David Golemon - Leviathan

"Dr. Robbins?" Everett asked looking around.

Lee nodded and took Carl by the arm.

"You would have been proud of him, son. He saved us all in an unselfish act of heroism."

"He didn't make it?"

Lee patted Everett on the back and left him alone to his thoughts.

Jack allowed the hug to continue for as long as Sarah wanted. He locked eyes with Niles Compton and nodded. Then Sarah let him go with one last squeeze.

"Mr. Director," Jack said.

"Just a handshake will do, Colonel," Compton said smiling.

"We seem to be missing Colonel Farbeaux."

They grew quiet and Jack could see it in their eyes. Farbeaux was lost, and they were actually feeling bad about it. He only nodded slightly at their nonanswer, and then turned as the crew of HMS Longbow went to general quarters. Horns blared and men ran about the deck. Jack ordered his men to secure the children.

A half-mile away the sea began to erupt in a widening circle that boiled and bubbled as if the entire area were exploding.

"Jesus, the madwoman did it — look at that!" Lee said, tossing his cane over the side of the ship.

"All hands, we have a submerged object rising off the port quarter — stand by, main armament."

"No!" Collins shouted as he waved his hands toward the bridge of the frigate.

The Event Group and children of Leviathan were quickly surrounded by a squad of royal marines and moved away from the railing.

The frigate didn't have time to pull out of the way as she rolled with the tremendous force surfacing beside her. As she settled, giant bubbles and arcs of water flowed over the much smaller surface vessel, and then, as if by the last magical prowess of the sea gods that protected her, Leviathan slowly came up from the depths. The damaged sail was the first to shake free of the cold water and ice. And then, to the amazement of all, it wasn't Leviathan 's hull that came next.

"Oh, my God — she did do it!" Virginia screamed, tears flowing down her face as she wrapped her arms around Senator Lee.

"Amazing — just bloody amazing," was all Senator Lee could mumble.

Sitting precariously on Leviathan 's massive foredeck was the damaged USS Missouri . Her entire stern quarter was now missing, and there was massive damage throughout her hull. As they watched, and with water bubbling around both vessels, the hatches started opening on Missouri and submariners started assisting the wounded from its bowels.

Jack smiled when he saw Captain Jefferson and Izzeringhausen emerge from the sail's escape trunk. He was shouting orders when he leaned over and spied Collins. He gave his head a shake and then saluted, yelling for his men to get over the side. Then, with a last glance at the great conning tower of Leviathan looming far over his head, he gave the strange vessel his second salute, and followed his first officer over the side into the freezing waters.

Leviathan was starting to lose her fight with the pull of the sea — she was starting to go down. As the Event Group watched, the sail hatch opened and three young sailors came out. They reached in and assisted Captain Alexandria Heirthall out from the conn.

Virginia ran over to the railing, leaning over as far as she could as Leviathan slowly sank back into the sea. Missouri's precarious hold on the foredeck of Leviathan finally let go, and she slid off into the cold waters — claiming her for their own.

Virginia Pollock was crying as Niles grabbed her and held on.

"Alex, jump, get free, you have time! Please, get as many of your people off as you can — please," Virginia screamed as Alexandria smiled for the last time.

They watched Captain Alexandria Heirthall look at the faces just above her as Leviathan slowly sank. Then her men assisted her back down into the sail hatch.

With the children crying along with Virginia, the great Leviathan slowly sank with only the fanfare of the hissing sea around her.

The quarter-mile-wide iceberg, which had for two hundred thousand years been the center portion of the Ross Ice Shelf, covered the sound of a small motor as the Royal Navy frigate pulled away to the north, heading for Australian territorial waters. The occupant of the lead boat, which was riding low in the water, was shivering with cold as he maneuvered the large rubber boat through the smaller pieces of ice covering the Ross Sea. The man figured he would zigzag his way between the newly created icebergs until he reached the newest Antarctica seaside town of McMurdo Station, the American weather platform, where he could charter a flight out.

Colonel Henri Farbeaux had to smile as he guided two other large rubber Zodiacs behind the first. They too were riding extremely low in the water. Tarps covered the load he had hurriedly removed from Ice Palace with not a second to spare. He didn't know what amount of treasure he had recovered, but the sheer warmth he was feeling from the three loads made his smile widen.

With a fraction of the mythical gold and jewels of the Count of Monte Cristo in his possession, Henri Farbeaux slowly made his way to the south.

The presidential yacht was riding lazily at anchor in the Gulf of Mexico. Senator Lee, looking dapper with his captain's blue cap and even more regal with Alice sitting next to him, were conversing in low tones about her retirement, which was only months away.

Everett, Mendenhall, and Ryan were up front doing something silently, only looking back once in a while with suspicious looks on their faces.

Jack, Sarah, Niles, Virginia, and the president of the United States were standing at the oak transom, looking down into the water.

"If they are down there, why don't we ever see them?" the president asked.

"With our lousy track record, would you want to take that chance if you were a symbiant?" Niles asked his old friend.

"No, I guess not."

"Mr. President, getting the gas and oil leases canceled in the gulf waters is a start."

The president looked from face to face. "Yes, but I had to cave in on the Arctic tundra drilling to get it done — still robbing Peter to pay Paul." "We do what we can. Science will figure a way to help them," Sarah said hopefully. "The Heirthall papers should solve a lot of our problems."

"The children?" Jack asked.

"The State Department is using every resource to track down their next of kin, but it looks like they are truly orphans. I've set aside a small sum to keep them all together."

They all grew silent as Virginia looked over into the green gulf waters.

"I'm worried. Since the syms' release, our new SOSUS microphones haven't picked up any sounds from the bottom — either here, or in the Mariana Trench. I hope they aren't sick."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Everett said as he approached the group, wiping his hands on a rag. "The navy is monitoring everything that goes into the gulf waters. If they catch any pollutants whatsoever, the FBI will hunt the offenders down, and since the president got it passed through congress that it is a capital offense, I think the days of dumping chemical waste into the seaways are over."