She reached over and kissed him.
“Umm-hmm,” one of the Englishman coughed.
“Sorry,” she said, turning back to them. “I’d say
“Actually,” Paul said, “we won’t. At least, not until October.”
“Weather getting too rough for you, old boy?” the Englishman asked. “When I was a kid, we’d go through this kind of chop in a motor launch.”
Paul had no doubt the man was telling the truth — he was a twenty-five-year vet of the RN before he’d retired a decade ago. He’d been on the
“I guess it is,” Paul said, going with the thought. “We’re heading north. Once we’re through the storm, a helicopter will be coming in to pick you guys up. I guess it’s back to England from there. I’ll be sure they have tea on board.”
“Ha,” the bearded man said. “Very good of you.”
The two Englishmen stood. “I guess we saw what we came to see. Would love an invite when you come back.”
“Of course,” Gamay said. They shook her hand and moved off, making their way down the hall far more easily than Paul had come up minutes before.
Gamay eyed them. “Leaving a site because of a storm that will blow over in a few days?” she said suspiciously.
“Seemed a good excuse to give our guests,” Paul replied.
“What gives?” she asked. “And don’t lie to me, you’ll sleep alone tonight.”
“You know that tanker that went down the other day? Kurt was there when it happened, even rescued the captain’s wife.”
“Of course,” she said. “Trouble finds him.”
Paul laughed. Trouble did have a way of looking Kurt Austin up and coming to visit. Paul and Gamay had often been part of whatever followed. Seemed like this would be no exception.
“Well, there’s more to the sinking than the press has been told,” he explained.
“Like?”
“Pirates killing the crew and deliberately scuttling the ship,” Paul said.
“Doesn’t sound right, does it?” Gamay said.
“Nope,” he said. “Not to Kurt or Dirk, or even the insurance company. With their permission, Dirk has asked us to take
Gamay took her robotic gloves off and sat down to undo her boots. “Sounds simple enough,” she said. “Why do you look concerned?”
“Because Dirk told me to be concerned,” Paul said. “He figures someone went to great lengths to hide whatever happened on that ship. And that being the case, whoever
She reached out and took his hand.
“Do you think you can get
“Would have liked to finish the test,” she said, “but yes, I think we can get her inside.”
12
AS IT RACED THROUGH THE WATER a hundred feet below the surface, the
This was a hydrodynamic feature that got the water moving smoothly around and over the vessel, reducing the drag and increasing both her ability to accelerate and her top-end speed.
In addition, her stainless steel skin was covered in microscopic V-shaped grooves, too small to be seen from a distance except as a sort of haze on the finish. The grooves were similar to the coatings used on the hulls of racing yachts, and they too added speed by reducing the drag.
Because she was eventually expected to do salvage work, an enclosed bay in the root of each wing held assorted equipment: cutting torches, grappling claws, and other tools. In truth, the
With Kurt and Joe sitting in tandem, Kurt at the controls and Joe just behind him monitoring all the systems, the
“Coming up on a depth change,” Joe mentioned.
The race was not just a horizontal affair, where the submarines could run at top speed and come home. It required maneuvers to be fulfilled: depth changes, course changes, even a section that required them to weave through a group of pylons, charge forward to a certain point and then back out, before turning around and racing off to the next buoy.
The competition itself was a three-stage process, with a hundred-thousand-dollar prize being offered to the winner of each stage and a cool ten million to the overall victor.
“Can you believe these guys are offering ten million to the winner?” Joe said excitedly.
“You realize NUMA gets that money if we win,” Kurt replied.
“Don’t depress me,” Joe said. “I’m dreaming. Gonna get a ranch in Midland and a truck the size of a small earthmover.” Kurt laughed. For a moment, he considered what he might do with ten million dollars, and then he realized he would probably do exactly what he was doing right now. Work for NUMA. See the world. Sometimes save an ocean or two.
“Again, who put up the money?”
“African Offshore Corporation,” Joe said. “They’re big into continental-shelf drilling.” Kurt nodded. The supposed point of the whole competition was to develop submersibles that could be used to operate quickly, safely, and independently at depths of up to a thousand feet. Kurt guessed that publicity had more to do with it than anything else.
Still, even if he wouldn’t get the money, Kurt liked to win.
“In fifteen seconds, begin descent to two hundred fifty feet,” Joe said.
Kurt put his hand to a keypad, typed in 2-5-0, and held his finger over the “Enter” button. Either Kurt or Joe could change the depth manually if they wanted, but the computer was more precise.
“Three… two… one… mark.” Kurt hit “Enter,” and they heard the sound of a small pump as it pushed oil from the rear into a forward chamber of the sub. This caused the nose to grow heavier and pitch down. With no need to take on water, to angle dive planes, or to adjust power, the
Around them the light began to fade, the color changing from a bright aquamarine to a darker blue. Up above, it was a beautiful sunny day, with high pressure all around.
“How we doing?” Kurt asked.
“Four miles to the outer marker,” Joe said.
“What about the other contestants?”
It was a timed race, the subs having left at ten-minute intervals to keep them apart, but Kurt and Joe had already passed one vessel. Somewhere up ahead they would catch another competitor.
“We could ram them if they get in our way,” Joe said.
“This isn’t NASCAR,” Kurt replied. “I’m thinking that would be some kind of points deduction.” As Kurt kept
