Thomas Greanias - The 34th Degree

They were only a few feet apart, and Deker could see the manic look in von Berg’s eyes, like that of an animal trapped in a snare, willing to bite off its own leg to get free. He kept a tight hold on Aphrodite, who struggled against him.

Deker said, “Let her go, von Berg.”

“As soon as you’re good and dead, Herr Andros.”

Von Berg aimed the Luger at him and pulled the trigger. Deker moved to the side, but it was too late. Aphrodite screamed as the bullet plowed into his shoulder and spun him to the floor. Dazed, he clutched his bloody arm and looked up to see von Berg move forward to finish him off. “For you, the war is over, Herr Andros.”

Von Berg raised his Luger when Aphrodite lunged toward them, screaming, “No, Ludwig!”

Von Berg half turned toward her as Deker fingered Andros’s father’s dagger and hurled it into his side. Von Berg cried out in pain, dropped the Luger, and rolled off into the shadows.

Aphrodite ran to Deker as he struggled to stand in the shaft of light. “Christos,” she said.

“Later,” he replied, and gently pushed her in front of him. “Come now, up the ladder and out the hatch. We don’t have much time.”

He helped her mount the ladder. When he saw her legs disappear through the hatch, he began to pull himself up after her with his right arm, his left dangling uselessly. He had entered the dark tunnel of the bulkhead when he felt a tug at his legs. He looked down to see the bloody hands and angry face of von Berg pulling him back.

“Christos, hurry!” Aphrodite called from above.

Deker looked up to see her face in a circle of blue sky. She reached down to help him up through the hatch while he tried to shake von Berg.

Their fingers touched briefly. But then a violent explosion rocked the submarine. Deker’s hand slipped, and he fell back down.

“Christos!” Aphrodite screamed as the great metal hulk rolled, throwing her off into the sea, and all at once Deker felt himself sinking with the Nausicaa into the deep.

“ Direct hit!” shouted Prestwick from behind the Cherub ’s periscope. “She’s sinking like lead.”

Erin, who was standing behind Prestwick and Safire in the conning tower, pried Prestwick loose from the scope and had a look. The forward bow of the Nausicaa was pointing straight up to the sky. It would be only a matter of minutes before the submarine sank beneath the surface. She felt sick with worry for Andros. “Wait a minute,” she said. “I see something floating in the water.”

“Quick, let me see.” Safire took the scope, paused as he looked, and snapped his head back. “Surface immediately!” he ordered the crew. “We’ve got a survivor.”

The Cherub ’s crew began to empty the ballasts, and slowly the submarine began to rise. Ten minutes later, they brought her on board, Aphrodite Vasilis, chilled to the bone and crying.

The crew stood at attention while Aphrodite climbed down the conning tower into the control room. Erin could tell that one look at her was enough to convince Safire and every rating aboard that mankind owed Andros a debt of gratitude for rescuing such a heavenly creature.

“Christos,” she sobbed. “He’s on that submarine.”

“Good God!” said Prestwick. “You mean he’s alive?”

Aphrodite, wet and trembling, was nodding when the signal officer came into the control room with a message for Safire.

“According to the radio traffic, sir, there’s a flotilla of ships coming out from Mandraki Harbor.”

Safire nodded grimly. “Helmsman,” he ordered, “prepare to dive.”

“But Christos!” shouted Aphrodite. “You can’t let him die!” She turned to Erin. “You can’t let him die!”

Erin could see the pain in Aphrodite’s twisted face. It was a pain they shared. “Let’s get you dry,” she told her. “Colonel Prestwick here will take you to the captain’s quarters, where you can rest up.”

“What about Christos?” Aphrodite asked desperately.

“I’ll do everything I can,” Erin promised, even though she realized there was very little she could do.

The dazed girl could only nod as Prestwick helped her up and escorted her out of the control room.

When they were gone, Erin turned to Safire. “May I take another look through the scope?”

“You can look. But I’m afraid it won’t do you much good.”

Erin climbed up into the conning tower and put her eyes to the periscope in time to see the bow of the Nausicaa slip below the surface of the water. What had become of the Baron, she didn’t know. But of Andros there could be no doubt: He was dead. And with him was an atomic bomb. They were on their way to the bottom of the Ionian Sea.

When she descended into the control room, Prestwick, Safire, and the crew were waiting for her.

“Well?” Prestwick asked, pausing for her to tell them what they already knew.

She swallowed hard, and without a word, she walked out of the control room and down the passageway to the captain’s quarters.

Aphrodite was sitting on the bunk, shivering in her navy blanket, sobbing uncontrollably. Then Erin saw the empty blue box from Tiffany amp; Co. on the desk and looked at the diamond ring Aphrodite had slipped on her finger.

“Oh, Christos,” Aphrodite cried. “You did love me.”

The torpedo from the Cherub had ripped a hole through the Nausicaa ’s electric motor room, flooding the rear compartments and turning the submarine on end.

Deker and von Berg managed to climb into the forward torpedo room and shut the hatch, sealing themselves off from the rest of the ship but not the water, which already swirled around their knees.

Deker could feel the blood pumping out of his shoulder. He applied more pressure with his other hand as he leaned against the vertical floor. That was when he saw the Flammenschwert device for the first time. The atomic bomb stood upright before his eyes and was in danger of slipping off its chains.

Von Berg was laughing. “We share the same tomb,” he said, a twisted smile crossing his agonized face. “The German and the Greek, the Nazi and the American, we all die.”

Deker didn’t reply. The water was up to his waist, and the Nausicaa ’s cracked hull was beginning to collapse like a tin can under the tremendous pressure. He searched for a way of escape.

“It’s no use,” von Berg said. “We’re trapped. This is your grave, and you share it with me. There’s no escape.”

Deker considered the four circular hatches above his head, the doors to the torpedo tubes. “How do I launch the torpedo tubes?”

“I must say, you’re full of ideas, Herr Andros,” von Berg replied, then started coughing up blood. “Unfortunately, the tubes are fired on the captain’s order from controls in the conning tower.”

“I suppose these manual controls are completely useless?”

“A precaution against electrical failure, that’s all.”

“So if I push this button…”

“I wouldn’t, Herr Andros.”

Deker pressed the button. It released a charge of compressed air that ejected the torpedo out of the tube and into the water.

Deker said, “And you said it wouldn’t work, von Berg.”

The submarine pitched violently, and Deker was thrown against the bulkhead by the shifting water.

“I told you,” said von Berg. “Without a diving officer in the control room, there’s no way to compensate for the weight change.”

Deker reached up and twisted the black handle until the torpedo hatch dropped open. More water poured in on their heads from the flooded tube. Then it stopped, and Deker hoisted himself inside.

“Crawl into your little tomb, Andros,” von Berg called out after him. “Another minute won’t save you from death. I’ll still be waiting for you on the other side.”