‘Release that cable,’ Hamlin said, indicating the winch. ‘I don’t have the strength any more.’
Stratton took hold of the hammer, glanced at Christine who was struggling to make some sense of what was taking place, and took a heavy swing at the bracket holding the cable to the drum. It snapped off and the end of the cable shot up through the pulley and down into the milky water where it disappeared. ‘That other one too?’ Stratton asked, indicating the thinner cable tied around the rock.
‘No.’ Hamlin said, waving his hand. ‘You’ll need that . . . You said you knew diving.’
‘Yes.’
‘Inside the top . . . a tap . . . your air. Rest you’ll have to figure out,’ Hamlin said, growing weaker.
The water trickled over the rock wall and into the milky pool. It slowly covered Hamlin’s feet, rising towards his backside. ‘Help me up, will yer?’ Hamlin asked.
Stratton put his hands under Hamlin’s armpits and pulled the older man to his feet. Hamlin winced but fought the pain, indicating that he wanted to stand on his own. Stratton let him go and Hamlin shuffled to the edge of the milky pool.
‘That leads to the bell,’ Hamlin said, indicating the thin cable. ‘Good luck, ferryman . . . Race you to the top.’ Hamlin dived into the milky water and disappeared below the surface.
Christine stared after him. Stratton tore his gaze from the place where Hamlin had dived into the water and looked at her.
‘You want to take another dive into what could turn out to be nowhere?’ Stratton asked.
‘You really believe that crazy old man’s built a diving bell? One that’ll actually work?’
‘I wouldn’t stake my life on it under normal conditions. ’
‘You’re serious?’
‘One thing I
Christine swallowed gently as she looked around the ever-shrinking cave and back into his eyes. ‘I’ve been following you into oblivion most of the time I’ve known you. Why stop now?’
Stratton nodded, lowered himself into the water, grabbed the cable and pulled himself below the surface.
Christine watched him go. Without wasting another second to consider the wisdom of it she jumped into the milky water, grabbed hold of the cable, took a deep breath and pulled herself beneath the milky surface.
Hamlin emerged from the vast cloud of milky water that covered the sea bed like an impenetrable mist. He took a final stroke towards the surface, eyes wide and looking up. Bubbles escaped from his mouth as he ascended, travelling alongside him like pilot fish. He maintained his composure as best as he could until the spasms of asphyxiation took hold of him and he shuddered as he drowned. His body went limp and the bubbles alongside him grew larger.
Hamlin’s body gradually expanded, his clothes tightening around his flesh before they ripped open. His skin stretched and gave way as it tore in places. His eyes popped from their sockets and fluid escaped from his ears seconds before his skull cracked open. More bubbles escaped from his flesh and blood, his bones splitting as the rapidly expanding gases freed themselves from the marrow. A trail of human detritus floated from the wrecked torso, lengths of intestinal tubing swelling like a string of balloons.The heavier parts of Hamlin’s body sank back down while thousands of smaller bits of him, buoyed up by gases, headed towards the sunlight. Moments later a million of his bubbles broke the sunlit surface and mingled with the air.
In the distance the prison’s security vessel was moored alongside one of the escape barges. Suddenly, a hundred metres away, the surface erupted as if a huge whale was trying to reach the skies. It was the second escape barge, on its side. It had ascended at speed from its undersea mooring. It came out of the water several metres before its weight dragged it back down. When it next came up it flopped over onto its underside and levelled out, the water cascading off the flat roof and down the sides.
Stratton pulled himself along the thin cable, unable to make out anything by its shape or shade. The cable continued down for several metres where he hit the jagged sea bed with the side of his body, still unable to see anything through the white ‘milk’. He pulled himself along the bottom, quickly reliving the nightmare of his recent near-drowning.
As his lungs started to complain of the lack of oxygen his head struck something metal. It was a piece of angle iron secured to one side of a large drum of some sort. The cable coiled around the drum, effectively coming to its end, and Stratton released it to feel his way beyond it. There were several more cables criss-crossing iron struts but the gaps between them were too small to crawl through. He was running out of air and suppressing uncontrollable thoughts of returning to the cave.
Stratton stretched out his hands in every direction to work out the shape of the construction and discovered that the struts formed a rough circle. He moved over the drum and through this circle to find himself inside a container, which he followed up into a narrow dead end. He was rapidly heading into oxygen deficit and Hamlin’s words telling him to look for a tap echoed in his head. He found a small pipe that led to what was clearly a large metal gas bottle but without a valve at the connection. He quickly followed it in the other direction to find what could be described as a tap and tried to turn it but it wouldn’t budge.
Something grabbed Stratton’s leg and Christine climbed up beside him. Her hands felt up his arms and to his hands and together they fought to turn the valve. Their lungs were bursting, both of them with only seconds left before they would involuntarily gulp in water. The tap suddenly moved and they could hear the hiss of escaping gas.
Stratton spun the tap open as quickly as he could and pushed his face into the highest part of the bell, pressing his lips to the metal ceiling in search of the gas. A pocket of air quickly grew and he gulped in a breath, at the same time pulling Christine up alongside him. She took in a lungful of air while choking violently. Now their faces were pressed together in the ever-increasing air pocket.
The water level gradually dropped and the bell, which had initially been leaning at an angle, moved upright as it became buoyant. Stratton felt around in the darkness in order to find out more about Hamlin’s rudimentary construction and its operating system. ‘You OK?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Christine said finally after clearing her throat. ‘I didn’t think we were going to make it that time.’
‘You get used to that.’
‘Do you have a sense of humour apart from at times like this?’
‘I’m best when I’m scared shitless.’
The bell started to ascend but it did not travel far before coming to a creaky halt as the cable below went taut.
Stratton felt around the bell’s interior from top to bottom. ‘I’ve got to believe Hamlin put some kind of light in here. He had good attention to detail.’
Christine helped him search. ‘I’ve found a wire . . . it splits and there are clips on the ends.’
‘Now look for a battery.’ Stratton felt around the base of the bell where Hamlin would have put anything heavy to help keep the vessel from inverting. ‘I have it,’ he said.
She grabbed his arm, found his hand and put the clips in it. He attached one to a terminal and as soon as he touched the other a small halogen light flickered on at the top of the bell. The tiny space was flooded with light.
Stratton secured the clip and looked at Christine who was staring at him. He smiled. ‘Welcome aboard the
They proceeded to examine the bell and its contents. The outer shell was little more than metal plates fixed to struts of angle iron, some welded, other parts bolted together with rubber in between that acted as a seal. Struts also formed a bench that Stratton sat on to get a clearer perspective on his surroundings. Christine sat opposite him.
The cross-struts gave the framework its strength and all in all Stratton was impressed. ‘You have to hand it to the old man,’ he said.
