White Death

6

THE BOAT CREW was watching for Austin to pop out of the

water, and they snagged him like a runaway calf. Within min- utes, he was back on the deck, where he spelled out the situation to Becker and Captain Larsen.

"Dear God," Becker said. "What a terrible way to die. My govern- ment will spare no expense to retrieve their bodies for the families."

Becker's pessimism was starting to a

"But you said-"

"I fylow what I said. They're in tough shape, but that doesn't mean they're doomed. The Squalus submarine rescue took more than a day to accomplish, and thirty-three were saved." Austin paused as his sharp ears picked up a new sound. He stared at the sky and shaded his eyes against the glare of the overcast.

"Looks like the cavalry has arrived."

A gigantic helicopter was bearing down on the ship. Dangling below the helicopter in a sling was a blimp-shaped submarine with a blunt nose.

'That's the largest helicopter I've ever seen," Captain Larsen said. 'Actually, the Mi-26 is the biggest helicopter in the world,)) Austin said. "It's more than a hundred feet long. They call it the flying crane.

Becker smiled for the first time in hours. "Please tell me that strange-looking object hanging below the helicopter is your rescue vehicle."

"The Sea Lamprey isn't the prettiest craft in the sea," Zavala said with a shrug. "I sacrificed form for function in designing her."

"To the contrary," Becker said. "She's beautiful"

The captain shook his head in wonderment. "How on earth did you get this equipment here so quickly? You were twelve hundred miles away when the rescue call went out."

"We remembered that the Russians like to do things in a big way," Austin said. "They jumped at the chance to show the world they're still a first-rate nation."

"But that helicopter couldn't have carried it all that way in such a short time. You gentlemen must be magicians."

"It took a lot of work to pull this rabbit out of a hat," Austin said, as he watched the helicopter maneuver. "The Mi-26 picked up the submersible at sea and transferred it to a land base, where two Antonov N-124 heavy-duty transport planes were waiting. The Sea Lamprey went on one plane. The big chopper and the NUMA heli- copter were loaded on the other. It was a two-hour flight to the NATO base in the Faroes. While they unloaded the submersible and got it ready to fly, we came out here to prepare the way."

The powerful turboshaft engines drowned out the captain's reply as the aircraft moved closer and hovered. The eight rotor blades and five-bladed tail rotor threshed the air, and the downdraft they cre- ated scooped a vast watery crater out of the sea. The submersible was released a few feet above the roiling water, and the helicopter moved off. The Sea Lamprey had been fitted out with large air-filled pontoons. It sank beneath the waves, but quickly bobbed back to the surface.

Austin suggested that the captain ready the sick bay to treat ex- treme hypothermia. Then the boat crew ferried them out to the sub- mersible. The launch crew detached the pontoons. The submersible blew air from its ballast tanks and sank below the blue-black surface.

The Sea Lamprey hovered, kept at an even keel by its thrusters. Austin and Zavala sat in the snug cockpit, their faces washed by the blue light from the instrument panel, and ran down the dive check- list. Then Zavala pushed the control stick forward, angled the blunt prow down and blew ballast. He steered the submersible in a de- scending spiral as casually as if he were taking the family out on a Sunday drive.

Austin peered into the gauzy bluish blackness beyond the range of the lights. "I didn't have time to ask you before we came aboard," he said, almost in afterthought. "Is this thing safe?"

"As a former president once said, 'Depends on your definition ofis/"

Austin groaned. "Let me rephrase my question. Are the leaks and the pump fixed?"

"I think I stopped up the leaks, and the ballast pump works well under ideal conditions."

"What about actual conditions?" "Kurt, my father used to quote an old Spanish proverb. 'The closed mouth swallows no flies.' "

"What the hell do flies have to do with our situation?"

"Nothing," Zavala said. "I just thought we should change the sub- ject. Maybe the problem with the ballast control will go away."

The vehicle had been built as a rescue system of last resort. Once its lasers punched a hole in a sunken vessel, water would rush in after the sub disengaged. There was no way to plug the opening. All trapped crewmen had to be evacuated in one trip. This was a proto- type, built to carry only eight people plus a pilot and co-pilot. If all thirteen men and their captain were taken off the cruiser, they'd be over the weight limit by six.

Austin said, "I've been ru

"No problem. We've got a backup pump if the main isn't work- ing." In designing the Sea Lamprey, Zavala had followed common

practice and built redundant systems. Zavala paused. "Some of the crew might be dead."

"I've been thinking about that," Austin said. "We'd increase our safety margin if we left bodies down there, but I'm not leaving until we've got every man aboard. Dead or alive."

The cockpit grew silent as both men considered the awful possi- bilities. The only sound was the hum of electric motors as the un- gainly craft dropped into the depths. Before long, they were at the side of the cruiser. Austin directed Zavala to the penetration point. Then came a soft clunk as the front end of the submersible bumped the curved steel plates. Electric pump motors hummed, and the sub- mersible stayed where it was, glued to the steel by a vacuum.

The escape tu

Sensors gauged the pressure within the seal and kept the vacuum on place. Given the safe signal to enter, Austin strapped on a small air tank and a scuba regulator and emerged from the air lock. There was some leakage around the seal, but not enough to worry about. He started to crawl through the escape tu

Inside the cruiser, the crew and captain had slipped into a deathlike sleep. Captain Petersen was roused from his cold slumber by the sound of a giant woodpecker. Damned bird! While one level of his brain cursed the source of the noise, another was automatically ana- lyzing it, grouping the raps into familiar patterns, each the equiva- lent of a letter.

HELLO

He flicked the torch on. The chef had heard the noise, and his eyes were as big as fried eggs. The captain's stiff fingers groped for the wrench by his side and banged it weakly against the hull. Then again, with more force.

The reply was immediate.

MOVE AWAY

More easily said than done, the captain thought. Petersen told the chef to back off from the bulkhead, then followed, rolling out of his bunk. He crawled across the deck and called out to the other men to move. He sat with his back to a locker for what seemed an eternity, not sure what to expect.