boulders until their hardened steel flukes snagged bedrock. A computer control automatically adjusted the tension on the anchor chains to keep them from slipping.
“We’re ready,” Max announced, but his tone was less than enthusiastic.
“Tension the tow cables, then bring us up to thirty percent.” Juan snapped a pair of binoculars to his eyes, purposefully avoiding looking at the men at the
“Thirty percent,” Eric announced. “No movement over the bottom other than stretching the cables.”
“Ramp it up to fifty,” Juan said without taking his eyes off the cruise ship. “Anything on the anchors?”
“Zero recovery on the winches,” Max answered. “Heat’s already building in three and four. We’re thirty degrees from red line and automatic shutdown.”
The forces acting on the tow were titanic, brute horsepower against twenty thousand deadweight tons of steel that had been pounded into the beach. Pulled taut by the cables, the
“Anything?” Juan called.
“No recovery on the winches,” Max said grimly, “and zero movement over the bottom.”
“Eighty percent!”
“Do it and take the safeties off the engines.” Juan’s voice was charged with anger. “Bury them past the red line if you have to. We’re not leaving those people.”
Max complied, typing a few commands that told the computer to ignore the heat building up in the massive cryo pumps. He watched his screen as the columns indicating temperature turned red and then climbed above the safety limit. He reached out deliberately and shut off the computer monitor. “Sorry, my darlings.”
Juan could feel his ship’s torment through the soles of his boots as she fought the tow. The vibrations were tearing her apart, and each shudder sent a lance into his chest.
“Come on, you bitch,” he snarled. “Move.”
A rumble built across the bay, so deep and resonant that it was a feeling across the skin rather than a sound that hit the ears. The top of the mountain was hidden by a dense cloud of ash, and the ground shook so strongly that the beach seemed to become a liquid. This was it. The main eruption. The volcano was going to blow like Mount Saint Helens, and a wall of superheated ash and gas would tear down from the summit in a deadly avalanche that scientists called a pyroclastic flow, one of the most destructive forces on earth. Juan had gambled all and was about to lose everything. It was too late to go back and save any of the Chinese. Tears stung his eyes, but the firm line of his jaw never slackened.
“We’ve got to cut the tow,” Max said.
Cabrillo said nothing.
“Juan, we’ve got to go. We need a couple of miles between us and that volcano if we’re getting out of here alive.”
He didn’t doubt the words. The pyroclastic flow would reach far out to sea in an enveloping noxious cloud that would smother anything in its path. But still he remained silent.
“Movement!” Eric shouted. “Port winch is recovering, five yards a minute.”
“Must be slippage,” Max countered. “She’s dragging across the sea floor.”
It was as if the sun had been eclipsed. Darkness came so swiftly that it left Juan’s eyes swimming. He could barely see the
No one spoke for what felt like an eternity. Stone’s eyes never left the speed indicators, which remained stubbornly at zero.
Then over the sound of the eruption, the
“Got her,” Eric shouted as his speed indicators tickled ever so slightly.
Max turned his computer screen back on. “Recovery on both winches.”
“Speed over the bottom is ten yards a minute. Fifteen. Twenty.”
As more and more of the ship’s weight felt the buoyancy of her natural element, the speed continued to increase. Tory clutched Juan’s hand as they watched the
“She’s free,” Juan called down to the op center and heard a roar of approval from his crew. Someone, probably Max, who was a rank sentimentalist under his tough veneer, sounded the ship’s horn — a keening celebratory note that echoed and echoed.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Juan said and led Tory back inside the bridge. They descended into the op center. Another cheer rose from the throats of his people, and his back was slapped black and blue.
Now that the
“Dear God.” Tory gasped.