the man to be little more than a highly intelligent stuffed shirt but it appeared that he could turn his dojo skills to some real use. He’d also clearly decided to do something about Binning. Credit had to go to Rowena for coming with him, wherever she was. But the situation for all of them was about to get much worse, Stratton was sure of it.
Jason didn’t relax his stance when he realised it was Stratton before him. ‘Are there any more?’ he said.
Stratton straightened up, his body aching. ‘I hope not,’ he said, stiffly.
‘Where’s the other one?’
Stratton indicated the habitat. ‘We need to get to the main deck.’
‘Inside?’ Jason asked. ‘I hope I look better than you.’ He looked through a glass porthole no bigger than a tennis ball on the control panel. ‘He’ll need to be questioned.’
‘He has a gun and he’s very angry and I don’t think we have the time.’ Stratton glanced at the gauges. ‘He’s also at the equivalent depth of a saturation dive. He’s not getting out of there any time soon . . . We need to get the workers to the lifeboats.’
‘Right,’ Jason agreed, about to move away when he saw movement inside the habitat. He flicked a switch on the panel that turned on the chamber light. ‘I see him.’
Stratton couldn’t resist a last look at his beaten enemy. As both men peered in through the thick glass porthole, Deacon looked up at them, his face red and sweating. His lips formed into a snarl as he brought up the pistol and fired at them.
They both jerked back as the tiny window fractured but held for the moment. Yet the glass continued to crack under the pressure building inside. Deacon angrily approached the porthole to look through it.
Jason and Stratton stepped away and the porthole exploded. Pieces of shattered glass shot from the rim like bullets as the highly compressed gas blasted from the small opening. Deacon couldn’t prevent himself being sucked towards the hole, his face acting like a plug. In seconds the pressure began to push him through it. The man screamed as his flesh started to protrude through the hole.
Jason and Stratton backed away in horror as a mass of flesh emerged.
‘Oh my God,’ Jason muttered.
They ran across the opening to a set of stairs. As they looked back the skin balloon burst and Deacon’s face exploded into the swirling wind. Fine strings of mangled flesh filled the air, coming back down to coat everything on the platform, Stratton and Jason included.
They ran from the grisly spectacle up to the top of the stairway and onto the deck, hurrying towards the living quarters.
‘Have you seen Binning and Rowena?’ Stratton asked.
‘No.’ Jason went suddenly to the rail to look down onto the line of lifeboats. One of the cradles was empty. He looked out onto the black, rolling water, moving along the rail to cover a greater area as he searched it.
‘There! A lifeboat!’ he shouted, pointing. ‘It’s Binning, I know it.’
Stratton could see the orange craft rolling up and down on the heavy swell as it drifted away from the platform. ‘And Rowena?’
‘He wouldn’t hurt her.’
‘You still think you know him?’
Jason realised the stupidity of his comment.
‘Why would he take her?’
Jason shook his head. ‘I don’t know!’
Stratton looked around at Jordan’s body and as he hurried away he said, ‘Go to the galley and tell the workers to get to the lifeboats.’
‘Where are you going?’ Jason shouted after him.
‘To the control room - I’m going to call the navy, tell them to come in and pick up Binning and the rest of us. Get going!’
As Jason moved to go a massive explosion rocked the entire platform, throwing both men off their feet as the giant rig slewed to the side. A sheet of flame lit up the air beyond the furthest corner of the platform.
The deafening sound of yawing, cracking metal rent the air like satanic thunder. Seconds later there came another, lesser explosion that echoed across the sky. One of the massive steel anchor cables that held the huge platform in position snapped like a rubber band and whiplashed out to sea. Another boom was followed by a second cable snapping and the entire rig rocked once again before slowly turning on its axis and leaning heavily to one side.
The deck began to tilt. Containers and heavy machinery moved as the angle increased. Stratton got to his feet and rolled away as a section of decking buckled