Noahs ark destination, p.37
Noah's Ark: Destination, page 37
part #1 of Noah's Ark 05 Series
Dmitry began to laugh. He held his arms open wide. “Well, well. Max was right. Look at you, Captain Noah. You’ve become the thing you hate the most. You’ve turned into me.”
“I’m nothing like you.”
“No, perhaps you’re right. Perhaps you haven’t got what it takes to finish me once and for all.”
Jake stepped forwards. The gun wavered in his hands. It was heavier than he had expected. His shoulder was in agony and he didn’t think he could hold it aloft for long. The slightest lapse and Dmitry would take advantage. His index finger rubbed against the trigger.
Dmitry also took a step forwards. “You know your problem, Noah? You’re too fucking nice. Nice guys never win, didn’t anyone ever tell you that? Nice guys get eaten alive by bastards like me.” Another pace towards Jake. “Nice guys —”
Jake never found out what Dmitry was about to say, because he pulled the rifle back and swung it at his head with every ounce of force he could muster. He caught his skull with the side of the butt.
Dmitry’s eyes went wide with shock. His mouth hung open, the final words still forming.
Jake pulled back, ready for a second blow, but it wasn’t necessary. Dmitry’s eyes rolled back, and he fell to a crumpled and broken heap on the floor.
• • •
The noises flooded back at once, a wall of sound hitting Jake and making him recoil.
“Jake! Jake! Open up!”
Lucya.
He sprinted to the exit and spun open the seal. The heavy steel door was pulled from the outside, and suddenly Lucya was there, hugging him tightly.
Ewan pushed past them. “Where’s —? Oh.”
The couple separated. “He’s out for the count.”
“Come with us, we have to get out of here. Haugen’s gone to find the landing craft. What happened to Brian?”
Jake looked at the unconscious man on the ground.
Ewan shook his head. His eyes glinted in the red light. “No. No, he can’t have.”
Jake’s mind raced. “Maybe not. Follow me.” He bolted for the opposite side of the control room.
“No!” Lucya shouted after him. “There’s no time. The reactor. We have to get out now.”
But Ewan was with Jake, helping him get the stern-side door open. The two men swung it back and charged through into the narrow passage beyond. Water lapped at their shoes as they ran. “Where’s that coming from?” Jake asked, gasping.
Ewan didn’t have an answer.
The mess was only fifteen metres further back, but they found Brian before entering. He was lying on the floor of the passage, bound and gagged.
Ewan was on his knees in an instant, removing the tape from his mouth and then working on the cable ties that stayed his hands and feet.
Brian gasped and wheezed, desperate to get words out. “Mmmmitry!”
“It’s okay, he’s out of the picture.” Jake pointed down the passage to the mess. “Are the others still in there?”
“Yes.” Brian rubbed his wrists. “Jake, I’m sorry. He got free somehow and jumped me when I came to bring rations. I tried to get away, but —”
“I said it’s taken care of. We have to get out of here. I’m going to fetch the —”
His words were drowned out by a huge explosion from below. The whole submarine rocked. The floor of the passageway tore apart and buckled. Ewan and Jake were sent flying backwards.
“Jesus Christ!” Brian hit the deck as a jet of flame ripped through the gash in the ground.
“She’s breaking apart!” Ewan cried. “Go!”
Jake’s eyes were fixed on the mess door. Seven Chinese crew members were, as far as they could tell, tied up inside. Assuming Dmitry hadn’t already killed them when he had escaped. Metal groaned and twisted and the ruptured floor pulled itself apart further. He could see the inferno on the deck below. It was impossible to cross without being burnt alive. “Is it —? Has the reactor —?”
“Not yet,” Brian shouted. “We wouldn’t be here if it had. My guess is the turbine’s blown. Time’s running out.”
Reluctantly, and with one last look at the door on the wrong side of the flaming chasm, Jake turned and the three men fled.
They crossed the burning control room without stopping to check on Dmitry. Even after everything that had happened, Jake felt a stab of guilt as he passed the unconscious man on the floor. But his survival instinct had taken over. Any delay to try and get him out would spell the end for all of them.
Through the bow-end exit, Lucya called to them. The water was deeper there. It cascaded down a ladder like a bizarre fountain. She was already halfway up it by the time Jake reached her. The men followed, up to the top deck.
“That way!” Ewan screamed, pointing towards the narrowing front of the vessel. It was the direction the water was flowing from.
They passed through two more rooms and then ran into Haugen coming the other way. He opened his mouth to speak but another explosion below sent a shockwave through the hull that had them all staggering back. “It’s gone,” he managed, hanging onto a wall panel for support.
The submarine was tipping backwards, sinking stern-end first. The floor in front of Jake started to rise like a hill. Going forwards meant climbing.
“What do you mean, gone?” Ewan called out over the sound of the river of seawater that was threatening to wash them back towards the ladder. “It can’t have gone!”
“The bastard.” Jake pushed forwards, wanting to see for himself. “Dmitry lied.”
“No,” Haugen said. “Someone’s taken it. The landing craft’s been launched through a roof hatch. That’s why we’re taking on water!”
“Who—?” Ewan began. “Shit. The helmsman and navigator. I lost them, then I heard the gunshot so stopped looking and came to find Jake. They came up here. They’ve taken the boat!”
Jake climbed onwards, edging towards the final door.
“We’re dead,” Brian said, smashing a fist into the wall. “What the hell do we do now?”
“We get out of here,” Jake bellowed. “Follow me. All of you. Now!”
Nobody argued. Nobody questioned his plan, or if he even had a plan. Through chasing water they scaled the inclined passage.
Jake counted them in through the last door to the very end room. When they were all inside, he shouted to Ewan, “Help me!” The submarine was at a forty-five-degree angle and the door was about to become the floor. The two men heaved it upwards and over, then let it drop closed. Brian joined them and span the locking mechanism into place. Only then did Jake look around the storage bay.
To one side was a locker that ran the length of the little room. Writing was stencilled onto the open doors, but Dmitry would have been the only person who could read it. They didn’t need Dmitry to see that the unit was empty though. Haugen was right, the inflatable landing craft had gone.
In what had been the ceiling, but was quickly turning into a side wall, an emergency hatch had been blown open. The former crew had escaped outside through it. Now water was pouring in at an alarming rate as the 095 turned onto its tail and sank into the sea.
Jake’s plan had been to get everyone out through the hatch, and then hope they could spot the inflatable and try and swim to it.
There was only one problem with his idea. They had all seen it. Brian, Ewan, Lucya, and Haugen all looked out through the hatch to the Atlantic, and they all knew that their luck had finally run out.
“No,” Jake said to himself. But denying it did not change the facts.
Lucya began to sob. Haugen crossed himself. Ewan and Brian just stared.
Flames licked at the hatch. They didn’t come from the exploded part of the submarine. It wasn’t the 095 that was on fire, it was the sea. Outside, the Atlantic Ocean was burning.
Forty
“NO,” JAKE REPEATED.
A hundred images played through his mind like a film on fast-forward. The asteroid. Svalbard. Stacey. The ash. Flynn. The disciples. The Ambush. Coote. A medical centre filled with paralysed people. Mandy. Faslane. The Lance. Baby Adam. Yulin. Dmitry. Joseph. Gan. He had been through so much. Survived so much. Against all the odds he had survived. They had survived. They had got so close. Bermuda had to be near, and with it the promise of a future.
Was this how it was destined to end? He had saved the fleet from Dmitry, after all. The madman, back from the dead with a submarine full of torpedoes and a desire to use them. Perhaps his work was done. Coote would get the Spirit of Arcadia to Bermuda. He had left a good man in charge, and he had gone knowing he might never see his ship again. The community didn’t need Jake Noah to survive. They would do just fine without him.
But what of Erica? She had already lost a mother and a father, she couldn’t lose her adopted parents too. And what about Martin, and Ralf, and Vardy, and all his other friends? Good friends. And Faslane? As much as he hoped Bermuda would provide them a new home, he found to his surprise that he was looking forward to visiting the Scottish base and seeing what Mandy and the others had achieved.
There was so much to live for. The world might have ended, but his world hadn’t. Life went on, as he was so fond of telling others. He didn’t want life to go on without him. He wanted to be part of it. More than part of it. He wanted to help shape it, to be an architect of the new world.
“No,” he said again, louder this time. “Not done yet.” He climbed into the opening, flinching from the flames that lapped at his feet, and turned back to Lucya. “Stay there, Mrs Noah. I’ll be right back.” With a wry grin, he dived into the blazing ocean.
• • •
He had to go by touch alone. He kicked hard, propelling himself lower. All the time his hands ran down the hull of the submarine, feeling his way. The water squeezed him tight, challenging him to breathe. But Jake was no longer afraid of drowning. Every second of life that he could snatch from the world was a bonus now.
He swam strongly, and was soon passing the conning tower. He caressed it with his fingertips, finding his way around it, diving ever deeper. Take your time, he thought. Don’t lose contact. When he felt the handrail that ran around the top of the vessel, he knew he was close.
His lungs were starting to burn. He was beyond the point of no return. Even if he let go and tried to swim back to the surface, he would never make it now. The only way was forwards.
Jake grabbed the handrail and pulled. Hand over hand he went deeper still, until his fingers came to rest on a knot of rope.
Mentally, he shouted for joy. Physically, he reached out for the DPV he knew was on the other end of the cord. His hand ran across the surface and located the stowage area. He popped it open, and risked opening his eyes. The salt water stung, and in the darkness he could see only blurred outlines, but the rebreather unit was quite distinct in shape.
With one hand clinging onto the DPV, the other grabbed the regulator and slotted it between his lips. He breathed out, then in deeply, filling his lungs with the strange-tasting air. He dearly wanted to take more deep breaths, but he couldn’t think only of himself. Replenished, he stuffed the rebreather back into the DPV and closed it up. Untying it took longer than he wanted, but it was soon free. He flicked the controls, bringing it to life, aimed it towards the surface, and sent the clever little machine on its way.
• • •
“Where did he go?” Ewan shouted, bewildered.
“He said he’d be back,” Lucya called in reply. She felt strangely calm. Jake had come for her once. There was no question that he would be back, and with a way to get them out of their hopeless situation.
Water was flooding through the hatch now. More than half of the opening was submerged. Outside, fire raged, making it impossible to escape.
“This is worse than last time,” Ewan complained. “How can the sea be on fire?”
Haugen looked at him, surprise on his face. “The methane, of course. Can you not smell it? The explosion has set fire to the methane.”
Lucya closed her eyes and sniffed. Haugen was right. The familiar rotten smell that had accompanied the eruptions was evident. “But there are no bubbles. Why are there no bubbles?”
Haugen shrugged. “There must have been an eruption before and the gas is still hanging around. I don’t know, I’m not a chemist.”
The four of them were treading water now, it was so deep. The open gap in the hatch was closing quickly. Jake had told Lucya all about what had happened in Yulin on the very submarine she was trapped in. Now she felt like she was reliving his adventure.
“Take a deep breath everyone,” Ewan shouted.
The hatch disappeared from view. Just a foot of air remained above their heads. Then a few inches. Then the room was completely submerged, and there was no more air to breathe.
The silence was a welcome relief after the pandemonium of the last half an hour. The dying screams of the submarine were muted by the water. The old girl had been put out of her misery.
Lucya looked at the only viable exit. She didn’t know what Jake’s plan was, but she was sure it didn’t involve them being drowned in the storage room. If the choice was drowning or burning, she decided to take burning. At least there was air outside. She pointed to the hatch, gestured to the others, and swam through it, straight into a fast-moving DPV.
Forty-One
BELOW THE SURFACE of the burning sea, four men and a woman sped through the water, propelled by three electric diver propulsion units. Three strategically placed rebreather systems provided an abundant supply of air. The small team shared the regulators backwards and forwards.
Communication was restricted to hand signals, but like Lucya, Jake wasn’t worried about that. He too found the silence a welcome relief. Brian had made some complicated gestures to inform them all that the DPVs had a basic navigation system. He had pointed them west, and off they had gone.
Their air supply kept them going long enough to escape the flames above. Although they were out of reach of the invisible cloud of gas, the team stayed submerged; the DPVs were designed for underwater operation.
Jake knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. Although they were free to surface any time should the rebreathers run out of oxygen, they did have another hard limit on how far they could travel. DPVs ran on battery power. A set of indicator lights blinked out one by one as they got further from the wreck of the 095. But Jake just told himself that for every light that expired, they were closer to Bermuda.
It was Lucya who spotted the dark shadow in the water above. She slowed her DPV, and the others did the same. She pointed upwards and gave an exaggerated shrug. Ewan held up a thumb, turned his propulsion unit skywards, and accelerated.
They broke the surface simultaneously, just a few feet from the boat. Inside it, two startled Chinese men scrabbled back, shouting and pointing at the strange creatures that had emerged from the water.
“Calm down!” Jake shouted, knowing they couldn’t understand him. He waved frantically, and Lucya did the same.
The men regarded them cautiously, and slowly their words changed in tone, softening, and then becoming excited.
Jake helped Lucya board first. He and the others followed. The former crew members seemed wary of the newcomers, but when it became clear that they bore no grudge at having been left at Dmitry’s mercy, and that Dmitry was not among them, relations warmed considerably.
“I don’t suppose there are any ration packs on here?” Lucya asked.
“It’s a landing craft,” Ewan said, laughing. “Not a catering vessel.”
The lack of food was a concern, but on the scale of things to worry about, Jake decided it ranked low. Now they had air, a small motor with a good supply of fuel, and most importantly, they were out of the water.
It was warm, and although there was no sun, their clothes dried quickly. With Brian once again navigating, aided by a DPV, it wasn’t long before they were all asleep.
• • •
For eleven hours they sailed, taking it in turns to man the motor and keep on a level heading. With no sign of land or the fleet, Ewan questioned whether they were going in the right direction, but he was soon put back in his place by Lucya. They had had a good fix on their position when things had gone wrong in the 095, and the setting then rising sun, visible through cracks in the clouds, confirmed that the compasses were not faulty.
Jake was on duty when he saw their destination at last. It was during another of those all too rare moments when the sun broke through a fissure in the thick grey sky, lighting up the ocean like a stage light.
A glint of white on the horizon caught his eye. More than just a reflection on the water, it had body and mass. He said nothing, preferring to let the others sleep on, rather than get their hopes up only to be disappointed. They were all starting to dehydrate, and he was wary of mirages.
The spot in the distance was no illusion though. As they sailed closer, the ball of anticipation in Jake’s chest grew bigger.
Lucya awoke, and smiled contentedly at him. He put a finger to his lips and pointed ahead. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, squinted, and gave a little gasp.
Ewan was next, then Brian, Haugen, and the Chinese. The sight of the Spirit of Arcadia held less significance for them, but they looked as excited to see it as the others.
“She’s beautiful,” Lucya whispered.
Jake felt a warm glow. “Most beautiful ship in the ocean,” he said.
Anticipation turned to almost unbearable excitement when they saw that the fleet was not moving. The reason hadn’t been obvious at first, because the land beyond was so flat.
“Bermuda,” Lucya said. “It’s Bermuda.”
Jake nodded. After the magnificence of Sanya Bay and its green-sided mountain, the squat little island could have been a disappointment. But to Jake, it was the most incredible sight in the world.
