty on this," Jefferson said as he saw the look on his first officer's face.

"Yes, Captain, but no one said we have to like it."

Captain Jefferson frowned and looked down at the chart that depicted the Ross Ice Shelf.

"Stay under the ice until Collins can pull something—anything—off, if he's still alive."

20

"Is… the captain… going to die?" the small child asked with tears forming in her eyes.

Jack knew it would do no good to lie to the child. "Yes — but she… and we… are grateful for your help. What is your name?" he asked.

"Natika," she said, as she placed a small hand on Heirthall's cheek. "And she is our captain." It was as if it were that simple. Heirthall was the captain, and it could be no other way. Jack knew that, to the children, there was no other authority in the world.

Everett managed to get the hatch open, and the cold wind entered the tower. The small girl turned away, and the others followed her.

"Hey, hey," Jack said as he stopped her and the others. "You have to come with us."

The girl just shook her head. "We have others we have to bring out. The crew are trapped in their quarters — they will die soon. My friends are also in the mess compartment. We must help them."

"Colonel, you have to get me to the command bridge," Heirthall said, still held between Virginia and Alice.

"They can't launch without the codes, right?" Lee asked.

"They can… get the… codes through… other means."

"This job sucks," Mendenhall said, voicing the same opinion that he had on many an occasion.

Collins made a quick decision. "Will, you and Jason go with the girl. Do what you can to free whatever crew is still alive, and be careful," he said, taking two of the weapons from the downed security men and tossing each one to the lieutenants.

Natika seemed to like the suggestion; her smile widened. She stepped up to Mendenhall and took him by the hand.

"I guess we're in your girlfriend's hands," Ryan quipped as he joined Mendenhall and the children.

"Funny man," Will said as they left the sail and disappeared through the hatch leading down.

Jack reached for the other fallen weapons. Everett, who joined him, immediately tossed the automatic rifles to Robbins, Lee, Compton, Farbeaux, and finally Sarah, who shook her head, knowing what Jack was going to say.

"Mr. Everett, I assume the captain has a way of stopping any missile launch from Leviathan. Take her with you and find a way into that control center. Get it done." He pulled back the charging handle of the weapon, chambering a round. "Get it done."

"And you?" Everett asked as Sarah stepped up to Jack, shaking her head.

"I'm taking a different route."

Jack placed his right hand on Sarah's cheek and smiled. "Don't worry, Short Stuff, I have an extreme desire to live. I have plans beyond today."

Sarah was about to speak when Collins turned and went into the elevator. The doors closed and he was gone. Everett quickly stepped up and eased Alexandria from the grasp of Virginia and Alice.

"Captain, shall we try and help?" Everett asked Heirthall when he saw her blue eyes open and alert.

"By all means… Captain Everett."

"I'm not leaving without my friend," Virginia said, then helped Carl with Alexandria's weight.

Yeoman Alvera sat on the edge of the captain's bed. Her hand played over the coarse blanket as she watched two of Tyler's men cutting into the captain's safe. As the front of the steel safe popped free of its hinges, she stood and walked to the bulkhead. She eyed the two men until they moved away, and then she reached in and took out the safe's contents. She tossed papers on the deck until she came to a plastic-coated envelope. She snapped the plastic into two pieces, then looked at the thick paper inside.

"NX0021-001 Heirthall-one," she said, reading the launch codes aloud.

Alvera smiled.

Ryan and Mendenhall followed Natika toward deck five and the crew level. Ryan looked at Will as the girl started acting strangely. She placed her hands on each hatch as they passed them. She would slowly, sadly shake her head, with tears in her eyes.

"What is it?" Mendenhall asked, leaning down in front of her to bring him to eye level.

"They are all dead. They died scared — frightened at not knowing what was happening to them."

The girl started again, passing the first, then the second, until she came to the third compartment. She stopped and her small hand wavered, then it moved higher, then lower.

"Alive," she said, closing her eyes. "Ten — twenty — maybe forty crew — they are cold, scared — they want out."

Ryan quickly looked at the large spot welds on the hatch wheel and the four on the hatch and frame. Then he turned to look for something, anything, to break the welds.

"Damn it, we need a cutting torch," Mendenhall said, looking behind him, expecting Tyler's men at any minute.

Ryan spied something on the composite hull — a fire hose and ax in their case. He ran, smashed the glass, and removed the heavy ax.

"You any good at chopping wood?" he asked Will.

"Man, I'm from L.A., I—"

"Forget it. Stand back," Ryan said as he raised the ax and swung at the weld holding the center wheel in the middle of the hatch.

The blade struck, making an unbearably loud ping. Then he swung again, and then again. Natika was holding her hands to her ears as protection from the loud noise. Finally, on the fourth swing, the makeshift spot weld gave way.

"Turn it, Will. I'll start on the hatch welds."

Mendenhall cranked on the wheel. It refused to turn at first, then slowly spun in his hands.

"Got it," he cried.

Ryan didn't hear. He swung at the right side of the hatch and the first weld broke free. A small trickle of water started oozing out along the seal. After breaking the second and third welds, more water started squeezing between the steel and the rubber gasket as the pressure from within started to push the water out. Ryan moved Mendenhall and Natika to the safe side of the hatch, and was just raising the ax for the last weld when they were surprised.

Two men stood standing at the juncture of the companionway, pointing weapons at them. They stepped forward, coming within three feet. Will pulled Natika in toward him and stepped next to Ryan as Mendenhall, with his free hand, raised his weapon.

The two men raised their weapons. Ryan was about to throw the ax when suddenly, and without warning, the last weld broke free. The hatch gave way as the single weld was no longer strong enough to hold back the pressure of the water inside. The hatch sprang so hard and so suddenly that the two guards never knew what hit them. Their bodies were smashed as the hatch crashed into them. Water cascaded from the compartment, along with bodies, live men and women, and the detritus of the personal lives that once sat in lockers and upon tables.

Ryan, Mendenhall, and Natika were washed thirty-five feet down the companionway before the flood subsided.

Several of the crew sputtered and spat. The survivors were half-frozen, but grateful to be alive and free. They splashed through the water and looked around confusedly, helping those who were worse off than others.

"Well, they're not much, but that's the army we have to work with," Ryan said as he tossed the ax in the water. "Not much of a cavalry coming to the rescue, but we do what we can."

With that, they started explaining to the rescued crewmen what was happening, and where their captain was.

The second and deciding battle for Leviathan was about to start.

21

Tyler sat on a stool next to the navigation table after his men had retaken the conning tower. An hour and a half had passed since Heirthall and the Event Group escaped into Ice Palace. They had brought the warheads, which had been stored in one of the vast caverns where they had not run into Collins or any of the others, and had installed all thirty of the MIRV weapons on the missiles buried inside their launch tubes. Tyler looked at his watch. In record time, too, he thought.

Tyler looked around at the security men and midshipmen at their consoles, then at the captain's chair above him. He was tempted to climb into the large chair, but felt that since Alvera was forsaking the seat of power, he would also. He felt there was no need to risk a power showdown before the launch was complete. Then he could take command with his men at the controls.

"Putting to sea while Captain Heirthall is free is a foolish and unnecessary risk," Tyler said as he stepped up to the navigation table where Alvera was studying the hologram of the Ross Sea.

Alvera raised her eyebrows and straightened up from studying the coordinates where the missile launch would take place. Eight circles of red were targeted for the opening salvo of Heirthall's grand invention — the very first breed of stealth cruise missiles. The main naval ports of the United States, France, England, Russia, China, Germany, and Australia were the hard targets of the strike. Eight reentry warheads would be targeted for each nation, which would effectively destroy each of the deepest water ports, knocking out a good percentage of those nations' surface and subsurface fleets without them putting to sea. The rest of the threats could be taken care of from another launch location.

"Heirthall is nearly dead; the others with her will be located soon by the syms. No, Sergeant, these people are no threat." She looked at Tyler and briefly smiled. "As easy as it was for them to escape you and your men, they won't be so lucky against my family. My family will find them and kill them all. Now, let's get under way, shall we?"

"Sonar, conn, anything close aboard?" she asked over the intercom.

"Inconclusive contacts at this time. The movement and instability of the ice shelf above us may be masking any potential threats."

Alvera looked down at the chart and made her final straight line from under the Ross Ice Shelf.

"You seem worried," Tyler said.

"That American Virginia class submarine could be lurking in open water, and we wouldn't know it until she put two torpedoes into us."

"Leviathan can take anything Missouri can throw at her."

"That vessel is a Special Operations platform — do you understand what that means? Let me enlighten you, Sergeant — they are stealth capable. They can sit for hours and we wouldn't know they were there unless we put our laser web on them. Here's one more fact for your files, since you seem to have missed the captain's classes on the subject of American capability. She may have nuclear weapons onboard, and unless Leviathan is protected by depth, it is possible that they can destroy her. It would take a lucky shot, to be sure, but it's still possible."

"Then we rely on your ability to evade. After all, you were personally trained by the captain."

Alvera ignored the false compliment by Tyler. "Watch officer, make your depth six hundred feet, course heading three-three-zero degrees at fifty knots," Alvera ordered. "Weapons, load tubes one through twenty with Mark sixties, activate and warm up vertical tubes one through thirty with SS-twenties — special war shot."

"Aye."

Alvera reached for the dive alarm and looked at Tyler one last time.

"All hands prepare for dive." She hit the horn. "Dive — dive!"

Leviathan spewed more than a million gallons of seawater straight into the air as she started sliding beneath the trapped inland sea. What remained of the now-stranded Event Group, along with Robbins and Farbeaux, watched from a distance, behind a wall of calved ice.

"Good luck, Jack," Niles Compton said as Sarah joined him at the edge of the ice.

She looked around and then above them. The ice looked even more unstable than it had an hour before.

"Look at this," Lee said, making Sarah and Niles turn away from the view of the giant Leviathan disappearing underneath the Ross Sea. As they did, they saw ten of the children emerge from one of the carved-out ice buildings. They reached Henri Farbeaux first as they gathered around the group.

"Some of them made it out," Alice said.

"I'm afraid their escape may be for naught, my dear Mrs. Hamilton," Farbeaux said as he looked beyond the children who gathered around him.

Compton and the others turned to see the clear-skinned hand of a symbiant taking hold of the ice and starting to pull itself up.

"Get the children inside," Sarah said. "We don't stand a chance out here."

As they turned to herd the children back, more syms swam to the surface and started making their way ashore.

The Group's only hope now was that the few hurt and tired men, women, and children left aboard Leviathan could somehow stop the missile launch and then return to save them.

It was now all in the hands of Captain Heirthall and Jack Collins.

"Conn — sonar — we have a possible disturbance under the shelf."

"What have you got exactly?" Jefferson asked, nodding for his sonar officer to rejoin his department.

"Possibly the same water-release noise picked up in the Bering Strait. Leviathan may be moving out from under the shelf, Captain."

Jefferson thought a moment. His boat was as ready as it could be. All hands were at battle stations-torpedo, and Missouri was as quiet as they could make her.

"Keep tracking her and calling out the position of the target," he said, then hung up.

"What are you thinking, Captain?" Izzeringhausen asked.

The captain continued to study the chart. "We do nothing but sit and let that big bitch come to us." He tapped the chart of the Ross Ice Shelf. "The shortest distance to the sea is the way they came in — to the north — and that's exactly where we'll be waiting, Izzy."

"Good plan."

"Hell, it's the only plan. Send an ELF message to National Command Authority."

Izzeringhausen removed a pen from his coverall and waited for his captain to speak.

"Inform the president: Missouri is preparing to engage Leviathan."

Everett and Virginia were frantically looking for the command bypass on the main auxiliary control panel. Alexandria was sitting in her chair in the control suite and trying to explain to Everett what he was looking for just as they both heard Leviathan sound her diving alarm. A few moments later, she felt her stomach leap as the giant ship slipped beneath the surface.

"Leviathan is starting to make a run for the sea," she said. The only good news thus far was that Tyler's men hadn't discovered them in the auxiliary control suite — yet.

Everett let out a whoop when he finally found what he was looking for. He quickly threw a switch, and the holographic controls lit up, coming to life with a myriad of colors.

For the first time in weeks, a true and meaningful smile crossed the red lips of Alexandria Heirthall.

She now had access to her element — the brain of Leviathan.

Heirthall smiled at Virginia as she once more took her place in the elevated command chair and turned on the holographic controls for her personal hologram. It failed to illuminate.

"They have cut power to my command hologram, but I will still give Tyler and Alvera the ride of their lives," she said as she reached into a compartment on the side of the command chair and removed a small case. "Captain, get to control and assist Colonel Collins. Kill Tyler and Alvera, and anyone else you can. Without Tyler and the yeoman, the rest won't launch. I'll do my best to keep Leviathan under the ice."

Everett started to turn when Alexandria stopped him, taking his arm. It seemed the captain had regained some of her strength and determination.

"I will sink her… if I have to."

"Understood."

Everett left the control suite. If he had lingered, he would have beheld a new Heirthall.

Alexandria Heirthall had chosen a side — her human side. Virginia smiled at her friend, then strapped herself into her seat.

"There have to be more weapons and good cover here someplace," Niles said as the last of the children filed into the large ice building.

Henri Farbeaux turned away from the large group and limped across the composite floor. For the moment he was just grateful for the warmth of the carved-out interior, but he knew their time was short. All the syms had come out of the water.

"Here they come," Sarah said, looking out of one of the shuttered wooden windows embedded in its ice frame.

Farbeaux went to the first room in the great building of rooms. He opened the door and found a comfortable meeting area, complete with long mahogany table and Queen Anne chairs. He shook his head and closed the door. He went to the next and opened it. It was a supply room — no firearms, only ice spikes, spearlike devices. The rest were ropes, ladders, boots for ice walking, and other cold-weather gear. Lined along the far wall were self-inflating, Zodiac-style rubber boats — only these were of a size Farbeaux had never before seen. They could easily seat one hundred and fifty adults. He also knew that they would do them no good one mile down in the Ross Ice Shelf. Farbeaux grabbed ten of the long, spiked poles and left the room.

"These are all we have," he said, handing them out to Niles, Sarah, Alice, Robbins, and Lee. "They may stop them better than bullets. I will check the last room. When I return, the senator, Dr. Compton, Dr. Robbins, and I will stand our ground at the front of the building. Young Sarah, you and Mrs. Hamilton will take charge of the children. I do not expect mercy from these creatures — do you understand?"

Everyone nodded. Henri turned and walked as quickly as his wound would allow to the back of the large building. He found the last door and saw a small staircase that went down into the ice. The composite material, resembling rubber, was scarce, unlike the rest of the building. He started down, hoping it might be an armory. When he reached the bottom, he stopped suddenly. He couldn't believe what he was looking at.

"My compliments, Captain Heirthall and Roderick Deveroux," he whispered.

At the lowest level of the building, in a special vaultlike room that was sealed against the harsh environment and lined in rubber for protection against the sea, was the Heirthall treasure — at least a thousand tons of gold, silver, and crates of jewels, a few of which were broken open and spilling their contents across the ice floor. Golden weapons; Saracen swords; golden shields from the time of Christ, and suits of armor from the Crusades. As he studied the room's design, he knew it would possibly be an area capable of a last stand against the enemy lurking outside.

Farbeaux shook his head at the discovery of the treasure — wondering what its true value would be, not only in terms of what it would bring on the open market, but in the prestige of owning some of the artifacts arrayed on the shelves. Henri looked upon the richest treasure in the history of the world and smiled.

"Colonel, here they come!" Sarah shouted.

"Ah, nothing is ever easy," Farbeaux said, turning away from the find of a lifetime, and he made his way back up the carved staircase. "How many, little Sarah?"

"Uh, all of them, I think."

When he looked through the open doorway on the main level, the first awful scream of a sym sounded. Niles Compton scored the first blow for the defense by jabbing the long, spearlike pole into the right eye of the first creature that came at them.

"Yes, nothing is ever easy," he repeated as he came forward, spike at the ready.

Captain Heirthall took the handgrips of the two toggles. Without rudder control, she could only use the bow and tower planes. She knew it might be enough to cause Leviathan to slow, or at the very least announce to whomever was listening that Leviathan was coming their way. This last point she kept to herself.

Heirthall removed a large pair of holographic glasses from their case and put them on. They resembled the visor of a pilot's flight helmet. She needed to utilize these because of the power loss to visuals. She flexed her fingers as the visor came to life. Leviathan's depth was close to a mile and a half, or a quarter of a mile under the deepest pressure ridge of the Ross Ice Shelf. The great vessel was only sixty miles from breaching the open sea. In the lower-right corner of the visor, she patched in to sonar, and could clearly see open water in front of her. She knew that didn't mean anything. As a matter of fact, she was guessing that Missouri was there — somewhere.

"Ginny, if I pass out or die on you, take the right plane control and pull back to its stops. Ram Leviathan into the bottom of the ice and keep her there. Give Colonel Collins and Captain Everett time."

"Can ice sink this damn thing?"

"I don't think so, but we can tear her up enough to slow her down, possibly causing enough damage to make her stop the missile launch."

Alexandria took hold of the hand grips, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She pulled the right toggle control all the way back, at the same time pressing a small red button on the top, releasing control of the submarine from the command bridge. Her brainchild was once again hers.

Leviathan responded.

Yeoman Alvera made her final calculation for launching the missiles. A straight, deadly red line ran straight toward the center of the surface of the Ross Sea.

"Acting chief?"

"Aye," said the sixteen-year-old girl standing between the helm seats.

"Make ready to adjust depth and course in three—" Alvera almost bit her tongue off as Leviathan suddenly went nose up and shot for the bottom of the shelf. The yeoman watched the navigation hologram as the symbol for the submarine was speeding at fifty knots toward a series of jagged pressure ridges.

"Down planes — down planes, engines to slow!" Alvera yelled as she wiped blood from her mouth.

"Planes are nonresponsive," the helmsman said loudly.

Tyler picked himself off the deck and then looked at the hologram with fear in his eyes.

"We are receiving conflicting impulses from the computer, we are being overridden!"

"Captain Heirthall!" Alvera said, looking directly at Tyler. "Engines all back. Helm control, make sure she cannot, I repeat, cannot gain rudder and ballast access! Sergeant Tyler, obviously the captain is not stranded at Ice Palace. May I suggest you start your search in auxiliary control?"

Tyler angrily turned away and went to communications.

Alvera turned and studied the hologram, for the first time becoming frightened herself.

"Sound the collision alarm," she shouted as Leviathan's engines went to full-reverse power. "Give me twenty thousand gallons of ballast in the forward tanks only!" The collision alarm started sounding throughout the boat. "Close all watertight doors, close the observation shields." Even as she gave the order, she knew it was too late.

Leviathan started to turn her bow down but was still rising at an incredible rate of speed. With her reactors screaming at more than 120 percent power, it wasn't enough to avoid the unavoidable.

The midshipmen braced themselves as the conning tower of Leviathan hit a large pressure ridge, tearing it free from the bottom of the shelf. The tower shook in its mountings, but held firm as the bow came up and struck another spikelike ridge, crushing the starboard observation shield and pushing it inward by three feet. The combination acrylic/nylon glass cracked and then gave way, creating a cascade of pressurized water that shot a hundred feet into the compartment.

"We have an outer and inner hull breach in the forward observation lounge!"

"Are we showing hatch integrity of the compartment in the green?"

"Yes, watertight doors are closed. We are two minutes from isolating plane control from the auxiliary suite."

Leviathan struck the bottom of the shelf again, throwing the control-room personnel from their seats.

"Tyler! The captain is trying to sink us!"

"Conn — sonar — we have her at fifty-six miles, bearing three-nine-seven degrees. She just hit the ice at over fifty knots!"

"Collins and his men, it has to be. Izzy, match bearings on Leviathan's noise and fire tubes one through six, a full spread, maximum range!"

Alvera braced herself as the pummeling continued. Heirthall was ramming the uppermost deck and tower into the shelf, causing damage to the topmost sensors housed in the conning tower.

She happened to look into the flickering hologram in time to see six blips light up at fifty-plus miles. They were bearing right on Leviathan.

"We have torpedoes in the water — they have us locked at long range!"

Alvera wasn't concerned with the American-made Mark 48s, as they could easily lose them under the shelf at the extreme range at which they were launched.

"We have a bearing on Missouri's location. Should we fire torpedoes?" the acting weapons officer asked.

"Yes, launch tubes one through ten. Blow the Americans out of the water," Tyler shouted as he tried in vain to get his men on the radio.

"Belay that order. We have to get to the launch point. Concentrate all efforts on regaining control and—"

Leviathan slammed into the ice again. This time it wasn't as devastatingly harsh as her engines, near to reactor scram, started pulling her back from the surface.

"We have regained all helm controls. The command suite has been isolated."

"About time," Tyler said as he slammed his phone down.

"Sergeant, I suggest you get the captain secured before she attempts something else."

Tyler started forward, grabbing the command security element as he hurried out.

"Ten degrees down bubble. Give me full dive on the planes; bring reactor power to fifty percent and go to thirty knots. Quiet the boat as much as possible and head to the launch point."

"We will have enemy torpedo contact in four minutes. They have to be advanced Mark forty-eights."

"Prepare to launch forward tube twelve electrically, tube twelve only. Set nuclear yield to one megaton — after launch, take Leviathan deep to two thousand feet."

"Yeoman, we still have flooding in the forward areas. The observation compartment is fully flooded; pumps are inoperative in that section."

"We'll have the power to pull out toward the surface; the reactors are cooling."

As they waited, Leviathan leveled off. The command crew felt the gentle release of air as one torpedo left the bow tube with a computerized order to detonate in the path of the incoming American weapons.

"Give me fifty degrees down bubble; engines to flank. Take us to two thousand feet!"

Leviathan laid her nuclear egg, and then dived for deep water where no man or machine could ever reach her.

The symbiants were crawling from the water onto the man-made ice shelf that ran around the circumference of Ice Palace. Sarah watched the first of the trench adults never hesitating as they came toward the building at incredible speed.

"The pressure down here must allow for their skeletal frames to withstand this oxygenated air!" Robbins called out from one of the front windows.

"We can talk over the fine points of sym science later, Doctor. Right now I believe they are quite capable of withstanding this level of our world," Farbeaux said just as the lead sym crashed into the window where he was standing.

Sarah reacted faster than Farbeaux, spearing the jellylike skin of the large, five-foot-long creature. At the same moment, Alice and Senator Lee opened up with the automatic weapons, shredding the small symbiant. The boat hook and bullets made the sym scream, a humanlike, awful wail of pain. The fluorescent blood went from red to a sickly purplish color as it fought to pull its body from the hook.

Henri raised the long, polelike spear and crushed the creature's eggshell thin, clear skull. The sym collapsed and its body fanned out as the invisible muscles seemed to dissolve into themselves.

As the creature stopped moving, the gathered children standing against the farthest wall watched in horror. One of their kind was being killed in front of them.

"I've got one coming through the wall," Lee said as he raised his weapon and fired.

The next sym was using stored saltwater to burn through the three-foot-thick wall of ice. The ice started to dissolve. The head of the sym came through, the mouth opened, and it hissed at Lee just as ten bullets slammed into its head. The sym recoiled but did not back out; its small blue eyes locked onto the senator and its body started to wriggle, trying to get through the ice that was refreezing around its trapped body.

Alice dropped her weapon, picked up one of the spikes, and speared the animal, but the sym easily dodged her meager assault and started pushing through, just as other adults began dissolving the walls around the small band of defenders.

"Children, move down the stairs!" Sarah yelled just as another sym crashed through the lone unbroken window.

The tail and small feet allowed the clear body the ability to slither along the floor like a snake — and it was lightning fast. Sarah thrust at it and missed, the sym dodging the tip of the boat hook easily. Then it struck, hitting Sarah in the chest as it drove her to the ground. The creature yelled something incoherent and raised its small, sharp claws to slash Sarah's face. At just that moment, a boat hook came through the clear wall of the sym's chest. Purple, red, pink, and clear fluid shot onto Sarah's heavy coat as she rolled out from under the creature and away from the sharp tip of the hook that had missed her head by inches.

Sarah stood quickly. The smell of fish was covering her. Then she saw who had come to her aid. It was one of the children. A nine-year-old girl withdrew the dripping boat hook and then turned to assist Farbeaux as he encountered another adult.

Before Sarah could stop them, the entire group of children, half sym and half human, ran forward, grabbing anything they could use to attack their brethren coming through the walls, doors, and windows. Sarah quickly realized it was no use in trying to get the children out of harm's way, so she started organizing them the best she could.

It was a small army coming to their rescue — but more to the detriment of the defense, they were up against a determined enemy who believed their very existence was at stake.

The human element was about to be overrun.

"All hands, detonation in five, four, three, two, one!"

The announcement went through the entire length of the ship. Even though they were expecting the hammer blow, it still caught everyone inside the giant submarine by surprise.

The nuclear-tipped torpedo detonated five hundred yards in front of the six American Mark 48s. The pressure wave struck them and tore the heavy weapons to pieces; then they disappeared into atom-sized particles. The shock wave went aft of Leviathan and to her bow. The downward wave of heated water struck her as she fought for depth, bending her at amidships and then passing, allowing her to spring back in a whiplash motion that almost broke her back.

Jack cleared the access tunnel and came out onto deck five. He immediately spied Ryan and Mendenhall with more than forty crewmen as they splashed their way toward the spiral staircase ascending to deck four. Just then the submarine became a horror ride of shaking and dipping.

Suddenly a man rolled down the staircase and landed with a thud on the deck. Carl Everett looked up at the stunned faces around him.

Everett grabbed Jack's leg and held on as the flooded companionway rocked, sending a torrent of water that went far over their heads.

"Come on, swabby, it's time to get control here before those assholes blow up a bunch of cities," Collins said, splashing toward Ryan and Will to organize the assault on Leviathan's operations center.

The giant pressure wave from the nuclear detonation — which was low in yield but multiplied a thousandfold because of the dense sea — ran toward the center of the Ross Ice Shelf. The heated water hit the underside of the shelf and actually lifted it by one and half feet. The fault line running the entire length of the world's largest sheet of thick ice separated completely. The giant walls of the crevice started crumbling, and the two halves moved — minutely at first, then picking up speed with the change in currents.

The Ross Ice Shelf started to come apart from the continent of Antarctica.

The syms realized something was wrong long before the human defenders. The attack stopped as suddenly as it started, and the syms started retreating from the walls.

"Bastards are quitting," Henri screamed in triumph, as blood poured from the open stitches at his hip. He was leaning on the boat hook for support just as the first tremor struck the area of the shelf where the ancient ice bubble had created Ice Palace.

Dr. Robbins and Niles Compton were the first to realize what must have happened. They turned and saw several of the slower-moving, older syms as large chunks of falling ice fell and crushed them. The ceiling was collapsing; they heard ice the size of small houses strike the second floor of the man-made shelter.

Suddenly everyone fell to the rubberized flooring as the shelf separated. The curious sensation of floating hit them all at the same moment — but it was Robbins who voiced it first.

"The shelf has broken away!"

"Look!" Alice said, hanging on to Senator Lee for dear life.

The bright sun was showing through the massive crack above them. It penetrated the darkness like a magical laser beam, obviously caused by the ice particles in the air. The Ross Sea heaved and crashed in toward the ancient cave, and then smashed into the carved-out buildings of Ice Palace.

A loud and deafening explosion sounded as the Ross Ice Shelf separated from the continent.

The nuclear shock wave struck the Missouri in a bow-down attitude, flipping her over onto her back and sending her crewmen wheeling and grabbing for anything they could hold on to. The lights went dead, and red emergency lighting took their place. Alarms started sounding throughout the boat as seals broke loose. Her outer torpedo doors, still in the open position after firing her spread of torpedoes, could not absorb the pressure that was slammed back into her. One inner door in the forward weapons room bent, curled, and then opened to the sea. Missouri took on ten tons of water in her forward torpedo room.

"Blow ballast, blow everything! All back full, full rise on the planes!"

"We're going to lose her, skipper!"

"Do we still have fish in the tubes?"

"Aye, but we are flooding in all the forward spaces."

"Weapons release, now!"

As the reactor on Missouri went to full power, the crew could hear her one screw bite the water, but they all knew it might be too late — they were getting too heavy, too fast. Still, they listened to the new girl fire off her last punch.

Jefferson knew he was about to lose his command as the new Virginia class submarine slowly started heading for the bottom of the Ross Sea.

"All sections report damage," came Alvera's voice over the loudspeaker. "All hands, USS Missouri is on her way to the bottom. Commence preparations for weapons launch in five minutes."

"Damn efficient little bitch, isn't she?" Everett said to Jack as they headed down the main companionway.

They met Ryan coming around the corner from the armory, where he had been sent two minutes before.

"Report, Mr. Ryan," Jack said.

"Too well guarded; we would have been shot to hell before we got within twenty feet. There are at least twenty of Tyler's men there. But we did manage to get ten of these," he said, holding up one of the strange automatic weapons. "All we can figure is that they were left by the cutting crew when they went to work on the hatches."

"Well, they will have to do," Collins said.

Everett handed out the automatic rifles to the oldest of the crewmen.

"What is it, Jack, a full-out frontal assault?" asked an angry Everett as he thought about those boys on the Missouri.

"Right now it looks like we have little choice. Hit them from both ends of the control companionway, and hope we don't run into Sergeant Wonderful before we get there."

Everett suddenly swung the rifle up, and all fifty-six men and women and the three children turned as one as one of the floor hatches popped up. A slim hand came out holding a thick coil of insulated wire, then Virginia popped her head through and tossed the wire onto the deck. She reached back down into the hatch, brought out a large rolled schematic, and laid it beside the wiring. Then she leaned back into the hatch, struggling with something else.

"Don't just stand there — help me. She's damn heavy!"

Several Leviathan crew ran forward, relieved Virginia of Alexandria's weight, and pulled her the rest of the way up through the hatch.

"It was a close-run thing, Colonel," Virginia said, out of breath. "Tyler and his men broke through only moments after Alex lost control of her command suite. I swear I never saw so much firepower concentrated in one small area. I'll never know how your guys can deal with crap like that — I thought we had had it."

"Her condition?" Jack asked, leaning over the captain.

"Exhausted, hemorrhaging, and her systems may be starting to shut down." Virginia held her hand on Heirthall's still features. "She did real good, Colonel."

"Try and bring her around. We have two helmsmen here. We were lucky there, but we lost the entire complement of chiefs in their staterooms. We need her awake."

"You're going to try and take the command bridge?" Virginia asked, looking from face to face.

Mendenhall and Ryan answered by slamming home magazines into their weapons.

"No other choice."

"Look, Jack, Tyler has both ends of that sealed passageway covered. You'll be fighting in a blind alley, and he has reinforcements he can call up; you don't."

"We will have to—"

"Jack, Alex had a plan. She made me strip this wiring from auxiliary control before we evacuated. I just don't know what it was."

Collins looked at the coiled wire. He tilted his head in thought.

"Shock… electric shock — under control center."

Virginia knelt and listened, but Alexandria had blanked out once more.

Jack heard the captain, and then he knew what her makeshift plan consisted of.

"Virginia, I need you to pull off that engineering stuff you're so fond of bragging about," Jack said as he reached down and took the wiring. He then explained that she had to return to the crawlspace.

Everett, Mendenhall, and Ryan watched as Jack detailed his plan to Virginia. They all raised their brows when they heard it, but they knew it would be their only chance without losing a lot of the people. Virginia nodded and accepted the task.

"Leave the captain here with her people. They aren't trained to take on people like Tyler, plus the captain may need them if this damn thing works. Doctor, you have to rig this thing in five minutes."

Tyler waited with fifty of his men at the forward access companionway into the control center. He was angry, as he knew he had lost a chance after finally breaking through into the auxiliary control suite, only to find that Heirthall had vanished. They had emptied weapons into the crawlspace beneath the deck, but he now knew that that woman had nine lives. He surmised that attacking the control center was the only logical move for the captain. Thus far, he had to give Heirthall and that damnable Collins credit — they had thwarted him at every juncture in trying to subdue them. However, he now knew their only choice was to come through him and his men.

Farbeaux formed a plan in a split second. His mind started clicking just as it had before the death of Danielle, his wife. It felt good to have purpose once more.

As the sea crashed against the carved buildings, the salt deteriorated the walls, and the giant halves of the ice shelf separated for good. The sky one mile above the ancient ice hit the sea for the first time in two hundred thousand years. Ice Palace was floating, and its ice shores were only thirty feet from the cresting swell of sea.

"Sarah, get the children in order. This section of ice will be unstable in the next few minutes."

"What?"

"He's right, look!" Niles called out.

Sarah and the others looked around and saw that the building had a decided tilt to its foundation. The children were starting to lose their footing as the giant ice floe started to tilt backward.

"I believe this shelf is now what is called an iceberg, dear Sarah. It is going to flip over. The Ross Ice Shelf is no more. If we don't do something, we'll be thrown into the sea, and with my injured hip, I don't think I could swim to McMurdo Station."

Sarah responded quickly, gathering the children together with the help of Lee, Alice, and Robbins.

"I hope you have a plan," she said.

"As a matter of fact, the answer to our situation is right in the lower rooms of this enclosure. Now, we need everyone to go down and assist in taking the items we need." Farbeaux started down first, followed by Sarah just as the enclosure tilted to thirty degrees. The stable half of the remaining shelf was starting to drift farther away.

They had but moments remaining before the section they were riding would flip over into the freezing sea.

As the second group of Tyler's mercenaries waited, Collins caught them off guard from behind when he cleared his throat. He and Everett stood facing the men with their hands up. Ryan and Mendenhall were standing behind them, angry at having to surrender without a fight.

As Tyler's men rushed forward to take them into custody, Everett looked over at Collins.

"Ballsy, Jack, I'll give you that."

"Yeah, but can you think of a better way to get into the control center without getting everyone shot to hell?"

As they were pushed out of the companionway toward the rest of Tyler's men, Everett had to smile.

"It is good to have you back from the dead, Colonel. My life would have been as boring as hell without you."

They had struggled to get one of the oversized Zodiacs to the main level and out of the steep incline, which had become even more dangerous. As Henri pulled the air bottles that inflated the giant Zodiac, a massive cracking sound rent the air around them. As they looked up, the far-back portion of Ice Palace disappeared into the water and the surviving half went skyward, tossing everyone off their feet. Then it slammed back down into the sea. The Zodiac flew from the small shelf and went flying into the water, eighty feet away. The rough seas started tossing it about like a toy boat.

"We've had it!" Sarah said. "We wouldn't last three minutes in that water trying to retrieve it!"

"Can we get one of the others?" Alice asked loudly over the cracking of ice, with Lee assisting her in standing.

"We're out of time," Henri shouted as a large crack zigzagged through the center of the main building's remains. It was an exact center cut, separating the front half from its middle. The stairwell leading to the lower level was starting to separate from the front.

As they stood on shaking ice, they didn't see Gene Robbins looking about him, his eyes settling on the frightened children. He was shocked when he closed his eyes and his thoughts went to Captain Everett, a man he outwardly despised but inwardly envied for his blind bravery. Robbins quickly made a decision.

Garrison Lee saw a blur of motion and heard Sarah yell out. As he turned, he knew he was too late. Robbins sprinted for the edge of the ice and dived headfirst into the freezing Ross Sea.

"The fool, he's just killed himself!" Niles said as the frustrated Lee slammed his broken cane against the ice, angry he didn't think of doing the same thing himself.

"Yes, Director Compton, he has indeed just killed himself," Farbeaux said, watching Robbins's weakening strokes as he splashed his way toward the floating rubber boat. "A magnificent gesture" — he turned toward Niles—"for a traitor, wouldn't you say?"

As Henri shouted his rebuke to the others, Robbins went under the rising sea and reached for the Zodiac. They waited, frightened that he wouldn't resurface from under the freezing water. Then they were relieved as he splashed up to the surface. Ice was forming on the computer scientist's face and hair as he tried desperately to get his limbs to function.

"His body is shutting down," Lee said sadly. "Come on, son, push, push!"

Robbins pulled the Zodiac to within ten feet of the shrinking shelf, and then pushed with all of his remaining strength. The giant rubber boat bounced over one swell and then struck the ice as Sarah, Niles, and Farbeaux grabbed for it in a desperate moment of near-panic.

Lee couldn't believe what had just transpired.

"Swim, Doctor, swim toward us," Alice shouted as a section of the grounded side of the ice shelf calved away and fell into the sea with tremendous force, creating an impact wave of more than ten feet that rushed toward the struggling Robbins.

"He can't, his body has already died," Lee said. He watched as Robbins looked toward them with an expressionless, ice-covered face. The ten-foot wave rolled over him and he disappeared.

They couldn't believe how easily Robbins had given his life for them. Then again, they never knew that all the doctor had thought before making his final decision was the question, What would Captain Everett do?

"He died well, give him that — you owe him that," Farbeaux said as he pulled the Zodiac up and out of the wave's way. "Now, get the children inside the boat. We must head for the grounded section of shelf."

As the captured Event Group was pushed, shoved, and slapped to the deck, and then up against the starboard bulkhead, Jack saw Tyler step forward and then lash out with his booted foot, catching him on the side of his head. Jack fell backward as Mendenhall and Ryan tried to stand.

"At ease, lieutenants!" Jack called out, shaking his head to clear it.

"You are a pain in the ass, Colonel. I knew we were asking for trouble letting you go the first time. Well, that situation is finally about to be remedied, isn't it?"

Jack looked up into the Irishman's face, not responding at all. His expression was blank, which made Tyler uneasy.

Alvera turned away from the scene, as she was slightly disgusted at Tyler's bullying ways.

"Why don't you just kill them?" she asked, staring at Tyler.

"He knows where the captain is, and as long as she is alive, she's a danger."

"Strange, I think I told you that very same thing a few hours ago." She turned away and raised the 1mc microphone. "Sonar, conn, what is the status of Missouri?"

"Sonar is still scrambled from the EMP effect. It is just now clearing, it looks as if we have no—"

Alvera heard the words catch in the sonar operator's throat as she attempted to explain why the sonar suite went offline momentarily during the effects of the electromagnetic pulse — an electrical field that shorted out all nonshielded electronics in modern weapons platforms by a nuclear detonation. The yeoman became concerned very quickly. As Leviathan came out from under the now-broken and free-floating Ross Ice Shelf, she noticed one red blip speeding toward them as it came up on her holographic display.

"Conn, we have a single torpedo in the water and it is actively seeking — no, it has acquired Leviathan, and is tracking!"

"Helm, hard-right rudder, take us down to three thousand feet—"

"Sensors are picking up a nuclear trace element!"

Jack raised his brows and looked at Everett, then at Tyler, who was also taken aback by the news.

Alvera froze. Missouri had somehow managed to get off a snap shot as she started going down, and it was not only a torpedo, but a nuclear-tipped one.

Alvera looked at the blip as it closed. The order for countermeasures caught in her throat as she realized her training never fully prepared her for this.

"Weapons, prepare to launch vertical tubes one through thirty for deep submergence launch. Helm, take Leviathan deep. Launch a full spread of countermeasures!"

"Yeoman, did you know that Sergeant Tyler was planning on selling Leviathan and her technology to the highest bidder?" Collins said, finally utilizing the paper Farbeaux had passed him from Heirthall's medical file.

Alvera, shaken, turned and looked down at Collins.

"What?" she asked, looking from Jack to Tyler, who only smiled and raised his automatic to silence the pest before him once and for all.

Tyler froze when one of the midshipmen who had been seated at the closest console silently stood and placed a gun to the back of his head.

"He's lying — my intention is to fulfill our bargain. Leviathan will protect the trench syms."

"The task of maintaining something as daunting as Leviathan is far beyond the scope of a mercenary, Yeoman. She would soon succumb to her own age, or the nations of the world would track Tyler down and destroy him because this idiot couldn't sail her — just as the Missouri tracked her to this point," Jack said, nodding toward the red blip speeding right at Leviathan.

"Call the doctor to the conn, we'll ask him," Alvera said, never letting her eyes leave Tyler's.

"You can't. He was found dead in the observation compartment. It had to have been a stray bullet," said Jack.

"That's very convenient." Alvera turned and studied the oncoming weapon, then looked back at the sergeant.

"After all of our planning, you are going to actually listen to this outsider?" Tyler asked as he felt the pistol push into his head.

"My breast pocket. You'll find a little notation from Heirthall's medical file, written by someone who wasn't an outsider."

Alvera reached down, plucked the paper from Collins's pocket, and looked at the open entry.

"I suspect with your intelligence you'll recognize Dr. Trevor's handwriting?"

Alvera read the scribbled notation outlining Tyler's real plan, which included the doctor, and then looked up angrily.

"Trevor says that you never had any intention of using Leviathan for our protection. You were going to sail her into the nearest port after our return to the sea and—"

"Sell her off, system by system," Heirthall said from the darkness of the companionway. "Avarice — mere money. If he had known where the Heirthall treasure had been hidden, he would have taken that also."

Alvera watched as security surrounded Captain Heirthall and Virginia, who was assisting the captain in remaining upright as they came into the light of control. She locked eyes with Jack and nodded her head ever so slightly.

"Yeoman, you have been betrayed, just as you and the others have betrayed me and my family," Alexandria said as she was helped into her chair, guns still pointing at her.

Alvera threw the paper at Tyler, striking him in the face.

"Have your men stand down, Sergeant," Heirthall ordered as she slumped in her raised chair. "Or I will allow the yeoman's misguided maneuvering in evading Missouri's strike to stand. You can't outdive that weapon, Yeoman," she said as she opened her eyes and smiled.

The security men lowered their weapons. Jack and the others stood and rushed forward to take them, but several midshipmen rose from their seats and pointed handguns in their direction.

"Colonel, they will shoot to kill," Alvera said.

Alvera swallowed as she saw the red blip getting closer to the diving Leviathan. She gestured for the midshipmen to return to their stations, but to keep aware of Collins and his three men.

"Captain, I am still launching the strike. We as a species have no other choice. We tried to do it without loss of life, as you had planned so thoroughly with the help of your symbiant—"

"You mean with a little coercion… and brainwashing from Dr. Trevor's invasive procedures," Alexandria said, her eyes partially closed in pain.

"Yes. You would never have allowed such a plan against the world's navies in a normal state of mind. Your family's influence over us ends today."

Heirthall sat motionless in her chair. "You will do what you have to do, Yeoman."

Alvera nodded, then walked to the weapons station. She raised the protective cover over the red flashing button. She looked at the other midshipmen operating their stations, each doing their duty, and then she pushed the button.

A brilliant flash of light burst from every manned station in the control room. Midshipmen didn't have time to scream or move before twenty thousand volts shot through their bodies. A few of them who weren't touching any metal on their consoles rose in shock when they saw what happened to the others around them. Jack and his men quickly subdued them. He looked at the frozen Alvera. She was still touching the weapons console and was clearly dead, lying across the panel as the short-lived electrical strike ended. All around them, midshipmen lay dead against their stations.

It took only a few moments for the action consoles to regain their holographic imagery.

"Lieutenant Ryan, bring in the remainder of my crew, please. We have very little time."

"Aye, ma'am."

Heirthall looked down at the deck as her crew removed the dead midshipmen. Virginia could clearly see the tears as they streaked down her cheeks.

Jack pulled Virginia aside as the crew started up their consoles and awaited orders.

"You did well, Doc. That was one hell of a wiring job you did, rigging those consoles."

"I killed children, Jack. I don't know—"

"You did what you had to do, Virginia, just as we all do. And in answer to your next question, no, you never learn to live with it."

Virginia watched as Collins walked by a shocked Tyler and sat next to the weapons control station.

Sergeant Tyler knew for a fact he was a dead man. As Collins sat down, with lightning speed Tyler turned and elbowed Mendenhall in the stomach, then leaped at the weapons console, slamming his palm down on the launch button. The plastic cover smashed under the blow, and the red blinking button slammed home. Then he quickly turned and escaped through the hatch leading to the forward compartments.

Collins cursed and started to pursue Tyler. Everett started after Jack.

"Keep your station, Captain, and assist in Leviathan's defense," Collins called out as he vanished from control.

Everett stopped his pursuit of Jack and Tyler, slamming his hand against the bulkhead.

"He really does have a death wish," Everett said with clenched teeth. 'Well, don't just stand there, damn it. Go after him!"

Ryan and Mendenhall grabbed two weapons and went after their boss.

"Vertical launch in one minute," came the computerized warning.

"Helm, are we getting answering bells… on the console?" Alexandria asked, becoming weaker.

"Yes, Captain, Leviathan is answering all commands."

"Very well," she said calmly. "We need to turn the boat one hundred and eighty degrees. Bring our speed up to a hundred knots and blow ballast. Take her up to the ice."

"Alex, are you sure you want to do that? You'll box Leviathan against the ice."

"Ginny, we are caught between a rock…. and a hard place, as the saying goes. We cannot stop the launch of those missiles; on the other hand, Missouri has made our running away impossible. I can only be at one place at any given moment—Leviathan will die today no matter what I do."

"Do what you need to do," Virginia said.

"Ginny, Ginny, give me some credit, I fully intend to take the lesser of the two evils. The high… road, you might say."

"Thirty seconds to launch," the computer announced. "Obstacle at launch coordinates detected. Launch in twenty seconds."

"Conn, sonar, we have thirty-five miles of broken ice and pressure ridges dead ahead. Ten seconds until we have limited open sea."

"Maintain speed and rudder, helm."

"Aye, ma'am, maintain heading."

"Sonar, how thick is the ice?"

"We are currently ranging from one quarter to half a mile of ice."

"Thank you," Alex said as calmly as if she were just ordering dinner.

"Launch in ten, nine, eight, seven—"

"Leviathan has just gone under the ice."

"Three, two, one — vertical tubes one through thirty successfully launched."

The computerized voice prepared all hands for the minute jolt as compressed air shot thirty missiles from their tubes.

"Helm, evasive maneuvering, take Leviathan down forty degrees. Dive the boat… deep and fast," Heirthall ordered, allowing her head to droop onto her chest.

As Leviathan shed the missiles, she started a steep dive for the seafloor, three and a half miles down.

At six hundred feet, the specially designed missiles fired a solid rocket booster that would carry them to the surface of the sea. Unfortunately, they weren't near the surface. There was a half-mile-thick ice sheet above them. As they approached at more than a hundred miles per hour, the conical-shaped weapons slammed into the blue bottom pressure ridges of the dying Ross Ice Shelf, smashing them to oblivion and sending the warheads to the bottom of the sea.

"Captain, we have Missouri's torpedo closing at sixty knots. She is still acquiring our sound signature — it must be locked onto our damage. Estimate impact in one minute."

"Very well, maintain course and speed. Ballast control; stand by to blow all tanks."

"We dodged one nuclear disaster, but we'll never avoid this one," Everett said as he and Virginia took a handhold. The blip on the hologram became one with Leviathan.

Collins hit the winding staircase that led down three decks to the engineering level. The captain had sealed off the elevators, and Jack knew that Tyler had no choice but to go down.

The massive engineering room contained the reactors. They were starting to scream at 115 percent power as the main water jet of Leviathan tried desperately to push her forward-flooded sections down through the sea. The operational stations were all empty as every available crewman was in control or battling flooding on the other decks. The smell of burning rubber and hot steam permeated the air. Jack rounded a console and was taken aback when Tyler made his final stand. He grabbed Collins by the leg and pulled him to the deck.

Jack slammed against the rubber decking and bounced into the reactor control station. Tyler was trying to gain his feet, hitting Jack three times in quick succession as he rose. Collins shrugged off the blows and then lashed out with his boot, catching the larger Irishman in his right knee, producing a satisfactory, and sickening, crunch as the blow cracked the shin and tore ligaments in the sergeant's knee. He still maintained his footing, but with very great effort. He steadied himself on the bad leg, raised his left, and tried to bring it down onto Jack's neck, but Collins rolled free just as the boot struck the rubber matting.

Collins jumped to his feet and struck Tyler three times in his side, making the security man cough and grimace in great pain. Instead of going down, he collected himself faster than Jack realized he could and swung backward, hitting Collins in the chest and driving him back against the bulkhead. Collins bounced off, but he used the rebound action off the hull to his advantage. He came forward and caught Tyler with three straight, powerful blows to the face. Tyler reeled and spun away just as the pitch of the electric motors changed, screaming at even more power than before. Then the world changed as Leviathan started heading straight down, sending both Collins and Tyler sliding down the deck as if they were on a giant, very precarious slide.

Jack never had a chance to end the fight with Tyler. The Missouri's nuclear torpedo struck, and the world went dark.

"Okay, give me ninety-degrees dive on the planes. Increase ballast in the forward tanks to one hundred percent," Alexandria said calmly, closing her eyes to think, but still with her head lowered.

She was ticking off the seconds until detonation. When the American torpedo's computer detected the change in the angle of attack, the weapon would detonate as a preprogrammed precaution against losing contact with its target. This was exactly what she had hoped for. Alexandria suddenly opened her eyes and leaned forward in her chair.

"Hard-left rudder — one hundred percent down on fore and tower planes — all up on aft planes — all-ahead flank — full emergency power!" Everyone in the control center was shocked at the strength coming from Heirthall.

Leviathan started a straight-down, headlong run just as the torpedo reached its target area. In essence, what the captain did was bring the great vessel to an attitude where the hull would be less exposed — bringing the strongest portion of Leviathan's hull head on against the detonation and the thickened composite armor at her protected stern. Running at close to one hundred miles an hour toward the bottom of the sea, Leviathan was still vulnerable as an egg in a cattle stampede.

The American warhead detonated ten thousand yards from the massive stern section of Leviathan. The tremendous heat generated by the warhead turned the sea to steam in a microsecond. The pressure wave shot in all directions, even down into the exposed jet ring-rudder of the giant submarine.

The first sensation for all inside was the feeling of free falling, as the seawater around her started running faster than Leviathan herself. The second sensation was that of the great boat flipping over as if it were a twig caught in a flashflood. The shock wave tore free the directional ring acting as the main rudder for Leviathan. Then the same heated wave assaulted the jet-thruster housing, causing the main seal to fail. The shaft that sent high-pressure water outward from the main engines, giving the submarine her thrust to the four water jets, backwashed and forced the rubber seals to melt, and then fail, allowing seawater to enter the pressurized hull with tremendous force.

Jack was thrown to the deck, and then it was as if he were on a sheet of ice as Leviathan made her run for the bottom of the Ross Sea. Then the detonation effects actually made the centrifugal force of the submarine faster than Jack's fall, and he found himself free-floating above the deck.

Tyler wasn't as lucky. He seemed to hit every engineering console in the compartment on his slide down the ever-increasing steepness of the deck. Just before he was crushed in the final fall toward the bulkhead, the same strange force that halted Jack's fall stopped Tyler in midair. Then, almost as soon as the floating effect started, it ceased, as Leviathan again caught up with the speed of the rushing seas.

Both men started free-falling toward the bulkhead at crushing speed as the inner hull was breached in engineering. Tyler landed at bone-crushing speed, and Jack landed on top of him.

As Collins was trying to figure out if he had any broken bones, Tyler moved from under him.

"Help… me," Tyler whispered.

Collins tried to turn to hear what Tyler was saying, but the automatic damage-control system was pumping compressed air into the compartment to push back some of the flooding covering both men, as the submarine was still in a nosedown attitude. Water soon covered Tyler as Jack quickly thought about his options. Decided, Collins raised Tyler's head from the bulkhead until it was just free of the rising water. Tyler spit and tried to clear the saltwater from his mouth and throat.

"Don't let me drown," the broken Tyler said as loud as he could.

Jack remembered the people at the Event Complex lost, and all the people Tyler was prepared to kill for the sake of money and power. The nuclear strikes would have caused the deaths of millions of innocents. Then the thought of Sarah, Lee, Alice, and those children so callously abandoned at Ice Castle made his decision for him.

"Sorry," Jack said as he took Tyler by the shoulders and slowly pushed him back into the water.

As the level of the flooding rose, Jack had to crane his neck to keep it above the water while he held Tyler down. He stayed that way until the large Irishman's struggling ceased. Collins turned away and floated until he was as far away from his deed as he could get.

The restraining belts were holding the crew in their seats, with the exception of Everett, who was dangling from the navigation console.

"Engines all back!" Heirthall yelled over the sound of the flooding alarms — the effort causing a large flow of bright red blood to fill her mouth. "Blow all ballast tanks. Give me full rise on the planes!"

"Captain, we have serious flooding in engineering — it's a major hull breach!"

"That will not affect power. All back!"

Leviathan started to bring her already-flooded bow up, but her speed was so great she continued to fall toward the bottom.

Jefferson knew that the flooding was overwhelming Missouri's ability to pump it out. The forward weapons room had to be abandoned, and all the ballast he could send out to the sea had already been pumped out.

"Captain, we are about to lose the reactor — we're losing her," Izzeringhausen said, holding onto the nav table.

"Maintain revolutions! Launch the rescue buoy!"

Izzy did as he was ordered, but knew no rescue buoy in the known world would allow anyone to reach them almost three miles down; they would soon be crushed to death in a quarter of that depth.

Missouri had lost her fight for survival.

Jack felt the deck straighten, but knew through his stomach that Leviathan was still sinking at incredible speed. He struggled toward the intercom and smashed his hand against the button.

"Conn, this is Collins in engineering!" he screamed. "We have a massive breach open to the sea!"

"Abandon the compartment, Colonel… seal the area!" Heirthall responded.

Collins shook his head and fought his way through the chest-high water. He didn't have to go far when the flooding and current grabbed him and threw him toward the hatchway. He grabbed for the coming and held on. Then he gained his feet and struggled with the heavy hatch, attempting to close it as the water rushed out of engineering. The torrent was just too much, and he knew that the next compartment and companionway would soon flood and be too much for Leviathan's pumps to shed.

Collins was losing the entire deck.

The large Zodiac was loaded. All the children, using blankets found in the supply room, huddled against the rubber sides. Sarah was the last one to enter beside the Frenchman. She turned just as a rumbling from the south started to roll over the remaining mile-thick ice.

"Come on, Henri, that sounds like a damn tidal wave!"

Farbeaux looked from Sarah to the dissolving Ice Palace. Before he could comment, the wave from the nuclear detonation two hundred miles to the north struck the broken ice shelf. Ice Palace started to fall over away from the main shelf, breaking free and turning bottomside-up.

Farbeaux shoved Sarah down into the Zodiac and then pushed it away from the small shelf lining the rising end of the carved-out platform.

"Damn it, Colonel, get in!" Sarah called out.

Farbeaux allowed gravity to take him where he needed to go. He slid down until he hit the rear wall of the building, then rolled to the open ice stairs and slid on his belly down into the basement. He struggled to gain his feet as he pulled the inflation cords on three of the rubber boats. Then he turned and looked into the water-filled corridor.

"No, sister Sarah, where I am going, you cannot follow."

Colonel Henri Farbeaux disappeared into the treasure room, dragging the three giant rubber boats with him.

Sarah took a paddle from Niles and started getting them as far away from the drifting ice floe as possible. She gasped when she saw Ice Palace roll completely over, fill with water, and then bob in the rising sea.

"I'll never figure that French son of a bitch," Senator Lee said as he and Alice paddled toward the remains of the once-greatest ice shelf on earth.

Sarah saw the remains of the ancient seismic chamber fill with water until three quarters of it went under.

"Don't confuse Henri with Dr. Robbins. I suspect the colonel knew just what he was doing."

Jack knew he couldn't close the large hatch himself. Millions of gallons of water had already spread throughout the deck, and he could hear the reactor alarms screaming. The current of passing water started to tear his grip from the coming, when suddenly there were hands on the hatch, pushing it away from the bulkhead. "One, two, three — push!"

The three bodies gave it their all and the hatch finally slammed shut. Its sheer weight coupled with momentum was enough to cut through the rushing water and slam home.

Jack collapsed into the water and momentarily went under, weakened from his fight with Tyler and his brush with drowning.

"What is it with you and water, Colonel?" Ryan said, pulling him to his feet.

Jack looked at the diminutive naval lieutenant and shook his head.

"The army better stick to land operations; you don't do all that well with water."

Jack placed hands on both Ryan's and Mendenhall's shoulders, leaning heavily against them as the water settled to one level, and stayed.

"Yeah — I will take that under advisement."

"Tyler?" Mendenhall asked.

Jack shook his head negatively. "He wasn't a very good swimmer," he said as he reached for the nearest intercom. "Engineering hatch sealed, Captain."

There was no answer as Jack tried again.

"Come on. In case you haven't noticed, we're still heading for the bottom."

Heirthall knew if they didn't shed more weight, they would lose Leviathan.

The giant submarine was level but still going down — she was at two miles, and the sound of her composite hull giving way to the pressure was audible throughout the ship.

"Alex, is there anything we can do?" Virginia asked, unclasping her restraint and going to assist a lieutenant with a sprung valve.

Alexandria didn't answer. She closed her eyes in thought, running the schematics of Leviathan through her head. She willed the crushing pain to the far reaches while she thought.

"Maneuvering, stand by to go to one hundred and fifty percent power on all four reactors."

"Captain, number three is already in the initial phase of scramming. She's shutting down!"

Heirthall looked down at the young rector officer and fixed him with her now-green eyes.

"Command safety override: Octavian one-six-four Zulu. Enter the code — now!"

The young officer did as he was told and entered the safety release on all the reactors.

"Reactors are answering one hundred and fifty percent, Captain."

Alexandria knew she had just killed Leviathan. She could never start a safe shutdown of the reactors after this — the core material in all four would melt right through the containment. She also knew it could not be helped.

"Ginny, Captain Everett, please gather the children and your people — you are to report to the escape pods on deck two and make ready to evacuate Leviathan."

"What? What about you and your crew?"

"Any who would like to leave may do so," she said as she looked away, as if afraid of how many would take the offer of evacuation.

None of her crew made a move to stand.

"Captain, we are slowing our descent."

Heirthall glanced at the navigation hologram and could see that indeed, Leviathan was slowing. She looked up at her crew and nodded.

"Thank you, Mr. Kyle, thank you."

"You don't have to do this — none of you do. Leviathan has three hundred escape pods, enough for everyone aboard. Alex, come home with us!" Virginia said as she placed both of her hands on the raised chair.

"Ginny, I've always been home. I will die with Leviathan."

"There's no need for this!" She turned to face the young crew. "No need for any of you to do this."

Alexandria looked at the hologram before her. Indicated on the holographic display of the sea were only two small models of vessels: Leviathan, which had leveled off and was slowly climbing with her main thrusters screaming in outrage at the load they were pushing toward the surface, and one other target that had lost her fight and was going down by the bow.

"Leviathan has one more task to perform, Ginny. Now you must go. Captain Everett, the pods will be automatically ejected from the hull at five hundred feet. Long-range sonar is picking up a Royal Navy frigate at one hundred miles and closing; you shouldn't be in the water long."

"Yes, ma'am. Ice Palace?" he asked without much hope.

"The shelf broke clean away from Ross Island. It's shattered into a million pieces." She looked at Everett. "You know the coordinates — check, please."

Carl nodded.

"Now you see why we can't leave here, my Ginny."

"But—"

"Captain Everett, gather your people and the children, and remove this woman from my bridge."

"Aye," he said, taking Virginia by the arm and pulling her away.

Alexandria watched Virginia being led away and allowed herself a moment. She swallowed to hold back her tears, then smiled, looking at the young faces around her.

"Leviathan has one more task to perform. It will take the expertise of every man and woman onboard. We will do what Leviathan was always meant to do."

At that moment, the radiation alarms started blaring throughout the boat. However, the remaining crew of the most amazing vessel in history turned and started making ready its last run.

Five minutes later, Leviathan was five hundred feet from the surface of the rolling seas. Alexandria pushed a small button on her console.

"Colonel Collins." She watched as Jack's face appeared on her hologram before her chair.

"I have no words to express our — my — regret. At my family's estate in Oslo, five hundred feet below the sub basement, you will find the oceanographic studies of my family going back to Roderick Deveroux. The betrayal of Octavian is entered in the original notes from Jules Verne, who was an eyewitness to the events. Offer them to your president."

"Yes, Captain — we will."

"You have my regrets about the director and… and—"

"Good luck, Captain," Jack said, when he saw Heirthall was struggling with her guilt.

She nodded her head and reached for the cutoff button.

"Take care of Ginny for me, Colonel."

She shut the hologram down before she heard any reply.

"Mr. Slattery, eject the pods."

They felt the release of the ten round pods as they shot from the sides of Leviathan just a deck above her sloping ballast tanks. Heirthall closed her eyes and said a silent prayer.

"Mr. Kyle, I need twenty degrees down angle on the planes. Bring Leviathan to flank speed, please, make your heading two-six-zero degrees, make your depth… a thousand feet. Order all hands to brace for collision."

"Aye, Captain — ma'am, we are losing the main collision shield in the forward observation compartment, and reactors two and three are in meltdown."

"You're full of good news… this morning. Mr. Kyle, would you like to maneuver Leviathan on her last mission? I want to be someplace… else when we surface for the last time."

"It would be my honor, Captain."

The escape pods broke the surface of the sea near a large patch of broken ice. One after the other the pods shot into the air from the great depths from where they had been ejected. Just twenty miles away, HMS Longbow, a Royal Navy frigate, saw them on radar and sonar, and began to make its way toward the bobbing escape modules.

As ladders were thrown over the side and British frogmen assisted the survivors from the pods, Jack had a vision that made him close his eyes and thank whatever God was watching over them. Perhaps it was the sea god Leviathan after all. Standing at the fantail of the Longbow, wrapped in blankets, was Sarah. She stood in front of Niles Compton, Alice Hamilton, and Garrison Lee. Sarah ran forward and with no shyness at all threw her blanket off and hugged Jack under the warmth of the sun for the first time in months. Lee, Niles, Alice, and his men gathered around.

"Dr. Robbins?" Everett asked looking around.

Lee nodded and took Carl by the arm.

"You would have been proud of him, son. He saved us all in an unselfish act of heroism."

"He didn't make it?"

Lee patted Everett on the back and left him alone to his thoughts.

Jack allowed the hug to continue for as long as Sarah wanted. He locked eyes with Niles Compton and nodded. Then Sarah let him go with one last squeeze.

"Mr. Director," Jack said.

"Just a handshake will do, Colonel," Compton said smiling.

"We seem to be missing Colonel Farbeaux."

They grew quiet and Jack could see it in their eyes. Farbeaux was lost, and they were actually feeling bad about it. He only nodded slightly at their nonanswer, and then turned as the crew of HMS Longbow went to general quarters. Horns blared and men ran about the deck. Jack ordered his men to secure the children.

A half-mile away the sea began to erupt in a widening circle that boiled and bubbled as if the entire area were exploding.

"Jesus, the madwoman did it — look at that!" Lee said, tossing his cane over the side of the ship.

"All hands, we have a submerged object rising off the port quarter — stand by, main armament."

"No!" Collins shouted as he waved his hands toward the bridge of the frigate.

The Event Group and children of Leviathan were quickly surrounded by a squad of royal marines and moved away from the railing.

The frigate didn't have time to pull out of the way as she rolled with the tremendous force surfacing beside her. As she settled, giant bubbles and arcs of water flowed over the much smaller surface vessel, and then, as if by the last magical prowess of the sea gods that protected her, Leviathan slowly came up from the depths. The damaged sail was the first to shake free of the cold water and ice. And then, to the amazement of all, it wasn't Leviathan's hull that came next.

"Oh, my God — she did do it!" Virginia screamed, tears flowing down her face as she wrapped her arms around Senator Lee.

"Amazing — just bloody amazing," was all Senator Lee could mumble.

Sitting precariously on Leviathan's massive foredeck was the damaged USS Missouri. Her entire stern quarter was now missing, and there was massive damage throughout her hull. As they watched, and with water bubbling around both vessels, the hatches started opening on Missouri and submariners started assisting the wounded from its bowels.

Jack smiled when he saw Captain Jefferson and Izzeringhausen emerge from the sail's escape trunk. He was shouting orders when he leaned over and spied Collins. He gave his head a shake and then saluted, yelling for his men to get over the side. Then, with a last glance at the great conning tower of Leviathan looming far over his head, he gave the strange vessel his second salute, and followed his first officer over the side into the freezing waters.

Leviathan was starting to lose her fight with the pull of the sea — she was starting to go down. As the Event Group watched, the sail hatch opened and three young sailors came out. They reached in and assisted Captain Alexandria Heirthall out from the conn.

Virginia ran over to the railing, leaning over as far as she could as Leviathan slowly sank back into the sea. Missouri's precarious hold on the foredeck of Leviathan finally let go, and she slid off into the cold waters — claiming her for their own.

Virginia Pollock was crying as Niles grabbed her and held on.

"Alex, jump, get free, you have time! Please, get as many of your people off as you can — please," Virginia screamed as Alexandria smiled for the last time.

They watched Captain Alexandria Heirthall look at the faces just above her as Leviathan slowly sank. Then her men assisted her back down into the sail hatch.

With the children crying along with Virginia, the great Leviathan slowly sank with only the fanfare of the hissing sea around her.

The quarter-mile-wide iceberg, which had for two hundred thousand years been the center portion of the Ross Ice Shelf, covered the sound of a small motor as the Royal Navy frigate pulled away to the north, heading for Australian territorial waters. The occupant of the lead boat, which was riding low in the water, was shivering with cold as he maneuvered the large rubber boat through the smaller pieces of ice covering the Ross Sea. The man figured he would zigzag his way between the newly created icebergs until he reached the newest Antarctica seaside town of McMurdo Station, the American weather platform, where he could charter a flight out.

Colonel Henri Farbeaux had to smile as he guided two other large rubber Zodiacs behind the first. They too were riding extremely low in the water. Tarps covered the load he had hurriedly removed from Ice Palace with not a second to spare. He didn't know what amount of treasure he had recovered, but the sheer warmth he was feeling from the three loads made his smile widen.

With a fraction of the mythical gold and jewels of the Count of Monte Cristo in his possession, Henri Farbeaux slowly made his way to the south.