Andy Mcdermott - Temple of the Gods

The man brought up his gun — but didn’t point it at the submarine. Instead, he aimed at the arm itself. Jets of gas burst from the muzzle as he fired more nail rounds, clanks echoing through the metal into the cabin — and a light on the console flashed urgently. ‘Matt, what’d he do?’

Matt checked the instruments. ‘He’s shot out the claw’s hydraulic line!’

‘You mean it’s jammed?’ The camera now showed the trapped diver turning his gun round to bash at the arm with its stock. Without hydraulic pressure, the claw would soon be forced open.

And once he was free, the diver would resume his attack — from almost point-blank range.

Eddie considered using the arm to slam the man against the wreck, but the Sharkdozer ’s momentum had carried it away from the angled deck. Instead, he flicked the switch to engage the secondary arm. The view on the monitor changed from the main manipulator to its smaller counterpart. He extended the arm. The paralysed claw and the man clutched within it came into view.

The diver’s face was now visible inside his helmet. He looked up in surprise — then his expression turned to shock. He turned the gun back round, but by the time it was pointing the right way the mechanical hand was right in his face…

Eddie didn’t waste time trying to grab him. Instead, he pushed a button marked ‘Drill’.

A tool smoothly pivoted into place from the manipulator’s wrist, the hand itself folding downwards out of its way. The diamond tip of the eight-inch tungsten carbide bit scraped the diver’s bubble helmet, scratching the tough material.

Before the man even had time to scream, Eddie started the drill.

It took under a second for the high-powered mechanism to chew through the polycarbonate helmet. Now the man screamed — and was abruptly silenced as water exploded into the deep suit with the force of an artillery shell. The transparent bubble filled with a churning pink froth.

The extra weight of the water inside the suit finally overcame the crippled claw’s grip. The dead man broke free, falling away into the wreckage of the Evenor .

Eddie nodded in satisfaction. ‘That’s what I call getting the bit between your teeth.’

Nina gave him a look of distaste. ‘At least you didn’t say “You’re screwed!”’ She looked back at the LIDAR screen. A large part of the scanner’s field of view was now obstructed by the sunken ship, the second deep-suited diver hidden somewhere behind it.

But the Mako’s blip was still visible, changing course to come after them.

‘Eddie,’ Matt said urgently as he headed away from it, ‘use the other main arm and reach underneath us. If we can drop the ballast slab, we’ll be on the surface in three minutes.’

Eddie did so. The Sharkdozer rocked again as the port arm extended. Nina’s gaze switched between the LIDAR and Eddie’s monitor. ‘Can you see it?’

‘Just a sec… there.’ The submersible’s underside came into view as the claw twisted round. 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 shockwave 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 stabilised 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 round 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 marvellous!’

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 nailguns and torpedoes, and we’ve got a claw that doesn’t work!’