Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [139]
After a while, they came to the bottom of the ice formation – the pointed ‘peak’ of the inverted mountain. Schofield slowly swam underneath the peak, and the wall of white glided out of his view –
– and he saw it.
Schofield’s heart nearly skipped a beat.
It was just hanging there in the water in front of him, suspended from its winch cable, making its slow journey back up toward the station.
The diving bell.
Heading back up toward the station.
And then Schofield realised what that meant.
The British had already sent a team down to investigate the cavern.
Schofield hoped to hell that his Marines down in the cavern were ready.
As for him and Renshaw, they had to get to that diving bell. It was a free ride up to Wilkes Ice Station that Schofield did not want to miss.
Schofield spun in the water to signal Renshaw. He saw the short scientist behind him, swimming under-neath the inverted mountain peak. He signalled for Renshaw to pick up the pace and the two men hurried through the water toward the diving bell.
‘How many are down there?’ Barnaby asked softly.
Book Riley didn’t say a word.
Book was on his knees, with his hands cuffed behind his back. He was down on E-deck, by the pool. Blood poured out from his mouth. His left eye was half-closed, puffed and swollen. After falling from the speeding hovercraft with Kirsty, Book had been brought back to Wilkes. As soon as he had arrived at the station, he had been taken down to E-deck to face Barnaby.
‘Mr Nero,’ Barnaby said.
The big SAS man named Nero punched Book hard in the face. Book fell to the deck.
‘How many?’ Barnaby said. He was holding Book’s Maghook in his hand.
‘None!’ Book yelled through bloody teeth. ‘There’s no one down there. We never got a chance to send anyone down there.’
‘Oh, really,’ Barnaby said. He looked at the Maghook in his hands thoughtfully. ‘Mr Riley, I find it very difficult to believe that a commander of the calibre of the Scarecrow would neglect to make the task of sending a squad down to that cave the very first thing that he did once he got here.’
‘Then why don’t you ask him.’
‘Tell me the truth, Mr Riley, or very soon I am going to lose my temper and feed you to the lions.’
‘There’s no one down there,’ Book said.
‘Okay,’ Barnaby said, turning abruptly to face Snake. ‘Mr Kaplan,’ he said. ‘Is Mr Riley telling me the truth?’
Book looked up sharply at Snake.
Barnaby said to Snake, ‘Mr Kaplan, if Mr Riley is lying to me, I will kill him. If you lie to me, I will kill you.’
Book looked up at Snake with wide, pleading eyes.
Snake spoke. ‘He’s lying. There are four people down there. Three Marines, one civilian.’
‘You son of a bitch!’ Book said to Snake.
‘Mr Nero,’ Barnaby said, tossing Book’s Maghook to Nero. ‘String him up.’
Schofield and Renshaw surfaced together inside the slow-moving diving bell.
They climbed up out of the water, and stood on the metal deck that surrounded the small pool of water at the base of the spherical diving bell.
Renshaw removed his mouthpiece, gasped for breath. Schofield scanned the interior of the empty diving bell, looking for weapons, looking for anything.
He saw a digital depth counter on the far wall. It was ticking downwards as the diving bell ascended: 360 feet. 359 feet. 358 feet.
‘Ah-ha,’ Renshaw said from the other side of the bell.
Schofield turned. Renshaw was standing in front of a small TV monitor that was attached to the wall high up near the ceiling. Renshaw clicked it on. ‘I forgot about this,’ he said.
‘What is it?’ Schofield asked.
‘It’s another of old Carmine Yaeger’s toys. You remember the old guy I told you about before, the guy who used to watch the whales all the time. Do you remember I told you he used to watch them sometimes from inside the diving bell? Well this monitor is another one of his video feeds of the station’s pool. Yaeger had it installed so he could watch the surface of the pool while he was underwater in the bell.’
Schofield looked up at the