Page 148 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

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Aboard Peng’s helicopter

Peng had already briefed the Marines before the flight took off. He told them to expect resistance and to kill anybody who opposed them. But their primary mission was finding Fierro, Bose, and any equipment related to Project Q.

“Hardware. Thumb drives. Documentation. Anything.”

Peng had no idea how long theBaktunhad before it sank beneath the waves. The Navy helicopter pilot estimated twenty minutes at most. The pilot demanded one of the privates help him locate theaviation fuel and resupply the helicopter if at all possible. Peng reluctantly agreed, since acquiring Project Q personnel or materials would be irrelevant if they all crashed back into the sea.

As the helicopter approached the helipad, Peng issued orders to the Marine major in charge. “We leave in fifteen minutes, no exceptions.”

“My men won’t fail you, sir.”

The twelve Chinese Marines leaped out of the helicopter before the skids hit the angled deck located on the elevated bow, scattering in pairs in all directions. One Marine stayed with the pilot, and a burly sergeant stood by Peng’s side.

Peng’s instincts told him the machine would be belowdecks. He pulled his pistol, nodded to the sergeant, and dashed for the ladder.

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Aboard a lifeboat

TheBaktunwas a registered, oceangoing vessel subject to periodic safety inspections. Accordingly, it maintained a full array of well-kept emergency escape equipment, including a contingent of enclosed fiberglass lifeboats.

One of those lifeboats puttered away on its electric motor, piloted by one of the deckhands, a grizzly Swede who willed the bobbing craft as far away from the two sinking hulks as possible, praying they could escape the downward pull that could easily suck them to their doom. Slowing his progress were the five survivors clinging to two ropes trailing the overcrowded lifeboat. They held on for dear life as the lifeboat inched its way through the chop.

Packed with over a dozen terrified techs and piloted by the Swede, the big orange lozenge had managed to put a mile between itself and theBaktunin the ten minutes since the abandon ship alarms had sounded. The Swede’s pale gray eyes were fixed on theBaktun’s high, proud bow as it knelt down toward the unforgiving sea.

The sudden flash startled the old mariner like a gunshot in the dark. The explosion emitted a supersonic shock wave that rippled across the water, nearly capsizing the lifeboat. The confusion and horror ofthe moment amplified the terrified screams echoing inside the claustrophobic bubble. White-hot shrapnel whistled through the air, punching a dozen jagged holes through the fiberglass-reinforced hull. Arterial blood spattered a half dozen faces as another agonizing scream rang out above all the others.

The Swede pulled out the emergency medical kit and tossed it to the man seated nearest the screaming woman, clearly bleeding out.

“Do what you can,” was all he said. He was neither a doctor nor a priest.

He glanced out the tiny portal of the lifeboat to check on the people holding on to the trailing ropes. Two floated face down and spread-eagled in the water far behind the boat, no doubt killed by the blast.

Two others still held on, their determined faces white-knuckling the rope saving their lives.

The fifth floated upright in the water, her backpack bunched up around her shoulders. Her stunned eyes beneath her bleeding scalp were fixed on the rope now hopelessly beyond her reach and pulling away. The young Thai woman had waited too long to exit the lab. In her mad dash up the staircase she’d even bumped into the captain before reaching the top deck and hurling herself into the sea.

The Swede’s heart went out to the young woman, but his boat was already overcrowded and meagerly provisioned for however many days and nights might lay ahead. By his reckoning she wasn’t long for this world anyway, so he motored on. He turned away from the pitying sight.

The old Swede hadn’t prayed in years.

Now seemed to be a good time to start.

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The Thai neurobiologist wasn’t a great swimmer, but she knew it wasn’t about swimming at this point, just surviving. When the lifeboat abandoned her, she removed her waterproof pack from her back and turned it around, put her arms through the straps, and pulled it close to her chest, using the pack like a float.

Her spirit sank when the lifeboat left her behind, but it was the blood loss and shock from the shrapnel wound to her scalp that shut her eyes. She fell asleep, gently rocked by the rolling waves, her head half submerged in the cool water.

She had the vague sense of floating in her dream state, but the sound of high-pitched mosquitoes whined in her ears. If the sound would just go away, she could go to sleep forever…

A hard bump against her leg jolted her awake. Her bulging eyes caught sight of the speeding shark fin racing past, spiking her heart rate to the edge of ventricular fibrillation.

She quickly spun around, roiling the water like a wounded fish. Something told her that was a dumb move. Her ears were clogged with water and her mind was fogged, but she could see she was in big trouble now.

The sight of three more shark fins confirmed it.