Christopher Golde

When they have finished their testimony, 

The beast that comes up from the bottomless pit          Will make war on them,

 And conquer them and kill them.

 John                                                         Revelation 11.7

Date:             27th June 2002                                    Location:      Western Pacific Ocean off Japan

 

              Simon looked up at the roof of the cabin as he heard the rotors of a chopper getting closer.

‘Surely it was not the boss back already.’

He continued to watch the screen of his notebook computer as it indicated the progress of the file he was sending. He had been instructed to connect to the Internet via the ships satellite phone system, download all the information he could if the IP address matching the coordinates of the ball did connect, then forward it on to Nigel Stansen at a US Military facility on Guam. Then destroy the laptop.

It had connected as Jason had guessed and he had already downloaded all of what he could access. He assumed that the information he had downloaded and was now sending, was from the spacecraft on the seafloor beneath them, and although that seemed a little strange, he followed the instructions from his boss without question.

The file send was almost finished now and he could hear the helicopter landing on the pad of the upper deck. He stopped and listened.

‘That was not the sound of Jason’s aircraft,’ he thought, a sudden chill running down his spine. ‘Jason’s had a much more distinct combination of jet and rotor.’ This moment of realization was abruptly interrupted by the sound of several short explosions and a voice yelling loudly.

‘Shit! We’re under attack!’

 This thought sent a surge of adrenalin flooding to his 180 IQ brain. He raced to the cabin door and locked it. Turning, he looked around the room, desperately trying to remain cool.

            “Now calm down,” he said softly to himself, “first I have to finish sending, then, get rid of the laptop.”

It was obvious he mustn’t let whoever the attackers are, get the information he had just downloaded. He assumed that is why Jason had told him to destroy the laptop. He wondered if Jason knew they would be attacked.

‘Not likely,’ he thought, ‘he would never leave his crew and Julie in any danger. But it must have had something to do with the call from Guam. Too much of a coincidence. I have to find a hiding place for this,’ he thought, as he looked around the cabin, ‘Staying alive would be good too.’

In two huge strides, he was back at the laptop which was sitting on the chart table. Glancing down at the bottom of the screen, he saw that the download was complete. He yanked out the connections to the sat-phone and slammed the cover shut. His eyes desperately roved the cabin, while his thoughts raced, trying to formulate some type of plan. Then he saw it.

At the rear of the cabin, there was a small dumbwaiter lift. It was used to move meals from lower decks to the surface, and the main cabin. He knew it was not very big, but having a slim build there was a chance he could just make it.

            He raced over to the sliding door of the waiter and lifted it. As he did so he heard more explosions and someone screamed. With relief, he saw immediately that the lift-container was not there. He looked over the edge and down into the shaft, where he could see the top of it below him.

He heard footsteps coming down the stairs outside the cabin door, as he began climbing into the lift well. Fortunately, he knew that Jason had designed the boat with defence in mind and the cabin doors were considerably fortified.

 ‘That should slow their progress a little,’ he thought, in an attempt to reassure himself that he had at least some chance of survival, ‘hopefully, just enough time for me to escape.’

            Simon reached around to the side of the lift pushing the button that would send the lift to the surface and then began squeezing his body into the small chamber. He heard the lift begin to move upward, at the same time he heard voices and banging at the cabin door.

            Trying to hold onto the computer, he manoeuvred his head in through the opening, pulling in one leg first, then the other. Standing precariously balanced on a small ledge in the lift shaft, he waited for it to come up underneath him, and take his weight. There was another explosion outside, and then he heard gunshots at the cabin door as they tried to blast off the locks.

‘Soon they will come bursting in,’ he thought anxiously to himself, ‘only to find me squashed ridiculously in here looking like a roast duck waiting to be removed from an oven. Got to do something and quick!’

His shoulders were only just a little narrower than the width of the elevator shaft, and he was finding it difficult to maintain his grip, and hold onto the computer. As he reached to slide the door of the waiter back down into position, he dropped the laptop, but fortunately, it only fell a few feet before crashing to the top of the ascending lift.

Just as the waiter door slid down into position, he heard a large explosion from the cabin and assumed that the door had finally given way. The lift now on its way upward took the weight off one of his feet, and with some relief, he relaxed his whole body as he felt the upward movement begin.

 

        Chapter sixty
           The Escape