Chapter 21
Four decks below the bridge, Paul and Gamay had ended up in darkness. They’d been working in the sonar room when the penetrators hit the ship. This close to the waterline, they’d felt the impact of the first iron fish like the thud of a sledgehammer against the wall. The second and third strikes were more distant, but they still reverberated through the lower decks in a manner that would not be detected above.
Gamay was thankful for the lack of a follow-on explosion complete with fire, shrapnel, and flying debris. But the sense of calm vanished when the alarms went off and the power went out.
First, the lights went off in a strange pattern of succession. Mains in the overhead, followed by wall lights and then a few desk lamps. The computer screens went dark a few seconds later, along with the LEDs that had been blinking and glowing all around them. The final bastion of electricity resided in the computer towers, but they held only a few seconds of charge and once their constantly whirring fans wound down, the compartment ended up in darkness and relative silence.
Gamay spoke in Paul’s general direction. “Tell me you have a flashlight in that desk of yours.”
“Um…”
Before Paul could produce one, the battery-powered emergency light mounted high in one corner of the room blinked to life.
Across from her, Paul had been looking for a flashlight. He stopped. “It’s not exactly mood lighting,” he said, “but it’s better than nothing.”
Gamay laughed at the joke, but the laugh was hollow. The sonar room was right on the waterline, with very little freeboard between it and the sea. “Something tells me we’d better get out of here.”
They made their way to the compartment door, pushing it open and realizing instantly that the ship was already leaning. Stepping into the passageway brought on the additional sense that the ship was settling at the stern. It made sense, as two of the three impacts had occurred behind them.
“We’d better go forward,” Paul said.
They turned toward the bow, looking for the stairwell or ladder, but ran into a watertight bulkhead. Turning back, they moved past the sonar room and through an open hatch to compartment four, which was almost amidships. They closed the hatch behind them and dogged it down tight. Here they found power, lighting, and the sound of air hissing. As the water flooded inward and the ship’s weight pushed deeper into the sea, the air was being forced out through tiny cracks and other gaps in the fittings. Continuing aft, they picked up the sound of rushing water.
“Do you hear that?” Gamay asked.
“Unfortunately,” Paul said.
They were obviously walking toward the low end of the ship. “Should we turn around?”
He shook his head. “The next ladder up is between four and five. With the forward bulkhead sealed, it’s the nearest way off this deck.”
They soon reached the ladder well, finding a crew member whomGamay recognized as Gigi Cabrera standing beside it on one foot. Her raised foot was turned at an odd angle and visibly swollen.
“Are you okay?” Gamay asked.
“I think it’s broken,” Gigi said of her ankle.
“We can help you climb,” Gamay offered, pointing up the ladder.
“The hatch is sealed up above us,” Gigi told her. “Right now, it’s acting like a pressure cap. It can’t be opened, or the flooding will get worse.”
She pointed downward and then moved out of the way.
Gamay leaned forward to look down the ladder well. Water was surging along the deck below them like it was blasting from a fire hydrant.
“Anyone else down there?” Gamay asked.
“No,” Gigi said. “I was the only one. I came up as soon as the water started to come in. But if we don’t get that door closed, this section will flood as well.”
Gamay looked up. The hatch above would let them escape this deck, but with the water coming in and the air being forced out, this part of the ship would flood to the top, all but dooming the vessel.
She looked at Paul, who nodded. They had little choice. “How can we help?”
Gigi took a breath. “We have to go down into the water and reboot the door or shut it manually.”
“I’ll go,” Paul said.
“This is no time for heroics,” Gamay replied.
