Kraken Rising: Alex Hunter 6 (33 page)

Alex counted down on his fingers … 3-2-1 … then dropped his fist. Lights came on, and the soldiers roared as they rushed forward.

The Seawolf class submarine, the USS
Texas
, had finally surfaced. There was no need anymore for the cat and mouse game of only a few hours ago.

Commander Eric Carmack in the conning tower smiled ruefully and lowered his field glasses, as he watched the wall of steel maneuver into place. The People’s Liberation Army Naval Force had now assembled five more Luyang III class destroyers to add to the
Kunming
’s presence. Each of the sleek vessels bristled with weaponry. There were also two submarines just below the surface and, imposingly, an aircraft carrier, called the
Liaoning
. This last one was a veritable mountain on the water.

Carmack exhaled, knowing that way up on the deck of this floating monstrosity they had a dozen Shenyang J-15 carrier based fighter craft. The planes were fast and furious darts known as
Flying Sharks
. Bad news.

“Armed to the teeth and ready for war.” He handed the glasses to his COB, Alan Hensen.

Hensen took them, scanned the vessels, and then turned to look over his shoulder at the horizon. “Our muscle is still hours away. Gonna get real crowded here soon.”

Carmack grunted, leaning forward on his forearms. This morning there’d been only two vessels of war on the water. Soon there’d be two mighty fleets – two horned bulls, squaring off against each other, both pawing the ground, and breathing fire.

“Think they’ll try anything while they’ve got us outgunned and outnumbered?” Hensen asked.

Commander Eric Carmack was the ranking naval officer and was given control of the approaching fleet. He knew that the naval war machinery arrayed, for and against, was formidable, and even deep diving would give little protection against the technology that could be brought to bear. He also knew that the modern Chinese ships had computer assisted guidance systems in their depth charges – good ones –
of course they were
, because the tech plans were hacked straight from one of the US secret military R&D databases.

He smiled; perhaps in the future there would be no need for armed head-to-head conflict, as everything would be fought in the cyberspace. Maybe that’d be better, but who knew.

He exhaled a breath that danced away from his lips like a small frozen ghost. Carmack looked down into the iron-gray water; it was cold, and deadly. His job was to make sure his men and women didn’t end up in it, and if it came to it, to make damn well sure the other guys did.

“Unlikely,” he said, clasping his fingers together. “We can shoot over the horizon, they know that, and already our satellites are probably staring right down the noses of their officers.”

“Good,” Hensen said. “Sanity prevails.”

“Sanity?” Carmack shrugged. “In war, sanity is in short supply. Right about now, I’m betting there’s a lot of nervous fingers on a lot of launch buttons over there. Someone gets excited or has a rush of blood, and a lot of people will die. Then, like a goddamn disease, the infection would spread to both our mainlands.” He turned to Hensen, leaning on one arm. “Then onto their allies, and then … fiery death on a global scale.”

Carmack turned back to look at the Chinese ships. They were so close he could see the individual officers on the bridge, glasses up, watching him. He waved. If it came to it, the Chinese were too close to miss. Unfortunately, so were they.

*

General Chilton turned to the blinking phone –
that phone
– the red one that was a direct line through to the Oval Office. Jim Harker stood up, and motioned towards the door.

Chilton nodded. When President Paul Banning, the Commander in Chief, called, it was never just to ask how his golf swing was looking. And today, the potential for conflict in the Southern Ocean was a clear and present danger.

He waited until the door was closed, sat down, and lifted the receiver. Encrypters and randomizers immediately went to work ensuring that their communication would be invulnerable to all attempted intrusion.

“Mr. President.” Chilton stared at the picture on his wall. It showed the USS
Nimitz
coming over the horizon at dawn; it always lifted his spirits.

“Marcus, the secretary of defense has just informed me that I may need to prepare for some time in the mole hole. Yesterday, I’m planning my holidays, and today I need to be secured beneath a million tons of concrete and steel because we could be going to war. You told me you had this under control; just what the hell is happening down there?”

Chilton smiled. He knew the president had read the briefings. But it was ever the way, that as soon as the rubber looked about to hit the road, then the questions, doubts, and nerves set in.

“Sir, the Chinese have assembled a small fleet in the Southern Ocean, just as we expected and planned for. I’m afraid things may get worse before they get better.”

“That goddamned sub. In future, we should have a remote self destruct on all prototypes.”  The president exhaled long and slow. “How the hell do they think they’re going to benefit from this, let alone be able to get it out, and then get it past us?”

“They’re obviously going to claim international salvage rights,” Chilton said.

“Oh c’mon, Marcus, that’s bullshit, and you know it. Even I know it doesn’t apply to military vessels.”

“You’re right, sir. In fact, at the International Convention on Salvage in London of 1989, we all agreed that the uniform international rules regarding salvage operations, of which we and the Chinese attended and were signatory to, was that in
no way
would these rights apply to warships.”

“So they haven’t got a leg to stand on.” The president sounded relieved.

“Correct, but they’re relying on an earlier set of rules,” Chilton said, and then quoted what he had just read. “Those from the Brussels agreement of 1910. They state that the law of salvage applies to anyone who recovers a ship or cargo after peril or loss at sea, and after a period of two years. They are entitled to a reward commensurate with the value of the property saved,
or to the property itself
.”

“Jesus Christ, that’s a joke, they know warships are a red line,” the president said quickly.

“We know it, and they know it. But all they want is time and a distraction. We’ll need to take them to the International Maritime courts. Of course we’ll win, but by then, they’ll have pulled the
Sea Shadow
to bits. Bottom line, sir, is that the Chinese are poor initiators, but great imitators – in a decade they’ll have reproduced enough
Sea Shadow
type vessels to sneak in off the coast of most of our major cities. These are gifts we just cannot afford to give away.”

Chilton heard the president groan.

“Well, Marcus, what do we do here? I do not want to go down in history as the guy that started a war with China.”

“For now, sir, we do nothing but wait. Our assets are enroute, and will be there within a few hours. In the meantime, the Chinese will be making some aggressive displays to try and scare us off. But we don’t back down, we don’t even blink. We don’t need to. We’re the 300 pound gorilla here, sir.”

“So, we stare ’em down.” The president clicked his tongue. “I need more options, Marcus. You said it might get worse before it gets better. If that’s the case, then you bring me those options, ASAP. I want more choices than backing down or sinking ships, understood?”

“Yes, sir. At this time we have deployed two teams under the Antarctic ice. Both under Jack Hammerson’s oversight.” Chilton leaned towards his computer screen to see if there were any updates from Hammerson – there were none.

“That’s good. Progress?” The president asked.

“Some, but not all what we want to hear. We have lost contact with both teams, but we believe at least one of them is down under the ice making progress towards the submarine. That’s all I know for now, sir.” Chilton knew Banning would want more, but he didn’t have it.

“
You believe
? Can’t exactly take that to the bank, can I, General?” The president’s voice sounded strained.

“Our teams just need time to secure or destroy the vessel. I trust Hammerson and his people. It’s still the best option for a non-conflict outcome we have,” Chilton responded calmly.

“Sounds more like the only option.” The chair squeaked as if the president sat back. “Okay, Marcus, we stay cool for now, but you keep me informed of anything else; priority one. We’re all on the edge of the abyss here.”

“Yes, sir.” As the head of the US Armed Forces, Chilton knew it better than anyone.

“At 1800 hours, I will authorize the raising of the security level from DEFCON-3 to DEFCON-2. I pray your team wins the day, Marcus. God help us all.” The president disconnected.

General Marcus Chilton swung back to the picture on his wall. He breathed easily, calmly. He always stayed cool; that’s why they called him
chilli
. He also stayed cool because he prepared for anything and everything. He had his primary Chinese targets chosen, and they were following every ship, submarine and aircraft they had via satellite. The first launch flare confirmation he got, he’d unleash hell.

His eyes slid to a time banner on his computer screen – 04 hours, 01 minutes, 08 seconds until his war fleet arrived.
God help us all
, President Benning had said. He sat back. “Amen to that.”

*

Joshua had the two superhero figures, one in each hand. Iron Man to his left, and the Hulk in the other. He was sitting on the floor in Margie’s office in the big building where Mommy had talked to the gray-haired man with all the lines on his face.
Jack
, he remembered. The man smiled a lot, but Joshua knew that he didn’t tell the truth all the time. He had to see past his words, and pull the truth directly from inside his head. Doing this gave both of them a headache, but the more he tried it, the easier it got … at least for him.

The door opened again, and Jack came out. He handed something to Margie at her big desk, and then looked down and waved and saluted. Joshua grinned, and returned the salute, Hulk and all.

He held the man’s eyes. “When is Mommy coming back?”

Jack crouched and ruffled his hair. “Soon, I hope. She just has to finish some important work for us.”

Joshua continued to stare, reading the man. “You don’t know where they are, and you think they might be lost.”

Jack continued to smile, but inwardly he winced from the pain in his head that Joshua knew he was feeling. He could also sense that he was momentarily frightened.
No, that wasn’t right
. The man didn’t scare, but he sure didn’t like it.

Jack ruffled his hair again, and stood. “I promise you, Joshua, as soon as I hear something I’ll let you know. Mommy will be fine.” He turned then to Margie, a brief look passing between them, and then he was back in his office.

Joshua looked at Margie, and sensed the waves of sympathy rising from her. She thought Mommy was lost too.

He liked Margie. He smiled at her. “She’s fine.”

She was alive, he knew it, and so was his father. He couldn’t wait to meet him, to talk to him. Peter was nice, but Peter wasn’t like him. Where Alex Hunter was
just
like him.

He lifted the posable plastic figures in each hand. He turned to Hulk, and made words for him.

“Don’t worry, Mommy is happy and safe, and coming home soon.”

He nodded and grinned and lifted Iron Man. His smile fell away and he stared, his brows coming together. The words came again, but they weren’t his own this time.

“They won’t make it out alive. The thing, the monster, knows they are there now. It wants them … to eat them both.”

Joshua continued to stare, his eyes shining wet for a moment more as his teeth ground together.

“Joshua?” It might have been Margie’s voice.

He stared, unblinking, and his tiny fingers closed on the hard plastic figurine. Iron Man crushed into shards.

Alex was the first one around and was immediately confronted by a wall of pale, hairless bodies. The lights illuminated the horde in a frozen glaring snapshot, and for a split second, even he was momentarily taken aback. The figures were powerfully built but smaller than normal, no more than four-and-a-half feet at their tallest, and their bodies were chalk white. In their hands were all manner of stabbing and cutting weapons.

But what had shocked Alex the most were their faces … or lack of faces. They were claylike, near featureless, with tendrils dangling from the middle of their heads. No mouth could be seen, and though they must have been startled by the sudden appearance of the tall humans and their blinding lights, not a word or sound was made.

Startled, they still came at Alex like a wave. Cutting and stabbing tools speared forth and chopped down. Alex felt numerous rents to his flesh, and despite his HAWC suit repelling most, he knew he’d still be running blood.

The muscular creatures displayed a sort of simian strength and agility, and at first Alex just pushed them back, or brushed them aside, but they kept coming in greater and greater numbers. He then threw them back into the darkness, and finally, the sheer numbers coupled with the ferocity meant he could not pull his punches anymore, so he exploded into them.

Alex grabbed an axe-like weapon from one creature, and his other hand clenched into a fist, as he threw himself at the writhing, furious mass. He cleaved heads and limbs, smashed bones, and crushed all before him as they came. Behind him, he heard the sound of his team, forcing back even more. The beings’ blood, warm and sticky, now coated the floor, ran from the walls, and also dripped from Alex and his soldiers.

As quick as it started, the humanoids ceased their attack and sped back down their dark corridor, dragging away their dead and injured, but leaving weapons behind. Alex took off after them, diving and grabbing at one of the fleeing creatures. He disarmed it, and held it up.

“
Jesus Christ,
what the hell are you?” He came back into the group holding the struggling thing up by the neck.

“What the fuck are they?” Casey’s mouth turned down in disgust.

Rhino stooped to lift one of the weapons that looked like an axe, crafted from heavy-toothed jawbone, then stopped to stare at the being. “Holy crap.”

“That’s not human,” Jackson said, taking the jawbone axe from Rhino and hefting it.

“Take it easy,” Cate said, peering around Rhino. “It might have been once.”

Alex held the wriggling thing by the neck, its feet up off the ground. “Maybe.” He lowered it and then grabbed the dangling tentacles on the face. He lifted.

“Like I thought, a mask.” He pulled it back.

Franks scoffed. “Oh yeah, like that’s any better.”

Alex frowned, looking at the thing that now stood listless as though resigned to its fate. “Aimee, Cate, I’d like your scientific expertise here.” He turned it towards them.

The being’s face could barely be called human, even protohuman. It was so pale, the skin was near transparent, and the entire head was egg-smooth. The nose was non-existent, being just two slits in the center of the face, but it was the eyes that were truly alien. They were the size of chicken eggs and black as oil, shiny, and more like those of a spider.

“
Agh
, deformed,” Yang said. “You should kill it.”

“
Ho-leeey
shit,” said Jackson.

“Dark adapted. I bet it sees in an entire range of spectrums,” Aimee said.

“Wow.” Cate ducked down to look into the eyes. She turned. “Get that light away. Aimee’s right, dark environment evolution. No wonder the light freaked them out; it’s got almost total pupil to sclera ratio.”

Rhino also bent lower as the thing wriggled again in Alex’s grip, now trying to reach around and bite his hand. He pointed, and the thing’s jaws snapped at his finger. He snatched his hand back. “What’s with that mouth?”

“Hold him, her, whatever,” Cate said. Alex gripped the thing tighter, and it calmed again in his hand, surrendering.

“Her, by the look of that chest,” Jackson said.

Cate carefully reached forward, gripping the chin and holding it tight. With her other hand she peeled the lips apart.

“Fuck me,” said Rhino. “What the hell are they for?”

The teeth in the small mouth looked to be just a single pair, one on the top jaw and one at the bottom. They were large triangular wedges growing from both gums, to scissor over one another.

“That’s not normal,” Cate said.

“No shit,” said Casey.

“No, I mean, it’s not natural, even for this female. I can see that the tongue and larynx look well formed – she should be able to talk. And by feeling the jawline and looking at the growth of the teeth at the gumline, I can tell it’s a female only just out of her teens. But the teeth themselves have been altered, perhaps filed, to be like this.”

“If it can talk, make it talk.” Yang leaned in close, his face twisted in disgust.

“It’s like a beak,” Alex said. “Same association for the mask – the ultimate worship – make yourself like your idol … or god.”  He turned to Rhino. “Use the rope, bind her.”

“It’s like tattooing or scarification in primitive tribes,” Rhino said, taking hold of her and looping the rope around her wrists and neck.

“Easy,” Aimee said. “We humans do what we need to do to survive. The great Aztlan race collapsed and regressed. An ever-hungry god became their religion and their idol, and they in turn tried to become like it. So, they reverted back to something primordial to survive in this primordial place.”

Yang continued to stare, but still looked like he had smelled something bad. “The freak
must
talk.”

“Well, it’s freaky anyway,” Rhino said, finishing his work, and holding the rope like a leash. The small being looked down at her bound hands, and then stood silently, her large black eyes unreadable.

Yang pushed in close.
“Where are my men?”

Casey moved fast to intervene, grabbing Yang and spinning him so she could stare into his face. “Back off. You’re not in charge anymore.”

Yang glared at her, and his fists balled. Casey returned the cold stare, her face twisted into its usual sneer. “Just to be clear, I still want to kill you.”

Yang’s lips momentarily twisted before he turned to briefly lunge again at the small creature. This time, it bared its beak-like teeth at Yang, and then opened its mouth wider. Alex felt the splitting scream deep in the core of his brain. He doubled over, his hands pressed to his ears.

Aimee rushed to him, and knelt. “What is it?”

Alex lifted his head, his eyes tightly closed from the pain. “The sound.” He opened his eyes to slits and looked across to the being, who then snapped its mouth shut with an audible clack of teeth. The sound was immediately shut off.

Alex breathed deeply, feeling the white-hot needle of pain withdraw. “It came from her.”

“We heard nothing.” Aimee looked from Alex to the humanoid. “Just like in the cave mouth. It’s the subsonic wavelength again, a defensive mechanism.”

Alex got to his feet. “Now we know where the sound came from. But I don’t think it was designed to cause pain … more like a call to its own kind … or to something else.” He straightened. “We need to be on guard.”

Alex looked off into the darkness, and saw Yang watching them silently. The PLA captain turned to walk away a few paces into the dark. Shenjung and Soong were talking quietly, standing away from the being.

Alex ducked down, looking into the small pale being’s face. “You’re safe.” She recoiled from him slightly. “I’m sure we’re as freaky to her, as she is to us.” He smiled. “We mean you no harm … if you mean us no harm.” He repeated the words in his mind, trying to project them, the silence from the being making him think they might communicate by other means. She stood there as impenetrable as ever.

“It’s unnatural. The silence freaks me out,” Franks said.

“Like everything else down here,” Jackson added. “Guess they learned that being quiet is something that keeps you alive.”

Alex stood, and pointed to himself, then the others. Then he pointed at her, and made looping motions around her neck, and then walked away. “Where did you take them … our friends?” he said slowly.

Cate snorted. “You can say it as slow as you like, Alex, but she isn’t going to understand.”

The girl lifted her dark orbs to Alex, and he felt a sudden throbbing in his brain. She turned and started off down the dark tunnel, only stopping when she reached the end of her leash.

“You were saying?” Casey asked with a grin.

“Give her some slack.” Alex motioned forward and she set off again. “Keep the flashlights on, and watch side corridors and also overhead. Don’t want anyone having a noose dropped around their necks.”

Alex let the small being lead him. The tunnel narrowed, with huge age-patinated stone blocks having fallen from the ceiling or collapsed in from the walls. Alex stopped the girl at one of the fallen blocks, and looked up into the cavernous dark from where it had fallen. The rock fall was ancient, but the size of the boulders meant that if there were another cave-in, they would never be able to dig themselves out.

Aimee laid her hand on the wall. “This building, this entire city, is carved from the surrounding cliff face.”

“Like the ancient Jordanian city of Petra, the Rose City,” Cate said. “It’s carved straight into the side of a mountain. But this,” – she slowly panned her light around – “this far exceeds its complexity, and size.”

“It’s a maze,” said Rhino.

“Makes for good defensive fortifications,” Casey said. “Against everything except earthquakes.”

“Something sure hit it,” Jackson said. “But why is it a wreck on just this side?”

“Good question.” Alex turned back to the stygian depths of the tunnel ahead. He noticed that the small female being was staring off into the darkness. He laid a hand gently on her shoulder. “Hey, let’s go.” She turned to stare up at him with those glassy black orbs for a moment, before leading him again.

Alex sensed the change in air density long before the tunnel ended. “There’s something up ahead.”

The small female being led Alex around more fallen blocks and then out onto a ledge, perhaps once a balcony. She stopped and pointed. Alex lifted a hand, keeping the group back, as he surveyed the new surroundings. After a moment, he stepped to the side and waved them on.

They had passed through the cliff wall. Or the wall itself was only a partition of one underground world to the next. There was another huge cavern, this one even hotter than the one they had left. It was also luminescently lit, but this world was dominated by a body of water, nothing like what they had encountered with the previous underground sea. It was more a lake, miles across. Steam, like a low mist, hung over its surface, and on some of the banks, mangrove-like plants stepped out into the water on stilt-like legs. At its center, bubbles popped and small eddies swirled as submerged gas pockets were released from their muddy prisons.

“So much for the grand city,” Jackson said. “It ends here.”

“Look down,” Alex said, pointing to huge blocks half submerged. “That rubble? I think this
was
part of the city, but somehow it collapsed into here.”

“Maybe it’s like a giant sinkhole,” Soong said. “These things happen in China a lot. There are big land-drops that can swallow entire villages. Maybe this one opened under the city, swallowed it entirely.”

“Long, long time ago,” Rhino said. “This collapse is damn old.”

“Maybe it wasn’t just the land falling in, but maybe something else trying to break its way in. I got a bad feeling this is something’s backyard. Check out ten o’clock.” Alex stared out at the far shoreline as a veil of mist lifted.

Jackson squinted into the distance as the fog cleared slightly. His mouth hung open, and he adjusted the jawbone axe still stuck in his belt. “No fucking way.”

“This is why we’re here,” Rhino said softly.

Lining one of the far shorelines were ships, dozens and dozens of huge vessels. Some were small skiffs, and some were huge. There was even the skeleton of a WW2 bomber plane, many of its panels missing, and one wing sagging onto the bank.

Some of the boats had the three masts of centuries-old sailing clippers, ragged remnants hanging limply from the moss-covered wood. There were rusting iron hulks of cargo ships, and even a fishing trawler. They were all lined up, side by side, like a child’s collection.

“There’s an old goddamn warship – side cannons.” Rhino stepped forward. “Remains of a Union Jack still hanging on the bow.” He slowly read the name. “S-A-P-P-H-O –
The Sappho
.”

“It’s almost dream-like.” Aimee breathed the words. “The mist, the ships. You know, this reminds me of something, from childhood.” Aimee frowned as if searching her memory. “
That’s it,
the cove on Never-never Land, with all the ancient shipwrecks, lost in time.”

“Now crewed by ghosts,” said Cate softly.

“No,” Alex said, feeling a sense of elation. “These guys weren’t shipwrecked … they were brought here.” He lifted an arm to point. “Just like our sub.”

He couldn’t stop the grin spreading across his face.
They’d found it
, the
Sea Shadow
. There, among the decaying hulks, was the submarine, smaller than normal, dented and crushed in the center, but still looking largely intact.

“The
Shadow
, right damn there.” Rhino turned briefly to high-five Jackson. “But how the hell did these little freaks get them all down?”

“No, no, they didn’t do it. Look,” Aimee pointed to a different place on the lake’s edge. There were two piles of round white objects.

Alex ground his teeth. “Skulls, human skulls.”

“They’re fucking cannibals,” Jackson said, looking down at the small female being standing ghostly quiet beside them. “No wonder they file their teeth.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think they’re the only suspect,” said Cate. “Cephalopods are smart, very smart. A sign of intelligence is constructive play, and it’s been observed in modern octopus time and time again. Even in the wild, they will stack the remains of their prey into piles and then continue to rearrange them differently on different days. They play with them, like a child would play with its blocks.”