sec … there.” The submersible’s underside came into view as the claw twisted around. The iron slab was still wedged in place by the bent skids. He moved the arm closer—
It jerked to a stop. “What’s wrong?” Nina asked.
“I dunno.” He tried again, pushing the controls harder, but the arm still stopped short. “Matt, I can’t reach it.”
The Australian quickly checked the monitor. “That’s as far as it goes—try the secondary arm, see if that’ll reach.”
“You don’t know?” Eddie said, incredulous.
“It wasn’t designed to scratch its own belly! Or dodge torpedoes, for that matter.”
“Speaking of which,” Nina said in alarm, “I think he’s about to fire another one!”
A trill from the LIDAR confirmed her fears. A new blip appeared in front of the other submersible—drawing closer each time the display refreshed. Matt turned again, but the damaged Sharkdozer was even slower to respond than before. “Shit! It’s going to hit us!”
Nina braced herself, but knew the effort was pointless. The Mako’s first torpedo had destroyed Hayter’s vessel and killed everyone aboard with a single direct impact, and there was no reason to think theirs was any stronger. She stared helplessly at the LIDAR display as the projectile raced at them—
Eddie abandoned his attempt to release the ballast—and instead swung the arm up at the torpedo.
The Sharkdozer’s occupants were thrown bodily against the cabin wall as the shock wave of another explosion pounded the sub like a strike from a colossal hammer. An air line burst, compressed gas shrieking into the crew compartment. Debris pounded the outer hull.
More alarms sounded, the instrument panel now a battery of flashing red lights. Matt clambered back into his seat and struggled to regain control of the tumbling submersible.
Nina pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling the warm dampness of blood against her palm. “What happened?” she asked Eddie.
“I caught the torpedo,” he said. The manipulator arm was visible through the left viewport—or at least, what was left of it. The metal limb had been severed at the wrist, control cables and hydraulic lines hanging like torn tendons from the shattered stump.
Matt finally stabilized the Sharkdozer and rapidly turned a valve on the ceiling. The piercing squeal spluttered and died. “How much air did we lose?” Nina asked.
The engineer only needed to give her a worried look for her to know that their already perilous situation had become worse. The sub reeled queasily as he gunned the thrusters.
Another alert from the LIDAR. Eddie tensed, but it wasn’t another torpedo. The third enemy—another deep-suited diver—had just reappeared from behind the Evenor. “They’re both catching up.”
“I know, I know!” Matt said. “We can’t outrun them.”
Eddie pointed over his shoulder at a dark shadow on the sea floor. “Down there! We can lose ’em in the ruins.”
Nina shook her head. “They’re not tall enough to hide us—but I know something that is,” she continued, suddenly hopeful. “The SBX! It’s big enough to give us cover.”
“It’s also messed up enough for us to get stuck in the wreckage, or worse,” Matt warned.
“At least we’ll have a chance.”
Face full of trepidation, Matt swung the Sharkdozer around on a new course. The ocean floor rose on the LIDAR display: They were approaching the edge of the excavated area. Many more ruins lay ahead, the Atlantean capital extending far beyond the city’s heart, but they were safely concealed beneath eleven millennia of silt deposits. “Where are they?”
Eddie studied the screen. The Mako and the diver were both following them—and gaining. “Behind us, and catching up. Matt, how badly are we damaged?”
“It’d be quicker to tell you what’s not crook,” the Australian answered, checking the warning lights. “Power’s draining fast, the thrusters are damaged, and …” His face sank.
“And?”
“And we’ve got maybe ten minutes before we start running out of air. The recycling system’s shot.”
“You couldn’t have started with that?”
“Wait, so even if we lose these guys chasing us, we’re still not going to be able to get to the surface?” Nina said. “Well, that’s marvelous!”
The first signs of the SBX’s strewn wreckage came into view at the edge of the LIDAR display. “Only way we can get up there before we croak is by dropping the ballast slab. We might be able to knock it loose on the rig debris,” said Matt.
“Not with those arseholes shooting at us.” Eddie thought for a moment, then made a decision. “We’ll have to take them out.”
“With what?” Nina protested. “They’ve got nail guns and torpedoes, and we’ve got a claw that doesn’t work!”