Laura 02 The God Code (35 page)

Victor has to keep pulling back on the handle to stop the water pressure from closing the hatch again. Suddenly a shudder goes through the submarine and to Victor’s horror the twin propellers slowly start rotating and the submarine starts to dive. Victor pulls harder on the hatch, but he just cannot get it open more than the inch gap he already has. The water pressure against his body from the submarine moving forward causes him to lose his footing on the hull of the ship. Victor is now hanging from the handle, feet dangling in mid water, with the submarine moving forward and diving down.

Victor looks at the surface getting further away. How deep are they already? He will not be able to breathe for long from the oxygen mask before it becomes toxic, possibly causing a seizure. With effort, Victor pulls his body forward to the hatch. If he can get it open just a bit more, water will enter the escape hatch faster, allowing him to get in. The hatch opens towards the back, but the gap is too small for the water passing over it to push it open, he has to get it open more. Victor pulls himself into a squatting position over the hatch and pushes away with his legs, pulling the hatch.

Suddenly the hatch flips open, causing Victor to lose his grip on the handle. As he slides he frantically grabs at the open hatch and manages to catch it with his right hand. Even though he tries as hard as he can to pull himself forward, he cannot win against the force of the water on his body and he loses his grip. A sickening feeling goes through his stomach as he slides over the hull of the submarine.

Victor thinks of Ernest. Hope Ernest made it, he may be the world’s only hope. Suddenly something slams into Victor’s back causing him to be pushed forward at the same speed as the submarine. Turning around, Victor sees what it is, one of the trim flaps on the side of the submarine that can be deployed for added stability at slow speeds and retracted when the submarine is running full out. Victor grabs the flap. He will hold on until he cannot anymore or drowns from a seizure due to oxygen poisoning. Suddenly the submarine levels out. Victor looks up to the surface and judges the depth they are at. They must be at periscope depth, but why? Why did the submarine not dive down completely? Are they tracking a surface ship or more jets? Maybe the President sent help. Five minutes go by with Victor holding on to the trim tab before suddenly the submarine slows down and comes to a dead stop. Victor immediately swims to the hatch and dives in, then quickly closes the hatch. He barely has the hatch closed when a slight shudder goes through the submarine, it is moving again. Victor starts locking the outside hatch and when almost done, takes a deep sigh of relief. Victor’s heart sinks when no gas comes from the mask. A quick look at his oxygen gauge confirms his suspicion.

He has used up his breathing supply. Holding his breath he continues locking the outside hatch and as soon as it is locked, he turns to the lever that will let air into the chamber, pulling it fully open. Victor’s stomach tightens in a knot. Only a small amount of air comes out of the pipe, he will never be able to hold his breath until the chamber is drained. Ripping the mask off, he puts his mouth over the pipe and sucks some air in, managing to only get two breaths from the pipe before the air stops.

Why is the airflow not working, and why did the submarine stop and then start again? Suddenly Victor realizes why. The crew must have detected a warning that an outside hatch was open and knew that someone was trying to get in. They also know they cannot operate the submarine at full speed or dive with the outside hatch open, so they stopped in the hope that he will make it in and close the outside hatch, then they cut the air supply to the chamber in the hope of drowning him. Smart plan, trapped like a wet rat. Only one option now, open the inner hatch and hope he can kill the welcome party before they kill him.

As fast as Victor can, he starts to unlock the inner hatch with his left hand while holding his knife ready in his right hand. He has two more turns left before the hatch is unlocked when he stops. Victor has no way of knowing if Ernest made it safely onboard or if they have detected him entering as well. If they did catch Ernest, then Victor remains the world’s only hope, and if he gets killed trying to save the submarine crew that is possibly already dead, humanity’s last hope dies as well. Victor’s lungs are burning from holding his breath, he has to decide quickly.

Letting go of the hatch lock, Victor closes the valve on his breathing mask and removes the regulator attached to the tank. The regulator only works if there is at least 100 psi of pressure still in the tank, thus when the regulator stops working, there will always still be some pressure left in the tank. Putting his mouth directly over the tank valve, Victor slowly cracks the valve handle, opening the tank just enough for him to sip some oxygen. His lungs welcome the gas. Quickly he opens his backpack and removes the antisubmarine mine, attaching it to the inner door. Victor sets the timer to 10 seconds, and then activates the bomb, sipping the last oxygen from the tank.

Victor thinks of Laura, and a tear comes out of his eye and mixes with the water around him. One teardrop in an ocean, as lonely as he feels right now. Forgive me Laura, but I will have to break my promise of coming back. 8 seconds left. His lungs are burning again; hold on, almost there. Victor feels sorry for the crew and their families, but he knows they are fighting men, and will gladly give their lives to protect their country and the world. 5 seconds left. Victor’s diaphragm spasms, his body trying to force him to breath. He is starting to get dizzy. It will be easy to take in a lung full of water and end it all, all the pain and suffering, the memories. No, he will not die like that, he will die fighting, even if it is until the bomb explodes. 3 seconds left. Suddenly air starts rushing in from a small opening next to the door, ripping Victor from his thoughts. Instinctively Victor rushes to the air, then stops. He will not have enough time to take a breath and deactivate the bomb.

Time suddenly stands still for him as his mind tries to reason, struggling to function with the lack of oxygen, causing hallucinations. What if it is a trap? What if they have a camera and saw him activate the bomb and are sending in poisonous gas, tricking him to deactivate the bomb, only to die from the gas? Images of Laura flash through his mind. Involuntarily he gasps, swallowing a mouthful of water. The sudden chocking feeling clears his mind and he presses the deactivate button, 1 second remaining.

Already an air pocket has formed on the roof of the chamber, and Victor pulls himself up using some of the pipes on the roof. He manages only to get his mouth and nose out of the water and has to control his body’s natural responses to the feeling of drowning, panic. Carefully he gasps in breath after breath, keeping close watch over his body’s reactions, willing to act to the slightest feeling of being poisoned and dive down and press the activate button again. Slowly the water level goes down and Victor is able to stand with his head out of the water.

Victor searches around, but he cannot find a camera. There is only one conclusion as to why the chamber is being drained. Someone outside the hatch must have seen him turn the locking wheel. When Victor stopped turning the wheel to attach and arm the bomb, the person on the other side must have thought that he had drowned before he could unlock the hatch.

So they are now draining the chamber from the other side of the hatch in order to open it and see who is inside. This gives Victor an advantage, they are expecting him to be dead.

The problem now is to fool the people into thinking he is dead, while hiding his gun. So how can I fool them into thinking I am dead to allow me to surprise them and kill them? I can lie on my stomach and allow them to turn me over, then surprise them. No, what if they think like me, first shoot the body in the head before turning it over. I have to lie on my back. But even then they can just shoot me to make sure I am dead. How can I fool them? The water is now ankle deep, Victor has only a few seconds left to act. Come on Victor think, how do you simulate death, death in a submarine? Then suddenly it comes to him.

Quickly he picks up his breathing apparatus and scoops it full of water. Then he takes out his small backup knife and gently nicks the inside of his nose. Blood starts to run down his face and drip into the mask. Victor removes his backpack from his leg and puts it in front of the hatch, then kneels next to it, still letting the blood drip into the mask. He waits until he sees the locking mechanism being turned, then quickly takes a deep breath and bends forward, putting the mask on without spilling any water. Victor then lies down backwards, feet pointing to the door with his pistol under his backpack. He is just in time before the door opens. Victor keeps his eyes open, forcing himself not to blink. Two men open the hatch, pistols ready. One man, a red haired youngster with freckles raises his pistol and aims for Victor’s head. Slowly the man’s finger tightens around the trigger.

“He’s dead mate, save your bullets.”

“How do you know?” The man’s finger is twitching slightly.

“Check the blood in his mask, it’s coming from his nose, he swallowed water, damaging his lungs.” Redhead leans forward, not sure what he should do.

“I still think we should shoot him in the head to make sure.”

“And if you miss, or the bullet goes through and hits a pipe or something, what then?”

The two men half turn to each other as they talk.

“Okay, what if I shoot him in the-” The bullet splits his skull open, cutting his sentence short. Blood and brains spatter over his colleague’s face and eyes, blinding him. Before he can turn to fire blindly, a second bullet finds its mark, the man’s right temple. His scull bursts open and his brains spatter on the wall, mixing with his colleague’s. Victor rips the mask off and takes a few deep breaths, then carefully peaks outside to make sure there is no one else. He quickly picks up his backpack, carrying it to the bodies where he places it next to the first one. Searching the two bodies, he finds only their pistols and spare magazines. Leaving the bodies as they are, he takes only the spare magazines and both pistols. There is no use in hiding the bodies with all the blood and brains on the wall, and he has no time to clean up the mess. Neither of the two men mentioned anything about a second person coming aboard. Ernest must have successfully made it onboard undetected.

While kneeling next to the bodies and keeping an eye on the end of the passage, Victor opens the waterproof bag and quickly removes a map of the submarine and a H&K MP7 machine gun with four spare magazines.

Having borrowed the weapon from the armory on the aircraft carrier, it is fitted out for defending the ship. Thus the gun has a shortened stock for use in close quarters and uses armor piercing rounds to penetrate body armor. The gun has no silencer, although a suppressor is fitted to help with recoil and accuracy. Victor chambers a round, then stuffs the spare magazines in his pants’ hip and back pockets and puts the waterproof bag on his back. Opening the map on the floor, he notes his position.

The aft of the submarine is split into two identical sections, with Victor in the port side torpedo room. The port engine room is directly at the end of the passage in front of him. From there, he will need to pass through the battery room to get to the mess hall where the port and starboard side of the submarine merge. Being one of three rooms on the submarine that is not split, with the bridge and missile room the other rooms, the mess hall is massive and the most likely place to hold the crew, needing only a few armed guards to keep control over them.

Soaking wet and cold, Victor carefully sneaks to the hatch at the end of the passage. Sitting just outside the doorway, he slowly opens the hatch an inch, then listens for any movement or sound.

“No funny stuff, I’m watching you.”

Victor slings his machine gun over his shoulder and takes out the knife he used to cut himself earlier. He has had the knife for years. Even though the knife is only eight inches long in total and one solid flat piece of titanium, he prefers it as a killing knife as it is not easy to block the small knife.

The knife has tasted many people’s blood, and will do so for some time still to come. Peeking around the corner, Victor sees a pair of boots sticking out from beneath a raised control panel. Slowly he maneuvers to just by the end of the panel, watching the boots. As soon as he sees the tips of the boots point away from him, he quickly sneaks around right up behind the guard. Expertly he grabs the man’s mouth with his left hand, pulling him against his body while bringing his right hand around and knocks the man hard on the right temple with the back of the knife handle. The shock to his brain instantly renders him unconscious. Victor cuts his throat, and then lowers him to the ground. The technician sitting at the controls stares wide eyed from shock at Victor.

“Where is the rest of the crew?”

Victor’s question brings the guy back to life. “In..in the mess hall, through there.” The man points to a hatchway at the far end of the room.

“How many guards?”

“Five, I think.”

“How many men in total?”

“Twenty or so.”

“What will happen if you disable the engine?”

“The system will switch to battery mode and an alarm will sound in the control room.”

“Can you control the second engine from here?”

“No, only from the control in the bridge or the engine room itself.”

“How long will the batteries last?”

“48 hours.”

“Can you disable the alarm and hook it up so that the power goes off in 20 minutes?”

“Yes, I can unhook some of the batteries. However, the submarine has two engines and two battery rooms.”

“One at a time mate, one at a time. Take this weapon, disable the alarm and switch to battery mode, then meet up with me at the entrance to the mess hall.”

Victor makes his way through the hatchway leading to the port battery room, and stops as he reaches the entrance. Victor listens for a few seconds. Hearing no one in the battery room, he makes his way through the room to the exit leading to the mess hall, where he waits until the engine room technician makes his way over, taking up position behind Victor.