Chapter 11 - Into the Deep
The voice on the radio was faint, distorted, and wheezing, but Sarah recognized it instantly. It was David. Tears spilled over her cheeks, burning with a mixture of relief and absolute dread.
""David! David, can you hear me?"" she cried into the receiver.
Only static returned. The transmission had cut out.
""The radio relay flooded,"" Elias said, his movements suddenly sharp and urgent. ""Get in the sub, Sarah. There's no time to leave the baby anywhere safe; we leave now or we pull up a corpse.""
Sarah strapped Lily into the co-pilot jump seat inside the cramped, metallic cabin of the Osprey. The toddler looked around with wide hazel eyes, clutching the navy patch tightly against her chest. Elias sealed the heavy titanium hatch with a loud, mechanical clunk.
With a hiss of compressed air, the launch well opened beneath them. The sub slid into the freezing black waters of the Pacific, descending rapidly beneath the crashing surface waves. The light faded from green to murky grey, then disappeared entirely into obsidian dark.
The external floodlights illuminated swirling particulate and swaying kelp fronds. Elias monitored the depth gauge: two hundred feet, three hundred, four hundred.
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Suddenly, a loud sonar ping resonated through the sub's hull.
""We’ve got company,"" Elias muttered, watching a red blip appear on the digital sonar display. ""A corporate patrol vessel just launched an unmanned torpedo drone. They've found us.""
