Goliath

darkness blanket the chaos, and then an icy wall lifts him up and carries him away.

Aboard the Goliath

The Goliath slows, allowing its minisub to redock. Instead of continuing north, the devil ray descends to the seafloor, Sorceress shutting down the ship’s engines.

Scanning the ocean depths, the biochemical computer listens … and waits.

Antarctic Ocean 12 nautical miles due north of the Goliath

The 4-million-ton barge of ice, a tabular berg half the size of the island of Manhattan, is trapped, locked in place along the ocean’s frozen surface. Three years have passed since this glacierlike monster first separated from the Ross Ice Shelf to begin its journey north. Too large to clear the inlets surrounding Antarctica, it had taken several summers before the process of melting could shave enough mass from the berg’s imposing keel to again release it to open waters.

Currents had taken the frozen mountain halfway around the continent before releasing it to the open sea. From there, it had drifted another forty-eight miles before Antarctica’s wintry fingers again reached out to seal it in place.

A four-story-high plateau of ice marks the visible tip of this frozen monster. Flattopped and steep-sided, it is as barren as a moonscape, and just as devoid of life.

The harsh katabatic wind howls along the plateau’s northern rise and down its exposed cliff face to the seven-foot-thick pack ice. Below the frozen surface, held within the Southern Ocean’s frigid embrace lies the rest of this glacierlike mountain. At 590 feet thick, with a keel stretching 1,145 feet deep, the iceberg could easily provide every person on the planet with two glasses of fresh water per day … for the next two thousand years.

Within this ebony realm, the berg’s luminescent alabaster glow reveals an ominous presence hovering in silence along its vast northern face.

Positioned close to the prodigious ice island, its engines shut down, is the Los Angeles-class attack sub USS Scranton.

Four long hours have passed since the American attack sub went quiet. Now, tensions rise once more as a series of man-made acoustics violates the tranquil waters of the Antarctic.

Tom Cubit hovers over Michael Flynn’s right shoulder. The sonarman’s hands are trembling noticeably.

Flynn shakes his head in disbelief. “She’s gone, Skipper, Virginia’s gone.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Explosion was too big to be a torpedo.”

Cubit squeezes his eyes closed. “And the Goliath?”

“She went silent right after the explosion. I mark her last position approximately nine miles to the southeast.”

Cubit nods. She knows we’re close, but she’s not sure where. “Find her, Michael- Jack. If one of Covah’s crew so much as farts, I want to know about it.”

“Aye, sir.”

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson

“Don’t go to sleep, ’cause I’m going to kill you.”

— Ricky Briscoe, before tossing kerosene on his girlfriend and burning her to death

CHAPTER 33

Aboard the Boeing 747-400 YAL-IA 40,000 feet over the Southern Indian Ocean Antarctic Circle

General Jackson stares at the image of the president of the United States and his Security Advisors, all of whom are listening, ashen-faced, as Nick Nunziata reads NORAD’s latest report.

“The Trident II (D5) only has a range of about five thousand miles. With the exception of Sydney, there are really no major cities or military installations that fit Covah’s agenda. However, further analysis of the trajectory of three of Covah’s nukes revealed a disturbing conclusion.” Nuziata looks up. “Covah wasn’t aiming for cities, gentlemen, he was trying to detonate volcanoes.”

“Volcanoes?” President Edwards looks baffled.

“Yes, sir, volcanoes. Big pyroclastic ones.”

“I don’t understand. Why volcanoes?”

“Imagine eight eruptions on a scale that would put Krakatau to shame. Be like the asteroid impact that struck Earth 65 million years ago, killing all the dinosaurs—only worse. The environmental holocaust that followed would have blanketed the planet’s atmosphere with debris for years.”

“Good … . God, a nuclear winter?”

“More like an ice age. That Russian lunatic is out to destroy every god-damn-life-form on the planet.”

Jackson feels the blood drain from his face, leaving him light-headed, dizzy.

“General Jackson, how many more nuclear weapons does Covah have left?”

“At least eight more D5s, Mr. President,” Jackson hears himself saying, “enough to give this doomsday scenario one last try. We believe he’ll leave Antarctic waters and head either north or east in an attempt to lose the laser plane.”

Nick Nunziata nods. “If he’s after volcanoes, the Northern Hemisphere’s got plenty of ’em. He could surface in the North Atlantic or Pacific and choose from dozen of targets, all of which are well within range of his missiles.”

The president registers tightness running up his left arm. “General Jackson?”

“We lost the Virginia, sir, but the Hawaii and Jimmy Carter are closing fast from the east, joined by a half dozen more Aussie boats. The biggest gap in the net lies to the north. Scranton’s probably close, but we haven’t heard from Cubit in hours. Meanwhile, our Orion sub hunters are concentrating their sonar buoys in the area where the Virginia was attacked, but the going’s slow with all this pack ice. Two Russian destroyers and three Borey-class subs have joined the USS Gonzalez in an attempt to close the hole to the north, but they’re still a half day out.”

“What happens if Covah slips through?”

Jackson grimaces. “Then … it’s over. Finding the Goliath in open ocean would be tougher than locating a needle in a haystack the size of the Empire State Building. It’s now or never … sir.”

Aboard the Goliath

ATTENTION. SORCERESS UTOPIA-ONE SECOND LAUNCH TARGETS HAVE NOW BEEN SELECTED:

David stares at the target list and their coordinates as they are projected on the big overhead screen.

SORCERESS UTOPIA-ONE DESIGNATED TARGETS Concepcion. Nicaragua 11.5 N. 85.6 W El Chichon. Mexico 17.4 N. 93.2 W Mount Hood. Oregon. USA 45.4 N. 121.7 W Mount Rainier. Washington. USA 46.5 N. 121.7 W Mount Shasta. California, USA 41.4 N. 122.2 W Mount St. Helens. Washington. USA 46.2 N. 122.1 W