Клайв Касслер - Typhoon Fury

“We need to get topside.”

Even though MacD towered over her, Linda put one of his arms on her shoulders so she could help him hobble to the stairs. When they got there, he hopped up to the next landing with her assistance, then stopped so Linda could radio the situation to Max.

“Linda, give me good news,” he said.

“Wish I had something nice to say,” Linda replied, “but MacD injured his ankle saving a couple of the crew. And there’s no way to get to the valves. They’re underwater, maybe a deck below us, so we’re on our way up to you. Can you do anything from the bridge?”

“Not a chance.”

“How bad does it look up there?”

“Really bad.”

• • •

MAX STOOD in a slaughterhouse.

The ferry’s bridge was littered with half a dozen corpses, all of them shot and left where they dropped. Footprints of Locsin’s killers were stamped into the blood that was already congealing on the linoleum. The distinctive coppery smell was nearly overpowering.

The crew wasn’t the only thing that had been laid to waste. All of the instrumentation was blown to bits. Radio, helm, engines, ballast control—all of it was completely destroyed. They had made sure that no one would be able to save this ferry, condemning twelve hundred people to their doom if the Oregon couldn’t save them.

To the south, Max could see the fleet of fishing boats chugging along as they headed west toward their home port. They’d soon be out of view, shielded by the peninsula jutting from Negros Island. Max knew that just as soon as the ferry was safe, Juan would chase the boats down and carry out his plan to board each and every one of them to find Locsin.

He stepped out onto the flying bridge to get some fresh air. Passengers milled about on deck below, but the information that Linc and Eddie were passing along to those who spoke English had seemed to quell the panic.

He looked at the Oregon , its stern frothing with white water as it dragged the ferry toward the safety of Negros Island. Eric was doing an admirable job keeping the trajectory steady in seas that were getting choppier by the minute.

The beach, however, was still a long way in the distance. Max didn’t want to think about what might happen if the ferry foundered before it got there.

With the engines stopped and all of the ship’s equipment silent, Max was surprised to hear the whine of a small motor from the rear of the ferry. He turned to see something black bouncing along the water at high speed as it approached the stern on the starboard side.

With horror, he recognized one of the Kuyog drones. It wasn’t bothering with the ferry. It was heading straight for the Oregon .

“Juan, you’ve got a drone coming!” he yelled into the radio. “Starboard side!”

Murph was lightning quick. The Gatling gun came to life, rotating quickly to find the drone. With a teeth-rattling buzz, it fired and blew up the Kuyog just before it reached the Oregon .

The massive explosion caused many of the ferry passengers to scream and drop to the deck. But the cries of terror didn’t mask the noise of more approaching motors.

Max turned to the chilling sight of dozens more Kuyogs coming at them like a swarm of hornets.

Though Murph was the best at what he did, he wouldn’t be able to shoot them all before they hit. And if enough of them made it through, not even the Oregon ’s armored hull could withstand that kind of punishment.

Then two more ships would join the USS Pearsall on the ocean floor.

56

While Murph struggled to fight off the Kuyogs, Juan glanced at the fishing boats disappearing one by one behind the Negros Island peninsula. Locsin must have targeted the Oregon with a laser when they were distracted attaching the tow lines.

Since the attacking drones were shielded from view by the ferry, Max spoke to Murph on a private channel to tell him whether they were coming along the port or starboard side.

Murph couldn’t set the Gatling guns to automatically fire with the radar targeting system because of the stealth technology, so he had to switch back and forth between cameras on either side of the ship to see what he was aiming at. Both of the gun camera feeds were up on the big screen, along with the view dead ahead. Murph destroyed the first five Kuyogs, but he had only seconds to hit each one when it came into view.

The sixth one got through.

It struck the starboard side of the Oregon right at the waterline. Juan felt the ship rock as the explosion reverberated through the hull.

Juan looked at Hali. “Damage report!”

“We’ve got flooding in the starboard ballast tank,” Hali said. “Watertight doors are sealed and holding.”

The Oregon began to tilt to starboard as the tank filled. Murph continued to fire away as more drones came into range.

“Let’s get this list under control,” Juan said. “Flood port ballast tanks. It’ll slow us down, but we need the stability.”

Hali said, “Aye, Chairman,” and initiated the flooding procedure. The listing stopped, and the Oregon began leveling out, though it was now riding lower in the water.

“Our speed has been cut by twenty percent, Chairman,” Eric said.

“Push the engines as hard as you can,” Juan said. The beach was growing on the view screen, but too slowly.

“We’re already at one hundred percent power output.”

“Take us to one hundred and ten percent, and keep an eye on the coolant temperature.”

Juan could hear the objections from Max in his head, that the supercooled magnets that accelerated the water through the Venturi tubes would fail if they operated above the red line for too long. They might even melt, irreparably damaging the engines.

“Stoney, Murph said you and he had a possible way to decoy these drones away from the Oregon .”

“I also said that we needed a working Kuyog to test out the theory,” Murph said, the strain in his voice obvious, as he blew away another drone. “This wasn’t what I had in mind, but now might be a good time to try it out.”

“As long as Gomez has the UAV ready,” Eric said, “the beacon is set to go.”

“Hali, tell Gomez to get it into the air ASAP.”

“Aye, Chairman.”

Juan watched as two Kuyogs came in from both sides simultaneously. Murph hit the first one but missed the second, which was aimed directly at the Oregon ’s stern.

“Incoming!” Juan called out.

The drone went out of sight of the camera and detonated in a huge blast that echoed through the op center. The aft end of the Oregon momentarily lifted up from the impact.

“Speed falling,” Eric said. “It must have damaged one of the engines.”

Juan didn’t want to distract Max from his duties helping out Murph, so he got Linda on the line. She was now on the ferry’s flying bridge with Max and MacD, who was propping himself up on the railing to take the weight off his injured ankle.

“Linda, did that explosion sever any of the tow lines?”

“No, they’re still intact,” she replied. “But it looks like the starboard Venturi nozzle was hit. It’s spewing water upward, so it’s doing nothing for propulsion. I recommend shutting it down.”

“Do it, Eric,” Juan ordered. “Linda, what’s the ferry’s status?”

“It’s just a matter of time before she goes under. The passengers are scared stiff, but Linc and Eddie are doing a good job keeping the situation from melting down. Everyone has been moved to the stern of the ferry to keep them away from the explosions.”

“Good work.”

Juan hated having his people on the sinking vessel. But there was no way to bring them back over now. And if the Oregon detached to fight off the Kuyogs, the ferry would sink before they could tow it to safety or evacuate the passengers.