Fire Ice

"They kept you there all that time?" Gu

"Hell, no! Early the next morning, we were assembled on the deck. Guys with guns kept us covered, and the big sub was nowhere to be seen. Pulaski was there. He gave us that creepy smile of his. 'Good morning, gentlemen,' " Kreisman imitated Pulaski's accent. " 'In return for this delightful cruise, we are going to ask that you do a little job for us.' He said we would be salvaging material from an old ship. Pulaski and another thug were going with us. So we piled into the NR-1 alongside the ship, which was acting as our tender, and down we went."

"How deep?"

"Four hundred feet plus. No big deal for the NR-1. We noticed the water buoyancy was different. We needed less ballast to bring us down. The sea bottom was mud for the most part, sloping before it abruptly dropped off into the deep. The wreck sat on the bank of an underwater canyon or valley that ran at right angles to the cliff face."

"Was there a name on the ship's hull?"

"None that we could see. The vessel was covered with seaweed and barnacles. The bow was more up-and-down than raked, like those pictures you see of the Titanic." He used his hand to demonstrate.

"What was its position on the bottom?"

"The ship sat on the slope, leaning over at a sharp angle. It looked as if a good shove would tip it over. We saw a big hole in the starboard side."

"Could you see inside the hole?"

"It was filled in with rubble. We only stayed there a minute. They were more interested in the other side. They had fitted out the manipulator arm with a cutting torch. We touched down on the slanting deck. It was pretty dicey putting the sub down at an angle. We had the feeling the ship could roll over at any time. Then they told us to cut a hole in the superstructure."

"Not in the hold?" Austin said with surprise. "That's where the cargo would be."

"You'd think so, but we weren't in a position to argue. We made an opening around ten by ten feet. It wasn't too hard – the metal was old and rusted. We had to be careful, though. It was like a surgical operation. One nudge and the ship would drop off into the deep; we were all aware of that. We could see the old bunks and mattresses. Pulaski and his buddy got real agitated. They started to jabber over some diagrams of the wreck that they had with them."

"In Russian."

"Sounded like it. Apparently, they'd had us cut through the wrong spot. We tried two more times before they found what they wanted. It was a fairly big cabin filled with metal boxes the size of those old steamer trunks you see in antique shops."

"How many boxes?"

"About a dozen, jumbled every which way. Pulaski told us to grab them with the NR-1's manipulator arm. We had a tough time moving them. They were obviously heavy and strained the manipulator to capacity. We pulled the boxes to the opening and called the surface ship and told them to lower some lines with hooks on the ends of them. We attached the lines, stood off and let the ship winch the stuff up with its superior lifting power."

Austin, who had been trained in deepwater salvage, nodded. "Exactly the way I would have handled it."

"Captain Logan's idea." Kreisman smirked with embarrassment. "We were like the British soldiers in that movie, Bridge on the River Kwai. We really got into it. Professional pride, I guess."

"Don't feel bad. They probably would have killed you if you hadn't done the job."

"That's what the captain said. We worked round-the-clock shifts. There were a few of the hitches you'd expect with a job that complicated, but we got all the stuff they wanted off the ship."

"Did you see what was in the steamer trunks?"

"That was a fu

"No indication what the dustup was all about?"

He shook his head. "They put us below, and when they brought us on deck again it was night. The monster sub was back. There was a ship nearby, too. We couldn't see in the dark, but it sounded like a big one. They loaded us aboard the sub, except for the captain and pilot-same first-class accommodations. We traveled underwater, a shorter time than before. When we were allowed out, we were in a place as big as an airplane hangar."

"That would be the sub pen. What happened to the NR-1?"

"We don't know. It was still tied up alongside the salvage vessel when we left. The captain and pilot are okay, I hope," he said with consternation. "Why would they keep us prisoner and let them go?"

"They may have further work for the NR-1 or simply want hostages. What happened next?"

"They put us in yet another bunk room. A real dump. We were there a couple of days. Bored as hell. The only excitement was what sounded like a big explosion from somewhere below."

"They were sealing the entrance to the sub pen."

"Why would they do that?"

"The base had been discovered, and they wanted to make sure no one would find the evidence. The big sub used in the hijack had served its purpose. I wouldn't be surprised if they pla

"Same bunch who kept an eye on us on the salvage ship. Military types with automatic weapons. They gave us black bread and water, and locked us in. Next thing we know, these guys with the fu

Austin looked around the room. "Any questions?"

"Did you get a glimpse of your GPS position when you were on the NR-1?" Gu

"They kept us away from the positioning gauges, then turned them off later so we couldn't see."

"Damn shame," Gu

Laughter rippled around the room.

"Are we missing a joke?" Gu

A slim blond-haired crewman in his midtwenties stood and identified himself as Seaman Ted McCormack. He passed a sheet of paper toward the table. "These are the GPS coordinates for the wreck."

"How can you be sure?" Gu

McCormack held out his arm and displayed what looked like an overgrown digital wristwatch. "My wife gave this to me. We got married just before I shipped out. She's got a chart back home so when I called her she could mark exactly where I was."

"We used to kid Mac about being on a short leash," Kreisman said. "Not anymore."

"When we were hijacked, I slid this thing up my arm and kept it covered under my sleeve," McCormack said. "They never frisked us. Figured we were harmless, I guess."

The ProTek GPS watch was a miracle of miniaturization, said by its manufacturer to be the world's smallest GPS device. It could give the wearer his position anywhere on the planet within a few yards.

Austin gri