Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [125]
Eddie studied the screen. The Mako and the diver were both following them – and gaining. ‘Behind us, and catching up. Matt, how badly are we damaged?’
‘It’d be quicker to tell you what’s not crook,’ the Australian answered, checking the warning lights. ‘Power’s draining fast, the thrusters are damaged, and . . .’ His face sank.
‘And?’
‘And we’ve got maybe ten minutes before we start running out of air. The recycling system’s shot.’
‘You couldn’t have started with that?’
‘Wait, so even if we lose these guys chasing us, we’re still not going to be able to get to the surface?’ Nina said. ‘Well, that’s marvellous!’
The first signs of the SBX’s strewn wreckage came into view at the edge of the LIDAR display. ‘Only way we can get up there before we croak is by dropping the ballast slab. We might be able to knock it loose on the rig debris,’ said Matt.
‘Not with those arseholes shooting at us.’ Eddie thought for a moment, then made a decision. ‘We’ll have to take them out.’
‘With what?’ Nina protested. ‘They’ve got nailguns and torpedoes, and we’ve got a claw that doesn’t work!’
‘Better than nowt.’ He looked ahead. Broken metal poked out from the silt, the debris field becoming thicker. They were coming up on the remains of the SBX. Matt turned to avoid something resembling an enormous broken eggshell: part of the giant fibreglass dome that had covered the platform’s main radar antenna.
Eddie looked at the LIDAR again. Their pursuers were still closing, the sub slightly ahead of the deep suit. ‘Have you explored any of this?’
‘Nope,’ Matt told him. ‘It’s a grave site – off-limits. The only people who’ve been allowed down to it are US navy divers.’
‘So you don’t know what’s in there?’ The engineer shook his head. ‘Oh well, at least we’ll all be in the same boat. One that’s up shit creek!’
The Sharkdozer swerved to skirt a fallen girder standing out of the seabed like a flagpole. One of the SBX’s six gigantic legs rose at an angle ahead. The concrete cylinder was surrounded by a nest of twisted metal. ‘Eddie, give me some hints here,’ Matt said urgently.
Eddie indicated a long beam protruding almost horizontally from the wreckage. ‘Can we fit under that?’
‘Yeah – but there could be anything on the other side.’
‘You want to find out what?’
‘Not especially.’
Nina saw plumes of bubbles from the diver’s rifle obscure his spotlights on the video monitor. ‘He’s shooting again!’
‘But I want a nail up my backside even less!’ Matt decided quickly, turning the Sharkdozer on a course that would take it beneath the overhanging girder. A couple of the six-inch steel spikes clipped the submersible’s back end, but the rest shot harmlessly past. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Just go through and make sure he has to go under that beam to come after us,’ Eddie said as he took the arm controls. On the monitor, the Mako’s lights were now dazzling as it caught up. Another few seconds, and it would be impossible for a torpedo to miss. He raised the remaining manipulator, turning it to look ahead. The long strut stood out clearly in the sub’s floodlights. He brought the arm higher, the paralysed claw now on a collision course with the beam. ‘Soon as you’re clear, turn so he can’t get a shot at us.’
‘There’s nowhere to bloody turn!’ The space beneath the leg was choked with mangled debris from the radar platform’s underside.
They were through—
The raised arm hit the girder with a crash, the base of the claw catching its edge – and acting as a pivot. The Sharkdozer swung sharply upwards, before the strain on the already damaged manipulator became too much and half the claw was wrenched away. Matt jammed the thrusters into reverse to stop his sub from ploughing into the wall of curved concrete above.
Behind, the girder shuddered, a mournful groan of metal echoing through the freezing waters . . . then it broke free and dropped towards the sea floor.
It hit the Mako as it fell. The submersible was slammed