Clive Cussler - Devil's Gate

Under normal circumstances, Rapunzel could release the mile-long umbilical cord that kept her connected to the Matador and operate on her own in environments where cords, wires, and anything else trailing could be a hazard. Powered by batteries that would last three hours untethered, she was propelled by an impeller located in what would have been her belly. Fully gimballed, it could be rotated three hundred sixty degrees in any direction, allowing her to move up, down, sideways, backward, or any combination in between.

Because she was human shaped, she could bend and move into places a normal ROV could not go. She could even shrink, retracting her arms and legs so that she took up no more space than a beach ball with a light and video camera on top.

By using the virtual reality setup and force-feedback boots and gloves, the designers made it possible to operate Rapunzel as if a human were down there doing the work herself. It was expected this would be a huge boon to the salvage world, keeping divers out of dangerous wrecks and allowing exploration into wrecks long considered too dangerous or too deep to get at.

Exploring the Sheffield was to be Rapunzel ’s coming-out party, but something was wrong. A red warning light flashed repeatedly on one of the keyboards and also in the virtual cockpit. The umbilical would not disconnect.

“Let me try this again,” Gamay said, resetting the sequence.

Paul stepped in quietly. “Don’t mean to interrupt,” he said, “but I’m afraid Rapunzel has to come back home for dinner.”

“Is that my wonderful husband out there?” Gamay said, still fiddling with imaginary controls.

“It is. We have a storm brewing up,” Paul explained, his northeastern accent turning the word storm into something that sounded more like “stahm.” “We need to batten down the ship and head north before it turns into a full-blown gale.”

Gamay’s shoulders slumped a bit. It didn’t matter anyway, the umbilical would not release, and they couldn’t send Rapunzel inside the ship with the cords still attached. She pressed some other switches. An icon labeled “Auto Return” popped up on screen, and Gamay’s virtual hand reached out and touched it.

Rapunzel began to pull away from the Sheffield and then ascend through the depths. The LEDs on Gamay’s gloves and boots went dark. She took off her visor and blinked at Paul. She stepped toward him and almost lost her balance.

Paul caught her. “You all right?”

“It’s a little disorienting to come out,” she said. She blinked a few more times as if trying to refocus on the real world, then smiled at him.

He smiled back, still wondering how he’d been lucky enough to find someone so pretty and perfect for him.

“How was it?” he asked.

“Just like being down there,” she said. “Except I’m not wet and cold, and I can go have lunch with you while Rapunzel makes the fifteen-minute journey back up from the bottom.”

She reached over and kissed him.

“Umm-hmm,” one of the Englishman coughed.

“Sorry,” she said, turning back to them. “I’d say Rapunzel is going to be a huge plus for us. We’ll get the bugs worked out while the storm hits and then drop her down and try it again.”

“Actually,” Paul said, “we won’t. At least, not until October.”

“Weather getting too rough for you, old boy?” the Englishman asked. “When I was a kid, we’d go through this kind of chop in a motor launch.”

Paul had no doubt the man was telling the truth — he was a twenty-five-year vet of the RN before he’d retired a decade ago. He’d been on the Sheffield when it had taken that lethal hit.

“I guess it is,” Paul said, going with the thought. “We’re heading north. Once we’re through the storm, a helicopter will be coming in to pick you guys up. I guess it’s back to England from there. I’ll be sure they have tea on board.”

“Ha,” the bearded man said. “Very good of you.”

The two Englishmen stood. “I guess we saw what we came to see. Would love an invite when you come back.”

“Of course,” Gamay said. They shook her hand and moved off, making their way down the hall far more easily than Paul had come up minutes before.

Gamay eyed them. “Leaving a site because of a storm that will blow over in a few days?” she said suspiciously.

“Seemed a good excuse to give our guests,” Paul replied.

“What gives?” she asked. “And don’t lie to me, you’ll sleep alone tonight.”

“You know that tanker that went down the other day? Kurt was there when it happened, even rescued the captain’s wife.”

“Of course,” she said. “Trouble finds him.”

Paul laughed. Trouble did have a way of looking Kurt Austin up and coming to visit. Paul and Gamay had often been part of whatever followed. Seemed like this would be no exception.

“Well, there’s more to the sinking than the press has been told,” he explained.

“Like?”

“Pirates killing the crew and deliberately scuttling the ship,” Paul said.

“Doesn’t sound right, does it?” Gamay said.

“Nope,” he said. “Not to Kurt or Dirk, or even the insurance company. With their permission, Dirk has asked us to take Rapunzel over and take a look.”

Gamay took her robotic gloves off and sat down to undo her boots. “Sounds simple enough,” she said. “Why do you look concerned?”

“Because Dirk told me to be concerned,” Paul said. “He figures someone went to great lengths to hide whatever happened on that ship. And that being the case, whoever they are, they might get a little upset with the likes of us poking around.”

She reached out and took his hand.

“Do you think you can get Rapunzel inside a sunken ship?” he asked.

“Would have liked to finish the test,” she said, “but yes, I think we can get her inside.”

AS IT RACED THROUGH THE WATER a hundred feet below the surface, the Barracuda looked more like a manta ray with stubby wings than a submarine — or even a barracuda, for that matter. About half the size of a compact car, her wedge-shaped snout narrowed, both horizontally and vertically, with a slightly bulbous expansion at the very tip.

This was a hydrodynamic feature that got the water moving smoothly around and over the vessel, reducing the drag and increasing both her ability to accelerate and her top-end speed.

In addition, her stainless steel skin was covered in microscopic V-shaped grooves, too small to be seen from a distance except as a sort of haze on the finish. The grooves were similar to the coatings used on the hulls of racing yachts, and they too added speed by reducing the drag.

Because she was eventually expected to do salvage work, an enclosed bay in the root of each wing held assorted equipment: cutting torches, grappling claws, and other tools. In truth, the Barracuda had been designed more like a stealth fighter than a submarine. The question was, could she fly like one?

With Kurt and Joe sitting in tandem, Kurt at the controls and Joe just behind him monitoring all the systems, the Barracuda surged through the water at 34 knots. Joe insisted she could make 45, but that would rapidly drain the battery. To make two laps around the race’s fifty-mile course, 34 would be the best they could do.

“Coming up on a depth change,” Joe mentioned.

The race was not just a horizontal affair, where the submarines could run at top speed and come home. It required maneuvers to be fulfilled: depth changes, course changes, even a section that required them to weave through a group of pylons, charge forward to a certain point and then back out, before turning around and racing off to the next buoy.