Polar Shift

9

The spherical figure on the computer screen reminded Austin of the membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus of a malignant cell.

He turned to Adler. 'What exactly are we dealing with here, Professor?'

The scientist scratched his shaggy head. 'Hell, Kurt, you got me. This disturbance is growing by the second, and it's moving in a circle at thirty knots. I've never seen anything like it, in size or speed.'

'Neither have I,' Austin said. 'I've run into rough swirling currents that gave me sweaty palms. They were comparatively small and short-lived. This seems more like something out of Edgar Allan Poe or Jules Verne.'

'The vortex in Descent into the Maelstrom and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea are largely literary inventions. Poe and Verne were inspired by the Moskstraumen maelstrom off Norway's Lofoten Islands. The Greek historian Pytheas described it more than two thousand years ago as swallowing ships and throwing them up again. The Swedish bishop Olaus Magnus wrote in the 1500s that it was stronger than Charybdis from The Odyssey and that the maelstrom smashed ships against the bottom of the sea and sucked in screaming whales.'

'That's the stuff of fiction. What about reality?'

'Far less frightening. The Norwegian whirlpool has been scientifically measured, and it isn't even close to the violent cauldron described in literature. Three other significant whirlpools, Corryvreckan, Scotland, Saltstraumen, also off Norway, and Naruto, near Japan, are far less powerful.' He shook his head. 'Odd to see any whirlpool action on the open sea.'

'Why is that?'

'Whirlpools usually appear in narrow straits where there is fast-moving water. The whirling confluence of tides and currents, combined with the shape of the sea bottom, can create substantial disturbances on the surface.'

The image on the screen showed the distance shrinking between the whirlpool and the Benjamin Franklin. 'Could that thing be a danger to the ship?'

'Not if earlier scientific observations are any indication. The Old Sow whirlpool off the coast of New Brunswick is approximately the same strength as Moskstraumen, with speeds of about twenty-eight kilometers per hour. It's the largest ocean whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere. The turbulence near the phenomenon can be dangerous to small boats, but it poses no hazard for larger vessels.' He paused, staring in fascination at the screen. 'Damn!'

'What's wrong?

He stared at the malignancy on the screen. 'I wasn't sure at first. But this thing is growing rapidly. In the time we've talked, it has almost doubled in size.'

Austin had seen enough.

'I'd like you to do me a great favor, Professor,' he said, keeping his voice cool and calm. 'Get to the survey control center, fast. Tell Joe to pull the ROV immediately and come to the bridge as soon as possible. Tell him that it's urgent.'

Adler glanced at the screen once more, then hurried off. While the professor went on his errand, Austin climbed to the bridge.

Tony Cabral, the Throckmorton's skipper, was a genial man in his late fifties. His tanned face was dominated by a strong nose, he had an upturned black mustache and his mouth was usually stretched in a crooked grin that made him look like a benevolent pirate. But he wore an expression of dead seriousness that changed to one of surprise when he saw Austin.

'Hey, Kurt, I was just about to send someone looking for you.'

'We've got a problem,' Austin said.

'You know about the SOS we received?'

'First I've heard of it. What's going on?'

'We picked up a Mayday from the NOAA vessel a few minutes ago.'

Austin's worst fears were realized. 'What's their status?'

Cabral frowned. 'Most of the message was garbled. There was a lot of background noise. We recorded the call. Maybe you can make sense of it.'

He flicked a switch on the radio console. The bridge was filled with a cacophony that sounded like an oratorical contest at a madhouse. There was wild shouting, but the words were mostly incomprehensible except for a hoarse male voice that cut through the pandemonium.

'Mayday!' the voice said. 'This is the NOAA ship Ben Franklin. Mayday. Come in, anybody.'

Another voice, more garbled, could be heard in the background, bawling: 'Power! Damnit, more power …'

Then came a quick phrase. It was only caught for an instant, but that was all that was needed to convey the unmitigated terror.

'Damnit! We're going in!'

Cabral's recorded voice came on. He was trying to respond to the SOS.

'This is the NUMA ship Throckmorton. What is your situation? Come in. What is your situation?'

His words were drowned out by a dull, churning roar as if a monsoon were howling through a cavern. Then the radio went dead. The silence that followed was worse than any noise.

Austin had tried to imagine himself on the Franklin's bridge. The scene was obviously one of chaos. The voice calling the Mayday was probably the captain's. Or, more likely, he was the one urging the engine room to give them more power.

The unearthly swirling roar was beyond anything in Austin's experience. He realized that the hair on the back of his neck was standing up like soldiers at attention. He glanced around the bridge. Judging from the apprehensive faces of captain and crew, it was clear that he was not alone in his thoughts.

'What's the Franklin's position?' Austin said.

Captain Cabral stepped over to a blue-glowing radar monitor.

'That's another crazy thing. We picked them up on radar eighteen miles away. They were moving in a southwest direction. Then they disappeared from the radar screen.'

Austin watched the radar sweep line go around a couple of times. There was no sign of the ship, only some patches of scatter where the radar beam touched the wavetops. 'How long will it take to get there?'

'Less than an hour. We've got to haul in the ROV first.'

'Joe's doing it now. He should have the vehicle aboard by now.'

Cabral gave the order to get under way and head toward the Franklin at top speed. The Throckmorton pulled anchor, and its high bow was starting to cut through the ranks of waves when Zavala showed up with Professor Adler.

'The professor told me about the whirlpool,' Zavala said. 'Any word from the Franklin?'

'They sent an SOS, but the radio transmission got cut short. And we lost them on radar.'

Cabral heard the brief exchange. 'What's this about a whirlpool, Kurt?'

'The professor and I were checking satellite images and picked up a big, spinning water disturbance near the Franklin's position. Maybe a mile or two across.'

'Isn't NOAA doing a study of ocean eddies?'

'This is no slow-moving eddy. It's probably hundreds of feet deep, and spinning at more than thirty knots.'

'You're not serious.'

'Deadly serious, I'm afraid.'

Austin asked the professor to describe what they had seen. Adler was filling the captain in on the details when they were interrupted by the radio operator.