Read Online Atlantis: Devil's Sea by Robert Doherty - Free Book Online Page B

going to warn them?” Dane asked him.
    “What good would it do?” Foreman replied.
    “You sent them there deliberately.”
    “It’s war. Even you must accept that now.”
    ‘It’s easy to send other men to their deaths, isn’t it?”
    Foreman turned. “No, it isn’t easy, and I’m getting sick of you trying to take the moral high ground. I’m worried about the survival of our species, and you give me grief over every single individual involved.”
    “Our species is made up of individuals,” Dane said. “Why didn’t you let the Deepflight crew know what their mission was?”
    “Would it have made a difference?”
    “What exactly is their mission? Did you send them to find the door or draw something out of the gate?”
    “Both.”
    Dane picked up something from Foreman’s guarded mind. “What were they transmitting?”
    “The pod they took with them was transmitting muons on a frequency that Dr. Nagoya felt would draw attention from the Shadow.”
    “Mission accomplished,” Dane said. “Now get them out of there.”
    “There isn’t enough time for them to get to the surface,” Foreman said. “And even if they did, what makes you think the surface is going to be safe? Remember what happened to the crew of the Glomar . It’s called sunk cost, and there’s no way around. We knew there was a good chance that anything we set there was going to draw a reaction and that if it did, there was nothing we could do about it.”
    “They can hide inside the graveyard,” Dane said. “We went through a smaller door in the center of the door we found in the Atlantic. Have them search for it.”
    ‘How do you think those craft in the graveyard you visited got there?” Foreman asked.
    “Most likely the sphere,” Dane said, “but it’s worth a chance.” He looked at the display. “They don’t have much time. They might be safe in there.”
    “All right,” Foreman agreed. He picked up a handset and called to the submersible via the Reveille.
    *****
    Gann and Murphy were mesmerized by the massive door they had uncovered when Foreman’s voice came over the radio.
    “ Deepflight , this is Angel Six. Over.”
    Gann picked up the mike. “This is Deepflight. Over.”
    “Do exactly what I tell you to,” Foreman said. “Go to the center of the circle. Look for a smaller black circle there. Go into it. Jettison the attached pod before you go in.”
    “What is this?” Gann demanded.
    “You don’t have time to argue or ask questions,” Foreman said. “You’ve got an enemy bogey heading your way.”
    “Enemy bogey?” Gann repeated glancing at Murphy.
    A new voice cut in. “This is Reveille. Roger that, Deepflight ! Roger that! Something very big is coming this way. Range ten kilometers and closing at eighty knots. It’s freaking huge, and it is not responding to hails!”
Gann shoved the controls, turning the nose of Deepflight toward the ocean bottom. He increased the throttle, and they headed down.
    “ Reveille , this is Angel Six. Recommend you head away at Flank speed.”
    “Roger that.”
    *****
    Dane watched the sphere closing on the Challenger Deep as relayed from Nagoya’s computers and integrated with the Department of Defense positioning information on both Deepflight and the Reveille . It was going to be very close. He felt impotent, unable to influence what was about to happen.
    *****
    “Geez, look at that,” Murphy whispered. “Whatever’s coming in is filling the entire screen in the north.”
    Gann didn’t have time to look at the radar. He was navigating by visual, staying oriented on the gray wall just above the top of Deepflight .
    “There,” Gann said as the gray changed to black. He had the submersible do a roll, and then the nose was pointing at a small black circle.
    “Looks solid to me,” Murphy said.
    Gann finally spared a glance at the radar. He saw what had shocked Murphy. A curved edge had filled the entire top half of the screen, and it was coming closer. The