Dark Rule (COIL Book 3), page 11
Nathan moved aside for them to run for the inflatable, if they chose to. Marlon would ensure no one used the bridge to take the Materia herself away. Her electronics had stores of evidence that the actual Interpol agents would use to prosecute Niles.
One of the men took the opportunity to leave, looking back once to shake his head at Nathan, then ascended the stairs. The other rose from his bunk more slowly. He was the young man Nathan had pummeled on his first day aboard.
"You know, my grandmother says she still prays for me."
"Maybe I'm an answer to her prayers."
"I'd say I have some things to confess."
"Not to me—or to any man." Nathan pointed to the man's chest. "That's between you and God. That kind of new birth can come only from Him. I'd say I was just planting the seed, but it sounds like your grandmother was being faithful at planting the seed long before this."
"Should I run for it?" The man looked suddenly weary. "I doubt using the motorboat to go for the islands will avoid arrest."
"Sometimes there's more mercy found when you take responsibility." Nathan smiled. "I know from experience you'll have a clear conscience if you don't run from this."
"Then I'm staying. What should I do?"
Nathan set his hand on the young man's shoulder. He recalled the story of Corban Dowler's forgiveness towards Luigi Putelli for trying to kill him—and the friendship they now had.
"Help me clear the boat. Anyone left aboard or associated with Mr. Niles will be arrested."
#######
Chen Li had been thrilled that Patrick had entrusted her with the responsibility of intercepting Niles' submersible on its way to the surface. It was certainly better than boarding the Materia where most of the men and women would look at her as a traitor. Sure, Patrick seemed confident enough in his plan, but those on the Materia were nearly twenty persons!
Li watched her depth gauge. She was holding steady at thirty feet, near the threshold to the next atmosphere of pressure where the prolonged breathing of diving gases would require a lengthy stay in a decompression chamber at the back of the Materia's vehicle hangar.
At the first flicker of light below her, however, Li dove to meet the rising submersible. Forty feet. She kept kicking. Fifty. Her ears popped as she released pressure. Sixty. It was hard to believe she'd been so helpless on the streets of Hong Kong twenty years ago. Seventy feet. Now, she was diving into darkness, trusting God as she faced men who bore lethal hatred for her and anyone else who stood in their way. Eighty.
The submersible swerved to avoid her, but Li wore flippers. As a swimmer, she easily outmaneuvered the rover as it sought a way past her to reach the surface. She collided against the front of the submersible glass and saw Niles and Stajner inside. Niles drew a firearm and aimed it at her through the glass, but Stajner slapped it away, visibly screaming at Niles. If the rover's glass broke, they'd both die.
Content for the moment, at least, Li drew a dive knife that Marlon had given her. As the submersible continued its sluggish ascent, now with three bodies, its tractor propulsion churned wildly. But then Li carefully shoved the blade into the left tractor track. It jammed, making a grinding sound that made Li flinch away, worried the track would violently tear apart or explode.
The rover churned in a gradual circle, only one of its tracks now operable. Still attached to the front of the bubble, Li noticed they were at a depth of seventy feet. It was such a formidable depth from the surface that a submersible cockpit implosion would mean certain death. Far above, there was an orange haze. To the men trapped in the bubble with oxygen depleting and no scuba gear, it would surely seem to be miles to the Materia. And before either of the men could initiate the emergency buoyancy surfacing routine, Li reached to the back of the rover and unscrewed two hoses, their compressed air suddenly hissing bubbles wildly.
Sliding over to the side of the submersible's glass, Li could see the central monitor dials. Niles had been under water for two hours looking for Gilgal. He was down to forty-percent oxygen, and they didn't have any supplemental tanks on the back. She'd dived enough times in the rovers to know to take emergency tanks, but such was Niles' haste to take over Gilgal.
The right track stopped spinning, and the automated depth-ballast adjustment system held them at the seventy-foot depth.
Triumphantly stalling a fuming Niles, Li smiled around her air regulator and pushed off the rover glass to head for the surface. Though reluctant to board the Materia, she did want to be with Patrick again. Was it because he'd rescued her that she was attracted to him? There was definitely more to her attraction to him, even if the idea of living as a couple in Gilgal was long past. They were cut from the same mold—COIL agents, Christians adventurists, and more than a little lonely.
But as Li left the submersible, her right fin caught in something. She looked down and saw the left robotic pincer had grabbed her fin. And the right arm was closing quickly! Li struggled frantically to get her heel out of the fin, but she wasn't fast enough. The right pincer closed around her calf, making her scream. Her regulator fell from her mouth and bubbles escaped her lips.
Li twisted her leg around. The pincer bit down harder. She fit the regulator back into her mouth and took a quick breath as the other pincer reached for a hold farther up her leg. Like a nightmare, she imagined the pincers walking up her body and tearing her mask and oxygen from her.
Instead, Li reached past the second pincer to the arm that controlled it, and took hold of the cable that gave it power. With a desperate tear, she yanked the cable from the socket, disabling the pincer but not the arm. Though she'd won a little victory, she was still trapped in the first pincer, the cable unreachable. Her leg throbbed with pain, more so since the pincer was over her two-month-old bullet wound, but she managed to think past it to the more pressing danger of suffocating. She had less air than the rover had.
Niles tapped his watch, a signal to her indicating he was aware of her dilemma. He then pointed at the tractor that was disabled by the knife. But even though she wouldn't have pulled out the blade, she couldn't even see it now, which meant it wasn't within reach.
She gazed yearningly upward. Patrick had come for her once. Would he come for her again, or was he too busy with the crew on the Materia? The three of them had agreed that giving the crew a chance to escape would be safer than trying to detain them all. They were primarily after Niles, anyway, though as COIL agents, she and Patrick had a concern priority for lost souls and preserving life.
Twisting the robotic arm, Niles flung Li like a rag to one side, the strain on her leg testing the breaking point of her bones. Her mask fogged as her temperature heated and tears trickled against the seal. This wasn't the death she'd imagined facing. Recently, she'd merely looked forward to dying as a senior citizen of Gilgal—beside Patrick. She couldn't die like this—in darkness, in pain, in the company of hateful men. What was God doing?
Closing her eyes, she prayed as the arm tossed her again. The pain was unbearable. Under stress, her oxygen would deplete more quickly. At seventy feet, she was already using three times more volume than she would be on the surface. Where was Patrick?
#######
"Do you think they'll reach land?" Marlon asked Nathan as they gazed off the bow of the Materia. Twelve men and women had taken two inflatable tenders with outboards to run for land—at night.
"Doesn't matter. We've made the call. Every Coast Guard vessel from Brisbane to Cairns will be watching the beaches. My people will be here in a few minutes."
"Are you sure me and the others will be okay?" Marlon's brow seemed more lined in the dim deck lighting. Four men and two women had declined to run as well.
"Lives were lost while you guys stood by and continued to participate. But with Mr. Niles in custody, your cooperation and testifying against him will help."
"So, you and Li will testify for us? Those of us who are surrendering voluntarily?"
"In person, we can't. We don't exist. You understand." Nathan frowned at Marlon, wishing he could do more. "My report should suffice, though."
"Report?" He looked hopeful.
"Yeah, I can write a convincing report. Without your help to take the Materia, I would've died, and the Gillies would've probably perished on some reef at three thousand feet. Regardless of what happens, I want you to think about what we discussed. God has a purpose for you, Marlon. The cross of Christ is before you."
"I appreciate it, Patrick." He looked afar off. "If I don't sit in prison too long, I have family I've avoided for more years than I care to admit."
"You know, I haven't heard Li come aboard." Nathan walked along the deck and reached the stern where the A-frame crane hung out over the dark water. "Li, you here?"
Marlon pulled at the deck ladder they'd hung overboard for her.
"No wet footprints here. She's still under."
"It's been over an hour." Nathan clung to the crane and leaned out over the water. "Kill the lights, Marlon. I think I see something."
Turning off the stern lights, Marlon left only some interior and bridge lights on. Nathan squinted at the surface. Every couple of waves, he could see a shimmer of light far under water.
"I think the submersible is down there. She stopped it." Nathan zipped up his wetsuit, donned a mask, and pulled on a pair of free diving flippers. "Get the tanks. Something's wrong."
Nathan took a deep breath and dove straight in, trusting Marlon to follow with oxygen.
He swam toward the light below—which looked closer from the surface, but now he realized was much, much deeper. As he descended, his chest compressed and his ears popped. A splash far above told him Marlon was indeed coming as backup for whatever lay below.
The submersible gradually took shape, and the wriggling form in the lights made Nathan surge deeper than he would've felt safe doing under any other circumstances. Li was trapped, but at least she looked alive.
Then, other silhouettes passed between Nathan and the submersible lights—silhouettes with fins and long, sweeping tails. When Nathan looked around him, his heart pounded in his ears. More gray bodies dimly reflected the rover lights. Sharks circled all around, dozens of them—tiger sharks.
Only when he was closer to Li did he see the red film drifting in the water in front of the lights, and more blood coursing from her leg trapped in the robotic claw. Nathan forced his fear aside and clenched his teeth. He reminded himself God was here, even here, where all seemed to spell tragedy and loss.
*~*
Chapter Thirteen
Nathan arrived at Li's side, but barely. She seemed to anticipate his need for oxygen and, even in her state, gave him her safe second regulator. He took slow, controlled breaths and glared in at Niles and Stajner. Both men sat quite contently, much to Nathan's fury, as they tortured Li with the robotic pincer. Niles pointed at the track. The rover's propulsion on the port side was disabled and too damaged for Nathan to fix in such a situation. Li had done her job to capture Niles at depth, but no one had foreseen this predicament. The evil man seemed determined to hold Li hostage until the track was operable. Unfortunately, Nathan couldn't convey to Niles the extent of the damage of the track.
A shark flashed across Nathan's back. He elbowed it hard in the side. Other sharks crowded the edge of the light—and wherever there was light, that haunting shimmer of crimson drew them ever closer. The blood tempted them, and Li's wounded appearance of twisting and turning to free herself seemed to only excite the predators further.
Another shark moved gently up to Nathan from above, but he held back a punch with his fist when he saw it was Marlon with a dive tank of his own and another single. Nathan strapped it hastily onto his back and buckled it in the front.
Marlon moved into a defensive position beside Li, his back to the submersible lights and his face to the sharks.
Moving up and laying against the rover's glass, Nathan gestured to the robotic pincer. Niles shook his head.
If they wanted to die stubbornly, so be it. But Nathan had to save Li's life. And if Niles wouldn't release Li, Nathan would get inside the rover and do so himself.
Removing his regulator so Niles could see his mouth, with as much emotion as Nathan could broadcast in his face, he screamed through the water, "Do it!"
Niles visibly chuckled and seemed to make a joke to Stajner as he pointed to the disabled track.
That was their last warning, Nathan decided. He positioned himself on top of the submersible where the hatch was sealed closed. Niles and Stajner scrambled out of their seatbelts to stand and try to brace the door from opening. Since Nathan was outside, his legs gave him stability so his arms could force the door open on its hinges. Niles and Stajner didn't have a chance against Nathan's strength as they fought for a handhold. But it hadn't been designed to lock in the anticipation of a shark-infested battle of wills to the death.
There would be no death, Nathan hoped, if Niles and Stajner each took a deep breath and exhaled during their ascents.
He broke the seal and heaved it open so quickly, the submersible pod filled with water in one second. A giant bubble of air wobbled toward the surface, expanding as it ascended. Niles and Stajner looked as if they'd been punched. Disoriented, they swirled in their new watery atmosphere like dolls in a washing machine.
Niles seemed to gain his senses first, and Nathan saw him draw his firearm. The man reached out of the open door and fired at Nathan. The explosion was muffled, but the projectile was certainly deadly within a few feet of the muzzle. Nathan gripped Niles by the wrist and twisted his arm, but Niles' other arm shot up to grab Nathan's air regulator. Not willing to lose his air, Nathan shoved away from the door to let Niles escape to the surface unimpeded.
But Marlon wouldn't allow Niles to escape, surely knowing how dangerous such a man could be if free. Marlon kicked forward and caught at Niles' clothes, turning him in the water, restricting him from rising to the surface. Niles planted his gun against Marlon's shoulder and fired.
In that instant, the situation exploded. Nathan watched wide-eyed as Marlon floated backwards, his face full of shock and pain, his shoulder gushing red. Niles darted upward, reaching for the surface, but not before a shark opened its mouth at Niles' head. The side of Niles' face seemed to peel away under the shark's teeth, but the shark wasn't getting a bite of Niles without Niles fighting back. He fired at the shark until the gun was empty. Then, with his face bleeding horribly, Niles kicked toward the surface.
As soon as Niles was out of the way, Stajner kicked off the copilot seat of the rover. No sooner had he left the submersible hatch than a shark swiped past him, spinning him sideways. With no air, and in his haste for the surface, Stajner passed through the cloud of red where sharks were biting indiscriminately anything in their grasp—even each other. Nathan had to look away from what followed—the flurry of flesh and blood that poured into the water.
Ducking into the submersible hatch while he could still see, Nathan unlocked the robotic pincer with a simple double-tap on the joystick trigger. Li swam free below the rover instead of upward into the bloody fray. Then Nathan noticed Marlon above. Though wounded, Marlon was swimming frantically for the surface. Nathan prayed for God's help.
Li slipped into the submersible beside Nathan, and he pulled the hatch closed. Indicating that her air was depleted, Nathan shared his second regulator. They waited long minutes as the frenzy outside dissipated. Shedding his tank, Nathan cut a leg off his wetsuit and wrapped Li's damaged leg tightly. He checked her depth gauge and gestured to her that she was due for the decompression chamber for a while since she'd been beyond the safe threshold—but they weren't about to ascend with such company all around.
Enjoying the thought of sharing the decompression chamber with Li, Nathan settled into the pilot seat for another twenty minutes before he signaled Li that it was time to exit. The sharks had calmed, and most had moved on. Those in sight were no longer frenzied, perhaps now only curious about the lights.
They surfaced together, side by side, just off the stern of the Materia. An Australian Coast Guard motorboat flashed a light on them, and men in life jackets and fatigues came to their aid.
"Get her to the decompression chamber, now!" Nathan ordered.
"Are you Patrick Gibson?" a man with bars on his collar yelled over the noise of a chopper landing on the helipad.
"Yeah, I'm Patrick."
Two men in fatigues lifted Li off her feet and carried her into the vehicle hangar.
"Yes, sir," the lieutenant said into his radio. "He's here."
"Hey!" Nathan pointed at the helipad. "Where's the little chopper that was up there?"
"I arrived first." The lieutenant shook his head. "Never saw a chopper, except ours."
Walking into the vehicle hangar, Nathan wondered how Niles could've survived such an injury to his face and yet still fly out in the chopper. A familiar face stepped out of the stairwell on his left while other agents hustled all about.
"Thank God, you're safe!" Corban Dowler gave him a brief embrace. "Chen Li?"
"Decompression chamber, where I'm headed for a while. She'll be okay. You have a pen?"
"Here." Corban offered his sat-phone instead. "You get to the bottom of this mess? Nobody on board is talking yet. We can't figure out what this vessel was doing out here."
"Oh, I got to the bottom of it, but the mastermind just escaped ahead of you—in a two-man, white and blue helicopter. His name is Trevor Niles. We don't want him going free." Nathan typed in a message onto the phone keypad. "There. Those are coordinates for a position a few hundred yards from here. It's two hours from midnight right now. There's a submersible rover seventy feet straight below. That submersible needs to be functional and at those coordinates on the ocean surface by midnight. One of its tracks is currently jammed, but it's nothing a couple dive techs can't fix in a few minutes."
"Okay, I'll get on it." Corban smiled and cocked his head. "I can't wait for this debrief. Anything else I need to know right now?"
"I'll tell you in the report—even the unbelievable details." Nathan backed away toward the decompression chamber wherein Li was being helped, her leg already temporarily bandaged. "Just get that submersible up and repaired by midnight. Lives are counting on it, Boss!"
