The 8th Continent (16 page)

“PREFABRICATED HOUSING READY TO DEPLOY, ADMIRAL PIFFLE!”

The deep voice came clear over the radio on the bridge of Vesuvia's double-decker yacht. Crewmen ran from station to station, preparing for what their boss had declared would be the sight of a lifetime: the creation of a new continent.

Diana also felt a pinch of excitement. It hadn't been easy acquiring the Eden Compound, and the measures they had taken to get it were morally questionable, to say the least. But now their quest was over, and the entire Condo Corp navy had shown up to accelerate the construction of New Miami.

From the admiral's chair, which looked like it belonged on a starship except for the pink pleather cushions, Vesuvia pulled the microphone close to her over-glossed lips. “Stand by, Captain Blusterphoon! We are starting the continent- creation process now.”

The time had come. Diana followed Vesuvia out of the main cabin. The wretched stench of the garbage patch hit them immediately, making Diana's hair go flat. Vesuvia covered her nose and mouth with the collar of her pink plastic jacket.

She led Diana down a spiral staircase, past the in-ground swimming pool, to the yacht's aft balcony, where technicians were powering up the rain machine. It was hard to believe that the push of a button could remove so much trash and waste from the world and put an entire new landmass in its place.

Diana felt proud to be in on the ground floor of a new continent. She wondered what it would look like. Would it resemble Old Miami? Palm trees and beaches? Or green fields and sharp mountain peaks, like back home in Switzerland? She couldn't wait to find out.

Not that it would matter for very long. As soon as the continent was made, Vesuvia would go to work blasting it, paving it, and reshaping it to her liking.

The other ships of the Condo Corp fleet pulled into a tight formation around Vesuvia's yacht. There were tankers to carry oil, fresh water, and Vesuvia's favorite pink soda. There were freighters to transport the prefab houses, apartment buildings, smoothie stands, and asphalt pavers. And of course, surrounding the other vessels, there were security frigates to keep Vesuvia's most precious cargo safe.

Rumors of the mysterious device that would make New Miami possible had spread from ship to ship. Every sailor in the fleet wanted to see the Eden Compound do its work.

Diana included herself in that group. As the technicians stepped back from the rain machine, she hurried forward and lifted the plastic casing that covered the activation plunger. It had a T-shaped handle, like the kind on TNT detonators in old cartoons. She wrapped her hands around the plunger's crossbar and started to raise it.

“HEY!” Vesuvia screeched. “I said, ‘HEY!' That's my Eden Compound. That's my rain machine. And that's my job! Get away from that thing.”

Disappointed, Diana let go of the plunger and backed away from the rain machine. “You can ask nicely, Vesuvia. You can say please.”

“Please. Don't be such a spoiled brat, Diana.” Vesuvia tiptoed over to the machine, singing a little song she had composed for this occasion. “Everywhere I go, they say I'm the best CEO. I have right here in my hand the power to create a sweet new land!”

She grabbed the plunger and raised it to its full height. Gritting her teeth, Vesuvia pushed down with all her strength.

A green mist sprayed into the air, hitting Vesuvia full in the face. She collapsed to the deck of the yacht, choking and clawing at her skin. It only took a second for Diana to understand why.

The most horrific stench washed over her, like the body odor of an anti-shower activist who'd just run a half marathon while eating a tuna fish and Limburger cheese salad, like egg stew cooked in a garbage bag and left in a public bathroom to marinate, like—Diana hated to admit it—her gym socks.

Fortunately, Diana had only inhaled the stench secondhand. Vesuvia had gotten a blast of it up her nostrils, mainlining the wretched stink directly to her brain. She screeched, “BWAGH! Skunk spray! It tastes like a yellow fart!”

Diana covered her face to try to block out the smell—but also to keep Vesuvia from seeing her laugh.

The technicians and other crew members looked on with befuddled disappointment. They had come to see a new continent get built, not their boss roll around like a lunatic.

“Turn this boat around!” Vesuvia shrieked. “The whole fleet. Get clear of the garbage patch! We are victims of a cruel prank.”

The engines started up, grinding against the fishing line and plastic wrappers floating in the water. Even when Vesuvia's face was green with skunk spray, the Condo Corporation did not question orders from the boss.

Vesuvia eventually fumbled her way to the swimming pool and threw herself in, fully dressed, to clean up. When she emerged, dripping and furious, Diana was waiting with a towel.

“Those nasty Lanes have pulled a trick on us,” Vesuvia spoke venomously. “And that nasty blind doctor. I bet even his stupid tiger cat had something to do with it! But don't worry, Diana. It's not over yet. We just need to wait. One day, the Lanes will cut it a little too close, and then I will have my revenge!”

VOID.

TO RICK IT MEANT COLD. DARKNESS. EMPTINESS.

It meant the opposite of anything.

His hair swirled around his muted ears in the big dark-blue expanse. He was not sure how many minutes he'd gone without air, but after a while, he stopped screaming bubbles, and nothing came out.

A heavy arm buckled around his deflated chest and pulled, plucking him from the submerged lab like a rabbit from a hat.

He broke the surface in a spray of inhaled water. The ceiling of the laboratory was only inches from his clogged nose.

“Rick! RIIIIIICK!” he heard his sister scream.

Doctor Grant still had his arms around him. “He's all right. Rick, you're alive. Come on. Swim. Swim for your life!”

The lights on the sub had all gone out. It was pitch dark. Fortunately, Doctor Grant was quite familiar with navigating the
Cichlid
in complete darkness. They formed a train and swam through the giant hole the robo-shark had punched in the wall, back into the hallway. Any chance they had to save the formula for the Eden Compound vanished when they left that room. Even if Rick's hard drive had survived being drowned, he would never be able to find it.

The air pocket at the top of the chamber allowed them to breathe between deep swims through the tunnels of the sub. But there wasn't a second to spare. The sub was sinking. If they did not get to the airlock and escape in a few minutes, they were done for.

At the end of the hallway, Doctor Grant felt for a hatch in the ceiling. “Rick, Evie, help me open this.”

It took their combined strength to turn the wheel and push open the heavy metal hatch. Doctor Grant boosted Rick into the next hallway first, then Rick turned around and pulled Evie up beside him. Working as a team they managed to get Doctor Grant through the hatch, splashing water into the dry hallway. When he cleared the hatch, they slammed it shut.

“Now what?” Rick asked, gasping for breath. His heart beat heavily in his chest, like he was down to half a life container.

“This way looks clear,” Evie said, starting down the hall toward the rear of the ship.

“No, no!” Doctor Grant shouted. “That leads to the volcano engine room. We can't go through there.” He led them the other way down the hall, pointing toward a much bigger access hatch at the far end, this one on the wall. “This next room should be safe.”

The wheel was almost impossible to turn. Rick gritted his teeth and imagined the wheel was that robo-shark's pink neck. He felt his muscles flex, and the wheel gave, spinning wildly out of control.

“That did it!” Doctor Grant managed to say before the door flew open and a tidal wave greeted them. The water scooped them up and carried them back the way they had come. Rick scraped his back against the first hatch they had opened. He tried to grab something, but the current was too strong. Rick, Evie, and Doctor Grant tumbled straight toward the volcano engine room, clawing for a handhold and failing to find purchase.

“This way!” Doctor Grant shouted, pulling them into the room, which was scorching hot, even surrounded by all this arctic water.

“But you said
don't
go in this room,” Rick reminded him.

“No choice now,” the doctor explained. “But I built it. I'll keep you safe.”

A thin layer of water covered the floor of the engine room. Some of the glass chambers were cracked. Rubble blocked off the passageways between them.

For a moment, it was quiet. Maybe the damage to the sub had shut down the engine.

The familiar hum-whine of the engine powering up put an answer to that question. In the chamber in front of them, the valve opened. The box filled with molten light.

In a flash the light was gone. The water on the floor had vaporized, and the water outside the chamber rushed in to fill the empty space.

“We gotta go in there,” Doctor Grant said. “It's the only way through.”

“Go in there?!” Evie asked in disbelief before Rick could say the same thing. Doctor Grant wanted them to enter the chamber where a blast of thermal death had been seconds earlier.

“I know the pattern,” he explained. “Hurry!”

Shaking with fright, Rick followed Doctor Grant, who boldly ventured into the chamber. His feet sizzled as the superheated floor boiled the water on the bottom of his sneakers, then melted the rubber of his soles. Walking felt like he had stepped in a steak-sized wad of masticated chewing gum.

The whole sub shook, buckling under the strain of the water. Machinery shifted out of place and broke loose. Nuts and bolts fell from the ceiling. A loose girder toppled to the ground.

They reached the far side of the chamber and cleared the box. As they waited in the narrow gap between the rooms, to time their next move and to catch their breath, the valve opened up again. The chamber behind them flooded with heat. The blast pushed the trio against the far wall. Rick smelled something awful, and he clutched his arm, realizing the heat had singed off all his arm hair.

“Now! Next room!” Doctor Grant barked, pulling Rick and Evie with him.

They ran across the chamber as fast as they could, struggling to stay on their feet as the sub shook beneath them. Above, the valve started to open when they were halfway across the chamber.

“Doctor!” Rick cried out, alarmed.

“Move!” the doctor yelled, and they dove through the small opening at the far end of the room.

The heat came down just behind them. Rick saw spots as the light hit his eyes.

Doctor Grant held Rick and Evie tightly. “There's just one more, and we're through!”

Rick could see the door on the far side of the room, beyond the last chamber. Through the door and down the hall was the airlock where they had entered the submarine. If they could just reach that airlock, they could escape.

“Now's our chance. Run!” Doctor Grant shoved Rick from behind, pushing him into the chamber.

Startled, Rick ran as fast as he could until he reached the other end. He slipped out the far side and turned to catch his breath, relieved that he was safe. Doctor Grant came next, followed by Evie, but the sub shuddered, and a bundle of steel girders broke loose above them and toppled into the chamber.

Evie screamed as they landed on top of her, knocking her off her feet and pinning her to the ground.

“Evie!” Rick screamed, running back into the chamber.

Doctor Grant grabbed him from behind and pulled with surprising strength, hurling Rick away from danger. Rick crashed into the wall. He tried to gasp for breath, but his wind was gone.

Rick watched helplessly as Doctor Grant crawled back into the chamber and pulled on the fallen girders with all his strength.

“Get back!” Evie shouted. “We're both going to die.”

“No, you're not,” the doctor grunted, throwing off another girder. He pulled her free, just as the valve started to open.

Rick strained against the pain. “
Hrk!
Run!”

They ran. At the last second Doctor Grant shoved Evie with both hands, sending her tumbling out of the chamber, just as it filled with light. Evie was facedown on the floor, but Rick watched helplessly as the lava machine consumed its inventor. Through the bright glow, Rick could see nothing but a shadow, and when the chamber cleared, Doctor Grant was gone. Not an ash or cinder remained.

“No!” Evie screamed, running back to the chamber. “Where is he? Where did he go? Where?”

“Evie!”

“He was right behind me. He had to get out. He had to.”

“Evie!” Rick begged.

“I don't understand where he went.”

Rick pulled her toward him. “Evie, he's gone. We have to go. Please!”

In a stupor, Evie followed her brother. He guided her out of the engine room and up the hall, to the room with the airlock. Evie was babbling about Doctor Grant, so Rick closed them inside the room with the very agitated seal.

Rick threw the switch to open the submarine. Like there were not enough holes in it already.

“Get ready to swim!” The chamber filled with water, and the airlock popped open.

Evie, Rick, and a frightened seal were sucked out like they were being flushed down the toilet. Rick took his sister in his arms and kicked for the surface.

They came up, gasping desperate breaths. Rick's teeth chattered at the shock of going from the heat of the engine room to the cold of the ocean. He fumbled for his phone with numb fingers and activated the homing beacon.

After a few seconds, the
Roost
appeared overhead and landed in the water a short distance off. He could see 2-Tor inflating the rescue raft to come pick them up.

Rick had never been a strong swimmer, but he managed to tread water and hold Evie above the surface. “Are you okay?” he asked his sister. He could not account for all the salt water on her face.

“I didn't even get to say goodbye. And it was my fault he had to come back.”

Rick held her tighter than he had since they were babies. He didn't know how to tell her that no one blamed her for what happened, not even Doctor Grant. The look on the old man's face as he pushed Evie to safety had said everything. He knew what was going to happen the moment he went back into the chamber, and he was at peace with it.

The only parties responsible for what happened were that robo-shark and its owner. He would not let Evie blame herself.

But how to recover? Everything had been on the sub, and the sub was lost.

SPWOOOOOSH!

Rick and Evie whipped their heads around at the noise. The rain machine floated on the surface a few feet away, surrounded by inflatable yellow buoys. The canister of Eden Compound was still in place.

And to Rick's great relief, riding atop the machine was one very soggy Niels Bohr.

The water had soaked him skinny, and droplets dripped from his whiskers. He meowed his anger and sorrow, but he quieted when the children swam over to him and smoothed out his coat, telling him he was safe.

They still had the cat, and they still had the Eden Compound, which meant the dream of the eighth continent was still alive. Now, more than ever, they had to make it real, for Doctor Grant and for the world.