Ocean Blue (Sea Lab Book 1)

CHAPTER 56

The Atlantis maintained its position three miles off the coast and well north of the junky shipyard. Using its global positioning system, special thrusters and a satellite in space kept the vessel from wandering away from its current location.

Jake believed the crew of the Hercules Australis had no clue of their presence aside from a blip on the radar. On the stern deck, the security team hoisted their inflatable Zodiac with the A-frame crane, swung it over the gunwale and kissed it to the water. The commando force's leader, a man named Max Dalton, left the controls and joined his team in the motor powered boat. Their daylight mission would be much the same as Jake and Tony's. Reconnaissance. They would scout the bay and select the right spot to make landfall. Once on the ground at night, Cat would have transportation waiting for them.

The Zodiac left a frothy wake as it departed with the security team.

Thirty minutes later, with the sun beaming overhead, Jake stood on the starboard side of the research vessel, his focus on an iPad Tony held. It streamed live footage of Zanderthal's ship via a link from Dalton's Zodiac. The video revealed no activity on the icebreaker's top deck.

"We'll get Sarah back," Tony said. "We won't stop until—"

Jake slapped a hand on his friend's shoulder and nodded in affirmation. He didn't have a response to Tony's proclamation, but he knew for a fact they wouldn't rest until Sarah was safe.

Jake had tried to sleep for all of three hours, not sure if he ever dosed off. He received a wake-up call from Cat around ten, took a shower, grabbed breakfast, and hit the deck as Dalton and his crew prepared for their assignment. That's when he found Tony conferring with Dalton about the video link from a handheld camera the security team would carry aboard the Zodiac. It didn't take Tony long to pair the devices and set-up the feed. Of course, Jake and Tony had their own mission, which would take place soon. During the daylight hours, they would examine the ice breaker for potential entry points underwater. He knew of a few possibilities, none of them promising.

"What do you say we get below deck and suit up?" Jake said.

Tony agreed and handed the iPad to a tech, the young man serving as part of the scientific team on the ship.

When the platform elevator leveled in the moon pool room, Jake and Tony slid into their wet suits and dive gear. On today's recon, they planned to use a pair of diver propulsion vehicles for the venture to Zanderthal's ship. The DPV of choice for their excursion operated above and below water. Its yellow body and black undercarriage was shaped with speed in mind. A diver had to hunch over the vehicle and grip the throttle handle like a high performance race motorcycle. In reality, seven and half miles per hour wouldn't touch a motocross bike, but underwater, it was moving on.

Jake received a heads up call from Cat who had been in contact with Dalton and the security team. In the time it took for them to go below deck, suit up and prepare for what lay ahead, the icebreaker moved away from the dock and laid anchor a hundred yards offshore. Jake thought it strange the ship repositioned away from the pier, but it made the distance they needed to cover that much closer.

Once a crewman lowered both DPVs into the moon pool using the overhead crane, Jake and Tony wasted no time in taking to the water. They set off with sunlight revealing the path ahead, zipping through the eerie green depths.

Bits of seaweed floated and swayed, carried by the current like leaves in a pond. Crusty barnacles layered a sunken trawler, a large reeling spool appearing ready to land a yellowfin tuna. A wreck like that should have been teeming with fish, using it as a shelter from larger predators, but there was nothing. The mission at hand loomed large in Jake's mind. He wasn't accustomed to infiltrating a vessel underwater, but he had to admit, it created a buzz he'd have to manage to avoid critical mistakes that could get them captured or killed.