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  He shut the door and, with one last look around, left and went across the hall to the most important room of all. He entered the research lab with trepidation. Labs gave him the creeps, especially after the digital chip footage he had seen. This room needed containment facilities for multiple organic contaminants, among other things.

  As he turned on the light, he let out a mental sigh. The aged lab looked as if it had not been used in years. One of the lights flickered. He walked over to try to fix it. He tapped the cover a few times until it went out completely.

  He took stock of the cabinets. Not much there to work with. He peered into the storage closet. A few spare slides, one extra magnification panel, and some mixing solutions. Not promising at all, and from what he could see, there was no containment facility.

  The last part bothered him greatly. This was not part of the assignment for which he'd signed up. He had been told he would be on a search-and-rescue vessel with facilities capable of accommodating what they were after. He needed to talk to his boss immediately.

  ***

  Iain descended the stairway to the engine room. He wanted to check in with Dutch and Marcus to see how everything was going. He entered the area and glanced down the long aisle of water and air purifiers that made life on Betty Loo possible.

  The wires were coated with lead and then armour plating to protect them from the corrosive sea air. The fact that it made them flame- and heat-resistant was an added bonus. The sound of water rushing through the pipes to cool down certain parts of the engine, going to faucets and showers, and making life confortable, calmed him. He stood there for a moment, just taking it in.

  "Need something?" Dutch appeared from behind one of the air purifiers.

  "Just checking in. Want to make sure this one goes smooth."

  Dutch took a drag off his cigarette and did a slow turn to look around the area.

  "Things are fine here. You want it smooth, worry about your end." Dutch blew the smoke out of his mouth and stared at the captain with a bored expression.

  "Fine, I got it. I'll leave you alone. Where's Marcus?"

  "Oh, I'm sure he'll turn up soon. Saw him run off with Ally a bit ago."

  Iain nodded and turned to walk up the stairs. He felt a small pang of jealousy. He knew Ally was too young for him, and he was essentially a drunk with a trail of failed marriages, but Iain couldn't help the crush that had developed over the years.

  Lost in thoughts of Ally and how they met as he made his way back to the control room, he smiled to himself. He cleared his head and planned to sit in his chair and act like a captain should act, right after he went and got a drink.

  Chapter Four

  Doctor Maxine Williams stared at the vessel she would be on for the next few weeks. "Unimpressive," "old," "rusty," and "deathtrap" were the first words that popped to mind. The thing looked like it should have sunk years ago. She crossed the gangplank and dropped her bags, waiting for someone to meet her and show her to her room.

  Buttoning up her blazer to ward off the chill, she glanced down to make sure her shoes were polished, an old military habit. She was annoyed that she had to wear pink. Generally, she didn't like to wear bright colors, but orders were orders, and she followed them to a tee. She'd be dead otherwise.

  Maxine called out several times to no avail. She folded her arms across her chest in a defiant manner, but the effect was lost with no one to witness it. After what she determined to be several hours, which in reality was a few moments, she blew out a frustrated breath.

  "This is ridiculous. Hello ... hello, is anyone here?" a voice spoke behind her.

  She turned to see a man putting a leather duffel on the floor. He wore weathered brown boots with a faded pair of jeans, which fit him just right. Her eyes stopped their wandering when he stood up to look at her.

  "I'm here, but I don't think I can help out a whole lot." He smiled and stuck out a hand

  "I just got here, trying to find some of the crew." She smiled brightly at the man behind her as she accepted his hand.

  Very attractive, with a rugged look about him. Based on the file she had been sent, she knew who he was. He would be her greatest obstacle in completing her mission. She continued to look at him with a smile. She hoped her friendly attitude and stupid pink outfit were working at winning him over. As she stared at him, she tried to appear is if she were attracted to him and not sizing him up as a possible foe.

  "I'm Doctor Philip Kramer, got assigned to the team at the last minute. They need help with some sort of oceanic phenomenon or something. You?"

  He stood there with a smile on his face. Knowing what he did, Maxine wondered how he slept at night.

  "Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Doctor Williams, but call me Maxine. All my friends do."

  "Right, Maxine, nice to meet you. Friends call me Kramer."

  "Hey, you must be Doctor Kramer and Doctor Williams. I recognize you from the files they sent over. I'm Captain Kingston, welcome aboard." Iain stood there and reached out a hand to each of them, shaking their hands with a little too much vigour.

  "Thanks, Captain. I was wondering if you could show me to the medical lab. I'd like to get settled as soon as possible and then get to my quarters."

  "Sure thing, Doctor Williams, although I have to warn you: Our quarters are limited, so you'll be sharing with Nina, one of our divers." Maxine smiled, but the look of irritation that flashed across her face might have been seen. She needed to be more careful.

  "Doctor Kramer, I can show you to your lab too. Same thing with the quarters; you'll be sharing with Tom and Johnny."

  "No worries, Captain. I won't be spending much time in my quarters anyway."

  Just as Iain was about to show them down the hallway, Ally came up to him.

  "I'm going into the control room to see how the systems check is going."

  "Hold on a minute. Ally, this is Doctor Kramer and Doctor Williams." Iain turned to the doctors. "This is Ally Lane, my pilot."

  "Nice to meet you. I have work to do." Ally walked away.

  "Hey, is she..." Maxine watched Kramer stare at the young woman's ass as she walked away.

  "She's taken, Kramer. Don't even try."

  "Can't blame a guy. Did you see her?"

  "Just follow me."

  ***

  Ally entered the control room and shook off the creepy vibe she got from Kramer. She thought he seemed familiar, but she couldn't place the face. She went to the information panel and called up the new crewmembers. Technically, she wasn't supposed to do this, but Iain had such a bad memory that he kept the password on all his files the same, one word he would never forget. Whiskey.

  Kramer's image popped up, and she read through his file. Nothing stood out, but his background and education didn't fit with a search and rescue. She started to get a tingling on the back of her neck. Her grandfather used to talk about stuff like that, told her that when it happened, she should pay attention and shut the hell up. That was exactly what she planned on doing.

  She closed the image file and walked over to what she called her control center: a chair, no longer padded, several consoles, and the steering mechanism for the sub. She sat down and put on her headset to link with the computer.

  All the systems were running normally, with the exception of one small glitch with an air purifier tank. She forwarded the information to the engine room.

  Happy that things were fine, Ally started the manual startup to get out of dry dock. She found this to be the hardest part of piloting a sub. Once in the water, it was easy as cake, but in dry dock with hundreds of other boats and subs and submersibles, you had to be extra cautious not to run into anything.

  ***

  Marcus glanced up as the display panel flashed. He smiled when he saw a message from Ally. He tapped the screen and read her message, which was characteristically short and to the point. Check air tank #15. Shows slow intake, A. He closed the message, walked over to the lockers and opened the one with his name on it.


  Reaching inside, he felt a presence behind him. Still on edge from earlier, he grabbed his tool belt and turned around. He almost screamed as he came face to face with Dutch.

  "Christ, Dutch, you scared the hell out of me."

  "Why you getting out the tools? Everything's fine."

  "Ally's check turned up a problem with air tank fifteen. She wants me to take a look at it."

  "I'll go take a look, but there ain't nothing wrong with it. You need to go and do the engine check."

  Marcus didn't say any more; it would serve no point. Dutch was super-protective of Betty Loo, and sometimes it was better to just take care of things on your own. He went to grab the toolbox and almost flinched under the withering glare Dutch gave him.

  "You gotta respect her, boy, don't you forget that." Dutch sat down and lit up a smoke.

  "Make sure you check the tank, Dutch."

  "I will. Gonna enjoy my smoke first."

  Marcus just shook his head and smiled. Crazy old man, he thought. He walked down the narrow aisle to the engine area. He brought out his compression tools, oxygen analyzer, intake gauge, and other assorted tools needed to do the engine check.

  An hour later, the engine checked out just fine. He walked another twenty feet to the electrical room and checked on the fuse box. Any faults with the wires were essentially hidden, so he relied on the coloured fuses to make sure everything was okay.

  Marcus opened the metal panel, which was about three feet by three feet, and checked out at all the fuses. Yellow ones were the ones always in use: water systems, collision alarms, communications, and general alarms. He scanned them and happily noted that they were all lit.

  Black ones were fuses continually underway: diving alarm system controlling the auxiliary stern diving plane angle indicator; the auxiliary stern diving plane angle indicator, controlling the engine governor control and tachometer system; rudder angle indicator system, controlling the main ballast indicator system; bow diving plane angle indicator providing information on the underwater log system; stern diving plane angle indicator; and the general announcing system.

  The white circuits were officers' call bells and had been turned off years ago. The red ones were for battle and were also turned off. Looking at the board, Marcus smiled when he saw everything was as it should be. Yellow and black ones were up and going; red and white were off.

  Marcus returned to the main area waiting to hear the I told ya so from Dutch, but was surprised to see his usual chair empty.

  Marcus shrugged and headed to the lockers to hang up his tool belt and then placed the toolbox in the slot on the table. He went to the display panel and typed in a quick message for Ally to let her know everything was fine on his end for the engine check.

  After he hit "send," he glanced around, wondering where Dutch could have gotten off to. It was unusual for him not to be sitting in his chair, feet up on the wall, and smoking a cigarette.

  "Hey, are you the captain of this bucket?" Marcus looked to his left, into the face of someone far too tan and sporting a far too cocky smile.

  He noticed the way this new guy kept shifting from foot to foot, and the fact that he wore sunglasses inside. The sweat marks and constant fidgeting with his hands made it apparent this guy was on something. Great, just what they needed.

  "Nope, not the captain. Look up top. Actually, let me take you." Something about the guy set Marcus off. He didn't trust him.

  Then again, no one really trusted anyone these days.

  "Thanks, man. That'd be great. Haven't been on a sub this old in... well, ever. I'm Johnny Ventura, by the way. The diver for this little party."

  "I'm Marcus, mechanic of this sub. Now if you'll just follow me, I'll introduce you to Captain Kingston."

  Marcus led the way with a jittery Johnny behind him.

  ***

  Johnny kept his eyes on the back of the mechanic in front of him. He had to admit he was a bit intimidated; the guy was huge. He wore a plain grey t-shirt and jeans, and reminded him of a bodybuilder. Quiet enough, but Johnny knew that didn't mean anything. The most dangerous ones were the quiet ones.

  Man, he needed a hit of some squish. It was the only reason he came on these trips. He hated being in subs, and he loathed being underwater. Thing was, the fresher the squish, the better the high. So here he was, hoping to score some fresh stuff, and in the meantime, he had to put up with a bunch of morons. What the hell was this job about anyway? He hadn't read the file on it, but he figured it didn't matter.

  "Go right in there and set your stuff down. Captain Kingston will be with you shortly to fill you in on things."

  ***

  Marcus watched as Johnny went into the room and tossed his bags on the floor. He then proceeded to pace around the room and inspect the inside of several drawers and the game cabinet.

  Marcus walked into the control room and saw Ally sitting in her pilot's chair. He smiled at how serious she appeared. He walked up slowly behind her and started to rub her shoulders. He knew she was aware of his presence as soon as he was at the door, but sometimes she let him think he was sneaky.

  "Hmmm." Ally leaned back into his touch, and Marcus added a little more pressure.

  "Feel good?"

  "Of course. You know all my spots..." Marcus moved his hands down a little.

  "I know a few of them. In fact, there's one right here..." Ally grabbed his hands and held onto them.

  "Un uh." Ally moved his hands from her breasts back up to her shoulders.

  She stood up from her seat and turned as he lowered his hands to rest on her hips. Ally stood up on her tiptoes, which Marcus thought was the most adorable thing in the world, though he would never tell her, and kissed him.

  "Ahem. Hope I'm not interrupting anything important." The two lovers sighed and separated.

  "No, Nina, you're not interrupting anything. What's up?"

  "Just thought I'd let you know we got a meeting in the rec room in ten minutes. You can probably fit in a quickie." Nina winked and let out a low laugh.

  Marcus chuckled. "Nina, that's not long enough for me. I like to take my time." He was silenced by the stomping of Ally's foot on his.

  "Thanks, Nina. We'll be there." Ally shook her head at Marcus as she made her way out of the control area.

  Just as she did, an announcement was made over the communication system. All crew, please report to the rec room for debriefing. We're leaving in three hours. Oh yeah, this is the captain speaking.

  Chapter Five

  The entire crew assembled in the rec room. The five new members stuck together, even though they didn't know one another. There were just enough seats for everyone as long as the captain remained standing.

  "All right, everyone. As some of you know, I'm Captain Kingston, and this is my sub." He slowly looked around the room, making sure the last point sank in with the new members.

  "I've been hired out by an independent research agency to do a search-and-rescue operation. There are five members who have been assigned to aid in this job because of their particular talents. We'll be going to roughly 20,000 feet or more down and letting the submersible go the remaining 5,000 feet."

  "Whoa, wait a minute, sir..." Ally spoke up.

  "Let me finish, Ally." Ally sighed in frustration but kept her mouth shut.

  The other members were also visibly disturbed by this information.

  "I know that's far down, farther down then most go, due to several issues. I'm sure, however, that this sub will do just fine, and her crew can handle anything that happens. I'll also mention here to anyone left with doubts, the payout on this job will ensure that each one of you can retire as soon as we get back."

  Marcus stood up and spoke. "Captain, I understand it might be a good-paying job, but it's too dangerous. Betty Loo is old for a sub, and we've never taken her so deep before."

  "Marcus, thanks for your input, but I'm not done. Mister Sutter, you can call him Ivan, is in charge of the details, so you better listen to
him now." Iain went over to the wall in the corner under the image display screen and leaned against it as Ivan stood from his chair and headed to the front of the room.

  All eyes in the room were on him as he started to speak.

  "My name is irrelevant. I am here to make sure this search and rescue goes as well as it possibly can. You have been told it is in a dangerous location. That is not all; you must also be aware of the fact that it is in an area yet to be fully charted." Ivan took a breath as he let his information sink in.

  "This area has been very promising when it comes to fuel sources and alternative medications. The area contains some sort of algae that purifies the water, making it drinkable. Several million gallons have already been brought up and distributed. This job must succeed, as safe sources of drinking water are running out."

  Ivan took a breath to steady his nerves. He hated talking in front of people. He also hated lying, but in this case, it was necessary.

  "The last thing you need to know about this rescue is that the sub we are going after sent its S.O.S. over six months ago."

  "Why the hell did you take so long to send someone in?" Ally spouted off angrily.

  "I'm not here to answer questions; you are here to listen. If you don't like it, leave. The company I work for did not know what to do, and decided to gather as much information as possible and put together a crew best suited to achieve success. That is all."

  Ivan turned and left the room. He knew that if he stayed, people would ask questions, and he was not allowed to say anything not in the file. He hated it, but he had to follow orders.

  ***

  Iain watched Ivan leave.

  "All right, guys, get to it; we leave soon." Iain stood ready to exit the room, but Marcus blocked his path.

  "Marcus, I know you have concerns, but I know this sub better than you, and she can take it. Now those of you who want out, leave now, otherwise we're gone in two hours. Say your goodbyes."